Ominous Footsteps
Satou here. Long ago, there were no fireproof buildings, so fires frequently broke out in towns and cities. There’s a famous saying in Japan, “A single match can cause a fire,” but since there are no matches in this parallel world…
“Those of you who are here for food, form three lines and wait your turn!”
Arisa’s energetic shouting filled the air, the sunlight bouncing off the blond wig she wore to hide her ill-omened lilac hair.
We were in the plaza near the west explorers’ guild in Labyrinth City Celivera, where the soup kitchen we’d set up had drawn a far bigger crowd than anticipated.
My target audience had been the starving children who couldn’t find work, as well as the elderly, but young novice explorers who couldn’t earn enough to feed themselves had also shown up.
“Line uuup?”
Weaving her way through the crowd to herd them into lines was Tama, with her cat ears, tail, and short white hair.
“No cutting, sirs! Newcomers to the back of the line, sirs!”
Pochi, who sported dog ears, a tail, and a short brown bob, seemed to have caught someone trying to cut ahead.
“Young larvae, if you wish to fill your bellies, the back of the line is here, I declare.”
Like a cosplayer at a certain comic convention, the homunculus Nana was holding up a sign that read BACK OF THE LINE, her long blond ponytail swaying.
She was wearing a breezy summer dress instead of her usual armor, so I was a bit concerned about all her exposed skin.
“Master, the prep team is ready to distribute food at your command.”
This was the ever-serious Liza from the orangescale tribe. Small bony plates of skin decorated her neck, wrists, and so on.
Liza had been fighting remarkably well on the front lines of late, but wearing an apron over her civilian clothes like this gave her the added charm of a newlywed wife, which actually suited her quite well.
She was the one who had taught Lulu and me the basics of cooking, for one thing.
“My part of the cooking is finished, so I’ll help with the distribution, too.”
The beautiful Lulu’s sparkling smile would’ve sent any idol running for the hills.
When she turned around, her silky black hair fanned out like something from a shampoo commercial.
Honestly, the people of this world have no taste whatsoever. How could such an incredible beauty be considered homely by anyone’s standards?
“Ready.”
Decked out in the white coverall apron, mask, and kerchief of a Japanese elementary school child on lunch duty, Mia the elf looked considerably fired up.
Her pale blue-green hair was worn in two long pigtails as usual, with her slightly pointed elf ears peeking out below.
To her left and right, the young girls we had employed as maids back at the mansion were on standby wearing similar outfits.
Miss Miteruna, the head maid, was keeping an eye on the younger maids while maintaining the cooking fire for the soup.
“Let’s get started, then.”
Because I didn’t want to give a whole speech, I simply used my “Amplification” skill to announce to the entire plaza the beginning of the food handout.
The crowd gave a cheer as they stood ready to receive their food.
Today’s meal consisted of sweet dumplings served in a folded leaf and soup in bowls made from palm fruit halves.
Both vessels had been sold cheaply as throwaway items in Labyrinth City.
There weren’t any palm trees growing around here, so I was a little curious as to where they’d gotten their stock from.
“Whoa, looks good…”
“The soup smells great, too!”
“What’re these black things?”
“Ooh, dumplings!”
The kids waiting in line chatted excitedly.
Incidentally, the food we were giving out was relatively plain: The dumplings were made from beans and potatoes, while the soup’s ingredients were dried octopus bits and edible brown seaweed.
I had wanted to prepare something a bit more lavish, but Arisa and Miss Miteruna stopped me.
They said if the meal was any fancier, people who could provide for themselves would end up coming just to try it, which would inconvenience the folks who ran food carts for a living.
For the same reason, we had scheduled the handouts for a time that wouldn’t overlap with morning shift hours.
“You there! If you’ve already received your share, step to the side before you start eating, please!”
Arisa shouted at some children who’d started eating their food the second they’d received it.
“It’s yummy.”
“Yeah, the potatoes aren’t even bitter.”
“And the beans don’t make my mouth tingle!”
The kids gave rave reviews as they munched away.
