Volume 3 Chapter 3 Part 5
「Well, at least I know why Tateishi’s been acting like that.」
「I-I’m sorry. It’s Shizuku’s own fault, isn’t it, Master…?」
「It’s fine. I appreciate you always covering for me whenever I stay up all night and go to work with no sleep.」
I knew the reason now, and it obviously wasn’t Shizuku’s responsibility.
For now, I’d wait for Tateishi’s condition to improve before resolving the misunderstanding.
I headed back to the Western-style room and checked up on Tateishi again.
「Woah. She’s smiling as usual, but it looks like she’s in even more pain than before.」
At my request, Shizuku moved to feel Tateishi’s forehead.
「39.6 degrees.」[1. TL Note: 103.28 Fahrenheit]
「Ehhh? So her fever went up? Shouldn’t we do something about this?」
But contacting her family was pointless… Was there no choice but to call an ambulance?
「Oh, wait! The flower from the ancient tree!」
The flower in question was a mysterious flower that only blossomed in the large trees of the dungeon’s fourth floor. I’d received one from some fellow adventurers while heading to the surface.
According to Deet, the flower could be used to brew mid-tier potions, but it was also quite effective against colds.
「Well, there’s no harm in trying, so I’ll give it a shot. I think you’re supposed to infuse it into a drink but… how am I supposed to infuse it?」
Luckily, this wasn’t the other world. Here in Japan, I had a computer and smartphone containing all the knowledge of the world.
Let’s see… it says that infusing just means boiling it in water.
I retrieved the flower, stowed away alongside the cardboard box containing the forbidden texts, and placed it in a pot along with some water and brought it to a boil.
Pouring the broth into a mug, I returned back to Tateishi.
「Tateishi, Tateishi. Come, drink this.」
At the sound of my voice, Tateishi woke up. But her eyes were utterly empty.
For some reason, she was fumbling her hands around, grasping at the bedsheets.
Ah, she was searching for her phone. I picked up her phone and placed it in her hand.
Soon, i received a LIME message.
Ayame: 『(*ﾉ∀ﾉ) I wish you’d call me by my first name instead…』
Ah—– Jeez! But, for now, I had to make her drink the medicine.
「Ayame, drink this. It’ll cure your cold.」
Ayame: 『I can’t move. Feed me! （ ´ ω ` ）』
I guess I didn’t really have a choice then. I sat on the bed next to her and helped raise Tateishi into sitting position.
I blew on the medicine to cool it down. 「Drink it slowly, okay?」
「Yes.」
There was a lot, but eventually she finished all of it.
She must’ve been pretty thirsty after sweating so much.
I helped Tateishi lay down again. Within minutes, her beet-red face and hollow, sunken eyes slowly returned to normal.
Ayame: 『This medicine is seriously amazing Σ( ﾟД ﾟ) *w-wow!!*』
「Good to hear. Let me check your fever again.」
I put my hand over her forehead.
「Mm. It’s not burning anymore.」
The flower from the ancient tree was extremely effective against earth’s common cold.
As I brushed that thought aside, I noticed that Tateishi had frozen still.
「What’s wrong Tateishi?」
At the sound of my voice, her fingers flew into action, frantically typing on her smartphone as if she’d suddenly remembered something important.
Ayame: 『ﾟ(人´ Ɐ ` )ﾟ☆ﾟ° ﾟ :*・ﾟThank you! But we’re dating now, so call me Ayame （ ´ ω ` ）』
Ah. Right. Even if her cold was better, I still had to correct this misunderstanding.
♦︎ ♦︎ ♦︎
「So basically, I never intended to go out with you.」
「Yes…」
In the beginning of our conversation, Tateishi was actively responding to me, but at some point down the line, she’d adverted her gaze downwards and only replied ‘yes…’ to all my words.
It felt like she was becoming more and more pitiful.
If I hadn’t moved into this apartment, I might’ve been happily dating her right now.
Rather, if it weren’t for Ria and Deet, I probably would’ve been dating her.
Tateishi began typing on her phone again, hesitated, then put it away without sending anything. 「Even if it was a misunderstanding, I thought maybe there was a chance… but I guess not, huh. I’ll go home now.」
「Yeah. It’s pretty late- want me to send you home?」
She returned to her keyboard warrior self.
Ayame: 『° ﾟ( ﾟ ´ Д ` ﾟ)ﾟ° I’m fine! But, thanks for offering ( ´ Ɐ ` *)ω `) *mwah*』
I felt a bit relieved when I saw her message. I watched as Tateishi left the Western-style room.
