Chapter 39: Chapter 32: A Spark of Heroism.

<Multiple proficiency requirements fulfilled. [Trap Creation Lv. 4] [Humanize Lv. 7]>

“Buuuuuuh.”

Nothing beats a warm bath.

How long has it been now? Oh right, I was officially six months old now. It has been six months…

Six months since I was reincarnated into the body of a dragon, trapped inside a forest, and I was still trying to find the bloody exit from this place. Six months of fun, suffering, and also bad hair maintenance. Of jeez, the hair maintenance was probably the worst part about all of this now that I was using my dragonewt form more often.

It wasn’t a real problem for me until [Humanize] went up to level five. With the return of my hair, came the return of hair maintenance. Sleeping on the ground, fighting monsters and the weather has had their effects on them. They’ve become tangled, dirty and just unbearably itchy.

With my newly made comb, Saori has helped me take care of the tangles, but without conditioners or shampoo, they felt really greasy to the touch even after a shower. Even if I wasn’t girly about clothes, I very much liked my hair.

And here I thought cutting it shorter would be for the best. I don’t want to go shorter than medium…

[“The area is cleared, Hestia.”] Popping out of the forests, Saori reported she had killed all surrounding monsters. From the trail of bodies she was carrying with her, I guessed that there were quite a lot.

“C-Could you please not look at me that much.” I said bashfully, sinking deeper into the small lake to cover my body.

Yup, a lake. I was having a warm bath in its water right now.

By inserting fire inside a [Air Shield], I was able to heat things up by keeping the protected flame under water. The water easily heated up, as I only needed to fuel it with my mana to keep it alive. Also, it went without saying that bathing required me to be naked.

[“H-Hey, I wasn’t looking! Sorry, but what are you so embarrassed for, Hestia?!”] Saori replied back a bit indignant with one brow lifted up. [“I have seen you naked often enough to consider it normal. Nobody is here besides us.”]

Saori, in her own humanized form, dismissed my embarrassment with a shake of her hand. I knew she was telling the truth, but, urghh. Technically, I was completely naked as a dragon, but I considered my scales as being clothed. It got to the point, if she hadn’t commented on it when I first transformed into my [Humanize Lv. 6] form, I probably would have gone around like some primal cave girl.

All that forgotten shame came back to me now as paranoia, as I couldn’t shake off the feeling somebody iwaseking. My experience with the garms has taught me to be wary, but bathing made me feel like I was letting my guard down. My vigilance had reached an all-time high.

Just a warning to anybody attempting to peek. I can probably maul or burn you to death, so take care, perverts!

Ignoring my reddened face, Saori walked over to me, took my soaked hair out of the water and inspected them. [“The grime and most of the excessive oils are gone. The natural shine is coming back, but I think we should try to make our own shampoo.”]

She then began sniffing my hair, without giving any comments on it. In my unease, I started to make some childish noises to signal her that this was making me uncomfortable. It didn’t help though, as she just continued inspecting my hair, in silence.

“…Guck.”

Why are you not saying anything? Wait wait, does my hair smell that bad? No no, that can’t be right, right?

[“… Getting some water before our bath was the correct decision.”] Saori forced those words out, making me more self-conscious about my smel— NO! I didn’t smell! I didn’t smell.

[“Come on, you know I reek, too. Getting filthy is normal after staying in this forest for months.”] Saori patted my shoulder as she noticed me covering my tomato-colored face.

Saori then threw all the monster corpses into my storage before undressing herself. After taking off the experimental mana-weaved dress she was wearing, she submerged herself into the water.

“Wruuuuuu.” Like me, she gave a moan filled with relief and relaxation, letting the warm water heal both her body and mind.

We stayed there, relaxed and fulfilled, until the sun started to go down. Neither of us talked one bit but both of us appreciated this rare moment of silence. Once done, I dried us with my [Aerokinesis] and [Pyrokinesis], creating a hair dryer before we redressed afterwards.

“Ok, Saori. We have some time until sunset, so let’s try to find the forest’s exit.” I said with renewed vigor.

[“Understood, Hestia.”]

Our plan was to get out of the forest, so we had to make sure to do some exploring to fulfill our daily distance quota.

As we were about to go, something unexpected happened.

“Ow!”

[“Hestia?!”]

…My muscles started aching.

---

Urgh.

“You really don’t have to carry me around, Saori. I’m fine with walking on my own.” I mumbled while laying my head on Saori’s shoulder, feeling sore.

[“Let me please take responsibility.”] Saori ignored my suggestion and continued walking forwards with me on her back. [“You have been pushing yourself so much for me lately. Haaaa, why didn’t you say you have been tired from all our traveling and fighting?”]

Upon waking up this morning, my body underwent a change — in that my [Humanize Lv. 7] had aged my body to that of a ten-year-old. Not only have I grown taller, but it seemed most of my scales have disappeared with the transformation, exceptions to this were my wings, tail, hands and feet.

