Volume 2 Chapter 25 Epilogue – Winter Moon Saori’s Awakening
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
I discovered I had received the ‘Appraisal’ gift back when I was still in elementary school. The moment a gift awakens, you just naturally understand what it is—that’s how it works for some people, and even as a child I grasped that this was one of those rare cases.
The instant that gift settled inside me, my future felt secure, like a promise already made.
’Appraisal’ isn’t common, even in Japan. It’s valuable enough that anyone who has it can walk straight into a stable, high-paying job at the Adventurer Guild. Almost everyone with the gift ends up working there. I became one of them.
I’ve always been serious about studying and work—maybe too serious, the kind of person people call stiff or overly proper.
Still, girls love talking about romance, no matter how serious they seem on the outside.
Ever since I was little, my chest drew more attention than most. My face wasn’t bad either, but it was always the curves that turned heads. As I grew older, confessions from boys became routine. I dated a few, yet none of those relationships ever went all the way. They never really saw me—the real me beneath the body. In the end, they only wanted one thing.
After enough disappointment, I started guarding my heart more carefully, living like the kind of woman people whisper is “damaged” or “twisted” by bad experiences.
I still had plenty of female friends, though, and like any woman, I grew curious about beauty. I wanted to feel pretty. But who was I trying to be pretty for? Certainly not for men—that much I knew for sure.
It was for myself, like a private hobby. When I looked good, my friends and I had endless things to talk about, and hearing someone call me beautiful made warmth bloom in my chest.
After university, I started working the appraisal counter at the guild. The job suited me. Most days I sat behind the glass, scanning ordinary people and adventurers alike, explaining their gifts, offering advice, typing reports into the system. My serious personality earned me a reputation for reliability, though plenty of men clearly showed up just to stare. I sighed through every forced smile.
What I now realize was reckless was the private database I kept on my own tablet—copying down every interesting gift I appraised. I told myself it might be useful someday, that it could help my work. The guild never explicitly forbade it, but looking back, I was terribly naive about security.
Then came the encounter that changed everything.
”…Takanashi Hirose-san,” I said softly, reading the glowing letters only I could see. “Your gift is ‘ the gift of ‘Beauty.’”
His excited expression collapsed the moment the words left my lips. I could almost hear his dreams of becoming a great adventurer shatter. But something inside me stirred. In all my years at the counter, I had never once seen a gift called ‘Beauty.’
Plastic surgery exists, of course, but it costs a fortune and offers no guarantees. A gift’s effects, however, are absolute.
The first skills he possessed were ‘Skin Quality Improvement’ and ‘Fat Burning.’ Even just those two were extraordinary.
I wanted him to use them. I wanted him to use them on me someday.
So I leaned forward, lowering my voice so only he could hear, and offered the only encouragement I could think of.
”Women love beauty,” I whispered, a small smile touching my lips. “To us, your gift might just be the strongest S-rank buff in the world.”
I had appraised countless people. I could tell he was kind, honest—the sort who wouldn’t misuse power if guided gently.
Half a year later, fate brought us together again.
Three breathtaking A-rank adventuresses from the Tenchi Guild had dragged in their wounded teammate, Shishido Asumi, begging for an emergency appraisal. In my panic, I forgot every rule about confidentiality and blurted out Hirose’s name. Somehow, through Housaka-san, they called him.
When he walked in, those same three radiant girls orbited around him like stars. One of them turned out to be Hidou Kirino herself. The curse of burns that had nearly killed Asumi melted away under his touch. He became their hero that day.
I wasn’t surprised. I already knew how incredible his gift truly was.
My breach of protocol earned me a suspension. For weeks I stayed home alone, staring at the ceiling, wondering if I had thrown my career away for a boy eight years younger than me.
My old college friends dragged me out for drinks one night.
”No good guys lately?” one teased.
”There’s no one,” I answered with a soft laugh. “I’m not really looking.”
”You need to pounce while you’re still young, Saori!” another scolded. “Don’t you ever meet anyone cute at the guild?”
”Work and private life are separate,” I replied automatically.
But my mind drifted to him—sixteen, gentle, warm brown eyes that seemed to look straight into a person’s heart. My cheeks grew hot.
”Aha! You’re thinking of someone right now!” they crowed in unison.
There was no way I could admit the person making my heart race was still in high school.
Nearly another six months passed.
Then my phone lit up with his name.
”I’m sorry it took so long,” his message read. “Please let me finally return the favor you asked for that day.”
He remembered. After all this time, he remembered the half-joking wish I’d whispered.
I knew he didn’t want my body the way other men did. That certainty made me agree instantly.
I have always carried a little softness around my hips and thighs—nothing extreme, just the gentle curves many men secretly prefer over rail-thin figures. Still, standing naked before him made my pulse thunder in my ears.
