After we'd rested a bit following the defeat of the black slime—me, Eve, and Syl'Vyr rested and decided to leave the dungeon. It took us only two hours to find the spot that quickly expelled us to floor 1.

It was strange. I felt as if someone had kicked me out of a room out of nowhere, and we appeared in some random place on floor 1, which was good since it worked.

And as we were leaving, we found some blood, and Syl'Vyr said it was Darian's, which is a good sign. It means he managed to get out of the dungeon and will probably survive. So I followed the path to the guild with a smile.

And now I'm here, standing in front of the guild to report what we accomplished. My guild card, for example, shows that we reached the 45th floor, which is great. This will move us up a rank from novice adventurers.

"...So nervous..." I murmur in front of the door. Before coming here, I waited and asked Eve to fetch our masks, and she went. So now that she's back, I put on my mask and she put on hers.

"Evelyn-chan, this mask is beautiful. Eve's is beautiful too," Syl'Vyr says, looking at my mask with a smile.

"Thank you... now let's go inside!" I say, opening the guild door and entering, and I immediately see Yoruhime, which makes me go to her area since I know her and prefer to talk to her.

"Hi Yoruhime, it's me, Evelyn! I'm back! And I have a new companion!" I say as I reach her. She looks at Syl'Vyr for a long moment before looking back at me.

"Evelyn, I see you've returned... I thought you had died. Novices usually don't come back, but you survived for just over a month in a dungeon," she says, mentioning a timeframe that surprises me.

'Over a month? Seriously?' I'm astonished. I didn't think that much time had passed. It's more than I thought; I figured three weeks at most, even though I was prepared to be there longer.

'It makes sense... we went very deep, and some floors didn't have a day/night cycle.' We spent a good amount of time there, so even our evolution, with Eve getting stronger, wasn't as fast as I had hoped.

"W-Well, we have things to sell, and we also reached the 45th floor of that dungeon, see..." I was about to say more, but Yoruhime pulls out a paper and hands it to me, interrupting me.

"What is this? Some kind of reward and... and... THAT SON OF A BITCH!!" I yell, crumpling the paper. It's a fine for 7,000 gold coins for "theft" from another adventurer.

"I saved his life!! I should have left that fucker there without help!" I say, stomping my foot on the ground several times in anger. How dare he fine me when I saved his life?

"You were lucky," Yoruhime interrupts my angry outburst.

"He didn't request recovery of the 'stolen' item, and he didn't request punishment. He only asked for a 'fair' amount in coins, and considering you saved that adventurer's life, the guild will not put this incident on your record," Yoruhime says with a smile as I angrily squeeze the papers.

'Damn him!!' If someone had found him in that situation, they could have just waited for him to die and looted the body, or even killed him to rob him. Meanwhile, I helped him and only asked for the storage ring in return—he even gave it, it wasn't even theft!

Okay, maybe I kinda extorted him by asking for the ring as compensation, but still, I never robbed him! I'm not a thief!

'This is what you get for trying to be nice.' Now I've lost 7,000 gold coins that I don't even have. At least the storage ring is worth much more than that. I look at Yoruhime, who just stares back, waiting.

"T-Take... the... 7,000 coins from my payment... I'll sell what I managed to get..." I say, starting to take the items out of the storage ring and handing them to her. She begins moving them into a box that is some kind of artifact.

There are several weak monster cores and the black slime's core, along with some materials. As soon as I give everything, I wait calmly to see the payment.

"Well... the relic here shows your payment will be... 21,000 gold coins. Minus 7,000 leaves 14,000 gold coins for you," she says, jotting things down on a paper.

'14,000... in the modern world, that would be equivalent to 1 million 400 thousand dollars...' I feel that unpleasant sensation that money in this world has a disagreeably more symbolic value.

After all, 14,000 gold coins is almost nothing in this world; I can't even buy a slave with that if I tried.

'Well, it should be enough for clothes, a sword for Eve, and a relic for Syl'Vyr...' I look at Yoruhime, who is about to go get the money.

"Yoruhime, you don't need to give me the money now. I'm going to go open a bank account for myself immediately. You can just deposit it there; I'll use my guild card as a reference," I say, stopping her. I don't want to carry so many gold coins with me.

In this world, people don't usually pay for things directly with coins most of the time. After all, some things are worth piles or mountains of coins. They only use coins for things of lesser value, or when using a coin of immense value.

Like the Dadyon coin or the Cryan Obsidian coin, since those two coins have absurd values, and just a few of them can pay for a lot. But with silver, gold, and platinum coins, the quantity needed is so large that it becomes impractical to use the actual coins for expensive purchases.

That's why there's a "bank." They generate a card with magical registration that shows all the money you have deposited there. It's similar to a debit card, but the difference is that this card can only be used by the owner because of the magic, which is unique and only works with the owner's magic.

These cards obviously have nothing technological about them; it's all magical. Shops and such have a relic that registers purchases and "deducts" the value recorded on the card as payment.

