Shadow (3)
“Do you know when people feel the most despair?”
“When they realize that while unicorns might exist, platypuses definitely don’t?”
“Wrong! It’s when no matter how hard you try, you just can’t move forward! And platypuses do exist!”
“Yeah, yeah. If Beni says so, then sure.”
Even at this very moment, the subspace ring held the tears of some unknown beast whose purpose I couldn’t even guess. But teasing Beni was too fun, so I decided to play dumb.
I watched her puff up in indignation and simply held out my hand. The shadow monster stretched out a long tentacle and placed a cream pie it had pulled from somewhere onto my palm.
“Oh. Thanks.”
-Grrrr.
The creature let out a happy growl, clicking its sharp teeth together. I was happy, the shadow was happy—everyone was happy. Except for one person standing alone in sorrow.
“That’s mine! I hid it in the sub-zero magic refrigerator—how did you even find it?!”
-Hmph.
The shadow monster snorted as if to say, You really don’t get it? Beni started hopping around in frustration, so I asked her in a lazy voice.
“So? What kind of experiments have you run so far? I did everything you told me to, but it took longer than promised and now I’m sleepy and hungry… Did the results turn out bad?”
“Ugh… Sorry.”
“I’ll forgive you for that cream pie just now. More importantly, the results matter right now. Since I’m a test subject too, you can at least tell me that much, right?”
“I suppose that’s fair.”
Beni nodded and threw herself onto the wide sofa. Her small body sank softly into the incredibly plush cushions. Curious, I stood up to try sitting there myself—
-Grrrrr.
The shadow monster wrapped a tentacle around my waist as if to say Don’t go. I wasn’t sure if I was sitting on its back or its stomach, but it was comfortable enough, so I decided to stay put.
Beni began rolling around with an exhausted expression. Her dress naturally rode up. What had only shown her ankles before now revealed skin all the way to the back of her knees. She continued speaking in that pose where the inside of her thighs were almost—but not quite—visible.
“The first thing I tested was why this guy likes you so much.”
“You tried smell, mana, divine power, voice, face, and a bunch of other stuff, right?”
“Yeah. But I still have no idea. When you’re not around, it doesn’t react much, but the moment you appear, it only responds to you.”
“It must be because of my dazzling charm. Go on, praise me, Beni.”
“…In the end, we moved on from that part without finding a single clue. After that, I tested changes based on emotional state.”
“You’re just going to ignore what I said? Well, whatever. I’m generous, so I’ll let it slide. Did anything change when its mood shifted? I don’t have the baseline data, so I couldn’t tell the difference.”
“There was a pretty big difference. Overall reaction speed improved, but its strength weakened. The concentration of acidic bodily fluids flowing through its body also thinned, and its teeth became blunter.”
“…Isn’t that just getting weaker?”
“It’s a little different. It’s not that it got weaker—it’s trying to get weaker. Like a cat that hides its claws as much as possible and is careful not to scratch anyone.”
“Oh.”
I looked down at the shadow beneath my butt with newfound interest. Its bloodshot eyes met mine.
Blink. It split into two.
Blink blink. Now four.
As I chuckled at the ever-increasing number of eyeballs, Beni spoke up with a slightly creeped-out expression.
“Doesn’t that gross you out? I’ve been with it for a long time and even considered it a friend, but seeing it up close like this is still disgusting.”
“Well, it is gross, but if you look at it long enough, it has its cute sides too. Look, it’s multiplying those eyeballs like crazy because it knows I like it.”
By now, half its body was densely packed with tiny eyeballs. Thank goodness I didn’t have trypophobia.
“Has it shown any reaction to anyone other than me?”
“Hmm. It wasn’t as extreme, but it was a bit calmer around Sister Elly and Rydia. Oh, it acted like that with all the high-ranking adventurers.”
“So it had similar reactions to all high-ranking adventurers?”
“There were slight differences. It became even calmer in front of the especially strong ones among them. The only exception was that it would growl at priests.”
“It probably dislikes priests because of the memories from when Those Who Swallow the Twilight got to it, right?”
“It’s definitely because of Those Who Swallow the Twilight. But I’m not sure if the memories actually remain.”
Beni tilted her head and rolled over, ending up face-down. The dress that had ridden up so nicely returned to its original position. In exchange, the peach-like curve of her small butt was now fully revealed.