Beans and potatoes, the staple foods of the less fortunate in Labyrinth City, were actually the remains of monsters called “hopping potatoes” and “walking beans.” If they weren’t prepared properly before cooking, they had a gross, bitter taste, and their dark-red sinews even had a light paralyzing effect.
We’d carefully removed the parts that caused the numbness, then chopped and mashed the beans and potatoes into round dumplings before frying them in beast fat.
“Ow-ow, that’s hot!”
“The soup is tasty, too.”
“Mm-hmm! The blackish-green stuff’s hard to scoop up, but it’s yummy.”
“The white stuff is nice and chewy, too.”
The octopus and seaweed soup seemed to be a hit as well.
I’d acquired the octopus meat in the labyrinth.
Normally, I would’ve used the dried cubes of meat from the huge number of octopus monsters we had encountered on the sugar route, but I held back due to the risk of someone analyzing it and growing suspicious.
At some point, I’d have to disguise myself as the mysterious merchant Akindoh and sell off some of the octopus monster and giant monster fish Tobkezerra meat to a Labyrinth City company so that I could use it without a problem.
Incidentally, I’d acquired the brown seaweed on the sugar route, too, but this was a much less suspicious product.
…Hmm?
Sensing someone’s eyes on me, I looked around and saw Counselor Poputema—who I’d privately nicknamed the “green-clad noble” due to his penchant for wearing all green—standing on the other side of the plaza and watching the goings-on of the soup kitchen.
For some reason, he wore a displeased frown instead of his usual mild-mannered smile.
“Young master?”
As I was debating whether to call out to the green-clad noble, the head maid, Miss Miteruna, quietly approached and whispered in my ear, pointing at an extravagant carriage that had stopped on the road across from the crowd—directly opposite where the green-clad noble was standing.
The window of the carriage opened, and the plump face of the viceroy’s wife peered out and smiled at us.
She had given us permission, and even financial support, to run this soup kitchen. I smiled back at her, giving her a noble-style bow of gratitude.
Though I was now on friendly terms with the woman at the top of Labyrinth City’s noble pecking order, I’d nearly run afoul of her before.
This outcome could be attributed to a young nobleman named Sokell, who’d decided I was his worst enemy. But he’d already met his downfall when he was exposed for producing and distributing an illegal drug called “demonic potion.”
I was actually the one who had discovered and reported that information, but that’s neither here nor there.
Now that all that drama had been dealt with, I’d received permission to start the soup kitchen and build a private orphanage, so I was well on my way to solving the problem of the hungry orphans in Labyrinth City so that I could finally enjoy some sightseeing.
My group’s level grinding was progressing nicely as well. Soon I might even have time to devote to my hobbies of invention and development.
By the time I finished thinking back on our experiences in Labyrinth City thus far and looked up again, the carriage transporting the viceroy’s wife was already gone.
She must have stopped by just to check on things while on her way to some other business.
“…He’s gone?”
Turning away from the road, I found that the green-clad noble was gone, too.
Looking at the dot on my map, I found that he was now heading toward the downtown area.
Nobles normally used carriages to travel, but this one seemed to be fairly light on his feet, as he was strolling around quite a bit.
Oh well.
I was a little curious about his inscrutable actions, but since I now had the nobles, the army, and the explorers’ guild of Labyrinth City on my side, there was probably nothing to worry about.
“’Mfull.”
“That was tasty.”
“Ahhh, so haaappy…”
The children sighed contentedly as they finished their food.
I didn’t think the helpings had been enough to satisfy a growing young child, but many of them didn’t seem to get enough food normally, so maybe it took less to fill their stomachs.
That said, some of them had turned their soup bowls upside down to get the last drops. There were even some licking the empty leaf wrappings for dumpling crumbs.
“I still think that instead of just one meal a day, we should—”
“You mustn’t, master.”
I started to suggest three meals a day, but Arisa interrupted me with a scolding tone.
“If you give them excessive aid, they won’t be able to support themselves.”
