I handed over an arm to Ellie. She looked at me as if I were a cat bringing in a cockroach.
To put it more clearly, it was a mix of confusion and absurdity. And her gaze was filled with deep concern about whether she should praise me or not.
“…Why are you looking at me like that, Ellie?”
“Isn’t it weirder to hand me a human arm and call it a gift?”
Ellie, who had been smoking, let out a sigh mixed with a bit of smoke.
“Let’s see. Jonah, while you do have your moments of being out of it, you’re not crazy enough to just cut off anyone’s arm.”
“That’s harsh. You’re saying if someone were that kind of person, they wouldn’t care about cutting an arm off.”
“If someone has stolen your wages today.”
“Then they should cut off their neck instead.”
My earnings today are massive. The money from monster byproducts barely exceeds 2 gold, but I found that the craftsman’s notebook in the room with the prosthetic was more expensive than I thought.
What techniques I gain from that is the craft district’s business with the Mage Tower; it’s none of my concern. What matters to me is just the amount left in my hand after various deductions, which is 150 gold.
Who stole my 150 gold?
“Why is a person’s life only one? Wouldn’t it be nice if I could die two or three more times…?”
“…So, would you like to rethink that last statement?”
“Hey, it’s because my earnings are bigger today. If it were ordinary, I’d have generously settled it with ten times the compensation or just with a wrist.”
“That still means you’d cut off a hand.”
“Whoa.”
Now that I think about it, that’s true.
Ellie shakes her head at the sight of my wide eyes. She was about to let out a sigh but suddenly narrowed her eyes and started glaring at the arm.
“Wait. That arm. Isn’t it too small? There’s no blood on it, either.”
“Huh?”
“No matter how clueless you are about a person’s feelings, you’d at least know this much. You wouldn’t cut off a child’s arm unless it’s a life or death situation.”
“Uh… have you really thought of me that way until now?”
A clueless little kid about people’s feelings? Sure, I might have messed with Ellie a lot, left her hanging, or put the hidden groceries she was hoarding on the counter for all to see, and sometimes used Lemon and Apple as footrests when they come to visit…
But isn’t that a bit much?!
…Or is it not?
While I’m tilting my head alone, Ellie wrinkles her nose and takes a deep breath. For some reason, her tail sways gently.
“And this smell. It’s just like yours, Jonah? No, not just the smell, but even the appearance is the same.”
“I’m touched that you remembered my smell so well!”
“…More importantly, that arm. The cross-section I saw was a bit strange.”
“Hmm. I’ll just take that you’re embarrassed and didn’t notice anything!”
I shrugged and glanced at the cross-section Ellie said looked suspicious.
It is indeed strange. It doesn’t resemble the cross-section of a normal arm at all.
It takes the shape of my arm, but it’s also a gray sphere.
That means it’s a body part while also functioning as an independent entity.
They probably just stitched it up enough to keep any contents from leaking out, so it looks like they just cut off an arm.
…Though it feels kind of gross with those gray tentacle-like things wriggling on the rounded cross-section.
“Ew.”
As I pretended to look grossed out, Ellie continued in a serious tone.
“Jonah. You said you’ve already climbed to the third floor, right? If that was made using a Gear Doppelganger, it’d be best to dispose of it right away. The madness of monsters is a concept that consumes not just the brain but the entire body. Monsters that look completely different before and after leaping are good examples.”
“Huh? What do you mean all of a sudden…?”
“If you used a Gear Doppelganger thinking of giving me an arm, that’s way too dangerous.”
“Uh-huh?”
Finally realizing what Ellie was worried about, I smiled brightly.
“Don’t worry! This isn’t a shard of a Gear Doppelganger!”
“Right? You’re smart enough to know that much, so I was worried for nothing…”
“It’s actually a fragment of the Prime Doppelganger that I defeated!”
“……?”
Ellie’s expression was blank, like a scholar who had realized the only change in the platypus from the Cretaceous to now is the width of its beak.
I understand. What on earth has it been doing for 1 million and 500 thousand years?
As I nodded, Ellie freaked out and swiped the arm I was holding away.
“That’s even more dangerous!”
“Ah!”
The arm flew away after being hit by Ellie’s hand. Maybe it’s just me, but the fingers looked a bit saggy.
But then, reviving, the arm twitched and began to transform into Ellie’s arm.
“…Okay. We need to get rid of this now.”
As Ellie rolled up her sleeve and clenched her fist, I panicked and blocked her path.
“Wait a minute! I may have explained things a bit vaguely, but it’ll be fine!”
