The Wise Sheep Is My Friend (2)
#140
"B-back, back... back what?"
Back pussy.
"I apologize. That slipped out."
"What on earth goes through your head on a daily basis? Defiling the sacred body of a mage with such low, vile, filthy language—!!!!"
The golden-eyed girl glared at me, seething.
"I apologize—"
"Shut up! This is utterly ridiculous. The only reason something like that would slip out even by accident is because you spend your days entertaining those kinds of lewd thoughts about women. You need your entire mindset ripped out and overhauled, Mr. Do-yun. You just watch! I will take full responsibility and fix that depraved brain of yours."
She was speaking so fast that, honestly, I only caught about half of it. Figuring out that the general gist was "I'm furious!" was probably enough.
She went on to fire more rapid accusations at me afterward, but to my eyes, it just looked like an adorable little kid throwing a tantrum.
Because—
Her height, easily a full 20 centimeters shorter than Lily or Rubel, who could probably be described as having an average woman's stature.
The chest department, where bigger is always better.
Hmm... well, comparing her to the unrivaled Lucien or Risie would be a staggering insult to her, of course...
But hers was far smaller than Lily's golden-balance proportions, and even smaller than Rubel's, which already seemed about average. Sure, the modest little mounds poking out seemed to insist, "Hey, I'm a girl too, you know?" but frankly, you couldn't really call it a body that drew a man's eye.
And as for her rear— since that tends to follow the chest, there was nothing to see there either. At this rate, you'd have to drag in the ten-year-old Princess Lily just to eke out a win on points.
So no matter how much Estelle ranted and raved, it only ever looked cute to me — not threatening in the slightest.
"Mr. Do-yun!!!!!"
Startled me.
"Yes?"
"Are you listening to me? I'm asking for the third time — where is Lily?"
"I'm sorry, a sudden bout of dizziness came over me."
In truth, I had only been appraising Estelle's body— although, looking at it this way, my brain really must have gotten twisted somehow.
"...... Stop spacing out and just take me to where Lily is, already."
Estelle brushed my flimsy excuse aside with ease and turned on her heel, her steps resolute as she headed toward the campsite.
"Ah, Lady Estelle. That's the opposite direction—"
"I am going to fetch emergency medical supplies. You will wait here, Mr. Do-yun."
With her short, swaying golden hair fluttering behind her— off Estelle went.
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#141
How many minutes had passed?
Estelle returned sooner than I expected.
In one hand, she held a small leather pouch; in the other, a fairly large canteen filled with water. The canteen was so disproportionately large against Estelle's tiny frame that I considered offering to carry it for her— but in her current state, she probably had zero inclination to accept any help from me.
"Lead the way."
"Yes."
Her short golden hair rippled in the morning sunlight, and her golden eyes still blazed fiercely in my direction.
I figured that trying to strike up any conversation would only tank her affection rating further, so all I could do was meekly lower my head and set my feet toward the forest path.
Trudge... trudge...
Behind me, I felt the presence of Estelle following at a steady interval.
It was safe to say that the hour you could just barely call early morning had come and gone by now. Hadn't it passed 8 a.m. already? Judging by the sun's position, it seemed about right.
The forest, now in full morning bloom, looked quite different from how it had the night before.
The trees that had been nothing more than dark masses at night now glittered in pale green, each individual leaf beaded with droplets of dew.
"Totally different from the dark forest we came through..."
A murmur slipped out under my breath.
Perhaps she'd heard me, because Estelle spoke up from behind me.
"This is the vicinity of the old Watchtower. You could say the mana seeping from the tower is driving out the forest's dark influence."
"Oh, that's honestly kind of fascinating. But I'm curious— isn't mana supposed to be a resource that gets consumed? I'm wondering how a watchtower manages to generate mana. Does it use something like a mana stone?"
"Do not speak to me carelessly."
Oh for god's sake. Hey, you're the one who answered me first!!!!
"The Watchtower is built to draw mana from a large river that flows nearby. In the words of the humans who live below Arcanum, you could call it hydroelectric generation."
She had told me not to talk to her. But apparently, when she was the one talking, it was an exception. At any rate, hydroelectric generation, huh—
The river used for that was probably the Letherion River.
Everything clicked so clearly — as expected of star lecturer Estelle.
In any case, right around when my small talk with Estelle wrapped up, we arrived in front of a large boulder below the cave.
"This is it."
"...... Here?"
Estelle narrowed her eyes at the huge boulder.
"Uh... well, more precisely, you climb up over this boulder, walk just a little bit, and you'll find the cave."
"............"
Those golden eyes looked like they were sizing things up.
No doubt she was calculating whether she could climb this boulder on her own.
For reference, if you'd like my estimate— Miss Estelle. Unless you use magic, you cannot climb this. You're too short!
As if she sensed my silent, sneering gaze, Estelle opened her mouth with a strangely offended expression.
"Take these."
"Excuse me?"
"I said take the emergency pouch and the canteen. I've been carrying them all the way here, so it's only fair that Mr. Do-yun carries them from now on."
I would have gladly carried them from the start if she'd just asked. What a funny woman.
The leather pouch she handed over might have been quite heavy for Estelle, but to me, it was light as a feather.
I supposed our body sizes alone, if I exaggerated just a little, were probably on the scale of a threefold difference. Couldn't be helped.
