episode_0018

Since Rai, the hunter’s house, was on the outskirts of the village, we were able to enter Rai’s house without being noticed by the villagers.

“Heehee… It’s a relief nothing major happened.”

The Hero set down the basket containing the slime, which he had carried for us.

Meanwhile, I carefully sat Killua, whom I had carried on my back, onto a chair in the living room.

“Are you going to be okay?”

I wanted to move her straight to a bed, but Killua had strongly insisted on being placed on the living room chair.

“Haa… Thank you.”

Thanks to removing the slime, the alcohol addiction symptoms that had plagued her body seemed to have been somewhat detoxified. However, Killua, still trembling slightly and letting out a hot sigh, expressed a simple thanks to me for carrying her this far.

“This slime has a peculiar poison. The alcohol addiction symptoms won’t be detoxified quickly.” “What?! You knew this would happen?!” I glared at the Hero as he explained the situation Killua was in as if he knew all about it.

“Yeah. That’s why I warned you it was dangerous.” “No!! You clearly told us you didn’t know!!” I frowned deeply at the Hero’s brazen reply and stood in front of Killua to protect her from him. However, the Hero tilted his head as if he couldn’t understand my actions.

“Yeah, I didn’t know why the slime changed like that. Weren’t you asking me why the slime changed?” “No… What kind of…” His brazen reply, as if he had a brazen face and had committed no sin or mistake, left me speechless.

“It’s okay, Jazel… Move aside for a moment.” At that moment, Killua, who was behind me, nudged my waist with her arm, gesturing for me to step aside, as I stood in front of her to protect her. At her instruction, I stepped aside, glaring at the Hero with watchful eyes.

“I heard from Rai. You said you cultivate herbs, right?” Having regained some physical stability, she spoke in her usual steady voice and handed the Hero a piece of paper with a drawing of a black fruit that looked as if it had just been sketched.

“Can you get the fruit of this herb?” The Hero, who had taken the paper Killua handed him, quickly scanned it and replied with a bright smile, as if it was nothing.

“Yep! It’s nothing at all! Should I go get it now?” “Please do.” “Got it!”

At her words, the Hero replied energetically and left the spot without hesitation, holding the fruit drawing she had given him in his hand.

I stared at the Hero’s retreating back as he shook his fat belly, flung the door open, and left. Only after he disappeared from sight did I let out a sigh of relief.

“How are you feeling?” “Terrible.” Killua also seemed relieved once the Hero was out of sight, bending her upper body and letting out a deep sigh.

As she sighed, with no time to properly tidy up, her soft skin peeked out slightly through the gaps in her still disheveled clothes.

Then, as her beautiful body, which I had seen in the forest, came to mind, my breathing unconsciously began to quicken.

“Can I… help you?” In the end, even though I knew very well what her condition was, I brazenly hinted at my ulterior motives to her.

I hoped that she, whose reason was slightly clouded by alcohol addiction, would also get caught up in a moment of desire and accept my blatant ulterior motives, but…

“……”

As if she knew my dark intentions perfectly well, she gripped her collar even tighter to conceal the slightly open gap in her clothes, then struggled to lift her head and glared at me with narrowed eyes.

Unlike in the forest, having returned home, she had regained a certain degree of physical and mental stability, so unlike me, she was not easily swept away by the surging desires within her body.

“I appreciate the sentiment. But I have a lot to do right now.” “Ah… Th… Ah… Understood.” Her firm refusal, which showed no weakness, left me only able to utter a foolish reply filled with regrettable longing that anyone could hear, and lower my head.

“The slime will start to decay quickly over time. We need to process it before that. There are unused alcohol jars in the workshop; put all the slime into them.” “Understood.” Following her instructions, I picked up the basket full of slime and headed towards the workshop located on the outskirts of the open field in front of the house, as if fleeing the awkward atmosphere.

In one corner of the workshop, filled with all sorts of tools like bows, pickaxes, and sickles, various sizes of jars, slightly dusty, were stacked as Killua had described.

“Why are there so many jars for aging alcohol?” Most of the jars were sized for aging alcohol. I had never seen Rai drink alcohol or keep any stored in his house during my stay, so I tilted my head and rummaged through the pile of jars.

