Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! It’s time for a new character to be introduced to the story! (Or is it? DUN DUN DUUUUN!)

ANYWAY, I initially planned this chapter to finish with the group already on the town and with the mention for Gon’s next monster to be hunted. Sadly, it didn’t happen as I had to tell the aftermath of the sky battle.

ALSO, I forgot to add Gon’s level ups to this chapter, but it might have been a good thing since I can add them on the following one under the conditions of it being an event or something. Could work nicely.

ALSO(2), WE ARE ONLY 8 CHAPTERS AWAY FROM 100 MAIN CHAPTERS! HOORAY! For commemoration, there are 2 things I’m planning. 1st is that once I get to chapter 95, I’ll do a writing spree of IO only so we can get to the 100th chapter. I won’t promise that I will release a chapter a day, but at least I will stop writing whatever else I have and write IO and IO only from 96 to 100. The second, is that together with the 100th chapter, I’ll release a character list of kinds. More like a small bonus, mind you, so it’s nothing too big. It does have its quirks, though.

ALSO(3), if you have any other idea for the 100th special, feel free to post it down below. Won’t guarantee that I’ll be able to do it, but I can at least hear your ideas.

Have a good read!

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After Yuu made her request, she put in full practice what she had asked for, and she wanted a bonus for all the time I kept dodging her. But the problem was that she refused to let go completely, and simply kept hanging on closely to me to the point that it wasn’t hugging, but cuddling, as she nestled herself in my chest and refused to move away.

To be honest, I didn’t dislike that. Holding on to Yuu actually felt quite good, and I couldn’t help but notice how she was actually smaller than me, and she was pretty soft, so holding her felt good. Besides the fact that I could pet her as much as I wanted. But I could have taken that without the two of us being on the ship’s main deck, where most people went by.

During the time that this scene happened, I also had to deal with Skarr who had a smirk in his face while talking to me. According to him, there were unspoken laws saying that the captain of the party that captured the ship is also the one to keep it. Since Yuu and me were the ones who boarded the enemy ship and we aren’t subordinates to Skarr, by this rule we are also the new owners of the ex-pirate blimp.

At first I became ecstatic at the idea of having my own blimp to use as a base for my adventures. I even planned on painting it white and call it “The Hunter”. But then Skarr brought down the bad news.

First, blimps like these require very specific docking facilities that are, for now, exclusive to Eldor’s area of influence, which meant that it cannot be taken towards the other capitals. Second, their maintenance is pretty high, even when not in use, so we cannot even think of simply keeping it here for the occasional use. Third, we need a certain sized crew to use the craft efficiently, but not only were we too few, we also had no experience whatsoever.

In the end, when all my hopes for my own personal flying ship were crushed, Skarr told us what we were going to do for now. After leaving a few of his crewmembers on the other ship, they tied a rope between both the blimps and started towing it towards our next stop, which according to Skarr, wasn’t far away from us, just one mountain range away, and once we got there, we could decide what to do with it.

While this talk was going on, two things worth of notice happened. Firstly, Yuu ended up falling asleep while still cuddling to me, but even when I tried to move her to a more comfortable position, her arms refused to give in. The second was that Lucas started a scene of falling to the ship’s deck and slamming his hand on the wooden floor.

“AND THAT SHIP WAS SO MUCH BIGGER!” He said in despair while he imagined the amount of money he would have got if he had captured the enemy’s flagship instead of simply destroying it. “WHY DID WE DESTROYED IT? WHY?”

“That’s what you get when you get too excited.” I said in a sage tone. “You should always keep up a cool head and think of what you are going to do next.”

“Master, I do not believe you have the right to say that.” Crys said from besides me. I looked at her with a raised eyebrow. She cleared her throat and spread her arms wide open. “I Believe I can fly~!” She sang briefly and my expression fell into a wry smile.

