Chapter 30
I hated to say it about the Hero, but if I went and saved Ruril, only for her to develop feelings for him, I’d just be creating one more enemy. Unlike Cecilia, whom I still couldn’t tell was friend or foe, I had no idea what kind of enemy Ruril might become, which made her even more dangerous.
How had I described Ruril again?
She was an elf straight out of an adult game, with a beautiful face and an explosively curvy figure—in other words, an erolf, as they were called. No matter how gentle-hearted a eunuch the Hero was supposed to be, there was no way he could withstand Ruril launching a physical assault on him.
Though there were only three heroines, each had a completely different personality, presumably to cover as many tastes as possible.
Lumia was an overall youthful-looking heroine who prioritized efficiency, seeming cold yet possessing a certain airheaded charm; Cecilia was a character designed around the gap between her mischievous side and the way she acted as a saint when serious; and Ruril was the bright, positive elven archer type.
My explanation seemed to have gotten a little strange, but anyway, that was how things stood. So it was more advantageous to cut off any possibility of her developing feelings for the Hero in the first place. And the best way to do that was to save her myself, rather than let the Hero save her.
She was managing somehow, but the number of goblins, combined with the fact that she was an archer, made dealing with them look extremely difficult.
She was even panting heavily, with crude arrows lodged in her arms and legs.
I had to help her quickly.
I had already come up with a way to kill the goblins swiftly and accurately.
Ice Spikes!
Countless ice spikes appeared in midair and shot toward individual goblins.
I wondered how I was supposed to aim, but fortunately there were so many goblins that I could just fire them off haphazardly. Of course, I took the utmost care not to hit Ruril, so none of my ice spikes pierced her.
Yet the bodies, arms, and legs of the goblins approaching Ruril were pierced through, and some had been impaled through the head, with something inside dangling out of it. It was hard to look at with my own two eyes, but I had to endure it for now.
The surviving goblins, which had been unable to understand what was happening for a moment, seemed to finally realize that my magic had been fired, and fled with their tails between their legs. They dragged their dangling arms and legs along as they desperately tried to survive.
I wondered if I’d gone too far, but those guys were enemies.
If I didn’t kill them, I’d be the one those monsters killed.
Yeah.. This was fine.
I sighed inwardly.
“Ugh.. Hah.. Hah..”
Right, Ruril.
When I hurried over to Ruril, I saw that she wasn’t in very good shape.
Not only her shoulder and legs but also her abdomen had been pierced through, so she was in a dangerous state and needed help immediately.
“Y-you...”
“...”
I’m sorry, but I couldn’t answer.
In fact, aside from that time I met a man called Hughes or whatever, this was the first time I’d ever seen someone so badly injured, so my body was trembling, but..
Instead of answering, I sent the Hero a telepathic message.
- Bring Cecilia here, quickly!
The Hero understood the situation through my telepathy, nodded, and ran into the carriage. A moment later, Cecilia and the Hero rushed out and hurried over to where Ruril and I were.
When Cecilia asked where the injured person was, I pointed to Ruril, who was right beside me. The moment she saw Ruril’s condition, Cecilia’s expression froze. She immediately came over, sat down, and began channeling her holy power.
The image of Cecilia using a miracle to heal my neck and ears last time came to mind. As soon as she’d realized that I couldn’t speak or hear, she’d hardened her expression in exactly the same way and tried to help me.
Of course, because my inability to speak or hear wasn’t caused by an injury, receiving the miracle hadn’t made me any better. Even so, she had looked exactly like a saint then.. I remember thinking, That’s Cecilia for you.
I can’t explain it with my meager vocabulary.
After the light faded, Ruril realized that all the wounds on her body had healed. She looked up at Cecilia in surprise, while Cecilia gazed down at her with a benevolent smile.
An elf, huh..
I looked at Ruril.
As I’d explained earlier, she was an archer with long green hair tied into a ponytail, blue eyes, an explosively curvy figure, and the beautiful appearance befitting an elf. Her clothes were slightly torn where arrows had pierced her and crude goblin weapons had cut her, but that only made her look all the more noble and beautiful.
Elves with an appearance like that usually acted noble—in other words, proud—but Ruril’s personality was completely different.. Perhaps that was because she had been born and raised in the Holy Kingdom.
That sort of superiority complex only develops in children born and raised among elves who possess it themselves. If raised among good people, even an elf will grow up kind and good-natured.
Even the game’s own setting said that, even among elves born in an elven village, each elf was different, so I couldn’t be certain.
Perhaps she’d finally finished figuring out what had happened, because Ruril hurriedly thanked us. Well, it wasn’t strange for her to react that way when her body, which had seemed moments away from death, had suddenly been restored to normal.
To perform a miracle on Cecilia’s level, it would take an exceptional cleric; anyone ordinary simply couldn’t do it. Cecilia was, after all, known as the greatest saint of all time.
Her power was so great that, as long as someone was still alive, she could save even a person who was on the verge of death.
She probably knew how powerful her miracles were, which was why she’d been so shocked when the miracle she used on me failed to heal my neck and ears. Honestly, even I, if I were in her shoes, would have thought there was nothing my miracle couldn’t heal, so I probably would have reacted the same way if something I couldn’t heal had appeared.
Cecilia still seemed to feel regret and guilt over not being able to heal me properly. But even I didn’t know why I couldn’t speak or hear in the first place, so it wasn’t as if Cecilia could have known either.
It was inconvenient, but there was nothing I could do about it..
I felt a little bad thinking this about Cecilia, but the dumbfounded look she’d had was cute.
“Hey! You were the one who saved me with magic, right?”
As I thought that, I nodded, and Ruril approached me and asked.
Her expression and gestures both made her look incredibly hopeful.
She seemed certain that I was the mage who had fired that spell earlier.
Still, thankfully, she didn’t seem drawn to the Hero.
If Ruril had developed feelings for the Hero, I wouldn’t even have had the slightest idea what to do.
I wasn’t in a position to make a physical move on the Hero right now, but if someone with Ruril’s explosive figure merely approached him..
The Hero was the sort who got excited just looking at someone with a body like mine; I didn’t even want to imagine what would happen if Ruril approached him.
No, wait a second..
Or was I actually safer because I had a body like this..?
I still didn’t know what the Hero’s tastes were.
“Huh? Um..?”
Oh, right..
Ruril didn’t know that I couldn’t speak or hear.
“Sorry, but Lumia can’t hear.”
Ah.
Fortunately, the Hero came over and explained.
Not only that, he also told her that I couldn’t speak, so there were no misunderstandings.
Cecilia, too, took out the paper and pen she always carried and kindly explained that Ruril could write down whatever she wanted to say and show it to me.
Ruril’s eyes lit up, and she took the paper and began writing something before holding it out to me. I stepped closer to see what it said, and she was asking whether I was really the one who had just saved her.
Since she’d gone so far as to write it down and ask me, I couldn’t very well leave her without an answer.
I nodded.
At that, she immediately wrote a thank-you on the paper, showed it to me, and then pulled me into a hug..
Pulled me into a hug..?
Suddenly, a gigantic mass of fat covered in brown leather loomed before me and greeted me.
‘Mmph..?!’
W-wait, breasts..!
Ack.. Ngh!
I was forcibly buried in a gigantic mass of fat—breasts still drenched in sweat from being chased by goblins moments ago—and I felt as though I was suffocating to death. I frantically tapped her shoulder to make her let go, but she couldn’t possibly know what tapping meant in this situation..
Uh.. w-wait, I’m really losing consciousness..
“H-huh?! Wait a second?!”
“Lumia!”
Ah..
So I really was going to die from breast suffocation after all..
No..