On The Honeymoon (7)

“Wait—Rurin! Tell them not to touch the petrified one. Leave him alone, quick!”

The Kuns were about to touch their petrified comrade, so I had to immediately send Rurin to stop them.

I must’ve looked serious—Rurin didn’t question it and dashed over to them.

Petrification…

It felt like something a monster would use to kill prey easily. Like some kind of game item. That’s why I rushed to stop them.

If they touched it and it shattered, there’d be no way to restore it.

If this grilled Sekun really had item-like properties, there might be a way to reverse it…

The Kuns froze on the spot at Rurin’s shout. Maybe it was the fear they’d really die if they touched him.

They stayed that way for five minutes—until the petrified Kun began returning to normal.

Interestingly, the petrification reversed from head to toe, until he was fully back to normal.

“Kukun! Kun-kun!”

The Kuns jumped around excitedly once their leader came back to life.

Apparently, eating the grilled Sekun causes petrification, but only for about five minutes.

That would make it easy to attack enemies during that time—if you could get them to eat it.

But it didn’t end there. The leader had only eaten half of the grilled Sekun, so he was still holding the other half.

Startled, he threw it to the ground—and of all things, it landed right on another Kun’s foot.

And then something unexpected happened again.

The Sekun exploded on impact, and even though the other Kun didn’t eat it, he began to petrify.

From foot to head, he turned to stone.

The recently revived leader looked shocked but did his best to calm the panicking Kuns.

He was probably thinking, “I came back in 5 minutes, so he will too.”

It was a pretty leader-like response, to be honest.

So I had Rurin explain to him that grilling changes the Sekun’s effect.

Then I started analyzing what just happened.

It doesn’t seem like just touching it causes petrification. When the Sekun was thrown, it experienced impact—maybe it’s not contact, but shock that triggers the effect?

That makes it basically a weapon.

That was a very interesting discovery.

Suddenly, a strategy for taking the second floor just formed on its own.

If we collected a bunch of Sekun mushrooms and charged the second floor with the Kuns, we could easily overwhelm the larger monsters—since the Kuns had superior numbers.

That’s how powerful grilled Sekun is as a weapon.

If we cleared the second floor, we might find a way out of this ruin—solving everything.

It was too late to act now, but after a good sleep, we could convince the Kuns to help us conquer the second floor—maybe then we’d finally make it to our actual honeymoon destination.

After all, they’d been oppressed and enslaved here on the first floor—it’d be great if they could reclaim their freedom with their own hands.

They seemed like peace-loving creatures. If they took over the ruin, they’d probably live in peace.

With those thoughts swirling, I lowered my chin from my hand and looked for Rurin.

She had stopped eating the grilled Sekun and was now examining it closely, like something had caught her interest.

“You?”

Then she trotted over and held out a piece of Sekun to me.

“Huh? Did you figure something out?”

“Nope. I just want to try being stone too. I’m curious what it feels like. Those guys turned back pretty quick, right?”

“You want to be petrified?”

She nodded.

Rurin nodded enthusiastically.

“You’re really curious about everything, huh?”

“Aren’t you curious? What it feels like to be stone? Of course being stone forever would be terrible, but if it’s only for a little while? Honestly, I think being a statue wouldn’t be so bad—as long as you carried me everywhere. You can’t put me down. Even if I’m stone, I’m still me!”

“…Let’s ignore that terrifying demand for now. It wouldn’t even work on you. Our dear Lady Rurin is a mighty dragon. A dragon turning to stone? Not happening. Look—I’ll show you.”

I dropped a Sekun on Rurin’s foot—just like how the Kun got petrified.

As expected, nothing happened. She might look human, but her skin is still that of a dragon. No way poison or magic could get through that.

Only something strong enough to pierce a dragon’s hide would work—and there’s no way some mushroom has that kind of power.

“…Then what about you?”

“Eh?”

“I want to see you turn to stone! Actually, more than me getting petrified—I want to turn you into stone!”

“What? Wait. Rurin? Let’s hold on a second?”

“Hehehehe. Five minutes is all it takes!”

“Wait! I have a Dragon Heart inside me, so if I eat it, I won’t turn to stone—but my skin isn’t dragon skin, it’s just regular human skin, right? So I can’t stop the poison from entering in the first place. Sure, the Dragon Heart will detoxify it quickly once it enters through the skin, but I’ll probably still turn to stone for a brief moment. And if that happens, I might lose consciousness, and that would be a huge problem—so please stop!”

“Ohhh, is that so? Don’t worry! Have you ever seen me do something you told me not to? Fufufu.”

Pretty sure I’ve seen that happen a lot.

“Eiiit!”

“Hey!”

