Next Process

Sssss.

Sitting on the bed, I hiked up my skirt and bared the skin beneath.

A fatal temptation, the kind that stirs a man's baser instincts.

Like unwrapping a package, the hidden fruit made its presence known.

Not that I had any intention of showing off today's underwear, of course.

This was the infirmary, and the one in front of me was Sepia.

I was only here to remove the bandage wrapped around my thigh.

This was hardly the time for an exposure play. I'm not a pervert.

"Shall I unwrap it, then?"

"Please."

A sturdy, waterproof bandage that held up even through showers.

Sepia carefully cut through it with a pair of scissors.

The cold touch against my skin raised a trail of goosebumps.

Shhh.

The fully severed bandage slid away.

My thigh, sealed away for days, was finally free.

It had been in terrible shape back then — bad enough to see straight through.

But when I looked down, smooth, baby-soft skin greeted me.

*A faint scar remained.*

Though perhaps it was because the wound had been so severe.

The spot where I'd been skewered left a pale, ghostly mark behind.

Not that you'd notice unless you were up close, looking carefully.

The texture felt slightly different there, too, somehow.

I supposed it would be best to keep the lower half covered going forward.

*Still, remarkable. This healed already?*

I'd thought it before. The medical technology in this world is something else, isn't it?

The Commander's fractured leg had been perfectly fine within days.

A penetrating wound through my thigh, recovered in a mere four days….

Even for a Valkyrie who was practically a biological weapon, it was astonishing.

I genuinely wondered if it was even physically possible.

As I peered at my leg with undisguised curiosity, Sepia spoke.

"Could you try moving it?"

"Ngh, nngh…."

"Aching?"

"Yes. There's a slight… bone-deep chill, and the muscle feels stiff…."

Moving my thigh brought a dull, throbbing ache.

A sharp, stinging pain that made my face scrunch involuntarily.

It was close to the sensation of severe muscle soreness — hurting just from the movement.

I relayed exactly what I felt to Sepia.

She responded by lightly running her fingers along my thigh —

then suddenly pressed her fingertip firmly into it.

"Hfk—!"

"Mm. Looks like it healed well."

"Th-that hurt?!"

"Hehe, sorry. I wanted to check whether the nerves were properly intact. Your baseline condition was poor to begin with, Leila. Better safe than sorry."

"Ugh…."

That left me with nothing to say.

Sepia knew I'd been sticking needles into my own body.

Perhaps she was worried about potential side effects.

Still — there was no need to make it hurt like that.

Was this woman perhaps a little sadistic?

I, for one, had absolutely no masochistic tendencies whatsoever.

I would have preferred a calm verbal explanation. Pain is unpleasant.

By the time the stinging finally subsided to something manageable,

I exhaled slowly and asked Sepia:

"Is it supposed to hurt this much?"

"Rapid regeneration always works this way. It heals the surface first, and the interior recovers comparatively slowly. Please don't push yourself if you can help it. The bone and muscle are still fragile."

"Ah, so that's why…."

"Especially for the next week — absolutely no training or active duty. If you come back to me with a fractured thigh… I'll make sure you can't get up for quite a while."

"I-I'll be careful."

Terrifying. Please don't say things like that with such cold eyes.

It conjures a future where I'm lying in a hospital bed, completely immobilized.

I nodded with an awkward smile.

Going from completely unable to move to merely in pain was still an improvement.

Combat would be out of the question, but daily life shouldn't be too affected.

I had no desire to injure myself again by pushing too hard.

I'd planned to behave until I was fully healed.

It would be a shame to throw this body away just yet.

*Good. I'm done with crutches. That was genuinely suffocating.*

I accepted the painkillers Sepia handed me and stepped out of the infirmary.

I'd only been on crutches for four days, and yet —

standing on my own two feet felt like something I hadn't done in ages.

I pulled my terminal from my pocket.

There was still plenty of time before work. Maybe I'd grab breakfast at the cafeteria.

I was just about to take my first step when my feet stopped dead.

Something had come running from behind and wrapped itself around my waist.

"Leila!"

"Oof—!"

Whomp.

A red bundle of fluff buried itself against my side.

Warm and soft — the kind of thing you'd want to use as a heater in winter.

