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"Mou, Onii-chan! You barely made it in time, you know?"

Towards me who was still confused by the fact that Yui and Rei were here, Hana puffed out her cheeks and said.

"My bad. By the way, why are these two here?"

"I invited Yui-senpai yesterday. Because recently whenever we're in contact, Yui-senpai always asks about you, Onii-chan. Since that's the case, I thought why don't I invite her too."

"Wait Hana-chan, what are you saying?! Rin-senpai too, please don't believe it!"

"Understood"

"… I-I don't mind if you believe it a little, you know?"

Which one do you want me to choose… Or rather, wait a minute.

"Come to think of it, did you change the way you called me? Didn't you call me ‘Rin-san' before?"

"When I asked Hana-chan about Rin-senpai the other day, I've come to know that you are actually from the same high school as us. That's why I think it would be fine if I call you with the ‘Senpai' honorific."

"Hee"

Looks like the fact that Yui asked Hana about me was true. The person herself didn't realize she just dug her own grave, though.

Now that I’ve heard about Yui's reason, the next is–

"Then how about Rei? You didn’t know Hana, right?"

"I heard about today's plan from Yui and decided to come here because I was told Rin will be there."

"…O-ooo"

I was subconsciously getting embarrassed when I was told something like that directly. Even so, coming here because of me, huh…

Fuu… Maybe it's finally here, the age of my popularity!

However, just after I thought so.

"As promised, I will return the money. Because I have done my best to make money in the past week."

Rei said as she handed me an envelope with a wad of money.

Yes, unrelated to the age of popularity, her reason was to return the money. And Hana and Yui, who saw this scene, opened their eyes.

"O-onii-chan is! Made a girl younger than him give him money!"

"You're the worst, Rin-senpai! I'm disappointed!"

"Wait wait wait! It's not like that! Don't say something that made it worse if people heard it!"

I desperately stopped the two who started making a commotion. People were about to be misunderstood because of that.

"Say something, Rei!"

"Understood"

Rei nodded, then put her hands on her chest.

"Rin is an important person for me. The fact that I can be here right now is all thanks to Rin. Giving money to him is something that I did because I like it, so, there is no problem. Even without you two worrying, there is nothing to worry about. Rather, I even worry if just this amount is enough–"

"Wait a minute Rei. The situation was worsened because you just omitted the most important part of the story."

Although the fact you omitted the [Transfer Within Dungeon] was something that cannot be helped as I asked you to hide it, by the way you said it, it looks like I'm tricking and brainwashing a helpless girl, you know.

"Onii-chan?"

"Rin-senpai!"

Sure enough, the two who were misunderstood about the situation called me with angry faces. In the end, it took nearly 5 minutes just to convince the two of them.

At any rate, after that, the four of us entered Shion Dungeon and walked to the lower floor. Hana, who was walking in the middle, then opened her mouth while steadily advancing with large steps.

"I see I see, in short, when Onii-chan and Rei-san met in a dungeon, Onii-chan used an expensive item to save Rei-san, right? Mou, if it's like that please tell me in advance!"

"I have explained it about 10 times before, though…"

Even if I complained, unfortunately, my complaint doesn't reach Hana's ears.

"Rin-senpai, I actually believed you from the beginning!"

"I don't want to hear it from you"

"Muu, ish huwts, ish huwts!" 1

When I pulled her cheeks lightly, Yui exaggeratedly pretended to be in pain. While I was doing such things, Rei, who was beside me, lowered her head.

"Sorry, Rin. I should have chosen a more appropriate place to return the money."

"Aa, don't worry about it anymore. Rather than that, how can you make such a large amount of money in a short period of time?"

"In the past week, I have been hunting monsters that can make a lot of money without capturing the dungeon by myself. While I was at it, I also wanted some time to re-evaluate myself too."

"…. I see."

Certainly the current Rei became independent as she has lost the King of Unique. That's why it's natural for her to want some time to re-evaluate herself at this time.

"Do your best, Rei."

"Un. Thank you, Rin."

From the bottom of my heart, I really wanted to support her determination.

Then, I noticed that Yui had been watching our conversation.

"Which reminds me, I've been thinking about it for a while but Rin-senpai and Rei-chan are really close, right? Rei-chan even used a casual tone even though she should be younger than Rin-senpai…. Ha! By any chance are both of you actually a lovey-dovey couple?!"

"What the heck is this déjà vu,"

I retorted like that but when I think about it again, it's exactly as Yui says. I didn't notice it too since we have been like this since our first meeting. And I don't really mind that too. However, that doesn't mean she could regard us as a couple right away.

"I don't think a casual tone is such a big deal, though? If Yui wants to, you could do the same too, you know?"

"Eh… T-that's a bit… Besides, it will be troublesome if people misunderstood it…"

Yui was being bashful while repeatedly touching her index fingers of both hands together.

I remember Hana once said that Yui was someone who tends to jump to conclusions like this. And this scene actually became quite fun to watch. Therefore, I decided to leave it like this for the time being.

Then while in the midst of such conversation, we arrived at the place that could be our spot for today.

Footnotes

I believe you know this, but ‘It hurts'.