Wing Blanket
The tree the bandit had been sent flying into toppled over with a thunderous crash not long after.
Crack… BOOM!
Man, I wonder if that guy's still alive.
This is exactly why I didn't want to mess with them.
"Oh, he's alive."
In the vision that was one of the two things that had improved since becoming this body, I could see the bandit far off in the distance, thankfully still alive and wriggling.
The other improvement was, of course, this kicking power.
Having one extra joint made the force of a kick ridiculously stronger.
The problem was that, since it was a joint I'd never used in my entire life, I couldn't control the strength.
"It's not like I wanted to turn you guys into that either, you know?"
I said that to the two who kept looking back and forth between the flying bandit and me after I'd knocked out the remaining six.
I warned you you'd die, didn't I?
"…From now on, please be a little more precise with your words."
"I agree."
Even the most seriously injured one—the one I'd kicked—wasn't in any danger of dying, so after gathering the unconscious bandits in one spot and leaving them there, I spoke to the two who were complaining at me while packing up our things.
"And you—what kind of confidence made you just send them off like that?"
What were you planning to do if I really was too weak to protect even myself?
The moment I started complaining, I felt something from Huey's direction that I'd encountered once before.
Something similar to mana, yet of a completely different nature.
I turned my head toward where Huey stood.
"This kind of confidence."
Crack!
The instant Huey pulled a yellow paper covered in unreadable red patterns from his robes, white electricity appeared in a flash and surrounded me as if to protect me.
Definitely not the sort of thing bandits could handle.
What was this called again…
"Taoist magic… was it?"
"Oh, you know it?"
Even looking like this, I've been rolling as a mercenary for ten years.
You think I wouldn't know at least that much?
"It's the technique used by the people who live in the magic realms out west."
In this world there are places called magic realms.
Landscapes far removed from ordinary nature.
Places where phenomena that defy this world's common sense take place.
We call those otherworldly spaces that break the laws of reason magic realms.
And one of those magic realms—a small country built in a land packed with threatening monsters and ferocious beasts, where people who cannot handle mana by nature instead use mysterious techniques—was where those techniques came from.
I couldn't remember the country's name, but I'd fought alongside a guy who claimed to be from there once, so I knew the basics.
Come to think of it, the clothes Huey was wearing were in that style too.
"What, you came from there?"
I asked Huey while watching the yellow paper turn to ash from the top down even though it had never caught fire.
"Well, I freeloaded there for four years."
"I see."
"Master. Cleanup is finished."
"Good work. Shall we talk about the rest while we walk?"
Lucy was glaring at us with a face that clearly said she was annoyed at having cleaned up alone while we chatted, so Huey and I, as if on cue, averted our eyes from her and started moving with quick steps.
"Come to think of it, I have one thing I'm curious about regarding Ren as well."
"Hm?"
Around the time the place we'd left the bandits disappeared from view, Lucy opened her mouth while looking at me.
"Your legs seem extremely sturdy."
"Ah, these? I don't know why, but they are."
It was a fact I'd learned thanks to the slave traders who chased me relentlessly and even swung swords in a rage, but—
"Ordinary weapons can't even scratch them."
"Oh."
"But it still hurts properly, so don't even think about hitting them out of curiosity."
"Tsk."
…She really was thinking of hitting them.
No wonder she'd hesitated so long before bringing it up.
Anyway, hardness aside, the sense of pain was no different from when I was human, so I had no desire to repeat what happened earlier. It hurt.
"It's coming into view soon."
After walking a long while longer, around the time the sun hung high overhead, Huey's words made me look ahead. Far in the distance, a fairly large city with a gate came into view.
"So, what's the plan going forward?"
I'd just be tagging along like luggage anyway, but I was still curious.
"Since it's a big city for once, we'll stay a while, gather information, and earn some money."
"We spent every last coin buying a mountain of spices a few days ago."
…Come to think of it, even my bag only had the two gold coins I'd stashed as emergency funds.
"By the way, Ren."
"Hm?"
"You can prove your identity, right?"
"There's no way it wouldn't work for me when even you, an otherworlder, can do it."
As long as you had the Adventurer's Guild backing you, you could make an identity anytime. That was how it worked.
Really, deciding to work with the Adventurer's Guild had been an excellent choice.
The gate was right ahead, so I should take it out in advance.
"Here."
I pulled out the adventurer registration card the guild master had newly issued for me.
The one I always kept tucked between my breasts as a necklace, sealed in a small nameplate-shaped case.
"Cough!"
"…Huh."
Huey urgently turned his head with a forced cough, while Lucy stared downward with a hollow expression.
What's with them?
"Hey, don't you have any sense of shame?"
Unable to understand the sudden situation, I looked at them with a dumbfounded face, and Huey said that.
What nonsense.
"What are you talking about."
Making a fuss just because I took a necklace out from between my chest.
