Episode 42

“Yelp! Yip! Kehrng…”

Another Iron Wolf was slowly dying of suffocation. I whispered softly in response to its pitiful howling.

“Don’t worry. You’re not dying; you’re going to live on with me.”

Where would I spend the money from selling its hide? Probably on the gacha, only to end up with magic herbs as the most common outcome.

Thanks to the Gluttonous Stomach, I’ve been consuming all the magic herbs for my maximum mana growth, so it’s not entirely incorrect to say so.

In other words, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call this creature not an Iron Wolf but a half-magic herb…

“Ah. I’m annoyed now.”

It was as if I were predicting my own gacha demise. With a gloomy heart, I focused a bit more on Weak Flame.

The skills obtained from gacha allowed me to skip the efforts that would normally take someone a long time.

Not only did you need to increase your specs for casting, but you also needed to engrave a minimum amount of essential related knowledge into your mind.

I’m certainly grateful for the increase in specs and was making good use of it… but since it was a ‘skill’, I think its true value lay in that knowledge aspect.

Take the Weak Flame I’m currently using, for example.

The magic was simple enough to be called basic. Not even the magic tower, which usually wanted to monopolize magic, restricted the skill from being shared.

But was the weak flame they’d learned really the same as what I’m using?

The gacha system said it was the same, but there were a few points that made me wonder if that was true.

In the Pan Continent, Weak Flame was a magic that merely focused on lighting a fire. Its firepower was hardly significant, and it was impossible to manipulate its shape.

Adding more mana indeed increased the output to a certain extent, but if it exceeded a certain limit, the structure of the magic itself collapsed. Hence, it matched the former statement.

I haven’t been able to test it myself due to my lack of mana, but the knowledge I received had similar content.

However, the next part puzzled me. It claimed that it was impossible to manipulate the form.

No matter how much I searched my mind, no such information existed. In fact, it seemed like it would be possible with just a ‘lot’tle¹ bit of effort.

So, I decided to give it a try.

…And succeeded.

“Huh?”

I blinked, seeing that instead of scorching the entire nose of the Iron Wolf, the flames split into two and only blocked its nostrils.

I’d been a bit nervous since it was a different sensation from how I’d used skills up to now, which was more like clicking a button…

But it was actually no different at all. It just worked when I tried to do it.

“Why is it working?”

No, wait. Thinking about it, wasn’t it obvious? The pickpocketing skill wasn’t just about sneakily swiping wallets but also making it possible to snatch weapons directly from the enemy.

I chuckled in disbelief and reverted the flame back to its original form. It seemed that transforming it was possible, but it consumed more magic power.

Above all, the Iron Wolf still suffered, but its strength was draining slower as well.

The heat may have been transmitted deeper inside, but the efficiency of suffocation decreased due to the reduced smoke from its burning flesh.

Only after exhausting nearly all of my already scarce mana to the brink of mana exhaustion was I able to defeat the Iron Wolf.

“Phew… Please take care of it, Miss Lydia!”

“…Strange. I’m sure that I was the one who chose Jonah as a porter.”

Lydia pouted her lips in dissatisfaction. However, her body was still moving diligently, slicing through the Iron Wolf with her aura.

That’s true. There was Ellie’s request, and Lydia had gotten quite into raising me, but… this was actually supposed to be my porter training period.

The logic had been that I needed to have at least the skills to reach the second floor to perform the duties of a porter properly.

At first, I didn’t understand what that meant… but after making my way around the first floor like this, I got it.

At the very least, I shouldn’t trigger traps and cause problems, should know how to pack up the loot, and must have the stamina to carry all sorts of loads.

In other words, I was currently too weak even to be used as Lydia’s porter.

“I am a noob.”

“A ‘noob’ can’t catch something like an Iron Wolf.”

Shrugging off Lydia’s scolding, I began to finish skinning the halved Iron Wolf.

The process of skinning was tough, and since I wasn’t properly trained, many parts got ruined…

Still, even if I only salvaged half of it, that was 40 copper. Or, it could be used to make my armor. The leather armor I was currently wearing was a cheap one made for beginner adventurers, after all.

If I had armor made from the Iron Wolf’s hide, it would be okay to fight a bit more aggressively on the first floor.

Though it became a bit tattered, I happily tied the salvaged hide on top of my bag.

Since there were already 2 Iron Wolf hides from the previous ones I’d caught, they stacked up in a three-layer shape. I couldn’t help but be pleased when I thought about how much money they would make me.

“Hehe. I’m having meat for dinner today!”

“Don’t you eat meat for every dinner? Senior Ellie eats meat every meal.”

“That is true, I’m being ki-jap-ed² by Ellie right now.”

“…That term doesn’t sound very appropriate. What does ‘ki-jap’ mean?”

