Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou (LN) - Volume 4 - Chapter SS3

A Certain Peaceful Hero Party 

This is a story that occurred a short while after the students were summoned to Tortus. After some time had passed, the students had finally begun to get used to the fantastical situation they’d been thrust into and returned to some semblance of a normal daily life. 
Kouki and his party were especially unused to all the praise and respect they were being showered with. As they were the group that would lead the vanguard in the war to come, the residents of Tortus had practically been worshiping them. However, they’d grown accustomed to it, and even made friends with some of this world’s inhabitants. 
Happy with the results of the day’s training, Kouki wiped the sweat off his brow and started heading back to his room. Ryutarou, who he was rooming with, had already returned ahead of him. Seeing as there was still time before the sun set, Kouki was thinking of inviting him to hang out somewhere. When he got back to his room, he noticed the door was slightly ajar. As he put his hand on the doorknob, he heard a voice coming from inside. 
“Hoooh... Haaah... Haaah...” 
Kouki peeked through the gap in the door and saw his best friend posing in front of the mirror. He shifted fluidly from pose to pose, as if he were going through a martial arts form. At times his large muscles relaxed, while at other points they tensed. Kouki could tell that Ryutarou was dead serious about whatever it was he was doing. 
I guess he’s checking the condition of his body or something? Or maybe it’s some kind of exercise? 
Sadly, Kouki couldn’t muster the courage to find out what Ryutarou was actually doing. In fact, he couldn’t even walk inside his room. The reason being because Ryutarou was doing all of this buck naked. Just then, Kouki’s gaze met Ryutarou’s. Or rather, the reflection of Ryutarou’s gaze in the mirror. They both froze in place. It was as if time had stopped. Expression stiff, Kouki muttered something. 
“Oh yeah, I just remembered I forgot something at the practice grounds. Bye.” Kouki wanted to escape from this awkward predicament as fast as possible. 
“Wait, Kouki! Don’t get the wrong idea. I was just practicing my forms!” 
“While... n-naked?” 
“W-Well, I just… Oh, who cares! Colonel Stuart was naked in the movie too!” 
I see. So Ryutarou was just acting out scenes from Die Hard 2. Kouki nodded in understanding, giving his best friend a look full of pity all the while. 
“Don’t worry, I didn’t see anything, Ryutarou... Anyway, I should go check up on Shizuku.” Kouki turned on his heel and high-tailed it out of there. 
“Ah, dammit, Kouki! Stop right there, you bastaaaaaard!” Ryutarou’s embarrassed shout echoed through the hallway. For days afterward, he could feel his classmates shooting him pitying looks. Needless to say, Ryutarou was traumatized from that day onward. 
That night, Kouki was relaxing in his bedroom when the events of that afternoon suddenly came back to him. Back when they’d been kids, they’d often tried to imitate the heroes they’d seen in movies. It had been pretty embarrassing whenever Shizuku had caught them doing it. By the end of elementary school, though, Kouki had grown out of it. 
I guess coming to a world of swords and magic brought back a little bit of his childish side. 
When he thought about it like that, Ryutarou’s actions seemed kind of cute. He was tempted to tell Shizuku and Kaori about it. Ryutarou himself was still sulking and had gone out to do some extra training. The poor guys he’d roped into joining him were suffering his misplaced wrath right about now. Kouki glanced over at the holy sword leaning against his bed. It really was a magnificent piece of craftsmanship. He could feel something inside him stirring as he stared at it. Before he knew it, he had his sword in his hand and was standing in front of the mirror. He put his left hand on his hip and raised his sword up high, striking a daunting pose. 
“Hmm, this feels a bit plain.” Kouki swapped to a different pose. He was getting steadily more into it. After cycling through a few more poses, he remembered something from movie posters and swung his sword in a mighty arc. 
“I’ll protect everyone! I swear it on my pride as a hero!” 
That was perfect. Kouki sighed contentedly and smiled to himself. Just then, someone barged into the room. 

