Chapter 108
Chapter 108
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 108
Chapter Title: Hearing The Wizard's Inner thoughts
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Red-haired Astal had tried countless methods to return to his original form, but none of them had any significant effect.
"...It seems we have to proceed as we are now. At this point, turning back to another territory is far too risky."
"The carriages we sent out separately have probably been discovered by now. The Four Heavenly Kings' vigilance will only intensify."
Red-haired Astal was speaking closely behind Victoria. To an outsider, the distance might have been mistaken for an embrace.
"Victoria, wouldn't it be fine if I just slit my wrists and put myself on the brink of death? This guy was someone who wallowed in self-loathing every day, thinking 'I'm trash who shouldn't be alive...' anyway."
"Don't spout such nonsense. No matter what kind of personality you possessed, we were saved by that part of you."
Victoria snapped irritably at red-haired Astal's words and pushed him away. Even if it was a different personality, it felt like he was insulting the person she loved.
Red-haired Astal blinked his eyes blankly, looking at Victoria's expression as if he didn't understand what was wrong.
"It's not a lie. Before meeting you, this guy was strangling himself and self-harming every day."
"......"
Since he shared the original personality and memories, he knew how unstable and obsessed with saving people Astal had been before meeting Victoria.
"I never saw any such traces."
"Of course you wouldn't. Strangling yourself doesn't kill you in the first place... and it doesn't leave bruises or marks severe enough to make others worry. Using his cleverness in such ways, isn't he quite a ruthless guy?"
Victoria stared intently at Astal's neck with a 'no way' thought, and seeing her expression momentarily freeze, he patted her head as if telling her not to worry.
p>"Why didn't you tell me sooner! If he had such a bad habit, I would have always told him to stop... Ah."
"It's fine. After all, it's a habit he corrected after meeting you. I'm truly grateful for that part."
Victoria couldn't help but feel resentful as she glanced slightly at red-haired Astal.
If he could be this honest, why had he stubbornly kept secrets from her and shouldered the pain alone?
"...Isn't that obvious? I didn't want the person I love to worry. Just like you hid the fact that you had a limited lifespan from me."
Red-haired Astal spoke as if reading Victoria's innermost thoughts. Even though his appearance had completely reversed, his smile held the warmth she remembered.
"Please say such things when you're in your original state...!"
"The original personality is a coward and a fool, so he probably couldn't. He was actually planning to confess to you using a last-word magic, you know."
Victoria felt her face grow slightly hot, so she immediately pushed Astal away, trying to escape from his embrace.
"...Actually, I'm not that different from that guy, am I? People are somewhat contradictory beings. Just like he tried to hide his feelings but still used various tricks."
Squeeze.
Astal couldn't hold back any longer and hugged Victoria from behind, showing he didn't want to let her go.
Though a gap existed between Victoria and Astal like a chain, due to the original personality blocking it.
"...This is quite fresh. Normally, I'd only see Astal acting cold and Victoria clinging to him."
"Aside from not using violence, seeing them fight by insulting and disparaging each other, then witnessing this scene feels awkward."
"I like it! Isn't this what a real hero party should be? Loving each other, helping each other live!"
Watching Astal repeatedly fail to kiss Victoria's cheek due to the original personality, his companions were voicing their own opinions.
After all, one could say Victoria and Astal had truly been on good terms for a very short time.
Their first impression was the worst; when they saw each other naked for treatment, they called each other perverts or disparaged one another; and eventually, saving each other's lives changed their perceptions.
"...Victoria becomes a bit prickly when she actually likes someone because she's easily embarrassed. Well, I like that part too."
Red-haired Astal chuckled softly as he reminisced about the past. For that brief moment when their relationship improved, the words Victoria spoke to him as a Saint were deeply meaningful.
"Her telling me that my parents' and hometown people's deaths weren't my fault, or that people don't need reasons to save others—that was Victoria..."
"Aaaah!! It's embarrassing, so please shut that disgusting mouth! I never did any such thing!"
Victoria hurriedly covered Astal's mouth with her hand, denying the embarrassing things she had said in the past.
