59

I felt exhilarated!

It was the kind of refreshing freedom that made me want to stretch out my body and shout at the top of my lungs.

But there was still something left to do.

With the hag dead, the effects of the Domination spell had faded, and I could no longer fully understand the voices around me.

From this, I understood a bit of its mechanism—but the fact that I had been linked to that hag in any way still disgusted me.

(If you think about it, communication is essential to give orders. Makes sense, but still—it’s unpleasant.)

I couldn’t be certain of the spell’s exact nature, but judging from the results, it must have been some kind of “language comprehension” or mutual translation.

Now, with it gone, I could only understand within the limits of what I had learned. I could follow conversations, but with less confidence.

With that conclusion, I translated the slightly harder Elvish in my head as I looked around.

The nobleman stood behind his soldiers, shielding himself. In contrast, Lady Forshna moved to the front and ordered her guards to stand down.

No doubt she believed that, since communication was possible, combat could be avoided.

The nobleman, however, had already slipped up and admitted that he had ordered my death.

From the words I had written after killing the hag, he understood that he could be my next target.

“I have a question for you.”

Lady Forshna was the one to speak first, as I had expected.

“Why did you kill Kirisia—why did you kill her?”

She pointed at the grotesque object with its neck twisted fully around, and questioned me.

I had thought she might ask something deeper, but it seemed she disliked matters of life and death more than I had imagined.

So I gave her an answer she could accept.

I looked around for something to write on, then scrawled with an ink-dipped quill on the back of a scattered document:

“Research subject. Experimental animal. Life threat. Reason to kill—natural.”

The grammar was broken, but the meaning was clear enough.

Lady Forshna frowned as she read my words.

(…She gets it, right? Stop making that face, you’re making me nervous!)

While I kept a poker face, watching her reaction, the nobleman interjected.

“I see… she treated you in a way that endangered your life, so you killed her. But why now? If her spell no longer controlled you, you could have killed Lady Kirisia at any time.”

Ah, a fair question.

So I gave a partial truth.

“Resisted spell effect. Needed time. Before that—life threat existed.”

The “life threat” referred to when she forced raw meat on me.

Even for me, eating meat unfit for consumption could have been fatal.

So it wasn’t a lie.

“I see… then her Domination spell wasn’t a failure—it was simply incomplete.”

I had studied magic a little, but I couldn’t confirm that much. So I stayed silent.

“I understand the reason you took her life. Then let me ask one more thing—why did you do all of this?”

That question gave me pause.

What did she mean by “all of this”? Fooling the hag? Learning their language and magic? Or deliberately humiliating her before killing her?

Perhaps I simply hadn’t fully understood her phrasing, but she asked difficult questions.

She wasn’t just a big-hearted, busty beauty after all.

“Question unclear.”

I wrote it plainly. But I suspected she thought I was pretending not to understand.

The nobleman clicked his tongue loudly. If I were human, I might have missed it—but my ears picked it up perfectly.

“Why did you study our language—and our magic?”

Lady Forshna narrowed the question.

Another troublesome one.

The best answer to gain her favor would be “to understand the Elves.” But that risked making me seem more dangerous.

On the other hand, if I framed it as “to resist threats,” that would expose my weakness and mark me as an enemy.

(No time to think. Guess I’ll go with that.)

So I wrote: “To kill boredom.”

It was actually quite honest.

After all, my main mission was to resume my watch over the river.

Even when I was enslaved by the hag, that hadn’t changed. Learning their language had simply been a useful opportunity.

And truthfully, I wanted the mission because it staved off my boredom.

So in a way, I was being perfectly honest.

But the two of them frowned again.

(…Wait. Did I mess up? I really did mean ‘to kill boredom.’)

I started to worry.

I had written with such confidence before—“You are no longer of use”—and killed the hag. If they realized my language skills weren’t perfect, it would be more than embarrassing.

But the two stayed silent, which only deepened my unease.

I couldn’t stand it. Embarrassed, I turned as if to leave.

“Wait, please!”

As expected, Lady Forshna ran after me.

The nobleman, wary of his life, stayed behind. He knew he couldn’t win in a fight, so if I wasn’t attacking, he wouldn’t interfere.

Lady Forshna, though, seemed confident I meant no harm—and pursued me boldly.

Typical of the Natural Harmony Committee.

Even after so much time, they were a bunch of eccentrics who could treat a monster as an equal.

Maybe she was just special, but after she had given me fruit, I felt guilty about ignoring her.

So I decided to give her another chance.

I stomped through the village, Lady Forshna running after me. Her chest surely bounced magnificently.

(Not yet! Don’t look yet! Wait until there’s more distance—then I can enjoy the sight longer!)

At last I turned.

At the same moment, she leapt gracefully.

The distance vanished, and she landed lightly before me, gazing up at my face.

She spoke gently to my sulking form—but I hardly heard her words.

(…If she was going to jump, I wish I’d seen the bounce. Sure, I’d seen it plenty at the river, but seeing it up close, without long-distance vision—that’s what I wanted.)

It wasn’t an obsession, but enough of a passion to want to change the setting once in a while.

For now, I lifted her onto my shoulder, pretending it was “to quiet the villagers.”

Of course, I adjusted my fingers carefully so they brushed against those soft fruits of hers.

She said something, but I ignored it—reaching my destination took priority.

With a dignitary on my shoulder, the villagers judged there was no danger. They gawked, but did not panic.

Finally, we arrived.

I set her gently down. She had been clinging to my face the whole way.

“What do you intend to do here?”

We stood before the hag’s house—the same place where she had dissected my body parts and tested my blood.

So I intended to destroy it all.

I explained this, and asked her help in burning it.

She hesitated.

The village was in the forest, after all. Fire was dangerous.

So I gathered every heat-producing magical tool from the warehouse instead.

She tried to stop me, warning that some were dangerous.

So I threatened her softly.

“If you don’t light the fire, I’ll burn it down with all this.”

Reluctantly, she helped. Her expression saddened.

So I added a message for her sake.

“No reason left for me to come.”

I scratched it on the ground.

Reading it, she lifted her gaze to the sky.

“What is your purpose?”

I didn’t answer. I only watched the hag’s house burn.

“What do you intend for us Elves?”

I couldn’t very well write “I’ll keep peeking.” So I stayed silent.

“…What do you want from the Elves?”

(Hmm. Breasts? No, hips and thighs too. Altogether—naked women? …Damn, I’m the worst. But Elves are beautiful and well-built. Can you blame me for enjoying the sight?)

Of course, I couldn’t write that. Even if I did, it would only come out as roars.

So I wrote: “More fruit, please.”

She stared at the words for a long moment—then quietly began to laugh.

Maybe my handwriting was too messy.

As the hag’s house burned, Elves gathered, staring at the sight of a monster and an Elf standing side by side, watching the flames.

How did they see it?

It would take time to know the answer.