Chapter 336
While Kiriya and the others were on their way to the Hostess of Fertility, the restaurant itself was already in the middle of a small commotion.
"Ryuu! It’s been forever, nya! I missed you so much!"
The instant Ryuu appeared at the entrance, Anya spotted the elf and let out a delighted cry before throwing herself at her.
She wrapped both arms around Ryuu and rubbed against her enthusiastically.
"Anya... I missed you too."
Ryuu gently stroked the catgirl’s fluffy ears, her eyes already glistening with tears.
For everyone in Orario, she had only been gone for three days.
For Ryuu, however, more than an entire year had passed.
Her longing for everyone at the restaurant had built up to the point of overflowing.
Naturally, their reunion attracted the attention of the others, especially the female staff, who quickly surrounded Ryuu with delighted smiles.
"Ryuu, welcome back!"
"I missed you so much!"
"Ryuu-chan, I’ve been completely powerless without you here."
"Seriously, work has been exhausting. I’m practically falling apart!"
The girls chattered noisily about how much they had missed her.
Several even tried to get their own hugs in, but Anya was clinging to Ryuu like a koala and refused to move, immediately drawing complaints from every direction.
"Come on, Anya, that’s not fair."
"Exactly! Hogging Ryuu all to yourself is way too selfish."
"Stupid Anya, let me hug her too!"
Faced with everyone’s protests, Anya shouted back without the slightest shame.
"No! I haven’t seen Ryuu in forever either, nya! I missed her too!"
"Honestly, you girls..."
Syr pressed a hand to her forehead, looking deeply troubled.
"Ryuu was only gone for three days. Why are all of you acting like she disappeared for three years?"
"Well..."
Everyone paused.
Lunoire thought for a moment before answering, "Isn’t there a saying that one day apart can feel like three years?"
"Exactly, exactly!"
Chloe immediately agreed.
Then her gaze landed on Ryuu, and her expression suddenly changed.
"Wait."
She looked back and forth between Ryuu and Anya.
"Have you girls noticed that Ryuu got way taller?"
"Before, Anya came up to around Ryuu’s nose, but now she barely reaches her chin."
Everyone immediately stared.
After looking more carefully, they realized Chloe was right.
"She really did get taller!"
Anya compared their heights with one hand, then curiously reached toward Ryuu’s chest.
"And... this got bigger too—Ow! Ryuu, why’d you hit me, nya?!"
Faced with Anya’s offended glare, Ryuu calmly withdrew her hand.
"Because you were touching places you shouldn’t."
Her expression remained stern, though the tips of her pointed ears had already turned pink.
Ryuu had successfully suppressed Anya, but the catgirl had already sent the conversation careening in an entirely new direction.
"Whoa, she’s right."
Lunoire looked devastated.
"That’s cheating! We used to be about the same!"
She nearly collapsed forward in despair.
"Explain yourself!"
Chloe pointed accusingly at Ryuu with tears in the corners of her eyes.
"How did you secretly get ahead of the rest of us?"
For beautiful young women, matters of figure apparently carried a special kind of importance.
Anya tapped her chin thoughtfully.
Then inspiration struck.
"Nya heard before that breasts can get bigger if someone rubs—Mmph! Mmph!"
Ryuu clamped both hands over Anya’s mouth with all her strength.
She looked ready to sew it shut permanently.
"You really do say whatever comes into your head!"
Ryuu was practically exploding with embarrassment.
"Wait."
One of the girls suddenly narrowed her eyes.
"Didn’t Ryuu go into the Dungeon with Kiriya?"
"Don’t tell me... they were doing that inside the Dungeon too?"
"Gasp—!"
"That’s ridiculously exciting!"
"Breaking news! Beautiful elf ventures deep into a cave with a mysterious man, only to discover that their real purpose was—"
"Ryuu! I never knew you were that kind of woman!"
"..."
One outrageous comment followed another.
Ryuu’s face rapidly turned bright red, and imaginary steam practically began rising from the top of her head.
Normally, she should have already beaten these people into submission.
With her current strength, doing so would have been effortless.
Unfortunately, their nonsense had struck far too close to the truth.
