“What do you mean?”
She took the arm back from me to use it to answer my question. She placed it on the ground and then detached her own damaged arm from the elbow down. After that, she stuck the half-finished arm on in its place. A clunk resounded through the cave as the two parts fit together. And as I watched this happen, the unrefined, half-finished fingers on her hand twitched with movement.
“Wha—?!”
Her movements were somewhat stiff, either because she just replaced them or because she was still in the middle of making this arm, but her fingers were definitely moving. After clenching and opening her hand a few times, Rose switched back to her original arm. Naturally, this one moved smoothly just as it did before.
“So that means you can replace your own parts? Like your arms and legs?”
Rose nodded. This was quite surprising. It was decidedly convenient, but I never thought she would be able to do so. It appeared to be an awfully simple part, so how exactly did it work?
No, that’s not quite right. Maybe it works precisely because it’s simple.
Rose’s body was that of a wooden doll. Such a body shouldn’t have been able to move about. What made it possible was likely the mysterious power which monsters possessed: mana. It didn’t change the fact that both her original arm and the one she was making here were simply carved wood. It wasn’t all that strange that changing one out for the other meant she could move it around just like the old one.
Setting all that aside, I couldn’t just remain shocked by this forever.
“Rose. I have one more order for you to follow. From now on, when you’re not making armaments, make spares for your own limbs... No, prioritize the spares. I’d like you to always have a spare available whenever possible.”
Rose didn’t object to my command. She immediately replied with an affirmation over our mental path. However, at the same time, I also felt her slight misgivings about my order.
“Is it that strange for me to tell you to make yourself spare limbs?”
Rose nodded. It seemed she really didn’t understand. I felt a sigh coming to me. It was somehow heartbreaking that she didn’t really recognize my intentions. I found this sad, and I even felt responsibility for it. Those emotions were passed to Rose, and her agitation came back to me.
“Let me just tell you now. This isn’t just so you can recover right away if you lose a limb in the middle of battle. That’s only a part of it.”
Rose completely froze up. She was losing her grasp on what I was getting at more and more. This was quite troublesome. I wasn’t sure how to get this across to my cute servant who devoted herself so gallantly toward me.
After thinking it over for a while, I realized there was a far simpler way of doing this than trying to find the right words.
“Hey, Rose.”
I took her wooden hand and gently caressed her burnt finger. This was something she had lost for my sake. Even if she could replace it, it didn’t change the value of what she had paid to save me.
“Remember this. I think of you as a beloved companion, no different from Lily.”
The only ones I could trust in this world were Lily and Rose. It was reasonable to assume I was going to gain more servants from here on out, but that didn’t change the value these two girls had to me.
“Take care of your own body as best you can. This isn’t an order. It’s my desire.”
Saying this may have been nothing more than a deception considering I was asking her to fight so that I could survive. But these were my true feelings.
Rose stopped moving completely, as if she had returned to being a regular puppet. Several seconds passed before she came back from her frozen state and knelt before me. She pulled her finger from my hand, and I was left with the unique sensation of the lingering warmth from her wooden limb.
“Raise your head, Rose. It’s fine as long as you understand.”
I had vaguely felt this before, but despite both being my servants, Rose and Lily’s stances toward me were somewhat different. Lily was fairly frank in both her tone and behavior. This was likely because I desired a place for my heart to be able to rest. I truly was healed by her existence. To be precise, Lily likely gained that role when she ate Mizushima Miho’s corpse and acquired the ability to mimic a human.
As for Rose, she was quite different from Lily. Put simply, she was solemn and honest. She was like a warrior who silently fulfilled her duty. Her actions from today were a good example. She had taken the initiative to do the gloomy work of inspecting the students’ corpses, work that anybody would hate doing. If we were to carelessly touch the decomposing corpses, there was a danger that we could be afflicted with some nasty disease. That’s why she had stopped both me and Lily from doing so. As a result, she got stuck playing a villainous role. Thinking back on it, she had even lost a finger to protect us. She was self-sacrificing and loyal. That was Rose’s true nature.
If Lily was the one to heal my heart, then Rose was the one who protected my life from more concrete dangers. It was possible she was responding to my wish for safety within this dangerous world. That was the impression I got from looking at her. I didn’t know whether it was right or not, but either way, I couldn’t forget her devotion even as she hid in the shadows and made no demands for herself. I had to reward such dedication. Or maybe that wasn’t quite the right way to put it... I myself wanted to reward her.
“It’d be nice if we could talk to each other, huh?”
I wanted to hear what she wanted from her own mouth, as well as what she desired of me.
“If that is what you wish, Master, then we shall surely grant it one day,” Lily whispered in my ear while snuggling me from the side in Rose’s stead. “I mean, that’s the reason we servants are here with you.”
“Lily...”
I could feel that Lily was being serious through our mental path. I could always feel it. These girls were here for my sake. So, how could I repay them?
“How nice... I’m jealous...”
Just then, Katou, who looked to be sound asleep, suddenly spoke up.
“You were awake?”
Katou was still wrapped up in her slightly dirty sheets, just as she was before. She had only opened her eyes to look at us without moving.
“...So Lily really is a monster.”
“You heard us?”
“Just a little... in the end. Besides... Lily is looking like that.”
Katou pointed her gaze at Lily’s lower body, which was that of a slime’s. There really was no way of glossing over that.
“Sorry for... suddenly waking up...”
“No, it’s our fault for being noisy. You don’t need to apologize.” Katou wasn’t in the wrong for waking up when I raised my voice upon noticing Rose’s hand. “Besides, the way you phrased it means you had an inkling this was the case, right?”
“...Yes. Um... sorry.”
“I’m telling you that you don’t need to apologize. We’re the ones who kept it from you. For reference though, when did you realize?”
“Umm... When Lily didn’t take even one step back... in front of the firefang.”
“That makes sense. But didn’t you think that she could be a cheater?”
“She calls you... Master, too.”
Well, that would expose us pretty easily.
Katou then looked to the ground awkwardly before looking at us once more. “Besides... She’s using... Mizushima-senpai’s form.”
“Did you know Mizushima Miho?”
“Yes...”
Katou’s gaze returned to the floor for a moment. It was doubtless she was remembering the now deceased Mizushima Miho.
“...Sorry for not telling you. I was... together with Mizushima-senpai... until yesterday.”
“I see.”
“Aren’t you... surprised?” Katou seemed to be a little puzzled by my attitude toward the information she was hiding.
“I considered the possibility already.”
Mizushima Miho and Katou Mana had both been attacked by those schoolboys. We found out about the mountain hut they were using by pulling the information from Mizushima Miho’s memories. Meaning, it was only natural to assume Mizushima Miho had also been in that hut. In that case, it was fairly likely she was acquainted with Katou.