“You don’t know what ki-jap is? It’s when you raise and take care of someone until they’re grown enough to ‘eat up’.”

“That’s interesting… But from what I can see, it looks like you’re the one ready to eat up Senior Ellie.”

“That would be a reverse ki-jab. Well, I’m fine with either one.”

There’s a romance to ki-jabs…!

As evidence, while you consume all sorts of creative works, you’ll often find ones that exude a ‘ki-jab’ vibe.

Theseus abducting Helen, Daddy-Long-Legs, ‘I’m a teacher, and you’re my student’, The Tale of Genji, Princess Maker, The Count of Monte Cristo, and so on…

What was important here was that from ancient Greece through the Middle Ages all the way up to the present day, countless people across both the East and West continents had dealt with the element of being ‘ki-jab-ed’.

It was considered quite controversial in reality, but in terms of fantasy, there was no denying it.

“Which do you think Ellie would prefer? It seems like she wouldn’t have the courage to make the first move, so maybe the reverse ki-jab?”

“I don’t want to know about Senior Ellie’s preferences. Especially not when the person in question is right in front of me.”

“Hmm. That’s true. Things would get awkward no matter what you say. That’s my bad. Then, what about you, Miss Lydia?”

“…You’re suddenly asking me?”

Lydia became flustered. I drew a sly grin as I asked her.

“Yes, you, Miss Lydia. You said it yourself, didn’t you? You wanted to use me as a porter, but I’m too weak now, so you said you’d train me up to the level of Floor 2 and then take me along. Isn’t that a ki-jab?”

I breezed past the roughly packed bags and stuck close beside Lydia.

“You’re not going to say it isn’t, will you, Miss Lydia?”

“I, I didn’t do anything.”

“Not do anything? You gave me equipment under the guise of guidance, taught me how to fight, followed me into the labyrinth to ensure I wasn’t hurt… and even forced your idea of an ordinary life onto me, no?”

“…Forced? I just….”

“I know. That wasn’t what you were planning. I just said forced because I couldn’t think of another word, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it, okay? I know it’s all stemmed from your goodwill and wishing for my well-being.”

Saying so with a light giggle, I then lightly placed my hand on top of Lydia’s.

“What I really want to say is this. You don’t have to live an ordinary life to be happy. Even someone who’s twisted can lead a reasonably good life.”

“……”

Lydia was unable to say anything, perhaps not expecting such a sudden advancement.

She seemed to be taking it quite seriously… Of course, I meant it sincerely, but what I just said was merely some buildup.

I tightened my grasp over Lydia’s hand.

“So please, take responsibility for me.”

“…What?”

“If you’re going to mold me to your taste, you need to take responsibility. I mean, don’t raise me only to abandon me, but devour me properly.”

“But Senior Ellie… I never intended to do that in the first place…”

Normally, Lydia would have cut the conversation short with something like ‘Nonsense, troublesome.’ But her reactions were quite lively today.

Maybe that was why a playful urge bubbled up inside of me and caused me to say something I normally wouldn’t have.

“Miss Lydia. Did you know?”

“…Know what.”

“Adultery in chivalric romance is considered romantic.”

“That, that’s…!”

Chivalric literature. The wandering knights we commonly think of, roaming around, defeating evil, then getting involved with a lady…or, in this case, a gentleman. Anyway, stories of forming relationships with the opposite gender exist even in the Pan Continent.

And due to the nature of such literature, it often included married men….

“Both ki-jab and adultery are considered romantic. Then, wouldn’t their combination be considered the romance of romances?”

“Romance….”

Lydia had frozen into a statue, looking like she’d imagined something, so I whispered softly into her ear.

“Don’t you want to make it come true? That romance.”

“……!”

Lydia’s eyes widened. But perhaps the provocation had been too strong. Instead, Lydia regained her senses, glared daggers at me, and flicked my forehead.

Knock!

“Eaaaeeh!”

“No playing around like that. Now hurry up and pack your things. We need to move to the next area.”

Lydia said so as she turned her back to me. What was surprising here was that, even though I was looking at her from behind, I could see her chest sticking out to the side.

My goodness…

Pretending to rub the spot on my forehead where I got hit, I focused my gaze on the rare sight of her chest visible from the back and said.

“I would like to, but… the bag is too heavy for me to lift.”

“Huh?”

“We’ve already caught three Iron Wolves, haven’t we? The weight of their hides is no joke.”

An Iron Wolf boasts the size of a bull. Naturally, their hides are equally as large and heavy.

“Could you possibly carry just half of it, Miss Lydia? In return, I won’t hunt anymore and will head straight back.”

“…I can’t tell who’s the porter anymore.”

Lydia grumbled to herself but helped me carry it.