Cracking open my eyes to the radiant rays of sunlight making their way into the shrine, I got up and crawled out from under the shrine’s cover. Morning already? I’m pretty sure that when I went to sleep last night that I laid down in the back of the shrine where the sun barely shines. Despite that, I evidently got up in the middle of the night, half asleep, and found myself a less recessed spot within the shrine to lie down in.
“GwuoooOOOO…”
With my head pointed toward the sky, I offered it a hearty yawn. Partner, having been awoken by my yawning, pried open her eyes.
As usual, Partner had the egg sac stuck fast to her head. Honestly, as much as I’d rather it just stay unhatched, let’s be real here. Hey, Partner. They’re spiders. Unlike Ball Rabbit, I don’t think they’re gonna cozy on up to you.
“Gwua…”
Even though Partner should have slept fairly soundly, she was still drowsy as she was scowling at me with her eyes opened just a sliver and with a hint of annoyed dreariness in them. Nevertheless, Partner, upon seeing the leftover tributes from last night, perked back up with dinginess fleeing from her eyes.
“Gwa-! Gaw-! Gaw-!”
Fervently wasting no time, Partner craned her neck in the direction of the tributes. You still haven’t had enough to eat after all that chowing down you did last night? This girl, I swear… If we had portioned out the food such that we could eat it over time, I suspect that it would’ve made for several meals. And yet, yesterday, over the course of just one evening, Partner obliterated half the tributes and now the other half is on track to pretty much go poof by breakfast. I can’t exactly complain since I’ve been having Partner virtually work, but I still sort of want her to exercise just a little more restraint.
I’d be very welcome to anyone from the Litōvear Tribe coming around again and bringing us some more tributes, if they would, but I haven’t seen a trace of them since, let alone felt a hint of any presence. Did I scare them off with the way I behaved yesterday? …Did I expose myself as not being Ryujin-sama? They might have a customary day where they head out… something like an established routine. So there’s still hope! …I’m sure.
While I was busy absorbing myself in my own thoughts, Partner was rummaging around for a bite by plunging her snout in some of the baskets. Be it bird meat or boar meat, all that remained of them by that point were bones and nothing more. I guess you’re done eating now. It fills my stomach up too when Partner eats and because I’d like to keep her in a good mood, it’d be better to just go ahead and let her eat as much as she can… but like, with no food in my mouth, it kinda leaves it all fidgety.
“Hwheew-!”
…Right beside Partner—who was giving a very nasally and satiated sigh of satisfaction—was me, gnawing and nibbling away at some boar bones that Partner had spat out. It’s… whatever. It’s fine… yeah…
Right after I finished having my fill of the boar bones, I spat out their masticated remains. …Partner was looking at me with pitying eyes.
⸨…If you had said somethin’ to me, I would’ve given you a bit, you know.⸩
Oh- Something popped up in my head! I feel like we’re steadily on the right track to getting to the point where we’ll eventually be able to understand one another.
I turned my attention toward the large pot that was sitting beside the ravaged remains of Partner’s mannerless eating. Partner didn’t appear to have an inclination to try out whatever it was.
I tried giving the pot a few casual sniffs, but I didn’t get a whiff of anything that smelled like food. Makes sense. I certainly can’t imagine Partner leavin’ this alone if it was meat. When I tried gently poking at the pot with my forefoot, its contents made a clear, watery sloshing sound.
A drink? I lightly bit down on the lid with my maw and opened the jar to try it. Inside it was a crystal clear and colorless liquid. Wait a minute, this odor that’s wafting up into my nose, it smells like… alcohol? So that means it’s a liquor.
Now, if I recall correctly, the eight-tailed serpent from the Yamata no Orochi myth got done in while wasted from drinking liquor. Although, in the story it was a snake, for some reason I still feel as if this is a bad omen.
As I was taking a peek inside the pot, Partner craned her neck while swooping down toward me, perched her lips on the edge of the pot, and pointed her head high to the heavens. In a single gulp, the contents of the pot went pouring down into Partner’s mouth.
Partner wrenched her neck, vigorously throwing the pot against the ground—violently shattering it, and licked her lips—her tongue vehemently waggling around as she licked off the liquor coating her mouth.
“Gaawh-!”
Partner sent spittle flying as she roared out contently.
