episode_0041

“……”

The sun slowly began to disappear into the forest.

The gradually brightening, ethereal moonlight ushered in the chilling forest wind.

But even the cold moonlight and the frigid forest wind couldn’t unravel the suffocatingly hot lump in my heart.

“Ugh…”

Rai’s short groan escaped from the room.

“Almost done. Just hold on a little longer.”

Soon after, Killua-nim’s voice, comforting him in his pain, was heard.

Standing idly outside the door, I finally couldn’t overcome my curiosity. I turned slightly and cautiously peeked inside through the window.

Rai lay on a makeshift bed hastily fashioned from chairs and cushions, and Killua-nim, seated between his bare legs, had his lips pressed against Rai’s inner pelvis.

“This makes… six.”

Killua-nim spat a small clump of slime mucus, which seemed to have been extracted by mouth just now, onto a cloth.

Then, she placed the used medical needle over a candlelight and picked up another medical needle she had already prepared.

The slime’s poison had not just been injected into his lower abdomen.

The minuscule tentacles had crawled down to his lower body, injecting poison into his thighs, pelvis, and groin.

“……”

Unable to bear watching their embarrassing state any longer, I bit my lip and turned away.

To calm my troubled mind, my footsteps naturally led me to the open ground where I practiced firing magic shots.

———————————

As if mirroring my troubled mind, the magic shots I threw couldn’t be aimed as I wished. They weakly wobbled and merely struck the innocent ground.

“Damn it…”

When even the third magic shot failed to even approach the target and absurdly buried itself in a distant spot, I couldn’t hold back the curse that escaped my lips.

“Care to talk?”

Killua-nim’s voice came from behind me, where I was practicing shooting magic shots in the backyard to calm my troubled mind.

“Ki… Killua-nim?!”

The unstable magic power condensed in my hand scattered futilely as I was startled by her voice, appearing behind me without a sound.

“Your mind seems troubled. Seeing as all your shots missed the mark.”

Killua-nim walked over to me, scanning the traces of the magic shots that hadn’t hit the target but instead struck the innocent ground, and sighed faintly with a touch of pity.

“Ah… Ahahaha…”

Unable to speak the truth that she was the cause of my troubled mind, I could only manage an awkward laugh.

Killua-nim glanced at me, then simply stood by my side, arms lightly crossed, saying nothing.

“Um… Is Rai alright?”

To break this awkward atmosphere, I carefully asked about Rai’s condition.

“Yes. All the toxins have been extracted. He’s probably very dizzy now, but he’ll be fine after a good night’s sleep.”

Killua-nim replied to my question, touching the corner of her mouth with her hand.

“I… I see.”

The topic of conversation I brought up to break the awkward silence ended so anticlimactically.

I didn’t know what to say under the silent moonlight, where even the sounds of insects weren’t heard, and merely fidgeted with the innocent hem of my clothes.

“How should we deal with the slime monster?”

Unlike me, who was nervously wondering what to talk about internally, Killua-nim calmly gazed at the sparkling stars and asked me a question about a serious, real-world dilemma.

“Are you referring to the slime monster?”

It was as if the fact that she had performed an embarrassing emergency procedure on Rai was no longer worth considering or worrying about. Killua-nim was focused on the immediate problem that needed to be solved tomorrow.

“The creature that was awakened from its sleep won’t fall back asleep.”

“The creature whose chance to become a greater being was interrupted must be incredibly angry. It certainly won’t stay still.”

Agreeing with Killua-nim’s opinion, I recalled the creature’s massive central core, which had an eerie form, as if mimicking a living eye.

It was understandable why Killua-nim referred to it as a slime monster; the creature had evolved beyond the slime species.

“Isn’t the pendant fragment’s influence largely responsible for its transformation? If so, couldn’t we solve it by just retrieving the pendant fragment?”

The reason the creature could surpass the slime species was because of Killua-nim’s pendant fragment, which had accidentally fallen.

Therefore, if we could take away the pendant fragment it possessed, the creature would not be able to maintain its evolved state.

“That’s right. But the important thing is that it knows that very well too.”

“That’s true…”

As Killua-nim said, the slime monster also knew very well the importance of the fragment it held in its grasp.

That’s why the first thing it did upon waking from its sleep was to lift Ariel’s body, where the fragment was embedded, high into the sky, so no one could touch it.

“No one in this village would be able to leap that high in one go.”

Roughly estimating with my eyes, Ariel’s body was about 10 meters above the ground.

Even someone with excellent agility and enhanced body through magic could only reach about 6-7 meters with their own jump.

If there were a stepping stone of medium height, one might be able to reach 10 meters, but Ariel’s body was caught in the center of the liquid monster’s body, where even a momentary touch would instantly inject poison.

“Then couldn’t we just extract the fragment from a distance?”

Suddenly, I remembered Rai’s sharp archery skills and the explosive arrows he used.

If we could control the amount of explosion and make the tip blunt, the explosion upon contact with the arrow could extract only the fragment embedded in Ariel’s chest.

