Putting aside that ridiculously stupid failure penalty...
Toma really wasn't particularly interested in the Princess herself.
Were there not enough princesses in anime already?
And those girls came with personalities and temperaments he already understood.
Wasn't that hundreds of times better than some completely unknown princess from another world?
Maybe in one of those typical otherworld novels, this mysterious princess would qualify as the female lead.
But...
Toma glanced at Tohka beside him.
Yeah.
No way.
Some random princess definitely couldn't compare to his Tohka.
Beautiful.
Clingy.
Obedient.
And ridiculously strong!
Where the hell could you find a better girl than that?!
Compared to Tohka, the kind of princess who would normally become the heroine of an otherworld story was completely outclassed.
Thinking about it that way, Toma realized something.
Sure, technically they were all fictional girls...
But comparing some generic otherworld princess to his Tohka really wasn't fair.
Still...
Not caring about the Princess was one thing.
Those mission rewards were another matter entirely.
Especially the two Random Summoning Coins.
That meant two more anime girls!
But with rewards this generous, Toma would have to be an idiot to believe there wasn't any danger involved.
Toma thought for a moment.
Then he hardened his resolve.
'Fuck it.'
'I'll do it.'
He could accept the mission first, then use the dungeon to increase his strength.
Even if he gained nothing useful from the dungeon, he could always abandon the mission afterward.
The punishment was practically meaningless anyway.
As for how Luna would react if he abandoned her?
Toma couldn't care less.
Rather than wasting his time worrying about that, he might as well think about how to make Tohka fall for him completely.
Not that it seemed particularly difficult anymore.
After what had just happened, Toma clearly understood how Tohka felt about him.
He had a feeling that if he genuinely wanted to take their relationship further, all he would need to do was sweet-talk her a little and she would probably agree.
After all, Tohka...
'Sigh...'
Forget it.
She was such an adorably gullible girl that Toma genuinely felt like summoning Tohka as his very first companion must have used up eight lifetimes' worth of luck.
"All right. I accept your request."
"Really?! Thank you so much!"
Luna had already prepared herself to be rejected.
She never expected Toma to actually agree.
For a moment, she was practically overwhelmed with joy.
"However..."
Toma raised a finger.
"You'll need to tell me everything you know."
He emphasized the next words.
"And I mean 'everything' about this world."
"Remember."
"Everything~!!!"
Luna froze.
"Eh? Everything about... this world? What do you mean? I'm sorry, but I don't quite understand."
Her mind struggled to process his words.
'What does he mean by 'this world'?'
'Don't tell me... they aren't from this world?'
'But this man doesn't look like a Demon or a God...'
'Although he does have black hair and black eyes...'
'But aren't Demons supposed to be incredibly handsome?'
'Could this completely ordinary-looking guy really be a Demon?'
Fortunately for Luna, she kept those thoughts to herself.
Otherwise...
Toma would have turned hostile immediately!
After all, the painfully average-looking Toma was extremely sensitive about his appearance.
Thankfully, Toma had absolutely no idea what Luna was thinking.
And because of that, their conversation could continue peacefully.
"You only need to know that Tohka and I are travelers from another world. Coming here was completely accidental."
Since they had decided to travel together, Luna would discover the truth sooner or later anyway.
Toma and Tohka's behavior was probably completely different from that of ordinary people in this world.
Besides, sooner or later Toma would inevitably pull out more strange items and abilities.
Rather than inventing some elaborate lie, he might as well tell Luna from the beginning that they came from another world.
And so, Toma straightforwardly admitted that neither he nor Tohka belonged to this world.
He had read plenty of otherworld stories where protagonists claimed they had trained in some remote location or pretended they had lost their memories.
Toma had already grown tired of those excuses long ago.
So he had absolutely no intention of doing the same thing.
What was wrong with simply telling her the truth?
Luna needed his help right now, so she was unlikely to deliberately spread information about him.
And even if she did tell someone...
Would they actually believe her?
Even if they did believe her, it wasn't as though Toma had absolutely no way to protect himself.
With the System supporting him, Toma still possessed at least that much confidence.
Of course...
Unexpected situations like what happened earlier were another matter entirely.
"Eh?! People from another world?"
Luna stared at them in shock.
"You're not Demons?"
Clearly, that answer had never crossed her mind.
Sure, this was a world of magic.
But even Luna couldn't stop herself from screaming internally—
'What the hell?!'
'That doesn't sound magical at all!'
"I don't know what these 'Demons' you're talking about are like, but I can tell you very clearly that we aren't Demons."
Toma's voice became slightly colder.
"We don't have any hostility toward this world either. Coming here was purely an accident."
He looked directly at Luna.
"Do you understand?"
The coldness in Toma's voice finally snapped Luna out of her shock.
"Yes. I understand."
'Whatever.'
'Whether they're otherworlders or Demons doesn't matter.'
'As long as they can rescue the Princess, that's enough.'
Judging from Luna's expression, Toma couldn't tell whether she truly understood or was simply pretending to.
Either way, he couldn't be bothered worrying about it.
"All right!"
Toma's mood immediately changed.
"Since we have some free time, start telling me about this world~!"
He quickly urged Luna to begin.
Toma knew practically nothing about this world, so naturally he was extremely interested.
This was another world, after all.
He wanted to know just how different it was from the fantasy worlds he had read about in novels.
"Yes."
Luna nodded.
Then she began telling Toma everything she knew...