Ciclo, an agricultural town, a two-bedroom property for 150,000 piro, which is rented.
　That's where I was bringing Celeste's belongings in.

　She will live there until we find a place for her to stay in Ciclo.
　By the way, we've decided to have her stay in Emily's room for the time being.
　It's a two-bedroom apartment, so Celeste is very apologetic and refuses to let the ladies use the two rooms, so they agreed to share a room with someone else, and as a matter of course, Emily and Celeste are now sharing a room.

　When things settle down, we can go and rent a bigger room.
　Since I'm inviting Celeste to join the Ryota family, I'm naturally going to have to pay for that.

　I have two plans.
　Either we can rent a three bedroom apartment and move in together, or we can rent a studio above this one and move in without me.

　The reason for the higher rank is because we both rejected the idea of having two people use the two bedrooms and I would move to a cheap apartment for 20,000 piro.
　If I was to leave alone, I'd have to move to a higher-ranked place, which would be more troublesome for me.

　I was thinking about this as I carried Celeste's luggage into the room.

"Yikes!
'Oops!　Sorry.

　Because I was thinking, I bumped into Celeste and dropped the package on the ground.
　The cardboard box fell and cracked open, causing some of the packages inside to fly out.

'Sorry, I was thinking,'
No, I'm the one who didn't even look at the-- Oh, my God!

　Celeste screamed when she saw the package that had fallen, or more accurately, the package from the box.
　I scream and snatch it up and hide it behind my back.

　I saw it sticky, or rather, I can still see it.
　Celeste hid it, and you can see it from the box that has been cracked open.
　It was a fancy plush toy, with girlie taste.

　It's an object that's a bit of a departure from her slender, tall, model-looking image.

'You see that?'
I didn't see him.

　I answer immediately, but the other side knows it's a lie.
　Celeste's face turns bright red.

'Wow, forget it.'

　I said, half pleadingly, and ran into the room.
　I did it. ...... I'll follow up with something later.

　　　　　☆

　After the move, I went into town with both Celeste and Emily.
　We have a lot of things to do, but first we have to find Celeste a job.

　I decided to start by visiting a garbage disposal company to see if it would be good to do what I was used to doing.

'Oh, hey. Look at that.
"Holy shit, she's beautiful. Have you seen someone like that around here?
Some stranger from out of town?
'Wow. ......'

　I've been walking around a while now, and I hear people whispering.
　I know how it feels, and I feel the same way.
　When we were in the Seren dungeon, we didn't often move together, but now that we're together, I can understand.
　Celeste is beautiful, tall and straight, with her hair blowing back and forth.

　She is so beautiful that all the modifiers feel tactless.

　Beautiful.

　That's the kind of beauty that suits you best.
　When I walk with her, I feel a sense of superiority.

　I suddenly think. I wonder what she will do with those fancy stuffed animals.
　Will she hold them in her arms and sleep with them, or will she talk to them?

'Chuckle.'

　I couldn't help but smile as I thought about it all.

'Huh?　Isn't that Mr. Lyota?
"Elsa.

　It was Elsa, the buyer, who came from the other side.
　She spotted me and came trotting over with a smile on her face.

'Long time no see, it's good to see you back.
Yeah, I'm almost done with that Serenity thing.
I've heard the rumors. I heard that you did a great job with the whole gamut of activities. We're very proud that one of our customers is now famous.
Yeah,
I've heard the rumors and I've been asked to do some commissions for Lyota-san, so when you're free, just drop me a line.
Okay, I will.

　When we were done talking, Elsa looked behind me.

"Um, how's it going over there?

　There's Emily and Celeste standing there, I know Emily, so I was curious about Celeste standing side by side.

'I'd like to introduce you. This is Celeste.
Nice to meet you.
'I'm Elsa, nice to meet you!

'A fellow ...... family member?　The family?　It's going to be a target.
Is that so?

　Elsa was startled, a little depressed, and then quickly chuckled.
　...... Why were you a little depressed?

So we're finally going to enter the basement six floors and beyond in earnest?
Yeah, what do you mean?
'Huh?　Isn't that why you formed the family?
"No, there's a lot going on, so ...... do you normally form a family and go in?
Yes, sir.

　Elsa nodded, and she explained with the bright smile I often see in shops.

'The dungeons in Cyclo get a lot more complicated from the fifth basement down, like how to beat them and how to beat them efficiently.
Okay, so that's why you need a license.
Yes, we usually get a party and a bunch of people together and try it.
Okay.

　I nodded and looked at Celeste and Emily behind me.
　They nodded back at me.
　Since we're going to go there, I could feel their eye contact.

'Thank you Elsa, I'll bring some drops later.'
Yes, I'll be waiting for you.

　When we found out that Elsa had a business smile on her face, I changed my plans and headed to tellurian.

　　　　　☆

　Elsa, who looked away from Ryota, had a sad and envious expression on her face.
　With that expression, she looked at the newly appeared tall beauty, Celeste.

