Chapter: 109
‘Ahh… you idiot…’
In a dark forest clearing, Lian was muttering curses to himself under a blanket.
‘Why are you acting so foolishly…’
Lian had already picked up on the fact that Noah was worried about him. He knew she was trying to strike up a conversation for his sake.
Even knowing that, his actions just wouldn’t follow his intentions.
[ Huhuhu… ]
At that moment, he heard the laughter of the cursed sword as it drained blood from his thigh.
[ I know, I know! ]
‘What do you know?’
[ I know why you’re suffering so much! ]
The sword snickered and spoke in a sly tone.
[ It all started after you saw that naked woman’s body, didn’t it? ]
‘Ah… I wasn’t talking to Gargandoa about that…’
Having no one else to confide in, Lian had once spilled his worries to the sword, which couldn’t talk to anyone else.
He had done it out of sheer frustration at the time, but now, hearing the sword’s blunt words made him regret it.
[ Huhuhu, if that’s the issue, the solution is simple! ]
‘Is there a solution?’
Lian waited for the sword’s words with a glimmer of hope, but what came back was beyond his wildest imagination.
[ Just keep looking until you get used to it! ]
‘…’
Lian decided to completely ignore the sword’s utterly useless advice.
[ So, if you do that, everything will be solved. Are you listening, partner? ]
‘Uh, yeah, I’m listening. Sure.’
[ Huhuhu, I am indeed the most helpful one to you, partner! ]
Hearing the sword’s triumphant tone, Lian let out a small sigh.
‘I guess I should sleep now; we’re walking all day tomorrow.’
Lian pulled out the sword from his thigh and was about to reverse-summon it. At that moment, the sword transformed into a round ball.
Normally, it would’ve gone straight back to his palm, but seeing it change shape startled Lian, who looked down at the smooth sphere in confusion.
‘Please tell me no one saw that…’
Lian peeked outside his blanket. Noah and the others were all sound asleep, and from a distance, he could see the silhouettes of the night watchmen.
He also saw the crackling campfires, one for each group.
Throwing the blanket back over his head, Lian turned to the sword.
‘Why did you suddenly turn into a sphere…’
The moment he glanced at the sword in his hand, Lian froze.
The black sphere had somehow transformed into a beautiful hand.
Creak.
Like a rusty robot, Lian moved his eyes toward the warmth beside him.
[ How do you find it, partner? ]
A naked woman with black hair and red eyes was smiling at Lian.
“Guh…!”
Lian instinctively clamped his hand over his mouth to stifle his scream. He stared, petrified, at the pale-skinned beauty beside him.
‘Why… why can I see everything?’
Though Gargandoa was lying in a way that covered the important parts, it was still teetering on the edge of visibility.
Normally in such situations, something unexpected would happen to cover exposed areas, but nothing was happening now.
His stiff brain clicked as it tried to come up with a plausible answer.
‘Could it be… because it’s not human but a cursed sword…?’
Since the sword isn’t human, it wasn’t entirely outrageous…
‘…That makes no sense!’
In a comedic world like this, similar situations had happened countless times without ever showing such exposure.
Even trying to think through the deranged scene in front of him made it impossible to concentrate.
[ You’ll get used to it! Come on, touch me! ]
The sword pressed itself closer to Lian. The moment something soft and large brushed against his arm—
“Guh…”
Blood splattered from his mouth. Just on the verge of fainting, Lian panicked at the sight of the sword gleefully licking the blood from his lips.
It felt like a dangerously precarious situation for several reasons. As he flailed to escape the blanket, the sword grabbed his wrist, exposing its upper body for him to see.
“Guh…!”
Blood splashed again. The sword’s face flushed and it moved closer to Lian.
[ Humans always have dessert after meals, right? ]
Spouting dangerously suggestive words, the sword licked its lips. Its red tongue, matching the blood dribbling on its alabaster skin, entranced Lian.
Like prey caught in a spider’s web, Lian couldn’t move a finger, just staring blankly at the approaching red lips and eyes.
