I was at the safe point in the Yellow Wall Vestiges with Scrael today, and I was in a somewhat, very, extremely dire situation. Scrael was crouching in front of me with the front part of her slitted outfit pulled up. I was sure you’d understand what that meant: I could see certain parts that I wasn’t supposed to see.
“A-A-Aaah!” stammered Scrael.
“Uh, I, uh... It isn’t my fault!” I blabbed in a fluster.
Scrael’s face was turning a shade of red reminiscent of a boiled crab, a shrimp, or maybe an octopus. There was steam rising from it too.
One might wonder how we’d gotten here. To explain that, I’d need to go back in time a bit.
After school, I’d gone home and prepared for my trip to Do-Melta, then I’d headed to the main hall, ready for another day of leveling in the dungeon. There, I’d run into Scrael, and we’d spent some time hanging out in the dining hall together.
Scrael was drinking some orange juice—her favorite treat after soy sauce—gulping some Knorr corn soup, and eating salted bread. She was inhaling the beverage out of her eight-hundred-milliliter plastic bottle at an alarming rate. She sometimes bought some of my stock off me and would even ask me to buy some specifically for her on occasions.
Meanwhile, I was going through my final checks to prepare for the upcoming dive on route two by going through the items I’d need and their remaining stock. After making sure everything was good to go, I stuffed them back into my bag.
“Time to go?” asked Scrael.
“Yeah, I think it’s about time,” I said.
Scrael stuffed the rest of her salted bread into her mouth, washed it down with her orange juice, then let out a cute little burp.
I looked over to see her bottle completely empty.
“You...drank the whole thing?” I asked.
“Was I not supposed to?” she asked guiltily.
“No, it’s fine, but don’t you feel bloated?”
“I can handle it,” she said.
“Why did you chug it, anyway? You could’ve just taken your time.”
“But then I wouldn’t have finished in time,” she said, implying she was trying to keep up with me. And sure enough, she added with her usual unamused expression, “If you want me to go with you, I can tag along for your sake.”
Her phrasing had changed as of late. Ever since I’d messed with her a while back, she’d started offering to dive with me instead of saying “I wouldn’t mind diving with you.” She never said she wanted to go with me outright though. Apparently, that was where she drew the line.
“But I’m going on route two today. It might not be all that interesting,” I said.
“That’s fine,” she replied.
“Then I’ll take you up on your offer.”
“Okay.”
“Cool, I’ll let Ashley know,” I said, then I rose from my seat and walked toward the receptionist’s window.
“Hi, Ashley, I’m here again!” I said with a wave.
“As usual,” said Ashley with a resigned smile.
There weren’t many other Divers who visited the dungeon as often as I did, so I couldn’t blame her for that reaction. According to her, I was a special breed.
We only exchanged a few words for the reception process as usual, then Carbuncle poked its head out behind the window. I’d ended up taking it home with me when it’d first followed me from the Paradise Hot Springs. But it’d done whatever it’d felt like in general, whether it be chilling in my room, following me on adventures, or staying in the main hall. It’d stayed in the main hall after tagging along with me on my last adventure and had been staying with Ashley since.
“How has Carbuncle been?” I asked.
“You mean Mew? Well-behaved and adorable. The other receptionists love it too.”
There was no denying it was adorable and beautiful. And it seemed to have gotten a new name again. Naming it after how its meow sounded felt kind of lazy, but Sensei’s “Mittens” and the way I addressed it by its species name wasn’t any better.
“Does it get tired of getting so much attention?” I asked.
“Oh, don’t worry about that. It isn’t here all the time. It wanders in and out of the dungeon or climbs up that shelf whenever it pleases,” said Ashley.
“Sounds like it’s been living freely.”
“Yep. What a good little furball,” she said and patted its head.
Carbuncle narrowed its eyes, seemingly enjoying the head pats. It kind of reminded me of a bunny, though it ate cat food, so I wasn’t sure what animal it resembled most.
As I talked to Ashley about Carbuncle, it suddenly started growling at me, looking rather upset.
“Meeew...”
“Huh? What’s gotten into you?” I said, puzzled.
I hadn’t done anything to upset it or anything at all, really.
I moved closer and tried to touch it, then it grasped my outstretched hand with its paws and started sucking on my finger.
“Oh, that’s why,” I said.
Carbuncle closed its eyes and savored my mana. Basically, it was upset because it hadn’t been able to feast on my mana. That was pretty unreasonable considering it’d stayed here of its own accord.
It was eventually satisfied and released my hand, the gemstone on its forehead now completely purple. I’d yet to see it reflect magic or use the mana it’d absorbed from me to attack, so I wondered what that was like. Maybe I’d be able to find out if we went dungeon diving together.
I took some cat food out of my Dimension Bag, placed it on the counter, and said, “I brought some food for Carbuncle. Please feed it once in a while when it’s time for it to eat.”
“Is this food for kitties?” asked Ashley.
“Yes. I asked a certain someone what it eats, and he told me cat food is fine. And sure enough, it ate that stuff right up.”
“I see,” she said, then she stared at the picture on the bag. “Wow, that’s one realistic drawing.”
Photos weren’t a thing in this world yet, so she’d assumed it was an illustration.
Anyway, Carbuncle was an omnivore, and I’d seen it catch bugs with its paws and eat them along with flowers and fruits. I’d seen it munching on fish too. It really did whatever it pleased when we adventured together.
I took a piece of cat food out of the bag and offered it to Carbuncle. It grabbed the pellet with its paws and chomped it right away. I could hear satisfying crunching noises with each bite.
“It doesn’t just go straight for the food with its mouth. It always uses its paws to grab it before eating,” I noted.
“I’ve seen it eating while sitting down too,” said Ashley.
“How strange,” I said.
“Right?”
We talked for a while longer, then I remembered I’d brought other snacks too.
“Oh, that’s right. Can you eat these too?” I said to Carbuncle as I took a tube of Churu, a favorite treat of house cats everywhere, out of my Dimension Bag.
I ripped the tube open and slowly squeezed out a bit of its contents, and Carbuncle started licking it immediately.
“Mew!” it meowed with its paws pressed against its cheeks. I’d never heard it sound so excited before.