“I’m gonna smell like fish for weeks,” I muttered with a grimace—the leviathan’s blood had a very potent aroma—before shooting Fel a glare. “Really? Putting up a barrier around yourself and leaving me to get soaked? That’s not even a little bit fair!”
“Hmph! What I do with my power is my business, and mine alone. I see no reason not to use it for my own sake,” Fel countered.
Okay, but it’s not like it would’ve cost you anything to put it around me too, right? Maybe it happened too quickly for you to manage it, I guess, but I’m still not happy about it.
《Master, are you okay?》 Sui asked.
“That’s definitely not the word I’d use to describe myself right now, no. Let’s just go home, okay? I really wanna change out of these clothes,” I said. Sui, by the way, had been on Fel’s head at the time of the disaster and had gotten out unscathed. I was the only one who’d gotten dunked face-first in leviathan fluids.
“Surely you jest. They have only now gotten started, and you expect us to abandon our watch?” Fel said. I was ready to get the heck out of there, but of course he wasn’t going to make it easy.
“Come on, just look at me! This is so nasty!” I whined. I’d wiped my head off as best as I could, of course, but there was no saving my outfit. My shirt and pants were both drenched in blue blood.
“You will simply have to bear with it. If we were to leave, we would be unable to deal with any miscreants who manage to sneak in.”
“I guess I can’t argue with that...”
As the project had dragged on, a surprisingly large crowd of rubberneckers had gathered up to spectate. The adventurers who’d shown up to help were doing a good job of keeping anyone from getting close to the leviathan, and even if someone managed to slip past the first layer of security, they’d run straight into Fel’s and Gon’s barriers, but I had to admit that even just the thought of thieves lurking around was a little disquieting.
“Okay, fine, plan B,” I said. “Hey, Sui, you know how you spray Uncle Fel with water sometimes to clean him off? Think you could do that for me?”
《Yeah, okay!》
“Great, thanks!”
Sui stretched out a tentacle and showered me off with it, washing away the nasty, fishy leviathan blood.
“I hope you’ll at least be up for drying me off, Fel?”
“If you insist. There,” Fel said as he buffeted me with a burst of warm air. A short while later, my clothes were finally dry. Still a little fishy-smelling, but much better than before, at least.
“Looks like things are finally settling down on that end of things as well,” I noted.
The burst of leviathan blood had caused a pretty sizable uproar, which was totally unsurprising considering the stuff was worth a not-so-small fortune. Every drop of blood left to soak into the ground was effectively gold poured straight down the drain. The bigwigs and Moira had been so busy ordering the guild staff to collect as much of it as possible that it seemed like they barely even noticed that they were as thoroughly bloodsoaked as I’d been.
It seemed, however, that the gash Elrand had cut had finally finished actively bleeding, and with the help of his magic tools, the workers set up a system to safely and effectively collect the leviathan’s remaining fluids. Now that things were once again under control, the higher-ups’ attention turned back to a certain person who, frankly, all of us knew was due for a scolding.
“Oh, Elrand...?”
“I’m really sorry about this,” the elf muttered. He was down on his knees, right on the dirt, with Moira, Bram, and the others all looming over him.
Bram looked especially furious. “I don’t mind being soaked in blood,” he said. “Well, no, I mind it quite a lot, actually, but I can tolerate it. What I can’t tolerate is wasting gallons of a resource as tremendously precious as leviathan blood, and I know for a fact that we’re not the only ones who feel that way! Look!”
Bram gestured at a group of individuals who were gathered up nearby, and boy oh boy, did they look furious. They were shouting stuff along the lines of “How dare you?! How dare you?!” and “Sham of a butcher!” and “Make him pay with his head!”
“Those are the capital’s apothecaries,” Bram explained. “I believe you are aware of just how prized this blood is to individuals of their profession?”
Ooof! That would do it, all right. I bet leviathan blood’s one of those things that you can synthesize super potent medicines with. No wonder they’d be upset.
“And I hope you realize just how much of that precious blood you used to water the grass a few moments ago?!”
“I’m so, so sorry!” Elrand wailed, bowing so low he pressed his face into the ground. It was a really impressive display of remorse by Japanese standards, though part of me had to wonder if that pose carried the same sort of connotations in this world, or if he was simply doing it instinctively.
“Why are you apologizing to us?! Have you forgotten who this leviathan belongs to in the first place?!” Bram bellowed.
Elrand stood up, scooted over to me, then got right back down on the ground and bowed once more. “I am so, so sorry, Mukohda!”
“Huh? Wait, no, stop! No crying!” And no kowtowing either, please! It’s making me really uncomfortable!
“My carelessness wasted so much of your precious leviathan blood! I know I can never make it up to you, but I’m truly, truly sorry!” Elrand wailed, a river of tears pouring down his cheeks. Elf or not, I don’t think anyone would enjoy seeing a man of his age bawl like that.
“I-It’s fine, honestly!” I said. “We really don’t care much about the blood in the first place. R-Right, guys?”
“Correct. I have no interest in the beast’s blood. I care only for the meat, and the speed at which we obtain it.”
《Leviathan meeeat!》
“S-See? Not a big deal!”
My familiars only care about the prey they catch up to the point where we’ve gotten its meat. After that, anything goes as far as they’re concerned! So please quit crying like that, okay? We’re getting a lot of stares, and I’m really not enjoying all the attention!
“M-Mukohdaaaaaa! I knew it! You really are my greatest friend! Bwaaaaaahhh!” Elrand wailed as he flung his arms around my leg.
“Gah! N-No! Off! L-Let go of me!”
“My bosom buddy! Mukohdaaa!”
“No, seriously, let go! Personal space! Personal spaaaaaace!”