The Adorner made a thoughtful noise for a moment, then they nodded their hooded head. “When you put it that way, it kind of makes sense. I don’t know about that brain stuff though.”
“Right?”
“But in other words, that makes them hypocrites. It’s a really rotten way of thinking. Shitty, really. Makes me wanna puke.”
“You don’t pull any punches, do you?” I said.
This person had a remarkably sharp tongue. They were probably as toxic as the monsters in the Night Soil Swamps.
“So, are you one of those types who’ll make me wanna puke?” they asked.
“I’m just doing this because God asked me to. He said there have been a lot of Divers lately who die even after making it to safe points, so he wanted me to help if I could,” I explained.
“Ah.”
The Adorner seemed to understand. According to Ricky, the gods of this world descended to the mortal realm every once in a while. They usually did things to help people, but occasionally, they asked others to act in their stead when they were too busy. The Adorner must be familiar with such rumors too, and they looked at me much more understandingly than before.
“So, what do you say?” I asked. “I think you should have your wounds healed, but I won’t push it if you don’t want me to.”
They went quiet, which I took to mean they were considering it. There was no doubt that getting healed would be the right move though. Their injury was pretty severe, judging by the amount of blood they’d lost. They seemed to have administered first aid on themself, but the smell of blood had gotten stronger since I’d first arrived. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that trying to get home in this state would be suicide, but I couldn’t recommend it either. I mean, I was no doctor, but I could only imagine them falling over and dying midway. Thinking “I’m still fine” or “Just one more” in the dungeon as if they were Shiren or Torneko would be the wrong way to go. You had to use whatever was at your disposal, or you’d die without the chance to use it. There was no such thing as being too careful in the Gandakia Dungeon. Yet, the Adorner still hadn’t nodded their head. They were either super suspicious of others by nature, too prideful to accept help from others, or both.
“Just think of it like you’re using me. You’re having trouble trusting me because you feel like you aren’t the one in charge here. Instead of thinking of it like I’m the one healing you, just think you’re letting me heal you,” I suggested.
“You’re saying it’s just a matter of perspective?”
“Exactly. You’re making me heal you, then you’re gonna walk away without paying me a single coin. You’re taking advantage of my kindness. If you think of it that way, there’s no downside for you.”
“But that makes me sound awful,” complained the Adorner.
“Then you can casually give me something as thanks or something, and you’d be a good person again.”
“I don’t want to. Why should I give you something of mine?”
Come on! What do you want from me?
“I dunno... You’re being really unreasonable, you know that?” I said.
“No way. You won’t find many who are more reserved than I am,” said the Adorner, playing dumb. They seemed to be strangely particular about this.
I then realized they weren’t being facetious. It’d been a while since I’d met someone with a personality like this.
“Okay, then how about this?” I said. “Let’s just say I’m a weirdo who just can’t stand not healing people, and I’m going to heal you against your will.”
“That’s an odd thing to say about yourself.”
“I think having a good context is important. Anyway, here,” I said and cast the generic spell Binding Hold on the Adorner. Chains made of glowing purple mana immediately bound their hands together.
“Hey, what are you doing?!” they protested.
As they struggled, the monster-pelt hood came down, revealing a boyish girl with neck-length ultramarine hair.
“Now you can’t resist. Surrender to my healing! Ha ha ha ha!” I cackled in character according to my made-up scenario.
The Adorner gave me a dubious stare and said, “You seem like a pervert. You aren’t acting, are you?”
“I told you; I made this context up!” I said.
“But it suits you way too well.”
“Never mind that. I’m healing you now,” I said as I reached for her pelt cowl.
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?!” she yelled.
“I mean, I can’t treat your wounds if I can’t see them,” I pointed out.
“That’s...true, but—”
“That’s what I thought. This is an emergency, so if you’ll excuse me,” I said as I removed her cowl.
Her outfit underneath was very casual. She wore no top or bottom under the cowl and just had bleached cotton wrapped around her body like bandages. I was the one who’d undressed her, but I felt like I was doing something extremely obscene. I might have been breaking some laws here.
