With the misunderstanding cleared up, Sigrdrífa didn't plan to stay long. I had no need to become close friends with her—after all, we were just two strangers who happened to meet on the roads of Lemoria.
"Farewell."
"Take care."
But I never expected that in less than ten seconds, Sigrdrífa would come running back with a pale face.
"There are way too many people outside!"
Outside? Oh right, I forgot to tell Sigrdrífa that many adventurers gather in Rothschild, making it inconvenient to go out.
"Don't tell me you owe a lot of debt? Are they all creditors coming to collect?"
"No."
"Unable to repay your debts, you had no choice but to use your body to pay them back... Run quickly, there are at least a thousand of them, you'll be completely ruined."
"I told you it's not that!"
Getting a bit excited for a moment, I had wanted to quietly see Sigrdrífa off, but ended up disturbing Lily.
Lily quietly cracked open the door and called out to me softly.
"Sister Anna?"
"Sorry, Lily, I disturbed your rest."
Lily shook her head. Perhaps realizing that Sigrdrífa wasn't some fierce old hag, Lily boldly came out.
"Is she Sister Anna's friend?"
"No, no, she's... wait, why are you blushing?"
I protectively moved Lily behind me. Seeing Lily in her Lolita dress, Sigrdrífa suddenly had a dangerous expression like her cute points had been hit. If I hadn't stopped her, she might have rushed over to hug and snuggle with Lily.
"Ahem... Your daughter—no, your little sister is quite cute. I almost didn't recognize her with clothes on."
"Please stop your vulgar behavior!"
"We elves are the purest race on the continent, we would never speak vulgarly."
"Right, I remember elves are the virtuous race that must pray to the nature goddess even for reproductive activities between spouses, and won't do it without permission... but you're nothing like that."
Really?
Sigrdrífa seemed quite surprised. She probably wanted to say that although I often blurt out strange lines without thinking and know about turtle shell bondage and restraint play, deep down I know I'm a pure-hearted good elf?
Lily's eyes lit up.
"Eh? Big sister is an elf?"
"The nature goddess bestowed upon me the name Sigrdrífa, of the noble moon elf lineage."
Sigrdrífa tossed her silver hair, revealing her pointed ears—the most distinctive feature of the elven race, which they take great pride in.
"Your sister and I are... uh, our relationship...? I was put into humiliating positions by your sister and had my body toyed with—that's the kind of relationship we have."
"Don't make me sound like a scumbag who played with your feelings!"
"She's Sister Anna's friend, right?"
How exactly is Lily interpreting this? There's really no relationship to speak of between Sigrdrífa and me.
Left with no choice, I quickly pulled the frantically befriending Sigrdrífa aside and slammed her against the wall with a kabedon. However, due to my pitiful height of 160cm, Sigrdrífa was slightly taller than me, making me look rather unimposing instead.
"My patience has limits too, please know when to stop."
"There are so many adventurers surrounding the place outside, I can't get out, can I?"
I replied with a fake smile: "I can help you leave with spatial transfer."
"That sounds dangerous."
"If you're unfortunate enough to meet the nature goddess, I'll spend 0.1 seconds each year on this day to solemnly mourn you."
"Mmm. Alright, I admit the more I think about it, the more I feel I should stay."
Sigrdrífa raised both hands and helplessly chose to surrender.
"I think the nature goddess must have given me a revelation. Besides, I took the sacred beast's remains from you, and somehow I can't help feeling guilty about it."
"You're the one who wanted to recover the sacred beast's remains."
"Of course I know that. If you were a bad human who desecrated sacred beasts, I wouldn't hesitate to recover the remains, but now I feel like I should stay and do something. You..."
Sigrdrífa deliberately lowered her voice.
"You care deeply for that child, so you must understand the consequences if it really is that possibility."
"............"
"She has many injuries that a child shouldn't have. What exactly happened?"
"...I don't know."
Only after speaking did I realize my tone had softened considerably.
"But I won't abandon Lily."
Sigrdrífa looked at me with a smile, and I knew I no longer had any reason to continue refusing her.
I turned my head away, making futile resistance very reluctantly: "I have to deal with the adventurers who visit every day, I don't have time to keep you company."
"I'll find something to do, I won't freeload."
Looking on the bright side, at least while I'm dealing with adventurers, Lily will have someone to chat with and won't be bored.
I released my kabedon grip on Sigrdrífa, tacitly allowing her to stay temporarily. As long as she wouldn't harm Lily, I didn't mind having more voices in the house.
Children are always curious about unknown things. Lily had seen elves before but had never communicated directly with one. Probably for this reason, Sigrdrífa quickly became familiar with Lily, even happily deciding to help me prepare lunch together.
I insisted that I, with my cooking at Lv. Max, should be in charge, and that Lily's injuries hadn't fully healed yet, so she couldn't overexert herself.
After getting Sigrdrífa's promise not to let Lily overdo anything, I could finally feel somewhat at ease while going to greet the noisy adventurers outside.