Phew, nealy didn't wrote it.
//
"Luki-san?" Eina called out, her green eyes widening in absolute shock behind her glasses.
"Eina-san!" Luki beamed.
Without warning, Luki stepped forward and threw his arms around her in an exaggerated, overwhelming hug, lifting her slightly off the ground.
"By the gods, it feels like it's been an eternity since I last saw you!" he exclaimed, his voice thick with genuine emotion.
Eina froze entirely, her arms locked rigidly at her sides while her heart hammered against her ribs. Slowly and hesitantly, her stiff muscles began to relax and she managed to return the embrace for a brief second.
But suddenly, reality crashed into her mind. Eina gasped and abruptly pushed herself away from him taking a sharp step backward.
Her hands trembled as she pointed a finger at him, her voice rising in a slightly hysterical tone.
"Wait... No! Is it really you, Luki-san?! This... this is impossible!"
Luki let out a soft, amused chuckle, scratching the back of his head.
"Eina-san, do you really not recognize me after just a few months? My heart hurts."
Eina stood there jaw-dropped, completely frozen and unable to find her words. She was profoundly confused and shaken. The man standing in front of her was nothing like the boy she used to know. He was taller, vastly stronger, and above all, much stranger.
'What kind of madness is this? Blue hair? Are those wings?! I must be losing my mind! Did I mistake him for someone else? No... but that face is definitely his. And that voice, the way he speaks... it is him.'
The overwhelming realization finally broke through her confusion, washing away all her doubts with a wave of pure emotion. Her eyes welled up with tears.
"It really is you..." she cried out.
Before Luki could say another word, Eina threw all her professional composure aside and leaped forward, jumping straight into his arms for a desperate, tight embrace.
"Luki-san! You are alive! You are really alive!"
Luki wrapped his arms back around her, holding her tightly for a few long moments until Eina slowly began to regain her senses. Pulling back slightly, the words poured out of her in a frantic rush.
"Luki-san, what happened to you? Where have you been? And what are those things on your-"
"Eina-san, it might be better if we take this somewhere else. There are too many eyes on us." Luki interrupted softly, gesturing casually with his head.
Eina looked around and noticed dozens of curious shoppers staring at them. Blushing deeply, she immediately broke free, frantically fixing her uniform and stammering unintelligible words while adjusting her glasses.
Luki laughed, gave her shoulder a playful nudge with his fist, and smiled. "Come on, Eina-san. Let's walk."
...
A short while later, they were walking down a much quieter side street. Luki was effortlessly carrying several heavy cloth sacks filled with market supplies.
"Luki-san, you really didn't need to carry my things," Eina said, still a bit embarrassed.
He shrugged with a carefree smile.
"Don't worry about it, Eina-san. I am the one with a God's blessing here. Besides, this is nothing."
A quiet stillness settled between them. Luki strolled with complete relaxation, while Eina walked by his side, stealing nervous glances at him every few seconds.
"Go ahead," Luki broke the silence, looking down at her. "You can start."
"Uhm?" Eina blinked, caught off guard.
"You can ask your questions now," Luki said with a chuckle. "I bet you have a ton of them."
"No, I..." Eina looked away, adjusting her glasses. "Although I am quite... curious, it is not my place as a Guild clerk and mere advisor to pry into your personal life like this."
Luki waved his hand dismissively.
"Come on, Eina-san, it's not that serious. We are friends. You can ask me anything you want."
"Friends..." Eina murmured softly, repeating the word to herself as a strange warmth touched her heart.
She pushed her glasses up her nose and took a breath. "Alright. What... what happened to you? These... things?" She pointed subtly toward his head.
"Ah, these? To be honest, I don't really know either. I just woke up like this. It's probably the effect of some new Skill of mine, but I haven't checked my Falna yet. I decided to leave it and all that adventurer stuff aside for a while."
"Are they... real wings?" Eina asked hesitantly, her eyes locked on them. "Can you actually fly, or...?"
"Maybe, more yes than no," Luki replied thoughtfully. "It's not like I've actively tried since I got back, but I remember doing it when I wasn't completely sane, though they looked different at the time."
He tilted his head slightly, a brief memory of that chaotic period flashing through his mind.
When he turned blue, he had woken up with all these small wings and definitely flew with them, but he had been heavily empowered by that magical surge back then so he can't be certain. There was even a moment when the small wings grew, and a much larger pair erupted from his back to make him faster.
