A quiet, upscale tavern.
Leopard sat at the bar, quietly tilting his glass.
Soon, the sound of a chair being dragged could be heard, and someone sat down next to him.
As he pulled down the hood, green bobbed hair and a handsome face appeared.
It was the contractor, Sailor.
“Bartender. Get this person the same drink as mine.”
“Yes, understood.”
“I heard. You said you saw Ariel.”
“I just finished the request and went to report to Duke Dragania.”
“That’s that.”
“······.”
A glass filled with brandy was pushed in front of Sailor.
After a moment of staring at the glass, he finally took a sip.
“When did Ariel start acting like that?”
“I don’t know either. I only noticed it relatively recently.”
“What in the world has happened…?”
Sailor pushed the glass aside and slammed his arms on the table.
An unbelievable reality struck him.
The holy maiden, who had shared hardships with him, had completely changed into a different person.
It wasn’t just that she had lost her memory.
An alien being had taken over the holy maiden’s body.
It was detestable.
That creature speaking in the holy maiden’s voice, leading her body, was detestable.
The dragon that had sullied the holy maiden’s purity was detestable.
However, he couldn’t bring himself to hate her daughter.
“I miss the old days. When we all raided the demon realm and fought together. I want to go back to those times.”
“What’s so good about that? I’m never going back.”
“Even when we could see the old Ariel again?”
“······.”
Ariel.
His desire to see her again was overwhelming, but still, he didn’t want to go back to the past.
The Ariel from back then had truly looked like she was suffering too much.
Only someone like Leopard, who felt alive by smelling blood on the battlefield, would long for those times.
“But I still won’t go. I don’t think I could survive if I went back.”
“You’re such a weakling. By the way, what request did you get from the Duke?”
“If I disclose that, I can’t do this job anymore.”
“Then just buy it. How much is it for the information about the Duke’s request?”
“100 million.”
“What’s with the price… Fine. 100 million.”
He probably could have asked for 1 billion.
He regretted a bit that Sailor accepted without haggling.
If it were found out that he disclosed the request details, he would bear the Duke’s wrath.
But since the other party was Leopard, it seemed unlikely he would get caught due to his loose tongue.
“A way to cross dimensions. I confirmed that it exists.”
“What? What do you mean by that?”
Leopard’s eyes widened.
A way to cross dimensions? What kind of nonsensical talk was that?
However, the serious expression on Sailor’s face, who was downing his brandy, left him confused.
“To be precise, it’s a way to communicate across dimensions. But if human memories could be sent completely into the body of another world, then that would be dimensional travel.”
Sailor had taken an order from Duke Dragania and headed to a certain canyon in the demon realm.
A canyon where hundreds of dragons had met their destruction, their corpses piled up.
Even treasure hunters eager for dragon jewels wouldn’t dare approach that treacherous place. There, Sailor confirmed the possibility of contacting another world.
To be able to contact another world meant that dimensional travel was possible.
Although it would require astronomical energy, theoretically, it was possible.
“No… what…?”
“Didn’t you know? Dragons originally tear through dimensions. But after the ancient massacre, their numbers decreased sharply, and they lost their power to cross dimensions.”
“Who doesn’t know that? I know it too. But if you can go to another world from this side, that means you can also come here from another world.”
“Exactly.”
“Ariel. No, Julia. She must have come in the same way…”
An entity from another world possessed the holy maiden’s body.
In other words, the memory of someone from another world had been implanted in the holy maiden’s body.
In another way, it also meant that sending the possessed Julia back to her original world was possible.
“If we send Julia back, won’t Ariel come back? Right? It makes sense, Sailor, doesn’t it?”
“Leopard.”
“Isn’t it amazing? It sounds incredibly plausible! Say it! Quickly!”
“You said it yourself. Ariel’s soul has completely perished. You verified it yourself.”
“No. I think I might have seen it wrong when I thought about it again. Perhaps Ariel’s soul was forcibly moved to another dimension? It just appeared to be perished?”
“······.”
Leopard himself had stated directly.
He had confirmed that Ariel’s soul had perished from her ring.
It seemed he had forgotten the ruckus he caused, crying and making all sorts of noise at the tavern at that time.
“What do you think? My idea? If we join forces to forcibly send Julia back to her original world, Ariel might come back!”
“······.”
Leopard confidently reached out his hand.
Sailor simply sat there, staring at that hand.
Leopard was not in his right mind.
He had become mentally unstable to the point of distorting his memories to fit his hopes.
But there was one thing he agreed on.
“It’s worth a try.”
“Right? Isn’t it?”
If Julia is sent back, Ariel’s soul might return.
That possibility was worth looking forward to.
Sailor gently grabbed Leopard’s hand.
The sensation of his fingers almost breaking was painfully real, but he didn’t show it.
Still, that fool was strong only because he lacked common sense.
After the death of the Demon King, it was the first time he had shown enthusiasm for anything.
