Chapter 42 : It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s a unicorn!

This is your— what the fck, give it back.

Life energy.

Unfortunately, I can’t do that!

Because, truthfully, I don’t really know what’s going on right now either.

Caught by the unexpected scene, I was startled and fell flat on my butt.

‘What, what the—’

Because it happened so suddenly, I’m completely bewildered.

The two horns, about the size of my forearm, crumbled in mid-air and entered my body as mana.

Is there no replay?

Perhaps because it happened in an instant, I just feel a sense of emptiness and confusion.

It’s the dazed feeling right after breaking an expensive vase while playing ball indoors.

It was definitely there, but now it’s gone.

[What just happened?]

‘Don’t be so naive and surprised by every little thing!’

‘Didn’t the horns clearly turn to dust and disappear into my body?’

‘Is this how a monkey feels when shown a finger-cutting magic trick?’

‘Anyone else watching would probably think I look incredibly stupid.’

I collected myself and analyzed the situation objectively.

One, I cut off the horns of a dead dragon.

Two, those horns turned into mana and entered my body. Poof.

‘It feels like I absorbed its Ki.’

Amitère aptly pointed out the core issue.

If the Dragon Heart is the organ related to mana, then the horns were the part related to life.

What I did was probably absorb the accumulated life force.

Absorbing life force—it sounds like a sinister term fit for black magicians.

However, if there’s a difference, it’s that the energy itself is very pure?

It was a crystallization of pure energy, without any impurities or foreign substances.

Anyway, good is good, I suppose.

[Is any part of you different? How does your body feel?]

Teperi circled around me, checking if perhaps a tail or horns had grown.

Without turning my head, I said to her.

“Hey, I don’t think a tail has sprouted. Could you stop staring at my butt?”

[Uh, huh? How did you know?]

The biggest difference compared to before is that my five senses have become extremely sharp.

My eyes became sharp enough to see far into the distance, and my hearing also became sensitive.

My skin seems to have gotten better too.

‘Would this be how a white-haired old person feels if they returned to their 20s?’

‘My mana hasn’t really changed, though.’

If there’s a slight disappointment, it’s that my mana capacity is the same as before?

It’s a greedy thought, but that’s one of my biggest weaknesses.

Besides that, there seem to be other changes, but it’s hard to pinpoint them.

Thankfully, they don’t seem like bad changes.

“So, is our business here finished now?”

“No, instead of the horns, we should at least take the tailbone. Help me up.”

Dragons, whether horns or tails, are profitable products with no part to waste.

It was when Amitère took my hand to help me up from where I was sprawled on the floor.

The moment our hands touched, I felt a thrilling sensation like electricity coursing through my body, and I fell over in surprise.

Teperi approached me in alarm.

[What’s wrong!]

“No, my, my senses…”

Among the five senses, touch is included.

Perhaps because of my suddenly heightened senses, my body had become extremely sensitive.

Even light stimuli sent shivers down my spine.

“I’ll be fine if I rest a bit. Probably.”

This body with heightened sensitivity feels incredibly awkward.

As if to calm me down, Teperi stroked my back, but even that gentle touch felt like goosebumps erupting as it brushed against my spine.

It’s a bizarre sensation I’ve never felt before.

For some reason, I felt the urge to go to the bathroom.

“Are you feeling better?”

“Yeah…”

After about an hour, I managed to adapt somewhat.

It’s nice that my other senses have developed, but to think I have to live with this body forever.

This must be why they say you shouldn’t carelessly accept things given by others.

Although in this case, it was forcibly stuffed into my mouth.

[This forest is finally ending.]

It seems I’ve even adapted to this forest, which felt so alien at first; it feels like going on an early winter hike in spring weather.

Because the life energy I gulped down was gathered, there are hardly any monsters, making it look like a normal forest.

If asked to visit again next time, my answer would obviously be refusal.

I never want to come back here again.

“There’s something over there.”

No matter how much my sight and hearing improved, they were still inferior to Amitère’s.

Where she detected it, there was a white beast.

[Is it a monster?]

“Well, I’m not sure.”

The beast with pure white fur neither fled nor attacked, slowly approaching us.

Perhaps it’s the animal I know.

“…It’s a unicorn.”

Monsters aren’t the only things living in the Black Forest.