"But I can hear with them," Luki added casually.
"What?!" Eina gasped, stopping in her tracks.
"Unh-huh! Look here, no ears." He leaned his head sideways toward her.
Eina leaned back a bit, caught off guard by his sudden closeness, but her curiosity took over. She focused on the side of his head and gasped softly. He really didn't have any external ears.
"How is that even possible...?" she whispered.
"I'm not entirely sure," Luki answered, resuming his easy stride. "I guess my body just adapted to be this way, or there's some inexplicable magic involved. Both sound pretty plausible to me."
Instinctively, Eina raised her hand toward his head, drawn by pure fascination. But as soon as her fingers entered her own field of vision, she froze. Realizing what she was doing, she quickly snapped her hand back, gripping her own wrist as if scolding herself.
Luki noticed and smiled. "What's wrong? Do you want to touch them?" As if announcing their presence, the wings on his head gave a soft, rhythmic flutter.
"No! I mean... ah..." Eina stammered, her face turning pink.
"It's fine, go ahead," Luki reassured her, his voice softening. "Just be gentle, they are really sensitive."
He stopped walking, turned to face her fully, and leaned down to bring his head right to her eye level.
Eina stared at his smiling, relaxed face. He looked so entirely unbothered, as if leaning down to let a woman inspect his body in the middle of a street was the most normal thing in the world.
She knew she shouldn't do this. Examining someone's "ears" like this was highly irregular. In fact, shouldn't touching another person this way considered incredibly intimate or she is overthinking?
Beign part elf and never truly lived among her other kin, Eina wasn't as strictly averse to touch, physical interaction, or showing skin as full elves were. However, excluding the reckless adventurers whose constant brush with death gave them a completely unbothered mindset, ordinary women of this era were raised to be far more reserved and modest around members of the opposite sex.
For all its divine intervention and magical advancements, Orario's societal norms still closely mirrored those of a late Renaissance culture, or very close to it, highly evolved in trade and structure, yet deeply conservative regarding public affection and gender boundaries.
Luki, however, came from a modern, progressive world. In his past life, people openly fought for their freedom of expression, and casual intimacy was common.
The kind of crude jokes, bold flirting or uninhibited banter he used to hear would be scandalous enough to get someone in jail for public indecency in this time period. To him, this was just a harmless, friendly interaction.
But as the seconds ticked by, Eina's curiosity grew too powerful to suppress. Those small wings looked so impossibly soft, fluffy, and inviting. She wanted to touch them. Just a single, brief brush of her fingers...
Before she could fully process her own actions, her professional restraint crumbled. Eina stepped closer and gently cupped Luki's face with both hands, her fingers lightly brushing against the longest, outermost feathers of his wings.
The feathers felt exactly like compressed cotton between her fingers, an soft blend of baby blue and pure white. Eina's thumbs traced up along the base, feeling the delicate, flexible bone structure, the central shaft that held the wings together. It was covered in a layer of skin so fine and warm it felt like velvet.
Fascinated, she gently slid her fingers through the plumage, lightly parting the feathers and testing their weight, amazed by how weightless yet structured they were. Her hands shifted, cupping the wings entirely and giving them a soft, testing wiggle to see how they moved.
"So," Luki spoke up, his deep voice vibrating right under her palms. "How does it feel?"
"It's... incredible," Eina murmured dreamily, completely lost in the sensation, her professional walls totally gone. "They are so fluffy and confy. Like holding a cloud..."
"Cool... because every time your fingers scrape against the base, it feels like someone shoved a blown-out speaker playing max-volume static directly into my eardrum~"
Eina froze. The bizarre words snapped her right out of her trance. Her eyes went wide, and she ripped her hands away from his face as if she had just been burned, taking three frantic steps back.
"I-I am so sorry!" she wailed, her face exploding into a violent, burning crimson. "Luki-san! I didn't mean to hurt you! I was just- I completely lost my boundary, I shouldn't have-"
"Hey, calm down, it's fine," Luki laughed heartily, waving his hands to soothe her. "I exaggerated a little bit, it's not that loud. But the noise really does sound exactly like a bad signal interference. Though... you probably have no idea what that means anyway."
Luki rubbed the side of his face aggressively against his shoulder, trying to soothe the lingering discomfort. It wasn't that he minded the touch, but having his feathers ruffled was genuinely irritating, much like a bird needing to preen and realign its plumage after it gets messed up.