“Gyaah, my hand slipped!”

“You’re calling that acting too?!”

Rurin hurled the grilled Sekkun at me. And I mean hard. Like a pitcher throwing a 150km fastball while yelling ‘Eiiit!’ And then she goes, “My hand slipped?”

“You…!”

I couldn’t finish my sentence. Because I started turning to stone. I turned into a monument behind my wife’s head.

“Oooh!”

What do you mean, “Oooh.” Just undo the petrification already.

Seriously.

Caught by Rurin’s wickedness, my body started turning to stone. Honestly, turning to stone feels really weird.

It’s like slowly stiffening up until you can’t move, sort of like paralysis out of nowhere or being trapped in sleep paralysis.

But that didn’t mean I lost consciousness or anything. I thought I might lose the memory of the moment I turned to stone, but apparently not.

But what if I’m attacked and shattered while I’m stone?

That’s a terrifying thought. One I’d rather not dwell on.

“Oooh!”

Rurin stared at me with this dumbfounded expression on her face.

“He turned to stone!”

She went “hoooh, hoooh,” trotted in a circle around me, then rested her chin on her hand and said:

“Even as a stone, you look cool.”

Really?

Well, thanks, I guess. Her mumbling calmed my stone-bound rage a little.

Just a little.

Then she called out to me.

“My love.”

I can’t even respond, and she’s calling me.

She carefully brought her face close to mine, gently touched my cheek with her finger, and mimed poking me. Just mimed it…

She almost never does even something like that. Because it embarrasses her.

“Hehe. Your cheek is cute. But I said I wouldn’t touch it, so I won’t.”

Thankfully, she seemed to remember the warning she gave Kun earlier.

“I always want to hug you, but I’m too shy! So I want to at least pretend while you’re turned to stone!”

Then Rurin carefully moved in and wrapped her arms around my waist. Without actually touching my stone body, of course.

“…Ughh.”

Her ears turned red and she lowered her head. A moment later, she glanced up at my face again, and those sparkling eyes of hers looked ridiculously cute.

Blushing with embarrassment but smiling like she was truly happy.

While that was happening, the petrification started to wear off. It takes five minutes for the Kuns, but just like I thought, my detox process was faster. Not even three minutes in, I could already move again.

So I came out of it with Rurin still hugging my waist.

Rurin froze in place, clearly flustered. Her mouth opened slightly, blinking like she had no idea what to do.

Her ears were already red, but now her whole face turned beet-red. If she were in dragon form, would she look like a Red she hates so much? What a hilarious thought.

“Why did you come back alreadyyyy! Gyaaah!”

Flustered beyond belief, Rurin finally exploded.

I pulled her in by the waist and hugged her tightly.

“What are you so flustered about? Hugging your husband is totally normal.”

“Ughh. But still…”

That reassurance must’ve helped her calm down, because she hugged me back—and we ended up staying in each other’s arms like that for a long while.

“Feels like I lost again somehow!”

After we finally pulled away, Rurin puffed her cheeks out and shouted that.

I opened my eyes on a bed of straw. I blinked blankly for a moment.

Then, about ten seconds later, I remembered—this wasn’t the bedroom in the lair.

In front of me was Rurin’s face. She was asleep in my arms, looking peaceful.

She had her face buried in my chest, curled up, softly purring.

After the petrification wore off, I decided to sleep, and when I said that, the Kuns kindly set up a sleeping area with gathered straw.

What thoughtful monsters.

If there were only a few of them, I’d want to bring them to the lair and have them live with the Luruns.

But there are too many of them. Taking just a couple wouldn’t work either.

These monsters seemed to have a strong sense of community. So separating them wouldn’t be right. That’s why the whole Lurun family moved to the lair too.

The Kuns’ morning was very busy. Well, technically it wasn’t morning. Since there was no need to open the restaurant, we just slept in.

We’d fallen asleep way later than usual too—well past the time we normally wrap up work at the restaurant.

After all, we spent a long time wandering those tunnels to find this place where the Kuns were, and a lot happened even after that.

Anyway, the Kuns were digging. For food. It seemed like if they planted the mushroom caps, they’d multiply underground.

They had separate zones in this huge area—one for growing Sekun and Rabon, another for harvesting. Like crop rotation, I guess?

So it was basically an infinite food system.

No, that’s not the point right now. What really matters is that the big monsters are going to come down again.

The Kuns said that the monsters monitoring them worked in shifts. A new one comes every day. That means they’ll eventually come down and discover their comrade is dead.

So I had Rurin help convince the Kuns. It didn’t take long.

After experiencing the power of Sekun firsthand, the Kuns basically knelt like they’d found a god of salvation.