“I don’t know how you defeated that calamity, but calamities aren’t called calamities for nothing. They’re beings that even the gods couldn’t annihilate; they can only seal them away. It’s too dangerous. You shouldn’t be so sure.”
“Generally, Ellie is right. But this time, it’s an exception.”
I picked up the arm that had been sprawled on the floor. Was it because it turned into Ellie’s? It felt softer compared to when it was mine, yet I could sense its strong muscles inside.
Just as I was admiring the sensation of feeling like I was touching the real Ellie, I went up to the second floor where people wouldn’t see and took out the full-scale Goddess Statue.
“O mighty magic conch… I know you’re tired today after using up a lot of your strength, but could you push yourself just one more time?”
-Whoa
The Goddess Statue flickered dimly. The divine power radiating from it lacked vigor.
I guess it can’t be helped…
“For your sake, I’ll make sure to sleep holding you for a month. You must have been tired being stuck in a showcase until now, right?”
-Whoa!
Suddenly, a light pink halo burst out from around the Goddess Statue. The light, which was not created by divine power but emitted directly from it, enveloped the gray sphere that had turned into Ellie’s arm.
The tentacles on the cross-section twitched slightly, but aside from that, everything was fine.
Only then did Ellie, who had been looking on with suspicion, let out a deep sigh.
“…Could this be a divine revelation? I didn’t expect the revelation after a thousand years to come this way.”
As if a bit jealous, Ellie gazed at the Goddess Statue, shook her head, and took the prosthetic arm from me.
“Alright. I’m not someone with a strong faith, but if I can’t believe what the Goddess of Love says, then there’s nothing left to believe in the world… Let’s give it a try.”
“Good thinking, Ellie!”
She seemed really tired, or perhaps trying to find a comfortable position to lean on me, as she lowered her arm and seemed to let go of her strength while cradling the Goddess Statue.
She had a slightly deflated expression at my encouragement, but soon she smiled and extended her right sleeve toward me.
“Jonah. Could you pull this up for me?”
“If that’s what Ellie wants.”
With careful movements, I undid the knot of Ellie’s sleeve. Then I slowly started rolling it up.
Upward, upward, through the empty part until it’s draped over her remaining shoulder.
Once I rolled the sleeve completely up, the cross-section of her arm was revealed. It was said that a dragon’s breath would leave a scar like this.
The wounds themselves had healed, but the cross-section was lumpy and a dark red color.
“What in the world happened to make it like this?”
“It tried to swallow me whole, so I shoved my arm into its mouth and it started to tear it from the inside. But before it could, it blasted me with breath.”
“No, not just breath! You braced yourself against the full force of its breath with one arm…?”
“You just need to know how to bounce it off. Thanks to that, my arm burned off completely, but I knocked its jaw off in return.”
Ellie grinned, revealing her elongated fangs, which gave her a strangely ferocious charm.
“Well, when Jonah gets stronger, I’ll tell you how I did that… By then, I’ll probably be used to my new arm.”
Saying so, Ellie brought the new arm closer to her right arm’s cross-section.
Of course, the gray sphere that imitated Ellie’s arm wasn’t the empty right arm but the remaining left arm. After all, the only part that made contact was the left side.
But as soon as the sections touched, the gray sphere’s tentacles wriggled and burrowed into Ellie’s arm.
“Ugh!”
Ellie slightly frowned. However, this didn’t last long.
As the tentacles drilled deeper into her shoulder, the prosthetic arm made complete contact.
As the outer portion enveloped it, the previously separated gaps were filled, and the once left arm began to twist little by little.
In a flash, the angles bent, the finger placements shifted, and the gray sphere transformed into a perfect right arm.
The furrowed brow of Ellie eased, and she exhaled the breath she’d been holding.
And then.
She flinched.
The wiggling fingers. This twitching soon spread from her fingers to her palm, her arm, and her shoulder.
Ellie, awkwardly moving her right arm, had emotions of nostalgia and overwhelming joy clear on her face.
“My arm…”
“How does it feel? Can you move it well?”
“It feels awkward since it’s been so long since I could move my arm, but there’s absolutely no problem with… huh?”
Ellie tilted her head mid-sentence. I got a bit worried, wondering if something went wrong.
“What’s wrong, Ellie? Is there a problem?”
“No, it’s nothing major… I just wanted to see if I could transform back into Jonah’s arm while connected, but it seems I’m fixed in this form upon connecting.”
“Huh? If you could transform into my arm, what would you want to do with that, Ellie?”
“…No comment.”
Ellie’s face turned red as she looked away.
Okay. I was worried for nothing.
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