Arisa insisted that while people would appreciate the free food at first, they might start to take it for granted, and eventually they would begin to expect even more.
I didn’t think it was that big a deal, but once the orphanage opened, there would be fewer starving children on the streets, and as for the elderly and the broke newbie explorers… Well, I’d just have to come up with some other way to help them.
It wasn’t like me to meddle too much in the affairs of others anyway.
“Please dispose of your trash in the trash cans, I insist.”
Nana scolded the kids who had started to throw their bowls or leaves on the ground.
A few of them ignored her, but when Liza shot them a threatening glare, they were quick to pick up their trash.
In my old world, it went without saying that you threw trash away only in a trash receptacle, but apparently, that wasn’t so common here.
“Oh, looks like most of them are done eating now.”
With an old-fashioned “upsy-daisy,” Arisa clambered to stand on the empty box she’d been sitting on and shouted at the kids using an amplification magic tool.
“Those of you who are done eating, there’s volunteer work to be done if you have the time! Those who participate will be rewarded with a little treat!”
It had been her idea to have the kids help out and get some practice working, instead of just giving them food.
“Volunteer?”
“What’s that?”
“A job?”
The children gathered around curiously.
“It’s not a job. It’s voluntary, sort of a goodwill… Ah, I guess you don’t really have those terms here.” Arisa furrowed her brow. “Let’s see… Basically, I’m asking you to help clean up the plaza and the roads and stuff as thanks for the food.”
The children looked confused, but many of them seemed willing to participate anyway.
Some of the elderly had kept their distance. About half of them stayed to help.
Most of the young explorer types wandered off to the area near the labyrinth entrance.
“Looks like they’re only interested in cash.”
“That’s fine.”
We didn’t really need many people anyway.
Looking at the children who’d gathered around to volunteer, I stretched out contentedly.
Yep, nothing beat peace and tranquility.
“…Mew?”
Sitting nearby, Tama suddenly flattened her ears and started looking around, quivering.
Next to her, Pochi opened her eyes and started sniffing the air quizzically.
Intrigued, I looked at my radar and found that a huge crowd of people was flocking away from the downtown area.
“So noisyyyy?”
“I smell something burning, sir.”
Tama and Pochi ran over to one side of the plaza, where a fence overlooked a somewhat-steep slope.
Beyond the slope, in the middle of the slightly lower downtown area, I could see black smoke rising.
“Uh-oh, is that a fire?”
“Mia, can you put it out with magic?”
“Mrrr, too far.”
It was some six hundred feet away from us, so her magic probably wouldn’t reach.
“I’ll head over and check it out.”
“Allow me to accompany you, master.”
Liza hiked up her long skirt, revealing her bare feet, ready to run.
The kids looked eager to help, too.
They weren’t wearing their normal armor, but between Arisa’s Enchant: Resist Fire and my Enchant: Physical Protection, we would probably be fine.
Just to be safe, I gave everyone damp cloths with which to cover their mouths.
“All right, let’s go!”
Leaving Miss Miteruna to take care of things in the plaza, we set off at a run.
In such a short span of time, the black smoke from downtown had already spread across a wide area.
It seemed to be moving far too quickly for a natural fire—there might be arson involved here.
“We’re taking a shortcut!”
Scooping up Mia and Arisa in my arms, I dashed directly down the steep slope instead of taking the long way down.
“Tallyhooo…”
“Lallyhooo, sir!”
“Easy, you two. You’ll bite your tongues if you try to talk.”
Since the vanguard team was accustomed to an acrobatic fighting style, they could talk through this sliding descent easily enough, but Arisa and Mia didn’t seem nearly as calm.
Lulu, who was hopping down with light steps alongside Nana, kept giving little shrieks of “eek!” in a tone that suggested she was almost enjoying herself.
Her self-defense training in the elf village and the physical enhancements of leveling up probably had something to do with that.
“Master, the black cloud is moving, I report.”
“Master! The fires are being caused by burning slimes.”