“So you saw that…” I said dryly. The others turned to me with a confused glance but I simply shook my head. “Nothing important. Just something that happened when I asked a certain Dragon General to fling me through the sky.” I said with a shrug.

Their frozen expressions were priceless, as they tried to make sense of my words. Skarr was the first to recover with his obnoxiously loud laugh.

“You really are something, cousin!” he said while slapping my back. After some awkward moments of him laughing and the others finally digesting my words, he went on. “Anyway, if you want an idea, why not sell your blimp at our next stop? I heard that the lord of the region lost his own to pirates raids recently.”

I stopped to think on his words for a moment. Indeed that was actually a good idea. Since I didn’t have the money, the means and the motivation to keep the craft up and running, selling it would probably get me some very good income for my troubles.

Deciding on my next step with the large vessel, I nodded and thanked Skarr for his idea and help with towing the ship. He dismissed it as a favor for a cousin and walked away while turning another large jug of wine down his throat. He became incredibly cheerful during the fight, maybe he is actually a warmonger?

While thinking so, I took Yuu in a princess carry, seeing how she refused to let go, and made my way back to our rooms.

…

“Hmm…?”

Hearing a mutter, I looked downwards towards Yuu who had been sleeping peacefully while nestling her head against my shoulder and hugging my neck with her arms. Her eye twitching slightly as she slowly woke up from her slumber.

She looked around a bit confused for a moment before her eyes landed on me. For some time she simply kept looking at me with hazy eyes, but her tails slowly started to wag happily. Despite the situation, I couldn’t help but find myself smiling slightly to her.

Then her eyes snapped open, her face blushed heavily and she jumped back with scary agility.

“SHI-SHI-SHISHOU?” She said in shock while looking around my room, seeing only Aura and Crys here with us. “Wha… What happened? Why am I here?” She said confused and embarrassed.

YES! THIS IS THE YUU I KNOW!

While feeling glad that the scary drunk Yuu was gone and having some tears escape from my eyes, I saw as she kept looking around confused. Not knowing what state her memories were after just being drunk, I quickly explained.

“You fell asleep while drunk but refused to let go of me, so I brought you here.” I told her briefly. “The best position I found was with me sitting and letting sleep leaning against me.”

“Huh…? Drunk…? Me…?” She asked confused, making me wonder whether she had actually forgotten what happened earlier.

I stole a glance towards Crys, wanting to ask if that was even possible with In-game drunkenness, but before either of us could exchange our words, Yuu suddenly widened her eyes in shock and started to fiddle around with her menus.

Seeing that, Aura, Crys and me watched her curiously, only to see her stare in shock at something for quite some time before turning to me. Looking at her confused, I saw as she became even redder and started squirming away.

“Yuu?” I called her confused, but she only moved even further away.

“Shishou…” She said in a low and shy tone while trying to hide herself with her hands. “I… With Shishou…” Ah… She remembered, so now she’s embarrassed.

I… Really don’t know how to feel about it. Seeing her cute embarrassed expression is like a calming sight for me after seeing her seductive drunk self, but with her avoiding me like that hurts a little.

“Hey, Yuu. What did you check on the menu just now?” Crys asked suddenly. Blinking surprised, I also became curious about what she had seen. However, Yuu’s reaction left clear that it was something big.

“Wha-wha-what do you mean?” She asked while looking away. “I wa-was not checking a-anything…”

As she said that, she started to look away embarrassed while occasionally stealing glances towards us, only to look away once again and start fidgeting. It was so obvious that she was lying that…

“Seeing Yuu react like that…” I started.

“It’s somewhat really cute…” Crys completed.

Aura barked in agreement.

But that still didn’t get us the answer we wanted, so I steeled myself and did my best to look mad at the fidgeting kitsune. I was afraid that I would be unable to pull that off, but it seemed to work, as Yuu looked at me panicky for a moment.

“Yuu…” I said in a low tone.

