The sun was beginning to set by the time we finished preparing our camp.
“Should be about time for the undead to come out.” [Rheinbach]
“Yeah… they should be coming any moment now.” [Remiri]
Said Remiri-san as she caressed my sleeping bag. I guess she really likes it.
“Hmm… This is a really good mattress.” [Remiri]
“I could make one for you if you want.” [Ryouma]
“Really? Then please.” [Remiri]
“Sure.” [Ryouma]
She’s teaching me magic after all, so this could be as thanks. But just a mattress doesn’t seem to be enough, I wonder if there’s anything else I could do for her.
As I thought that to myself, I entered my ‘Dimension Home’, and began making a new mattress.
Carefully sewing the sheets together, I created a sack. Positioning and repositioning the sheets over and over, sewing even the ends, filling up the mattress with fluff equally, and taking measurements repeatedly. Doing all this by myself would take a lot of time, but I had the metal slimes’ help, so I was able to finish quickly.
While I was creating a new bedding in the past, the metal slimes suddenly learned the sewing skill.
The metal slimes would extend their bodies, turning the extended portion into a needle. And after inserting a thread into that needle, they would pierce it into the cloth. The needle would exit, and then enters, delivering the thread. Exiting, and entering, the process would repeat itself over and over resembling a wave.
Naturally, surprise took me when I first saw that scene, but brushing that shock away, I taught the slimes many things. And nowadays, the metal slimes can backstitch or even do a loop stitch. And through the help of such metal slimes, I was able to quickly complete the fluff slime’s fluff mattress.
However, I found myself with too many fluffs, so I made some mattresses for the other as well. Unfortunately, the materials weren’t enough for all four, so three was the most I could make.
As soon as I finished, I left the ‘Dimension Home’. When I got out, I noticed that there were now undead outside the holy space.
Looks like the undead have finally started coming out, I thought. But powerless, the undead could only stare at us as from a meter away, unable to enter the area of the holy space.
Staring blankly at the undead, I heard Remiri-san call out to me, so I turned towards the voice. There, I saw them drinking tea peacefully.
“Ah, Ryouma-chan. Did you finish making the mattress?” [Remiri]
“Yes. I also had more materials than expected, and I was able to make two more on top of yours.” [Ryouma]
“Two more?” [Remiri]
“I thought to make one for everyone, but unfortunately, I didn’t have enough materials.” [Ryouma]
Although I was talking with Remiri-san, I couldn’t help but look back to the surrounding undead.
“Are you worried about the undead?” [Shiva]
“Yes, I haven’t had much opportunities to drink tea with monsters nearby who aren’t slave demons.” [Ryouma]
“I guess it can’t be helped then. But still… do try not to worry yourself too much. It won’t be good for your health, you know?” [Rheinbach]
After Rheinbach-sama said that, Remiri-san suddenly burst out loud, saying,
“Exactly!” [Remiri]
“What is it all of the sudden?” [Remiri]
When I asked that, Remiri-san laughed loudly as if she’d just thought of something good. Then she puffed her chest out, and said,
“Since we’re lacking a mattress, Ryouma-kun, you should share a mattress with me and sleep with me instead!” [Remiri]
...Haah!?
“What do you mean?” [Ryouma]
“You don’t have enough mattresses for everyone, right? Well it’s not very nice to leave one of our friends without that comfy mattress of yours, so in order for us all to have a good night’s rest, Ryouma-kun and I should sleep together!” [Remiri]
Wait, wait… That might be true, but…
“If I recall correctly, there’s an old saying that goes, ‘girls and boys at the age of seven shouldn’t sit on the same chair’ right?” [Ryouma]
“No problem!” [Remiri]
“What do you mean, no problem!?” [Ryouma]
This isn’t working… Someone please help me, I thought, sending a glance at the others as I did. But to my dismay, the other three only quietly shook their heads.
