Translated by Mlzkzr

“Hermes-chan, I have a lifetime request!”

“Ah, tell me”

“……”

Inside the usual brothel, in Orthia’s room.

After being alone with Orthia and receiving some services from her, she cut to the chase as usual.

So I told her to speak for the time being, but Orthia was somewhat surprised as she opened her eyes wide.

“What’s wrong”

“Hermes-chan?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s a lifetime request!”

Once again, Orthia puts her hands together and bows her head.

“Yeah, so why don’t you say it?”

“……”

Being surprised again, Orthia doesn’t say this all-important “lifetime request” of hers.

“What’s wrong really”

“What’s wrong with you, Hermes-chan? You’re not doing your usual grinding――Ouch, ouch, ouch!”

“If you insist that much, then I’ll give you a good grinding. Here grind, there grind”

“Hi,hiyaa, no, no, Hermes-chan, the number of your revolutions is higher than usual.”

The number of revolutions.

When I was finished grinding her the whole way and fulfilled my promise, I take my hand away and ask her again.

“So, what is your lifetime request this time?”

“Puh. My lifetime request this time is kind of weird ―― ouch, ouch, ouch!”

“You.don’t.say”

I gave her a grinding that was at a slightly higher speed of revolution than before.

After finishing the second set of grinding, I prompt her to get down to the main topic this time.

“You know, isn’t it June right now?”

“Ah”

“Speaking of June, it’s the month for brides, right”

“……Why?”

I tilted my head, wondering if there was such a thing.

“Don’t you know, Hermes-chan?”

I had an auditory hallucination that sounded like, “Oops, I’m sorry”.

With that kind of mood, Orthia explains.

“It is a custom spread in the past by the one and only man loved by the great sage Orthia-sama, our original founder. It’s said that if a bride gets married in June, she will be absolutely happy.”

“Hmm, I mean, since the farm work in early spring has come to an end this time, isn’t it something a farmer who wants to get married has started, or would have taken into consideration?”

“……”

Orthia was surprised again, and she looked at me with wide open eyes.

“Hermes-chan, you’re amazing.”

“Heh?”

“Yeah, that’s right. I remember it when I was a child, and sure enough, it was easier to get married at this time of year, and everyone was around this time of year.”

“Fumu.”

Orthia rarely talks about her own past.

Now that you mention it, maybe she was born from a farmer’s house—— this was the deepest past information I knew about her, even though we had known each other for a long time.

“Well, that’s part of it, so we decided to work in bridal gowns during the month of June.”

“A bridal gown, you said…… you will wear a wedding dress?”

“Yes. There are awfully a lot of guys who secretly want to do me in that outfit.”

“…… I see.”

Aren’t your men stupid? Though that thought came to my throat, I decided to swallow it.

Instead of that.

“But is that okay?”

“What is?”

“I mean, you know, prostitutes are supposed to get themselves bought out of being a prostitute or something at some point, and just marry normally, right? Don’t you want to save the bridal gown until then?”

“……”

Once again, Orthia opens her mouth wide and is at a loss for words.

This is happening a lot today.

“What’s wrong?”

“No……”

With a small shake of her head, Orthia hugged me.

“Orthia?”

“Just like you said”

“Yes?”

“I’m happy just to have someone who understands me, even just a little bit.”

“…… Orthia”

“――That’s why”

With a snap, she backs away from me and returns to her usual bright smile.

“Work is work, and I have to dress like that and make the guests enjoy themselves.”

“……Is that so”

I felt like I was being reminded again of Orthia’s professionalism.

She is a prostitute, and she does not receive money for her non-prostitute actions.

Sometimes I think she is too stubborn, but that stubbornness of hers ―― in other words, her persistence is also part of her charm.

If so, I want to cooperate with her.

“So, what’s the connection between that bridal figure and your lifetime request?”

“Yeah! Because it’s such a big deal, I want to give it a more pure, holy feeling? Or something along those lines”

“Fumufumu”

“So, I thought I’d prepare a dress woven out from Saint Shirin’s threads―― Hermes-chan, it’s my lifetime request! Go get me the threads of Saint Shirin.”