Watching him, Eina slowly calmed down. Realizing he truly wasn't upset, she placed a hand over her chest, feeling her racing heart gradually steady.
Naturally, they resumed walking and talking. Eina hesitantly asked about his time deep inside the Dungeon and how he had survived. She confessed that everyone believed he was dead, and that Hestia was the only one in denial, saying he was still alive.
Luki avoided the gritty, traumatic details, but he answered each of her questions honestly. However, when he casually mentioned the part where he literally died and came back to life, Eina completely lost her composure.
"You what?!" she shrieked right in the middle of the street.
Her voice was so high and hysterical that people a block away probably heard her. Luki immediately winced and recoiled, keeping his mouth shut, knowing he had no right to defend himself after dropping such a bomb.
Once she managed to breathe and regain her senses, they continued. Luki explained the final battle, waking up in his new altered form, and his eventual return to the surface. He also casually mentioned his relationship status and Eina felt a strange, subtle feeling upon hearing that he now had not one, but two romantic partners, throwing a judging glare at him.
Still, she chose to ignore it, letting it bury itself under the weight of their long conversation.
Finally, they reached their destination.
"We're here," Eina said, stopping in front of her building. "You can leave them here, I'll carry them upstairs."
"Nice place," Luki commented, smiling as he gently set the heavy grocery bags down next to her door.
"Actually, this is my parents' house," Eina corrected gently.
"You still live with your parents at your age?" Luki teased.
"I don't have much of a choice," Eina sighed, crossing her arms. "A receptionist's base salary isn't that high, and I don't get performance bonuses because none of my advisees are doing particularly well..." She shot him a piercing, pointed glare.
Luki quickly looked away, suddenly feeling guilty. He hadn't realized that Guild advisors received bonuses based on their adventurers' success. No wonder she had been so eager to be his official advisor from day one.
Since now he was likely the strongest yet most troublesome adventurer on her roster, he mentally noted that he really owed her a trip back to the Dungeon sometime.
"But things are changing," Eina continued, her expression softening. "I've been saving up for my own place. It will take some time, but I'll get there."
As she spoke, she subconsciously shrugged her shoulders as if feeling a brief phantom discomfort in her upper back. Luki was currently suppressing his sharp senses to relax, but if he hadn't been, he would have noticed something hidden beneath her clothes, a faint shape on her back that was incredibly... Familiar.
"Well, if you ever need anything, just call me," Luki said warmly, adjusting his own bags. "I'm staying at the Hostess of Fertility. Just ask around and you'll find me."
A heavy, hesitant silence fell between them. Eina stepped forward, clearly reluctant to let the moment end, and wrapped her arms around him for another tight embrace. Luki held her back gently, whispering a soft goodbye before they parted.
He turned and began to walk down the quiet street with his groceries, while Eina remained frozen by the door, watching his retreating figure.
Holding her own elbows as if trying to preserve his warmth, she murmured to herself, "He really changed so much... and not just his appearance."
A sudden flash of memory crossed her mind, contrasting the image of the slender, smiling elf boy she used to counsel with the towering, masculine man with blue hair and wing-ears who possessed that exact same cheerful smile.
A soft, affectionate smile touched her lips. "But in the end, he is still the same Luki-san..."
Leaning down, Eina picked up her heavy grocery bags and pushed the front door open, calling out into the hallway, "Mom, Dad, I'm home!"
...
Luki stepped back into the Hostess of Fertility, raising his voice to announce his return. The first thing that caught his eye was Lunoire, standing precariously on a stepladder while vigorously scrubbing the ceiling.
"Hey, Lunoire. Hard at work, I see," Luki called out as he walked over to the kitchen counter, setting down the heavy grocery bags.
"It's fine, my shoulders get a bit tired, but it's nothing I can't handle." Lunoire replied, wiping her sweat-drenched brow with the back of her arm.
Luki stopped at the base of the ladder, looking up at her. Lunoire was a mess; her usual green waitress uniform was thoroughly soaked and clinging to her skin. Her eyes were squeezed half-shut to keep out the stray water droplets, which didn't help much since soapy, grimy water from the ceiling kept dripping on her.
"What are you staring at?" Lunoire snapped, noticing his gaze.
"Nothing much," Luki grinned. "Just appreciating someone else's misfortune."
