CH 68

“What is the matter Master Rust?”

Asks Ahri quietly while looking at my face. Apparently she’s worried because I look baffled, and I snap back quickly when I feel her gaze on me.

“No, it’s nothing. I was just thinking back to Seilook’s breath from earlier. Seilook, please try not to do anything that extreme next time.”

The last part was directed at Seilook, who is on my shoulder.

“Kyurururu.”

Seilook responds. There’s still something that looks like a floating triangular button blinking.

“Seilook really played a great part. Can I pet it?”

Asks Ahri.

“I guess it did. Seilook, can Ahri pet you?”

“Kyuh.”

Seilook extends its neck towards Ahri. Apparently Seilook wants to be pet too.

The button moves along with Seilook.

Hou, I guess its position is based on the position of Seilook’s head. And even though it looks unnatural, Ahri and the soldiers around us don’t react to it at all. Is it like the half transparent plate from before?

Ahri is shorter than me, so she’s standing on tiptoes to pet Seilook. It looks like Seilook is enjoying it too.

I bend down a little to make things easier, as I ponder if I should press the triangular button.

I think there’s a good chance that the half transparent plate will appear again if I do. If I act like I’m just petting Seilook, it won’t look suspicious to people around me, and if the half transparent plate does appear, they won’t see it anyway.

Now the question is how long it will stay here. Will it disappear if I don’t press it? Or is it the opposite, and I press and the plate only appears for a fixed amount of time? Hm…

In the end, I decide to finish what I have to do first, so I head towards the hole.

It looks like Seilook really does like to be pet, because it stays behind with Ahri.

I shrug a little, call out Hipopo, and take out a few more scrolls. These are normal 『Manifest』 scrolls that bring out one transmuted beast each. I use these to call out a few Hipopo brothers the same size as Hipopo, and start filling the hole.

◆◇

The sun is setting, and I return to my tent after thanking Ahri. I can come back here pretty much every day after helping with the road work, mostly thanks to Hipopo’s swift legs.

Seilook’s button is still blinking.

“Now, Seilook.”

“Kyu?”

“What’s that triangular button?”

“Kyukyu!”

Seilook smacks its tail.

Hmm… As always, I have no idea what it’s saying. I guess I’ll just press the button.

As my finger approaches the button, Seilook looks on without doing anything.

The moment I press the button it opens up, and turns into the same half transparent plate I saw before.

I knew it! …Hn?

I stare at it, thinking what I’m seeing is strange. I still can’t read the letters, but I feel like I can understand part of it for some reason.

It’s like double exposure. Like there are words I can read floating on top of the ones I don’t understand.

The part I can more easily read is what appears to be the title.

“Sta…Tus?”

Seilook quietly watches me, and I can’t take my eyes off this plate