Chapter 265: The First Time

We were in an awful condition now, with three out of five captured. How did it come to this? Despite it being incapable of endangering our lives, this sudden development had me ask in wonder.

I judged that things wouldn’t go anywhere until I freed Finia and frantically started moving my arms about. The upper half of her swimsuit had already been dissolved, leaving her in a state no lady should show. That is, everything was in plain sight.

The same went for my lower half. This was a battle against time. My own aside, I had to protect Finia’s lower half from being exposed to Cloud at all costs.

It was about time for it to let go of Cloud who wore the least amount of clothing among us but…

“Cloud?”

When I looked his way, I saw him floating completely exhausted as he was being pushed up to the surface. I couldn’t help but pity him, noticing the water around him looking a little impure. Well, the slimy touch of this Floating Wakame felt unexpectedly good, after all. Plus, he also had Warm cast on him.

“What did you even come here for!?”

I ended up yelling at him, but it couldn’t really be helped. At any rate, rescuing Finia came first. Michelle and Letina also came back to their senses and made their way towards me.

We managed to free finia with our combined efforts, and then myself. I looked pretty pathetic with my crotch exposed to the world.

“How dare you do that to Lady Nicole!”

Seeing me like that, Finia became enraged. She once again slashed at the monster with all her might. The water resistance would’ve pushed her back like before had the situation been the same, but this time, Lentina was pushing her from behind so she managed to offset it.

It landed perfectly on the nucleus of the Floating Wakame and bisected it. Plant it may be, no living organism could continue to function after having its core cut.

Thus, the bisected Floating Wakame ceased all movements and followed after Cloud towards the surface. And like this, our first dramatic battle had come to an end.

Maxwell was laughing his a̲s̲s̲ off on the boat. I couldn’t blame him – the earlier fight was just that comical. Still, I felt a little reproachful… it wouldn’t hurt to lend us a hand there.

Cloud was being made to reflect on his knees by Michelle as she stood before him in a daunting pose. Finia and I borrowed towels and covered our exposed parts for the time being.

“Now that was quite a nice battle to remember as a tale.” “…You could have helped us, you know?” “But that would serve as no training, would it? No use crying over spilled milk, so just go get changed, will you?” “Change? What do you mean?” “I mean, you know… Do not make me say it.”

He said that and pointed at my inner thigh. There was a single streak of blood there. Just to mention, I had no recollection of sustaining any injuries. In the first place, Floating Wakame did not attack living things.

“H-Huh?” “Lady Nicole, did you get injured!?”

I stopped the flustered Finia and poked around under the towel in search of injuries. I thought maybe the dagger grazed me somewhere… But it turned out that wasn’t the case.

“Huhhhhhhh!?”

It came from a place located at the base of the legs… In other words, it was that. Guessing what this was about, Finia clapped her hands.

“So that’s how it is. Congratulations, Lady Nicole!” “I don’t feel happy about this!?” “I suppose your belly growing cold and worsening your condition was the trigger of it.”

Letina who was properly undergoing sex education unlike me was kind enough to explain it to me medically. I wasn’t the least bit happy about it.

Maxwell, who also guessed the situation, awkwardly gave me another towel.

Michelle still hadn’t figured it out. I hoped she would remain so innocent forever, though I realized that was too much to ask for.

Cloud was in the same state, but he had no right to speak now. Today, we had a big enough blunder to consider hiring a freelancer instead.

Still, we somehow managed to succeed in hunting our prey for the day. With my first period as a bonus.

Next morning, I raised groans while wrapped in the blanket inside the cottage. My joints were sore, but my abdomen was hurting the most. It was extremely annoying that I had to visit the bathroom periodically.

Fortunately, Finia had things prepared for dealing with that, so I wasn’t troubled on that part. Given my condition, we decided to put today’s hunt on hold.

“Gahhh… I f̲u̲c̲k̲e̲d̲ up. I’ve become a girl in both body and heart…” “The fact that you are using such words shows that you are still going strong.”

I started crying my complaints after confirming that Finia wasn’t around. I mean, I was actually on the verge of tears.

Last night’s events dealt huge damage to my mentality. Maxwell drove everyone else out of the room under the pretext of consoling me. Since he was the user of healing magic, even Finia did not oppose it.

Besides, blood loss for my body was linked to severe exhaustion. Leaving me with Maxwell was their only choice to guard against any unlikely accidents.

As they’d have nothing to do like that, he entrusted the processing of the Floating Wakame to them. The process went as something like shaving the Wakame skin, mincing it into powder, then soaking it in water to regain its slimy texture, and finally, mixing it in an existing shampoo and adjusting the composition.

We heard about the method from the God of Destruction, so we were fully ready for it. It apparently neutralized the shampoo’s acidity and had this “treatment” effect that made it gentle to the scalp and preserved humidity in the hair.

It was normally a shampoo, but it was apparently no problem even if you washed the baby’s body with it, even with their fragile skin.

At any rate, the Wakame we hunted yesterday was quite big in size, so it would be enough to make portions for my unborn sister, Maria, Michelle and Letina’s families too, with some extra to spare.

It seems that we could preserve the remaining part by drying it and turning it into a fine powder.

I felt bad for leaving everything to my friends, but I had no motivation to do anything now. I knew this would happen eventually, but it happened so suddenly that I didn’t manage to prepare myself. And the tormenting pain was a constant reminder of the reality of it.

“I… Gotta return to being a man, and fast.” “Is that so? I personally believe that you should just give up already, but I suppose that would make Cortina sad.” “I will return… As fast as I can.” “Oh well, good luck, I suppose?”

I puffed a fist and declared while wiping away the tears of my emotional instability. With Maxwell’s half-hearted encouragement, I decided to take the day off and slept through it.