I pulled out a suitable jar from the pile and, following Killua’s instructions, poured the slime from the basket into it.

“Good… Next is…” “Ki… Killua-nim?!” At that moment, startled by Killua’s voice from behind me, I stopped pouring the slime and turned to face her.

“What is it?” Killua glared at me, who had turned to face her with wide, startled eyes, as if finding it absurd.

“Weren’t you… resting?” It was surprising that she had followed me all the way to the workshop on her own feet, despite it being difficult for her to even move her body, which was afflicted by the slime’s poison and suffering from alcohol addiction.

“If I concentrate my consciousness, I can somehow endure. And entrusting everything to others doesn’t suit my personality.” She explained while pressing her fingertips against her glabella, as if her head was dizzy from the alcohol addiction. Then she stood beside me and checked the condition of the jar I had poured the slime into.

“Good. Now fill the remaining space with sawdust.” “Understood.” Following her instructions, I carried an armful of sawdust from the pile left as a byproduct of cutting timber or carving wood to make tools in one corner of the workshop, and put it all into the jar half-filled with slime. A distinct woody scent wafted strongly from inside the jar, now filled with slime and sawdust.

“Now, you just mix the full sawdust in with the slime, pressing down firmly.” “Do I have to do it with my bare hands?” The slime left behind was the slime’s excrement. Even if it didn’t have a peculiar stench because it only ate grass and tree roots, the fact that the slime was the slime’s excrement remained unchanged. At Killua’s instruction to touch such slime with my bare hands, I recoiled in horror and turned to face her.

“If you’re disgusted, go find some gloves then.” Killua replied curtly to my disgusted reaction and, as if to set an example, put her bare hand into the jar. Then she pressed down firmly on the sawdust that had been poured over the slime with her bare hand. The sawdust, pressed by her hand, slowly sank into the slime, and the sticky slime oozing from the gaps in the sawdust intertwined around her hand.

“Eek…” Killua stirred her hand in the slime, which was no different from the slime’s excrement, without batting an eye, mixing the sawdust and slime. At her unrestrained actions, a scream mixed with a slight revulsion burst from me unconsciously.

However, Killua paid no mind to my disgusted reaction and, precariously leaning her uncomfortable body against the jar, struggled to mix the slime and sawdust with one arm.

“I… I’ll do it!!” Unable to bear watching her struggle to mix the slime and sawdust with one arm, her consciousness already dazed from the slime’s poison, I belatedly plunged both my hands into the jar.

My large hands, bigger than her slender, small single hand, mixed the sawdust and slime more quickly and strongly.

“Ugh… Ugh…” The sensation of mixing and kneading the slime’s excrement with both hands was utterly terrible. Even while mixing the sawdust and slime, screams mixed with disgust and revulsion slowly escaped my lips. However, because of Killua’s actions—helping to mix the slime with one arm despite her struggle, without complaint—I couldn’t pull my hands out of the revolting sludge.

“Good. This should be enough.” Only after the sawdust and slime were sufficiently mixed did Killua lightly shake off the sticky slime from her hands and pull them out of the jar.

“Ugh… Ughhh…” As soon as she pulled her hands out, I, as if I had been waiting, pulled my arms out of the slime and desperately wiped the slime from them thoroughly. But no matter how hard I wiped, the feeling of revulsion that residue might remain under my fingernails or between my fingers wouldn’t disappear.

“Don’t overreact. I told you it’s a byproduct, not excrement.” To me, frantically wiping away traces of slime from my hands with a disgusted expression, Killua offered advice that didn’t resonate much. And unlike me, Killua casually shook off the slime from her left hand with a few waves in the air, then tried to touch her forehead, which was throbbing with a headache from alcohol addiction.

“W-wait a moment!!” Unable to simply stand by and watch Killua try to touch her forehead with a hand that had just handled slime, which was no different from excrement, and hadn’t been properly cleaned, I urgently grabbed her left arm as if snatching it.

“W-what are you doing?!” “It’s poop!! That’s slime poop!!” Finally reaching the limits of my patience, I bluntly called the slime “poop” and pulled out a clean bandage that I always kept in my waist pouch for emergencies. Then I meticulously began wiping the remaining slime from her left hand.