“Th-This is just medical treatment. Medical treatment...” I mumbled.
“What? You can’t have your wits about you unless you say that out loud?” she asked.
“Can you blame me?! How was I supposed to know this is all you’re wearing underneath?!”
Okay, calm down, I told myself.
I tried not to look at any of her sensitive parts as I first wiped away the blood with a wet towel.
“I’ll be touching your body now,” I said.
“You really are a pervert. The way you said that confirms it.”
“I told you, I’m not—”
“Yeah, yeah. Sure you aren’t one, pervert.”
The Adorner wasn’t listening to a word I said, but she didn’t seem to care all too much. Maybe it was because she was from Do-Melta. I did notice that the people here had very different standards for shame from person to person—though, come to think of it, that was true for my world too.
As I examined her, I realized her side was stained red. The injury was far worse than I’d imagined.
“You’ve been holding in a lot of pain this whole time, haven’t you?” I asked.
“I guess,” she said.
“This is seriously bad.”
Clearly, she was the type who couldn’t stand showing weakness to others.
I continued, “Yeah, I’ll need to heal you.”
“You really are—”
“Whatever you say,” I interrupted, “you aren’t changing my mind. I can’t leave you like this.”
“Thanks,” she said after a brief pause as she averted my eyes.
I cast healing magic on her, and her wounds closed up without leaving a trace; her complexion improved too. Then, I dispelled my binding magic, and I knew she had some words to say.
“Anyway, you’re a strange one,” she said. “Don’t you get that a lot?”
I said nothing.
“Thought so,” she said.
It wasn’t true. Scrae and Ricky did call me weird sometimes, but I knew I wasn’t as weird as Sensei or Lion-Maru. Don’t tell me I shouldn’t be comparing myself to them.
“Why are you on guard like that?” asked the Adorner.
“Well, I thought you may attack me for healing you without permission,” I said.
“Why would I do that?” she asked.
“I guess you won’t, huh.”
“But I’ll be charging you a fee for letting you heal me.”
“Huh?! What do you mean?!”
“Come on; pay up. The context is important, right?”
“Actually, I’m starting to think that it doesn’t matter. Not one bit,” I said.
There was no way I was giving her money for healing her.
“Okay, that’s enough kidding around,” she said. “Thanks again.”
“Oh, don’t thank me. You can direct your thanks to God’s statue,” I said.
“Which god?”
“Mr. Ameithys.”
“Ah, the big boss,” she said.
“Hmm? I don’t think he’s the big boss,” I said.
“What do you mean? Lord Ameithys is the greatest god in this world. Everyone knows that.”
“But when I last saw him, he said he can’t disobey his wife because she’s the greatest god in their family. I thought Ornyx the Black was the greatest of the gods.”
The Adorner paused, then said, “Come to think of it, you did mention earlier that God asked you to help.”
I seemed to have a different perception of the gods compared to the people of this world. Well, the wife being the strongest one in the household was a thing no matter what world you were from.
“My name is Linte Arty. I’m a dungeon mercenary,” said Linte.
“Oh, you’re a dungeon mercenary.”
Dungeon mercenaries were basically freelance Divers. That sounded rather odd, but these mercenaries earned daily wages working as bodyguards for teams and solo Divers. Folks who didn’t like interacting with others and dealing with the hassles of joining a team but were nervous about diving alone tended to become mercenaries who worked exclusively in the dungeon. That was pretty much what Ricky did too. Of course, the levels of these mercenaries ranged from really low to really high, and the weak ones were basically parasites while the strong ones were super stoic about their work. This person was probably the latter considering a parasite probably wouldn’t turn down an offer for free healing.
“I’m Kudo Akira,” I said. “Kudo is my family name, and Akira is my first name.”
“I’ll remember your name. You really helped me today,” said Linte.
“Glad to be of service,” I said.
I watched Linte leave the safe point, and I thought to myself that I’d been helping people a lot lately.
I’d thought this would be the end of our exchange, but soon, the Adorner peeked back inside and said, “Oh, do you have any food? I’m hungry.”
“I should’ve known...” I said to myself.
Never underestimate an Adorner’s appetite.