The New Gate

Book 15: Chapter 1 (1)

“I’m going into the city, but what about you, Luxuria?”

“Let’s see…I think I will teleport to the institute’s shelter and meet up with Hilamee. I already messaged that it’s safe now, so I think everyone’s probably back already. But before that I have something to request of you, would that be fine?”

“It depends on the request.”

Shin would be in a spot if she started saying, again, how she wasn’t wearing anything down there or up there, so he replied cautiously.

“Don’t be so defensive. I just want to borrow some clothes. As you can see, I only have this belt…cloth? Well, this piece of clothing covering my body, which was given form thanks to my powers, but I’m sure it wouldn’t be proper to walk around like this.”

Luxuria’s shoulders dropped.

Shin focused on her single piece of clothing and the words 『Angel Sash』 appeared. It was handled as a material apparently.

The 『Angel Sash』 covered Luxuria from her chest to her thighs. It hugged her body very tightly, evidencing her curves. Other than the parts wrapped by the sash, there were bands on her arms too, which floated loosely around them.

Maybe because the fighting was over, the halo of light on her back and the wings that extended from it had disappeared.

“Well, I guess I can do that. Clothes and shoes first.”

Shin opened his item box and took out a random outfit. It was something used to raise skill level and did not have any particular attributes.

He recalled Luxuria mentioning not wearing anything “down there or up there” and casually sorted his inventory, wondering if he had forgotten anything in there. Indeed, he found several items that he almost had forgotten the existence of.

“Then…underwear, I guess.”

“….oh? Did you say…underwear?”

Luxuria had heard very clearly.

“Dear Shin? Do you mind telling me the reason why you are in possession of ladies’ underwear, so completely naturally? You won’t say that you made underwear of your liking for Schnee to—”

Luxuria looked at the item cards and asked the question. While talking, her expression turned to incredulity.

“No way!! I just left in some I had made to raise my creation skills, who knows when. I did them when I was still a newbie, so they don’t even have automatic size adjustment capabilities.”

The item box was said to be uselessly spacious. Because of this, items created in the early stages of adventuring sometimes lay forgotten in the depths of the box. It happened often to creation-oriented players like Shin: his item box contained many items that could only be considered trash by now.

Shin had half-forgotten he still stored that underwear, after all.

“If you say so…”

“I feel another horrible misunderstanding has been created…”

Luxuria seemed to clearly question Shin’s explanation, but he didn’t know what else to say. He, a male player, had female underwear in his item box. Anything he said would surely sound like an excuse.

“Never mind. I’ll change then.”

After Luxuria’s words, the sash wrapped around her body vanished. It happened so suddenly that Shin couldn’t process what happened right away. He looked at Luxuria’s naked body, frozen, for a few seconds.

After he finally realized what had happened, he turned his whole body away from Luxuria.

“You can keep looking, I don’t mind.”

“Give me a break…”

Maybe because she used to be the devil of lust, even after turning into an angel her beauty and proportions were still very alluring. If she was still a devil, she would exude excessive erotic charm, but as an angel, she did not emanate such a seductive aura anymore.

It could be said that she was closer to an artistic rendition of a naked beauty now.

“Hey, Shin. I feel bad for saying this after you let me borrow these clothes, but could you add automatic size adjustment?”

“…just give me the cards.”

The reason was clear. Shin had given Luxuria the largest size he had, but that wasn’t enough, apparently. Shin knew that Luxuria’s “those” were much larger than the average woman with the same height, so he half expected this request.

He took the card without looking at Luxuria and quickly attached the automatic size adjustment attribute. Luxuria was indeed not wearing anything “up there” right now.

“Okay, perfect. I heard about it before, but it really is convenient. I always have to order underwear just for me, so this is really helpful.”

The sound of rustling clothes stopped, so Shin thought Luxuria finished changing and was about to turn around, when he felt something pressing against his back.

It was Luxuria, of course. She was pressing her body against his, so Shin could clearly feel a very soft sensation on his back.

“Hey.”

“Hehe, it’s just a little thank you. This much is fine, no?”

The soft sensation disappeared and Shin turned around, to see Luxuria’s pleased smile after accomplishing her prank.

She was now wearing a white sweater and a long black skirt. The gesture made her look more childish than usual.

The next instant, however, she placed her index finger on her lips, giving off a more mature air, so Shin couldn’t tell how serious if she really meant what she said or not.

“I actually wanted to kiss you, but Schnee would scold me, so I won’t.”

“I would get the worst of it if that happens, so please don’t.”

Schnee’s mood would definitely turn very foul if that happened. Shin would be more than happy to avoid triggering such a landmine.

Shin and Luxuria separated, as she headed to the shelter’s teleport, and he went to the city.

He proceeded from the outer walls that were destroyed by Avaritia to the city center, so he could have a clear picture of the destruction caused by the monsters.

Some buildings had been fully destroyed, others only partially. Most houses in the residential areas only suffered minor damage, like part of the roof collapsing or something similar.

It was probably caused by someone fighting against the monsters.

As Schnee had said, the people’s expressions did not seem as grim as he’d expected. They clearly already knew that the monster threat was no more.

“I should do whatever I can to help too.”

Looking at the map through 【Sign Perception】, Shin could tell that there were still people trapped under the wreckage. He decided to start by rescuing them and headed towards the closest one.

“….two people.”

He detected two presences inside the building.

“Hey, you can tell that there are people inside?”

The man standing next to Shin heard his comment and called out to him. Judging from the leather armor he was wearing, he was probably an adventurer.

“It’s an alternative way of using presence detection. I’ll ensure their safety with magic first, to make sure they’ll be okay even if the building comes down. Please stand back.”

The man nodded to Shin and had the other men in the surroundings step back. He was likely the leader of the rescue operations in the area.

Shin first used 【Through Sight】 and 【Analyze】 to check the condition of the trapped survivors.

It appears they were lucky enough to be in a space between two pillars.

Shin used the earth-type magic spell 【Earth Wall】 to cover and protect the two survivors.

“Okay, done. I’ve covered the people inside with an earth barrier. It won’t collapse easily, so let’s get rid of the wreckage.”

The men around Shin then started removing the wrecks. Shin joined them, easily lifting up the wreck that looked difficult to transport and piled it somewhere else.

There was no need to hold back when rescuing others: even if he had to pick up part of a wall or a broken pillar, Shin whisked them away without hesitation. Every time he removed a piece of wreckage, a “swipe” and loud “thud” could be heard.

“Well I’ll be….”

“Whoa…”

Looking at Shin lifting wreckage many times larger than himself, the other men were flabbergasted.

“Folks, your hands aren’t moving!! Leave the large stuff to the guy and carry the smaller ones!”

The leader snapped out of it before the others and shouted at them to get moving again, which they promptly did.

After removing the larger wrecks, Shin pinpointed the survivors’ location and, after a while, a ball made of clay appeared. It was too hard for the men to break through, so Shin opened a hole in it. Inside it were a mother and child, hugging themselves tightly.

The mother and daughter, carried out by the men, had no idea what had happened.

“I’ll leave the rest to you. I’m going to the next spot.”

“Yeah, we’ll take care of things here. —Take care.”

Shin nodded and hurried to the next location.