Repaying Kindness
Hmm, what in the world is this?
A brilliant shaft of light settled over the shaded full-moon den. The electric eel, whose body had been steadily cooling, felt a long-forgotten warmth from the gentle rays and rose with a mix of puzzlement and pleasure.
It could not be certain, yet somehow this light seemed to be calling it somewhere.
Ah. So that’s it. Time to repay the debt, is it?
The electric eel poked its neck just outside the nest and surveyed the lake. At once it understood. There, at the very center of the radiant light filling the water, was that boy—the young human who had brought it food and spoken to it during its difficult final years.
What kind of nonsense did you get yourself into to fall into this den of fiends? Tsk tsk. I always knew something like this would happen while you were thrashing about every which way.
Clicking its tongue, the electric eel poured its will into the two horns crowning its head. The will that soaked into the horns became a faint current and spread throughout the entire lake.
“Hey, you lot. That one isn’t prey. So get lost already. Or else this old man will teach you another lesson.”
Blub! Blub! Blub!
Blu-blub.
The minnows, lacking any true will of their own, startled at the current sweeping over their bodies and scrambled to hide in every corner of the lake. Even the ones with somewhat bigger heads grumbled at the electric eel’s command, yet they respected the one who had guarded this lake for long ages and obeyed what would be his final order.
However—
“A geezer about to kick the bucket, giving orders? Who do you think you are!”
The bold catfish that had become the new master of the lake rejected the command outright. Instead, it circled the young human as if to mock the old eel.
“Tsk. What a nuisance.”
Clicking its tongue again at the creature’s behavior, the electric eel began to ponder what to do next. The light had given it enough strength to move, yet it still felt too weak to go and save the boy itself.
While it fretted, the eel noticed the young human staring at it with wide, startled eyes. Was it that surprising that it could speak? Forgetting the situation for a moment, the electric eel let out a soft snort of amusement—and then a fine idea struck it.
Right. No need for a dying old-timer to go to all that trouble. Let the young one do the hard work. The old man just needs to give a little help.
Nodding at a solution so clever it impressed even itself, the electric eel poured the warmth of the light-rays and the last of its remaining life force into the wish pearl it had spent the past few days neutralizing so the boy could digest it more easily. Then it spoke to the young human.
“Brat. Open your mouth wide.”
Once the boy’s mouth was open—
“I’ve been grateful all this time.”
—it sent the wish pearl flying with that final farewell.
“Ulp!”
Jun, who had been blankly obeying the electric eel and holding his mouth open, suddenly realized something had entered and reflexively gagged. He tried to spit it out at once, but Fortuna hurriedly stopped him.
“Swallow it, Jun! Just swallow it! That’s a wish pearl—the one the electric eel had!”
“Mmph—gulp.”
Belatedly grasping what it was, Jun followed her words and sent the electric eel’s wish pearl down his throat. For a fleeting instant he worried the fist-sized pearl might lodge in his neck, but the fear proved baseless. The moment he resolved to swallow, the pearl melted away and slid smoothly past his throat.
Crack! Crackle-crack!
The wish pearl that reached his stomach instantly became fierce lightning energy and began racing through every part of Jun’s body. Yet he felt no pain at all. Instead, a cool clarity that blanked his mind made him forget the situation and tremble with pure pleasure.
While he shuddered in that bliss, the lightning energy moved busily according to the will of fortune and its original master. It burned away every waste product that had quietly accumulated throughout his body, and it heated the remnants of the Potion of Growth—left undigested in various places from overconsumption—so they could be absorbed far more easily.
That alone caused Jun’s physical performance to soar dramatically. Yet those effects were merely unintended side benefits.
Hummm! Hummm-hummm!
Light returned to the two cores that had gone dark from overuse. Not only that—they advanced, growing larger and far more powerful. For Jun it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, a true miracle. Once a core lost its light, it almost never regained it.
After working a miracle of that magnitude, the fortune and original master’s will contained in the lightning energy were nearly spent. Yet the lightning energy that a dragon-blooded eel had condensed for three hundred years at a mana spot still had strength left even after performing such a feat.
Following the last scraps of fortune and its original master’s will, the lightning energy left the young human’s body, turned the bold catfish into grilled fish, and prepared to return to nature.
Of course Fortuna had no intention of letting that happen. She was the Angel of Fortune. Given her very nature, she knew perfectly well that when luck arrives, one must wring every last drop from it—just as one rows hard when the tide comes in.
Ziiing∼
A white wheel of light spun clockwise, scattering clusters of radiance. Those clusters gathered atop Fortuna’s hand and formed an enormous mass.
“Let’s gooo!”
Before the lightning energy could vanish, Fortuna shoved the massive lump straight into Jun’s stomach.
And in the very moment another stroke of fortune found him—
Blub.
—the giant catfish swallowed Jun and Fortuna whole.
“Keh-keh-keh! How’s that feel, you old geezer!”
Blub blub.
Having gulped the two down in a single bite, the catfish worked its mouth and sneered at the electric eel. The eel, its life force completely spent, watched the scene with indifference. Then, beyond the creature’s throat, it saw two clear blue lights that recalled a wish pearl—
Chime!
