“Pft! Did you climb the Himalayas or something?”

As soon as I returned, Loretta greeted me with a snicker. I had no idea how Loretta knew about the Himalayas on earth. Regardless, I sullenly turned my back to her.

I grumbled, “I’m going.”

“Ah, wait! I’m sorry, wait! I’ll wipe your hair!”

Loretta quickly took out a towel, took off my hood, and wiped my hair that was hanging like icicles off the eaves. In the process, her body naturally came closer to my own. In order to ignore the flowery fragrance tickling my nose, I frantically sang the national anthem in my head.

“Whew…There, all done.”

After she finished wiping my head, Loretta backed off with a slightly flushed face. Her breathing was a bit rough too. Was she normally that sedentary that this much exercise would make her gasp for breath…? She seemed to hesitate and then asked me carefully, “Y-You’ll catch a cold…Would you like to come in? You’ll feel better once you take a warm bath. I can get you a change of clothes.”

“Uh…That’s…” I stammered.

Something felt strange. Although I couldn’t explain it, I felt like I shouldn’t go along with her suggestion. Even though there couldn’t be anything dangerous in her house, I instinctively knew that my body was in danger. I shook my head with that odd feeling that something I had been protecting would likely be lost.

“No, I’m fine. I might as well take this opportunity to check out my house. I’ll return to the dungeon afterwards.”

“It can’t...