The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter

The plan to make the Stalgia family rich, which was to open up our own store, the Rare Shop-Stalgia seemed like it won’t be happening any time soon. My father was doing his best to secure a plot so it shouldn’t be that far off from now.

I’ve gotta collect more materials and rare items for that too. Anyway, I have bigger problems at the moment. What should I wear for tonight?

「Father, do you have clothes fit for high society?」

Emma was going to a party tonight and I’m her escort. I wasn’t really feeling up to it since I doubted they’d treat a son of a quasi-baron well, but I promised her I would come. I’ve never really gone much to these kinds of events so I didn’t have anything to wear.

「I might have one. It’s quite shabby though.」

The size seemed okay so I borrowed it. It was a black suit, though a bit dirty. It smelled funky as well.

「Father, how long has it been since you last wore this?」

「I wore it a few years ago and spilled booze on it. Then I just left it sitting somewhere.」

「I’m going out to buy a new one…」

Wearing this was out of the question so I decided to buy a new one instead. There was still plenty of time till the party. After a stroll, I met up with Emma.

「Morning~!」

The moment Emma saw me, she rushed over, breasts swaying as she ran. Thank heavens. She seems to be in a good mood today.

「Morning, Emma. I didn’t have any good clothes to wear.」

「Then let’s go shopping. I’ll pick one out for you.」

「That would be great.」

We went to a high class store that served nobles located near the nobles’ district. The signboard on the entrance had the store’s name on it and a line that went “We don’t serve uncultured people.” I can’t believe their business is doing good like this.

There was a bell on the door which rang when it was opened. Clothes lined up inside the store and a man with his hair swept back came to greet us. Is he going to throw me out?

「Oh, it’s Emma-sama.」

「Hi!」

Emma was used to this sort of thing. She belonged to a baron family, and rich as well. She’s probably been here several times with her parents.

「Are you here to buy clothes?」

「Not for me. We want a tuxedo for Noir here.」

「Understood. Pleased to meet you, Sir.」

I greeted him back, albeit nervously. He immediately measured my sizes and had me try a few suits. Rather than me trying them on, it was more like them making me wear the suits.

「I don’t think this looks good on me.」

「Nonsense, Sir. You know how to carry yourself well and you’re oozing with elegance.」

「I think you look cool! You look good in casual wear, but formal wear looks great on you too.」

I was happy even though I knew they were just being nice. I started getting into it and tried a few more suits. I wanted one that looked nice and comfortable.

「How much is this?」

「That would be three million lias.」

「Three mill—」

Holy crap, that’s expensive. It’s not like I can’t afford it. It’s just that we poor nobles didn’t really have the opportunity to go on a big shopping.

「I’m the one who invited you. Just charge it to my family.」

「No it’s fine, Emma. It might prove useful some other time so I’ll pay for it.」

I took my money out from a different dimension and was about to pay when I saw the manager with his eyebrows raised, looking serious.

「Did you learn 【Subdimensional Storage】, Sir?」

「I did.」

「That’s wonderful. I really want that skill so bad. I heard you can store clothes in them and slow down their deterioration. I only have the inferior Subspace Storage though.」

I checked the skill and it doesn’t need a lot of LP to create. The thing with Subdimensional Storage was that you could only send stuff to storage but you couldn’t take them out and since it was connected to this world, it would deteriorate at the same rate as well. While stuff in the Different Dimension would have its deterioration slowed down. The higher the rank of the skill, the slower the deterioration. If you had S rank, stuff wouldn’t even deteriorate at all which was amazing.

「Where is it connected to?」

「My house. It’s convenient since I can just send clothes from here, but my house is already filled with clothes and fabric.」

Incidentally,【Subdimensional Storage C】cost 400 LP to create and I needed… 200 LP to grant it to him. The low cost must be because of his affinity to storage type skills.

「If I gave you a Subdimensional Storage Skill, would you give this to me for free?」

「I don’t mind that, but I find that hard to believe.」

「Between you and me, it is possible. If you don’t mind a rank C one, I could grant it to you. You can even use it right away.」

「Yes, please.」he said, his eyes sparkling.

I granted him the skill and after a brief explanation on how to use it, he managed to activate the skill.

「A-Am I dreaming? I never thought I’d be able to learn the skill!」

「A rank C one should have quite a big space.」

That’s more than enough. I’m just really happy I can take out things from in there freely.

「So about the tuxedo…」

「You can consider it a gift from the store, Noir-sama! You can have this bow tie as well.」

I even received a decent bonus.

「Please come again. I’ll give you discounts, Noir-sama.」

He was really pleased. I guess I’ll come back if ever my family wants to buy clothes.

Once we got out of the shop, Emma poked my cheeks.

「You’ve become quite clever, Noir. I’m happy to see you become so strong-minded.」

「Why are you acting like you’re older than me? We’re the same age.」

「I’m older than you mentally.」

She looked charming as she flashed a full smile. I poked my finger into her ear to hide my embarrassment.

Her smile crumbled in an instant and this time I was the one grinning.

「Oh, come on! By the way, you used up a lot of LP just now, didn’t you?」

「About 600. I had a little over than 3,000 so I still have a lot left.」

「But you should still restore them. We don’t know what’ll happen. Oh, what am I gonna do with you… You really want to make out that bad?」

「I didn’t even say anything…」

「All right, let’s go do it at the clock tower.」

She took my hand and started running gleefully. She seemed pushy and aggressive. But it wasn’t like I was against it so I simply followed without any resistance. Emma always valued the atmosphere. With the mood going great, we performed the rites to gain LP. My LP went up to more than 4,000 thanks to that.

「What you should have is a childhood friend!」she said, her face beet red.

I simply nodded. As the sun was nearing the horizon, I changed into my tuxedo and headed to the party venue.

Owned by an earl, it was an imposing structure, like it was constructed solely for parties. Just how rich are they?

A married couple with beautiful blonde hairs were at the entrance.

「Hey, Noir-kun! Long time no see.」

「You’ve really grown since the last time I saw you.」

They were Emma’s parents: Ladan and Romy. A beautiful couple, they looked like they were still in their twenties. They’ve looked out for me ever since I was young.

「It has been a while. I’m glad to see you’re well, Ladan-san, Romy-san.」

「Come on, you’re being too formal. You used to pee on my pants when you were young.」

「You were such a mischievous little brat back then, Noir-kun.」

「I wish you’d forget about that~」

We were engaged in some talk of the past. After a while, we headed into the hall. As we moved up the stairs, Ladan-san whispered something to me.

「Did Emma mention something about today?」

「About what?」

「So she didn’t tell you, huh?」

「Well, she told me that I might have to dance.」

「She really didn’t tell you anything. I’m not sure what to do as her father…」

While he was pondering things, we made it to the hall. An extravagant chandelier, lit up brightly by candles, hung from the ceiling, illuminating the tables underneath. Luxurious food was already lined up on top of them. There were a lot of people wearing suits and dresses, but I was curious about the adventurers alongside the walls.

I recognized one of them.

Wait, Layla-san?