—and immediately sneered right back.
A vague unease prickled the catfish.
“…What are you laughing at? Finally gone mad?”
“Heh heh. Mad? I’m laughing at a youngster who can’t even act his age and doesn’t know what’s edible and what isn’t.”
“You’re saying a mere young human and a fairy smaller than a minnow are things I shouldn’t eat? Maybe to a geezer on death’s door like you.”
“Listen, child. Out of the affection we’ve shared, I’ll give you one last warning: spit out those two you just swallowed right now. If you don’t want to die.”
Still running his mouth while half-dead! The catfish no longer wanted to hear another word from the electric eel. It shot forward like an arrow, jaws stretched to their absolute limit, intending to swallow the old eel in one gulp just as it had the boy and the fairy.
Chime! Chime!
What the creature did not know was that the clear blue lights beyond its own throat were now blazing as brilliantly as if they held lightning itself.
Chime! Crack!
“Right. Lightning—”
Crack! Crackle-crack!
“—is raised like this.”
CRAAAAACKLE-CRACKLE-CRACK!
“Kuaaargh!!!”
“Agyaaaaah!!!!”
The vast lake filled with the far-reaching screams of one enormous catfish and one tiny fairy(?).
Several hours later.
Even in the dead of night the city center glittered brilliantly. Inside a mansion that stood out for its sheer size even among those lights, a cat-tribe woman in office attire walked with calm, measured steps.
Click-click-click.
Arms full of documents, she headed somewhere. When she reached the door she had been aiming for, she took a small breath and knocked.
“Sir, I’ve brought today’s final report.”
“Come in.”
The quiet permission came. Before entering, the cat-tribe woman checked her appearance, drew another breath to drive out the tension, finished every preparation, and slowly opened the door.
A wide, opulent office. Seated at a desk no less luxurious, the room’s owner finished checking a document, lifted his gaze, and looked at the cat-tribe woman with expressionless eyes.
The moment she met those eyes, the cat-tribe woman flinched despite herself. There was nothing particularly negative in them, yet the black horizontal slits inside the yellow irises somehow always felt ominous. Most of the goat tribe were born with that feature, but the boss’s eyes were especially severe.
“What are you doing? Bring them over already.”
“Ah—my apologies.”
Snapping back at the boss’s rebuke, the cat-tribe woman hurriedly handed over the bundle of papers. The boss accepted them without further comment and began scanning each sheet at speed. Then his brow furrowed at one particular report.
Because the boss almost never changed expression, the cat-tribe woman asked in mild surprise.
“Sir, have you found something wrong?”
“…So they ultimately failed to kill the target.”
He held the document out to her. She skimmed it once and immediately recalled the related matter.
“You’re referring to the elimination of the child who played a major role in exposing the corruption of Primuni Village’s chief.”
She spoke of assassinating a ten-year-old with complete calm. Having seen—and personally carried out—far worse with her own eyes and hands, she felt no particular emotion over something this minor.
“The village chief is on our line, and his family also made a direct request, so we assigned a suitable team… yes, they failed.”
“Were the numbers insufficient?”
“No. The target bears a Stigma and possesses an ability specialized in escape, so we took considerable care. They were a fairly well-known pair of mercenaries—high skill, high reliability, and they even incurred a debt to our side to learn their ability just before becoming adventurers.”
“…Then how did people of that caliber fail?”
“During the attempt the target rescued a child who had been accidentally caught up in the attack, and in the process fell into a nearby lake notorious for its danger. They tried to confirm whether the target was dead, but the rescued child reached the village first and brought the villagers, making it impossible.”
“…How did the target survive?”
“That we don’t know. According to our people in Primuni Village, the villagers simply found the child collapsed by the water’s edge. Ah—one unusual detail: an electric eel that had died of old age was lying beside the child.”
“A spirit beast?”
“The probability seems high. Out of curiosity I checked the records and found an entry from roughly three hundred years ago stating that an electric eel lived in that lake.”
“…Pointless meddling.”
With that the boss asked no further questions. He simply stared endlessly at the document describing the incident. The cat-tribe woman carefully inquired,
“Shall I redeploy personnel?”
“…I’ll think on it. Leave me.”
“Understood.”
At the dismissal the cat-tribe woman bowed and left the room at once. Only after her footsteps had completely faded did the boss carefully open a desk drawer and take out a black crystal sphere the size of two fists. Next he withdrew a flat mana stone, laid it on the desk, and set the crystal atop it.
The crystal began to glow faintly.
“My apologies. They report failure.”
“…Disappointing. Those who bear a Stigma must be eliminated as quickly as possible.”
“Shall I send another team?”
“Not for now. Our precise target differs, but there are others aiming at that church as well. Once those fellows make their move, we will decide what to do next.”
“Understood.”
“I end the communication here. For His sake.”
“For a world where all are equal beneath Him.”
After giving the answering refrain, the boss impassively slid the crystal and mana stone back into the drawer. Thereafter the only sound that filled the office was the quiet rustle of documents being examined, as if nothing at all had happened.