It's a whole complex system that always leads back to the bank. I guess the biggest difference from the modern world is that the bank in this case belongs to the kingdom itself, so all the money in the bank actually belongs to my father, the Demon King, and is connected to the royal treasury.

So when we put money in the "bank," we're actually sending money to the castle treasury. But of course, it's a different vault. The kingdom's personal treasury has an ultra-secure vault that very few have access to.

Whereas the treasury vault used for bank money has less strict access, although it still has insane security.

"Okay then. We'll keep that pending review, and when your personal account is available, we'll send the notification to the bank. That should take one day after your bank registration," she says with a smile.

"Ah, yes... Yoruhime, about this fine... did the bastard who filed it get back here okay?" I ask, still slightly worried, even though slapping a fine on me is pure bullshit considering I saved his life.

"He wasn't in very good shape, but he's receiving treatments now and will survive. It was quite brave of you to stop and save a stranger," she praises with a smile on her face.

"Hahahaha, you know how it is, right? That weakling couldn't even handle a problem and needed help! That's what you get for sending unprepared people into the dungeon," I say all snooty with a smile that can't be seen because of the mask.

"Well, congratulations on your achievement. A novice reaching the 45th floor is surprising, though not unheard of," she says, making me curious.

"What's the farthest floor a novice has ever reached?" I ask curiously.

"104." As soon as she says it, I shudder, completely shocked by that absurd number.

'That's literally a place only Rank A can reach!! And depending on the dungeon, that's actually Rank S or higher!!' In the dungeon I went to, floor 104 was a place for Rank A.

But in other dungeons, 104 is a floor for Rank S, or even worse, depending on the type of monster and magic the monsters have.

"T-That novice is impressive... o-of course, not as much as me, who saved an injured person and returned without a single wound on me!" I say, trying to big up my own feat.

"Hmmm, that novice also saved a few teams on the way, and also returned without any wounds," she says, shattering all my merit.

"Ghhh!!! That is... I'm leaving!!" I turn around, trying to leave after being shot down.

"You still need to file a report. And there's this other girl here by your side; she's part of your team, right? And she seems to be the same case as Eve," Yoruhime says, stopping me in my tracks.

"Y-Yes... Y-Yoruhime, how much would it be... to register Syl'Vyr as an official member of the group and..."

"8 million gold coins. She is of the beast-man race. Unlike Eve here, who can be considered a demon, that girl there is a wolf, not a demon. So the cost is higher," she says while I turn white as snow.

"E-EIGHT MILLION?!" I yell, totally shocked by such an absurd amount. I quickly look around, seeing the stares because of my shout, and I lean closer to Yoruhime, signaling for her to come nearer.

She also looks around like I did and leans in as I get close to her ear.

"B-By any chance, in the case of Syl'Vyr being a Group Pet like Eve... do I get an exemption?" I ask nervously.

"Ara ara, Evelyn, you're such a naughty girl. Two at once in the same group? Hmmm, in that case, it will be only 1000 gold coins," she says with a little smile, blushing as she puts a hand on her cheek and tilts her head.

'D-Dammit, m-my reputation!! B-But my money!!' A hard blow to money I don't even have. I'd rather be seen as the girl who has two "stress-relief partners" on her team than go bankrupt with debts I can't pay.

"H-Hahaha, yeah... she... s-she's like Eve... h-hahaha..." I end up destroying my reputation even further.

"Okay, I'll prepare the paperwork for your 'Second pet.' Wait a moment... By the way, if you're looking for whores, I think a brothel would be cheaper, hihihi," she says with a giggle as she leaves. I just look at Syl'Vyr, who doesn't understand, and at Eve, who averts her gaze.

"I-I'm not a pervert..." I murmur angrily. I don't have the money, so this is my only option. It's not fair!! The universe just loves to humiliate me!! Syl'Vyr isn't a girl who sexually relieves the team's lust!! She's a mage! But there's no way I can pay to register her as a mage!!!

The worst part is how this shatters my image. In this world, where demons mostly prefer monogamy, having only one partner—especially among nobles—having the stigma of having multiple partners is bad if you're not a succubus.

Even though me, Eve, and Syl'Vyr don't even have that kind of carnal relationship, it doesn't matter. To others, seeing that both are "team pets" makes my image decay considerably, and as a noble, it's even more humiliating than if I were a commoner.

It's not like it's an absolute rule; some demons, though rare, have concubines or lovers. But the thing is, I'm not married, so having random partners like this "lowers" my value in the eyes of others.

Whereas if I were married, my value would be "stagnant" to a certain extent, as long as I wasn't too obvious about what I do—though, even married, it would still stain my reputation.

'I-I wanna die so bad!! The stares!! I feel the stares!! I'm not a depraved person!! Don't look at me like I'm some decadent noble sinking into lust!!' I want to disappear and forget all of this.

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