Investigating Nana’s report, Arisa discovered the cause using a chant-less Space Magic spell, Clairvoyance.
According to my map information, thirty or so oil slimes were rampaging through the city, their levels all in the single digits.
And their numbers were gradually decreasing.
I was going to use my Practical Magic spell Remote Arrow to wipe them out, but that didn’t appear to be necessary.
My map showed the health gauges of the oil slimes rapidly decreasing. They were probably taking continuous damage from the flames.
One of the few surviving oil slimes was right up ahead, so I cast Enchant: Physical Protection on everyone; Arisa applied Enchant: Resist Fire on the group at the same time.
As we dodged the fleeing crowd and burst onto the ash-covered street, a roaring flame entered my vision.
It was pretty big for such a low-level slime—around the size of a full-grown cow.
Just as I was about to instruct Liza to destroy it, a black shadow cut in between us and the oil slime.
“Dozon… Buster!”
A bearded, bearlike explorer jumped from a dilapidated house nearby, bringing a giant war hammer down on the smoking oil slime.
The hammer crushed the oil slime easily, causing its body to explode in all directions.
“Ah, stupid—!”
“Aaaaagh! Water, water!”
The yellowish-brown remains of the oil slime scattered everywhere, sticking to the nearby houses and catching fire.
Since the roofs of the buildings were all made of woven dried plants, the flames spread in an instant.
Even the mortar holding the brick walls together seemed to be flammable, as the flame was moving downward as well.
The explorer who’d caused this disaster was now rolling around in flames on the ground, but his party members would probably take care of him.
“Mia, start the chant for a firefighting water spell.”
“Mm. ? Water Ring Sansui.”
Mia used a Spirit Magic spell, since they had the briefest chants, and scattered water droplets around the area.
I knew it wasn’t wise to try to put out an oil fire with water, but the oil from these slimes seemed to be dependent on the composition of the slime, which meant it shouldn’t spread any farther.
Because Mia’s magic alone couldn’t put out the fire completely, I used my go-to Practical Magic spell Magic Hand to reach into the smoky black sky.
This magic created invisible, psychokinetic hands, but I could also use them as an extension of my own hands, so this spell allowed me to produce water from Storage.
While I was at it, I used Magic Hand to splash the water around, spraying a mist on the area of the fire.
> Title Acquired: Firefighter
> Title Acquired: Sprinkler
In the corner of my vision, I saw in the log screen that I’d gained two new titles.
The first one was all well and good, but that second one seemed a little off.
“Whoa!”
“That little girl’s a magic whiz!”
“Wish we could have her instead of our guy.”
The bearded explorer’s crew all gathered around, complimenting Mia.
“Mrrr… Satou.”
Mia clung to my side, hiding her face in embarrassment.
“The fire should go out soon, but I’d imagine there are some people with serious injuries.”
“Time for a rescue operation, then?”
“Right. But it’d be dangerous to go alone, so Pochi and Liza, Tama and Nana, I’ll have you work in pairs. The rest of you, stay here and heal the wounded as the rescue team brings them in.”
I produced a bag full of burn-healing potions from Storage by way of the Garage Bag and handed it to Arisa.
“What about you, master?”
“I’ll be on the rescue team, too, of course.”
With that, I stepped into an alley shrouded in smoke and mist.
“Screams, sir!”
“Let’s go, Pochi.”
“Yes, sir.”
Pochi and Liza dashed to a house that was still in flames.
“Over heeere?”
“Lead the way, I request.”
Tama and Nana set off toward another nearby house.
Looks like they’ve got it under control.
If things got dicey, I planned to back them up, but Arisa’s Enchant: Resist Fire appeared to be protecting their clothes and skin, so they were able to go about rescuing people safely.
Clearly, I had nothing to worry about.
“Liza! You’re in charge!”
“Understood!”
As always, Liza responded with a reliable shout.
All right, then.
I opened the map to confirm a few things.
There were two areas where oil slimes were still alive and wreaking havoc.
There were some experienced garnet-badge explorers surrounding one area, so I decided to take care of the other.