Since they were words she had spoken only to Astal, she seemed ashamed that other companions besides him might know.
"That's why I endured the insults and disparagement. Of course, if it were anyone else, no matter how gentle their actions, if their words were harsh, my interest would have waned... but there were times it didn't."
Then, red-haired Astal pressed his thumb and index finger together, mimicking a dog's mouth, and moved them apart and together while making sounds.
This is the method mages use to prepare against silence magic.
Since cases like Astal's, who uses no-incantation magic, are extremely rare, ordinary people create countermeasures like this.
"......Just you wait until you return to your original personality. I'll scold you so you never dare speak such nonsense again!"
So embarrassed was Victoria that she even momentarily dropped the extreme honorifics she usually used for Astal and others, shouting.
"And how exactly will you scold me? With breasts so big and vulgar they'd make one think you're more of a milk cow than a Saint?"
"A milk cow?! I am not someone to be called such a lewd and vulgar livestock!"
"Ah, right. I believe you. That could be the case."
Seeing that, red-haired Astal skillfully grabbed Victoria's waist and lifted her slightly.
"Put me down! Ugh...! I never knew you had such a personality...! I feel betrayed!"
"Don't lie. Don't you often play pranks or seduce much more intensely than this when others aren't looking?"
Watching Victoria flail her limbs in the air, the gazes of the other companions turned chilly.
Just how much indecent stuff had this couple done to look so proficient at such sudden actions?
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ And so, we emerged above ground through the underground, and fortunately, the place we exited led to a rarely watched tower's hidden door.
"This... is truly a slime pretending to be human?"
The other personality's me, having captured a guard, drooled saliva while looking at a red, moving bead-like object.
Even to my eyes, this is a slime's core.
Equivalent to a brain or heart for humans, a slime absolutely cannot die until this is destroyed.
'Hey, can you really catch Memoria without me? No matter how I think about it, this time's Four Heavenly Kings might have used slimes disguised as humans.'
Seeing that, a sense of unease washed over me, and I began conveying my opinion to the other personality through inner thoughts.
- Then what do you plan to do? The current me is bound by the contract with Victoria, so I must prioritize saving people. I can't just arbitrarily capture and burn them one by one.
The guy who didn't even answer when I criticized him for making crude jokes or trying to hug Victoria just moments ago was finally listening to me.
That part annoyed me quite a bit.
Even though I, the original personality, was the one who received Victoria's confession, and I am the one who should receive her love, I was being treated like that just because he was a bit more honest.
'You bastard, have you ever tried burning people alive? Are you insane?'
- Then what do you plan to do? Unlike ordinary slimes, these guys have intelligence. They hid their cores using clothes or armor, so ordinary methods wouldn't even distinguish them, right?
As frustrating as it was, there was nothing wrong with what the other personality said. He was essentially me, sharing the same memories, just with a slightly different personality.
'It's obvious, isn't it? Create weather that slimes dislike.'
Slimes fundamentally have no fixed form.
Thus, they can mimic other creatures or increase their numbers through division.
If such creatures have a weakness, it's that when rain falls, concentration differences cause them to lose their original form.
'I can still use magic to make it rain now.'
I thought the principle of a phenomenon known since ancient times could distinguish who was truly human and who was a slime.
- Make it rain? Then wouldn't they take shelter with umbrellas or buildings, making it useless? Besides, that relies on concentration differences... Ordinary water wouldn't work, right?
The other personality's me immediately refuted my opinion.
As expected of me with a childhood personality, he immediately pointed out the flaws.
However,
No matter what, the original owner of this body is me, and even if we share memories, I am the one who has aged more.
'...We can bring seawater and make it rain. Don't tell me you didn't know such a simple fact?'
I sneered slightly at the other me, who was sparing with words and hadn't even told Victoria that communication with the original personality was possible.
It seemed he also liked Victoria immensely.
Having come out after a long time, he probably didn't want to be confined again.
- ...I knew it too? I just didn't think of it.
It felt close to watching a child going through puberty.
A strange feeling crept over me when the thought crossed my mind—if I were to have a child with Victoria, wouldn't I face such a situation?