Chapter 81

“Alright.”

The moment permission was granted, the thin shield membrane around the Vermilion family ship restored itself, and Lieutenant Erabelle Vermilion crossed over through the docking corridor she had latched onto.

Commander Dezeb Avganis watched her in silence as Erabelle’s eyes widened at the sight of him.

“Are you alright?”

Things writhed between torn slabs of flesh. Spilled entrails and snake-like bundles of tentacles twisted together, filling the ship’s interior.

Coated in thick, sticky black tar, he looked less like a human being than some massive-class monster.

“Doesn’t exactly look good, does it?”

He [N O V E L I G H T] tilted his head, though half his face had lost anything resembling a human shape, and asked softly,

“...Will you help me?”

“What should I do?”

“Mm. Can you hold me for now?”

Erabelle studied him carefully. Barely half of his human form seemed intact.

“Is that... even possible for you?”

Dezeb let out a breathy, incredulous laugh, then sighed.

“Come here.”

She moved the instant the words left his mouth.

As she approached, he wrapped what remained of one arm around her.

Seeing no sign of revulsion beyond simple caution, Dezeb brushed a light kiss across her lips, then scraped the forked tip of his tongue along her teeth.

He already knew she had a strong stomach, but there was no way this could have been pleasant.

Even so, Erabelle wrapped her arms around him in return.

“Erabelle...”

He buried a face tangled with scales and tentacles against her chest and clutched that small warmth with both arms.

As though he could never let go.

“Dezeb.”

“...Mm.”

“You’re squeezing so hard I think my nose is going to start running.”

“...”

Dezeb let out a short sigh.

“First, take everything off. Yes. All of it.”

***

At some point, Erabelle blacked out.

When she came to, it was already the following morning.

She supposed it could not be helped. Too much had happened during the night, and all of it had been overwhelming.

“You actually slept?”

Erabelle groped her way up through a seething mass of black serpents and wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand.

Dezeb stared at her in open disbelief.

Even so, the corners of his mouth refused to stay down. Before long, quiet, helpless laughter slipped out of him.

Is it really that funny...?

Erabelle briefly wondered what she must look like.

Then again, worrying about it would not improve anything, so she let the thought go.

The real problem was that once his smile faded, he kept staring at her far too intently.

After a long stretch of silence, he finally asked,

“Don’t you have anything you want to ask?”

“Do you need a regeneration kit?”

“Huh?”

Dezeb blinked, as though his mind had stalled on the question.

“I also have fast-acting painkillers and ointment.”

“Ah.”

At last seeming to understand what she meant, he furrowed his brow.

“Why? Do I look like I’m in pain again?”

Even wrapped in black tentacles, he was beautiful.

Erabelle had always found that more frightening than the writhing serpents themselves.

If he at least looked hurt, it might be less scary... No. That would probably be creepy in its own way.

She quietly changed the subject.

“How about coffee? I have several brands. There’s beer too. Cigarettes. Different kinds.”

“Alright.”

His answer was brief.

Then he doubled over, clutching his abdomen. His hard, muscular body began to shake.

“Or maybe a boxed lunch? With extra smoked sausage and meatballs...”

A dying groan escaped him.

And then, finally, he started to cry.

Erabelle looked at Dezeb, who was laughing so hard he could barely breathe, with faint awkwardness.

What? Are smoked sausages sad?

The thought dragged up an old memory of being abandoned in the middle of a ruin after a similar ordeal.

Don’t tell me I’m getting abandoned again...

“God, this is driving me insane.”

Dezeb lifted his bowed head and tilted it to one side.

From within the mass of writhing black serpents, he asked in a low voice,

“Anything else you’re curious about?”

“Are you going to leave me again...?”

“That pleasant season is long gone.”

Dezeb gave a small laugh and pushed himself upright.

“You should wake up.”

Thousands of dangling tentacles snapped back into his body all at once.

The sheer amount he seemed capable of storing inside himself defied reason.

Erabelle found herself mildly impressed.

Like one of those magical bottomless pouches.

“You’re thinking something pointless again.”

The dazzlingly beautiful man, sculpted as though from white plaster, narrowed his eyes and scooped her into his arms.

Erabelle immediately lowered her gaze and let out a small groan.

“Don’t tease me unless you’re actually going to let me do more.”

He knew perfectly well it was her back that hurt, yet Dezeb still prodded at her mercilessly.

Fundamentally, he had a rotten personality.

When she stayed still, the pain was manageable.

Being picked up and carried around was another matter entirely.