“I-It is really nothing Shishou!” She said while waving her hands in front of her. “I-It is not like I got the Innocent Charm skill when I was trying to hug yo…” She hurriedly covered her mouth in shock just as me and Crys looked at her in shock.

“Innocent charm…?” I said confused.

“That’s… An original skill?” Crys said surprised.

“Ah! Thinking about it, there was that time when you swiped a window away right before the pirate’s atta…”

“WAAAAAAA!” And with that, she ran away.

Literally.

…

“After that, I thought about going after Yuu, but on Crys’ advice, I decided that it would be better to simply leave her alone for now until she calmed herself down a bit more. Except that the moment we stopped looking for her, she started following us from afar. And whenever we tried to approach her she would run away again. It was really cute, but it left me a bit troubled.” I said with a sigh.

“And what the hell does that have to do with me?” Hot-head asked angrily while I followed him up the stairs.

“Dunno? I just felt that I had to talk about this with someone.” I said downhearted. “So the first person I thought about was you, Ashley.”

“…Stop that.” She said with a shudder.

“With what?” I asked confused.

“Just… Don’t call me by Ashley. It feels strangely creepy when you take me seriously like that.”

“Then… YOU ADMIT YOU ARE MY RIVAL?” I asked cheerfully while passing my arms around his shoulder and laughing loudly.

“HOW THE HELL DID YOU EVEN ARRIVE ON THAT?” He said while landing an elbow-blow on my flank.

Curving in pain, I had to let go of my rival’s shoulder so that I could bear the pain a little better. Not that I stopped laughing at any time, though. Seeing as he stormed away, Aura approached my by the side and looked at me disapprovingly. I replied with a wry smile and started petting her as I stood back up.

Immediately after I dashed towards Ashley, who clearly became annoyed by my action because I heard a tongue clicking sound. Smiling awkwardly, I followed after the androgynous fire elemental as she walked around the deck.

“Oh, that reminds me. Your old boss was on that ship.” I said suddenly, receiving a confused glance from hothead. “You know, that Cyclops?”

“…Oh, the one that you kept blinding every few days?”

“Waah… That’s a lot of worry about your former boss.” I said wryly.

“That’s the word. Former.” He said before sighing. “He was strong, and I give him that. He did take over the gang by beating the old boss, to be fair.”

“Huh? He’s actually that strong?” I asked in shock.

“Well, you keep blinding him every time you meet, so it’s not a wonder you don’t know about it.” He replied coldly with a shrug. “It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that that skill of yours is his weak point that you keep exploiting.”

So, all this time I’ve been unfairly fighting that guy, not even giving him a chance to show us his real strength?

Damn, am I good or what? Learning about his weak spot without even knowing him! My monster-hunting instincts are really something, huh?

“Also, that wasn’t a skill, that’s an item I use.” I corrected him, making him look at me in shock.

“That’s… An item?” He asked, and I nodded proudly.

“Yes. It’s an item I craft myself using extremely rare components that are only found once in every many ore veins, as well with a long and extremely complex crafting process that no professional whatsoever in the whole of Eldor is capable of copying.” I said in an extremely smug tone, and saw as he looked at me in awe and shock.

“Is that so…” He said surprised.

“Nah, just joking. You do it in two minutes using what’s considered trash items.”

“Go to hell.” He said with a tone that did not match a fire elemental nature.

I laughed loudly while we reached the upper deck and, for the first time since the whole ordeal with Yuu, actually took my time to peek at the outside. Right now we were at an extremely high altitude as we were crossing over the mountain range, and looking down on the whole range.

Despite the height, we didn’t feel cold nor anything, so I wondered whether the shield also protected us from the cold.

But the most important part of this whole scene.

“SNOW!” I shouted cheerfully while pointing downwards towards the white peaks and the white valley behind it. “OH MY CYGNAS, IT’S SNOW!”