I ran forward, using “Long-Distance Vision” and Magic Hand to assist the people fleeing as I went.
This is some serious smoke.
After I started choking from breathing it in, I supplied myself with oxygen directly from Storage.
There were no survivors to be found in this area, only corpses.
The last dot on my radar was the final oil slime—No, there were five survivors beneath that, in some kind of basement area.
All of them were severely wounded, and judging by their health bars, they didn’t have much longer to live.
Abandoning all restraint, I used “Warp” to bring myself there almost immediately.
First, I used Freeze Water to dispose of the oil slime attached to the brick house. Its core was an unusual pink color, but I had no time to worry about that right now.
Putting that information aside for later, I charged right into the smoky burning house.
The stairs to the basement had collapsed.
Clicking my tongue, I used “Spellblade” on my fingertips to open a hole in the floor.
Just as I did, there was an explosive sound like backfire, and flames burst up from the hole.
My courage wavered ever so slightly, but I ignored that and dove into the flames.
“I’m here to help!”
There came no response.
Frantic, I looked around the basement full of fire and smoke.
There!
On the other side of the rubble.
There were people there—burning alive.
Heaped on top of one another—presumably passed out from the smoke—not a single one of them stirred in the slightest.
I grabbed all of them with Magic Hand, then used the Return spell to escape with the victims in tow.
“Waaaah! You scared the hell out of me, you damn whelp! Erm, sir.”
When the Return spell brought us to the Ivy Manor, the foul-mouthed house fairy Lelillil fell over in surprise.
She must have just so happened to be in the gazebo area where we’d arrived.
Ignoring Lelillil for the time being, I quickly operated the menu to use the intermediate Water Magic spell Healing: Water.
Once the AR displays of all five people showed that their health bars had fully recovered, I breathed a sigh of relief.
“They’re wounded. Can you get a room ready with some supplies?”
“Ahhh! Damn, this looks bad!”
Lelillil rushed into the mansion.
I hadn’t noticed in my rush to get them out before, but according to my AR, all five of the victims were female, with the title Masterless Slave.
Their master had most likely perished in that fire.
Not wanting to worry the rest of my group, I used Telephone to contact them and let them know I’d brought some severely wounded victims to the Ivy Manor.
“They’re all blackened with soot.”
I used Everyday Magic to clean the soot off them.
Unfortunately, the force of the cleaning sent their mostly burned clothes dissolving to the floor.
“Y-you filthy whelp! What the hell are you doing in the sacred home of the sage?!” Misunderstanding the sight of the exposed young women, Lelillil flew into a rage behind me. “If you want to get down and dirty, do it somewhere else!”
“This isn’t what it looks—”
I stopped in the middle of my response.
Three of the five were completely healed, but the brown-haired and red-haired girls still had burns.
Intermediate Healing Magic should be more than enough to fix up a burn… Confused, I started using the spell again.
“Why isn’t it working?”
“Magic can’t heal old wounds, dumbass… Sir.”
Lelillil’s words made some sense, but the burns seemed a little too intense to be old wounds.
The brown-haired girl named Tifaleeza was in particularly rough shape: She was terribly charred from her knees to her waist and on the right side of her torso. She also had nasty burns from the right shoulder to the side of her head.
The redhead, who was named Neru, wasn’t in as bad of shape as Tifaleeza overall, but the burns on the lower half of her body were just as severe.
Even aside from the most severe burns, both of them had smaller scars dotted along their bodies, as if flames had scorched them all over.
If these burns were old wounds, they probably would have died long before this fire.
“There’s something strange about these female whelps’ burns…,” Lelillil murmured, examining them.
Both their health bars had started going down again.
“Potions, maybe?”
I produced two intermediate burn healing potions from Storage and poured them over the girls’ injuries.
These special magic potions included freezing-flower powder, which was especially good for burns.
“Not a damn difference…sir.”
Sure enough, the potions didn’t have any effect.
That’s strange.
