章節 78: Resolution

"Have I ever told you how genuinely awesome you are...?" asked Will, smiling as he inspected the items Ohta had recovered for him from the Dungeon, including Leshien's gauntlet.

"I don't need you to tell me. I already know..." retorted Ohta, lying with his eyes closed atop the only bed in the room in a grey tank top and a pair of black spats. He was exhausted after pushing himself far beyond his limits, but his mind refused to settle after his bath with Will.

"Either way, you have my thanks..." expressed Will, rising to his feet and looking over at Ohta after placing most of the items he had recovered in his Inventory, leaving out Leshien's gauntlet and donning his Interspatial Bangle. He knew Leshien and his family were tracking him using the two items, so if their signals stopped broadcasting for a protracted period, he might step outside to find his mother and a flock of Gryphons waiting to reprimand him.

"Words are cheap..." responded Ohta, raising his right foot and wriggling his toes as he flatly muttered, "If you want to thank me, you can start by giving me a foot massage..."

Exhaling a faint, snorting chuckle and smiling, Will responded, "Sure, why not...?" before sitting on the bed, moving closer, and accepting Ohta's tiny, brown-and-pink foot. The top was the same tanned hue as the rest of his body, but the sole was noticeably fairer, and he had sharp, pink-to-white toenails.

As he had just been saying whatever came to mind to be argumentative, Ohta found himself at a slight loss as Will grabbed his foot like he was about to eat a sandwich before pressing his thumbs into his arch and alternating between running them up to the ball of his foot. He expected it to tickle a bit, but instead, it caused his heart to race and his body to heat up.

"Turn over," said Will, causing Ohta to startle as if he had just been poked with a cattle prod.

Adopting an angry, cautious expression that was undermined by the dark, ruddy hue of his cheeks, Ohta asked, "Why? You're not planning anything, are you...?"

Instead of responding with words, Will gave Ohta a half-lidded look that conveyed, 'Are you seriously asking me that?'

"Fine...whatever..." muttered Ohta, rolling onto his stomach and taking a moment to adjust his position as he was unused to having only one hand and arm to use as a pillow.

Waiting until Ohta was in position, Will slipped a pillow under his feet and began massaging them, starting with a loose fist and using the knuckles of his left hand to massage the entire arch. He had, unfortunately, failed to acquire a massage or grooming skill while tending to the Gryphons, but he was pretty confident in his massage skills, particularly when it came to handling feet or paws...

As the mischievously smiling face of the culprit behind this knowledge appeared in his mind, Will couldn't help wondering what Ryza, Therese, and Amira were up to. Ryza, in particular, could be incredibly fatiguing to deal with for extended periods, but as she had been a constant fixture in his current incarnation, it was impossible for him not to miss her at least a little.

"What's next...?" asked Will, finishing with Ohta's feet after around ten minutes. At that point, the room had essentially become a sauna, but he didn't particularly mind as he liked sweating.

Following a lengthy pause, Ohta responded with a faint, "Just do what you want..." before concealing his maroon-red face. This set off all kinds of alarm bells in Will's mind, so instead of sitting atop Ohta's legs, rolling up his tank top, and continuing with a back massage, he lay beside the living furnace and linked his hands behind his head.

Stealing a glance at Wil, emotions ranging from confusion to frustration oozed from Ohta's eyes as he looked like he wanted to say something but couldn't find the words. At the very least, not for a few seconds...

"I know you're not this dense..." muttered Ohta, his frown deepening into a sulky, ill-tempered look.

"You also know my stance on things like that..." retorted Will, maintaining a relaxed smile as he calmly appended, "Give me the same leeway a few years from now, and I'll turn you honest..."

"Not if I fucking smother or strangle you to death tonight..." countered Ohta, the tiny horn at his right temple gradually elongating. He honestly had a lot of doubts about pursuing a physical relationship with Will, but after facing an enemy that could have just as easily killed him, Ohta felt like he was owed some consolation and reassurance...

"I would readily give my life atop the hills of morality and principle..." responded Will, opening his eyes and turning his head to meet Ohta's gaze, smiling as he confidently asserted, "If I were the type to say one thing and then something completely different, you wouldn't be able to trust, much less put up with me..."

"Give me your arm...I'm going to bite you..." said Ohta, leaving Will at a slight loss. Despite this, he removed his right hand from behind his head and presented it once Ohta had finished rolling over. He got goosebumps when Ohta opened his mouth to reveal his bright, white, shark-like teeth, but since he had been given advance warning, he didn't so much as flinch as the diminutive Demon bit into the elbow side of his forearm, sinking his teeth into his flesh without hesitation.

Fortunately, though he could have broken it without too much difficulty, Ohta didn't appear to be trying to form a blood pact or something similar with him. Instead, there was a feeling of intense pressure, the Mana and Aura in his body plummeting as Ohta stared at him and held up the stump of his left arm, which, at that moment, was regenerating as if it was being 3D-printed from the shadows encompassing it.