With the pouch and canteen gathered in one hand, I looked up at the huge boulder. Its height came up to roughly my chin.
It didn't look too difficult — just brace your hands, push up with some strength, and you'd be over it.
The issue, as always, was that I was the measuring stick.
In Lily's case, with her outstanding athletic ability, she'd been able to get up in a single leap— but as I'd already predicted, that wasn't going to happen for Estelle.
"Then I'll go up first."
"Mr. Do-yun, wait a moment."
Estelle stopped me.
"What for?"
"I will go up first."
"...... Pardon?"
"Why are you making a face like that's so unexpected?"
"No, it's not that......"
I looked back and forth between Estelle and the boulder.
Hmm. It was the third time I had said it, but anyone could see that was a losing proposition.
"Wouldn't it be better if I went up first and pulled you up from above?"
The golden eyes gleamed with arrogance.
Estelle shot down my kind suggestion without hesitation.
"I am perfectly capable of climbing a boulder of this size by myself. Without resorting to magic or anything of the sort. You were looking down on me because I'm small just now, weren't you? Someday, you will pay the price for underestimating me."
Why did she have to talk so much......
"I see."
Estelle unnecessarily straightened the hem of her clothes once— then stood before the boulder. And with a surprisingly serious face, she reached out her hands, trying to grasp the top of the boulder.
"Hup—"
Her little toes stood on end adorably, accompanied by a tiny battle cry.
However—
"..............."
She didn't reach it.
To be precise, Estelle's soft-looking fingertips were flailing pitifully in the air, nowhere near the far-off top of the boulder.
"...... Why don't I just help y—"
"Yap-!"
This time, she jumped.
Having apparently realized that standing on tiptoe was hopeless, Estelle leaped with all her might, trying to cling to the middle of the boulder.
But the soles of her shoes slipped against the boulder's surface. Her delicate body seemed to rise the tiniest bit— only to slide straight down the middle of the boulder and land right back where she started.
"......"
"......"
I really, really, truly did not say a single word. I'd stake both of my possibly-now-useless testicles on that.
But silence, at times, conveys far more than words ever could.
The rims of Estelle's ears slowly turned red.
On the redness scale, I'd put it about two levels above Rubel's face when she watched Risie getting eaten alive.
"That just now was because the footing was bad."
"I didn't say a thing, though?"
"You're saying it with your expression."
This was so unfair. Was my poker face really that easy to see through?
Even so, Estelle reached her hands upward once more. This time, she seemed to be trying to place one foot on a small outcropping at the side of the boulder and pull herself up.
"Heave— ho!"
Oh. That motion was actually somewhat decent this time.
Her fern-like little hands gripped the stone roots tightly, her short golden hair swayed, and the way her shoulders trembled with effort was damned adorable.
But the world wasn't a place where cuteness could accomplish everything. If it were, tiny Princess Lily would have already finished conquering the globe.
Whether it was a lack of grip strength, or because her legs were too short, or maybe both— Estelle somehow managed to get her upper body up onto the boulder, but beyond that, she trembled violently and couldn't move an inch more.
She had frozen solid, dangling from the boulder.
"Mr. Do-yun!!!!!"
God, this was hilarious.
"Yes."
"Are you just going to stand there watching?"
"You said you could climb up on your own."
"The situation has changed."
"In what way?"
"The way where I'm currently situated on extremely disadvantageous terrain— oh, hurry! I'm going to fall!!!"
"We've generally agreed to call that 'not being able to climb up.'"
Of course, I didn't actually say that out loud.
From the standpoint of someone needing help, I couldn't afford to wound her pride any further than this.
Stifling the laughter threatening to escape, I placed my hands against Estelle's backside to support her.
"Hyaahk!!!! W-Where are you touching me!"
"Then where am I supposed to support you?"
"The waist!!!! A person has an area called the waist, you know!"
Think that's up to me, lady? How am I supposed to grab a waist floating in midair?
"Pardon the intrusion."
Squish— soft!
Ignoring Estelle's shrill complaints, I pushed her up from her rear.
Her body was far lighter than I'd imagined.
If I exaggerated a bit, it was lighter than the canteen Estelle had been groaning and lugging around? It was so light it made me baffled as to why she hadn't just magicked the canteen here.
And the most crucial point had to be the texture of Estelle's rear...
Hidden as it was by her missing-bottom fashion, I couldn't see it well, but it was a rear with more flesh to it than I'd expected.
Considering Estelle's pelvic dimensions, it had a softness that shouldn't have been physically possible.
The kind of softness that felt like they had crammed as much plush flesh onto that golden-haired girl's pelvis as the space would permit — that was the sensation transmitted to my palm.
And above all else, it was incredibly warm, the kind of temperature that felt like it would be wonderful to fall asleep touching on a cold winter's day.
"Uuuugh......"
When I climbed up onto the boulder after her, Estelle was mumbling something while fumbling around her own rear end.
Something about it being dirtied, or that she'd never get married now — something along those lines, so I decided to let it slide.
I tucked the mentally-broken Estelle under one arm and walked into the cave, where a far more wretched interior scene began to fill my vision.
Pools of liquid we hadn't had the chance to clean up—
That meant the three large puddles Lily and I had made together contained different white and bright-yellow fluids,
and Lily was still fast asleep, her rear end thrust up toward the sky.
It might already be too late, but... where should I even start fixing this?