The Outer God Needs Warmth – Chapter 136

While Victoria was sleeping, I sat quietly in place, looking out through the small window.

Since the ship was moving along the coast, I could see the distant coastline, so it wasn’t boring.

Just because we’re on a ship doesn’t mean we’re going to an island or another continent.

The school Victoria attends and her home are on the same continent. But between them is a jungle so dense it’s impossible to conquer.

So for Victoria to go home from school, she has to either take a ship along the coast or take a long train ride around.

Victoria just chose the easier and faster method. Taking the train takes a really long time.

Occasionally, flashes of light sparkle from the distant forest visible through the small window.

No matter how I look at it, it seems like fire, but no fires break out.

It’s the light of this world’s indigenous life forms.

Beasts that could be called monsters roam in the jungle.

That’s why it’s an area where people don’t go.

In the first place, the jungle itself is an area that rejects humans.

Jungles often remain for surprisingly long periods even as civilization develops. Unless there are special resources, even if there’s technology to conquer the jungle, the cost of clearing the jungle is too high compared to the benefits that can be gained.

That’s how it is in worlds that don’t use magic or qi.

In worlds where creatures use magic or qi, the danger increases hundredfold.

So this world has drawn the outlines of the world, but hasn’t filled in the interior.

It’s that kind of world.

“Uh, uh. Huh? Who, are you?”

Victoria woke up with a groggy expression. Then she hugged the blanket covering her body in surprise and looked at me with a bewildered expression.

She seems unable to gather her wits, perhaps not fully awake yet.

“You’re still in a nightmare.”

I answered half-jokingly. At my answer, half-filled with truth, she looked around the room and at me with a flustered expression.

“Ah! Hello. Good morning.”

“Strictly speaking, it’s night.”

I pointed to the window. Although it’s a small window that can’t be opened because we’re on a ship, you can see that outside is a night sky full of starlight.

Victoria, blinking her eyes, lowered her legs from the bed.

Then she looked down at her clothes and was startled.

“My, my clothes! What! I don’t think I changed before sleeping!”

“I changed you into clothes from your travel bag. Now that you’re up, you should wash first.”

Victoria, either still half-asleep or unable to grasp the situation, looked around and then seemed to organize her thoughts and stood up.

Then she made a chilling expression, turned her clothes inside out to check her underwear, and said one thing.

“Isn’t it too much to change even my underwear?”

“You’ll get sick.”

“Are you my mother?”

Hygiene is important. Especially in a world that’s moderately developed.

Of course, in this world, magical treatment methods and physical treatment methods coexist, and there are even antibiotic injections.

But ritualistic methods are more popular. As long as there’s magic, it’s not completely ineffective.

There’s something of a transitional impression.

Lost limbs can be regenerated, but it’s a bit inadequate for fatal plagues or diseases caused by contamination.

Anyway, it’s best to be careful within the possible range.

While I was waiting like that, Victoria called me from where she went to wash.

“Hey! Can you come in here!”

“Yes.”

When I went in, a naked Victoria was floating on a water droplet, reflecting herself in front of the mirror.

It’s quite a bizarre sight even from the side.

A huge water droplet is floating in the air, with Victoria in the middle. Only her head is sticking out above the water droplet.

And although it’s hard to see because it’s transparent, the water is rotating inside. It’s washing her body like a washing machine.

Superpower. She’s handling it well.

Victoria spoke to me while washing like that in front of the mirror.

“I didn’t know all my hair color would change to purple. It’s nice that my skin turned white, but what’s going on with this?”

She’s asking while in quite an exposed posture.

“That’s what happens when you contract with me. If it’s not a dying situation, the hair turns purple, and the skin becomes snow-white. And if there are wounds, they heal, the body becomes robust, the mind sharpens, and sometimes you gain abilities.”

Rather than sometimes, I suspect they awaken when faced with a reality they can’t escape even with an improved body, but I don’t say that far.

Victoria examined her body closely, then reached out to me.

And the water droplet split and flew towards me, submerging me in water except for my head.

At a glance it might look like an attack, but it’s not.

The water droplet that washed me thoroughly like putting me in a washing machine fell off me. I must have been quite dirty too, as the water droplet turned black.

And that water droplet immediately went down the drain.

I don’t have a single drop of water on me, but I’m clean.

“Ability. You’re utilizing it well.”

“It’s creepy how it moves as naturally as moving my hands and feet. But are you really not a god? Just listening to what you said, it sounds really good? Above all, this ability. If it’s not given by a god, what is it really?”