Internally, I sighed. Finally, it was over. But somehow, I got the feeling that I was forgetting something.
「Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!」
I heard Tateishi’s high pitched scream.
C-crap! I always carried around a key these days, so I’d forgotten, but this apartment was connected to the dungeon’s 5th floor by default.
Whenever someone exited into the dungeon, they’d trigger the sensor lights, but Tateishi, with how heartbroken she looked, probably hadn’t looked and stepped straight into the dungeon. I rushed over to the shelf next to the entryway and grabbed my pickaxe.
I threw open the front door and ran outside. The very first thing I saw were the claws of a giant rat closing around Tateishi.
「Watch out!」
I leaped out and grabbed her from behind, wrenching her around so that my body was in between the giant rat and Tateishi.
「Geh!」
I felt a light scratch on my back, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on that.
While holding onto Tateishi with my left hand, I swung my right hand around and smashed the giant rat with my pickaxe.
It pierced the rat’s head, and with that one blow, it stopped moving completely.
At the same time, I heard the sound of iron door closing.
I’d opened it for Ria and the others earlier, but Shizuku must’ve pressed the switch just now.
「Ow, my back. Luckily it’s not too big of a scratch. My clothes did get ruined though.」
What surprised me the most though was how fast I had moved.
「Level 16… I’m pretty strong, aren’t I… huh?」
Though oddly enough, I felt something clinging onto to my left arm, as if I was supporting it…
Gehhh! I forgot about Tateishi!
But there might still be monsters nearby. For the time being, I lifted her up and carried her back to my apartment.
When we returned, Tateishi was still a sobbing mess, crying as she continued to cling onto me. How could I possibly explain this to her?
I didn’t know, but I decided to try comforting her, speaking in the most soothing voice I could muster. 「It’s okay now.」
「B-but-」
Her crying never ceased. I guess she was still scared. Understandably so.
「It’s really okay now.」
「You’re bleeding so much.」
「Eh? What the hell is thiiiiiiiiiis???」
I had chalked it up to be a light scratch, but when I put my hand on my back, it became covered in blood.
When I turned my head to check, I saw bright red blood gushing out in torrents.
Now that I thought about it, the wound was starting to feel really painful.
I hadn’t noticed it during the fight, with my adrenaline levels turned up to the max.
It wasn’t that Tateishi was still scared from the dungeon, but rather that she was lamenting her own actions which had led to my injury.
「W-wahhh.」
「F-for now, I’ll go to the bed.」
I started to walk towards the bed. With each step, I felt a distinct, throbbing pain on my back.
The second I stepped into the Western-style room, Shizuku, who’d previously been disguised as part of the floor, sprang up at me in her white slime form.
「M-Master!」
「Kya!」Tateishi cried out in alarm upon seeing Shizuku.
「That’s Shizuku- she’s a slime… it’s fine, she’s on our side…」
It seemed that Shizuku had closed the iron gate using the computer.
Since the computer was only in sleep mode, it’d be much faster than going all the way out into the dungeon and manually closing the door. As expected, Shizuku had acted intelligently, but in the process, she’d dissolved her disguise.
I flopped down stomach first onto the bed, avoiding any contact against my wounded back.
「Tateishi, use the disinfectant on his wound.」
「O-okay.」
I caught vague snippets from the conversation between the two.
「O-ow.」
After the disinfectant had been applied, I felt Shizuku on top of me, her slime body pressed flatly against my wound.
「I will act as an adhesive and stop the flow of blood.」
「Y-you can do that?」
Tateishi sounded surprised.
「Yes. I heard about it from the adults.」
As I stared off towards the side, I saw a hand holding a phone appear in my vision. The screen was on, facing me.
Ayame: 『’Adults’? Are you sure this kind thing is safe?』
I choked out an accidental laugh. There was absolutely nothing to fear if Shizuku was doing it.
Though there were occasionally times where Shizuku blundered, such as leading Tateishi into the misunderstanding.
But Shizuku always acted for my sake.
「The adults Shizuku is referring to are her friends… white slimes older than her. They have some special circumstances, but they know more about humans than humans… so it’s perfectly safe.」
Even as I spoke, I felt the pain lessen a little.
Ayame: 『Is it okay if I ask about some stuff? （ ´ • ω • ` ）』
I guess I couldn’t lie to Tateishi anymore.
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