“Ryouma-kun, Remiri sometimes acts like this, and it’s a little difficult finding out whether she’s serious or not… She seemed to be joking this afternoon, so I stopped her. But she looks to be serious this time around, so unfortunately, we won’t be able to stop her… sorry.” [Rheinbach]
“Just sleeping together shouldn’t be that embarrassing though, so isn’t it fine?” [Shiva]
But that puts me at a bad spot… In my past life, I had little interaction with women apart from my mother and the women in the office. There weren’t any beauties on the level of Remiri-san either. It’s not like I’ve had zero interactions with the female workers in the office, but they didn’t really like me either, so the most interaction I’ve had with them was the absolute minimum when we had to communicate for work.
In my private life, the only contact I had was my mother. I’ve never had any relations with the women in my office either. So naturally, I’ve never had any experience sleeping with women. And of course, that includes just sleeping together. I’ve never even dated... Actually, forget dating, I haven’t even so much as held a girl’s hand. Ah, actually I think there were one or two times back in elementary school because of an event, but the girls hated it so much, I can still remember the look of unwillingness on their faces.
While I was caught in my own thoughts, thinking of stuff like that, Remiri-san suddenly proposed this.
“No matter how much you dislike the idea my decision stands… But alright how about this then? More undead will be coming out of the labyrinth soon, so how about we compete in who kills more undead? And naturally, should I win, we sleep together. Alright?” [Remiri]
Somehow the discussion’s finally progressing… Although I’m not really that against it. It’s just that stimulation I’m not used to will cause unnecessary burden on my mind, so… Sigh… I’m supposed to have an emotional resistance skill, but it’s not doing its job at all, is it? Even though this situation is something I would normally be happy about when thinking of…
Wait! This isn’t the time to be thinking of stuff like that! Aren’t I the one in a disadvantage in a magic showdown!? Remiri-san can wipe out the undead in one shot!
“Isn’t this duel too favorable for Remiri-san?” [Ryouma]
“Then let’s decide on a rule. How about we both only limit ourselves to using ‘Light Ball’ in this fight? This way there won’t be that big of a difference between us.
And then let’s add a time limit as well. You have too much of an upper hand if we make it until we run out of magic power, and the opposite would be true if we limited the number of shots we could make as I have more experience than you. So a time limit would be the fairest, right?” [Remiri]
“True, that’s definitely the fairest.” [Ryouma]
“Good. As for the referees, Sebasu-san and the others will be the ones to count how many undead we’ve each killed.” [Remiri]
Ah! Did I end up agreeing to her!?
Like this, I was partly-forced to enter a match with Remiri-san.
We needed to wait for the undead to gather first, so we sat there in the holy space, drinking tea peacefully. One hour passed, and Sebasu-san mentioned that there were enough undead.
We will be fighting the undead from inside the holy space. Currently, there are zombies and skeletons in every direction, while souls and semi-transparent human-shaped bodies and mist-like bodies could be seen floating in the air.
The balls of flame floating are known as wisps, and the mist-like bodies and the human-shaped bodies are called reis. They’re both weak to light magic, but the reis can attack mentally and haunt and possess humans.
“Are you ready?” [Remiri]
“Yes, I’m ready anytime.” [Ryouma]
“OK, let’s go.” [Remiri]
“The time limit is 10 minutes. Start!” [Sebasu]
The operation to defeat undead began. This is going to be a war of attrition so I fired a ‘Light Ball’ to the skeleton right in front of me.
“ ‘Light Ball’ “ [Ryouma]
The ‘Light Ball’ I fired went straight for the head of the skeleton, extinguishing it. But the light ball didn’t disperse there as it continued to fly in a straight line, piercing through a number of undead, and extinguishing them. The undead tend to crowd together, so it’s not that weird. I ‘ve also done it a number of times in the past.
“’Light Ball’ ‘Light Ball’” [Remiri]
“What is that!?” [Ryouma]