The next morning, when Luke opened his eyes, the burning and stinging sensation he felt in his neck and nose had noticeably subsided.
He stroked the gnashing pain around his neck, and since there was no particular reaction, he tried to exhale a few more times as a test, and the fire no longer erupted.
Perhaps it was because he had exhausted all the fire that was stored in his neck.
It seemed that there hadn’t been much to begin with, as even after swallowing healing potions and painkillers last night, he had still been groaning and pouring out fire for about three hours, resulting in only black smoke coming out afterward.
Now that he thought about it, there was a story that baby dragons couldn’t control their first breath, releasing smoke until it came out as black smoke.
Since he had never seen a live baby dragon in his lifetime, he was not sure if that was true, but experiencing it personally, it seemed to be a fact.
However, the biggest difference between himself and those baby dragons was that their mouths were made of heat-resistant material, so no matter how much fire they breathed out, it didn’t harm them, while he could only regenerate at an ultra-fast speed, which was a painfully torturous process.
Therefore, he did not want to admit that there was no other way.
Moreover, upon looking around the bathroom, which remained as evidence of his day-long struggle against himself, it was quite a sight.
There were scorch marks on the tiles, burnt shower curtains, soap melted and stuck to the sink…
Exhausted, Luke let out a heavy sigh.
The thought of cleaning this mess was already darkening his vision.
After simply washing his face and opening the bathroom door, he felt a sense of clarity washing over him.
Was it because he had gotten used to the smell of smoke after being exposed to it for so long last night? The air, untainted by any other smell, felt incredibly clean.
Then, Yerna, who might not have slept properly, forced a tired expression away and greeted Luke.
“Did you sleep well? How’s your body? Are you okay today? Do you need to go to the hospital?”
“Thanks to you, I’m definitely feeling better now. Thank you, Yerna.”
Luke replied with an even cheerier expression so as not to worry Yerna.
“However, with the bathroom in that state… it seems difficult to use right now.”
Luke turned his head in disappointment to glance at the state of the bathroom.
With the bathroom looking like that, it seemed Yerna would have a hard time using it, even if he could manage it.
After smelling the air outside for a moment, he felt disinclined to go back inside at all.
He would need to ventilate for a while. It felt like he would need almost a whole day just to air out the smell, even with magic.
Having burned even his toothbrush, he couldn’t brush his teeth today.
Moreover, he had burned all of his research materials. The liquid in the syringe hadn’t even entered the basic analysis stage yet.
The syringe had melted along with the shower curtain pole, making it unusable.
It was unfortunate, but there was nothing he could do.
Yerna, comforting Luke, asked, “It’s okay; you can take a bath at the lodging in the forest. For now, let’s ventilate.”
“That’s right.”
As Luke opened the windows of the bathroom and living room, he thought how helpful Py would have been in this situation.
The magic used by spirits, who can handle natural phenomena as they are, was, in fact, closer to the phenomena themselves than real magic.
Thus, unlike the magic Luke used, it consumed very little mana, meaning he wouldn’t have to worry about mana costs.
Today, if there are fireflies in the forest, should he reach out to them?
———
After the rain, the ground in the forest was quite muddy, so Yerna showed Luke a pair of children’s rain boots and said, “Here, if you wear these, you can run around the forest without worrying about ruining your shoes.”
Though he could technically use shields to avoid needing different footwear, he didn’t want to deliberately refuse the thoughtful gift from Yerna and accepted it gratefully.
“Thank you for the special consideration, Yerna.”
Seeing that Luke seemed to like it, Yerna smiled broadly.
The yellow rain boots would honestly look pretty cute on Luke.
“But what’s that?”
Luke glanced at the yellow pouch Yerna was holding.
“This is a raincoat; it’s a waterproof outfit you wear when it rains. It comes as a set with the boots.”
“Oh, is that so? It’s similar to a waterproof robe.”
“Exactly.”
‘Where on earth did you learn the term ‘waterproof robe’?’
It’s peculiar that there’s a child who uses the term ‘waterproof robe’; Luke thought it was strange how she seemed to be trying to act like an adult.
Yerna thought that if she saw Luke wearing the boots together with the raincoat, it would look fantastic, but it was a pity that the rain had stopped and she couldn’t see it.
Still, she kept it just in case it rained again, but seeing the bright rainbow against the clear, shining sky, she didn’t think she’d see him in a raincoat anytime soon.
Yet someday, when the opportunity arises, she would definitely get to see it.
Next time it rains.
——
The forest road was, as expected, muddy and sinking.
There were many areas that had turned completely into mud, holding a significant amount of water.
If it had been a regular vehicle, they likely would have been delayed for some time on the road, but thanks to the specialized vehicle for forest keepers having a high chassis and strong power, they were driving along without much trouble.
Of course, they were not going fast.
