The Incubus Who Controls Water #2
The Incubus Who Controls Water #2
By late the following afternoon, I found myself forced to refill the basin with fresh water.
My water-manipulation drills had been so intense that nearly every drop in the basin had ended up on the floor.
Still, the results from that single night were satisfying.
'I can at least alter the flow of water now.'
Fwoosh-!
The instant I pointed my index finger upward, a small pillar of water shot from the basin and rose along my hand. Every time I wiggled my finger after that, more pillars erupted in quick succession.
'Damn, that's cool.'
Just by moving a finger, I was putting on a fountain show. And since I was the one making it happen, the satisfaction was pure honey-jam.
I wiped down the waterlogged floor and stepped outside the inn to fetch fresh water for the basin.
I could have simply refilled it using Water Magic, but I felt like getting some fresh air. Staying cooped up in the inn all day turned my brain to mush.
A well stood not far from the inn. Around dusk, basin in hand, I arrived there.
And at the well, I saw a familiar face.
It was Rebecca.
"Eep!"
For some reason, Rebecca had her head stuck deep into the well. With her hips sticking out like that, I was treated to a rather spectacular view from behind.
'Well, that's a damn fine ass.'
Hips that drew out every distinctive curve of a woman's figure. The firm, shapely rear visible above her tight-fitting leather pants.
"Ahem! Rebecca? What are you doing over there?"
I hurried over and called out to her. She was leaning further and further into the well opening, looking like she might pitch forward at any moment.
"Ah-!"
Startled by my shout, Rebecca flailed and nearly toppled in headfirst. I quickly reached out, grabbed her by the waist, and pulled her back.
"Lu-Luke?! Don't yell at me like that! You scared me half to death!"
"You were doing something dangerous. Why are you sticking your head into the well? If you want a drink, just use the bucket."
"As if I don't know that? Something annoying happened while I was getting water. I dropped something important into the well."
"What did you drop?"
"My comb. I told you, it's a precious item."
Rebecca gestured toward the well as if urging me to see for myself. I let go of her, walked over, and peered inside. Squinting carefully, I could make out a comb resting at the bottom, just as she'd said.
The kind of comb women carry around. Rebecca had called it precious, but it didn't look especially expensive. Just a common wooden comb you could find anywhere.
"If it's just a cheap comb like that, you could buy a new one. You can get one just like it at a general store for about two Copper."
Rebecca crossed her arms and shook her head.
"I told you, it's precious to me. That comb was a gift from my parents. I can't just throw it away."
"Your parents...?"
I scratched my cheek at her words. If it was a gift from her parents, then treating it like a treasure made perfect sense. She was undeniably a foreigner from another land, and this continent was entirely unfamiliar to her. It was understandable that she'd cling to a comb filled with memories of her homeland.
"Haah, how could I make such a stupid mistake..."
Rebecca stared down at the comb lying at the bottom of the well with a crushed expression. The well was both narrow and very deep. Anyone who dove in recklessly would obviously never make it back out—they'd just drown. Yet Rebecca couldn't let it go.
"No choice, then. I'll have to go in and get it."
"Hey, are you insane?"
I panicked when Rebecca dropped into a diving stance. Left to her own devices, she looked dead serious about jumping. This girl had absolutely no brakes whatsoever.
Shocked, I moved to block her path.
"You don't have to go in! I'll get it for you."
"How are you going to get it? By jumping in instead? Or just move aside."
"I can get it with magic."
"Magic...?"
"Just watch."
I wasn't lying. Earlier I'd thought it would be difficult, but after thinking it over, I did have a way to retrieve the comb without entering the well myself.
"Liquid."
Liquid Magic, the art of manipulating water. After two days of practice, I was still clumsy at shaping it into forms, but altering the flow of water was something I could manage. It required no precise technique—just raw force. Though I wasn't entirely sure I could really pull the comb out.
'Is it too deep?'
There was a world of difference between handling the shallow water of a basin and the deep water of a well. The control might break before my power even reached the bottom far below.
"You're not seriously planning to fire a mana sphere into the well, are you?"
"Of course not. What would firing a sphere even accomplish? I learned a new spell yesterday. This is my first time using it in front of someone. I need to concentrate, so be quiet."
"O-okay, got it."
Rebecca shut her mouth tight, looking half skeptical and half intrigued.
I steadied my mind and formed the hand seal. The moment I completed the seal I'd seen in the book, the surface of the well rippled faintly. Proof that the Liquid Magic had been successfully cast. I was now remotely controlling a portion of the well water.
A portion of the well. A mass of water roughly the volume of the basin—maybe as much as a bath.
'Down.'
The moment I gestured downward, the mass of water began descending slowly toward the bottom. Watching from above, it felt like observing a large, round bubble sinking lower and lower.
"Th-there's something like a water droplet moving around inside the water..."
Rebecca stared at the well with a blank expression. It sounded like nonsense, but her description was accurate. A mass of water was moving, still clumped together, inside a larger body of water. Cold sweat trickled down my forehead. This task demanded extreme concentration, so I absolutely couldn't spare attention for anything else. I had to push against the well's resistance to force the water mass downward.
Forcibly manipulating the flow of water. To maintain that manipulation, I had to keep pouring in mana without pause. It was a harder task than I'd expected, but I couldn't give up now. Rebecca was watching me and the well without so much as blinking.
I strained with all my might to move the water mass.
Plonk-!
How much time passed? At last, the water mass reached the bottom. I laboriously twisted it to scoop up the comb and then drew it upward.