Hmm… I could just barely see the panty line. She was wearing them properly. So the no-panties goddess LoveLove really had been the weird one.
While I nodded to myself, Beni stretched like a cat—upper body pressed flat, hips raised high.
“Hnnngh… Haaaaah……”
She probably didn’t realize it, but it was an incredibly… desirable position. I couldn’t tear my eyes away for a while.
Whether she noticed my blatant stare or not, Beni continued in a carefree tone.
“There are too many parts that don’t add up if it has memories. Above all, its reaction to Those Who Swallow the Twilight seems far too instinctive to be something it’s thinking about.”
“That makes sense. If it’s a mix of traces from multiple people, even if memories remain, they’d be all jumbled up and meaningless. And even without past memories, there are plenty of reasons to hate them.”
Even after being reborn as a shadow monster, the experiments of Those Who Swallow the Twilight had continued. Right up until the day it was transplanted into Beni and they grew used to each other.
If something tormented you the moment you were born, you’d either fear it or despise it. In the shadow monster’s case, it was the latter.
“Still, it’s interesting how it becomes relatively calm in front of other high-ranking adventurers.”
“From what I see, it’s simply because it senses the difference in power. Its intelligence is higher than a beast’s, but its instincts are on par with or sharper than one. Tucking its tail in front of the strong is common.”
“Hmm. I’m not sure. If that’s the case, its attitude toward me and you doesn’t make sense. I have a different theory.”
It was true that the shadow monster liked me enough to offer me its liver and gallbladder, but it didn’t seem like it followed Beni out of dislike or listened to her because it liked her. It was more like it was just grumbling.
Like how Beni treated something that had once been a friend but had become a repulsive monster.
If so, the reason it liked me was simple.
“Maybe it likes me because I like it?”
“…What?”
“I’m not joking. I’m serious.”
I looked at the shadow monster, which had turned into a mass of eyeballs, with a serious expression. To an ordinary person, the sight would have been horrifying enough to make them faint. But to me, it simply looked like a desperate gesture begging for affection.
“Its appearance as a shadow is a bit much, right? Maybe it’s never received proper affection since the day it was born. The only one who treated it with any sympathy was you, Beni.”
“……”
Beni fell silent, seemingly lost in thought. I didn’t know about the distant past, but after spending the day together, I understood the looks it had received. Everyone hated the shadow monster. They feared it, found it disgusting, and avoided it.
If it had been born receiving only those kinds of gazes, even I would have turned twisted.
Beni, having listened to me, asked in a slightly pouty voice.
“So you’re saying you’re different?”
“I still think it’s gross. And scary. …I just like it more than that. When I think about what the children who became its materials went through, and what it went through after becoming a shadow monster, it’s sad. But honestly, the act of embracing my settings to the fullest and mixing them together without breaking the rules is pretty exciting. And no matter how horribly it looks, so what? Even if I didn’t create it myself, it’s clearly a child living in my world.”
I gently stroked the shadow monster’s torso and patted its hard teeth. At a glance, the composition looked dangerous enough that I might get eaten at any moment. But there was a kind of trust between us. The belief that while it might accidentally hurt me, it would never do so on purpose.
“In that sense, I think we need to change its name.”
“…Name?”
“Calling it ‘shadow monster’ isn’t really a name, is it? I get why you haven’t given it one yet, though.”
To Beni, the shadow monster must have been ‘something hideous.’ Something she borrowed strength from for now but would eventually have to discard and overcome.
“So let’s give it a name first. Let’s acknowledge it as one being, and then we can look into everything else.”
“…Yeah. You’re right. I was too indifferent. No matter what, this guy has stayed by my side and watched over my adventurer life all this time, hasn’t it?”
After thinking for a moment, Beni spoke.
“Shadow. Yeah. From now on, you’re Shadow.”
She took the ‘shadow’ from shadow monster to make Shadow. But calling it just ‘Shadow’ felt plain and the nuance was a bit off, so she twisted it slightly into ‘Shadow.’
“How about it? Do you like it?”
-…….
The shadow monster—no, Shadow—quietly observed Beni. And then.
Slurp.
It extended a long tongue between its sharp teeth and licked her.
“Kyaa!”
It was the moment the secret of the habit Beni had longed for was finally revealed.
“It’s wet… It smells… Uuugh……”
Of course, the thoroughly drenched Beni still didn’t seem to have noticed.