“Change! I want a change! There is no way I’m staying in a tent inhabited by such an eromaniac! Swap me with another member right now!!”
“No one is going to agree to that…”
“Then what about a spare tent?!”
“Do you think I haven’t asked? There are no spares.”
“So you’re telling me to spend the night in there?! That’s impossible!!”
“Roark, keep it down. You’re too loud.”
Gareth tapped Roark on the shoulder, trying to get him to lower his volume. However, a fired-up Roark ignored the advice and continued to vent his complaints.
“You saw it too! That atmosphere—no matter how you look at it, they’re going to do [Self-Censored] or [Self-Censored]! I absolutely refuse to sleep while listening to someone else’s moans, okay?!”
“Roark, calm down! You’re shouting some pretty outrageous things!!”
“Good grief, how noisy.”
As Gareth desperately tried to soothe Roark—whose fatigue had been blown away in an unexpected fashion—the tent entrance opened and Kay-Trallus appeared. Appearing with only a shirt draped loosely over his skin, Kay exuded an unnecessarily sultry aura that made it hard to believe he was a classmate, especially given his striking looks.
Kay turned his gaze toward the shouting Roark and Gareth, eventually letting out a sigh before speaking.
“If you want to come in the tent, just come in.”
“And whose fault do you think it is that we can’t?!”
Roark snapped back indignantly at Kay’s exasperated look. He was obviously about to get it on with his contracted spirits in there… Roark thought.
“Hm? Oh… I see.”
Kay listened to Roark with a suspicious look, but after a moment of thought, he nodded as if he understood.
“Fufufu, it’s a misunderstanding. Even I wouldn’t be that lacking in common sense. We were just engaging in a bit of skinship.”
“Between the situation inside just now and the way you’re dressed, you have absolutely zero credibility…”
Roark continued to eye Kay with deep suspicion.
The primary factor was that Kay, flanked by his spirits in his current state, looked exactly like someone who had just finished “the act.”
“Ah, that was merely a reward. Those girls worked hard during the mountain climb, after all.”
“A reward?”
“My girls love being petted and hugged like that.”
“No, no, wait…”
[[…………]]
Roark was about to ask “What kind of reward is that?” when he noticed two pairs of eyes staring intensely at him from the gap in the tent.
—How dare you interfere.
Sensing their murderous intent through their gaze, Roark could do nothing but nod and say, “I-I see…”
“Such skinship is necessary to draw out more power from one’s contracted Spirits. Isn’t that right, Gareth?”
“Certainly, I do things like grooming Beowulf’s fur, but…”
“See? It’s the same thing.”
“Is that… really the same as grooming fur…?”
Roark shuddered as he recalled the “skinship” inside the tent. Looking at him, Kay let out a somewhat mocking smile.
“Well, I suppose someone who hasn’t contracted a Spirit wouldn’t understand.”
“Alright, fine. This is war. I’m going to knock you flat right here and now.”
“Calm down, Roark!!”
Gareth desperately held Roark back in a full nelson as he tried to charge forward.
“Hmm, I thought you’d be tired after the climb, but you seem quite energetic.”
“And whose fault is that?! Also, could you stop antagonizing me out of nowhere?!”
“Well, regardless, fatigue must be piling up in your bodies, so you should rest in the tent. I happened to bring a recommended wine; would you like to drink together?”
“Listen to me! Hey! Don’t just go back inside by yourself!”
Gareth called out desperately to Kay’s back as he walked back into the tent with a light step, but Kay vanished inside as if he hadn’t heard a thing.
That extreme “my pace” attitude was somewhat reminiscent of Lily. Gareth, still struggling to hold Roark back, began to feel a headache coming on as he thought about the rest of the training camp.
“That bastard! I’m gonna kill ‘im!!”
“You calm down, too!!”
Roark’s angry shouts and Gareth’s scream-like pleas echoed through the campsite.
In the end, thanks to Gareth’s desperate persuasion and Kay sending his Spirits back, the three of them were able to sleep in the tent without incident.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.GITHUB.IO
That day, Lily woke up in her own bed as usual. Looking up at the ceiling of her home—which should have been no different from usual—she felt a sense of wrongness.
“………?”
Lily tilted her head and slowly sat up. Surveying the room, she immediately noticed the cause.
“………”
[Shukoo—]
Standing grandly as if to block the exit of the room was a giant clam. Lily gave it a suspicious look.
