My Body Hurts... (2)
Elves had been blessed with fertility.
Dwarves had been blessed with growth in muscle.
And lizardmen had been blessed with control over their body temperature.
The Guardian’s blessing was fair and generous.
After all, any demi-human who worshipped Behemoth could receive the Guardian’s blessing without exception.
The orcs were staring down at the pebbles scattered across the ground.
Among them stood a single goblin, who had been asked to spare a little time by the orcs.
Wearing a solemn expression, the goblin said, “Chief Ogril.”
“Mm.”
Ogril, leader of the orcs, looked equally solemn.
The goblin nudged the stones around and posed his question.
“What is one plus one?”
“Two.”
“Then what is two minus one?”
“One.”
The goblin raised the difficulty a little.
“Fifteen plus seventeen?”
“Thirty-two.”
“Thirty-two minus ten?”
“Twenty-two.”
The goblin took a deep breath.
After a brief silence, he asked a far more advanced question than before.
“What is ten times fifteen?”
Ogril fell silent.
He was an orc warrior who always stood at the front line, swinging his axe with fearless bravado.
Even when he had swept the throats of ghouls clean, he had only laughed heartily; yet now, sweat trickled down Ogril’s cheek.
“Chief, you can do it!”
“Didn’t you succeed at addition and subtraction already?”
“Don’t lose! The chief is our hero!”
The orcs standing beside him cheered him on.
Ogril shut his eyes.
Everyone was cheering so intensely that he could not possibly lose to something as trivial as multiplication.
He snapped his eyes open and gave his answer.
“One hundred and fifty.”
“Then what is one hundred and fifty divided by ten?”
“Fifteen.”
“Holy crap… that’s right.”
The mightiest and dumbest of the orcs, Ogril, had mastered arithmetic.
For the orcs, who had never been good at counting and had therefore been unable to trade properly with other races, it was practically a miracle.
“Chief!! You’re smart!!”
“It’s a miracle!! The chief mastered arithmetic!!”
Bathed in cheers, Ogril clenched both fists.
Then, in a voice more heated than usual, he shouted, “Yeah!! It is a miracle!! But the reason we were able to seize this miracle with our own hands is thanks to the strongest warrior of all orcs and our gracious Guardian!! Are you all ready to call out the name of that great being!!”
“Woooooooaaahhh!!!”
The orcs roared.
“Behemoth!! Behemoth!! Behemoth!! Behemoth!! Behemoth!!”
“Call him Lord Behemoth, you impudent bastards!!”
“Woooaaahhh!! Lord Behemoth!!”
The excited orcs began smashing every piece of terrain around them to bits.
The goblin who had been giving the problems shook his head and fled back to his own people.
The goblins were repairing the ruined city.
Gobuji, the goblin leader, cheerfully waved at the goblin who had been taken in by the orcs.
“Good work.”
“Man, shit, that was exhausting.”
“How did it go?”
“Chief Ogril mastered arithmetic.”
“Now that is a miracle.”
Gobuji laughed boisterously.
To think that Ogril had learned how to count; he never would have imagined he’d live long enough to see such a rare spectacle.
“Looks like the changes haven’t just happened to us.”
Gobuji looked over the goblins rebuilding their new city.
The goblins had undergone a change similar to the orcs.
Compared to other demi-humans, goblins had a relatively short lifespan.
They lived for about twenty years.
Though goblins matured unusually fast, gaining intelligence equal to that of adult humans by the time they were three, they were also a race that aged just as quickly.
There was one elderly goblin in the group who had already passed twenty-one.
By all rights, that goblin should have already been waiting for the death that came with old age, like every other old goblin before him.
“Damn it! Lord Behemoth! What is this power? My body keeps burning up!”
Instead, he was working harder than anyone else.
The web of wrinkles that had covered the old goblin’s face had vanished without a trace.
He now kept the sturdy, small body characteristic of a young goblin.
And because the other old goblins had bodies just as sturdy as the young ones,
the goblins could no longer call them old men.
“Our lifespan has increased. The orcs have become smarter, and I’m guessing the other demi-humans have changed too.”
“Why did Lord Behemoth work such a miracle…?”
Gobuji shook his head.
Ever since that one struck down the true progenitor, there have been countless changes in the Great Forest.
No one knew exactly why Behemoth bestowed such great blessings upon the demi-humans.
Still.
“We just need to believe in Lord Behemoth and not betray the expectations he has placed on us.”
Behemoth encouraged the demi-humans.
He did it with a mountain-like presence, raising his thumb in a way that made his meaning perfectly clear.
“Let’s work.”
“Yes. But I do have one question.”
“What is it?”
“On the night of the full moon, I heard wolves howling from the beastfolk village. Do you know anything about that?”
Gobuji grinned.
