Sleeping Female Knight and Tentacles -1
Sleeping Female Knight and Tentacles -1
The cumbersome Carriage had gone entirely with the Hero's party, so the Female Knight didn't take long to get home.
"I'm back."
"Yes, ma'am."
"I've already been informed about the Hero's situation. If a letter comes from them, I'll deliver it to you right away."
"Got it."
She takes off her overcoat and hands it to the Butler.
Then she heads straight to her room.
"I'm more tired than I thought."
The Female Knight only feels the fatigue now that the situation has somewhat settled.
The exhaustion from the battle with the Hero is more than expected.
And when the Hero still hadn't recovered mentally, she'd focused on caring for her.
In the end, she'd always been tending to the Hero with a weary body.
She strips off her clothes and enters the shower in one corner of her room.
She soaks away some of her body's fatigue with water warmed by magic.
'The maid will take care of the clothes...'
Normally, she'd have the maid handle the clothes to get things done quickly, but she's too tired today.
"......"
She flops straight onto the bed.
And falls right asleep.
Her exhausted body means she doesn't even toss and turn much—she heads straight to dreamland.
...
Shashak.
Beolteok!
But a faint sense of wrongness jolts her eyes open again.
She scans with her eagle eyes, but nothing stands out.
'Am I too sensitive from fatigue?'
Bersia surrenders her body to the bed again.
'So tired, yet I still sense this?'
A space she thought was just her alone.
But Bersia's sharp intuition was right.
She's not alone in this room right now.
Chwaaaaak!!!
When the Tentacles shattered and poured out of the Hero's body like a corpse.
It was exactly then that countless Tentacle fragments spilled from the Hero's Vagina.
A dust-sized Tentacle that had broken first took less damage and survived.
And as the Tentacle fragments' corpses poured from the Hero's Vagina, they mixed in and fell.
It wasn't just one.
Other Tentacle fragments' corpses had spilled onto the Female Knight at the same time.
'Wh-what...?'
A brand-new tiny Tentacle that had just split off as a Clone missed its escape chance.
Dust-sized, it had simply stuck to the Female Knight's clothes.
By the time it started developing a sense of self, it was certain.
'I'll die if I stay here...!'
But even realizing that, it couldn't move freely.
Because it couldn't escape without the Female Knight noticing.
Slightly—
Flick!
Even the tiniest movement, and the Female Knight glares right at it.
She hasn't pinpointed it perfectly, just looks in the direction where the Tentacle is.
"......?"
Her razor-sharp intuition has this dust-clump-level Tentacle trembling.
'Crazy, she notices even this???'
Her senses were too sharp—even in the Carriage, or while sleeping, it couldn't escape.
Even during camp, it tried to flee but—
Beolteok!
In a camping situation outside the bedroom, even the slightest twitch wakes her instantly.
Camping's nature amps up that unconscious vigilance, it seems.
'Monster...!'
Every time the Female Knight reacted to even a little movement, the Tentacle thought that.
Whether a real monster Tentacle thinking that about a human knight made sense or not, it was true.
From the Tentacle's view, it was traveling with a butcher who could kill it anytime.
Stuck miserably to her clothes, escape was impossible.
But surviving in the end makes you the winner.
'Phew......!'
Dragging her fatigued body to lie down in the bedroom—that moment was the last chance.
It hurled itself quickly toward the other furniture.
Thanks to that, it survived this time.
If the distance to the furniture and discarded clothes had been just a bit farther...
Or if the Female Knight hadn't fallen into deeper sleep...
It really would've been instantly killed.
But now there's a chance.
A byproduct Tentacle fragment that emerged by accident while shattering.
'Now, what to do?'
It's too weak to do much.
Still, it has knowledge, so scanning the surroundings...
'A Magical Barrier blocking Monsters is up on the walls...'
It's covering the whole room.
Seems like the place was built from the start to keep ordinary Monsters out.
The problem: even when the Female Knight's gone, it can't easily slip out of the Mansion past the room's barrier.
'Nooo...'
[Ah, ah...]
But a savior appears for the despairing Tentacle.
Not someone in this space.
The words beam straight into its head...
'Main Body?'
It knows it's another Clone branched from the original Clone.
[Who would've thought... another surviving Tentacle.]
Surviving in the end makes you the winner.
This dust-speck Tentacle's turn to be the winner.
The components of the Clone absorbed by the Main Body.
Unexpectedly, they let the Main Body detect something else.
Specifically, it clearly senses a Tentacle fragment with nearly identical components to the absorbed one.
The info it learns...
"There's one more..."
Using that, it tries communicating with another Tentacle—specifically, one from the same lineage.
It doesn't work at first.
But with the Smart Tentacle's magic, connection is possible!
[So... you're another Tentacle fragment from that Clone, right?]
[Yes, but... I can't go anywhere right now.]
[Where are you?]
[Female Knight's house.]
"......"
At those words, the Main Body looks at the other Tentacles.
[Why are you there?]
[It's a long story...]
And so the dust-smaller-than-dust Tentacle fragment diligently uses magic to relay the tale.
In a way, it's telling how, among all the Tentacles so far, it's the one that's worked hardest to hide and survive.
Anyway, the Female Knight's insanely sensitive, so she might suspect something even if not certain.
One slip-up, and it's sliced—got it crystal clear.
[I'll die like this!]
[Then...]
The Main Body pauses communication. It asks the smart Tentacle behind it.
It demands more from the Tentacle flipping through the magic book again.
"That Tentacle fragment is key to restoring the method or means we used to break the Hero."
"Yes, with two of the same fragments, we can reverse-restore the original Clone's info."
Can't just say 'die off.'
That Tentacle's needed to resume the Conditioning that even broke the Hero.
For that, it has to escape the Female Knight's Mansion somehow.
Or take down the Female Knight...
"First, that Tentacle needs enough mass to use abilities—then it can sneak out or whatever."
"Right."
But with that scary Female Knight there, feeding or anything's impossible.
'Then...'
"Can we send something from here to there?"
"Possible, but... give it food for the Tentacle to absorb?"
"If we can."
For now, remotely send food to help it gain power.
"But that small, we can only send a tiny bit."
"Still, feeding it means something, right?"
This is important.
[Can you eat if we send food?]
[Female Knight wakes too easily—no way.]
[Really...?]
A good idea hits.
If she's sensitive enough to wake from the act of eating...
Do something else before feeding.
[Then just put her into deeper sleep.]
[Uh...?]
The Tentacle fragment seems to get it.
[No need for deep sleep. Just make sure she doesn't wake while you receive and eat the food.]
[That's good.]
[Yeah... Let's start at night.]
And so the Tentacles' collaboration begins, unknown to the humans.
Of course, no plans yet for what to do with the Female Knight, but they clearly start moving in secret.
The Female Knight's nap was shorter than expected.
But night will come soon.
The oblivious Female Knight now goes to sleep.
A short daytime nap won't easily shake off the fatigue.
[Now.]
The Tentacle uses magic and herbs to create sleep-component air.
It slowly passes it to the Tentacle fragment.
So tiny, bit by bit...
"..."
But the room unmistakably starts filling with sleep gas, little by little.
"......"
A faint sleeping pill scent wafts through the room.
...Kul.
The concentration isn't strong, so no big change.
But unmistakably, the Female Knight's sleep deepens a bit more than before.
Now it's the Tentacle's turn to slowly grow in the Female Knight's bedroom.