CH 71

The boys crawled out of the pond, “Remember this!” and ran away like wet rats.

Finally, the area regained its tranquility.

“Now I can draw the map calmly.”

I sat down on a rock by the pond and finished the map on my clipboard.

“The map from my house to the pond is now complete.

I’ll piece it together and we’ll have the whole forest in one place.”

I inserted a new leaflet into the clipboard and looked around.

“I think we should go further into the forest, this is the place where I first met Kotone.”

I thought that maybe Kotone would be there, but she was not.

Instead, there was Onesco, Monaka’s attendant.

Onesco was sticking her hand into a crevice in the rock, frowning and groaning.

“What are you doing?” I asked, and the crease between his eyebrows deepened.

She stuck one hand in the air and pointed with the other hand.

“‘Leopin, you’re such a jerk! You took advantage of the fact that we were childhood friends to do this and that to little Monaka!”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I can’t possibly say such a lewd thing to you!”

“I’ve seen a little of you, but you’ve failed me! Prepare yourself!”

“What the hell are you doing?”

“I am going to give you an educational lesson in ……! Mugugugu!”

Onesco tried to stand up, but one hand seemed to be stuck in the gap between the rocks.

I sigh.

“I don’t know how this happened, but I’m glad I was the first one to find you.”

“What do you mean? Will you take advantage of my inability to move and do the same thing you did to Monaka-sama?”

“No, I won’t. No, I mean that it would have been a disaster if a monster had found you. Wait a minute.”

I looked around.

Just in time, I saw the fruit I was looking for growing near a rock.

I tore off one of the clusters of green nuts and peeled off the skin.

Inside, I found a fruit that looked just like a walnut.

I grabbed two of them and crushed them in my hands.

I transferred the crushed nuts to a wooden cup I had taken from my coat pocket.

“What the hell are you doing ……?” Onesco looked worried.

I continued my craft with the usual, “Well, just watch.”

I took out a leather water bottle from my coat pocket and poured the water into the wooden cup.

All I had to do was stir it lightly with my fingers and I’m done.

I splash the liquid in the cup into a crevice in the rock.

There was Onesco’s arm there, so naturally I got soaked.

“Kyaa! What are you doing— arara??!”

Onesco’s arm slipped out of the gap and she fell back on her butt and looked at the hand that had just come off as if it were a miracle.

“Eh? Ehh?? I was stuck since the morning, and no matter what I did, I couldn’t get out. ……? I was even going to launch a distress signal, and in a matter of seconds, without using any force! Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh!?”

Onesco flopped down into a girl’s seat and looked up at me incredulously.

“Wh- What the hell did you do? What the hell is that liquid? No way, it’s a hallucinogenic drug!”

I replied, looking at the little white liquid left in the cup.

“Aah, it’s called Araimi, and when you break it up and mix it with water, it becomes like a detergent.”

==========

Araimi Detergent

Quantity 1

Quality Level 6 (Material Level 2 + Dexterity Bonus 4)

Made by dissolving Araimi in water.

In addition to removing dirt and grime, it also makes things slippery.

==========

Even after hearing my explanation, Onesco was still skeptical.

“Oh, no. ……. I didn’t know there was such a magical fruit. ……”

And then she glanced at me.

“I’ll just …… Thank you for your help.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“I do care. I don’t know how you can help someone with a shirt that dirty by using detergent. ……”

The conversation took an unexpected turn, and I said, “What?” in a dumb voice.

“If you can make detergent, you can probably wash a shirt. So why are they so dirty?”

She seemed to be curious about my shirt.

“No, I was too lazy to wash it. It doesn’t matter if it’s …… something like that.”

The school has a special rule that only female students can use the shower rooms and laundry facilities in the school building.

This is the reason why Monaka and Kotone always smell good and always wear white robes and hakama.

I felt awkward, as if I was being implicitly accused of being lazy, so I changed the subject.

“By the way, why were you sticking your hand in that rock?”

This time, Onesco looked uncomfortable.

“It’s none of your business.”

I replied, “Hmmm,” and peered into the gap in the rock where Onesco had been sticking her hand.

At the far end of the hole, I saw something that looked like a dull, shiny blue stone.

“It looked like a fragment of a gemstone. That’s what she was trying to get.”

Onesco turned his face away from the hole, her mouth agape.

“Yes. Laugh if you want.”

“I’m not laughing at you. If it’s jewelry, everyone wants it.”

I patted the breast pocket of my coat.

“And I’ve got some gemstone jewelry over here.”

As if on cue, a mouse crawls out of my breast pocket.

I stretched my arm out to the hole as if I were escorting her, and she slipped down my arm and into the hole.

A few moments later, she returns with the gemstone from the bottom.

She dropped it into my palm with a flick of her hand.

I stroked the jewel with my fingers as it went back into my breast pocket.

Then I offer the other jewel to Onesco, who turns away, “Here, take it.”

“……?” Onesco turned her head and her slanted eyes widened even more at the sight of the gemstone.

“Eh…. Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”