Holding Erabelle in his arms, he found a bathroom inside the half-wrecked Vermilion ship and carried her in.

There was debris scattered here and there, but the place looked usable enough.

“Close your eyes.”

After settling her into the tub, he pulled down the shower hose and let warm water run over her head.

Erabelle obeyed and remained still, eyes closed.

She flinched when something soft brushed her lips, but after lightly biting her lower lip, he turned his attention to washing her hair.

The shampoo smelled absurdly sweet.

“This is nice. Smells good too. Let’s buy this one for ourselves. Not that dog shampoo.”

How long is he going to keep bringing up the dog shampoo...?

“You really are like a puppy.”

Playing with her wet, sudsy curls, he cupped her cheek and kissed her again with an audible smack.

“Erabelle.”

“...Yes?”

“Let’s do it one more time after all.”

“Spare me!”

“Alright. Hands on the tub. Turn around.”

Erabelle kept muttering, “Spare me.”

“I said alright.”

But even those words were soon swallowed by his mouth and disappeared.

***

Completely spent all over again, Erabelle sagged where she sat.

“When lovers bathe together, this is how it goes. Taking an innocent bath together would be stranger, wouldn’t it?”

Lovers... He really uses that word as casually as anything now.

“...I don’t think people usually do it while there’s still shampoo foam in their hair.”

“It was cute, so it’s fine.”

Thinking that it was very much not fine, Erabelle closed her eyes for what felt like a second.

When she opened them again, she was lying beneath familiar bedding.

This is my blanket...

Something that should have been inside Miro was somehow here.

Erabelle stared at Miro, who was staring back at her with equal bewilderment.

“Why are you out here... crying?”

Miro rolled eye-orbs each as large as a person and let huge tears spill down.

As the whale sobbed, Dezeb strolled casually out of Miro’s open mouth.

“Awake?”

“...Yes.”

“I called him. You were too tired.”

“...Yes.”

Miro, a transport-type Great Spirit, never carried any living being besides his contractor.

He would not even manifest a physical form in the material plane without the contractor’s consent.

Yet Dezeb had apparently opened Miro up as though it were nothing, retrieved the ordinary clothes stored among the cargo, and brought them to her.

The blanket too. He must have taken it out himself and covered her with it.

It made absolutely no sense.

But Erabelle had long since decided that anything involving Dezeb was better treated as a law of nature.

“I’ll get changed.”

“Take your time. Come out when you’re ready.”

Saying he had something to deal with, he left first.

That left Erabelle alone in the cabin with the still-crying Miro.

“Don’t cry. There are things in this world you just can’t do anything about.”

She patted Miro as he shed heavy tears, then sent him back.

Only afterward did a memory surface.

There had been something similar before.

Several years ago.

Before her transfer to a conflict zone, in Lieutenant Camillia Ovia’s infirmary.

Something very much like this had happened then too.

...

So it wasn’t his first time.

Well, these things happen.

There’s nothing in this world he isn’t allowed to do anyway.

Erabelle pulled on her clothes and stepped out of the cabin.

The Dogs were waiting outside.

“Tow it back to the main ship for repairs first. Once everything’s fixed, take it back to the Marquis house.”

Dezeb was giving orders regarding the salvage of the damaged ship.

“Call in a cleanup team and get this place sorted too.”

“Yes, sir.”

And for some reason, instead of standing with the Dogs taking orders, their team leader, Virgo Hag, was hunched gloomily in a corner.

His head was missing again.

In its place, dozens of snake-like tentacles drooped listlessly.

Why is he like that again...?

Not that it mattered.

Erabelle edged over to him and spoke.

“Um, Chief. You very clearly said yesterday that you’d give me 10,000 cp if I came here.”

Virgo flinched.

At the same time, the surroundings went strangely quiet.

Erabelle stiffened and glanced around as several gazes converged on her.

Among them was Dezeb’s.

Cold as ever.

“Erabelle.”

“Y-Yes?”

His sidelong glance was terrifying.

Erabelle straightened on instinct, her spine going rigid as goosebumps ran over her skin.

“How do you even know that’s Virgo?”

“There’s a name tag right here.”

Erabelle hurriedly pointed to the lettering on the chest of Virgo’s uniform.

“...Alright.”

For some reason, Dezeb sighed again.

He pressed his fingers to his brow as though he felt a headache coming on.

“So you were supposed to be paid for coming to me yesterday?”

“I didn’t say anything. Captain Hag offered to pay me first.”

Erabelle immediately made sure responsibility was assigned to the correct person.