Escape From a Deserted Island With Enemy Female Soldiers

53 – A Heavy Relationship (2)

What’s this fox on about? Day one?

[“If you’re teaching me, that makes us teacher and student, right? You’re the teacher, I’m the student. It’s definitely not a light relationship.”]

[“Then it’s a heavy relationship?”]

[“Who knows?”]

Miyo rested her chin in her hands, beaming. A mischievous smile.

[“That depends on what you do, mage. Relationships aren’t something you can only make one of. Like how you and I are enemies, but also comrades sharing life and death.”]

Human relationships are all like this.

They aren’t fixed as just one thing.

[“Anyway, it’s a relationship worth counting the days for. Look, see? Today’s the first day you’re teaching me. I’ll carve our own proof of it here.”]

Miyo picked up a rock and scratched it against the desk. A rough line appeared.

[“This line will soon become ten lines. Maybe it’ll even go over a hundred. If lines keep piling up and piling up, at some point, I might be tamed by you.”]

[“Tamed?”]

[“Yeah. Wanna try taming me?”]

This has gotta be a joke. Beastkin think of themselves as human. There’s no way she’d seriously say the word ‘taming’.

I was starting to realize Miyo had a lot more playful side than her little brother. As if reading my thoughts, Miyo added:

[“I’m not kidding. I might start looking forward to this time every day, waiting for your class an hour, maybe even two hours in advance. Then I won’t be able to concentrate on my work. My head will be full of you. That’s what it means to be tamed, right?”]

Look at this, definitely kidding, right?

I answered with a sigh. This fox is just playing word games.

Circling around and around, but the point was simple. If I wanted to build more trust with her, I’d better make the lesson interesting.

[“You’re like a fox.”]

[“I *am* a fox.”]

She says she’s interested in magic, couldn’t just coldly turn her away.

I infused a mana stone and placed it in Miyu’s hand.

[“I put mana in it. Can you feel it?”]

[“I can feel something wriggling….”]

[“You won’t be able to manipulate it yet.”]

I grasped the hand holding the mana stone. I channeled more mana into it. The oversaturated mana created a cooling effect, chilling the stone.

[“This is mana condensation.”]

I dissolved the cooled mana and injected a new stream. This time, the mana flowed beyond the stone, through Miyu’s hand, like electricity. She flinched.

[“What’s this? This feels weird.”]

[“That’s mana circulation. Everyone reacts like that when they first accept magic power.”]

I kept an eye on Miyu’s condition while injecting the mana. No major problems, it seemed. It was fascinating. A body that used the power of a goddess was still able to accept mana.

[“Do you want to become a mage?”]

[“Not as much as my sister, but yeah, I do.”]

[“No matter what you specialize in, you need to know how to condense and circulate mana. Those are the fundamentals. For the time being, I’ll have you get used to this process using mana stones.”]

I crafted another practice mana stone. I’d given her the direction, so now it was time for her first task.

[“Try drawing all the mana out of this stone, circulating it through your entire body, and then returning it.”]

[“Isn’t that too difficult for a first step? What about the theory?”]

[“If you were a ten-year-old, I’d start with theory. But you’re a college student. It’s better to jump straight into practice. You handle divine power well, and you’ve learned a thing or two, so you’ll probably grasp it quickly.”]

Miyo’s allotted time each day wasn’t much. Now that we’d dealt with the alraune, it was time to start prepping to leave the island.

I watched Miyo for a while.

Not that I was just sitting around. I gave her hints whenever she asked. Her pouty face complaining about not getting the answer was kind of cute—ah, never mind.

I wanted her to enjoy the fun of learning, the satisfaction of figuring things out on her own. That’s how I learned magic, too.

About two hours passed.

[“Ugh, this is hard. Can you do the thing you did at the beginning again?”]

Miyo held out her hands. Without thinking too much about it, I took them. I channeled mana into her, and then retrieved it. Miyo’s eyes went wide.

[“Wait, you hardly lose any at all?”]

Looks like she caught on to something else.

[“Even when I try my best, I barely return 1 percent…”]

[“Actually, even the best mages barely manage a success rate of over 10 percent.”]

[“How do you even do that?”]

[“Would I just tell you that so easily?”]

[“If you tell me, I’ll let you touch my tail.”]

Miyo tilted her hips. A pair of fluffy-looking tails swayed in the breeze.