Even watered-down freezing-flower potions had been enough to heal the people in the town of Puta who’d been burned by the pyromaniac noble.
These potions were far stronger than those, so I had no idea why they wouldn’t work.
I checked their status in the AR display, but it said only Burns: Severe, with no strange illnesses or curses to be found.
“…Whelp.”
Lelillil was giving me an unusually serious look.
“Don’t get any funny ideas!” She put her hand on her hip. “Even the great sage Lord Trazayuya couldn’t heal everyone’s damn wounds and illnesses, sir. Don’t think you can do better when you haven’t even lived half as long as I have!”
The sage! That’s right: This is the sage’s manor!
“Lelillil! I’m going to use the lab in the basement!”
“It’s only natural that there’ll be some people you can’t—”
Careful to avoid the two girls’ wounds, I lifted them gently with Magic Hand and ran out of the room.
Lelillil was giving me some kind of soft lecture, but it would have to wait.
“Whelp! I’m not done talking to—”
“Take care of the other three, please.”
Leaving Lelillil hopping mad, I opened the gate to the basement and ran inside.
“The equipment down here might be able to pick something up.”
In the basement laboratory, I quickly activated the cultivation tanks’ control unit and tried to fill them with liquid medicine.
“Geh, I don’t even have enough for one…”
With a frantic search, I quickly found a recipe in Trazayuya’s documents in Storage.
Let’s see here. For ingredients, I’ll need… Good. I can work with this.
While I was supplying the machines with magic, I produced an Elvish Transmutation Tablet and materials and started creating the medicine.
“Wh-whelp?”
Prioritizing speed above all else and wasting a good deal of magic and ingredients in the process, I started creating an optimal medicine for healing burns in a short period of time.
“You’re moving way too damn fast. You won’t be able to make anything like…”
Lelillil had come into the lab and started saying something, but I ignored her and focused solely on my work.
Once the liquid medicine was finished, I filled two cultivation tanks and gently lowered the two remaining burn victims into each.
They looked a bit anguished when the breathable liquid entered their lungs, but neither of them woke up.
“All right, I’ll start with a full-body scan.”
I entered the commands and took a deep breath.
Before long, the control unit’s display panels lit up with information.
“…All normal?”
No, not quite.
Specifically, it said there was nothing wrong “within the scope of necessary healing.”
Opening my map, I searched for any commonalities shared by these two girls that the three upstairs didn’t have.
“Found something.”
These two, and not the other three, had the crime Treason listed in their bounties.
I tapped on the entry for Treason to view the details. I read on the display Punishment.
“Branding… Continuous…?”
Looking at the two of them floating in the tanks, I realized that there was a palm-size brand on each of their backs.
According to the AR, they were Treachery Brands.
Searching through the materials in my Storage, I found information about it in some documents I’d bought in the old capital.
“Seriously…?”
In order to prevent Treachery Brands from being removed by magic or potions, the power of a City Core was used to perpetually prevent them from healing.
The fact that I couldn’t heal the other burns seemed to be a side effect of this.
“Well, now what?”
I sank into deep deliberation.
Of course, I couldn’t just leave them unhealed.
I didn’t know what they had done to be literally branded as traitors, but that had nothing to do with letting them die of their burn wounds.
Once I healed them, I could have them make up for their crimes as criminal slaves.
Besides, I wasn’t the kind of person who enjoyed watching young girls suffer from serious burns.
“…Hmm?”
I looked more closely at Tifaleeza’s back.
It was covered in burns, yet the brand mark stood out clearly.
Looking at the materials again, I discovered that even if one attempted to cover up the brand by burning the skin around it, it would automatically heal the outline of the mark alone.
And if one tried to cut the skin away, the brand would reappear on the newly healed skin.
“This is awfully thorough…”
I pressed a hand to my forehead, deep in thought.
In modern Japan, they could remove burned skin and graft on new, healthy skin.
This parallel world had magic and potions, but those wouldn’t heal this burn. Even if I grafted on new skin, the brand would just restore itself.
“There’s no way… No, wait.”