“Not bad, but… it could be more dangerous. If we fail to catch the extracted fragment before it touches the slime’s body, a greater disaster will erupt.”

“……”

If the pendant fragment had been directly swallowed by the slime, Eaton Village would likely no longer exist.

The moment a substance containing immense magic power is absorbed by a slime, which simply grows and divides repeatedly, the creature would grow and divide at hyper-speed until all the magic power in that substance was consumed.

Estimating the power contained in her pendant fragment, such a proliferated slime would continue to divide until it turned not only the Lime Forest but also the entire area, including Eaton Village, into a gigantic slime nest.

“The best method is…”

Killua-nim pondered for a moment, then stopped herself from saying the best solution she had thought of.

And as if in deep thought, she gnawed at her lower lip, then turned her dark eyes, which had been gazing at the stars, to look at me.

“Please don’t misunderstand.”

“I don’t know what method you’re going to suggest, but… I’m always on Killua-nim’s side.”

Despite my firm answer, Killua-nim’s dark eyes, still looking at me, carried fear and concern about misunderstanding directed towards her.

Soon after, she let out a small sigh. Then, she slowly moved her heavily burdened lips.

“To kill Ariel.”

“……”

It was a solution so shocking that if Rai heard it, a loud scolding would immediately erupt.

Although I had prepared myself for her warning, I couldn’t help but feel my breath catch in my throat.

“By killing her, the supply of magic power through the fragment will temporarily stop. When the massive magic supply that sustained its gigantic and complex evolved body ceases, its body will collapse, unable to function properly. We only need to retrieve Ariel’s corpse, which the creature, as its body collapses, will no longer be able to hold onto and will drop. That’s all.”

“I see.”

Killua-nim’s solution had no major risks and was not difficult; it was a very rational solution.

The only problem was that it required killing Ariel, who was Rai’s life savior and former fiancée, whom he had believed to be dead after disappearing five years ago. That was the main problem.

“She’s been held captive by the slime for five years to begin with. Even if she were rescued, a normal life would be almost impossible. And I’m not suggesting killing her out of personal greed or other thoughts. I’m merely being rational…”

As I briefly nodded and replied to her shocking but extremely rational and logical solution, Killua-nim hastily began to offer a belated defense for her cruel solution.

“I understand, Killua-nim.”

“Re… really?”

She looked at me with anxiously trembling eyes, as if worried I would be disappointed in her.

“Then, have you thought of a way to kill her?”

Instead of an elaborate answer demonstrating my understanding of her thoughts, I calmly asked about the method to carry out her plan.

“My magic shots can be used for long-range attacks, but they don’t have the destructive power to kill a person in one blow.”

Since the creature had become a slime monster with even a faint trace of intelligence, it wouldn’t foolishly allow an attack on Ariel.

There would be only one chance. If even one attack failed, the creature would realize we were targeting Ariel and begin to protect her body even more safely.

“Rai’s bow…”

As Killua-nim said, Rai’s sharp archery skills could end Ariel’s terrible life, held captive by the slime monster, from a distance, before the monster even had a chance to notice.

“It must be very difficult.”

However, it would certainly not be easy for Rai to embed an arrow into the forehead or heart of his fiancée, whom he had thought was dead five years ago.

“I’ll talk to Rai about it.”

Killua-nim intended to honestly tell Rai all of this and ask for his help.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

It wouldn’t be easy to force Rai to make the choice of determining the fate of his life savior and his future fiancée with his own hands.

“Cheer me on.”

Killua-nim turned her gaze, which had been fixed on me, back to the sparkling stars in the sky and asked me with a faint voice, her certainty fading.

I, too, looked at the constellation scattering its subtle light that she gazed upon and spoke the words she wanted to hear.

“Rai will choose Killua-nim. He wouldn’t be foolish enough to kick away the chance to monopolize someone as charming, wise, and brilliant as Killua-nim, would he?”

“Ah, hah…”

A small smile bloomed on Killua-nim’s severely solemn face, an obvious and cringeworthy flattery.

“You’re right. He’ll either choose me… or Ariel. It’ll be one or the other.”

“Are you not confident?”

I tossed out a light joke to try and give her, who was still slightly slumped, a little strength.

“……”

But Killua-nim, the white mage who always seemed self-assured and fearless, didn’t react to my mischievous joke and merely gazed silently at the gently glowing stars.

“Everything will be alright. Even if something goes wrong…”

‘I’ll be by your side.’

The last words, which were about to burst out without me knowing my place, I ultimately swallowed down.

I was too insignificant and ordinary to be by the side of her, the white mage.

Thus, knowing my minimum propriety and place, I merely swallowed my selfish desires and wishes internally.

“Even if what?”

But Killua-nim, curious about the last words I couldn’t bring myself to say, did not avert her gaze from the stars and pressed me for my unfinished sentence.

I swallowed dryly, my heart pounding at her pressing, and then added the words that didn’t suit my place, which I had swallowed.

“I’ll be by your side.”

“……”

There was no answer, no scoff.

Only her quiet breathing, subtly trembling in the serene night air, quietly lingered.