Chapter 46
Chapter 46
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>Translator: Vine
>Chapter: 46
>Chapter Title: An Upset Stomach
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If you eat something strange, you get an upset stomach.
“Ms. Bianca, Iris is going to scold me if I'm any later. If you don't mind, could you let me out now?”
A polite request amidst the madness.
Bianca stared blankly down at her stomach before reaching the same conclusion as before.
‘What a bizarre dream.’
With that, she fainted.
***
‘Ah... where am I?’
Bianca was floating in a strange space. It felt like she was drifting in water, sometimes swimming, sometimes being swept away by waves.
In this bizarre state, Bianca couldn't actively look around or do much of anything.
She simply remained still, as if her sole purpose was to float there blankly.
Just then, something thick and wet licked her face.
"Aack!"
Startled, her eyes shot open as she looked at what had licked her.
*Hehehe, hack... Master.*
For some reason, her shadow was standing on two feet (it had stick-like legs), its face blushing as a black tongue lolled out from between its terrifying teeth.
The husky, cloyingly sweet voice ringing in her head made Bianca faint.
‘Huh? Wasn't I in a dream?’
How do you faint in a dream?
With that thought, she opened her eyes.
*Chirp, chirp, chirp.*
She saw a clear sky and heard the small, cute chirping of birds.
"Where is this..."
A place of paved roads and towering skyscrapers. She was standing in the place where Rian had lived in his past life.
*Chirp, ch-chirp... KRAAAAAH!*
A sparrow, which had been flying by with a cute chirp, suddenly opened its beak wide, and the barrel of a gun shot out from its throat. A massive burst of flame erupted from the barrel before it retracted back into the sparrow's throat.
"Honey, just listen to me for a second. I swear I didn't do it on purpose!"
Behind that sparrow, another one with strangely long antennae was flying by, chattering in a greasy voice. At the bizarre sight, Bianca immediately shot to her feet.
"Wh-where am I now?"
Her eyes filled with confusion, she looked around. At that moment, a scream erupted from a TV in the window of a nearby electronics store.
[ Breaking news! A monster that looks green but is actually purple is currently invading the city! ]
"Wh-what?"
Just as Bianca was panicking at the sudden, serious atmosphere...
*THUD!*
A foot of such immense size it could only be described as gigantic slammed down beside her. It was pink.
"KYAAAAAAH!"
Her body was thrown three stories into the air before she hit the ground and rolled.
"Wh-what... What is this!"
She screamed and started to run. Nothing about her surroundings made any sense.
...Her suffering had only just begun.
***
"Ghk, ghk... keok..."
The unconscious Bianca writhed and rolled on the floor. White foam frothed at her lips, and her eyes had rolled back in her head.
She dry-heaved and rolled around for a while before letting out a retch and beginning to vomit.
*Gack, hack... Bleeegh...!*
The shadow connected to her writhed in agony before finally spitting something out with a violent cough.
*Splat.*
"Whew... that was a close one."
Rian, covered in saliva, wiped his forehead and grinned.
"I was almost dissolved by Ms. Bianca's stomach acid."
His body, which had been torn apart when he was eaten, had regenerated quickly since he hadn't been in her stomach for long, but escaping from inside had been quite difficult.
Fortunately, poking at the stomach wall seemed to have helped, as the shadow had vomited him up.
"Anyway... is she alright?"
He tilted his head at the sight of the unconscious, drooling Bianca, then picked her up to place her on the sofa. But before she even reached it, Bianca convulsed and her eyes shot open.
"GYAAAAAAH!"
She shrieked and fell from my arms. Since we were close to the sofa, Bianca landed on it instead of the floor.
*Scrabble, scrabble, scrabble.*
She clawed desperately at the sofa, trying to flee into a corner as if escaping from something horrific.
*Thud.*
She then fell to the floor with a loud noise, but she ignored the pain and kept crawling.
She instinctively knew that all the terrible things that had happened to her were Rian's fault and that he still possessed that dreadful power.
"Don't, don't come any closer! S-stop! I can't take it anymore!"
Her mind had clearly shattered in that short time, as she crawled on the floor shouting like a madwoman. I brought my hand to my nose and sniffed my damp body, then wrinkled my brow and spoke. The shadow's saliva reeked.
