Chapter 123: From Mouth to Mouth
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 123: From Mouth to Mouth
I spent the night with Swish-Swish.
She purred, snuggling into my embrace.
Leaving her behind for a while weighed on my mind, but it was, quite literally, just for a while.
I would come for her as soon as I finished off the King of Birds.
It was like leaving my daughter with my father-in-law to go on a trip alone with my wife.
…It might seem a little irresponsible, but a grandfather needs to spend time with his granddaughter, too.
I gently stroked Swish-Swish’s head.
The day broke.
Swish-Swish greeted me, wagging her tail.
She seemed to be thinking, What should we play today?
But I couldn’t play with her.
It was time to go.
I’m sorry, Swish-Swish.
“…Chirp.”
I thought she would cry and throw a fit, but she was more composed than I expected.
It seemed Swish-Swish knew that the Snake Queen and I were about to face a great battle.
And she might have known that she wouldn’t be of much help in this fight.
Until we arrived here, she had been swishing innocently as usual, so I’d thought she wasn’t thinking about it.
But she knew. She just didn’t show it.
I guess it was her own way of handling things.
To make the time we had together more precious, tears were unnecessary.
Pretending not to know.
Pretending everything was the same as always.
Just in case I might worry.
“Chiiirp…”
Swish-Swish tried to act mature, but she couldn’t stop her eyes from welling up.
“Chiiirrrp!”
In the end, she couldn’t hold it in and rushed at me.
She wrapped herself around my body, whimpering.
Old Man Compy tried making peek-a-boo-like sounds from the side, but there was no way he could soothe Swish-Swish’s heart.
“Chiiirrrp…”
Swish-Swish looked at me with a worried expression.
My leaving this place meant I would soon be fighting the King of Birds.
She wiggled her body, then suddenly shot a beam from her mouth.
Pew.
It was a very thin beam.
Its destination was the ornament hanging around my neck.
On top of the lizard tied in a spiderweb, a plump little snake was drawn.
“Chirp.”
Now seeming to have calmed down a bit, Swish-Swish stopped crying.
She gave my foreleg a gentle bite.
I didn’t know what it meant, but I figured it was her way of telling me to be careful and come back safe.
“Gekek.”
Stay healthy, Swish-Swish.
I’ll feed you your fill of bird meat soon.
“Kekek.”
Old man.
Please take good care of Swish-Swish.
“Gekekek.”
And don’t you worry too much.
I’ll protect the Snake Queen.
*
It would be best to maintain my miniaturized form.
The moment I deactivated it, gigantification would apply as a rebound.
But I couldn’t just go around in a small size all the time.
I could fight in a small body, but it was less efficient.
Therefore, the best choice was to maintain a size around that of a Gomodo, not a Gomodo-Lania.
The effect of gigantification would be less than if I maintained the size of a gecko, but this would be enough.
Besides, it would be a problem if I became too big to adapt.
“Kuwong…”
The Sword Dragons were now a very familiar sight.
They were sparring, swinging their tails at each other.
It reminded me of when I saw the Unicorn.
I didn’t know much about swordsmanship, but I could tell that the profound principles of the sword were mixed into those tail movements.
Just like the pseudo-Ankylosaurus, they displayed trajectories impossible with a normal tail swing.
With ten Sword Dragons, we would have the advantage in a ground battle.
A mere Terror Bird wouldn’t be able to stop them.
After briefly watching the reassuring sight of the Sword Dragons’ martial practice, I entered the Snake Queen’s temple.
I wonder if the Queen is inside.
I flicked my tongue, tasting the air, and caught the Snake Queen’s scent.
She was supposed to be a reptile, yet she had a faint, milky smell.
It was a scent you couldn’t forget even if you wanted to.
…And personally, it wasn’t that I wanted to forget it.
“Haaah…”
I could hear the Snake Queen’s breathing.
It seemed she was in her human form this time.
“Huuuu…”
But her breathing sounded a little strange.
It sounded like she was enduring pain.
I was a little surprised by this incongruous sound, so unlike the Snake Queen, but I kept my composure and approached her.
The Snake Queen didn’t seem to have noticed my arrival.
Her complexion didn’t look good, either.
Her already pale face was even more pallid.
Did something happen?
With a haggard face, she stared blankly into the air.
Then, her body twisted.
The Snake Queen staggered, looking like she was about to collapse.
“Gekek!”
I quickly rushed to her and supported her with my body.
“…You’ve returned sooner than I expected.”
The Snake Queen spoke weakly.
“My apologies. For showing you such an unsightly state.”
Sweat was pouring from her forehead.
Had she ever shown such a side of herself before?
I still remembered the Snake Queen who mercilessly fired Destruction Rays.
For a person of her stature to be ailing like this…
What on earth had happened?
“…I’ve finished refining the inner core. It seems I overexerted myself a bit because the schedule was tight.”
The Snake Queen held out a small sphere to me.
It was the Jian Bird’s inner core.
And the reason she was exhausted was because of this very core.
It seemed refining an inner core was a more arduous task than I had thought.
“Why the long face? I’m just a little tired from using my strength after a long time. I’m fine.”