It wasn't like I'd stripped in front of people.
"…Fine. Lucy, stop staring and let's go. You'll grow someday too."
I was the one left speechless.
Huey patted the back of Lucy—who was still staring blankly at me with a hand on her own chest—then walked on ahead.
No, seriously, what was that?
"Master."
"Hm?"
As I stood frozen, staring after Huey in disbelief, Lucy—who had only been looking at her own chest—called out to him and dashed forward.
"Die."
"Gyaah!"
"Puhah! Serves you right."
She charged out with a furious face, kicked the back of Huey's knee as he walked ahead, and sent him sprawling.
Watching her untie the coffin she'd been carrying, pin down Huey's lower half, and take the mount position, I burst out laughing in pure satisfaction.
"Hey, hey! Don't laugh and save me!"
"Hmm? I can't hear what you're saying?"
"Die! Die!"
"Ack! Aaack! Sorry! I was wrong so—! Ack! You hit the bone!!"
For now, since he deserved it, I decided to let him take a few more hits.
Those tiny fists of hers really packed a punch.
Crack!
Not long after, Lucy's fist came down hard as if to finish things, and Huey—acting on pure instinct—jerked his head aside to dodge it.
"…Master. Did you just dodge that?"
"W-wait a second… Listen to me. If that hits I'll really die…!"
Huey urgently started making excuses while watching Lucy's eyes twitch at the fist that had smashed into the ground, but before he could finish, Lucy grabbed his head with both hands.
"Hmph!"
BANG!
"Guh!"
She forced his head up to face her, then slammed her forehead into his.
Wow, listen to that sound. Is he even still alive?
"If you say something like that one more time, you'd better be prepared for real next time."
"Ugh… I'm sorry…."
Lucy delivered the warning in a chilly voice to Huey, who somehow managed to stand up shakily with a massive lump rising on his forehead.
"You alive?"
After briefly watching Lucy—who was stomping ahead with puffed-out cheeks, still not fully calmed down—I asked Huey, whose face had swollen to roughly twice its normal size.
"Would it kill you to help a little…."
"That wasn't asking to be saved. That was asking me to get hit with you."
"…Tsk."
I've taken plenty of beatings from my master, so I know full well.
If you tease a flat-chested girl about her chest, you might actually die.
"That's why you shouldn't pick fights you deserve to get hit for."
When I asked why he'd said something unnecessary and gotten himself beaten, the answer that came back was surprisingly unexpected.
"She resembles my little sister."
"Little sister?"
"Not in looks. Just… looking at her makes me think of my little sister."
Looking at Lucy made him think of the little sister he'd left at home, so he kept teasing her without thinking.
Huey said it with a bitter smile.
"Family, huh."
It felt like I could almost understand, and yet it was a story far too distant for me.
"Well, let's just go. She's making a fuss up ahead telling us to hurry."
I brushed it off vaguely like that.
In truth, Lucy was standing there glaring at us with eyes that looked ready to devour us whole.
"…Yeah."
"I'm going first!"
It must have shown on my face, because Huey looked like he was about to say something, but I deliberately didn't listen and ran toward Lucy.
"It's only been a day since we met, yet you already seem quite close."
The moment I stood beside her, Lucy snarked with a face that clearly said something about the situation displeased her.
"Why, jealous?"
"A―bsolute―ly nooot?"
A heavily scrunched expression and an exaggerated voice.
She was jealous.
"Really? If you're jealous, I was thinking of covering you with my wings once."
The instant the words left my mouth, Lucy—who had been walking while pointedly ignoring me—stopped dead.
"…R-really?"
She looked at my wings with trembling eyes.
Of course. Even I found these wings tempting—how was she supposed to resist?
"Yeah. Really."
I knew perfectly well that last night she and Huey had been staring at me with heated eyes while I lay covered by my own wings like a blanket.
Of course I had no intention of covering a guy with them.
After gazing at my wings for a moment, Lucy briefly glanced back at Huey, who was still following us with staggering steps, then opened her mouth in a small voice.
"…Let's make a deal."
"Hm?"
Even if it killed her, she couldn't bring herself to admit she was jealous.
Lucy proposed a deal instead.
"From now on, I will carry Ren's luggage as well."
…That was a little tempting.
"Isn't packing the bag every time annoying?"
"It is annoying, yeah."
With no hands, opening and closing a bag was a real pain.
"I'll do even that, so…!"
How badly did she want to be covered by those wings?
Looking at Lucy approaching me now more like she was begging than negotiating, I smirked.
"Alright then. Put that down."
"…Really?"
"Yeah."
Thud!
After Lucy nearly threw the coffin down, I stepped up behind her.
"Then, here goes?"
"Yes!"
I wrapped my wings around her in a hug.
"Hah."
"How is it?"
The moment the wings closed around her, Lucy's face melted.
"This is… paradise…."
This really is the best.