Chapter 34: If You’ve Turned Back into a Man… Does That Mean You Did It with a Guy?

"You can go through!"

Kid declared to Kazui and Yuri.

"Use the lift at the front. The others are being used by the repair crews."

"Understood."

After answering Kid, Kazui and Yuri approached the first floating pier.

Several iron towers rose upward from the deck of the floating pier — a giant dull-gray rectangular structure.

The floating pier had matched the height of its own deck to that of the Black Maiden’s deck. On the side not alongside the Black Maiden, it was equipped with multiple lifts that looked like giant metal plates placed on the forks of a forklift.

Using the floating pier’s lifts, a moored terrestrial ship could load and unload cargo and people. Most of the lifts were large ones for transporting containers, but there were also small lifts for humans.

Kazui and Yuri boarded the small human-use lift that was closest to them. It was a large tray-like lift fitted with simple handrails and a control panel.

The control panel was simple, with only up and down buttons, so there was no confusion about how to operate it. Magic-powered lifts and elevators also existed on places such as Aquila’s walls, so Kazui had experience operating them.

When Kazui pressed the button, the lift made a noise and vibrated as it slowly began to rise. The scenery on the ground gradually grew smaller.

Before long the lift reached the top and stopped with a severe jolt. The shaking was strong enough that they might have fallen if they had not been holding the handrails, so both Kazui and Yuri got off the lift looking a little flustered.

Having set foot on the roof — that is, the deck — of the first floating pier, the two of them headed toward the Black Maiden’s deck. Several bridges had been laid between the two decks, allowing passage back and forth.

Crossing one of the bridges, Kazui and Yuri moved onto the Black Maiden. On the black deck, numerous deck chairs and parasols were lined up as if it were a beach or a poolside.

About half of the deck chairs were occupied by more than a dozen women. Many of them, like Ebony and Ivory, were wearing only swimsuits on their upper bodies because they were sitting in the deck chairs and enjoying sunbathing.

"Boys! Both of them are cute!"

"The kid who got attacked by a succubus, and a Leona!"

Seeing Kazui and Yuri, the women grew noisy. The ones on the deck were female adventurers belonging to Iron Maiden.

Being stared at by the women, the inexperienced-with-women Kazui felt embarrassed.

"Over here, over here!"

Ebony’s voice came from the forward section of the port side. Ebony and Ivory had been enjoying sunbathing in deck chairs placed toward the front of the port side.

Kazui and Yuri walked at a quick pace toward where Ebony and Ivory were. Before long they arrived in front of the two sitting in the deck chairs.

The deck chair on the left (from their perspective) was occupied by Ebony, and the one on the right by Ivory.

(I don’t know where to look...)

Both Ebony and Ivory were dressed in bikini tops, denim short shorts, and sandals. The colors of the bikini tops differed — Ebony’s was blue and Ivory’s was black.

Both of them were in sexy outfits with a lot of exposed skin, so Kazui found himself unsure where to look. Of course, the same was true for Yuri.

"This isn’t exactly the first time we’ve met, but since we couldn’t introduce ourselves properly yesterday, let me do it again."

After that preface, Kazui continued.

"I’m Kazui Kazue, an adventurer working in Aquila. Please call me Kazu."

Next, Ebony introduced herself.

"I’m Ebony. I work as an adventurer in Iron Maiden."

(She says "ore"... Well, it suits her.)

Hearing Ebony’s first-person pronoun, Kazui muttered in his heart. Women using masculine first-person pronouns were not particularly rare in this world, so he did not especially mind.

Following Ebony, Ivory opened her mouth.

"I’m Ivory. Also an adventurer of Iron Maiden."

Finally, Yuri began his self-introduction.

"I already introduced myself yesterday... but yesterday I was a Leona. I’m Yuri Shido... Yuri is fine."

Yuri had already introduced himself as Yuri to Ebony and Ivory the previous day and had also received their introductions. However, since this was the first time they were meeting him in male form, he introduced himself just in case.

During yesterday’s introductions, Yuri had already told Ebony and Ivory about Leonization. Ivory, who possessed high-level appraisal-type skills and was knowledgeable about special skills, had noticed when treating him that he had been using Leonization.

Ebony and Ivory did not doubt that the feminized Yuri and the one standing before them now were the same person. They had already heard the explanation, and Yuri’s face did not change that much when feminized.

"If you’ve turned back into a man... does that mean you did it with a guy?"

Ebony asked Yuri with clear interest. She had heard the details of what kind of skill Leonization was from Ivory.

Therefore, seeing Yuri already returned to male form, Ebony became interested in whether he had experienced it with a man.

"Eh? That’s... um..."

Yuri showed obvious agitation and hesitated in his answer.

"That’s not the kind of thing you should ask!"

Ivory scolded her tactless partner.