MTM 48

“Zed!”

“Harto….”

Right after the battle ended, Harto crawled toward Zed. Then, perhaps frustrated, he lowered his whole body flat and bounced up like a spring. Zed opened both arms and caught Harto as he flew through the air in an arc.

“Zed! Are you okay? Are you hurt? Let me see!”

Harto clung to Zed’s shoulders and checked his body everywhere, he had to make sure himself. Other than a few spots on his clothes that were dirty or torn, he was fine.

“Phew, thank goodness….”

Harto sighed, he thought it was such a relief that he didn’t need to use any healing medicine. As expected, Zed was strong enough to defeat a giant monster.

But Zed looked at Harto with a suspicious gaze.

“What about you?”

“Huh?”

Zed pressed the soft spot under Harto’s lower lip.

“Ah.”

“Is this a wound from a sword?”

Since Harto’s body was in a soot slime state, the small wound wouldn’t have been noticeable unless someone looked closely, but Zed immediately saw it.

“This is….”

“That bastard did it?”

Zed thought of the man who had grabbed and dragged Harto and gritted his teeth.

“B-but I paid him back double!”

Harto shouted in an urgent voice. Zed looked a bit surprised.

“You paid him back double?”

“Y-yes… I did what you said, so….”

Harto mumbled in a small voice.

“I got him….”

The realization that he had hurt someone weighed heavily on his heart. He remembered the man with a dagger stuck in his eye, but he forced himself to look away.

“Good. You did well.”

Zed already knew what Harto was thinking just by his face, so he reached out and gently patted his head.

“Hehe….”

Harto was happy to feel Zed’s warmth again like this….

He remained there for a while, enjoying the joy that Zed’s hand brought him. Then, all of a sudden, Harto flinched and he made a worried expression.

“Zed, what should I do… I lost the clothes you bought me….”

“It’s fine. I’ll buy you new ones.”

It was a little disappointing. Those clothes had looked good on Harto. But there were many nice clothes in the world. And if they traveled somewhere even more exotic, he could put him in clothes with bright embroidery….

“Ahem!”

Just when his imagination started to wander far away, a cough interrupted him. It was Walter.

“It’s nice to see the two of you being so affectionate, but you do know we’re still here, right?”

“Judging by how completely we’ve been ignored, I doubt they do.”

Leon, standing next to him, joined in with a sulky look.

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

Zed and Walter stayed inside the round arena and talked, while Leon and Harto gathered stone fragments outside the door. They needed Leon’s teleportation magic to leave the sanctuary. But since Leon had been trapped too long in the magic cage that suppressed his power, his mana was nearly depleted.

So Leon decided to draw the ancient magic circle by hand. The whole sanctuary was made of limestone, and the fallen pieces from the walls made excellent materials.

“Leon, is this enough? Should I bring more?”

Harto came back holding a pile of limestone pieces in his arms. Because his soot slime body had moved around so much, he was covered in white dust.

“That should be enough….”

Leon stared at him for a moment, then walked closer.

“You’re covered in dust.”

“Huh?”

Tap, tap, tap. Leon brushed off the white powder clinging to Harto’s body with his hand. Fine limestone dust scattered in all directions.

At first, Harto felt touched by the kind gesture, but every time Leon’s small hand tapped his body, it stung a little.

“Uh, Leon… it, it hurts a bit….”

When Harto squirmed to move away, Leon suddenly grabbed his side.

“Ah! Th-that’s….”

“Where exactly am I touching right now? Is this belly fat?”

“B-belly fat? No, it’s more like the side….”

Harto wanted to explain that in his human form that part wasn’t soft at all, but before he could, Leon’s eyes lit up.

“Oh. So even slimes have certain body parts.”

Leon looked fascinated, and then he started examining Harto’s body more seriously.

“It feels really soft. The elasticity is impressive too. If I pull it, does it stretch? What’s the maximum length?”

“I-I don’t know. I never tried….”

“Is that so. You mean you’ve never detached any part of your body, in other words, never tried cutting it off?”

“C-cutting it off?! Leon, I’m not some kind of jelly…”

“Leon, that’s enough.”

Smack.

At that moment, Zed, who had returned after talking with Walter inside the arena, pulled Leon’s hand away. The unexpected strength surprised not only Leon but also Harto, whose eyes widened.

“I was rude to Harto. My curiosity got the better of me. I apologize.”

Leon quickly withdrew his hand and bowed his head toward Harto.

“Ah, no! It’s fine. Anyone would get curious about something like that….”

Although it had been embarrassing when Leon touched him everywhere, it hadn’t really been unpleasant, so Harto smiled. Then he asked Zed,

“Zed, did you have a good talk with Captain Walter?”

“We fought.”

“Ah….”

Zed briefly replied, his face thoughtful, and walked quietly toward the corridor without another word.

“Zed? Where, where are you going…?”

When Harto tried to follow, Leon held him back.

“It would be wiser to leave him alone for now.”

“Ah….”

What had Zed and Walter talked about that led to a fight? Or had they argued because this incident was connected to the mercenary group? Harto worried that Zed might have gotten hurt, but since Leon, who had known Zed for a long time, told him not to follow, Harto remained quiet.

Swish, swish

In the meantime, Leon began drawing a magic circle with the stone fragments. Strange ancient letters formed quickly. Then, as if something occurred to him, he stopped and asked Harto,

“You said this place is beneath the Bellancia Cathedral, correct?”

“Probably. We fell from the underground prison… but maybe a spell moved us somewhere else while we were falling.”

“I see. Then setting the coordinates will be troublesome….”

Leon rubbed his chin and looked troubled.

Harto hesitated for a moment, then asked,

“But… Leon, you really don’t remember anything?”

Leon continued drawing the circle as he answered calmly.

“If you mean what happened while I was trapped in the cage, I have no memory of it. The last thing I recall is being with Captain Walter right after we arrived in Belnock.”

Leon really remembered nothing. He said he remembered coming to Belnock together, but after that, he recalled only the moment he got caught in the chaos of the crowd and lost sight of the others.

“I thought you came here because of the moss worm. There was one in the underground prison back then.”

“Ah, I let that creature go earlier today. Moss worms like damp places, but keeping it in a cage forever would be cruel.”

“Yes. Poor thing….”

Harto remembered Leon trapped inside the magic cage, and his heart grew heavy. Zed probably felt the same way. The same flock of crows that had once attacked them had now captured Leon and threatened him.

‘…I really should go see Zed.’

“By the way, Harto.”

Just as he made up his mind, Leon suddenly stood up.

“About the form we saw Zed take earlier. Don’t you want to know what that was?”

“Ah….”

Harto recalled Zed’s appearance. His whole body had been wrapped in burning light, and he had looked more like a god than a human. It reminded him of someone.

But right now, his concern for Zed outweighed everything else.

“Leon, sorry, can we talk about that later? I think I should go check on Zed first….”

“He may already have realized it.”

Leon stopped him, insisting this was something he had to know.

“The power that surrounded Zed appeared to be ‘holy power.’”

“Holy power…?”

Harto’s eyes wavered without focus. Naturally, one name flashed through his mind.