“No… I told you it’s clean.” “How can excrement be clean or dirty? Excrement is excrement.” Killua looked at my actions of wiping her hand as if I was being absurd. However, as if she had no intention of shaking off my hand wiping her arm, she slightly spread her fingers or twisted her wrist this way and that, following my touch as I cleaned her arm with the clean bandage.

“Aren’t you being too thorough?” “You touched poop with your bare hands, and you expect me to just wipe it off casually?” I even bent her fingers, meticulously cleaning every crevice of her knuckles and the tiny space under her fingernails with the tip of the bandage.

Even Killua, who had initially looked at me as if I were absurd, didn’t seem to dislike my devoted efforts to clean her arm, as she sighed softly and turned her head away.

“There. All done. But when we get home, you must wash it thoroughly with water again.” Only after meticulously wiping off all visible slime with the bandage did I, satisfied, release her arm.

Killua, who was examining her arm that I had somehow meticulously wiped clean with the bandage, spoke.

“You’re incredibly thorough. I’ll give you about 30 points out of 100.” “30 points? After all that trouble and worry… Ugh!?” Her sudden joke of rating my actions and the surprisingly low score made me instinctively pout, and my true feelings accidentally blurted out.

The moment my complaining words about her scoring unintentionally slipped out. Realizing my mistake belatedly, I hurriedly shut my mouth. But my words complaining about her scoring had already been said.

“……”

Killua, who had clearly heard my unintentional complaint, slowly shifted her gaze from her hand and looked directly into my flustered eyes. Though it was a joke score she had thrown out, I had challenged her judgment. Because no matter how arrogant a person was, they wouldn’t have the courage or arrogance to question the judgment of a White Mage, who was said to possess all the knowledge in this world.

“Don’t you remember how you acted towards me today?” But Killua was not angry. In her usual steady, calm voice, she brought up my behavior.

“Huh?” Flustered by the fact that she wasn’t angry, I could only respond to her question with a foolish gasp.

“‘Can I… help you?’ is what you said?” Then Killua pouted her lips and mimicked my voice. At her words, mockingly echoing the very words that had revealed my ulterior motives when she was disheveled, my face involuntarily turned bright red.

“Right. Just how exactly were you planning to help me?” Amused by my bright red reaction, Killua unconsciously quirked the corner of her lips and asked.

“Th-that…” “Were you going to bury your face in my chest again? Sucking on it like a baby?” As I hesitated to answer, Killua pressed me even more mischievously. Stunned by her overly blatant and direct questions, I could only silently open and close my mouth, my face bright red.

“Puhahaha! You should see your face right now!” Finally, unable to contain herself at the sight of my hideously bright red, almost bursting face, Killua burst out laughing. Unlike Killua, who laughed freely, I merely hung my head, my face bright red and speechless.

“Those actions were deductions, which resulted in 30 points. Okay? Do you agree?” “Ah… Understood.” To avoid the topic that made my face burn without any retort, I had no choice but to hastily agree to her scoring.

“Alright. Let’s rest until the Hero brings the fruit. Just close the jar lid and come.” Killua, who nodded grandly as if satisfied with my answer, held onto her clothes with her left arm and walked towards the house.

Following her instructions, I found the wooden lid for the jar and closed the lid of the jar where the slime and sawdust were mixed.

“Oh, right. Just in case, from now on, even if it’s just the two of us, speak casually.” “Huh? B-but…” I couldn’t help but be flustered by her instruction to stop using honorifics towards her. My use of honorifics towards her contained respect and reverence for the White Mage who had saved me from falling into despair. To stop using such honorifics felt like she no longer needed that kind of respect and reverence from me.

“Just now, in an urgent situation, you used honorifics without realizing it. If that keeps happening, people will think it’s strange, won’t they?” Killua, letting out a small chuckle at my flustered reaction, calmly explained why I should stop using honorifics. When there was a slime threat in the forest, even with the Hero present, I unintentionally used honorifics towards her. I couldn’t quite grasp why people would think it strange if they knew I used honorifics for Killua, but… as someone infinitely dumber compared to her, I couldn’t object to her opinion.

“Ah… Understood.” “Tsk.” “Alright…” When Killua pointed out my habitual use of honorifics, I struggled to speak informally to her. Killua merely smiled broadly and nodded, as if satisfied with my informal speech.