Luke quietly admired the sight.
‘It’s a road that a carriage could never pass, yet there’s no blockage.’
The automobile was undoubtedly an irreplaceable substitute for the carriage.
Finally arriving at the Forest Keeper’s lodging.
Upon opening the car door, Luke felt his chest open with the pleasant smell of wet earth and the unique green fragrance of damp plants filling the air.
He could feel a gradual and distinct change in the air from the bathroom to the living room, from the living room to the city, and from the city to the forest.
It felt as though the circles of the mage were expanding one by one.
Luke took a deep breath, inhaling the magical air of dawn along with the fresh forest air.
“Haah…”
He felt a satisfied smile form on his lips. At that moment, Yerna asked him.
“Is it nice to be back in the forest after a long time?”
“It feels good, the air is different. The magic is rich, and I don’t have to worry about costs.”
Living at Yerna’s house, he had to worry about mana costs even for trivial uses of magic.
He didn’t want to casually use magic outside the house either.
But in the forest, he could gather mana without any concerns, making it the best environment for Luke.
As he was taking deep breaths, Sorbi burst out of the lodging and hugged Luke, exclaiming, “Luke! You were sick yesterday, right? Are you okay today? Did you miss your sister?”
“I’m fine. Thank you for worrying about me. So would you mind putting me down now?”
At Luke’s politely reprimanding tone, Sorbi grumbled, “Luke is not cute at all when it comes to these things,” as she set him down.
Glancing at Sorbi, Yerna remarked, “Sorbi, are you only welcoming Luke?”
“Excuse me, but you handed your sister’s responsibilities over to me. If Luke hadn’t said he was sick, I wouldn’t have accepted it!”
“Well, you don’t have much to say about that.”
Yerna scratched her cheek awkwardly.
“By the way, where were you hurt?”
“That’s…”
Yerna proceeded to recount the chaotic scene from yesterday in detail.
Suddenly spitting fire from his mouth in the morning, he had burned his mouth completely and couldn’t speak properly, and while trying to hold back a sneeze, he had burned the inside of his nose and burst into tears.
However, when she mentioned crying, Luke turned bright red and angrily exclaimed, “Is it really necessary to say that?!” so she couldn’t explain any further.
“Anyway, I couldn’t use the bathroom, so I couldn’t take a bath. So first, I’m going to take a bath at the lodging.”
“I see… A bath…”
Sorbi began to look at Luke with a subtle expression.
“Then, if I go take a bath now, can I bathe with Luke?”
Sorbi had a bit of a fantasy about a scenario where, if she had a cute younger sister, they could bathe together and wash each other’s hair.
But Luke had no desire to indulge in such fantasies.
The reason wasn’t that Luke, as himself, didn’t have memories of being a woman.
As a great mage, he naturally saw through the essence of things; looking at a female body, he simply processed that visual information as a form of human anatomy.
Thus, he didn’t have any particularly different thoughts in regard to the female form.
Yet, he still felt a bit of reluctance toward Sorbi.
Perhaps because he had been previously pranked, he felt a little on guard.
It wasn’t at all because of the incident where he had unwittingly recorded his own words of “sister” when receiving a mobile phone as a gift and distributed it to all the forest keepers or that she taught him to make a peace sign for photos.
He was just the type to be weak against those who were more mischievous than himself.
Anyway, noticing that look, Yerna quickly said to Sorbi, “That’s something Luke dislikes, so it’s not allowed. Nowadays, he’s been trying to wash alone even at home.”
Luke smiled in gratitude at Yerna, who understood his feelings.
——-
After finishing his bath, the first place Luke headed to naturally was the flowerbed.
He had been worried that something might have gone wrong while it was raining harder than expected, and he wanted to check the condition of the flowerbed immediately.
Using magic, he promptly dried off and put on his clothes, taking a small trowel while humming a tune as he headed for the flowerbed.
Upon arriving at the flowerbed, something seemed off.
Luke stroked his chin while inspecting the flowerbed.
No matter how many times he looked, it was still weird.
Just then, he called to Kirke, who had just come back from patrol, slightly sweating and drinking from her canteen.
“Kirke, come look at this.”
“Uh, what is it? Is there something in the flowerbed?”
“Isn’t something strange? Why is this flower planted here? I think I distinctly remember planting it in the third row at the back…”
Kirke answered with a slight tremble in her voice, “I, I don’t know.”
“Is that so…? Hmm…”
Luke returned his gaze to the flowerbed, stroking his chin once more.
“This is even stranger. I don’t have any memory of planting Raphentis…”
“Hmm…”
“Where did it come from…? Hmm, can that even make sense…?”
Kirke turned her gaze from Luke and brought the canteen back to her lips.
Her throat felt dry for no reason.
The Raphentis was her idea, after all.