“Why the hell are you so excited to see snow?” Hot head asked confused. “It’s cold, it gets into your shoes, it makes moving around difficult and it’s cold. What good is there to it?”

“You said it’s cold twice…”

“I know.”

“ANYWAY, IT’S BECAUSE IT’S FREAKING SNOW!” I said grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him back and forth. “I’VE ALWAYS DREAMED OF SEEING SNOW ALL MY LIFE!” I shouted at him point blank.

“Wha…” He became stunned by my excitement and took a step back. “Didn’t you live in Eldor? How come you’ve never seen snow before?”

“It’s because he’s only been at the capital for a couple of weeks.” We heard a voice telling us from the side. Turning, we saw as Yami and Hanbei approached us.

Hanbei had a conflicted look in her face, while Yami simply turned to me and covered her mouth as if hiding a laugh. I felt annoyed at her doing that and really wanted to teach her a lesson, but I didn’t exactly have the chance to do it.

“As she said, I’ve only been there for a short time and didn’t get to see the marvelous sight of snow falling down and covering the whole field with it’s white crystals of fluffy cold!” OH. MY. GOD! I just made the most amazing discovery ever! “SNOW IS FLUFFY COLD! IT’S PERFECT!”

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.” Hanbei said in monotone before sighing and looking back. “So, what exactly happened?” She said.

I followed her gaze only to see a pair of black tails popping up from the side of a wall. Smiling wryly at Yuu’s poor hiding skills, I told them about what happened back in the room after she finally woke up. The two became especially surprised when I mentioned Yuu’s new ‘Innocent Charm’ skill.

“She… Must be dying of embarrassment right now.” Hanbei said with a wry tone, and I smiled awkwardly in agreement. “Yuu has been raised as a proper girl during her whole life.” She started explaining. “For her, what she did must have way beyond what she considers proper and borderline indecent.”

“I don’t think it goes that far to be honest…” I said with a wry smile, but Yami simply shook her head.

“You don’t understand, perverted rock.” HEY! “Yuu-dono is worried that you may end up seeing her as a dirty girl after what she did and end up disliking her. Thus she have no idea on how to face you right now.”

“…I see, that makes sense.” I said with a nod. “Then maybe should I just go tell her that’s not the case?” I asked, but they shook their head in synch.

“That would only make things worse.” Yami said disappointed. “Why don’t you use your addiction to dating sims to know that it would be a bad idea?”

“You are mistaking this fanfiction with a certain manga, you know?” I said in a deadpan look. “Besides, I’ve never played dating sims before. My addiction is to Monster Hunter.”

“Still, it’s as she said.” Hanbei said sighing. “Yuu would think that you are pitying her and would get even more depressed. That’s just the way she is.”

“Gaah. This is so annoying!” I complained loudly. “As cute as the shy Yuu is, having her avoid me like that is bad for my heart, you know? Isn’t there anything I can do to solve this faster?”

“Just leave her alone for now until she settle down her own feelings.” We turned towards Ashley who had an exasperated expression on her face. “After she calms down she should come talk to you again. That’s the best thing you could do right now, and this may also help her recover faster if something similar happens in the future.”

The three of us stared at the fire elemental for some time in shock, not really expecting him to go and give such an honest advice on this matter. After recovering, me and Yami took a step towards him and put our hands on her shoulders.

“I ask for your forgiveness, Miss Ashley.” Yami said in a solemn tone. “You truly are a surprisingly good person at heart.”

“I knew I could count on you to help me, Rival!” I said cheerfully.

“WHO THE HELL IS A MISS AND WHO THE HELL IS YOUR RIVAL?” She shouted angrily while yanking her shoulders out from our hands. “Go to hell the two of you! I just wanted to close this matter so you could leave me alone!”

“A wild tsundere has appeared.” Yami said in a deadpan face, so me and Hanbei had to hold back our laughter.

“A wild who did what?” Hot-head asked confused.