“Understood”

I responded immediately.

Orthia stares at me with a surprised look on her face as I take on this job more easily than the ones before.

I don’t even know why she was so surprised.

“I’ll get it right away.”

I, left Orthia behind and ran out of the brothel.



It seems that the thread of Saint Shirin is a thread spewed out by a special type of silkworm that lives in Mount Kayenne.

When I asked about its location, I immediately headed there.

It takes half a day and half a night to trudge from the town of Pindos and climb up the mountain, where there are only animal trails.

“Muh”

Without asking anyone, I knew where it was.

When I arrived at about halfway up the mountain, I was surprised by the air that was so pure.

Moreover, it is spreading in such a way that it is clearly originating from a certain point.

I went to the source.

When the air was gradually becoming clearer and purer, the place became more like a sanctuary.

And, there it was.

In the middle of an open meadow, there was a white bug which was one size larger than a human.

The insect continues to spit its threads toward a single point.

Normally, silkworms wrap themselves in the thread that they spew, turning it into a pupa and making it a protective wall for emergence, but it doesn’t wrap it around itself, it just spits out at a single point――and throws it out.

I don’t know what it was throwing up for, but I know that it is what I am looking for.

Now then, how should I get it?

I stared intently at the silkworm and the thread of Saint Shirin, observing them.

It’s dangerous.

What can I say, it feels somehow fragile.

If I try to take it by force, the thread will break ―― no.

I could see how fragile it is, that it could even collapse.

It’s no good to force it, I understand that.

If so, what should I do ―― when I thought so.

“……”

The silkworm looked at me.

Despite being an insect, we look at eye to eye.

It has surprisingly deep eyes.

『Did you come to rob me? 』

『No, I did not』

『You won’t force it?』

『I won’t』

『Okay then』

Is this an auditory hallucination, or just a wrong impression?

In the present moment, I felt as if I had such an exchange with the silkworm.

The silkworm continued to spit out its threads.

I sat there and waited patiently.

I don’t know why, but I knew I should wait.

The sun sets and the moon rises.

The moon disappears and the sun rises.

Overnight, the silkworm continued to spit out its threads.

Strange. I thought.

It has been spitting out all night, and yet the volume of the thread has not increased at all.

It felt as if I was staring at a spinning barber signboard.

It’s going up and up and up, but it’s not actually moving.

It feels the same way.

Shortly after, the silkworm stopped spewing threads.

Then, without even looking at me, it simply walked away.

All that was left was me, and thread which the silkworm spat out.

I approached and took the thread in my hand hesitantly.

“Strong”

Unintentionally, those words came out of my mouth.

It was a sturdy thread, and the fragility I felt when I saw it yesterday was nowhere to be found.

As far as pureness goes, it exuded a holy air so much so that it would be favored by any brides for their wedding dresses.

I returned to Pindos with the thread I got without doing anything.



At the lobby of the brothel.

Orthia and the other prostitutes looked at the thread I brought back with me with great shock.

“What’s wrong, isn’t this it?”

“No, it was this, but ……”

For some reason, Orthia was fidgety.

“He,Hermes-chan. It was hard to get this, wasn’t it?”

“……Not really”

It’s for that Orthia, so it’s not a big deal.

Besides, I really didn’t do anything.

I just went and brought it back.

The reason why I didn’t go for an aggressive strategy may be because my judgment was accurate, but that’s not a big deal either.

“I’ll leave this with you then. Good luck.”

I said that and left the brothel.

I’m looking forward to seeing Orthia in her bridal dress, so I’ll come to visit her during that period.



At the lobby of the brothel after Hermes leaves.

Prostitutes flocked to the Saint Shirin’s thread and touched it.

With a zap, sparks went off.

“How can someone get such a high-purity Saint Shirin’s thread of good quality?”

“As expected of the Lord-sama, he was not an ordinary person.”

“Even now, he was really cool…… Ah mou, I’m so jealous of you, Orthia-chan!”

The prostitutes are talking about the quality of the thread and how cool Hermes is.

To Hermes, who was unusually serious about his motivation.

He was raising his stock tremendously without his knowledge.

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