“……What are you doing?”
[Shukoo—]
Lily spoke to the water Spirit, Shin (Mirage), with whom she had successfully contracted by chance a while ago. However, it only puffed out white mist from inside its shell and gave no real reply.
“I mean, why are you releasing mist?”
[Shukoo—]
Seeing the thin mist drifting throughout the room, Lily asked Shin again, but there was still no reply. It simply continued to exhale white mist like it was breathing.
“Muu.”
Feeling slightly dissatisfied with her contracted Spirit, Lily got out of bed and headed toward the door to leave the room.
“You’re in the way. Move.”
[Shukoo—]
Lily ordered it to move, but Shin showed no sign of budging, acting as if it hadn’t heard her at all.
“……Hnnngh!!”
Lily harbored a fundamental doubt as to whether a clam like Shin could even move in the first place, but she put her strength into pushing the Spirit’s large body so she could leave.
But it didn’t budge an inch. Even though she was pushing with all her might, it stood as immovable as a boulder.
“Geez!”
Letting out an angry cry, Lily tried to move it by thumping and kicking Shin’s shell. However, even for a Spirit Master, she was still a young child. Her attacks didn’t seem to affect Shin at all; instead, her own hands and feet began to ache from the strikes.
“Uguu…”
[……Shuru-shuru]
As a teary-eyed Lily glared at Shin for a while, tentacles suddenly emerged from the shell. Dragging its body along, her contracted Spirit moved away from the doorway.
“……Eh?”
[……]
Lily let out a confused sound as Shin suddenly moved, despite having ignored everything she had done until then.
Though shaken by the inscrutable actions of her Spirit, she hurried out of the room before it could change its mind.
“……Huh?”
Once in the hallway, Lily felt a different sense of unease.
“………Papa? Mama?”
The clock had already passed twelve.
Normally, her father and mother would have been up long ago, but the house was as silent as if no one were there. Lily’s unease grew stronger.
“……Are they still sleeping?”
Today was a holiday.
Additionally, she remembered her father had been drinking heavily last night to celebrate her successful contract with a High Spirit. She muttered to herself.
In her father’s case, it was entirely possible. However, it was strange that even her mother wasn’t up.
Her mother was strict about time and would be up early doing housework even on holidays. If she or her father slept in too late, they would be forcibly woken up.
“…………”
To resolve her doubts, Lily walked slowly down the hallway toward the living room.
Then, a scent she wasn’t used to smelling wafted from the other side of the living room, causing her to frown.
—What is that smell?
The scent was somewhat reminiscent of iron. Tilting her head again, Lily gripped the door handle and entered the living room.
“—————”
What entered Lily’s vision was the sight of a familiar man and woman lying collapsed in a pool of red blood.
“……Papa? Mama?”
“Lily!!”
“……Nn?”
“You finally reacted.”
Hearing her name, Lily turned her gaze toward the voice to find Roark staring at her with an exasperated expression.
“What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong…? You’re still half-asleep, aren’t you?”
When Lily tilted her head in confusion, Roark covered his face with his hand and let out a sigh.
“We’re about to start special training as a pair.”
“Special training… oh, right.”
At Roark’s words, Lily’s consciousness gradually cleared as she recalled the events of this morning.
She had slept like a log due to yesterday’s exhaustion and clearly remembered being woken up by her roommate, Celia. However, she had almost no memory of the instructions for the second day of training, which she had received while in a semi-conscious state.
“What are we doing again?”
“We weren’t given much detail. We were just assigned random pairs and told to head to the location on this map.”
“I see.”
Lily nodded understandingly as Roark explained while showing her the map with their destination marked.
“So, just like yesterday, we’re going to walk a bit to get there.”
“Piggyback.”
“At least make an effort to walk. Unlike yesterday, the path is gentle.”
Roark casually brushed off her usual request for a piggyback and started walking. Lily began to follow him at a light jog.
Unlike yesterday, the route they were taking was a pre-paved mountain trail, so the two of them made their way toward the destination with light footsteps.
“Hey, Roark.”
“Hm? What is it?”
Visit the request page If there’s a Japanese Light Novel (LN) or Web Novel (WN) you’d like me to translate
When the donation goal progress bar above hit 100% one novel will be chosen for translation
| Table of Contents | Next* |
Support the Author by Buying the Original Books!