"Ha-ha! Vert funny..."
'Actually, this might be the perfect time to test something,' Luki thought, his mind drifting back to his conversation with Eina about his wings.
Without another word, Luki bolted toward the back room and vanished. Lunoire stared after him for a second, shrugged, and turned back to the ceiling.
She drove her stiff brush against the wooden planks, which had turned an entirely different color after months of neglected maintenance.
'This really needs a fresh coat of paint and some varnish...' she mused.
Flap! Flap! Flap!
Suddenly, a dry cloth pressed against Lunoire's face, catching her completely off guard. Blinking the soap away, she looked dow- foward and gasped.
Luki was hovering directly in front of her, suspended in mid-air, with his arm extended toward her holding the rag.
"Luki-san?! You can fly?!" she shrieked.
"Hahaha! Pretty cool, right? First time trying it out." Luki laughed, though his eyes were completely locked onto his own limbs, his focus rigid.
His posture in the air was far from graceful. Because his small wings were located on his temples, wrists, and ankles, he had to keep his legs spread wide apart for balance. He swayed slightly from side to side, his small wings beating in a chaotic, frantic rhythm to keep his massive frame airborne.
Then, without any ceremony, Luki stretched his arm out again and forcefully rubbed the cloth all over Lunoire's wet, dirty face to clean her up.
Lunoire blinked, surprised. "Uh... thanks."
"Don't mention it," Luki replied. "Actually..."
Without waiting, he snatched the scrub brush straight out of her hand and backed away in the air with a few sharp, calculated flaps of his wings. He hovered for a moment, taking a deep breath to concentrate.
Once he felt ready, he leaned backward, shifting his entire posture and forcing his wings to beat even faster until he stabilized.
Now, he was completely horizontal, floating face-up as the wings on his head and ankles held him aloft.
Moving slowly to avoid breaking his fragile balance, Luki raised the brush and began to scrub the ceiling with intense vigor, working much faster than the already exhausted Lunoire.
"I've got this covered, go take care of something else."
Lunoire let out a low whistle, stepping down from the ladder. "Careful there, Luki-san. Mama Mia might just make you the permanent ceiling cleaner if she catches you doing that."
"No way," Luki chuckled, not breaking his rhythm. "Besides, this is perfect practice for me to get used to flying and controlling these things."
Suddenly, the front door of the tavern swung open. Hestia and Lili walked inside, carrying two empty canvas sacks.
"My back is absolutely killing me..." Lili groaned, rubbing her lower spine.
"It's always like that for the first few days, Lili!" Hestia countered encouragingly. "You'll get used to it soon."
"I suppose so," Lili sighed. "Compared to how things used to be, having a steady job here is definitely a blessing."
As they stepped further into the room, both of them froze. Standing right beneath the rafters, a certain blue-haired man was casually scrubbing away at the wood, looking down at them with a smug grin as if he had been waiting the entire time to be noticed.
Luki let out a hearty laugh. "Took you long enough! I thought you'd never look up."
Hestia and Lili stared at him jaw-dropped, completely paralyzed for a long, silent moment. Then, in perfect unison, their expressions shifted.
Their brows furrowed as they realized what was happening. They exchanged a sharp, competitive glance, their faces turning dead serious as if they were about to engage in the battle of the century.
"I'm going first!" Hestia shrieked.
"No, Lili should be first!" Lili yelled right back.
"I'm your Goddess, I must go first!"
"You already had his first time! This one is mine"
Before Luki could even react, both of them bolted forward and leaped into the air. Hestia jumped with all her might, while Lili used the stepladder to launch herself like a rocket, both of them throwing their arms out to tackle Luki in mid-air.
"Wait! Hold on! Stop!" Luki shouted, his frantic wingbeats instantly failing under the sudden, combined weight of two highly affectionate girls clinging to his torso.
The balance shattered instantly. With a loud yell, all three of them went crashing straight down to the wooden floor in a clumsy, tangled heap.
CRASH!
Hearing the massive racket, Anya and Chloe poked their heads over the second-floor railing. At the exact same time, Ryu and Mia marched out from the back kitchen.
They all stopped, taking in the sight of Luki, Hestia, and Lili completely intertwined on the floor, groaning in mutual pain and tangled limbs.
Mia let out a heavy, exasperated sigh. "For God's sake... get a room, you three."
The entire tavern erupted into a wave of roaring laughter.