They still looked incredibly armored and scary, which fulfilled my need to look cool. I was quite happy about this, until I realized after the bath that my body started to ache.

[Absolute Pain Tolerance] prevented me from flinching when receiving damage, however, as I could still register the pain, it still was annoying for me. I technically could continue walking without being slowed down, but it will become mentally stressful if I push myself.

Saori offered to rest for the day, but I declined it. It was annoying but I didn’t want our day to be wasted just because I was experiencing growing pains, of all things. As a compromise, Saori suggested carrying me on her back. That was how I ended up being carried.

“I thought I was over growing pains, who would think I would experience them again? I just didn’t feel tired, so I didn’t say anything until now. At least my dragon form isn’t affected by this.” I suggested traveling as a dragon, but Saori rejected that. I think her reason was to pamper me a bit, her way to apologize for neglecting my health.

We have been performing operation “Make Saori an Assassin” quite frequently, so maybe this was fatigue? Our synergy also needed work, so we’ve been fighting far too much together, which coincidentally helped me kill off any chance [Battle Frenzy] from reappearing.

[“I personally find it rather adorable that this is even possible. Our human-like bodies are very authentic.”] She was clearly enjoying giving me a ride with that gentle smile on her face.

“You wouldn’t like this, if you were in my shoes.”

Her body, instead of being reset to that of a kid’s, was now that of an 18-year-old. She was also incredibly tall, probably taller than the average Japanese woman. Jealousy was a natural feeling when my friend, who was reborn four months after me, got an adult’s body while I was stuck in a mere child’s.

“Urgh, this sucks…”

With the sound of my [Aerokinesis] stereo, we continued moving through the forest, hoping to find the exit today. Normally, our trips would end with me climbing up a tree and checking our location at sunset. We would then set up camp, eat dinner, and then go to sleep, but it seemed today would be different.

What stood beyond a group of trees, was a canyon. This deep gorge was massive and separated our side from, possibly, our ticket out of this place. We made it to our goal.

“We finally made it out…” I said it meekly, but my elation was undeniable. I saw this sight for the first time three months ago, and we finally reached our destination

[“That might be true, but we have no way to overcome this large gap. Or, has your wing healed enough for us to fly over?”]

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“Ahhh, whatever, who cares about my wings. [Wind Blast] over. It’s that easy.” I rejected her worries, but Saori didn’t seem convinced.

[“… Uhm, I do not think that is a safe—”] she tried to argue, but I interrupted her.

“Oh, come on.” I poked her furry cheeks, smirking. “You scared? It’s just a bit of a breeze. Rocket you into the air and then down. No wooooooriess, Saori, I’ll make sure you won’t get hurt, hiehiehie.”

[“…”] She gave me the death stare before looking down into the canyon. [“Pretty sure you will survive the fall, right?”]

“Oh, definitely. I can cushion myself in time, and even if I can't, [Draconic Barrier] is the last line of defense. What? Want to throw me down, Miss Adult Teacher? Hmmm?” My smugness wouldn’t die down, nor would Saori’s annoyance at my teasing.

[“Oooh, no, no, of course not. Why would I? … Considering, though. Pff, maybe… ehehehe.”]

“Hiehiehie!”

We couldn’t stop ourselves from laughing. We made it, after all! We finally made it to the damn exit! Our time in this forest was about to end, hopefully, and we could see the light at the end of the tunnel! Our lives were about to change, again. Even if a village or town didn’t exist on the other side, the fact our progress finally yielded some results was fine for me, for now.

Honestly, this has been an amazing day. We had a chance to soak in warm water and we just found the exit out of this place. I couldn’t describe this day as anything else but a…

“Ahhhhhhhhhh! Hishta! Tealishom, il hishte!”

Huh?

[“Hey, hey, look! There seems to be somebody down there. Somebody quite small though.”] Saori reported.

Squinting my eyes, I looked down to confirm who was shouting. There at the bottom of the canyon, a small body with glittering, butterfly-looking wings attached to her back was floating, or flying, away from a cave.

Wait, could it be?!

“That’s a fairy!” I yelled out in pure delight.

[“Yeik, nice that you are happy, but you are shouting next to my ear.”] Saori gave me a reproachful look, still holding a slight grudge at my eardrum-destroying roar.

“Oops, sorry. Huh? Why is she looking our way now? Did she hear us?” I pointed my finger at the fairy, directing Saori’s gaze away from me.

At the same time I said that, from the inside of the mountain, a group of large, weapon wielding humanoids came out.

Looking at their appearance, they were significantly larger than the fairy, and I believe they would even dwarf us in our current humanized form. They had bodies similar to a gorilla’s, with blue colored skin and fur covering it. Prominent were also their pair of tusks, easily dwarfing the ones those orcs, I once encountered, had.

They were equipped from head to toe with armor and each had a weapon and a shield. Even without using [Identify], I could guess those pieces of equipment were high quality. From the scratches and traces of blood stains on them, I can only hazard a guess of how often they were used.

