Volume 6 - CH 3.02

What I am utilizing on them right now is the so-called carrot and a stick method, according to which you should always alternate between giving people the good news and the bad news. If I was only using the stick on them the entire time, they would have ended up hating me for sure.

「So we’re going to have another day off?」

「Yes. After all, I think we all earned it for ourselves with our recent exploits. And since I don’t see you being against it, then what would you like to do, Roxanne? In Sherry’s case, I assume you’d like to go to the library?」

「Yes, that is perfectly fine with me.」

When I looked in Sherry’s direction, she nodded and confirmed my suspicions. As I thought, she decided to go the library.

「Since I have nothing that I would like to do tomorrow either, I could very well accompany you to the Labyrinth if you want.」

I tell that to Roxanne, who seemed as if she was at a loss at what to do with her second day off.

When they had a day off last time, Roxanne wanted to spent it pretty admirably: by entering the Labyrinth by herself so that she could train more in solitude. And even though I stopped her back then because I was scared to allow her to go there alone, the situation is entirely different now.

「Would…. Would that really be okay, master?」

「Probably, since I am free  tomorrow as well.」

This time I do not have anything in particular planned for today, so if Roxanne is going to be fine with it, then I have nothing against going to the Labyrinth together with her for a private EXP grinding session, or anything else that she would have been up for. It does not have to be strictly related to the Labyrinths: be it sightseeing, going on a walk or even doing something like information gathering, as long as it is something the she herself wants to do, then I am going to be more than willing to accompany her along with it, and since we have so much options to choose from and nothing else to do in the meantime, then we are free to do whatever we want. After all, this is going to be our day off, and no one else is going to be telling us what we are supposed to be doing with it.

But of course, the main people who are going to decide what we are going to be doing with this vacation time are Roxanne and Sherry, since these days off are primarily for them, because as far as I am concerned, I do not need all that much of it and could continue going to the Labyrinth in order to explore them for most of the day, seven days a week.

「Well then, please take care of me, master.」

「Understood. Also, if it is not too much of a problem to ask, then would you mind cutting my hair for me tomorrow? Because it seem that they have grown quite a bit already, and I would not want them to be getting in the way.」

I had intended to cut my hair when we would buy ourselves a legitimate mirror, but with all the things that were happening throughout the last few days, I did not have any chance to do so just yet, so if it has already been decided that we are having ourselves a day off, then I might as well use that chance to do it now.

「Yes, master. As you wish.」

「Thank you and please do so. What about you girls? Do you want to get your hair cut as well? Because the way that I am looking at you, it does not look like you need a haircut all that much.」

「Eh? Really? But I think that my hair have grown out quite a bit since the last time when I was cutting them.」

Sherry says so while fiddling with her own hair. Well, after having a closer look at her, I do have to say that right now her hair have begun to reach her shoulders, so maybe she does need to have them cut for a bit after all. But while we are on that subject, there is something that I have been wondering about: do Dwarves’ hair grow up faster than the hair of regular Humans? Because when I look at sherry and compare the length of her hair ever since she joined my Party to how much my own hair have grown since I started living here, then her’s have definitely grown much more than mine. That being said:

「I think it would be fine for you to grow your hair even more, Sherry.」

「Yes, master is most certainly right. At their current length, they do not look like they are going to be that much of a problem for you if you just allow them to grow just a little bit longer.」

「Do you really think so, master, Miss Roxanne? Before, my hair were always becoming stiff and unpleasant to the touch whenever I was growing them out even for a little bit. Although I noticed that it is not the case right now, most probably because washes them out for me very well.」

Yeah, what Sherry says is absolutely true. Before, when they were not taking regular baths and did not have anyone to wash their hair for them they would grow rough, prickly to the touch and quite possibly a little bit greasy as well, but now that I am regularly taking care of their hair for them, they do not have to worry about it anymore, so if they want, they can grow their hair out a little bit more for all that I care, but I definitely think that it is a bit too early for them to be cutting their hair short. With how good they look in their current hairstyles, it would feel like a real waste.

On the morning of the next day, we entered the Labyrinth even though we agreed to make this day our day off. Our reasoning for that was pretty simple: even though we might be taking the entire day off, going to the Labyrinth in the morning should not do us any harm, and such a morning exercise will help keep our minds as sharp as they always are without dulling them too much because of all the rest and relaxation that we would be doing for the reminder of the day.

Think of it as your usual routine of morning stretches to keep yourself in shape, only taken to a bit of an extreme, because I do not think that any sane person would go and start their day from a battle with bloodthirsty monsters that were actively out to get you. Of course, the same mindset was applied to Roxanne and Sherry’s nightly duties, oh no, these had to be kept as they were…… ah, but wait, since Sherry wants to go to the library again tomorrow, then I might just be forced to let her have her rest for today. Oh well, I guess that just means that Roxanne is going to have to do her best then.

On the morning of the next day, after we finished our little exercise in the Labyrinth and selling the mirrors to Gozer and returning back home so that we could have ourselves some breakfast, I first had Sherry do another round of her usual smithing exercises, and then I gave her one gold coin for the deposit and five silver coins, after which I used 「Warp」on the wall in our house in order to get her to the library. Because the price for the entry to the library is fixed no matter what time of day it is, it is much more efficient to go and enter in in the early morning if you want to spend as much time there as possible, and after I gave Sherry a lift, I returned back home, where I sat on a chair and waited for Roxanne to start cutting my hair for me.

「Now then, master, how would you like me to cut your hair for you? Just a fair bit of advice though: I might not be able to do as good of a job with cutting your hair as you are probably expecting me to do, because I have always tended to be a little bit clumsy around the scissors.

「For me, as long as it is a hairstyle liked by Roxanne, it would be more than enough. In fact, pretty much anything is going to be okay in my book, just as long as it will not make you openly dislike me.」