"Um, Ms. Bianca, would it be alright if I took a shower before heading down? Iris has a habit of hugging me, and it might be a bit awkward if I go down like this. My clothes are ruined, too."
"Do whatever you want! Just do whatever you want, so please... *hic*, please just go away...!"
Bianca, her face pale, pulled a curtain down to hide herself. Seeing her trembling so pitifully, I nodded.
"Thank you for your permission! I'll be quick!"
Rian simply thought Bianca's strange behavior was due to an upset stomach. Normally, he would have offered her some medicine, but his experience of being eaten by her pet hadn't been particularly pleasant, so he didn't.
‘If you have an animal that swallows or bites things, you should at least put a muzzle on it.’
Grumbling to himself, Rian entered the lavish bathroom. He took off his tattered clothes and washed himself, generously using the fragrant shampoo and body wash.
‘This is nice.’
He let out a small sigh as he poured the pleasantly warm water over his body. Since time was short, he decided against using the large bathtub.
He quickly washed himself, lightly dried off, and stepped out wearing a robe.
"Ms. Bianca?"
Bianca was nowhere to be seen. He couldn't go downstairs in just a robe, so he headed for the space she had shown him, saying it was a closet.
‘I can just wash them and return them later.’
He grinned at the sight of clothes that were obviously too large or too small for her to wear. She had mentioned that the closet held clothes worn by her past disciples.
It seemed she was telling the truth about not throwing them away for sentimental reasons, as the closet was full. Among the hanging clothes, he found an outfit that fit his frame. The design was identical to the slave clothes he usually wore, which he liked. If his clothes changed, Iris might worry.
‘She probably won't notice with this, right?’
Rubbing the fabric, which was softer than what he had worn before, he left the room.
‘I should tell her I'm borrowing some clothes, but she's not here.’
He thought about leaving a memo, but he couldn't see a pen or paper, and Iris was probably waiting, so he had no choice but to quietly leave her home.
‘What if she's crying?’
Picturing Iris's tearful face, he took the elevator down. Long after Rian had left, a constant stream of muttering could be heard from the innermost master bedroom of Bianca's home.
"Scaryscaryscarystopitnowpleasepleasepleasemakeitstopmakeitstopmakeitstop! I was wrong, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"
Whatever happened in her dream had caused her to completely lose her mind. She looked like a broken robot.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorryI'm sorry, it's my fault, so please, please-... Aaaah!"
She was descending into madness by the second. This was the result of carelessly eating something strange.
***
*Sniff, sniff, sniff.*
"Ah, Iris?"
*Sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff.*
When I returned to the room, Iris grabbed me, threw me onto the sofa, and climbed on top of me, sniffing me all over. She was like a puppy checking the scent of its owner who had just come home.
"Do I smell?"
"...You smell."
"...!"
*Th-thump!*
As I stared blankly in shock, Iris flopped down flat on top of me with a deep frown.
"What are you doing?"
"Leaving... my scent."
Iris said, rubbing her face against my chest. Her cuteness made me chuckle.
"Does it smell weird?"
"...Yeah."
Iris pouted and nodded.
‘I thought it smelled pretty good, but I guess Iris doesn't like it.’
I thought back to the luxurious shampoo and body wash as I stroked Iris's hair. After rubbing her head against me a few more times, she drifted off to sleep in the warmth.
"Ah... I'm sleepy..."
Feeling the child's high body temperature, my eyelids grew heavy. Just like that, I drifted off to sleep.
***
At the same time Rian was sleeping with Iris in his arms, Totogen was biting his nails and muttering to himself.
"This time, it has to succeed, right?"
If dozens weren't enough, then hundreds.
Totogen had spent a fortune to order a massive number of powerful monsters.
In the match scheduled in a few days, Rian would either be torn to shreds or be corrupted by immense power. In a situation that should have filled him with excited anticipation, all he felt was an anxiety so intense it made his legs tremble.
It's human nature to feel both greater anticipation and greater fear the more one invests. That was exactly Totogen's state.
‘If I fail this time too-... No, no. It'll definitely succeed!’
A few days passed like that, and Rian was once again set to participate in a match.