It was strange. Just at first, I’d been so averse to touching beastkin, but now, a little over a month later, looking at these tails evoked nothing but thoughts of how fluffy they were. My revulsion was also much less. Am I really going crazy?

[‘Wake up, Erich!’]

[‘Even setting aside the fact you’re a beastkin, she’s the enemy. You might bewitch a fox, but don’t be bewitched *by* a fox. You have to uphold the dignity of a citizen of the Magic Kingdom.’]

I shook my head. She twisted her body back around with a flick, pouting.

[“That was just a joke.”]

That’s more like it.

[“Don’t think you can master the basics in a day or two. Take your time and practice slowly.”]

[“So how long did it take *you* to succeed?”]

[“One day.”]

That night, I was kicked off the stone bed.

*

After the battle with the Alraune, the four of us redefined our approach.

From now on, when exploring, we’d stick together as a group of four. It was to prevent being picked off one-by-one by large monsters like last time.

The Valkyrie charges.

The Saint heals.

The Sapper scouts.

I cast magic.

Our areas of expertise are so different, we can’t afford to lose anyone. In the end, I have to maintain good relations with all three of them. For now, things are going pretty smoothly. Except for the fact that I’m still awkward with the Valkyrie.

Finally, we gathered all the food and water. We also recorded mana in the Source Stone. Now, if we follow the path the mana compass indicates, we’ll be one step closer to escape.

Before getting on the boat, I and the enemy country’s female soldiers took one last look around the place we’d been.

“What a shame.”

The Saintess offered a wry smile.

“Thanks to you and Riyyo Corp., life here hasn’t been bad. I guess it’s because I felt like I was living somewhere with civilization, even if it was just a little? Though personal space was scarce.”

“I sympathize. Having to show my bare ass to someone every day. No privacy, absolutely no privacy.”

The Saintess’s pupils turned pink.

“You’ve seen it a few times too, you know!”

“I never specified *who* I was talking about.”

They turned even pinker. In terms of saturation, it had to be a new record for today.

Since we were both perpetrators and victims, we couldn’t unilaterally place the blame. We had no choice but to gloss over it.

“Alright, alright! Don’t just stand there like dummies, let’s get going!”

With plenty of water and some food prepared, we climbed into the lifeboat and rowed with all our might. Wondering, half worried and half hopeful, about what awaited us on the new island.

But, rendering those worries and hopes meaningless, we ended up back on the island we’d started from.

At first, we saw traces of civilization and thought, “It’s an inhabited island!” and jumped out, but it turned out to be the place we were using as a base. The stone desk confirmed it. Seventeen lines were carved into it.

Valkyrie and the Saintess slumped down.

We’d wasted hours.

“Ugh.”

“Hey, you okay?”

Valkyrie started retching, so I got her some water. Predictably, but thankfully, the tap was still working.

“Major gets really seasick.”

“She always does. She gets like this whenever she’s on a boat.”

“She seems to be in particularly bad shape this time, though?”

“The waves were thrashing too damn much.”

Valkyrie couldn’t even keep herself upright. I gave her a lap pillow until she seemed better. Fanned her with a bamboo fan, watching for any changes.

“You okay?”

“…Yeah, I’m okay.”

“Looks like Allaune wasn’t the head honcho of this island after all.”

Thinking back, there was a path that continued on past where we fought Allaune that day. The monster’s den might’ve been there, but there was definitely something more behind it.

Hearing my story, the women soldiers groaned, some louder than others.

“This ain’t gonna change nothin’.”

“How ’bout we just finish this quick?”

“…With the four of us, maybe we can do it.”

After that, we rested for three solid days, prepping food and water.

We strung bamboo together, filled it with water, fruit, whatever, then tied it all to our waists with rope. I added some magic stones on top of that.

The Saintess made herbal medicine to put on wounds and brewed broth, Valkyrie sharpened her spear and made spares. And the Engineer…

“Ta-da, crossbows.”

Crossbows, four of them no less. She’s got the craziest specs outta all of us.

“One for the Colonel, one for the Major for emergencies… and now, the Mage!”

The fact that the Engineer was giving me a more refined weapon than just a cruddy slingshot was a big deal. Meant she was starting to see me as someone she could trust.

“If you show me you’re more reliable, then I can even make you your own rifle. ‘Course, that’d take way longer than these.”

The Engineer covered her mouth and giggled. Couldn’t tell if it was her laughing, or her sister inside.

Maybe both.