<Troll: A massive muscular monster that possesses astounding levels of natural regeneration. Possessing both high strength and defenses, with a generous amount of intelligence, these monsters are not foes an inexperienced combatant can triumph over. Their regeneration rate will deteriorate when in contact with fire. Rank C>

Four trolls came out of the cave, all chasing after the fairy. However, according to my [Detection Sensor] there should still be another troll inside the cave.

“Watch out behind you!” I shouted out to warn the fairy as I had a bad feeling from that fifth guy. However, it seemed this fairy couldn’t understand me, as she just floated there, confused.

Ah scheiße, she can’t understand english!

While I was flustered by my mistake, a ball of water came flying out of the mountain cave, struck the fairy and sent her tumbling down onto the earth. She recovered from the fall, but it seemed she couldn’t fly up anymore, probably due to her wet wings.

“Hishta! Plearsiz, il histe! Sullas il phat, plearsiz!”

[“Hestia, I believe she is calling out for help. What do you want to do?”]

Well, it would be quite weird if she were to joke around when five trolls are coming to kill her!

I kept my sarcastic remark to myself as I contemplated the situation. I admit, I didn’t have a real sense of duty to go down there and rescue her. My survival instincts were telling me to not jump in like a maniac without a plan.

Getting to the ground was easy enough, but those trolls weren’t a joke. Their individual stats were lower than the wyverns, but what they lacked in natural strength, they made up for with their equipment, the reintroduction of Jobs, and that one troll mage in the back.

Now, I had nothing against taking the spotlight in a fight, but this fight would become a two vs. five without a way for Saori to hide her presence. We’ve been hunting monsters together, but we never fought against a strong opponent, besides the wyverns. We’ve been able to develop some synergy, but will it be enough to win here?

As trolls were weak to fire, I clearly had an advantage as a fire elemental dragon, so I was confident in my ability to duel one or two trolls. The problem was I couldn’t go crazy with two friendlies around. That forest fire after the garm fight was an irksome memory.

[“If you cannot decide, then I would suggest we leave her.”] Something completely out of nowhere came out of Saori’s mouth. I was stunned speechless, expecting this to be a joke or something.

[“I will be frank with you, Hestia.”] She turned her head around and spoke in a tone, more serious than she usually used. She had a deep frown and her bestial eyes were demanding me to take her words seriously. [“This is not a fight that I believe we should participate in. Hear me out, I fully trust in your own ability, but can you fight against all five by yourself, because I am not so sure a D rank like me could challenge those C ranks. I am… very worried, and I don’t want you to jump in there like a hero without knowing you will make it out of there alive!”]

I could feel her concern through the [Telepathy]. I could hear her gulp with every word, making me believe she knew what she was saying was morally wrong. [“I apologize. I know it’s hypocritical, but I do not wish for you to endanger yourself, especially for a stranger’s sake.”]

Saori… I-I really didn’t expect you to say those things.

From my impression, Saori could act quite intimidating with her speaking mannerism and boldness, however, I knew that there is a good person behind that façade, albeit she was a bit distant towards strangers as I have learnt in my first week with her.

She was a filial person, who carried a strong sense of professionalism, considering she expected herself to push through and grind through challenges. She especially liked people who could do the same, or at the very least, could give 100% in their work.

I mean, just look at what Saori has been doing ever since her confidence returned? She was making me clothes, taking care of my appearance, making sure I stayed healthy, even telling me to eat more greens! She was treating the “retainer and master” stuff as a joke, but she was taking care of me as if it was true!

I did it first when I took her in and helped her gain enough strength to stand on her own legs, and now, she was repaying it ten-fold. Even if she wasn’t the best fighter yet, she was proving herself as an invaluable travel companion. And from our time together, I thought of her as my friend. A true friend I was willing to confide and fully trust in…

… and this friend was now telling me to abandon somebody.

Saori, having finished telling me what she wanted me to do, was now staring at me with sorrow-filled eyes. I dunno if she was trying to tuck a few heartstrings and persuade me… No, I was overthinking this. Her emotions were pure, driven by her own experiences and values. It was not fake.

I couldn’t say anything. What would be my response in this situation? Run away and let the fairy die, or charge in and risk my life? It was not like I couldn’t understand why Saori wanted me to choose the selfish, but rational, decision. I also would prioritize her safety over a stranger’s; she was more precious to me.

There was also the fact that our chances weren’t perfect. Compared to the wyvern fight, the battleground was unfavorable to fight in and we were heavily outnumbered. In the case of the wyverns, we didn’t have a choice with fighting since their flying speed was fast enough to pursue me. Here, we could choose.

Saori was rightfully worried. Survival was the most important part in the Belzac forest. Whether you won or lost the fight, if you still lived in the end, that is a victory. I have been repeating that to Saori, making sure she understood it. That chameleon fight was a prime example of it.

Still…

Even after all of those arguments, it didn’t sit right with me! Especially, when she was the second person who was asking me for help in this god forsaken forest!

Identify!