Cat Burglar (1)
Grandis had been a colossal beast visible even from the front lines, so the sight of that massive creature spewing blood was plain for everyone there to see. At the front-line headquarters, Vice Commander Calber stood utterly dumbfounded by the astonishing spectacle.
“That is…”
“Y-You mean the Hero’s Party succeeded, Vice Commander!”
Even at his adjutant’s joyful words, Calber could scarcely believe it—that they had truly overcome the Magic Legion Commander and slain that beast.
Honestly, he had never expected much success. When they had subjugated the Oblivion Legion Commander, it had taken the entire party—one hero to hold the legion, another to face the commander—just to manage it.
Of course the betrayal by those once called heroes had complicated matters, yet even so, the rule remained that at least two heroes were required to bring down even a weak legion commander.
Their goal this time might not have been the commander’s head, but they still had to face one, and the Magic Legion Commander was incomparably stronger than the Oblivion one. On top of that, the golems called masterpieces had been present, so Calber had judged the difficulty would be higher if anything, never lower. Yet what was the result?
A monster so immense it inspired instinctive terror was dying, spilling its entrails and blood. Calber set his astonishment aside for a moment and first relayed the necessary measures to his adjutants.
“Install breakwaters immediately! Keep the camp from being swept away by the blood!”
“Yes, Vice Commander!”
As massive as its body was, the blood pouring from it was equally abundant. The strange thing was that it remained standing even as it died.
Calber considered that fortunate. Had that giant body collapsed, the front lines would surely have felt the impact.
After ordering the follow-up measures, Calber muttered as he recalled the commander who had fallen earlier to the heroes’ betrayal.
“We’ve held the front lines once more, Commander.”
While he was still lost in that afterglow, another adjutant approached.
“Vice Commander!”
“…What is it?”
“The Hero and her companions have returned!!”
“!”
The instant he heard those words, Calber followed the adjutant barefoot. And there he faced them.
“…Ah, Vice Commander Calber.”
The voice was rather tired, yet the man had returned without any major injuries, and beautiful women stood lined up beside him.
Some among them were as exhausted as he was, sweating profusely from the hot steam, but Calber looked at the man first—because he was the one who had proposed this operation.
His official position was merely the porter of the Hero’s Party, yet the vice commander well knew he was the key card capable of stopping the Magic Legion Commander. There had been some anxiety, but since they had all returned safely like this…
“The Magic Legion Commander retreated with the golems, and we subjugated Grandis.”
The results were even solid.
“Additionally, this one here smashed two of the masterpiece golems.”
“Heh heh, it was nothing~ They were scrubs on the same level as Albrecht♡”
“…So she says.”
Vice Commander Calber let out a hollow laugh as he looked at them. Thanks to their exploits, he could discuss the follow-up measures with an easy heart.
“If the Magic Legion Commander has retreated, we can send additional support to the Second Front Line.”
“I was just about to mention that…”
“Understood.”
Calber said,
“Leave the rest to me. You all should rest for now.”
“…That sounds like a good idea.”
Having nearly exhausted his mana, the man smiled a little awkwardly, fatigue plain on his face. Calber bowed his head.
“Thank you truly, everyone. The front lines will never forget your exploits.”
At his words of gratitude, the Hero and her companions glanced at one another. After exchanging looks for a moment, as if their hearts were linked, they all spoke the same words together.
““We merely did what we had to do.””
After Grandis was subjugated, the pouring blood kept them from raising the front lines for a while. Only after a full day had passed did the blood finally stop, and Vice Commander Calber advanced the lines as planned.
In the past the front lines had once reached near the Covenant; this was reclaiming that ground. In the process they retook several key points abandoned when the lines had been pushed back, and within them they recovered a fair number of the fallen’s belongings that had been lost.
Meanwhile I and the rest of the party were sprawled out as one with our beds. Specifically, me and Letisia, exhausted from overusing mana; Erinn, whose body was temporarily weakened from enduring the golem’s steam; and…
“I shouldn’t be lying here like this—I need to take care of the patients…!”
“Puhaha, this time you’re the patient, Freya!”
Freya, who had overconsumed her divine power maintaining a barrier against the blood that poured down after we killed Grandis, was the one in question.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen the Saintess completely wiped out. The volume of blood that day really had been enormous; blocking it right up front must have burned through an insane amount of divine power.
“I can’t do this—I have to force myself to move…!”
“No.”
Crack!
Clara fixed Freya to the bed by driving a dagger through her collar, pinning her in place as if to say stay put.
“Ah, Clara…!”
“…You rest when you need to rest.”
“But there are still so many people who are hurt…”
Hearing her say that when she couldn’t even stand up straight, a saintess really was a saintess—exhibitionism or not.
“…But hey.”
I asked out of genuine curiosity.
“Why are you all here?”
This was the tent where I was supposed to rest, yet ever since we got back from the Grandis subjugation the others had all moved in. Originally the girls had their own tent…
Erinn, lying down, whipped her head around.
“Well, we’re all the same party now~ You said you were coming back, right~?”
“No, but I’m a guy…”
“That’s why we have this~”
Erinn stretched out an arm and tugged the thin white cloth separating my space from theirs. With a soft rustle the cloth unfurled like a curtain, leaving only the silhouette of her outstretched arm.
“Patient tents are scarce to begin with, so we should conserve them. We’re the same party, so no problem~ Even dummy Albrecht gets it now, right~♡”
Her muscles were so wrecked she could barely move her arms, yet she kept batting the cloth open and closed while laughing.
“No peeking, okay~♡”
“…I won’t look!”
She’s saying weird things again.
Still, as the Hero, her Self-Recovery trait meant a few days of rest would have her moving again. Superhuman as always…
“She’s trying to move her body somehow even while resting.”
