episode_0017

“Alcohol? Alcohol?”

I couldn’t believe the words that came out of her mouth.

Alcohol?

My mind simply couldn’t comprehend why a word related to alcohol would pop out at this moment.

“Ughh! *retch*”

My mind, which had momentarily frozen at Killua’s sudden remark, began to work again due to her painful retching.

Only then could I look at the struggling Killua with new eyes.

“Hngh… *pant*…”

The hot, ragged breaths she exhaled weren’t symptoms of poison or infection.

It was a phenomenon often seen in taverns or inns, when drunkards, after finishing their day’s work, would drink heavily with the money they’d earned.

In other words, it was exactly what people who had drunk excessively would look like.

“No way…”

Only one reason came to mind for her, who hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol since arriving in the village, to be in this state.

It was that one small slime that had crawled into a gap in her clothes.

Believing that there was no other possibility, I swallowed hard and reached out for the leather straps tightly securing her top.

“You… what are you trying to do…”

Even amidst her confused consciousness, Killua must have been keenly watching my movements, as she weakly grabbed my hand reaching for her top.

But ignoring her strength, which was too weak to even convey any intent to resist, I slowly began to loosen the leather straps that tightened her top.

“A slime must have gotten into a gap in your clothes back then.”

At the same time, I calmly explained so that she wouldn’t misunderstand my actions.

“Li-… a lie… there wasn’t… there wasn’t a slime…”

However, Killua denied my words and, as if to resist, clutched my wrist that was undoing the leather straps of her top.

But due to the intense confusion caused by the overwhelming intoxication, she couldn’t properly resist and merely mumbled weakly while clutching my wrist.

“Sto-… stop it…”

Her mumbling seemed to contain a tearful resentment towards my actions, which betrayed her trust.

Firmly believing that the small slime that had fallen between her cleavage was the cause of her current state, I had no choice but to ignore her mumbling.

“It’ll be alright. You’ll be fine once the slime is removed…”

Ignoring her weak resistance, I completely undid the leather straps binding her top, then took a light deep breath before spreading her top open.

Realizing she couldn’t stop me with her strength, Killua gave up on further futile resistance and simply covered her face with her left hand, as if trying to hide her expression.

“Then, please excuse me.”

Apologizing to Killua in advance, I carefully spread her top open to the sides.

The first thing that caught my eye was her abdomen, full of a soft sheen, so supple that I could almost feel its softness just by looking at it.

Slowly, I raised my gaze along her abdomen, which had lovely curves without any unnecessary fat.

Then, the charmingly petite curve of her chest began to appear.

“As I thought!!”

And there, clinging like a lump, was the slime I had missed, hiding itself in a corner beneath her breast.

Killua, who had only briefly parted her clothes to roughly check her body with her eyes, hadn’t found it because of its movements in that subtle blind spot just under her breast.

“You damned single-celled bastard!”

Feeling an indescribable fury surge within me, I detached the abominable little slime that had hidden itself in the blind spot beneath her breast.

And I promptly shoved it into a leather pouch full of beeswax powder.

Due to the nature of beeswax powder, which rapidly absorbs moisture from contacting substances, as soon as the slime’s body touched it, the moisture filling 90% of its body was quickly absorbed.

The slime, thrust into such powder, instantly shriveled to an unrecognizable state.

“Killua-nim! I’ve sol—!”

Having removed the slime hidden in her clothes, I joyfully shouted and looked at Killua.

But where the slime had been hiding, there was a small wound, reddened and swollen, as if she had been bitten by a venomous snake.

Confirming that wound, I couldn’t help but be speechless.

“Haa… haa…”

The slime had been injecting a toxin similar in composition to alcohol into her.

Although the slime had been removed, the heavily injected toxin remained beneath her skin.

Unless the toxin absorbed beneath her skin was dealt with, Killua’s suffering would not end.

“Killua-nim?”

I carefully called her name.

But Killua didn’t answer, merely panting with hot, strained breaths, her face still covered by her left arm.

My gaze, fixed on Killua, naturally drifted to her chest, which lightly heaved with each ragged breath she took.