It means that what’s lost is even greater.

But I don’t say that.

Instead, I said something else.

“Remember this. The contract is only once. Don’t think you can heal again through a contract if you get hurt again.”

“It’s scarier if I could keep coming back to life. Anything else?”

There’s nothing else.

I was about to shake my head thinking that, but I stopped.

There is one thing.

“If a creature with a life-threatening injury contracts with me, their skin turns blue.”

“Blue? I think my skin looks a bit blue too, is this it?”

That’s because your skin has turned white. Snow-white skin is sometimes described as pale, but it’s not that kind of blue.

I pointed to a bright blue picture on one side of the bathroom.

“This color.”

Victoria was surprised.

“That’s the color of a corpse. They’d mistake it for something made by a necromancer. But, if it’s only possible once, isn’t that irrelevant to me?”

For now, that’s true.

But when someone has a major accident, there’s a person with superpowers that can heal any wound right next to them.

Accidents really come suddenly, and those scars last a lifetime.

I’m drawing the line in advance so that it won’t be troublesome if they call me then and resent me.

“I’m not a god, just a mere monster, so I want you to keep that in mind.”

Sensing something from my words, Victoria nodded seriously.

Then she came down to the floor and poured all the water down the drain.

There’s not even a drop of water or moisture left in the washing area.

She gained an incredibly powerful ability.

I thought that if she does well, she could completely dry people like jerky, or even move the blood inside.

It was in a fictional work, but there was a case where waterbending became bloodbending.

But instead of saying that, I said this:

“Put on your clothes quickly. Before you catch a cold.”

Victoria gave a wry smile.

“It’s a bit odd for you to say things like that while introducing yourself as a monster.”

“I have a belief in not lying. Well then, I’ll wait outside.”

I went outside and waited for her to dress and come out.

I was about to fix Victoria’s hair when she came out, but realizing there wasn’t a single drop of water, I lowered my hand.

This superpower is really amazing.

Then Victoria and I sat facing each other. As a strangely awkward atmosphere settled.

Bwoooong

Along with the horn, an announcement about arriving somewhere echoed. After the loud announcement ended three times, Victoria opened her mouth as if she had been waiting.

“We’re not getting off here. Remember, we’ll get off two stops from now.”

Although it was something I already knew, I nodded pretending I didn’t know. I have no intention of telling anyone that I gain the memories of harvesters. Not now, not ever.

Victoria stares at me intently. She examines me from head to toe with a very glassy gaze.

“Come to think of it, your name. You asked me to decide earlier.”

The fact that she’s asking this means she’s decided on a name.

“Is the postponement over?”

“Yes. I thought it would take a long time if I thought about it too much, so I decided to just keep it simple.”

As Victoria waved her finger, the humidity in the room lowered and a water droplet formed in front of her.

She moved it to form letters.

“Belle.”

It’s a simple name. Well, such a casually given name suits me. It’s just a nickname anyway.

“Belle. Then, I’ll use this as my name from now on.”

“You’re not saying it’s too simple?”

“I like it that way.”

Victoria lets out a small sigh of relief.

Actually, knowing Victoria’s naming sense, I think I should be grateful even for this.

She’s someone who only gives science-like names full of orthodox synthetic intake structure ver1.2 to her inventions.

For reference, that’s.

Pocari Sweat.

You can probably guess what kind of naming sense she has.

“Belle, huh. Beautiful? Does this face look pretty to you?”

“Ah.”

There was a sound of something catching. Looking at Victoria, she avoids my gaze with an apologetic expression. Even searching through Victoria’s memories, there’s no one named Belle.

“What is it?”

“No, well. Promise not to get angry?”

“I won’t.”

When I answered like that, she gently stretched her hand into the air. Then a monstrous form appeared in the air.

It’s the first form of this body.

“This was really terrible, so approaching it ironically?”

It is an impressive face. White and dull eyes. Needle-sharp teeth densely packed, and a face grotesque like a mix of fish and human.

By the standards of the Great Kraken’s original species, it would be handsome though!

“You’re asking for trouble.”

“You said you wouldn’t get angry!”

I’m not angry.

It seems unconscionable to name a person like that, but I understand the concept of naming an ugly creature “pretty”.

“I’m hungry, so buy me food. This body. It’ll be troublesome if I don’t eat soon.”

“You really talk strangely. But, yes. That’s right. There should be a restaurant, so let’s go there.”

Victoria’s the one with money.

We left our luggage and headed to the restaurant together.

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Tl/note: By the way, Belle is on the cover of the novel.