“I’m not too confident in my arm strength. Maybe I should do more farm work or something?”

“Nah, what you should be using is this, Ani-san,” Kaijali spoke while gently knocking on his head.

“Settle things with this. And then work your magic. If me or one of the lads think what you said was good, we’ll pose like this. That’s when you’re going to say or do something that’ll make her fall for you instantly.”

Kaijali posed to show off his shoulder muscles. They bulged mightily under his skin.

“Kinda like that. And if you need a more impressive demonstration…”

Next, Kaijali flexed his pectorals. Although he was quite short, his athletic, muscular body attested to the fact that he was a born warrior.

Nfirea wondered Why these kind of poses? But he couldn’t actually say that, because he’d already accepted Kaijali’s goodwill. Still, there was one question he wanted to ask.

“I… I’m curious, why are you guys doing this? I mean, I know you’re Enri’s subordinates and you’re loyal to her, but I don’t understand why you’re helping me.”

“Well, that’s simple,” Kaijali replied with an inscrutable expression on his face. In a tone better suited to coaxing little kids to behave, he replied, “That’s because we all want Ane-san to be happy. And from where we’re looking, you fit the bill. So the faster you two get married, the better.”

“N-no need for such a rush! T-the two of us can slowly reduce the distance between us, right?”

“…Wrong, actually. I mean, don’t humans take a long time between getting pregnant and having kids?”

Nfirea’s eyes went wide and his face turned bright red as the conversation suddenly jumped to the ultimate expression of male-female relationships in the form of pregnancy.

“T-that would be about nine months?”

“Hm, then it would take a really long time for about ten pups ― I mean, ten kids, right?”

“Ten?! Isn’t that a bit much?!”

Five children were the average for a farming village family. In tough times when it was hard to survive to adulthood, this number would go up. In the city, this number was usually less, with the help of priests to cure diseases or the use of contraceptives.

So, a woman to giving birth to ten children wasn’t a bit much, it was way too much.

“What’re you on about? Ten’s pretty normal for us goblins.”

“We’re not goblins!”

“Alright, point taken, our races have our differences… but still, you gotta have lots of kids to make Ane-san happy.”

“…All right, I can’t deny that she might be happy with a house full of children… but it still seems kind of wrong…”

“Really?”

Nfirea was at a loss for words as he saw Kaijali looking at him with his head tilted at an angle. But on the whole, he was still grateful for their assistance. .

“Then, let’s head out, Ani-san. I hope you make a move soon. Although keeping her waiting for too long might cause problems… well, I think a steady, tactical advance on the main objective is a strategy worth pursuing.”

“Where did you learn all of this?” Nfirea shook his head. “Oi, Obaa-chan, I’m going to Enri’s for breakfast, what about you?”

The reply that came from the house was a refusal to Nfirea’s question.

Most likely, she was in the middle of repeating an experiment, and had no time to bother with trivial things such as eating.

Nfirea could relate to that feeling.

The alchemical tools and other paraphernalia in the house were of an extremely high grade, and they didn’t know how to use most of them. The maid in the service of the great magic caster Ainz Ooal Gown had brought them over. The two of them had been ordered to use these materials to produce new potions and alchemical items. Oh, and the maid had even brought some sort of cure-all herbs.

When he asked her about the solvents and the proper usage of the instruments, all he got in return was a “figure it out yourself su~”, which didn’t help things.

So, the two of them had foregone food and sleep in their ceaseless quest to learn how to use these devices for experiments. It was a slow process, but they had finally made some progress. Of course, they had made mistakes as well ― Nfirea had been guilty of lots of those ― but the past two months had been some of the busiest moments in Lizzie’s long life. The fruits of their labor stood on the table, that bottle of purple potion, which Lizzie examined endlessly and filled Nfirea with excited joy.

“I’ll take care of the food, then,” Nfirea spoke as he closed the door behind him. Then, turning to Kaijali, he said, “Let’s go.”

♦ ♦ ♦

Although everyone was supposed to eat together, Enri’s house wasn’t anywhere near big enough to accommodate them all. As such, they usually ate outside when the weather was good.

Because they were outdoors, a certain amount of rowdiness was expected and tolerated. Had they been inside, it might have been unbearable, but even under the present circumstances, the situation had quickly turned aggravating.

“That’s why I’m saying, Enri-nee-san is going to be my wife!”

“Hey, punk, are you forgetting the agreement we all made not to touch Ane-san?!”

“That’s right, if you try and pull a fast one on us then I’ll make my move too!”

“You what mate? I was first!”

Several goblins kicked over their chairs as they suddenly stood up, and some even jumped onto the table. Suppressing her anger with sheer force of will, Enri spoke in a gentle tone.

“Everyone, please settle down.”

That had about as much effect as a snowball on the sun. The rancor in the goblins’ eyes had not abated in the slightest.

“Just give it up, lads. The victor has already been decided. Behold, this hunk of marvelous, radiant meat!”

One of the goblins, Kuunel, raised up his spoon to prove his point, displaying a piece of chicken meat that onlookers might well have mistaken for a pea. It was nothing more than a tiny bit extra that Enri added while portioning out the food to everyone.

“I finished my meat, yet there was more at the bottom of the soup! Do you have anything like that? I didn’t think so! This is nothing less than the proof of love!”

“You must be kidding me! That’s nothing more than a piece of meat Ane-san mistook for a chunk of vegetable!”

“Maybe that’s just wishful thinking on your part? Maybe the “meat” you ate was just potatoes or something, and the actual meat you got was that miniature thing. You’d better watch out, it’s proof that Ane-san doesn’t like you. Plus, my god clearly told me, “You must make Enri happy.”