“What’s a zom-bee?” Arai asked in confusion. Yae gave him a forced smile and stealthily backed away.
“Um, a zombie is what you would call a dead person who has come back to life.”
“Huh? …Anyway, besides, you’ve been performing the role of ceremony envoy for many years. The energy inside your body has been cleansed.”
“Whoa, I wonder if I’ve gained divine power.”
“You haven’t. What are you so happy about…? Anyway, a ‘zombie’ should be covered in filth, but you’re as pure as a god. It was probably scared witless when it saw that. You’re like a corpse bug’s natural enemy.”
Yae wasn’t sure how to react to that. Being told she had a pure soul was nothing to get excited about if she didn’t have divine power. “So was it okay for you to slice open the corpse bug like that?” Yae asked, realizing with a panic that Arai might have been infected.
Arai shook his head calmly. “The corpse bug’s core flew out of Sui’s body, and your curse weakened it even more. That enabled me to slice it apart. Yae, you were smart to call me. Even if you were able to repel the corpse bug, you wouldn’t have been able to kill it. That’s my role.”
Yae groaned. Why was calling out for him the first thing I thought to do? She had probably subconsciously assumed that Arai would be able to do something about it.
“…By the way, how’s Sui?” Arai asked, looking toward his brother, who was still lying limply on the boulder. Yae hurried over to him, and Arai followed.
“Sui,” Yae called out. She touched his shoulders and cheeks, but he wouldn’t wake up. Her heart sank for a moment, and she thought he might really have died, but then she noticed with relief that he was breathing. “He just fainted.”
Arai’s expression relaxed as well, and he gently brushed Sui’s forehead.
“…Arai! His chest is healed!” Yae exclaimed with surprise in her voice. Sui’s chest looked perfectly normal; there was no bruising, and his skin was smooth.
“Does that mean he’s cured? His organs, too?” said Arai. Yae patted Sui’s chest to make sure, and Arai whacked her lightly on the back of the head. “Don’t molest my brother in his sleep.”
“No, that’s not what I was doing!”
“Leave him alone until he wakes up… I don’t wanna see you gettin’ handsy.”
Yae was astounded by the lack of trust, but Arai ignored her, lifted Sui’s body, and carried him to a shady spot beneath some trees. He also refastened his open robe. He and Yae watched Sui in silence for some time but saw no change.
“…I think I’m going to clean the inside of that mysterium. Can you help me, Arai?” It seemed like it was going to be a while until Sui woke up, so she wanted to clean up the interior of the giant can and lay him down to rest inside. She decided to leave the silver walnuts on the ground for now on the off chance they could be dangerous. Arai was grumbling in irritation, but Yae pushed him from behind and set off toward the can.
Around the back side was a vertical, oval-shaped hole that Yae could just barely see through if she stood on her tiptoes. It was about shoulder width and forty centimeters tall. It was probably formed by a rusted part of the wall crumbling and falling off. It looked like it could be used as a light source.
Yae brushed away the vines and spiderwebs that were covering it and peered inside. “What the—? There’s a skeleton!” She jumped back from the hole. There was a skeleton leaning against the wall next to the window.
Arai poked his head in. “It’s just human bones. What’s the big deal?” he said with exasperation before he walked around the structure and inside through the large hole in the front. After a few minutes of rustling sounds, he reemerged, dragging the skeleton behind him.
“Don’t you get it? That’s a skeleton! If this person had died of old age and regressed, their bones would have turned to branches, but they haven’t!” Yae insisted. That was proof this person died an unexpected, unusual death.
“So what? Maybe they drank a special poison, or a curse prevented the regression process from beginning… We’re right next to Mount Saeba and all those forbidden grounds. There are any number of reasons why they might have died an unusual death,” he responded, glancing at Yae indifferently as she backed away. He went to the river to dispose of the skeleton and then started to do the same with bunches of household items that had become unusable from corrosion.
Is it okay to do that without a purifying fire?! Won’t he be cursed just throwing stuff away like that?! Yae clung to the unconscious Sui and trembled as Arai briskly carried all the junk out of the can. Large insects skittered from the door every time Arai carried something out, which spooked her as well. I almost never saw locusts and spiders that big in Kaki Province. They’re the size of cats!
“Hey, I threw out everything we don’t need. I left a little inside, so decide what you want to keep later,” Arai said. He clapped his hands in annoyance to shoo away a ladybug at his feet that was about fifteen centimeters wide. Yae came to a sudden realization.