It was the first time in years a man had touched my skin, and for me—twenty-four and still a virgin—the sensation was almost overwhelming.
His hands were warm, careful, reverent. The gift flowed through his palms like sunlight, and every brush of his fingers sent shivers across my skin.
No wonder all those girls fell for him.
There is a recoil effect, of course—a rush of uncontrollable desire. But even under its influence, he never took more than the treatment required. Any other man might have lost control and claimed whatever he wanted. I certainly wouldn’t have been able to resist.
Yet he stayed gentle until the very end.
By the time the session finished, I was the one who crawled to him while he slept exhausted on the sofa, tugging his belt loose with trembling fingers, desperate to give him everything I had never given anyone else.
At twenty-four, I finally lost my virginity, and I have never once regretted that my first was him.
After that, every treatment session ended with our bodies tangled together. I discovered a hungry, shameless side of myself I never knew existed, yet serving him, pleasing him, watching his eyes cloud with pleasure—it all felt perfectly right.
Rindou-san, his main girlfriend, possesses a heart wide enough to accept the rest of us. She understands the recoil isn’t entirely our fault, and because she holds the deepest place in his heart, she can be generous.
My body changed beyond recognition—skin like porcelain, curves refined to breathtaking perfection. At work, female colleagues flirted shamelessly; male customers stumbled over their words. Beauty on this level is its own kind of power.
The very day I planned to show my new self to him and the others, I was kidnapped on my way home.
Criminal adventurers exist, hidden beneath the chaos of dungeons and gifts. They wanted me to appraise a Dungeon Core—a holy relic so rare it bordered on myth. The guild would never hand such a thing to suspicious parties, so they decided to force me.
I am serious to a fault. I would rather die than betray my duty.
But I never had to make that choice.
Thanks to the hidden ‘Golden Time’ buff he had given me the week before, not a single scratch marred my skin no matter what they tried.
Still, Monday was coming. When I didn’t show up for work, alarms would sound. They would escalate.
Terrified, bound to a chair in some filthy warehouse, I prayed with everything I had for one person.
Hirose-kun.
And he came—like a hero straight out of a fairy tale.
Technically, the black-haired goat-horned girl did most of the fighting, but it was his arms that caught me when the ropes snapped and I almost fell.
In that moment, I accepted the truth: I had fallen hopelessly in love with a boy eight years younger than me.
I can never be his only one. That place belongs to someone else.
But I can still stand beside him, support him, love him in whatever way he’ll allow.
And then an idea bloomed in my mind.
The Dungeon Core now rested safely in their hands—specifically, in the palms of that mysterious goat-horned girl.
With my Appraisal, I studied it carefully.
A dungeon master can shape the interior however they wish, spawn monsters, place treasures. Mana limits exist, but with her power, those limits barely matter.
The most astonishing function, though, is the ability to bind gifts to the dungeon itself. Anyone who clears a floor could receive permanent effects—’Skin Quality Improvement,’ for example.
Women would pay anything for that.
Adventurers would flock from across the country.
He could become wealthy beyond imagining, all while helping countless people.
Whether he chooses that path is up to him.
But if he does, I’ll quit the guild tomorrow and devote the rest of my life to building his dream.
Because right now, at this moment, I want nothing more than to give him everything I am.
For the boy who gave me beauty—both inside and out—I would gladly offer my entire future.
—
Summary:
In this tender epilogue, serious guild appraiser Saori looks back on the moment her life changed forever—the day she met a teenage boy with the misunderstood ‘Beauty’ gift. From hopeful encouragement behind the counter to surrendering her untouched body and heart, she falls deeply in love despite the years between them. Transformed into breathtaking perfection and rescued from deadly danger, she now dreams of building a legendary dungeon at his side, ready to devote her future to the gentle hero who awakened true desire inside her.
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Character Insight:
Saori is the mature, rule-abiding woman who discovers passion late but completely. Her serious nature hides intense devotion—once she gives her heart and body to Hirose, she accepts the harem dynamic without hesitation, finding joy in serving the boy who finally saw her soul beneath the beauty.
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Behind the Scene:
This chapter is Saori’s personal epilogue closing Volume 2, revealing her private database habit, her virginity until Hirose, the full extent of the recoil effect during treatments, and the origin of the future dungeon empire idea that will likely drive the next arc.
Notes:
• Shishido Asumi – Calm, beautiful fire mage and model (F, 18yo, 163cm, long straight black hair, F-cup). Suffering burns in the past, Asumi is healed by Hirose, symbolizing the skill’s healing and beautifying powers. She’s mature and quietly supportive.
• Kirino – Strikingly beautiful with blue long hair (F, 168cm), Kirino is gifted with ice magic and feels isolated because of her appearance. Hirose’s Beauty skill helps her improve her self-image and social comfort, directly affecting Kirino’s relationship with her family and classmates.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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