“Nothing, don’t mind this stupid ero-maid.” I said while dragging Yami back before she let out another joke.

“You know what? Thank Cygnas that you will be stuck solving that whole boat problem.” Ashley told us with an angry tone. “This way I’ll be taking the first boat out from that city to get as far away from you as possible and never again meet you.”

“I’m afraid you are out of luck then, lass.” We all turned to the newcomer who said those words. The Gargoyle captain who, for some reason, carried a sad Lieutenant who was sitting dejectedly on his shoulder. “Here, I found your cat like this after your elemental shooed him and his booze from being near the kitsune.” He said while passing me the cat.

“Oh… So you’ve kept supplying alcohol to Yuu, is that it?” I asked coldly the cat, who flinched in surprise as I held him closely.

“NYA!! NYAA!! NYAA!!” he shouted in a half painful half laughing tone as I angrily grinded my fist on his skull. However, after squirming a bit he managed to get out from my grasps and jump towards Hanbei, who held him in surprise. Turning to me he shouted. “NY NYAA NANYAA!”

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN BY REGRETTING NOTHING YOU DAMNED FURBALL!” I said while trying to get him, but he kept moving around from person to person as I tried to grasp him.

While me and the cat kept on with our cartoonistic chase around the group, I heard as Ashley turned to the captain and asked in a confused tone.

“What do you mean by out of luck?”

“Ah, right.” Skarr said while clearing his throat to recover from his laughing fit. “You see, I just received a message from a friend in the city, but it seems that the sailors and undines have been finding the sea to be unsettling these days, so they are avoiding sailing for the time being.”

“WHAT?” Ashley asked in shock. “THEN I’LL HAVE TO DEAL WITH THAT GUY FOR EVEN LONGER?” He asked in an angry tone while pointing at me. I briefly stopped my chase to look at him and give my brightest smile.

“Aww, don’t say that! I know you actually like me!”

“…Go die.” He said while trying to kick me out of the ship.

With that it was a scene where I hunted Lieutenant and Hot-head hunted me.

“Anyway, I also sent a word that you want to sell the blimp, so you should get a meeting with the lord of the region as soon as we get there.” Skarr added with a wide smile.

“With a lord?” Hanbei said in shock before putting on a pensive face. “I don’t think I have the clothes to meet with someone of that caliber…”

“Fear not, milady!” Yami said suddenly while putting up a proud tone. “I have more than enough formal clothes that I’m one hundred percent sure that they will fit you!”

“…I’m not going to ask why you have that, but thanks Yami.” Hanbei said wryly, and seeing the slime lowering her head with an expectant look, she ended up patting the black slime girl.

But seriously, that girl just get scarier and scarier as a stalker. She even knows Hanbei’s size? Even that a bit too much?

No, wait. She IS a maid, so I guess this makes sense?

“Oh, no need to worry about that.” Skarr said while waving his hand. “It will be an informal meeting, and Wich doesn’t really care much for things like dress codes.”

Huh? I think I heard something strange just now?

“Wait… What is the lord’s name again?” Hanbei asked in a wry tone.

“Oh, right. You don’t know.” Skarr said while nodding. “He’s called Morrin Wichcrad. Also known as Lord Wich. A fine dwarf if I do say so myself… And cousin, why did you fall so suddenly?”

OH. MY. CYGNAS. I DID NOT HEAR THAT!

As I tried to hold back my laughter, I turned to look at Yami and Hanbei, both of whom were holding themselves back to not burst out into laughter. From afar, I could even see Yuu’s tail twitching for a moment.

So, I’m not wrong. The guy really is called Lord Wich?

THIS IS GOLDEN!

While I tried to recover myself under the confused gazes of Skarr and Ashley, Lieutenant approached me and grabbed my by the neck, swinging me back and forth with a confused look.

He was desperate that we clearly had just heard a joke, but he didn’t get it.

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Author's notes: I just couldn't pass up the chance to make this joke, could I?