“Erinn’s been using her body nonstop since before she became a Hero, so of course she’d feel restless just lying around.”
That was Letisia. She had recovered the earliest among us and was sitting up on her bed rather than lying down.
Her mana recovery really is faster than mine; she bounced back quick.
Sitting with a book open, she smiled lightly.
“Are you feeling a bit better, Albrecht?”
“I still feel completely drained…”
“It’s because your mana capacity increased faster than your recovery rate. You ate that crystal last time and your capacity jumped all at once, right? Your training stayed the same, so the recovery rate didn’t catch up…”
That was true.
“So when mana capacity suddenly spikes, there’s no real fix…?”
In the game you just chugged a potion, and potions existed here too—would that work? But if it did, they would have made me drink one instead of telling me to rest.
The fact that they didn’t meant either potions couldn’t restore completely depleted mana… or they weren’t good for the body.
“There is a way.”
“There is? A potion, maybe?”
“Potions are for emergencies—like in the middle of a fight. Normally they’re toxic to the body, so you don’t use them carelessly.”
“Ah, is that so?”
My guess had been right.
“Then what is there besides potions?”
“There’s a formula for absorbing mana from another person. Though it isn’t used much.”
“There’s something like that?”
“Yes. Of course you can’t just absorb it normally. That’s why it’s rarely used, but…”
Letisia hesitated, then suddenly stared straight at me. When I tilted my head in puzzlement at that gaze, Clara rose from her spot and came over.
“Want me to share my mana?”
“Huh?”
“Clara’s current capacity is about the same as Albrecht’s, so that won’t work. Once he’s fine, Clara would be the one sprawled out. Of course…”
Letisia explained the method.
“…Since you have to exchange bodily fluids, Clara would be the least problematic option, though.”
“…What?”
Exchange of bodily fluids. That meant secretions like saliva or sweat, so generally speaking…
“I have to kiss?”
What kind of nonsense…
“I-It’s not a lie! Since you’re absorbing the other person’s mana, that kind of risk is built in. If it were easy, monsters and mages would all be fighting while stealing mana left and right, right?”
…True enough—suddenly snatching someone’s lips would be hard, so practically speaking it was the worst method imaginable. That explained why I’d never seen anyone use it.
“That’s right. So just kiss me, Albrecht.”
“…?”
My girlfriend who used to get flustered just holding hands was saying what…
“As I said earlier, if Clara does it, it only switches who’s lying in bed.”
“Then how about me~?”
Erinn, still playing with the curtain, grinned mischievously.
“I’m not lying here because of mana problems, and my capacity is plenty~♡”
“…Don’t say weird things.”
“Why is it weird?”
She laughed lightly.
“I’m serious~♡”
“No.”
“No way.”
“Ehh~♡”
When Clara and Letisia both shot her down at once, Erinn made a disappointed face and giggled. Seeing that, it really had just been teasing.
“Albrecht, do you want to get up?”
“I was only asking out of curiosity. No need to go as far as a troublesome method. I can just lie here a few days.”
“…Right?”
“Yeah.”
Letisia nodded slightly and returned to her book. Clara looked at me with a faintly regretful gaze.
“Sorry, Albrecht. If I had a little more mana…”
“What’s there to be sorry about? This happened because I boosted it with a shortcut.”
I stretched out a hand and gently stroked Clara’s cheek.
“You fought hard too, Clara. Rest well.”
“…Okay.”
She nodded and returned to her bed. After sending her off I closed my eyes to rest—only to feel an intense gaze and open them again.
Huh?
Looking toward the source of that gaze, Letisia was still reading her book.
“Letisia, did you have something to say?”
“Yes? No.”
“Ah, is that so?”
Had I imagined it?
Since she said no, it must have been a misunderstanding. I quietly closed my eyes again.
On that night when the moon rose unusually dark.
Inside the tent where not only Erinn’s exhausted party members but also the two dragons slept particularly deeply, someone began to move suspiciously.
The woman who had been sitting on one bed rustled upright. She walked slowly, then dropped flat onto the floor.
Crawling carefully under the curtain that separated Albrecht’s space from the girls’, she made not a single sound—like a cat slipping through a crack in a door.
“……”
She might truly have been half cat. The two ears twitching atop her head were proof enough. She approached Albrecht’s bed and carefully rose.
Confirming that he was sleeping soundly, she muttered,
"Share the mana,"
⟨ Communio ⟩
With that short, quiet chant, the formula capable of either absorbing or bestowing mana activated. She lightly stuck out her tongue and moistened her lower lip.
…This is only for treatment purposes.
Her mana recovery was overwhelmingly fast. Even back when her total capacity had been lower than Erinn’s, that high recovery rate had given her greater effective usable mana.
So even if she shared a little now, she would still rise sooner than Albrecht anyway.
Therefore…
She was absolutely not cutting in line. She was by no means doing this because she wanted the “first kiss.”
Thinking that, the suspicious woman lowered her head.
Softly their lips met; her tongue carefully pried open Albrecht’s. Bodily fluids exchanged, and the formula activated properly.
“……?”
Yet there was one thing this woman had foolishly failed to consider. Blinded by the chance to rationally claim Albrecht’s lips, she had forgotten that a sudden influx of mana would of course make a mana-user react.
Feeling mana enter his body, Albrecht sleepily opened his eyes.
“……!?”
“…!”
And the two of them, lips still touching, met each other’s eyes. But Albrecht was half-asleep, and tonight the moon was dark.
He could not see the other clearly, and before he could properly confirm who it was, she fled like lightning back to her own bed.
Had Clara been the one awake, she would have read the presence precisely and known the direction of escape. Albrecht, still lacking that skill, was left dumbfounded, muttering as he recalled the soft sensation that still lingered vividly in his mind.
“Who was that…?”