That’s it.
The brand would restore itself.
In other words, the rest of the area around it would stay as unburned skin.
All I wanted was to heal their burns, not necessarily to remove the brand.
“I don’t really want to cut their skin off with a knife, though…”
“Wh-what? Have you lost your damn mind?!” Alarmed by my admittedly strange muttering, Lelillil turned pale.
“Don’t worry. I wouldn’t do that.”
I searched through the elfin documents in Storage with a few key words.
Homunculi… If their technology could cultivate an artificial life-form, then surely it could regenerate or replace a bit of skin.
I scrolled down the long list of matches.
Creating homunculi and fresh golems… Nope.
Disguise masks… I was intrigued, but for now, next.
Organic artificial arms… Close.
Organ cultivation, skin cultivation, skin regeneration—
“Got it.”
I started reading the logs of an elf from several thousand years ago.
This looks like it could work.
“This might be a bit harsh, but try to bear it.”
Murmuring to the girls floating in the tanks, I went about the work as fast as I could without breaking the machinery.
Anesthesia applied.
“I never thought I’d use the map’s 3-D function like this…”
Operating the map like a 3-D scanner, I traced around the girls’ bodies, then input the settings into the control unit.
Carefully, accurately, and quickly… All right, activate!
“Oh no, oh no! Look, whelp! They’re all bloody! If you can’t use the machines, I’m going to put them into emergency shutdown—”
“Don’t touch anything, Lelillil!”
Lelillil was about to press the shutdown button in a panic, but I used “Coercion” to stop her in place.
“This is how it has to be.”
I looked over the girls again.
I’d used the cultivation tanks to dissolve the burned skin, which naturally caused the exposed tissue to start bleeding.
The two girls looked like they were in pain; maybe the anesthesia wasn’t enough.
“I’m sorry. Hang in there just a little longer.”
I added more anesthesia as I spoke.
Then I selected the Magic Hand spell from the magic menu, since it was good for delicate tasks, and used it to press down on the girls’ veins and prevent the blood from spreading into the liquid medicine.
Judging from the control unit, Neru’s burns should be treatable with intermediate magic potions, but Tifaleeza would need an advanced potion to restore the function of her right eye.
I searched through my inventory.
Aha!
There was a lesser elixir in my Keep folder.
I’d found this in the crazy dendrobium’s treasure chest on our first trip into the Celivera labyrinth.
But I’d been saving it in case anything happened to any of my party…
I hesitated for a moment.
“They’d probably be angry with me if I didn’t use it for this.”
Making up my mind, I poured the elixir into the tube of Tifaleeza’s cultivation tank.
I still had a cure-all, and I could always make more potions and medicines for my group before we next went into the labyrinth.
Then I put an intermediate health potion into Neru’s tube.
Then, once I adjusted the settings on the control unit, all I had to do was keep Magic Hand in place until the new skin was done generating.
Breathing a small sigh of relief, I turned to Lelillil.
“Lelillil, how are the other girls?”
“I brought them to the guest room and put them to sleep with the Sleeping Powder spell, as you requested, Lord Satou.”
…Lord?
That was strange coming from Lelillil.
Maybe it was because I’d used the “Coercion” skill on her earlier?
“What’s the matter, Lelillil?”
“Lord Satou! I was wrong about you!” Lelillil gazed up at me, her eyes shining. “I should have known—the holy high elves were right about you! Your operation of the machines was just as magnificent as the stories Grandfather told about the Great Sage himself! And that alchemy was unthinkably fast!”
She looked almost feverish as she pressed closer to me.
“I vow from the bottom of my heart to serve you from now on, so I beg you, please forgive how terribly rudely I treated you until now.”
With that, she held her breath and awaited my response.
“Um, sure. You’re forgiven.”
Feeling exhausted from the heat of her gaze, I simply nodded.
“Huzzah!”
Lelillil jumped for joy like a child, then seemed to remember herself and mumbled an apology.
It was all a bit much, but it was still better than her constantly needling me. I decided not to worry about it.
