The Neighborhood High School Girl, Miss Isezaki, Is the Great Saintess Returned from Another World~ And I, Suddenly Awakened as Her Exclusive Mana Supply Uncle, Travel Between Earth and Another World with Time-Space Magic~ - 206. A House Visit 2

206. 206. 206. 206. A House Visit 2

While dodging Maristel’s protests of “You’re so late!”, we continued climbing up the slope. 

Incidentally, it seemed like Isezaki had figured out that I had gone to contact the castle. Impressive, as always.

Eventually, we reached the highest point of the fortress. There stood an impressive watchtower. A little further away, a small stone house stood alone. It seemed this was Maristel’s home.

“We’re here! This is my hoooouse! Come on in, don’t be shy!”  

Maristel enthusiastically pushed us from behind, and both Isezaki and I stumbled into her house.

With a loud *bang*, the door closed, cutting off the light from outside, making the interior even dimmer. In the center of the room stood a large table with chairs around it. There were doors leading to other rooms to the front and left.

Along the walls were a small magic stove and kitchen utensils, though it didn’t look like they had ever been used. The shelves next to the stove had a few dishes but were mostly empty.

The whole place was plain and devoid of any sense of living. It reminded me of those minimalist rooms I’d seen on TV. That was my first impression of Maristel’s house.

Considering Maristel’s flashy and careless personality, I had expected a messy, cluttered room with no space to walk. Instead, I felt relieved, though also slightly let down. It was a strange feeling.

“Still… how should I put it? It’s very… neat? Organized?” 

I tried to offer some comment on the room, carefully choosing my words. Maristel raised an eyebrow and grinned.

“Hehe? What’s that, Matsunaga? You don’t have to sugarcoat it, you know. You can just say it’s an empty room! I’ve never settled in one place before, so I’m used to only having the bare minimum of things, ready to move at any time.”

It seemed this was Maristel’s default lifestyle. Thankfully, she didn’t seem offended by my comment.

“And I’m not even allowed to keep my cute living dead dolls here. They would have made things so lively.”

Being greeted by zombies at the door? No, thank you.

“I’ll turn on the lights.” 

Maristel murmured, snapping her fingers.

Suddenly, with a low *pop pop pop*, pale blue flames appeared along the walls.

“Uh… this is really creepy…”

The flames, when you looked closely, resembled human faces. And if you listened hard enough, you could hear faint, eerie voices like “Oooooooooh…”

This was definitely some kind of ghostly fire. The brightness was nice, but the atmosphere had become overwhelmingly eerie.

“Um, Maristel, honestly, I think the darkness was better than this…”

“Oh? That’s a cute thing to say” 

Maristel giggled, snapping her fingers again. The ghostly flames vanished instantly, and she quickly pressed a switch on the wall.

This time, a soft artificial light flickered on from a magic lamp hanging from the ceiling.

“Better now, right? I prefer the other light, but I’ll cater to my guests.”

“Uh, yeah… thanks. By the way, those ghost fires—were those also part of your magic? I’ve heard complaints about you walking around with them before.”

“Yep, those were mine. Necromancy isn’t just about turning dead bodies into dolls, you know that, right?”

“Ah, right… now that you mention it, you did summon a huge ghost before, didn’t you? What was it called, an Eldritch? Isezaki took it down so fast that I completely forgot about it.”

“You didn’t have to remind me of that, Matsunaga… That was one of my trump cards! You have no idea how much effort it took to summon it…” 

Maristel grumbled, veins bulging on her temple as she shot a glare at Isezaki. Isezaki just stood there, proudly puffing out her chest.

“Oh, but if you can summon things other than living dead, couldn’t you have helped in the battle during the herb-gathering mission?”

“My dear, certain necromancy spells don’t work well in sunlight.” 

“Exactly. My little dolls have physical bodies, so they aren’t as affected, but spirits lose their strength in sunlight.”

Hmm, so there are all kinds of magic, huh? As usual, there’s so much I don’t understand about this other world. I want to know more details, but Isezaki-san doesn’t teach me too much. She says something like, “It’s not good to get bound by common sense”.

…And with that, Maristel clapped her hands together, and the dry sound echoed in the sterile room.

“Well, enough chatting. How about we eat? I’m actually starving, you know.”

“Ah, that sounds good.”

“I don’t have any objections.”

“Got it! You two wait here. I’ll go prepare everything now!”

Maristel gestured for me and Isezaki-san to sit, then headed toward the entrance. She went out of her way to invite us to her home, so I’m pretty curious about what she’s going to serve us…

“I’ll just go raid the pantry real quick~♪ I heard the soldiers around here hunted down some monsters that were messing up the area yesterday. They’ve probably already been butchered, so the meat should be perfect to eat right now—”

“Wait a minute.”

“Gah!”

I grabbed Maristel by the collar just as she was about to leave the house. Isezaki-san also looked at her with a mix of shock and exasperation.

“’Maristel… did you already forget how my husband sternly warned you earlier?”

At this, Maristel’s eyes darted around like she had genuinely just remembered.

“Ah—oh! Right, this is no good, is it?! But now… hmm, if that’s the case, the stalls outside must be closed, so I guess we’ll have to go to the canteen inside the fortress? But whenever I go there, I can’t relax with all the soldiers staring at me. Ugh, being too attractive has its downsides, you know~♪”

Maristel said this while sensually brushing her hair back, clearly enjoying the attention. However, from everything I’ve seen so far, I’m pretty sure the soldiers are just watching her to make sure she doesn’t cause any more trouble. But I’ll leave that unsaid for now.

That being said, I’m not too thrilled about eating while being stared at by soldiers either… Looks like I have no choice.

“Alright, I’ll handle the food today.”

“Oh? I feel a little bad, but what will our traveling merchant with that handy [Storage Space] whip up for us? Whatever you serve, I’ll happily gobble it up~♡”

For some reason, Maristel glanced at my crotch—but I ignored her and focused on thinking about the menu.

“Hmm, let’s see… Isezaki-san, is there anything you want to eat?”

“Ah! I’ll eat anything you make, husband! Anything’s fine! I’ll gobble it right up!”

Isezaki-san, her face bright red, also glanced at my crotch, competing with Maristel. This isn’t helping me decide. Also, I really wish they’d stop staring down there—it’s embarrassing.

Alright, what should I take out from my [Storage Space]? I turned my back on them to hide myself while I thought about it.

But… I originally came to this other world as part of Aihara’s sightseeing plan. And if it’s sightseeing, we should be eating local food. So I didn’t bring much with me in terms of meals.

In that case… I guess I have no choice. I feel bad for Isezaki-san, but…

With a heavy heart, I took out ‘that’. And then—

“Eh? Eh!? What is this? What is this!?”

Maristel’s eyes sparkled at the item I pulled from the [Storage Inventory].