The pompadoured man's story was so pitiful that even Jhin felt a flicker of sympathy for him.
"Look on the bright side. At least they haven't dragged you into the Axis Order yet."
"I guess you've got a point..." He wiped away the snot and tears, then looked down at the soap in his arms, and the longer he looked the angrier he got. "This stuff... all of it can go to hell!"
Bars of soap in every color went sailing into the sea in one great heave, and he ran off down the beach howling with laughter. "I'm free! I'm free!"
"That poor guy. He hasn't actually snapped, has he?"
"Who knows." Jhin had sensed something off about the magic fluctuations coming from the discarded soap. It didn't feel like plain soap at all, more like some kind of condensed magical substance.
Did the Axis Order really peddle strange things like that?
He watched the patch of water where the soap had gone under for a moment longer. Nothing odd happened there, so he filed the matter away for later, and took Kyaru back to the room. The moment he opened the door and found the lights on inside, his stomach dropped.
"Well, well. Did the two of you have fun out there?" Megumin sat cross-legged in the middle of the bed with a smile that never reached her eyes, Kokkoro and Pecorine flanking her like a pair of temple guardians, watching the returning lovebirds without a trace of expression.
Kyaru slid guiltily off Jhin's back. The way she pressed a hand to her lower belly did not escape Megumin's sharp eyes, and her voice jumped several decibels. "Kyaru, what's wrong with you?"
"Huh? I... nothing's wrong with me."
"Really?"
"R-really." She had the exact air of a student caught daydreaming and made to stand up in class, eyes darting anywhere but straight ahead.
Jhin stepped in front of her, blocking Megumin's scrutinizing stare. "She just ate too much, that's all."
"The two of you snuck out for a midnight snack and didn't even invite me... ahem, didn't even invite us!"
"Weren't you planning to lose weight? Late-night food wouldn't suit you."
Megumin grabbed the blanket and pummeled it, then glared at him, cheeks puffed out. "This is all your fault. You invented cola, your cooking is too good, you're always feeding me snacks, and even when it's something you like you still give me half of it..."
The scolding was sliding straight into praise and sickly-sweet affection, so Kokkoro hurried to remind her, "Megumin. Remember the objective."
"Oh, right, right, sorry, I nearly forgot." Megumin coughed twice and put on a stern face. "You two. Sneaking out behind your companions' backs late at night instead of sleeping. Never mind what you actually did out there, is that really acceptable behavior?"
"It's my fault. I promise it won't happen again."
The more sincerely Jhin admitted fault, the more suspicious he looked to the girls, as though he were deliberately steering their attention elsewhere.
Could it be... that Kyaru's overeating hid some enormous secret?
The three of them exchanged glances, and at last Megumin handed down the final "verdict." "Since your attitude about it is decent enough, your punishment is to wash each of our hair once."
Pecorine forced out a stiff smile. "Megumin, that... doesn't seem like a good idea."
"Relax, relax, I'll be standing right there while he washes yours. If he tries anything funny I'll deal with him!" She thumped her chest so hard it rang, brimming with confidence, but Pecorine was still worried that when the time came this particular couple might join forces and execute her on the spot.
So she turned pleading eyes on Kokkoro, hoping she might amend the punishment just a little.
"?" Kokkoro looked puzzled at first, then understanding dawned and she clapped her hands together. "Don't worry, Master isn't going to wash our hair while we're bathing. You can pick whatever time you like."
"No... that isn't what I meant..."
Pecorine's protest was drowned out by Megumin's volume, and the matter was settled.
The lights went off again and they settled in to sleep. Kyaru found herself sandwiched between Megumin and Kokkoro on the right side of the bed, while Pecorine, on the verge of tears with nothing to cry about, had to lie in the middle as a dividing line, with Jhin on her right.
Pinned from both sides, Kyaru was about to say something when two small hands crept onto her stomach. Her shriek never made it out of her mouth before those same hands pushed it back in.
What on earth were they doing...
Warmth spread across her lower belly, and a faint light kindled in Kokkoro's palm. As the party's one-time sole healer, she counted as half a doctor, and diagnosing whether something was wrong with a companion's body was well within her ability.
She closed her eyes and used magic to read Kyaru's condition in detail.
The magic fluctuations were fine. The stomach wasn't packed with food the way Master had claimed either... wait. What was this strange [life force]?
The small hand that had been probing the upper abdomen slid straight down below the navel, and then she yanked it back as if she had touched an open flame.
Was this a change that had appeared after Master's dragon traits were awakened... Having fused the origin essence of the elves and the dragon race, his Racial Value seemed to have climbed very high.
The concept of the "Racial Value" had been worked out by an elven Elder with so much time on her hands that she had come within a hair of researching how Slimes reproduce. It served as a yardstick for judging the ceiling of each race's capabilities.
Racial Values ran from 1 to 10. The lowest-tier monster, the Slime, had a Racial Value of 1, while the gods who had established churches upon the earth stood at 10.
Humanity hovered somewhere between 3 and 6. With such an enormous population base, a few heroes famous across the continent always emerged, so the value fluctuated.
The elves sat at 7, the dragon race at 8.
As for how Kokkoro could tell from [life force] alone that Jhin's Racial Value had broken through the human ceiling, it was because that elven Elder had emphasized one thing: when two creatures with too great a gap in Racial Value joined together, one side was certain to be temporarily unable to withstand the other's [life force] and would develop a negative condition.
It manifested in many forms. In women, most often as the condition known as "eating too much."
What baffled Kokkoro was that within the [life force] in Kyaru's belly she also detected a thread of pure, holy aura. As far as she knew, not even an Archmage specializing in light magic carried an aura that sacred.
It was that aura which had acted as the binding agent between the origin essences of different races, letting Jhin's Racial Value break past its ceiling.
Could someone else have wanted to bring Master's lifespan close to eternity before I did?
Kokkoro withdrew her hands and sank into thought, paying no attention at all to Megumin's pleading looks as her ally abandoned her and Kyaru pinned her down for revenge.
"Achoo! Agh, that hurts... why would I sneeze right now?" Gabriel rubbed her reddened forehead in irritation. With exams coming up, Vignette had no time to come over and clean for her, and Jhin was away on a trip and wouldn't be back for a week, so her room had reverted to its familiar state as a landfill.
She kicked an empty cola can skittering across the floor. "Jhin is really something. What's he doing running off for so long? Doesn't he know his best friend can't live without his cleaning service anymore?"
____
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