We managed to get back to the cave before the sun set. Rose and Lily, our combat forces, could see just as well in the dark. Rose didn’t even have eyeballs to begin with. However, that didn’t apply to the two humans.
Without the sun, the dangers of going through a forest which already had poor visibility shot up exponentially. It was troublesome to stop moving out of fear of taking risks, but dangers that could be avoided were better off being avoided entirely.
That’s why we returned to the cave and immediately began preparations for a meal. Today’s dinner would be slightly more luxurious than usual. At any rate, we had managed to obtain the entire carcass of the two-meter-tall wolf. We’d left the process of butchering it and draining its blood to Rose right after it was killed. All that remained was to carve off pieces and cook it.
The smell of cooked meat filled the cave. I unintentionally gulped down my saliva. As for the result...
“Ugh...”
I was completely betrayed. That was my honest opinion. I’d had serious hopes for this, but the meat was as hard as rubber. This wasn’t meant for consumption. I had heard before that carnivore meat wasn’t good, but this felt like it was on an entirely different level. It was to the point where I was beginning to suspect that we failed in preparing it correctly.
Having said that, I had no idea what we could have gotten wrong. I didn’t know anything about draining blood, and of course, I knew nothing about how to make this taste better. I’d left everything about dealing with hunted prey to Lily, who had relied on knowledge in Mizushima Miho’s memories. She had apparently read about it in a book before. And I knew full well that the meat-processing industry in modern Japan was excellent.
In any case, the taste of the meat was more of a disappointment than expected. Nevertheless, being able to acquire so much of it was a big boon. It was the first time I felt truly full in quite a while.
Lily didn’t seem to find the meat unsatisfactory in the least and was merrily shoving her cheeks full of it. Katou didn’t complain about the hard and rubbery meat, but she was eating it as if trying to force it down her throat.
“Excuse me...”
Katou immediately went to sleep after finishing her meal. She was surely exhausted. She laid down inside a small cavity near the entrance of the cave where we’d placed the sheets we took from the hut. I could faintly hear her breathing in her sleep.
I was also quite tired, perhaps because of the stress from today’s battle. It might be better for me to get to sleep early as well. And as that thought crossed my mind, I started walking over to my usual sleeping spot.
“Lily?”
Lily hurriedly let go of my arm and jogged in front of me. As she turned around, the lower half of her body transformed back into a slime and she spread her arms out.
“Go ahead, Master.”
It was just as surreal a scene as always. However, this could be considered an everyday event for me now.
“Come on, Lily. Have you forgotten that Katou is right there?”
“It’s alright. She’s sound asleep.”
Just as Lily said, Katou looked to be sleeping comfortably. It was probably alright. After all, Lily’s identity wasn’t a secret we had to take to the grave. We were only doing so for the sake of caution. It was nothing more than insurance if push came to shove.
However, I knew at this point there wasn’t really a need for that. By spending the day with Katou, I had gotten a fairly good grasp of her current condition. She really didn’t have the willpower to do anything. She simply followed us silently and did as she was told, like a robot only capable of moving its legs. I wouldn’t go as far as saying she was an empty husk, but that wasn’t too far off.
Besides, uhh... What was it again? I feel like there was another reason...
My mind wasn’t working properly. I needed to get some rest. I didn’t know that filling my belly would give me such a sense of satisfaction.
“Well, whatever.”
I stopped objecting and sat down on Lily next to where her human body was sprouting. My body sank into the tender blob of jelly that I had been using as a sofa and bed up until now. It felt like my exhaustion was gradually coming out of my spine, and I unintentionally let out a huge yawn.
“You seem tired.”
“...Yeah,” I replied half-heartedly and leaned against Lily’s dainty body. This one was also soft.
“Master, you’re unexpectedly poor at sleeping, you know? You woke up several times this morning too.”
“Hmm? Is that so?”
“...You’re kind of cute, Master.”
She seemed awfully happy as she hugged me from the side. Incidentally, her blazer was dirtied once more in today’s battle, so she was wearing a jersey over her upper body as nightwear. She had also washed her underwear, so a pleasant squishiness pressed against my upper arm. Any man would enjoy this. It was like my exhaustion was melting away, though that was a pretty poor way to put it. It felt like we were lovers snuggled atop a sofa, and I gave my body over to the gentle flow of time.
“...Hm?”
I was in a daze, thinking I would just go to sleep like this, when Rose’s hands suddenly caught my attention. The wood she was carving looked a little different from any weapon or armor.
“Rose? What’re you making there?”
Just as always, she was fulfilling her duty as the night watch while carving wood near the bonfire. I had entrusted her with the job of creating weapons and armor. Even in today’s battle, if not for the large shield I’d had her make me, I would’ve suffered serious injuries. Or in the worst case, I would’ve died. The role she was entrusted with was plain, but it was important.
Rose seemed reluctant to answer my question. She had a featureless face, making it difficult to read her expression, but she certainly did stop moving and hesitate. However, as my servant, she didn’t have the choice of ignoring my requests. Rose walked over to me and knelt down while respectfully holding out what she was carving.
“Sorry for interrupting your work. So, this is... Hmm?”
After turning it around in my hand and verifying its entire structure, I cocked my head to the side.
“An arm?”
It clearly had the characteristics of a human arm. It was still unrefined, but that was likely because Rose was still in the middle of making it. Why was she making something like this to begin with anyway?
I looked at her curiously, and Rose held out her own arm. The flickering red light from the bonfire illuminated the slight polish of her wooden arm. I glanced at it and froze up completely.
“Th-That’s...!” One of Rose’s fingers was completely carbonized. “Did that happen during the fight with the firefang?!”
My drowsiness was blown away in an instant. “Aah... dammit. I didn’t notice at all.” I was irritated by my own inattentiveness and pinched my brow.
“...Actually, Rose. Were you hiding this from me?”
An awkward feeling passed to me through our mental path. It seemed I was spot on.
“Good grief.”
I expelled the air in my lungs, along with my anger, in one big sigh. I did think she was a helpless fool for doing that, but I couldn’t scold her for it either. She surely kept quiet precisely because she was worried about me. The resentment I felt was mostly directed at my own worthlessness.
I couldn’t vent my anger on her. In the future, I would need to at least caution her about such behavior. However, there was something far more important for me to confirm right now.
“Lily, can you do something about this with your magic?”
“Sorry, Master. Grade 3 magic is my limit.”
“...Oh yeah, recovering lost limbs is a special characteristic of grade 5 healing magic, isn’t it?” My friend who was extremely passionate about cheats was awfully well-informed about magic. As such, I naturally knew a fair amount about it myself.
I haven’t really given it much thought lately, but I wonder if he’s doing okay. Even if we did meet again, I’m sure it’ll be hard for us to just chat like idiots again...
“I see. So that’s why you’re making a prosthetic hand.”
That was understandable. Or so I thought, anyway. But Rose shook her head and passed her denial to me through our mental path.