Mildly startled, I gently patted the creature on the top of its head.

"Good morning, Arishia."

"What are you talking about? Is the wound okay?"

"Yes. Look — good as new."

"It really is. Thank goodness!"

"Though it's not fully healed yet. They said to avoid strenuous movement like training for about a week."

The bundle of fluff was Arishia.

She stared intently at my thigh, then looked up at me —

and the relief on her face at seeing me recovered was terribly endearing.

Arishia had arrived in the city late.

She probably thought my injury was her fault for not getting there sooner.

Thinking about it that way, she really was a precious little thing.

She had such a talent for being tormented.

*I absolutely must make her cry one day.*

While I was quietly steeling myself to that resolve,

she suddenly turned to me with a disgruntled expression and grumbled:

"But why do you keep calling me 'Arishia'? I told you to just call me Arishia, without the honorific…."

Arishia had no one she could really call a friend except me.

Even back at headquarters, she'd shown a slight tendency to lean on me after we'd grown close —

and since the injury, that tendency seemed to have grown stronger.

Especially over the past few days, she'd started fixating on how I addressed her.

It wasn't as though changing how I called her was any great difficulty.

For the sake of building affinity, it was well worth accommodating.

I laughed and told her I'd simply forgotten, then gave her the answer she wanted.

"Hehe, I suppose I got too used to calling you that way."

"…."

"Arishia."

"Yeah!"

It's all because Leila is such a charming, beautiful girl.

What can I do? I'm so sorry for being an irresistibly captivating beauty.

"Have you eaten yet?"

"No, not yet. I was waiting to eat with you."

"Then let's go together."

I smoothed things over with Arishia and headed to the cafeteria with her.

Today's breakfast was a homemade curry packed with meat and potatoes.

After getting just enough to fill my stomach,

we ran into the Rabbit Hole Squad there and naturally joined their table.

"Good morning, everyone. Mind if we sit with you?"

"Of course not, Leila-unni!"

"Grrrr…."

"Eek—!"

I sat down across from Yubina.

The moment I did, Arishia — seated beside me — fixed Yubina with a glare.

Yubina's shoulders trembled as her eyes welled up.

Arishia had always shown a particular dislike for her,

and Yubina had no choice but to wilt under the pressure of an A-rank Valkyrie's presence.

Though perhaps because this scene had repeated itself so many times by now,

Promina, sitting next to Yubina, greeted me with perfect composure.

"Good morning, Leila. How is your leg?"

"I just had the bandage taken off on my way here."

"Th-then does that mean you'll be returning to duty today…?"

"Yes. The Commander is coming back today as well, so I should get back to work in earnest."

Of course, I'd been hobbling around on crutches this whole time —

but with the Commander away, there was nothing I could move forward on my own.

All I'd managed was a cursory pass through the accumulated paperwork.

There was quite a lot to do going forward.

I needed to look into the Valkyries who would be dispatched here soon.

The facilities needed to be properly reinforced and expanded.

Researchers and engineers would need to be brought in to upgrade the equipment.

And on top of all that, I had my own separate agenda.

I needed to gather intelligence through the hacker I'd secured earlier.

I needed to find a way to push my combat strength beyond B-rank.

And I needed to seduce the Commander into being romantically interested in me.

*Midir will need time to recover. She probably won't be showing her face for a while….*

Wait, hold on.

Thinking about it all at once — there's way too much to do.

Haah. I wish someone would just handle the tedious parts for me….

I stirred my spoon in a daze, lost in thought.

By the time I'd nearly finished the curry that was my breakfast,

a thought struck me, and I turned to Arishia.

"So — when are you heading back?"

"Huh? Heading… back?"

Clatter.

The spoon slipped from her hand.

It must have hit her like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky.

She looked exactly like a puppy that had just been abandoned by its owner.

Oh, I need to get a photo of this.

I carefully adjusted the pen camera tucked in my breast pocket.

It hadn't had a chance to shine last time, but since I'd already made it, I might as well put it to good use.

Arishia really is most beautiful when she's suffering.

I quietly swallowed the drool threatening to spill out, keeping my expression neutral,

and continued in a perfectly matter-of-fact tone.

"You didn't come here on an official assignment — you took a short leave as a favor to me, right? Have you heard anything from headquarters?"

