episode_0060

“The treatment is finished~!”

Ariel holds an empty bowl that contained medicinal ingredients and energetically throws open the door.

Then, Killua, who was calmly drinking herbal tea at the living room table, looks at the door at her lively shout.

“What in the world are you wearing…”

He then confirms Ariel, dressed in thin pajamas that clearly revealed the silhouette of her body, and frowns.

“I overslept…”

Ariel casually brushes off Killua’s chiding with an awkward laugh and begins to tidy up the bowl and ladle that had held the medicinal ingredients.

While she was tidying up the bowl and ladle, Killua, seeing me walk out of the room behind her, puts down her teacup on the table and stands up.

“How’s your body?”

She approached me, asking a question to check my physical condition after Ariel’s treatment.

“I’m much better. Ariel knew the exact location of the toxins.”

Killua, nodding slightly at my remark, extends her hand and places it on my chest.

Following this, her magic began to gently seep into my chest through her hand.

Her magic, which seeped in as if checking my body’s condition, roamed calmly and gently throughout my chest.

“Indeed, the amount of toxins has significantly decreased compared to when I treated you.”

As she checked my body’s condition, a flicker of surprise began to appear in her eyes, which had been filled with worry.

Her energy, which had seeped into my chest, also investigated various places as if trying to pinpoint the exact location of the toxins with her magic… but perhaps she couldn’t find the exact location like Ariel, as her brow began to subtly furrow.

“Was there nothing else?”

Killua, having seemingly given up on finding the toxins’ location, withdraws the magic that had seeped into my chest and asks about what happened in the room.

“Uh… a little…”

I hesitate to answer Killua’s question, glancing at Ariel.

As if sensing my gaze, Ariel, who was washing the bowl and ladle, turned to look at me.

And with a smiling face, as if saying it was okay to speak, she gave a small nod.

“Ariel got on top of me and…”

“No, no, that’s not it at all!!”

The moment I began to speak about Ariel getting on top of me, massaging me, and tempting me—

Ariel, who had been washing the bowl and ladle, was horrified by my words and screamed, as if trying to bury what I was saying.

“W-why are you talking about that?! Weren’t you going to talk about something else, not that?!”

At Ariel’s embarrassed shout, Killua sighs softly, looks at her, and says,

“I knew all that. You two were quite entwined and making a ruckus.”

At Killua’s words, indicating she already knew everything that had happened in the room, Ariel’s face turned beet red.

“No… how… how did you know?”

“When you see the flow of your magic intertwining and mixing together as your bodies were in close contact… well, it’s obvious what happened.”

I had momentarily forgotten that although all my magic had disappeared, my ability to sense magic flow was no different than before.

From Killua’s perspective, sensing our magic intertwining through close physical contact in the room beyond the wall would not have been difficult.

As a result, Ariel, unable to bear the embarrassment of her seductive actions being completely exposed to Killua, covers her reddened face with both hands.

“Anyway. Is there something else you wanted to say besides that?”

Killua, smiling faintly as if pleased with my honest attempt to describe what happened in the room, turns to me and asks.

While she could discern from the flow of magic that Ariel and I had engaged in excessive physical contact in the room…

It seemed she hadn’t caught on to the conversation we had inside.

“I’m thinking of going on a date with Ariel.”

“Huh… huh?”

Killua’s lips, which had been curved in a faint smile at my words, stiffen for a fleeting moment.

It was such a subtle reaction that I wouldn’t have noticed it if I hadn’t been staring at her face, keenly watching for her reaction.

“A date? You? With Ariel?”

“Yes. Ariel asked me on a date, and I accepted.”

However, perhaps unable to hide the turmoil in her heart, Killua throws out questions in disjointed words. Looking at Ariel, who was still covering her face with both hands, I truthfully recount what happened in the room.

“Why are you saying it so directly!!! You could have just equivocated by saying we were going out to play for a bit!!!”

Ariel, sensing my gaze on her as if I wanted her evaluation of what I’d said, lowers her hands from her face and screams in a voice that seemed unable to contain her mounting embarrassment.

“If you had just equivocated that much… Killua-nim would have understood perfectly, wouldn’t she?! Right?”

“Ah… well… I guess so?”

At Ariel’s words, Killua gave a small nod with an unenthusiastic expression.

“Anyway… I’m going to go change first. Jazel, please get ready to go out right now!”

Unable to bear the awkward and embarrassing atmosphere caused by my foolish remark, Ariel hurriedly runs away as if fleeing to the herb drying room where her belongings were.

Left alone with Killua, I belatedly realize my slip of the tongue, sweat profusely, and swallow hard.

“A date? Suddenly? Why?”

“She says she likes me.”

“……”

“……”

An awkward and heavy silence, unlike anything I had ever experienced, pressed down on Killua and me.

“Do you believe that?”