"If that's the case, take as much as you need..." said Will, smiling as he produced a vial of carmine liquid from his bangle, downing it and causing an intense heat to fill his body as it had the effect of rapidly accelerating cell division to replenish blood. His body felt increasingly lethargic as his Mana and Aura reserves were depleted, but since he was fairly confident that Ohta wouldn't kill him, he closed his eyes and enjoyed the sensation akin to sinking into a deep, warm, and then cold lake...

...

Waking to the sensation of something heavy dropping on and weighing down his stomach, Will, feeling as if he had been asleep for several days, loudly groaned before opening his eyes to a peculiar sight. Based on their facial features, eyes, and skin tone, he was almost certain that the person seated atop him was Ohta. What made him uncertain, at least briefly, was that he appeared to have aged several years. He wasn't exactly a femme fatale, but he had a slender, athletic, and obviously feminine figure. Less notably, the choker he typically wore around his neck was absent...

"Aiden Ward..." muttered the more mature version of Ohta, narrowing his presently carmine eyes and causing Will to tense. He had been using the name as his alias, but as it was just the two of them present, Ohta had no reason to refer to him using it.

Forcing a smile, Will tentatively responded, "Sarah...?" before he abruptly found himself with a pair of tiny hands wrapped around his throat, not yet restricting his airflow but threatening to as Ohta frowned conflictedly and retorted, "No shit, Sherlock. Now, just what the hell are you trying to pull? You nearly got my sister killed!"

"Your sister...?" Will parroted, making no effort to conceal his confusion. In response, Sarah put a bit of strength into her hands as she stated, "I don't have time to explain. I only appeared to warn you that if you break Ohta's heart, I will break you. Nod if you understand..."

As Sarah had restricted his airflow and suddenly felt as though she weighed as much as a mountain, nodding was just about the only thing Will could do. Fortunately, just as darkness began encroaching from the edge of his vision and he felt like his eyes were about to pop out of their sockets, he awoke in the real world, his body covered in sweat and throat notably sore.

"Nngh...go back to sleep..." droned Ohta, drawing Will's gaze to the figure curled up at his side, using his shoulder as a pillow. It was the same as in his dream, and when he reached up to touch his throat, it felt tender and sore, evocative of the time he had nearly been choked to death by a slave collar.

'That definitely wasn't a typical nightmare...' Will concluded, tapping into his limited reserves to heal the soreness in his neck as he considered the ramifications of Sarah appearing as Ohta and what she had revealed. The most straightforward explanation was that they were twins and shared a psychic link, but with what he knew of Sarah, there was no way she would repress her sister's memories and abandon her in the wilderness. She was way too much of a justice nut...

Eyeing the choker around Ohta's neck, Will briefly considered breaking or trying to remove it. His intuition told him that doing so would provide him with all the answers he needed, but since it was virtually guaranteed that Sarah was the one to put it in place, there was a very high probability he would become the target of her wrath. And he wouldn't be the first within their group to die at her hand...

Since he wasn't in a hurry to die, Will decided to leave it and focus on the purpose of his journey, mainly finding the Desert Rose. That was arguably less important than looking into the Saighba'an and uncovering the plot of whoever was manipulating them, presumably Plænər, but Will knew better than most that, even if his situation was like something out of a novel, the only plot armor he had was his Luck stat. If not for the Talisman of Cicada Skinshed, he would already be skipping stones across Yggdrasil's pond or working on the cottage he had started with Z. Thus, as much as he would like to sabotage Plænər's plan and kick some furry goat girl butt, it wasn't even in Will's top ten in terms of personal priorities...

...

"Ugh...I need to start working out..." remarked Ohta, inspecting himself in a standing mirror provided to him by Will. His height had shot up to nearly 150cm, but that was far from his most prominent change. He appeared to be completely oblivious to them, but his chest had swelled to a modest but noticeable size, his waist had become a lot tighter, and his hips, while slender, had the beautiful curve of a young woman, complete with a perky butt and pliant-looking thighs.

"What makes you say that...?" asked Will, observing Ohta with equal parts intrigue and perplexity. In his eyes, Ohta was unmistakably female, but for reasons he had yet to ascertain, he was the only one who could discern it.

"I mean...I get that you would probably prefer if I looked girly, but I don't want others looking down on me..." explained Ohta, a faint blush coloring his cheeks as he fleetingly met Will's gaze through the mirror. He recalled that one of the reasons Will was hesitant to do anything with him was due to the admittedly drastic disparity in their sizes, so now that he was only a head or so shorter, he felt anxious and expectant...

"It never hurts to exercise..." affirmed Will, lowering his gaze past Ohta's butt and staring at the latter's healthy brown legs as he added, "But with your particular build, you shouldn't expect to become broad-shouldered or barrel-chested. I have a sinking suspicion that most of your efforts will manifest in your legs and butt..."

"No shit..." muttered Ohta, his blush deepening as he averted his gaze and contended, "My combat style revolves around mobility and kicking...it's only natural that my legs and butt would be more developed than the rest of my body..."

"I'm looking forward to it..." joked Will, causing the tips of Ohta's pointed ears to tinge red before he raised his right fist and began to tremble in the precursor to an embarrassment-fueled assault...

...