Just when their breaths were about to touch—
“Lian!”
“…!”
Noah’s voice rang from outside the blanket. At the same time, the image of Gargandoa vanished.
As Lian blinked in disbelief at the sudden shift—
Whoosh, the blanket that had been covering him was jerked away.
“…! I knew it…”
“Ah…”
Noah gazed gravely at the blood-soaked blanket. Lian snapped back to reality, glancing at the spot where the sword had been — now a thin needle, reminiscent of those used in traditional medicine.
[ I simply couldn’t let any other humans witness such an unsightly state. ]
Lian was left speechless by the sword’s vague statement. Noah’s booming voice had started to rouse the other members.
Despite the tantalizing visions of an alluring tongue and pristine skin swirling in his mind, Lian quickly got up, realizing this was not the time for those thoughts.
“Sorry, Noah! I caused a ruckus, but I’m fine.”
“Ugh…”
Noah looked at Lian, her desire to scold him clearly evident as her head drooped.
“…If there’s blood, it might attract monsters from the forest, so let me know if you feel like you’re about to throw up blood.”
“Ah! Sorry…!”
Lian quickly apologized and started darting his gaze around. The earlier scene flickered in his mind, overlapping with Noah’s figure.
“Uh, can you tell the others it’s okay? I’ll clean up this blood.”
“…Alright.”
Suppressing her desire to yell at him, Noah shook herself off and stood. Lian felt genuine gratitude toward her.
“Sorry for the disturbance, and thank you.”
“…!”
Noah’s eyes widened at Lian’s words, her face going through a myriad of unreadable emotions before she resumed composure.
“Okay, leave the rest to me.”
“Yeah.”
Noah reassured the others with a dazed expression that everything was fine, encouraging them to go back to sleep.
Meanwhile, Lian stuffed the blood-soaked blanket into his bag and retrieved a fresh one. He changed out of his stained shirt and wiped his face clean with a damp cloth.
Before long, Lian had regained his neat appearance.
Once the situation calmed down, he glanced at Noah, who was soothing the newly awakened members. His gaze naturally dropped to the ground.
Lian found it even harder to face Noah now.
As time passed, he had embedded new information about those soft, smooth, white things into his mind. This time, they had actually touched his skin.
‘If this ends up in my dreams…’
Lian imagined himself surreptitiously doing laundry by the river at dawn with a pale face. Something he wouldn’t even want to think about.
[ Hmm, it seems like one experience wasn’t enough. Don’t worry, I’ll help you more going forward! ]
‘No! Don’t! Just don’t!’
[ Huhuhu, are you embarrassed? Even in human form, I can’t hide my greatness. ]
Normally, Lian would just brush it off with a shrug, but he couldn’t manage to respond this time. The sword’s “greatness” was indeed grand… and overwhelming.
After a lengthy silence, Lian finally managed to organize a rebuttal in his mind.
‘Anyway! Don’t transform into a human form again!’
[ Running away from your weaknesses isn’t manly! A true man faces and overcomes his troubles, you know! ]
It sounded like something straight out of a shounen manga, but really it was just lewd advice pushing him to get accustomed to women through forced exposure to its form.
‘But no still means no!’
[ You fondle me all over in my usual form, yet you throw a fit over a mere change in shape. ]
The memory of the gorgeous woman with red eyes and long black hair continued to flicker in front of Lian’s mind, making the sword’s words sound oh-so suggestive.
Lian clutched his head and groaned, “Ugh…”
‘Don’t think about it. Don’t think… wait a minute…’
Suddenly, Lian realized something and said urgently.
‘Come to think of it, Gargandoa, were you… female?’
[ If you mean gender in terms of reproduction, then no. ]
‘Then that form was just arbitrary…’
[ But yes, I am female. ]
Lian flopped onto the blanket.
‘So that earlier form was…’
[ One of my forms. ]
That meant the horrifying thing that had touched his arm was, without a doubt, part of the sword’s body.
Lian wished he could just slip into oblivion.
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