It was also a habitat for wondrous and unique creatures like dragons.

[A horn! It has a horn on its head!]

Of course, it does. A creature that looks like a white horse with a horn on its head is a unicorn.

Come to think of it, everything today has been related to horns.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen a live one.”

True to its reputation as an arrogant beast that only follows pure maidens, its breeding difficulty is said to be no joke.

It’s a foolish beast that would rather starve to death than even look at food offered by a non-virgin.

Moreover, the criteria for a ‘maiden’ who can feed it are unusually strict.

I think I read in a book that it differs based on heart, energy, and body… but since being a horse breeder wasn’t my dream, I stopped reading.

[Wow, look at this! It’s clinging to me!]

Whether it was a horse or a dog, the unicorn saw Teperi and lay down, exposing its belly.

Seeing that it doesn’t bite even when touched, it seems docile as rumored.

Amitère asked something slightly different.

“How much is this fellow’s horn worth? Is it expensive?”

“It’s expensive, but don’t touch it. They say anyone who takes its horn gets cursed. Believe it or not.”

“A pity.”

Amitère also slowly approached the unicorn and stroked its mane.

‘Does she think it’s similar to her own tail?’

The unicorn didn’t resist her awkward touch at all.

“How strange.”

Looking at it like this, it is kinda cute.

‘Should I try petting it too?’

I walked towards where the two were sitting.

―Heeeing?

The creature that was acting cute just moments ago suddenly jumped up.

Its gaze was fixed… right on me.

[What’s wrong!]

The unicorn looked at me with its head lowered.

I tensed up slightly, afraid I might get pierced by its sharp horn.

Amitère also gave me a sideways glance.

“Don’t tell me you…”

“No!”

I shouted, my face flushing red.

I’m not making excuses, but having been strictly raised, I treat my body with great care!

“Why is it acting like this?”

The unicorn wore a very confused expression.

It was a dazed expression with its eyes looking in different directions.

It tilted its head as if something was wrong, and circled around me a few times.

‘Why is Teperi suddenly staring at me like that?’

The unicorn’s face increasingly showed it couldn’t understand what was happening.

‘Surely, it’s not acting this way because I was male in my previous world, right?’

‘That was over 10 years ago!’

Teperi said, looking somehow very flustered.

[Maybe, um, could it be because you absorbed that life energy earlier?]

That makes sense.

Although it was pure, it was still a mix of energies from all sorts of monsters.

As if its inspection was finally over, the creature nestled against me, rubbing its face.

It smells like soap.

“Whew, I almost got misunderstood, you punk.”

The unicorn didn’t run away even when I playfully grabbed its neck.

Amitère looked disappointed, as if she’d missed a chance to tease me.

‘Honestly, I question whether that one is pure.’

Perhaps the saying that it carries pure maidens wasn’t a lie; the unicorn carried us across the Black Forest.

Despite carrying three people, it showed no signs of fatigue.

The path we had walked for days ended in seemingly no time.

Aside from my crotch hurting due to my heightened senses, the speed was astonishingly fast.

Reins itself isn’t a large city, so by nightfall, we were able to reach the small inn where we stayed on the first day.

“Feels like we got back incredibly fast.”

It took so long to get there, but the return trip felt like an instant.

Still, the sky was already dark, so we ended up spending another night here.

Teperi, seeming to like this place, smiled and said something cryptic.

[This inn holds many memories.]

‘Memories? We’ve only been here twice.’

She handed a key to Amitère and said.

[You’ll sleep alone again this time, right? Since she’s still hurting.]

“…I don’t get it.”

Amitère looked at me with a complicated expression, shook her head, and went into her room.

‘What’s that about? Why am I the only one who doesn’t know?’

[Let’s go up too. We should at least wash up briefly and sleep.]

I let Teperi grab my hand and pull me into the room.

It was the same room as last time.

Bang, the door closed.

Teperi’s telepathy came from right beside me.

Come to think of it, there was only one bed here.

A moment later, her voice came again.

[You are sleeping, right?]

“No, I’m awake.”

[Oh… huh?]

“Well, maybe because my senses are so sensitive, even small movements keep waking me up. Sorry, you sleep first.”

Teperi hesitated, then turned her body the other way.

‘I thought I heard something before she turned over… Was it ‘Tch’? Why?’