“Kouki-kun, are you here!? We’ve got a big problem! Ryutarou-kun’s started fighting with the other boys and—” Kaori stopped mid-sentence, her mouth hanging open. Kouki was still in the middle of posing in front of his mirror. It felt like time stopped for the second time that day. 
Sweat began dripping from Kouki’s forehead. He gave what he thought was a confident smile, his body still frozen in the same pose. With each second that passed, however, his smile grew stiffer until Kaori finally broke the silence. 
“G-Guys do this kind of stuff all the time, right? It’s no big deal or anything, right?” Kaori smiled awkwardly and backed out of the room, closing the door behind her. Kouki heard her scream “Shizuku-chaaaaaaaaaaaaaan” as her footsteps faded away into the distance. A few minutes later, Kouki finally recovered enough to stop posing. 
“Wait Kaoriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! It was just a misunderstandiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!” His embarrassed shout echoed through the hallway. For days afterward, he could feel his classmates shooting him pitying looks. Needless to say, Kouki was traumatized from that day onward. 
Sometime earlier, around when Kouki was discovering the marvels of Ryutarou’s naked body, Kaori was chatting to one of the palace’s maids. They were just talking about usual girl things. It had all started when one of the maids had asked Kaori what kind of drinks one of the male students in her class liked. From there, the discussion had devolved into the topic of love. 
One of the maids had been bold enough to say, “I bet if I said ‘I’m here to serve you personally, Master,’ I could make any of the boys fall for me. The topic had gotten a bit too stimulating for the still innocent Kaori. Once the maids started talking about the gory details of seducing men, Kaori had fled from the conversation. 
“I never knew the palace maids were so lewd…” As the blush faded from Kaori’s cheeks, she noticed something. In her hurry to get away from the maids, she hadn’t been paying attention to where she was going. As a result, she’d wandered into the storage closet used by the palace servants. 
On top of one of the shelves she spotted a pile of maid uniforms next to a sign that said “spare.” Five minutes later, the shelf was one maid uniform short. Kaori dashed back to her room as fast as her legs would take her and held the stolen maid uniform up to her chest. She examined herself in the mirror for a few seconds, blushed, then changed into the uniform. 
This was her first time wearing something like this. Had any of the boys in her class spotted her in it, they would have gotten nosebleeds instantly. She did a little twirl, and her skirt fluttered up. Kaori examined herself in the mirror and muttered something. 
“I-It looks pretty good.” A certain boy’s face popped into her mind. After a moment’s hesitation, she said something to the boy in her imagination. 
“L-Let me service you, Master~” 
She leaned forward, emphasizing her bust, and winked. Her actions were a little stiff, but it was still an impressive display. When she realized what she’d done, Kaori buried her face in her hands and hunched over. Finally, she got over herself and stood back up. She still couldn’t believe she’d actually said that. As she grabbed the hem of her skirt and turned around she found herself face to face with Shizuku, who was sitting in her bed, a book hanging limply from her hands. 
“Sh-Sh-Sh-Shizuku-chan!? How long have you been here!?” 
“Since you got back?” 
Kaori had been so preoccupied that she hadn’t even noticed Shizuku was in the room. For her part, Shizuku had been too shocked by the chain of events to say anything. First her best friend barged into their room, then she changed into a maid outfit, then she started doing sexy poses. 
“Umm, so, Shizuku-chan. This isn’t what you think. So, like, basically, the maids were all acting really lewd, and then—” 
“Don’t worry, Kaori. It’s okay. I understand.” 
“Y-You do? Thank goodness. Hey, Shizuku-chan, why are you trying to sneak out of the room? Where do you think you’re going?” 
Shizuku surreptitiously put one hand on the doorknob. She smiled as sincerely as she could to Kaori, but Kaori wasn’t buying it. Kaori reached out to stop Shizuku, but before she could, Shizuku bolted out of the door. 
“Nagumo-kuuuuun! Kaori’s, Kaori’s—” 
“Noooooooooooooooooo! Stoooooooooooooooooop! Shizuku-chan I hate youuuuuuuuuuuu!” Her embarrassed shout echoed through the hallway. For days afterward, she could feel her classmates shooting her pitying looks. From that day onward, the story of Shizuku running around while Kaori chased her in a maid uniform became a legend among the palace residents.