She didn’t look fine at all.
The Snake Queen had just staggered and nearly collapsed.
It was clear she had overexerted herself, just as she said.
Not just a little, but quite a lot.
Did she send me to the Little Dragon’s territory because she didn’t want to show me her struggling?
“I’ll be fine after a little rest, so don’t worry too much.”
Tuk.
The Snake Queen’s hand touched me.
As if telling me to hurry up and swallow the inner core.
“Gekek.”
How could I possibly eat this?
I immediately shut my mouth and pushed the Snake Queen’s hand away.
“…Are you trying to give it to me?”
It was an inner core that I could take or leave.
Although the Snake Queen had expended her strength, she could recover it by eating this core.
No. She would be able to gain even greater power.
“How foolish. This item won’t have much of an effect on me. Besides, I’ve already modified it to suit you. And you want me to swallow it? Do not waste my efforts.”
She was right.
Swallowing it would be the right choice.
The Snake Queen wanted that, too.
But I didn’t want to.
“Gekekek.”
Couldn’t we just split it in half?
I’d gain power, and the Snake Queen would recover her energy.
“Aish, no more talk. Hurry up and swallow it.”
“Gek!”
The Snake Queen put the inner core in my mouth.
“You’re the first one I’ve seen to refuse an inner core when offered.”
The Snake Queen now wore a look of relief.
“How could you try to give me the core that you worked so hard to obtain? Giving one to the princess was more than enough. And I, too, have received a gift from you.”
I swallowed the inner core the Snake Queen had given me.
Exactly half of it.
“This is no ordinary inner core, so even for you, to immediately circu—”
Swallowing half meant that half was left.
“Mph, mmph!”
And that other half of the inner core went into the Snake Queen’s mouth.
The Snake Queen looked flustered by the sudden delivery of the core.
She probably never imagined I would give her the core this way.
I passed it from mouth to mouth.
Just hearing the words, it sounds quite romantic.
It even has the feel of young lovers.
But the reality was a little different.
It was true that I passed it from mouth to mouth.
But from a bit of a distance.
As if spitting a watermelon seed, I spat out half the core. Ptooey.
And that half flew precisely into the Snake Queen’s mouth.
“Keuk…”
Things like “that’s not clean,” or “how could you pass something that was in your mouth.”
Such words had no effect on me.
After all, the Snake Queen and I had already seen all there was to see of each other.
…This was the Snake Queen who used to put me in her mouth and go ellelle. I had to do at least this much.
“Y-You foolish…”
The Snake Queen gulped down the half-core I had launched.
Though she said that, her expression didn’t look too bad.
For starters, the color returned to her face, back to the complexion I knew.
If she had used 3 units of power to refine the core, swallowing half of it was like recovering 5 units of power.
I, too, had gained 5 units of power by swallowing my half.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?”
“Gekek.”
A world where nobody gets hurt. Mission complete.
“What am I to do with this troublemaker…”
“Gek?”
“…I will be honest. The reason I staggered was because of the Okbong honey I secretly ate while you were gone.”
Huh?
“I was debating whether to eat more, and my head grew dizzy. That’s when you arrived.”
Who does she think she’s fooling?
She must be saying that so I won’t worry.
……Then again, knowing the Snake Queen, that might actually be true.
“If this were an ordinary inner core, we could let it slide. In any case, since you swallowed half and I swallowed the other, neither of us would suffer a great loss.”
“Gekekek.”
That’s what I’m saying.
“But this is no ordinary inner core. As long as you don’t swallow the whole thing, there are bound to be side effects.”
“Geeeek!”
What do you mean?
“Come here.”
The Snake Queen’s tail pulled me toward her.
Perhaps because she just ate the inner core, she seemed to be overflowing with strength.
“Do you know what that side effect is?”
Thump-thump.
For a moment, my heart pounded wildly.
I had only swallowed half an inner core, but its power was extraordinary.
To think that I, who had munched on all sorts of elixirs, would feel something like this.
“First, perform Qi cultivation to control the power of the core.”
The energy from the core was surging wildly.
I immediately sat in the lotus position.
“Rest assured. You will not fall into Qi Deviation even if I touch you.”
The Snake Queen coiled up and wrapped herself around me.
Even though she said that, I couldn’t immediately begin cultivating my Qi.
With our bodies touching like this, a single mistake could lead to a major accident.
“Do not worry. The side effect is… experiencing each other’s Heart Demon.”
The Snake Queen’s hand caressed my back.
“You will see my Heart Demon. And I, yours.”
Her internal energy slowly flowed into my body.
Only then could I relax and begin my Qi cultivation.
So, we had to have our bodies in contact to overcome the side effect in the first place.
“Have you closed your eyes? Focus your mind. The Heart Demon will soon rise.”
The side effect didn’t seem too severe.
As long as we didn’t ingest a completely shattered core, we could take measures like this immediately.
Besides, it was about experiencing the Heart Demon, not overcoming it.
…….
Wait a minute.
She’s going to see my Heart Demon?
The Snake Queen… is going to see Spino in a maid outfit?