"I did…."

"You did?"

"They said to come back as soon as possible…. Today if I can. Or tomorrow at the latest…."

So they wanted her back today.

I watched Arishia avoid my gaze and pieced together the situation.

Well, it was only natural.

Thanks to her, Lumia hadn't been wiped off the map —

but they couldn't just leave an A-rank Valkyrie stranded in a backwater town like this.

New Valkyries were scheduled to be dispatched soon,

but Arishia would have to return to headquarters first regardless.

Still — was parting from me really so devastating?

She looked like someone whose entire world had just collapsed.

I'd already finished eating, but she was serving me quite the side dish.

I carefully pulled her into a hug, lips still slightly pouting.

"I'm going to miss you. You helped me so much, and I wanted to spend more time with you. It's a shame we have to part so soon."

"…."

"But we'll see each other again before long. We've barely been apart for even a week, have we? I'm glad we got to meet."

"…Yeah."

Honestly, having Arishia around any longer would have been inconvenient.

Any ordinary danger could be solved by throwing her at it.

Tormenting her was fun, but in the long run, it wasn't ideal.

If a problem arose that even Arishia couldn't handle, I'd call for her then.

And at that moment, she could despair in front of my corpse.

I was looking forward to it.

"I just remembered something — I need to stop by my room for a moment."

After finishing the meal and leaving the cafeteria,

I parted from the group and made my way to my private quarters.

There, I retrieved a garter from among my accessories and slipped it onto my thigh.

The grip was quite firm, making the flesh of my thigh bulge out slightly —

but that had its own appeal, so it was fine.

What a scandalous thigh this is.

"Alright. Time to reestablish my relationship with the Commander!"

*Ever since he saved me, I keep finding myself thinking about him — Operation: Mark My Territory.*

My plan was to stake my claim before the new heroines arrived.

*

Beyond the boundaries of human habitation, in the territory of the Erosion Species.

Erosion Particles only destroyed human reason —

so in most cases, nature itself remained intact.

But this land was a horrifying sight.

The trees had withered and twisted, their roots long dead.

The lakes and rivers were choked with nothing but rotting filth floating on the surface.

It must have been a perfectly ordinary forest not long ago.

Now, there was not a single living thing to be found.

The reason was the ravenous creature that had taken up residence here.

— GROOOOAAAAR!

A colossal entity, easily dozens of meters tall, let out a thunderous roar.

Gluttony — devouring everything in sight.

As it moved, the withered forest was reduced to ruin.

The reason the otherwise sluggish Gluttony had stirred was simple.

Something had dared to set foot in its territory.

An irritating insect.

I'll crush it without leaving a trace.

Just as it extended its tentacles to erase the intruder —

a woman leapt up from the ground and swung her blade in a wide arc.

"Quiet."

Shhhk.

A single strike.

Black flames bloomed for an instant along her blade —

and with a strange, curving trajectory that slipped past the monster's grasp, it cleaved through its neck.

The headless body crumpled and crashed to the earth,

and the impact shook the ground like an earthquake.

The woman landed lightly on her feet, her purpose fulfilled.

She habitually swept her gold-and-blue-streaked hair back behind her.

A man approached her, clapping his hands together.

"Impressive as always, Blair. Taking down a Luk-class Erosion Species in a single blow — you're practically at S-rank Valkyrie level now, aren't you?"

The man's appearance was rather peculiar.

A gas mask covered his face, and one hand was a mechanical prosthetic.

Anyone would have found him suspicious at a glance.

But Blair flushed and lowered her head.

Just moments ago she had worn an expression of utter boredom —

now she carried herself with the shy deference of someone meeting the person she adored.

"No, my lord. I have not yet reached that level. I still have a ways to go before—"

"Not much further. With your talent, you'll get there. I'm certain of it."

"…Thank you."

At a glance, it looked like a heartwarming scene between a lord and his loyal retainer —

but the man in the gas mask patted her on the shoulder and said:

"I'm looking forward to the day we bring Valhalla to its knees. Aren't you?"

"Yes. I too await that day."

Blair nodded, her eyes filled with something that looked like love.

The mark etched into her shoulder darkened, steeped deeper in shadow.