“Well, we did pretty good, no?” I said.
Without Leen’s care, Erifell wouldn’t have been able to get back on her feet, and if I hadn’t called for the Carbuncles, then she wouldn’t have been able to attend the trial. Considering how much work we put in, we’d pretty much been doing charity work, so it irked me that we wouldn’t be able to attend the trial. This was a frequent occurrence as an adventurer—you couldn’t do anything at the end, right at the conclusion.
“It’s best for Erifell to end things herself. She’s the actual one involved in this,” I went on.
I wasn’t fully convinced either, so I was saying this out loud for my benefit too.
“No way it is!” Leen snapped.
Of course Leen didn’t have the capability to sense this kind of subtlety. Well, I supposed this angry outburst was half directed at those nuns.
“And Erifell shouldn’t be moving, but she was forcing herself to!”
“You used your slime to fix her up, no?”
Leen had looked so happy describing how she forced a piece of her slime into Erifell’s mouth while she was barely conscious.
“I temporarily eased her symptoms, I didn’t actually cure her! She needs bed rest! It’s weird that she’s capable of walking around on her own two feet.”
If Leen said so, then it was weird. I wondered if it was hatred for Cormeca that propelled her onto her feet.
“Ngh... I wanted to laugh at Erifell and tell her it was all over when she woke up!”
“That’s what you’re mad about, huh...”
I wondered why I had even bothered racking my brains with her and getting smacked about.
“My lady, you’ve returned.”
Erifell’s window up on the second floor slid open. Through the gap, the slime squirmed through and hopped out onto the paving stone below. In a single action, it bounced off the ground and into Leen’s arms.
“Blue! How could you let Erifell go?!”
I wanted to chime in and say that she should praise her slime for working so hard as an ice pack instead of moaning, but the slime in question didn’t seem all too bothered as it jiggled about.
“I had no other recourse. You can imagine what would happen to me if I spoke up in front of a church knight and nuns. Not to mention, they weren’t completely wrong.”
“Yes, but couldn’t you have tangled yourself up in Erifell’s hair and given her a hairdo that she wouldn’t dare to leave the house with?!”
“Are you sure you’re not a witch?” I muttered.
Normal people didn’t have these kinds of thoughts. I wondered if she was missing a cog that was crucial in making you function as a human being. Despite being pummeled and squished, the slime seemed utterly unfazed.
“She has put her life and her resolve on the scales. You cannot stop her unless you mean to trample all over that resolve.”
“Grr!”
I thought the slime was speaking a lot of sense, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to convince Leen. She threw her slime down on the floor, and it bounced toward me at full speed. Wait. It bounced at me—?!
“Bweh!”
“Gwuh!”
“Oops.”
Having dropped my guard, I was unable to dodge. Eating a slime to the face, I tumbled backward onto the pavement.
“I-I’m sorry. I got carried away,” Leen said.
“Apologies, lad. I couldn’t stop myself.”
“I swear to...!”
I voiced my rage as I pulled myself up. Leen had evidently let her anger get to her, but even she looked guilty, aware that maybe she’d overdone it this time.
“Jeez... You’re an adventurer, so I wish you’d be a bit more pragmatic...” I chided.
I understood how Leen felt. However, we were adventurers. At this point, it wasn’t logical to be kicking up a fuss when there wasn’t any benefit to it.
“Hold on...”
Adventurers... Logical... What I’d just said stuck in my brain for some reason.
“Hakura?” Leen said, cocking her head, concerned that I’d stopped talking so suddenly.
“Oh! It’s nothing. Let’s get some grub, then head back to the inn. I’m pretty tired too.”
We were exhausted and our brains were tired too. When Leen was in such a foul mood, it was best to feed her some food to cheer her up and then put her to bed.
“Agreed! I want something with meat in it!”
“All right, eat as much as you want,” I replied.
Our agreement stipulated that Leen was paying, after all.