Glancing at my log, I found that I’d received all kinds of titles.
> Title Acquired: Fire Rescuer
> Title Acquired: Physician
> Title Acquired: Surgeon
> Title Acquired: Unlicensed Doctor
I wasn’t sure whether the profession of physician or medical licenses even existed in this world, but it was a little late to be questioning the weird, half-baked nature of the title system at this point, so I decided to refrain from commenting.
“Now, then…”
Using “Item Box,” I produced the documents that had caught my eye while I was searching for a way to heal the two girls.
Using my “Parallel Thoughts” skill, I kept an eye on Tifaleeza and Neru while scanning over the documents.
The one that had intrigued me the most was “organic artificial arms.”
I might be able to use it to make an artificial leg for Mr. Kajiro, the samurai guarding our mansion.
“They’re not as responsive as the original limb, huh…”
Sadly, this was written right in the documents.
That must be why Cyriltoa the Songstress in the old capital had given up on her beloved musical instrument, since she was using an artificial arm made by the elves.
It would probably still be better than what Kajiro was using right now, which was essentially a peg leg, but it wouldn’t be enough to help him return to his calling as a samurai.
For now, I decided to put this technology aside in the Keep folder.
Next, I started to read the documents about the “disguise mask.”
“Lord Satou, Lord Satou!”
As I was reading, Lelillil started tugging politely on my sleeve.
“Hasn’t that girl’s hair gotten longer?”
Sure enough, beautiful silver hair about the length of a bob cut had grown back on the right side of Tifaleeza’s head, which had been charred bald before.
I thought her hair was brown before… Looking at her left side, I saw that the silver hair turned to white partway down. I assumed she had gone gray early due to stress.
It must have just looked brown because of all the soot.
The healing was already entering its final stages, too: The areas of exposed sinew on Tifaleeza’s face had healed over, revealing the pretty face of someone who would probably thrive as a cool-type idol.
She wasn’t quite as stunningly beautiful as Lulu, of course, but she was lovely enough that she would still look good standing next to her.
“It’s uneven now, so I’ll give her a trim.”
I produced scissors from Storage, sterilized them, and put them away again, reproducing them in a Magic Hand inside the cultivation tank. Then I cut the left side of her hair to match the right.
I didn’t want her hair to start floating around in the tank, so I put the white strands away in Storage.
Then I looked to the other tank.
“Neru seems normal.”
The plain Neru’s red hair hadn’t grown like Tifaleeza’s; it was still a very ordinary short cut.
It was probably because of the different medicines I’d given them.
There were hair-growing serums in the elves’ recipes, too—there was probably no need to research the difference in great detail.
Then, a few minutes later…
“Oh! It’s finished!”
Lelillil pointed enthusiastically at the cultivation tanks’ control unit, which displayed the word COMPLETE.
“Wow, it’s pretty much perfect.”
Once I’d confirmed that neither of them had a trace of burns left on their bodies, I took them out of the tanks and covered them with cloth.
The brands were still on their backs, but there was nothing I could do about that.
“They’ll probably be fatigued for a while, so let them sleep for two or three days, please.”
“Of course, Lord Satou! Your wish is my command!”
Leaving the rest to Lelillil, I went back to where my friends were waiting.
Because one of the girls had the “Analyze” skill, I asked Lelillil to call me Kuro in front of them.
For a while now, Nanashi the Hero had been appearing wherever Satou went, so I figured it would be best to use a different name once in a while.
Still, I had to wonder whether the appearance of the burning oil slimes had been accidental or deliberate.
The viceroy’s men would undoubtedly be investigating; I decided to ask the viceroy’s wife to tell me if they figured out the cause.
In the back of my mind, I remembered seeing the green-clad noble heading downtown.
…No, it can’t be.
As a high-ranking noble, he wouldn’t stand to gain anything from setting the city on fire.
I supposed some nobles hated poor people, but the green-clad noble was different.
Shaking off my doubts, I used Return to teleport back to my mansion.
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