It was the first time he had seen a hero-like side of him in 50 years.
*
Life in the villa was nearing its month.
Love it or hate it, I was gradually getting used to this life.
Though it started from the worst situation, my relationship with the Duke wasn’t that bad.
There was no sexual harassment, and no lewd comments.
The rumors about the Duke’s clean record with women seemed to be true.
That made it even more absurd.
How could someone so indifferent to women… do that to me in the banquet hall hallway that day?
“Ha.”
No, I shouldn’t recall that memory again.
Of course, I won’t forget it, but there’s no benefit in dwelling on it.
Just thinking of that day made my body heat up, and my breath turned ragged.
I desperately took deep breaths to calm my excitement.
I couldn’t show this disheveled appearance in front of the Duke.
After calming down to some extent, I knocked on the office door.
“Master. I’ve brought the documents…”
“Hehehehe!”
“······.”
A familiar laughter seeped through the crack in the door.
The excitement I had just barely subdued flared up again, and I felt strength returning to my hands.
Letting out a deep sigh, I turned the doorknob.
“Oh. You’ve come. Please place the documents on the desk.”
“What are you doing right now…?”
“Don’t you see?”
“Riding on his shoulders!”
“······.”
Tia answered for me, looking down from the Duke’s shoulders, appearing very pleased.
For some reason, I felt angry.
It wasn’t so much that I was mad at the Duke, but rather a bit at Tia…
“Get down now. The Duke has work to do.”
“Oh come on, it’s fine. Let’s take a little break before resuming work!”
“······.”
Of course, it would be fine.
Since almost all the work is done by me while he does practically nothing.
I was wondering where he was spending the energy he should be saving for work, and it turned out to be wasted on playing with Tia.
“Hu······.”
I suppressed my anger and pulled a chair to sit.
Then I watched the Duke, with Tia on his shoulders, walking around the spacious office.
If it were before, I would have probably panicked upon seeing this scene.
I would have tried anything to separate Tia from the Duke.
But now I had effectively given up.
To put it nicely, I had built some trust in the Duke.
If my first thought was that I could never allow a pervert who assaulted me to interact with Tia…
Now I had changed my perspective on the Duke just a bit.
He was still a pervert who assaulted me, but at least he was certainly not a pedophile.
I felt a bit sorry for confining him all this time, and considering that Tia got along well with the Duke and that he was genuinely playing with Tia…
In the end, I decided to tacitly allow them to keep playing like that every day.
“But why did you suddenly get into riding on shoulders?”
“Hmm? Tia didn’t ask for it! The uncle said he would do it!”
“······What?”
“Oh, no. It’s not like I got jealous after seeing Tia riding on the contractor’s shoulders last time and wanted to ride too. It just crossed my mind suddenly.”
“······.”
Even without probing, he was confessing everything by himself.
It dawned on me that the Duke did not seem to have a very high mental age.
Wanting to ride on the shoulders just because he saw Tia being carried by someone else.
He had a surprisingly childish side.
“Tia. Is it fun?”
“Hm! I feel so tall!”
“Right······.”
Suddenly, my mood soured.
I’m short, which means I don’t look that tall even riding on shoulders.
No matter how hard he tried, the one Tia liked the most was still me.
Good effort though.
“I think it’s time for you to really get to work.”
“Oh, is that so? I guess I should… get down…”
“Meow?!”
Bang.
With a dull sound, Tia shrieked weirdly.
Startled, I looked up to see the chandelier swaying back and forth.
Did she just bump her head against it?
I rushed over to take Tia off the Duke’s shoulders.
“Ouch······! That hurt!”
“Ah, I’m sorry. Tia. I’m sorry, uncle.”
“I don’t know! I hate Duke Uncle!”
“Huff······.”
“How about you do the paperwork this time? I’ll take care of Tia.”
Holding Tia’s hand as she sobbed, I left the office.
Until the moment the door closed, the Duke remained frozen in place with a look on his face, as if the world had collapsed.
First, I checked Tia’s injuries and sat her down.
There was a noticeable red bump in the middle of her forehead.
She indeed had a bump on her head.
However, aside from that, it seemed there were no major injuries.
Thank goodness Tia’s head was hard.
This was the first time I was grateful for Tia not being an ordinary human child.
“Well, you should have been careful.”
“Hmm. How could I be careful when Tia is not the one moving…”
“That might be true. But still, just don’t ride on the Duke’s shoulders next time. If you want a ride, your mommy will give you plenty of them.”
“Hmm······.”
Tia nodded, wrapping her arms around me.
Yes!
I won!
After all, Tia likes me way more than that pervert.
I tightened my arms around Tia and savored the small victory.
![[TS] Surviving in a Yuri Visual Novel](https://i0.wp.com/cdn.novelupdates.com/images/2025/02/TS-Surviving-in-a-Yuri-Visual-Novel.png?resize=151,215 "[TS] Surviving in a Yuri Visual Novel")