“Who knows. Maybe the beastfolk really did turn into beasts.”
“No way.”
And so the goblins set about restoring the ruined village with all their might.
This time, they intended not merely to rebuild a village, but a city somewhat larger in scale.
That was only possible thanks to the help of dwarves, who had grown kinder than they used to be.
Meanwhile, what was Behemoth, the one who had caused this miracle, doing right now?
That was the common question on every demi-human’s mind.
***
At the moment, I was lying in a cave with a blanket pulled over me.
The full moon wasn’t out right now, so I was the same size as usual.
Even if it had been a full-moon night, it would have been fine as long as I stayed inside the cave.
Moonlight didn’t reach into the cave, so I didn’t grow huge the way I had when I fought the true progenitor.
“Grrrgh….”
The reason I was moaning was because I felt like crap.
My head was heavy and burning hot.
I had no strength in my body, and even with the blanket over me, the cave felt unbearably cold.
I had never felt this way before.
Even if I soaked myself in scorching fire, I didn’t feel hot at all.
I had never once felt cold in a storage room so frigid that frost formed on its walls.
My giant monster body was trembling like someone with a severe fever.
“Call a doctor….”
Unfortunately, there were no doctors in this world who could examine a monster.
“Stay still and open your mouth.”
“Open.”
“Nyanyan.”
I was lucky enough to have people nursing me while I was sick.
“Sniffle….”
I lay there and opened my mouth wide.
Lucy had brought the cyclops cauldron she had set up by the river into the cave.
Then she filled it with fresh ingredients and water and boiled everything together.
Lucy stood there for hours, stirring the cauldron.
I had told her it was fine to leave it alone, but she had scolded me, saying it was rude to say that to someone caring for me.
In any case, it looked like Lucy’s stew was finally done.
With magic, Lucy ladled the steaming stew into a bucket.
Satania grabbed the bucket and flapped around with it.
Then she poured the contents into my mouth.
The stew tasted healthy.
It was mild and clean.
Warm liquid flowed down my throat.
It loosened my insides so much that I practically let out an “ahh” on instinct.
“Tough….”
Satania, carrying the bucket, let out a pained groan.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
Feeding a big animal was no easy task either, apparently.
I only learned, after becoming a monster, how much trouble zoo keepers must go through.
“Sorry….”
“It’s fin….”
After a long and winding struggle, the meal was finally over.
Satania brought over a cloth and wiped my mouth clean with brisk little strokes.
Soho licked the stew that had splashed onto my body and cleaned me up that way.
Lucy came back with a brush used for cleaning.
“Now then, open wide, please.”
“Y-you don’t have to go that far….”
“If your teeth start hurting later, you’ll suffer even more.”
I opened my mouth.
Lucy smeared the brush with a sticky paste and cleaned my mouth.
Mm.
Was this what it felt like to be a crocodile being cleaned by a plover?
Honestly, I was pretty damn embarrassed.
Satania filled the bucket with water.
Then she poured that into my mouth too.
I swished it around and swallowed.
There was nowhere for me to spit it out, and I could barely even get up.
“How are you feeling now? Better?”
“It still hurts. I’m still miserable. And I’m really, really cold….”
Ever since my showdown with the true progenitor, my condition had gone downhill fast.
Since I almost never came outside, Lucy had gotten worried, come looking for me in the cave, and taken care of me from then on.
Satania and Soho had heard about it from Lucy and joined in the nursing as well.
I supposed it would have been hard for Lucy, blind as she was, to take care of me by herself.
“I asked my teacher, and he said I’d be fine if I just waited a little longer.”
“I hope so….”
“If you hold on a bit more, you’ll get better. Hang in there.”
“Cool cool.”
“Nyanyan.”
Everyone was working together to take care of me.
I was so grateful for that it felt more effective than any medicine in the world.
My body still couldn’t move, but I felt strength returning to me.
“Thanks.”
Even if it hurt and I felt miserable, I’d just have to grit my teeth and endure it.
With a noticeably better expression, I stared up at the ceiling.
Listening to Satania, Lucy, and Soho chat beside me like a radio, I closed my eyes.
...
...
How long had I been asleep?
I opened my eyes to the noisy commotion around me.
“■■■.”
“This is a horn….”
“Nyanyanyanyan!”
My friends were staring at me and making a huge fuss.
I blinked.
My head felt clear and refreshed.
Just before I’d fallen asleep, I had been in so much pain I couldn’t even hold myself up properly.
Had I already recovered, thanks to my friends’ devoted nursing?
I slowly pushed my upper body upright.
“Pointy!”
“It’s a horn….”
“Nyanyan!”
Why do they keep saying horn this, horn that?
Without thinking, I reached up and touched my head.
And froze on the spot.
“What the hell.”
Something sharp had grown out of the top of my head.