The Road to Reunion
“Ugh……. Hng…….”
The drug-induced pleasure Rin had injected into me, claiming it would distort my senses, had begun to fade.
Even when my consciousness returned to some degree, I remained sprawled on the bed like a trampled insect, limbs twitching. The sheets beneath me were soaked with the filth I had disgracefully expelled.
‘How should I put it…….’
A strange odor rose from the mixture of involuntarily released urine and love juices.
‘Still smells like beer…… Must be because I’m a bakery daughter…….’
Even after barely regaining my senses, such pointless thoughts occupied my mind.
The fact that I could entertain such nonsense meant the pain had strangely dulled. Probably……
“Yes. I used the pain-relieving healing magic you knew, Kaira. I also cast that diary magic using my own mana, so you just need to rewind time. If you don’t restore your body now, it will hurt quite a bit.”
Rin’s slightly cooled voice echoed in my head.
“Ah, I know…. Ugh, I, do…….”
I barely managed to raise my trembling left hand and placed it weakly on my chest. Then I thought.
‘Rewind…….’
And time rewound.
I touched the bed and the camisole I wore once each, rewinding time on things whose memories I did not need to preserve. The secretions that had soaked the clothes and sheets and emitted that smell vanished without a trace.
‘Come to think of it,’
I pondered with my returned reason.
‘Where do the things that disappear or appear when rewinding come from, and where do they go…….’
Until Wolf, who had been sitting at the foot of the bed waiting for me to wake, noticed my movement.
“Oh, Karin. You’re up?”
Of course he noticed. According to my old hero comrades, rewinding time always brought a strong sensation that the laws of the world were being twisted.
“I was worried. Thought you might die.”
… He probably meant he was worried about getting arrested, but even so, in the Empire he counted as one of the decent people……
Wolf casually touched my body. The spot where my ribs had been broken…… and my chest, which existed as something slightly softer than the flesh covering bone, indistinguishable from the outside.
He seemed to dislike prostitution, but in the end, a man was still a man. My heart, long broken from selling my body, felt nothing from such harassment.
“Whoa. It’s really all healed. Mages really are something else……. Makes me miss adventuring around the world.”
Still trying to shake off the lingering pain and pleasure that clouded my head, I groaned and pushed myself upright.
“Ugh…….”
“I like you, Karin. You were a much more refreshing punching bag than I expected.”
To Wolf’s words, which could have been praise or mockery, I simply smiled foolishly and offered my business smile. I was still a woman who sold both body and smiles.
“Eheheh…. I’m glad you liked it…….”
‘My, really something, Mom. Professional spirit or masochism, I suppose.’
Rin criticized me inside my head, but I ignored that slime daughter.
“Then I should pay the balance too? That…. Pirel, was it? Time to tell you where that kid is.”
I stared straight at Wolf, eyes demanding an immediate answer. Perhaps finding the gaze burdensome, Wolf turned his head slightly and feigned distraction.
“But Karin, if you’re not planning to stay in this line of work, how about traveling with me? If I secretly cast a few spells, people will throw more coins your way.”
I answered with a gentle smile.
“Please tell me. Right now. Where Pirel is.”
Wolf, perhaps startled by my curt tone, smiled awkwardly.
And then I heard it. What I had wanted to hear.
The next morning, after sending off the last morning customer and rewinding the time of my exhausted body, I rushed outside at once. I had finally learned where Pirel…, Mother was working.
Together with the slime daughter in my head, who was grinning at the thought of finally meeting her grandmother.
‘She was working at the stable right outside the east gate. Seems she manages a large stable owned by a big horse trader who sells and rents horses. I found her red eyes interesting, so after my performance I chatted with her a bit.’
Wolf had added with his good-natured smile.
‘Originally she was sold to a brothel, but because she was so small and looked much younger than her age, they kicked her out. She lived begging for a while until that horse merchant took pity and took her in. Well, stable work probably isn’t any easier than being a prostitute.’
Still, it was a relief. Wolf spoke without knowing the truth, but this job… was one that crushed people mentally to the very bottom. Just hearing that Mother was living without doing such work put me at ease.
The problem was obvious.
That I, a wanted criminal…, had to pass through the gate.
