420-388 Invitation to work (5)

Suck it!　Nao, hot water, hot water!

Ha-ha!　Toya, you're pathetic!

Petosi's mucus was persistent, and it took quite a while for Toya and Silas to return.

In comparison to Silas, who was walking around with his chest out and smiling even though he was soaking wet, Toya's wet and shriveled tail and floppy ears made her look rather cold.

"Do you want it hot or warm?

"Hot!

Okay. --Water jet.

If I had to name it, it would be "Hot Water Jet", but the effect of the spell depends on the consciousness of the magician.

The name of the spell doesn't matter much, so I didn't change it.

It is a little hotter than a bath.

Use the spell with this in mind, and pour it on Toya and Silas.

"Too hot!

It's too hot, man!

It's because you're cold.　You're not going to burn.

Overhearing Silas's protests, I stop the hot water at an appropriate point.

Pouring hot water is only a first aid.

Unless you make a bath in a barrel, it's impossible to warm yourself up with this.

For this purpose, I prepared a fire.

Since Toya and the others had been bathing for a long time, the fire that the other four of us built was quite large. It would not warm us from the core, but it was more practical than pouring hot water on it.

Come here and take a seat by the fire.

Oh, thank you. Mary is very kind.

No, we've all collected wood.

Here, take off your clothes while the water's still warm. I'll dry you off. --Mitya and Mary, turn around. You don't need to look at anything unsightly.

Did you get it?

"Yes, yes.

As Mary and the others turned around, Silas and the others began to take off their clothes, mumbling.

It's not a pretty sight.

I didn't know you had a hobby of showing off your nipples to little girls, Cyrus ....... Can you please stay away from my child from now on?

No!　I don't know.

"Silas ......, I didn't know you were a hentai who enjoys wet underwear. From now on, I'm going to make sure that my children...

No!　And I'm supposed to give you what I took off?

No, please don't. I don't want to touch it.

You're so mean!　Don't use polite language. It's annoying. What are you gonna do?

Hook it to your sword and shove it out.

It's hard to 'dry' clothes while they're still on.

In the event you're not sure what to do, you can always ask your doctor.

Mummification may be an exaggeration, but it is likely to cause dry skin and dry eyes.

Toya, who understood this, quickly took off his wet clothes, hung them on his sword and held them out to me, as if he were drying laundry.

It's a good idea to have a good idea of what you're looking for and what you can do to help.

...... I see, that's it. Nao, please.

Yes.

I'm sure you'll be glad to hear that.

I'm sure you'll find it very useful, magic. Normally, I'd have to wear cold clothes that I just wrung out.

Don't you have a change of clothes or something with you?

"Nao, it's not easy. Nao and the others have magic bags, so they don't seem to think about it, but only high ranking people can have such a bag.

"Right. There's room for food, water, tools, and materials for demons. It's normal for adventurers to not change their clothes for days. It's not easy to carry around an extra change of clothes.

It's hard to carry around an extra change of clothes. ...... You know, we didn't have a change of clothes in the beginning either.

It's not that we don't have a change of clothes, it's just that it took us a while to be able to buy anything other than underwear.

At that time, I was only working on day trips, so it wasn't much of a problem, but I did have some trouble bringing back my catch.

These days, however, thanks to the magic bag, I can carry around everything I might need, and I don't have to worry about carrying too much stuff.

The only thing I couldn't bring back was the material for the golem, but I guess that was a special case.

When you think about it, we're pretty lucky, aren't we?

"Yeah, pretty much. Mary and Mitya were lucky, too. --No, it's because of you that they chose to take in a mere orphan.

Yeah. I'm grateful to my brothers.

Yes. If I had been in an orphanage in this town, it wouldn't have been easy. I wouldn't have survived in the first place.

Are there no adventurers who take in children?

No, of course not. Ordinary adventurers can barely make a living on their own. Retired adventurers who are wealthy and never married sometimes take in children.

"Well, the most I can do is take care of newbies like him. In fact, Freddie is special because he does it for no money.

Mr. Cyrus, I'm only talking to you to pay for the drinks.

A drink or two doesn't amount to much to you. A drink or two isn't much to you. If you had the time to wait around in the guild, you'd make plenty of money. Why don't you just talk to him?

No, that's right. ......

Freddy laughs, somewhat embarrassed.

The price of a cheap ale is about the price of a can of juice.

Taking into account Freddy's skills in the past few days, there was no need for him to go out of his way to ask the newcomer to buy him a drink.

In other words, his behavior when he met us probably meant that he was worried about us and wanted to talk to us.

Unlike a year ago, I am still equipped to look like an adventurer, but with the presence of Mary and Mitya, I can understand why he was worried.

I'm sure you'll be able to understand why.

I'm not sure what to say.　I'm going to take care of Petoskey now. It'll be messy after dark.

Yeah, that's right. Toya and the others should be warmed up by now.

I'm sure they're warm, but we'll have to think about .......

Toya looked very uncomfortable and reluctantly looked back at Petoskey's body.

When you pull it out of the river and measure it, you'll see that it's about 1.5 meters in diameter at its widest point, nearly 5 meters in girth, and over 20 meters in length.

Its entire body was covered with a white, slippery mucus, and to be honest, I didn't want to get too close to it.

"Nao, can't you use your magic to wash it off?

"Nao, can't you wash it off with the magic you just used?　I can use it, but will it work?　All this mucus?

I had trouble washing myself earlier.

This kind of mucus usually retains a lot of water and is hard to flow.

The reason is that mucus protects us from enemies.

If the mucus of an aquatic organism, a petosyne, is easily washed away by water, it cannot fulfill its role.

I remember Haruka telling me that when you remove the slime from an octopus, you rub it with salt or wash it with grated radish. ...... There is no salt, is there?

It's a slippery festival that no one will appreciate.

I'm sure you'll be able to figure out how to use it.

So this slippery stuff is protein.

I don't know the details, but there's no way I can do it, and there's no point in knowing.

I don't know the details, but there's no way I can do it.　Normally this would be difficult, but with Nao's magic, ......

"Oh, Mary, that's clever. That's a lot more effective than water!

It didn't even make sense.

Proteins are sensitive to heat.

If the mucus is protein, roasting it with fire may be effective.

It would be difficult to roast the core with a "fire jet", but it would be possible to roast the surface.

It may be quite tiring due to its length, but it is much better than struggling with the slime, and even if it doesn't work, it is free to try.

So let's get to it... 'Fire Jet'.

I held my hand over Petosi's corpse and cast the spell.