Y- Y- You bitch! You literally just said you would share with me next time!
Nevermind that you shouldn’t smash the pot! That’s bein’ wasteful! Next time, start watchin’ what you’re doin’! I’ve got a sinkin’ feelin’ that once the Litōvear Tribe finds out about this, they’re gonna end up thinkin’ we’re angry at them.
Oh, I’ve got it! If I cast ⟨Fabricate Life⟩ on that pot, then it will… not return back to normal. I should know better. Yeah, what’s done is done. The most likely end result is that the pot fragments will suddenly start moaning.
“Gaaaw-”
Partner was eagerly lapping at the inside of the pot fragments with a satisfied look on her face. She seemed to very much prefer drinking the hard stuff.
Look, you’re more or less me, too, so don’t go actin’ too crude and vulgarly. Uhh, that shard didn’t just go into your mouth, did it? Hey, can you spit that out? Like, won’t this destroy our stomach later?
…Now that I’m thinking about it, there was that holy sword or whatever that you gulped down a while ago, right? Compared to that, this is practically unobjectionable, so I guess we’ll be okay. Wonder what’s happenin’ to it right about now? Is it still sittin’ in my belly or did it get completely dissolved by some dragony gastric juice-like substance? Well, either way, it’s gonna be all sticky and gooey and I don’t really see it being in a state where it’d have any kinda decent usability…
Now that all of the tributes have been completely consumed and then some, starting today, we will be self-sufficient—we will have to hunt for our prey ourselves. I’ll get Wight to gain experience by having them provide cover fire for… uh… come to think of it, Wight hasn’t been around, have they?
I’m pretty sure they weren’t in the shrine. As I probed around my immediate surroundings with my ⟨Presence Sense⟩, I got a faint response coming from behind the shrine. This feeling is probably Wight’s presence.
I went around behind the shrine, following after Wight’s presence. Just as my senses had informed me, Wight was on the other side of the shrine—squatting down and reaching out their hands to the ground, shoveling the soil. As Wight was grasping at and pulling up the soil by pinching on a thin portion of it, the clod of soil… No, it’s keeping its shape far too well to be considered soil. That’s fabric soiled in—and with—soil.
As Wight was wiping off the fabric with their hands, a black color was slowly revealing itself beneath the soil along with the ivy embroidery sewn into it. The fabric was clothing from the Litōvear Tribe. I wonder if that piece of clothing is what Wight wore when they were alive…
After Wight partially cleaned off the soil from the article of clothing, they clacked their lower jawbone in satisfaction. From there, Wight stood up and then, just when they finished trying on the article of clothing, shook with a hard jolt, tensed up, and stiffly looked back at Partner and I. When my eyes met squarely with Wight’s empty eye sockets, Wight averted their gaze away from me, seemingly in embarrassment, and squatted back down with their head buried in their knees.
I didn’t quite know why, but an anxiety loomed over me, like I had seen something that I really shouldn’t have, so I quickly cast my head down and away from Wight. …You’ve been, like, naked this entire time, haven’t you? Why’s it now that you’re worryin’ about bein’ seen changin’ clothes? I mean, that’s not to say that I don’t feel like I get you, but…
After waiting for the sound of rustling clothes to cease, I lifted my head back up. When I did so, Wight was properly wearing the article of clothing. Though the article of clothing was torn up and muddied, it was nevertheless a black dress composed of a top and bottom portion connected together into one piece. The dress resembled the one that the girl from back then was wearing—the girl from the Litōvear Tribe whom we saved from the manticore. Because the men who came delivering the tributes to us were all wearing pants, it seems likely that Wight was a girl as well. It is entirely within the realm of possibility though that they simply wore what they had to work with.
After Wight made their bones rattle and clatter as they pirouetted in place, they looked up at me. The way Wight was acting seemed to suggest that they had something they wanted to say and upon seeing that I was staying completely silent, tilted their head to the side, letting out a rattle.
Uh, by any chance, are you askin’ me for my thoughts on your clothes? So, er, well… not gonna lie, you’re nothin’ but bone, so, y’know… N-now, that’s not to say that it doesn’t feel as if it’s… cute. Yeah. So-… later we can-… yeah, that. It might be best to wash it off in the river at least once to completely clean off all the dirt and soil, y’know? Beyond that I… decline to comment…