“*Gulp*…”

Seeing the wound imprinted beneath her breast, a method for extracting snake venom, one I had heard through rumors or from drunkards, came to mind.

It was said that venom seeped into a snake bite could be extracted by putting one’s mouth to the wound and sucking it out.

“Ex-… excuse me.”

Seeing Killua’s state, unable to communicate properly and utterly exhausted, I felt I had to take emergency measures somehow, so I carefully brought my lips close to her lower breast.

“Ugh…”

As my lips touched the wound caused by the slime, the petite but soft texture of her breast warmly enveloped my face.

Feeling a faint, sweet scent of green apples lingering at the tip of my nose, I carefully examined the wound with my tongue.

“Haaah!!”

As my tongue touched the slime-poisoned wound, Killua let out a short moan and tightly gripped my shoulder with her left arm.

And as if struggling to escape my tongue, she began to weakly twist her body, resisting.

Holding her waist and hips to keep her from moving, I carefully sucked the toxin from the wound with my mouth.

Each time I sucked the wound, her skin, as soft and moist as pudding, was lightly drawn into my mouth.

“Ugh… haah… ughh!”

But the toxin didn’t come out easily. Instead, perhaps due to the intense stimulation, Killua’s moans only grew sharper.

Thinking that merely sucking wasn’t enough, I tried to extract the toxin by pressing or rubbing the wound with my tongue.

“Hyaaah!!!”

Then, with a piercing scream I had never heard before, Killua extended the arm that had been gripping my shoulder and tightly clutched the back of my head, which was buried in her chest.

Startled by her sudden violent reaction, I stopped the movements of my tongue and mouth, calmly sharpening my senses to check her physical condition.

Her body was hot enough to feel moisture between our close-contact skin, her breathing was highly agitated, and her waist was subtly twitching.

From my memory and experience, there was only one reason for such physical reactions.

“*Gulp*…”

I hadn’t expected such a reaction from her at all, and couldn’t believe it, so I swallowed a dry, tense gulp and decided to try the only means of confirming the veracity of this reaction.

Slowly, very naturally, just as I moved my fingertips, which were wrapped around her hips, to carefully slip them between her thighs…

“St-… stop it!”

Her voice, firm despite being mixed with ragged breaths amidst her frantic heartbeat, which I could distinctly feel against my face buried in her chest, reached my ears.

At the same time, the hand clutching the back of my head lifted.

I didn’t resist, but obediently followed the movement of her hand, slowly lifting my face from where it was buried in her chest.

I met Killua’s gaze, filled with bewilderment, confusion, shame, and embarrassment, as she looked at me from between her shallow cleavage.

“What are you doing…”

It seemed her consciousness, which had been blurred by intoxication and melting away from intense stimulation, suddenly reawakened.

“I-I was… extracting the poison.”

In a situation that anyone would completely misunderstand, I stupidly stammered, belatedly trying to explain my actions.

Of course, Killua, who had no reason to believe such an explanation, slowly furrowed her brow, and I felt the grip on my hair tighten.

“Eheheh… are you okay?!”

Just then, with a boisterous shout, the Hero emerged, pushing through the bushes.

Without a single scratch, he walked towards us, waving his hand, wearing his usual foolish grin.

“Ugh!”

At his unannounced appearance, I hastily re-fastened Killua’s top and quickly pulled my body back from where I had been slightly leaning over her, as if nothing had happened.

Killua, also sensing the Hero’s presence, tightly clutched the hem of her top, which hadn’t been properly fastened by my hands, hunching her body so no bare skin would show.

“So you were hit by slime poison, huh…”

The Hero, who had temporarily put down his slime-covered, double-headed felling axe from his shoulder, looked back and forth between Killua and me, whose clothes were disheveled and not properly tidied.

He didn’t ask in detail what had happened between us.

The Hero took a handful of beeswax powder from the leather pouch I had set down and rubbed it onto the blade of the double-headed axe he had briefly lowered. Then, looking back the way he came, he spoke.