''A rival has appeared.''
Ina. Don't be silly. I'm not: ......

　A co-worker, Ena, who appeared out of nowhere, teased Elsa.
　It's a pretty in-depth way of teasing, as is often the case with best friends.

'Yeah?　I want to join the family too! You look at me like, "I want to join the family too!
I don't think that's true. I don't think that's true. I'm just slowed down by dungeons.
You know what I'm talking about.

　Ena patted Elsa on the back.
　This exchange is also because they are such good friends.

It's a good idea to buy in and be the first to know if there's any information about the dungeon.
Yeah, it's just the information that helps.
That's what I mean.
Thank you, Ena.
It's okay. We're all friends.

　Ena gave him a thumbs up and a wink.
　It was a great exchange, because they were best friends.
　This cheered Elsa up and they walked towards the store.

'By the way, Ena, didn't you say it was us earlier?
'What?　Did I say that?
It's gone.

　　　　　★

　Tellurian Dungeon, 6th floor underground.
　The first time I stepped into it, the atmosphere was definitely a bit different.

　It was a dungeon, but it didn't look like a dungeon.

　Trees were growing, and in some kind of logic, I could see something black but empty.

'So this is the dungeon: ......
It's like being outside.
You've got a little bit of a problem with your selenium.
Yeah.

　We walked around in the dungeon while exchanging with each other.
　I soon encountered a monster.

　One huge slime and dozens of smaller slimes appeared together.

''Hmph?　Two kinds of monsters?　How does this happen?
No, that's the parent and child slime, that's a single slime. The big parent is the body and the little one is like a limb.
"Good luck with that, Celeste.
I talked to some people earlier and got some information.
Oh.
I'm pretty good at this stuff.
Thank God.

　I'm not very good at collecting information and all that, you know.

　I pulled myself together and looked at the mother and child slime.
　If you look at it as a body and its limbs, it looks like the child is protecting its parents.

"Then I'll strike the body first.

　The gun was loaded with tracking rounds and fired in rapid succession.
　The bullets followed an erratic trajectory, passing through the child slime and hitting the parent.

'Ah ......'
Huh?

　Celeste's reaction was strange, but she soon found out why.
　The tracking rounds accurately struck only the parent slime, knocking it down and making it disappear.
　After the parent disappeared, the child would follow suit and disappear.

　After everything disappeared - the drop was nothing.
　There was no drop whatsoever, and in my experience, that was not possible.

　The cause - I don't know, but Celeste seems to know.

'Sorry, I got ahead of myself. You still have the information.
'Yeah. The drop of the parent and child slime is determined by the number of children defeated. The more children you kill, the more they drop in batches of that number after you kill the parent.
I see.
'Then you'll have to kill a bunch of little ones before you get a bunch of drops.
'Yes, but every time I defeat a child, the parents get stronger. I heard that if you defeat them all, they become so strong that you can't even touch them.
A threshold of stability, huh?

　Probably the adventurers who go to this sixth basement floor consult with their own skills and decide how many children to defeat and so on.
　Of course, they can't defeat a certain number of them every time successfully, the monsters move, and they attack in the first place.
　I see, so you have to have a license or something to get a permit.

......

　I simulated the strategy in my head.

　　　　　☆

　Encountered a second father and son slime.

　I dodged eye contact with Emily and Celeste.
　Nodding to each other, I fired a freezing bullet first.
　With almost sniping momentum, I shot the freezing bullets into the parent slime, freezing it and stopping it from moving.

'Inferno!'

　In the meantime, Celeste chanted, fluttering her long hair and releasing a wide range of magic to engulf all the parent and child slimes.

　The child, except for the parent who is freezing it, is being burned by the karma flame.

　With a crack, the ice cracked.
　The center of the parent slime's translucent body began to blink violently.

"Hi!

　Emily pounced, spinning the hammer around and over her head, knocking the hammer into the parent slime.
　Gakin.
　It was as if there was a sound of metal clashing, and the parent slime appeared to be almost unharmed.

　Emily's all-out blow left it unharmed - but that was the calculation.
　It was also the reason why Emily jumped in first.

'Annihilation Bullet!　It's about four shots!
Yes!

　After Emily announced her response, I kicked the parent slime away.
　I was stunned, and I fired in rapid succession with two pistols.

　Freezing on the left, fire on the right.
　The annihilation bullets fused together to strike the parent slime.

　The bullets struck the slime and gouged the body of Emily's hammer, which even repelled it.
　The slime gagged, but it quickly ran out of power and slumped to the ground.

　Then it disappeared with a pop, and with a pop-pop-pop, drops appeared in a heap around it.

　A large number of potatoes were dropped where the burnt-out child slime had been.

''Awesome.''
I did it!

　As Emily and Celeste cheered, I was secretly gutted.
　The strategy we had discussed was set in stone.
　The three of us, not just me, gave me a sense of satisfaction that I had never felt before.

　This was the first battle of the "Ryota family" with Celeste in attendance.
　The three of them made me want to try out more and more things.