Her brain had completely stopped working.
After all, she and Kiriya had spent more than a year together.
They had already acknowledged their feelings for one another, and with their relationship steadily deepening, crossing that final boundary had eventually happened naturally.
Out of a maiden’s reserve and embarrassment, Ryuu had originally intended never to mention it.
She had not expected this group of gossiping women to somehow stumble straight onto the truth.
That made the situation unbearably awkward.
Especially...
Especially Syr’s deeply aggrieved stare.
That gaze made Ryuu feel as though she were sitting on needles with a blade pressed against her back and something lodged in her throat all at once.
Just as the elf’s brain was about to completely overload from embarrassment—
"WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING STANDING AROUND?!"
A thunderous roar nearly blasted everyone’s soul out of their body.
"DON’T YOU HAVE WORK TO DO? MOVE, YOU IDIOTS!"
Mama Mia emerged from the kitchen, her enormous figure carrying all the presence of an enraged lion.
The gossiping girls immediately scattered in every direction and hurried back to work.
"When we get some free time, you’d better tell me everything."
Just as Ryuu was about to breathe a sigh of relief, Syr’s quiet voice reached her ear.
𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶
Ryuu’s lips twitched bitterly.
What was coming would come eventually.
At that moment, Mama Mia walked over and looked Ryuu up and down.
"You got taller."
She paused.
"And you’ve grown up too."
Her tone carried the unmistakable emotion of a parent seeing their child after a long absence.
She did not seem overly shocked by the physical changes. In a world where Magic and gods existed, such things were hardly impossible.
"Mama Mia..."
Mist gathered in Ryuu’s eyes, and her voice became faintly choked.
This was the longest she had ever been away from home.
"That brat didn’t bully you, did he?"
Mama Mia lowered her voice.
"If he did, tell me. I’ll straighten him out."
"No."
Ryuu defended Kiriya almost instinctively.
"He... helped me a lot."
"Hmph. Girls really do start siding with outsiders the moment they grow up."
Mama Mia snorted.
Ryuu’s face immediately flushed again.
"No, really."
She hurriedly waved her hands.
"He gave me so much. I’m much, much stronger than I was before."
Then she quietly added inside her heart—
’I’m almost catching up to you now, Mama Mia.’
"Oh?"
Mama Mia finally took a more careful look at Ryuu.
Only then did surprise appear in her eyes.
The girl she had always regarded almost like a daughter was now giving her a very real sense of danger.
And Mia herself was Level 6.
"How long were you gone?"
She frowned.
"What in the world did that boy do?"
The question slipped out before she could stop herself.
Then she noticed Ryuu’s conflicted expression and waved dismissively.
"Forget it. You don’t have to tell me."
"As long as you’re happy, that’s enough."
"...Thank you."
Ryuu’s lips moved several times before she finally managed to say it.
"Stupid daughter."
Mama Mia shook her head with an affectionate laugh.
Then her expression abruptly hardened.
"But now that you’re back, you’re still an employee here."
She pointed toward the restaurant.
"So move your butt and get to work!"
With that, she turned and headed back toward the kitchen.
Ryuu quietly returned to the changing room, put on her work clothes, and threw herself into the familiar rush of restaurant duties.
By the time she finally found a brief moment to breathe, she noticed Kiriya’s group had already arrived and taken a table.
Jeanne, Esdeath, and Hestia were sitting with him.
Ryuu’s mood immediately brightened, and she started walking over to greet them.
Then she noticed Anya had already gotten there first.
The catgirl had one arm draped around Kiriya’s shoulders as though they were old drinking buddies.
A terrible premonition immediately rose in Ryuu’s heart.
Her pace quickened.
Sure enough, as soon as she got close enough, she heard Anya whispering—
"Hey, Kiriya, nya. How did you make Ryuu grow so tall and so much bigger? Did you rub—Mmph! Mmph!"
"Excuse me."
Ryuu trapped Anya beneath one arm and bowed politely toward Hestia and the others.
"I need to dispose of some garbage."
"Wait! Nya isn’t garbage!"
Anya struggled desperately.
"Kiriya! Save me, nya!"