17. The Flu (5)

.

Yeah. Somehow, I had a feeling this would happen.

If it had been someone else, maybe, but this was Neria.

What place could be more dangerous to a game-addicted shut-in witch than outside her blankets?

Fortunately, Neria's condition didn't seem too serious.

It would have been a disaster if she'd been lying there groaning, but all Neria was doing now was coughing with her blanket wrapped around her like a cape.

For now, I closed the front door so the winter wind wouldn't seep inside.

"I told you several times that you might catch it from me and that you didn't have to come."

"I was unlucky. I didn't expect to catch it right away, either."

"Besides, since Lady Neria normally stays at home, you should have been even more careful…."

"Forget it. I've already caught it, so what can I do? So now you take care of me."

"Of course I will. Naturally, I'll take care of you, but I hope you won't push yourself unnecessarily from now on."

"Cough…! Fine, fine. My charger is sick, so of course I couldn't just coldly stay home. I'll do that from now on. I promise."

"……."

"……Hmph."

"…But come to think of it, I wasn't coughing. Maybe the real problem was you going around outside in winter, Lady Neria…."

"Huh…. So that's how you're going to play it? Then how about this? I'll test whether I catch it from you or not…."

"Wait…."

I'd tried to make a joke because the mood seemed ready to turn sour, but maybe I shouldn't have.

Besides, I wondered what two patients were doing, but before any rational persuasion could work, Neria moved faster.

Known as Tackle. In games, it's a move that gets thrown straight into the trash almost immediately, yet in anime it's unexpectedly used like a finishing move.

Fortunately, Neria was a hopeless gamer even among lousy gamers, so she would follow the game's depiction more than the anime's.

I didn't want to get dragged into anything tiring, so in the end I let her hit me once without resisting.

"……."

"Have you gotten it out of your system now…?"

As befitted a total beginner, the only sound that rang out briefly where she touched me was a soft poof.

The only other thing worth noting was that, as befitted a sick person, her body temperature was definitely a little high.

It might have been because I'd just come in from outside, but even so, she seemed to be suffering from a definite low-grade fever.

At this rate, forcing myself to recharge mana today would be difficult.

It would probably be best to rest a while and take Neria to the hospital.

"……."

…Wait. Should witches go to ordinary hospitals too…?

What about medical insurance…?

She'd said there were witches who researched healing magic, so should I find one of them?

After I pondered briefly, Neria pushed my body away with both arms and moved back.

She looked like a cat pushing a person away with its front paws.

"N-Nam Dowon."

"I'm listening."

"Why are you just standing there instead of stopping me?"

"It seemed like you wanted to vent, so I let you. Honestly, I didn't think it would hurt much, either."

"That's not it…. …I was trying to hug you on purpose…, um…."

That hadn't been my intention.

But.

…Still, it was difficult to deny completely, because just as Neria said, that was exactly how it looked. Like something out of a romance manga, with a warm, soft body coming forward to embrace me.

And on top of that.

"…Sorry, but my head hurts and I'm exhausted today, so I can't do it with you."

"I know. You don't need to apologize to me."

"If you know that…, …then why are you getting hard…?"

"……."

"…While you're hugging me, too."

Maybe it was because I hadn't even gotten off with my hand yesterday.

The body touching Neria's had reacted on its own.

"It isn't hard. …Though it is true that the blood has pooled there a little."

"So you're saying you got hard. Am I wrong?"

"…You're right, Lady Neria."

"See? You pervert. Whenever you touch me, you must get nothing but dirty thoughts. Cough."

Because I was wearing the same shabby shut-in clothes as usual instead of dressing warmly despite having the flu.

The moment I touched Neria, I could feel the contours of various parts of her body all too clearly.

Any healthy young man in my position deserved praise for managing not to get hard immediately and holding himself back.

…Even now, with blood still pooling in my cock, a particularly pathetic answer slipped out.

"…I can't help it. You're Neria, after all."

"……."

It was a pathetic answer that would have been the end of things if Neria had taken offense.

Neria stared at me blankly, then, fortunately, gave me a triumphant smile and spoke.

"…Hee-hee, well, I guess it can't be helped. It's not like I'm just some ordinary woman—it's me. …Cough! It's only natural for boys to secretly want to hug me. They can't help getting horny."

I would have been finished if she'd been offended. But had she actually liked it?

Fortunately, instead of scolding me, Neria proudly straightened her shoulders.