“Hngh… I made them retreat, but they’re not giving up. We need to leave this spot soon.”

“Ah… alright. Ugh…”

At the Hero’s warning, Killua struggled to get up.

But perhaps feeling dizzy every time she moved due to the still un-detoxified poison, she stopped trying to stand up and simply remained seated on the ground, panting heavily.

“Killua…”

I reached out an arm to support her, but Killua merely frowned and shook her head forcefully, as if telling me not to touch her.

“Excuse me.”

Just then, the Hero, who had been silent, suddenly slipped his arms under Killua’s shoulders.

And before Killua could answer or react, he lifted her straight up with both hands.

“Wh-… what?!”

As her body was suddenly lifted, Killua thrashed her legs.

The Hero, who had lifted her, approached me while still holding her.

“Carry her! Quick, carry her!”

As Killua’s struggling resistance grew stronger, the Hero urgently shouted for me to lend him my back.

Startled by his shout, I reflexively turned my body to show him my back.

Then, the Hero placed Killua, whom he had lifted, onto my back.

“Awooogh!!”

As soon as Killua was on my back, she let out a pained moan and reflexively wrapped her arms and legs tightly around my neck and waist to prevent her body from swaying.

And into my ear, she exhaled a long, hot, trembling sigh.

“Hold tight. Then there’ll be less swaying.”

The Hero pushed Killua’s back, forcing her, who was unwillingly on my back, to press her body tightly against mine.

Then, Killua seemed to feel that the swaying she experienced had significantly lessened by pressing her body close, as the Hero had said, and she hugged my neck as tightly as she could.

Thanks to that, I could distinctly feel the soft curves of her body pressed tightly against my back without a gap, and her heated body temperature.

I unconsciously swallowed hard, then carefully wrapped my hands around her thighs to support her body, which was on my back.

“Eheheh… good. Let’s move!”

Killua, on my back, was hugging my neck tightly to prevent her body from swaying even slightly, and the Hero, seeing that I was also properly supporting her so she wouldn’t fall, gestured to us as if to say he would carry the slime-filled basket I had set down and that we should move.

In response to his signal, we slowly began to walk along the forest path leading to the village.

The Hero began to follow behind us, wary of slimes that might pursue us.

“Are you alright, Killua-nim?”

Through our bodies, pressed tightly together without a gap, I could feel her distinct heartbeat, highly agitated due to the alcohol’s influence.

Moreover, at a distance so close that just turning my head would bring my lips to her cheek, her faint, fruit-like breath tickled my cheek.

“Mm-hm… *gasp*…”

Her answer to my worried words was skinship that was anything but light, as she rubbed her cheek against mine.

It was clear she was rubbing her cheek against my relatively cooler cheek to cool the heat of her own body, which was burning like a hot ember.

“Ugh…”

My own face seemed to heat up from the excessively close skinship.

Her reason, dulled by sudden alcohol poisoning, was merely instinctively rubbing her heated body against a cooler object to cool herself down.

“Ki-… Killua-nim?”

I called her name, hoping she might regain some semblance of consciousness.

But Killua didn’t answer my call; she just continued to breathe out hot air, her face pressed tightly against my cheek, while hugging my neck tightly.

“……”

Through my hands supporting her thighs and our closely pressed bodies, I distinctly felt the intense heat of her body, burning hot from the alcohol poisoning.

But even if the wall of reason had crumbled due to alcohol poisoning, this was excessively close skinship.

Was this skinship, her rubbing her cheek against mine, her true feelings, hidden beyond the crumbled wall of reason?

Or was it truly an instinctive action due to the alcoholic toxicity that blurred her consciousness?

With unanswerable questions and curiosity, I unnecessarily felt my own face heating up, much like hers.

“Just a little more strength, we’re almost there!”

Startled back to reality by the Hero’s encouraging shout from behind us, I lifted my head and looked forward.

The village was already close enough to be visible.

Though the safe village was finally in sight, I felt more of a strange sense of regret and pity than relief.

“Just a little more, Killua-nim.”

But unable to show my true feelings, I encouraged Killua on my back and quickened my pace.