“…I think I may want to worship you, Arai,” she said. He spoke roughly, but he was kind and a hard worker. He was good with bugs, too, which was a plus.
“Hmm? Do whatever you want. After all, I’m sure people worshipped me in the past,” he responded. He had a tendency to speak brazenly like that, but she found it kind of funny. “I’m going to go check out the area for real this time, all right? Don’t do anything unnecessary, and don’t enter any other mysteriums. There could be wild animals hiding inside.”
Yae nodded obediently.
“If a shade appears, yell. Call for me. Got it?”
“…Okay. Got it.”
Arai stared at her for a bit, then once again left to go scout the area.
He’d told her not to do anything unnecessary, but he probably wouldn’t mind if she went inside the mostly clean can. If possible, she wanted to lay Sui down inside it. She walked around gathering thin sticks and vines, being careful to keep Sui in her view. Then she tied them up in a bundle to make a makeshift broom.
Praying that she wouldn’t step on any insects or get cursed, Yae gripped the broom and entered the can. She had removed the vines on the window, so the inside was bright with sunlight. The only things Arai had left behind were an unsteady wooden shelf and an empty wooden box. That was a letdown. It seemed like there hadn’t been much inside in the first place.
The size of the can’s interior was about the same as her Whiskey House in Kaki Province, but its circular shape made it feel more spacious. She had been worried it would be uninhabitable if the rust on the walls was really bad, but that didn’t look like a concern. Only a small part of the wall was rusted, and much of it was petrified. The floor was dirt, and there were weeds growing out of it. The ceiling was…covered in vines and spiderwebs. It was high, so Yae would have a hard time cleaning it alone.
She walked outside, made a lap around the can, and went back in. A decent amount of work will be necessary if I actually want to live here… If they were only staying for a few days, it would probably do as long as they could secure a place to sleep. But if their stay stretched to a week or a month, it would be a different story.
A bathtub and a toilet are essential. Her instincts were still strongly influenced by her previous life in that regard. Unlike her last world, however, civilization here hadn’t developed very far. But the divine power possessed by Blessed Natures did much to fill those gaps. One example was the closet Yae used as a refrigerator in her Whiskey House. The round, paperweight-like quartz pieces placed inside functioned as ice packs, and they were cooled with divine power. The quartz pieces could also be heated and used to warm bathwater or power lamps.
Yae understood divine power as similar to having a psychic ability. The power could control wind, start fires, and freeze things, and because it could be used in place of electricity and gas, it had become a necessary part of daily life. Everyone had a variety of different types of minerals that could be cooled or heated for a fee. The cheapest and most commonly used was quartz.
What to do? Water won’t be a problem because we’re right next to a river. I should be able to dig a well, too. But all my quartz pieces were sent with my luggage to Miya Province… Those would have to be bought. The problem was she didn’t have any money. As soon as that thought crossed her mind, she remembered the pile of silver walnuts still lying outside.
…I’ll check to see if they’ve actually turned into metal, she thought. She was about to set the broom down and head out when Sui, now awake, rushed inside.
“Yae!” he shouted.
“Huh?!” Yae responded, taken aback by his enthusiasm. At the same time, he closed the distance between them and clapped his hands on her shoulders.
“My body feels heavy!”
“What?! Heavy?”
“My flesh is back!” Sui said, cheeks flushed, to a flabbergasted Yae. “My body has been hollow all this time. It felt so light I thought for sure I was going to shrivel up, but now I’m heavy! I can feel my hands and feet again, and best of all, I can see color!”
“Um… So the deformation was cured?” Yae asked.
“Yeah, look at this!” he shouted, and he stripped off his robe without warning. When he undid his sash and, disturbingly, started to drop his pants, Yae’s eyes went wide.
“Wait, no, keep your pants on, I don’t need to see down there! Aaaah, I’m sorry, Arai, this is all a misunderstanding!” Yae screamed. She tried to turn around, but Sui grabbed her wrists.
“Touch me, Yae! Come on, feel my flesh!” Sui insisted.
“Nooo, nooooo!” she yelled pathetically, sounding like a trembling lamb.
Sui, bristling with excitement, paid her protests no mind and pushed her hands against his cheeks. He then slid them down to his neck, his shoulders, and his chest. Actually, it was more like she was being forced to grope him. “Your skin is really taut,” Yae praised amid the chaos, unsure of what to do. She almost died from embarrassment when she accidentally scratched him in the middle of the chest. Aren’t the guy and girl usually reversed in this kind of situation…?!