The sneeze mixed into it robbed her of any dignity, but in any case, the crisis had passed.

However, Neria then belatedly seemed embarrassed and fussed with her blanket.

She said in a tiny voice,

"……If you want to hug me again, just say so. I'll make a special exception for you."

"……."

"Because you caught this cold from me. You can't catch it from me again, can you?"

Even though she was struggling to hold back a sneeze even now.

She'd gotten fixated on something strange.

"Let's go to the bedroom for now. Since I owe you from yesterday, I'll nurse you as best I can."

"Ah, yeah…. And not just a little. A lot. A whole lot."

"Of course."

"Heheh…."

…To be honest, Neria definitely hadn't been this kind of girl.

She'd clearly been a little pricklier,

and a little more ill-mannered.

Was it exactly since the last mana recharge?

Neria had changed a little.

…That sounds somewhat negative when I put it that way.

Then let's say she'd 'changed a little.'

It's difficult to explain, but, well.

It feels as though I've gone from being treated as an annoying civil servant1 to having some slightly special meaning now….

In any case, it felt good.

A witch so beautiful it was almost absurd was showing me affection. What man in the world would dislike that?

The only problem was having to struggle to control the blood flowing downward.

"Cough!"

I patted Neria's back, since she'd continued to look uncomfortable, and fortunately she moved along without much resistance.

When we reached the bed, she pulled another blanket over herself before I could say anything and flopped into bed.

While she did that, I borrowed Neria's gaming chair, sat down, and organized what needed to be done.

"What about the hospital? Can witches go to a hospital too? Or do we have to borrow some special healing magic from other witches…?"

"We can go. Biologically, our structure is almost the same as humans'. That's why we catch colds too."

"Ah, right…."

"Besides, if we visit certain hospitals, our medical bills are probably free…? As a way of saying, 'Thank you for exterminating monsters.'"

Certain hospitals.

If she meant a public health center, she would have said so, so apparently the state operated separate hospitals for them.

I suppose there was nothing strange about that, since the Apprentice Witch Rehabilitation Department was also part of City Hall.

It seemed the government had prepared all sorts of benefits unknown to ordinary people so that many witches could settle in Korea.

Sometimes, I'd wondered why certain ministries seemed to swallow up so much tax money.

So this was roughly where it was being spent.

I finally understood.

"Then it would be best to go to the hospital first. Or have you already been?"

"I-it's too far, and that's a pain. Just buy me some cold medicine at the convenience store."

"Understood. You must already feel heavy and sluggish, so I suppose it can't be helped."

"……Besides, it would be a disaster if they said I needed an injection."

"……."

She'd added that casually, but no matter how I looked at it, her fear of injections seemed like the bigger reason.

Then couldn't she just tell the doctor she didn't want an injection?

A wonderfully simple solution came to mind, but in the end I said nothing.

Imagining the argument that would follow with Neria made my head throb.

"Anyway, you need cold medicine…. Shall I prepare a meal like the porridge you had yesterday?"

"Are you going to make it yourself, Nam Dowon?"

"No. I've never made porridge before, either. I expect I'd burn it at least a few times."

"…Then forget it. I just won't eat lunch. I'm not particularly hungry anyway."

"Understood. Is there anything else you need?"

"Nothing. Just go buy the medicine."

Was cold medicine really enough?

If that was all she needed, this was something I could finish simply by going to the convenience store.

In fact, it took less than ten minutes to prepare cold medicine for Neria.

I opened the cold medicine for her instead of making her wrestle with the bottle cap, and watched Neria contort her face as she swallowed the bitter medicine…

Now I was really done.

I wasn't used to nursing someone, either, so I didn't know what else I was supposed to do.

…It was a classic remedy, but perhaps I should wring out a wet cloth to place on Neria's forehead.

"Nam Dowon."

"Yes, Lady Neria."

As I was sinking deeper into thought, Neria, nestled comfortably beneath the blanket, glanced back at me.

She looked a little cute, as if she were hiding beneath a turtle's shell.

"Come over here. Quickly."

"To your side, Lady Neria? …Surely that's not a joke about asking me to turn off the lights, is it?"

"Yeah. If you don't want to come, I'll make you complete all the daily quests you missed today. Would you prefer that?"

"I'll come right away."

I left the soft gaming chair I had been enjoying and headed toward Neria's bed.