'This is exactly like a claw machine.'
Memories from my past life surfaced. It felt exactly like playing a crane game at an arcade. Not to brag, but when I lived on Earth, my claw machine skills were outstanding. Outstanding enough to fill my little siblings' rooms with the dolls I'd won for them. Which is to say, I was a master in the art of picking things up.
I poured every last drop of mana in my body into the effort and successfully fished the comb out of the well.
Splash-!
The comb flew up and clattered onto the ground. Seeing it safe on solid earth, I finally let out the breath I'd been holding. I'd concentrated so hard my head was spinning.
"You... you actually got it out..."
Rebecca stammered as she picked up the fallen comb.
"Take better care of it from now on."
"Mm."
Rebecca tucked the comb into her chest with a deeply moved expression. Her mouth twitched as if she was trying to find the words to express her thanks. At least, that's what I thought.
"If it's a thank-you, you're welcome."
"That's not it."
Rebecca grabbed my shoulder as I was about to leave. What came out of her mouth next completely surpassed anything I could have anticipated.
"Luke, do you like me?"
"......?"
Upon hearing those words, the dizziness in my head vanished completely. I was so shocked I nearly hiccuped.
"Hiccup!"
I held my breath and barely stifled it. What I'd heard was no auditory hallucination; it was real. Rebecca was staring at me intently, as if demanding an answer. Feeling I had to say something, anything, I hurriedly opened my mouth.
"L-li-like you? What makes you think that?"
"You're asking because you don't know? You've been looking out for me this whole time."
"When did I?"
"From the very first time we met and went herb collecting, and then through our whole investigation quest together, you've kept helping me. And now you even pulled my comb out of the well. If you give someone this many hints, even an idiot would figure it out."
Figure what out? Rebecca was smiling smugly, like a detective who had just identified the culprit. It seemed she was operating under a serious misunderstanding.
"A-and I have decisive proof."
"Let's hear it."
"When I got all worked up because of the pheromones, you got excited looking at me too. Doesn't that mean you have some kind of feelings for me? Maybe it was love at first sight?"
Just because I got excited meant I had feelings for her? Strictly speaking, that was flawed logic. It's perfectly possible to get hard without having a shred of romantic feeling for a woman. A dick has no sense of honor, after all. We're not living in some prim and prudish era. Why was a girl who dresses so liberally so rigid in the head?
"So, am I right? You do like me."
"No."
"Huh?"
"Just in case, give me a moment."
I closed my eyes for a second and sorted through my thoughts. Barely a week had passed since I first met Rebecca. In that one week, I'd lost count of how many times I'd gotten horny looking at her body. But as for feeling any fresh, innocent romantic feelings toward Rebecca—that was a no.
Back in my university days, I did have a one-sided crush once. A female student with a pure-looking face and long straight hair. Her name was Hyesu. Class of '17 Hyesu, whose smile was adorable. That tender, yearning feeling that always surfaced when I saw Hyesu didn't surface when I saw Rebecca. It might be a stupid way of thinking, but I couldn't help it. I was someone who firmly believed physical pleasure and emotional love were different things. There was no way I could feel tender emotions for a girl I'd only known for a week.
Calculation complete.
Calculating.......
OK!
It's Impossible!
"Yeah, after thinking hard about it, I still have to say no. Sorry."
"Are you telling me I was imagining things?"
Embarrassment slowly crept onto Rebecca's face. I could have hammered the final nail in, but I had the good sense to realize I shouldn't cross the line any further here. Given Rebecca's impulsive personality, there was no telling what she might do if she didn't like my answer. She was like an uncontrollable top-laner. Besides, if I were in Rebecca's position, hearing a "no" would mean carrying around a lifelong dark history. It was effectively a rejected semi-confession, after all.
The fixed party we'd worked so hard to form could dissolve right here. A crisis had come so quickly! To soothe Rebecca's mood, I swiftly put my silver tongue to work.
"The truth is, I don't really know my own feelings right now. But... isn't this the wrong time to be worrying about whether someone likes someone else?"
"Why?"
"We're adventurers in a fixed party, Rebecca. We haven't even succeeded as adventurers yet, and we haven't gotten in sync with each other. You can't bring personal feelings into this. Do you know the number one reason fixed adventuring parties break up?"
"No."
"Relationships between men and women! If a man and woman half-heartedly get together and things go sour, the party is finished at that very moment. I've seen mixed-gender adventuring parties fall apart like that three separate times."
I looked Rebecca straight in the eye as I spoke.
"So, what I'm trying to say is this. It hasn't even been a month since we formed our fixed party, and I don't want to willingly take the 'risk' of breaking it up. A confession is the single most dangerous move in an adventuring party."
"I-I see."
Rebecca couldn't recover her wits under my slick-talking assault. I had diverted the entire topic by stringing together terms she'd never heard before: the crisis of party dissolution, the danger of confessions... I hadn't known I was this good at running my mouth with women.
"So, you want to know if I like you, right?"
"Yeah."
"Then I'll tell you in one month. The promised duration of our fixed party lasts exactly until then. Once that period is over, we can lay our true feelings out. That's the right thing for both of us. Don't you think?"
"In one month... I'll remember."
Rebecca nodded as if she was convinced. Fortunately, she didn't look angry. In that moment, with just a few words, I had averted the dissolution of our fixed party. I was moved by my own performance.
"Then I'll see you tomorrow, Luke."
Rebecca smiled and headed back toward the inn. For some reason, her steps seemed to have grown much lighter.