Jhin stared suspiciously at Megumin. He didn't fancy himself so handsome that everyone who laid eyes on him would adore him, that flowers would bloom at the very sight of him. In daily life, aside from deliberately working to grow closer to Kokkoro, the way he got along with everyone else was closer to plain friendship — and Megumin counted as the bad-influence-friend sort.
Sure, having a reaction to a bad friend's jade feet was something of a problem, but there was no helping it: this bro's little feet were just too fragrant, and he hadn't eaten any meat since arriving in this world, so the occasional loss of self-control was perfectly normal.
If he absolutely had to draw up a relationship chart for the girls inside the Gourmet Edifice, then apart from the arrow pointing to Kokkoro that was clearly labeled "cute, want to marry her and take her home," everyone else sat at the "friend" stage.
It wasn't that Jhin had no thoughts about them — it was that he was keenly aware he still hadn't dug up the slightest scrap of information on [What Heads Toward Death]. Its ability to fuse and assimilate with people was simply far too insidious. In countless stories, there was no shortage of plots where one's most intimate teammate is suddenly seized control of and slips a cold blade between your ribs.
A certain anime — in which a blond angel gets sliced into pieces by her little sister wielding twin blades in the grand finale, and which to this day still has no second season — was still vivid in his memory. Until he had confirmed that all three of them were completely safe, his relationship with them wouldn't undergo much change.
Kokkoro, at least, he needn't worry about. She was, after all, a guide directly appointed by the goddess. If [What Heads Toward Death] had possessed her, then Eris might as well hand in her resignation.
Megumin's mind went utterly blank at Jhin's explosive declaration. She let go of the hands that had been ceaselessly tugging at him, her complexion shifting from red to white and then back to red, and after stammering for ages, she settled on the most direct method of all — namely, treating him to the sole of her foot!,
"Smack!"
"Y-you... quit daydreaming over there! J-just letting you cop a couple of feels of my feet stirs up th-this kind of misunderstanding — looks like I really am rather charming after all, oh ho ho~"
"Let's just take that as what you meant, for now..." Jhin nudged the little foot off his face, giving it a couple of idle squeezes as he did. "Off you go. I'm going to change my clothes."
"You're actually willing to leave your room now?"
"Well, after a certain someone went so far as to sell her charms to get me back to my original form, I can hardly refuse to show some courtesy in return, can I?"
His snide tone made Megumin itch to plant a couple of solid punches on him. Her face full of contempt, she gave a cold snort through her dainty nose: "You're forbidden from telling anyone else what I did."
"Understood."
The best way to help someone escape an assault of their shameful past is to draw their attention away with something else. After running through a whole wild round of speculation about Megumin's feelings, Jhin felt his hide had grown a few shades thicker — thick enough to withstand the scorching gazes of everyone else, so that he no longer shut himself away.
Seeing him revert to his normal form, Pecorine and the others clicked their tongues in wonder, badgering Megumin nonstop about what exactly she had said or done — but Megumin refused to tell them a thing, and Jhin too kept his lips sealed, so they had no choice but to let the matter drop.
"The Bubble Frog's fruit carries hallucinogenic and intoxicating effects. From now on, for foods like this where we can't be sure whether they're edible, let's use some other method to identify them."
"Mm." Pecorine nodded, dutifully recording the information in her Monster Ingredient Encyclopedia. "I'll think up some other approach. Jhin, our next destination is the Explosion Potato production region. This ingredient I'm certain we can eat, and it's exceedingly delicious."
"Then I'm relieved. Here's a photo of it — take it. I'll go deal with the rest of the fruit."
"Mm, thank you!"
Jhin tipped the leftover fruit from the bowl into the large pit he had dug, then packed it with soil to seal it shut. Whether or not these fruits would sprout into little frogs was no longer any concern of his.
The fruit's hallucinogenic effect was exceptionally potent — no wonder that day he'd been exactly as though he had the [Linguistic Mastery] skill cranked to full, able to strike up a couple of lines of chatter with anything at all. Thankfully it wasn't poisonous, otherwise the Gourmet Edifice would likely have been wiped out on the spot.
This farce, equal parts laughable and exasperating, did bring about one good thing: everyone's relationships grew warmer, as if that bout of collective lunacy had drawn them all closer together.
Kyaru no longer resisted physical contact with Pecorine quite so much; Kokkoro would now and then burrow into Jhin's bedding of her own accord to sleep beside him; and Megumin and Jhin's brawls grew more frequent — the two of them could, over a single skewer of grilled meat, escalate from a verbal spat into trading hearty fists.
But in most cases Jhin was going easy on this rookie of a mage; if he genuinely threw a punch with force, he'd reduce her to tears for a good long while.
"!?!?" Pecorine's cry of shock nearly tore through the cloud layer. She gazed in disbelief at the swath of barren farmland before her. "Village Chief, is this for real?"
"Aye, lass. This year's Explosion Potato harvest season has already come and gone. We stopped planting potatoes here a good while back."
"How could this be... I thought Explosion Potatoes were around in all four seasons."
"Hahaha, how could there ever be such a sweet deal? If they really could be harvested year-round, the Adventurers' Guild would've been run off its feet ages ago, hahahaha."
"Uuu~" Amid the Village Chief's laughter, Pecorine slunk back to her companions with her head hanging low. "Sorry, I got the Explosion Potato harvest season wrong. We made this whole trip for nothing."
"Not every adventure comes with a payoff. There shouldn't be any seasonal limit over at the Music Hot Spring, right?"
At the mention of another special ingredient, the foodie that she was instantly perked right up. "Of course not — the Music Hot Spring is open all year round! If only we hadn't fallen short of the admission headcount, I'd have gotten to eat the hot spring eggs long ago!"
"The Music Hot Spring has an admission headcount limit too?"
"Ah, well, not quite..." Pecorine explained to her companions. "There's only a headcount limit if you want to sample the hot spring eggs. Just soaking in the spring on your own is fine."
As it turned out, only with a headcount of three or more could the Music Hot Spring's hot spring egg generation mechanism be triggered. Once these people had soaked in the spring, a hot spring egg would appear the next day at random beside one of them — the principle behind its generation unknown.
"How is there such a bizarre way of producing them?" Kyaru griped at the peculiar rule.
"Heh heh, pretty unbelievable, isn't it?"
"Then let's make our way to the Music Hot Spring." Compared to the taste of the hot spring eggs, Jhin was far more interested in bathing in the hot spring together with the girls — rendered into anime terms, this would qualify as a fanservice episode any way you sliced it.
He wondered whether they sold swimsuits there; he rather wanted to see what Kokkoro would look like in one.
"Hold on — is the hot spring there mixed bathing, or...?"
"It's separated by gender, of course. That said, the rooms also have their own private hot springs, so if you want to soak together, that's an option too."
Megumin stole a quick glance at the big pudding sitting in front of Pecorine's chest and resolved that she would rather die than soak in the hot spring alongside her.
W-worst case, I'll just soak by myself in the room. Anyway, even if I don't go, the headcount's still enough.
Kyaru thoughtfully stroked her tail.
She'd heard that hot springs could make one's fur softer and silkier; she wondered whether the rumor held any truth.
The group departed the village that specialized in growing Explosion Potatoes, returned to the main thoroughfare, and spent some time following it until they reached the Music Hot Spring.
____
👻🔥+40 ch: Walnut-chan🔥👻
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