Though I was dressed like a prostitute and had disguised myself to look quite different from the wanted poster, my eyes remained dangerous.
In the first place, the reason Wolf remembered Mother’s appearance was because he had found her red eyes interesting even though she was not an albino.
As I walked toward the gate, I saw Wolf as usual, gathering silver coins by showing off his strength in the market street since morning.
When our eyes met, I gave a slight bow in greeting. If that really was Mother, then he was a benefactor to me in his own way. Wolf responded with an eye greeting in return.
I walked a few more steps until the east gate of the capital loomed directly ahead. There I began to worry, but…….
‘Is Mom smart or stupid? That’s easy if it’s that.’
The moment I worried, Rin spoke up.
‘Eh……?’
‘Think about Earth’s knowledge. They made soft lenses to put on eyes, didn’t they?’
‘That’s true, but why is that……. Ah.’
She really was smart. My daughter.
Well, it was only natural since I was smart.
‘… Suddenly praising yourself. Anyway, if I make a small split body like colored contact lenses and cover your eyes with it, problem solved.’
‘Good idea. Thanks, Rin. Without you, I wouldn’t have found Mother either.’
The slime daughter, suddenly receiving honest thanks and praise, laughed “hehe” inside my head.
‘Then prepare your heart, Mom.’
‘Prepare my heart, what do you…… Ssseueueun?!?!’
Unable to endure the foreign sensation in my ear, I staggered and leaned against the wall of a nearby house.
“Gheut……, U, Ugh…, Ueut, Heu, Eugeut…….”
A small slime mass the size needed to make one lens flowed from my ear and crawled slowly toward my eye. Soon an unpleasant coldness covered my vision.
“Ugh……. Hoo…….”
And from that foreign sensation alone, I released sticky fluid that trickled down between my legs.
‘Really amazing, Mom is. A truly hopeless masochist. A female dog maso.’
I blinked several times to adjust to my momentarily blurred vision and answered nonchalantly.
‘… I’ll take it as a compliment.’
Passing through the gate was as easy as walking through one’s own front door. The large prostitute’s shawl served as identification, and I could clearly name the brothel I belonged to.
The guards’ gazes were filthy, mixed with contempt and lust, but after dealing with men for over half a year I had become someone who felt nothing from such looks, so it did not matter.
As soon as I exited the gate, Rin’s split body crawled back into my ear. I had to stagger again, letting out a strange moan.
‘This feeling really doesn’t get used to…….’
I looked around curiously at the wheat fields and vineyards spread widely beyond the capital walls. Even the wheat was not the same as Earth’s wheat, nor were the grapes… but they were crops that served almost the same roles and tasted similar.
Meanwhile I headed toward the huge stable full of horse stalls that Wolf had told me about, hurrying my feet in uncomfortable low-quality sandals.
In front of the enormous building thick with the smell of beasts, I hesitated. What should I say.
If a mere prostitute claimed she wanted to buy or rent a horse and wished to look around the stable, everyone would stare at me strangely.
But…….
“Could you move aside for a moment? I need to bring this child inside.”
At the woman’s voice from behind, I finally realized I was blocking the path horses needed to use.
“Ah, I’m sorry…….”
I hurriedly apologized and stepped aside.
As I moved back a few steps to let the horse pass, my eyes met the woman leading it.
She wore a robe carefully woven from rough but sturdy travel fabric, in contrast to the luxurious robe I had taken from Zophy, which bore aristocratic letter decorations on soft cloth…… It was the appearance of a mage.
Like my own robe, several palm-sized magic books hung clustered inside hers, faintly visible.
But what caught my eye more than that was the slightly curly, long black hair hanging beneath her mage’s hat and her jade-colored eyes.
Seemingly familiar from somewhere…….
‘C-Could it be…….’
The woman stared at me for a long time as well. Clearly she was thinking the same thing.
With round eyes wide open, after hesitating with her lips for a long while, wondering whether to speak, she slowly opened her mouth.
“……. Could it be…. Ka, Kaira……?”
Opia, the horse trader’s daughter. My old friend who had shared a room with me at the magic academy. She stood before me.
Now looking at me, who was nothing more than a wanted criminal and a lowly prostitute, with trembling eyes.