Her voice, lower and sharper than usual, pierces the heavy silence and seeps into my ears.

“I’m thinking of believing it, at least for now.”

“Haa… I don’t know.”

As if frustrated by my answer, Killua taps her forehead with her hand.

Then, after taking a deep breath as if trying to calm the irritation rising in her throat.

She abruptly hands me a small leather pouch.

“Take this.”

“What is this?”

“It’s a medicinal pellet made by grinding evening primrose and moonshine grass. If… just if…”

Killua, who had been silent for a moment, cautiously opened her mouth.

“If Ariel uses magic or strange herbs, or does anything else that seems to confuse your mind, eat this. It will help you regain your reason for a while and put you in an awakened state where you won’t faint for several minutes.”

As if she felt sorry for speaking suspiciously of Ariel in front of me, Killua couldn’t look me directly in the eye, merely extending the pouch containing the medicinal pellets towards me.

“Thank you.”

I nod slightly, expressing my sincere gratitude for her consideration, and take the pouch of medicinal pellets she handed me.

“There’s quite a lot.”

The pouch containing the medicinal pellets, prepared for unforeseen circumstances, was heavier than I expected.

“The Hero dug up a lot of herbs. Just in case, I made as much as I could.”

Contrary to my expectation of just one or two pellets, the pouch contained dozens of them.

I looked at the medicinal pellets glowing with a faint teal light inside the pouch and gave a bitter nod.

It wasn’t good to arbitrarily suspect others…

But from Killua’s perspective, she couldn’t help but suspect Ariel, who possessed strange powers she didn’t understand, much like tracing the remnants of a slime.

She had suspicions but no clear evidence, so for now, out of concern for me, she had merely prepared a preventative measure for the worst-case scenario.

“Then I’ll get ready and come out as well.”

I glanced at the door Ariel had entered and felt the need to tidy myself up a bit, fitting for the pretext of a date.

“Alright, well… have fun.”

Killua gave me a worried look, then waved her hand a couple of times as if telling me to handle things well, and then walked away with languid steps to clean up the herbs the Hero had collected.

“A date, huh…”

Leaving Killua to sort the herbs, I returned to my room to tidy myself up, mumbling a word I hadn’t uttered in a long time.

“There were no days free enough for such a thing.”

A date with a member of the opposite sex… It was an act I had completely forgotten amidst the non-stop busy days of working as the White Mage’s secretary.

“No. Honestly, even before becoming a secretary, I didn’t have that kind of leisure, did I?”

While working as a merchant, traveling across the continent, I had often flirted with or been flirted with by young innkeepers or tavern girls… but I had never done anything specific enough to be called a date.

“Ah… there was one time.”

A memory from quite a long time ago suddenly comes to mind.

A young girl I met when I visited a small, remote village.

The memory of playing something akin to a date with the village girl, who was full of admiration for adults and curiosity about the outside world, comes to mind.

It was merely playing along with a child’s antics, too embarrassing to call a date, but it was a memory full of joy that relieved the boredom accumulated from a long time of travel.

“I wonder if that child is doing well…”

A smile naturally forms on my lips at the nostalgic memory that unexpectedly surfaced.

Standing in front of the mirror to groom myself for the date with Ariel, I found a familiar object on the shelf.

“This is…”

Inside a small, crude tin container, seemingly hammered together, was a greasy, grayish, murky, viscous liquid.

“It’s hair oil, isn’t it?”

The liquid inside the container was hair oil, used to hold back unruly hair or to tidy it neatly.

I remembered occasionally using it when I was a merchant and needed special grooming to receive important guests like nobles or royalty.

“Why is this here…”

It was in a container almost identical in shape to the one I used during my merchant days, so I instantly realized its contents were hair oil.

Picking up the container of hair oil, a luxury item that seemed utterly unsuited for the clumsy Hero, I examined it with curious eyes.

It hadn’t been used for a long time, as a shallow layer of dust had accumulated on the surface of the container.

But fortunately, thanks to its careful sealing, the contents had not deteriorated and maintained a usable quality.

“Come to think of it, that child said my bangs looked bothersome as they fell down, didn’t she?”

The child I met during my merchant days had said my fallen bangs looked bothersome.

Recalling the child’s advice, I swept back my fallen bangs.

Then, I dabbed a bit of the hair oil, presumed to be the Hero’s, from the shelf with my ring finger and used it to hold my swept-back bangs in place so they wouldn’t fall.

“Hmm… well… it’s not bad.”

It was my first time using hair oil in a long time, but after roughly styling it with a comb and my hands, it took on a somewhat presentable shape.

Just as the child said, sweeping back my falling bangs removed the shadow that had covered my face, making my impression seem a little brighter.

“Alright. Shall we go then?”

After lightly tapping my bangs, which were softly held in place by the hair oil I hadn’t used in a long time, I left the room for my date with Ariel.