This one was soft too, but it was the kind without a backrest.

When I sat down on the edge, Neria tapped the spot beside her and issued my next assignment.

"You, cough, lie here with me until I fall asleep."

"……?"

"Why are you looking at me like that? I just mean I'm going to use you as a pillow to hug while I sleep."

"……."

"Don't you like it?"

It's not that I disliked it,

but it was a difficult order to understand.

"I can do it if you need me to, but is it really necessary…?"

"Dakimakura are famous, aren't they? The pillows you hug while you sleep."

"Yes. I know about them too."

"You're useful for that purpose, so I'm asking—and you get hard right away when I, cough, hug you. So it's win-win."

"…How about softening that to 'you get aroused'?"

"Anyway. I can hug you and sleep comfortably. And you get some pretty erotic memories out of it. Right?"

Even after thinking it over by myself, I couldn't find anything particularly wrong with her logic.

There was a problem caused by her not knowing that 'getting hard without any particular stimulation is extremely uncomfortable,' but aside from that, the rest was reasonably convincing.

…I could carefully slip away later, once Neria had fallen into a gentle sleep.

As for cleaning up afterward, I could deal with that by masturbating alone.

"Just take off your coat and hang it on that chair. Yes. Like that."

I hadn't expected to perform the role of a dakimakura while working for the Rehabilitation Department.

Whatever the form, it wasn't a bad task, so I gladly carried it out.

Besides, I hadn't fully recovered from the flu, either.

I'd dragged a body that wanted to lie down as soon as possible all the way here.

"…Ew, why are you so cold?"

"Didn't I just go to the convenience store to buy your cold medicine…?"

"Hmm. Still, being cold has its own… antipyretic? Something like that?"

A shirt. And pants.

As I entered beneath the blankets wearing only the bare minimum, my body was buried in hot, clammy warmth.

It went without saying, but that warmth was entirely made up of Neria's body heat.

"Nam Dowon. Stretch one arm this way. You're bigger than I expected, so it's hard to hug you comfortably."

"…Here it is."

"Hmm. This doesn't feel right either…."

"……."

"Why don't you turn over onto your side?"

The soft sensation pressed against my left arm moved away.

Then, when I turned to face the side as ordered, that sensation that had moved away touched my back instead.

…Then, perhaps she'd finally found a position she liked. Neria clung even closer with a short hum.

The idle chatter she whispered kept brushing against my ear.

"Are you very hot?"

"…I'm fine. I'm still a patient too, after all. It's just warm."

"Whew. You must be lucky today. You came to work and got two days off in a row because the witch got sick."

"Ahaha…."

"A day like this shouldn't count as a paid workday, should it? Should I snitch to the witch in the Rehabilitation Department that you played all day instead of working?"

"…Do you know her contact information?"

"Of course I don't. But your teacher must know. Aren't the two of them friends?"

"Ah…. That way…."

"You should tell her you had it easy today…. Heheh…."

"……."

"Hey, hey, Nam Dowon. Later, you…"

"Yes…."

"Oh, right…. That thing…."

"……."

"……."

"……."

*****

Brrrrr.

The vibration I felt in my trouser pocket woke me from a deep sleep.

I remembered Neria chatting away while hugging me from behind.

After humoring her one remark at a time, it seemed I'd eventually fallen asleep with Neria too.

As I came to my senses, I felt the vibration in my trouser pocket once again.

The culprit was obviously my smartphone.

Judging by how many times it rang, it was someone's phone call.

Since older adults were generally the ones who preferred calling, I assumed it was probably Team Leader or Lady Erzel and pulled out my smartphone.

"……Oh."

The caller's name read Kihased.

Rin Kihased.

A woman who was headstrong and even eccentric.

Aside from the fact that her witchhood made her beautiful, I still hadn't found a single redeeming quality to her.

In any case, she must have had a reason for contacting me.

I slipped out of Neria's arms, where she was still sleeping peacefully, and only answered once I had reached the kitchen.

"Hello?"

- Are you busy having sex? You took a while.

"…I'm free now. It's all over."

- Really? Good timing. If you'd said you were busy, I was planning to put it off until another day.

Put off what?

As the question arose, Lady Rin spoke.

- Can you spare me a little time? Dorothy happens to have some free time too, and says she'd like to meet you once, just to give it a chance.

- The Apprentice Witch Rehabilitation Department? She was asking whether there was really such a strange department.