A Slave Called a Hug Pillow

The knight said he would destroy the core.

My breath caught in my throat.

A chill ran through me as though my blood were flowing backwards.

On the monitor, the knight raised his sword… and swung it down.

"Gob!"

"Gobsuke?!"

Gobsuke rushed out of the master room. Neither Rokuko nor I could stop him.

Perhaps it was instinct as a dungeon monster, trying to prevent the core from being destroyed.

"Whoa?! Kuh, you little—!"

"Gob… ah…"

Through the monitor, we watched Gobsuke leap out from the core and get cut down.

Slashed diagonally in two, Gobsuke breathed his last.

"Damn goblin, getting in my way… One more time…"

"Oi, what do you think you're doing?! This isn't our jurisdiction!"

The captain stopped the knight who was raising his sword again.

"This is a low-tier dungeon managed by the Adventurer's Guild. I've heard it's a bottom-tier dungeon where only goblins appear."

"Oops, that's right… My apologies."

Stopped by his captain, the knight readily lowered his sword.

"… Damn, even though I could become a Holy Knight by destroying a Dungeon Core…"

"I understand wanting to destroy the core, but this place has already been suppressed. Besides, if you could be recognized as a Holy Knight just for subjugating bandits in a dungeon without even a dungeon boss, the imperial capital would be overflowing with Holy Knights by now."

"Tch… Well, if a core can only send out one goblin when it's about to be destroyed, it probably wouldn't give me much power anyway…"

"Fool, your pay is getting cut when we return."

"Ehhh?! No way!"

"Well, getting recognized as a Holy Knight in a dungeon without even a dungeon boss would be embarrassing, wouldn't it?"

"… If I had to name a boss, maybe it would be Geromelon? When you receive your Holy Knight title, do you want them to say 'The Holy Knight who conquered a mere cave and subjugated Geromelon'? After that, you'd be known as 'The Holy Knight of Geromelon' or 'The Holy Knight of the Mere Cave.'"

"Yeah, that does sound awful… Haah, Ryui, Eijin, Thomas… I didn't think we'd lose three people on a mere bandit extermination."

"Geromelon was a formidable enemy…"

Despite their losses, the atmosphere shifted to one of a job well done.

Remembering I hadn't been breathing this whole time, I took a deep breath.

… I thought I was going to die.

Since coming to this world, that was the first time I'd felt the presence of death directed at me.

I thought I was going to wet myself… Seriously, you know? I didn't wet myself, okay?

Still, they mentioned something interesting about destroying Dungeon Cores to become a Holy Knight.

"U-uu… G-Gobsuke…"

Rokuko crouched down and cried.

Even though he was a goblin, he was a companion we'd spent the past two weeks with.

As for memories… yeah, I only have memories of eating bread together with him.

I wonder how Rokuko spent time with him while I was sleeping.

"At least return the 'anpan' I shared with you before you go…"

Apparently Rokuko was in the same boat.

"Gobsuke… splendidly repaid his debt. If he hadn't been there, the core would have been destroyed and we'd be dead."

"Uu, my 'anpan'…"

No, maybe she meant "Don't leave me behind… you idiot…"

I selected six anpan from the assorted sweet buns and offered them to Rokuko.

"Here, I'll give you some 'anpan,' so cheer up."

"Eh, really?! I'm cheering up, cheering up! Super cheering up!"

Rokuko perked up so quickly I could almost see a halo glowing behind her.

Ah, now that I think about it, this girl was always the brute who sicced goblins on adventurers.

"Wait, what is this?! There's something black and sweet inside! Ah, but this is delicious too."

… Come to think of it, I never did correct her about calling 'jam buns' 'anpan'…

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

The bandits' corpses were gathered in the entrance room. It seemed the knights would be taking their fallen comrades' bodies back with them.

Honestly, it was too grotesque for me to want to look at, but I couldn't take my eyes off it in case I could find the right timing to turn them into DP.

… They're pouring oil on them. Are they going to burn them? … Inside a cave?

Maybe they don't know about carbon monoxide since the air inside dungeons doesn't stagnate. The bandits had been using torches for light like it was nothing, after all.

"A dungeon burial is too good for these guys."

"Did you pour oil on all of them properly? It'll be troublesome if they become ghouls later."

"Yeah, we're burning everything except what we're taking back, right?"

"That's right. Even if any of them somehow survived, they won't be able to recover without any supplies."

That said, there wasn't much of anything left.

Just the bandits' corpses and some bedding.

Then they'd set fire to it from the cave entrance and burn everything. This was convenient for me—once it burned out, I could openly absorb the corpses.

"Alright, I'm starting the fire… Dance, flames—[Ignition]."

Ignition seemed to be a spell that produced a lighter-sized flame from the fingertip. When he ignited the oil trail, the fire slithered forward like a snake, quickly engulfing the mountain of corpses inside the cave in flames.

"Ah. Hey, what about that dog-eared slave girl?"

By the time I remembered after hearing Rokuko's words, the fire snake had already burned through the wooden door and was approaching the bed where the dog-eared girl was hiding.

I recalled those eyes like a dead fish—eyes that had given up on everything.

What is this feeling? I didn't care about the bandits, but if I don't save her here, I feel like she'll haunt my dreams. Is it because she's a child?

I'd be troubled if I had nightmares… I wouldn't be able to sleep peacefully.

"… Well, I suppose she'll become DP."

"No, wait. We're saving her. Can you retrieve her?"

"Retrieve her? Are you going to walk there and save her now? The entrance room is a sea of fire, you know? It'll be burned out by the time you get there."

Rokuko was right. Regardless of whether there were intruders or not, the only way in or out of the master room where we were was through the Dungeon Core. And even if I left through the Dungeon Core, the path would be a sea of fire. Walking there to save her was hopeless.

"Besides, there's no way I can retrieve an intruder. She's not an item."

Hearing Rokuko's words, it clicked.

"She is… an item. What are you talking about, Rokuko?"

"Eh?"

I spoke to Rokuko as if convincing myself.

"Slaves are tools. Items. In fact, I've never seen her move on her own. And her owners, the bandits, are dead. In other words, that slave… that item, no longer has an owner. Items from adventurers who die in the dungeon belong to the dungeon. Therefore, she's already the dungeon's item. Right, Rokuko?"

"U-um… Even if you call her an item, she's a living creature with magical power…"

"Even if you call her a living creature, you can directly deploy monsters from the Dungeon Core as long as there are no intruders. In other words, you can send and retrieve living things. In fact, you can retrieve moldy bread, right? Mold is a living thing, you know? Then for example, if a mouse happened to be hiding in a box, you could retrieve it too. You should be able to retrieve living things like humans. It's no good because she has magical power? Magic tools have magical power too. You retrieved the light magic tool, didn't you? Therefore, there's no reason you can't retrieve THAT!!"

I looked at the monitor and map. The fire had spread to the bed, and the sheets were starting to blacken and char.

On the map, the dog-eared girl was shown as a red dot, marking her as an intruder.

Damn, it's still not working. I haven't convinced myself enough!

"A-a slave isn't an item after all!"

"Then she's not even a slave! She's a hug pillow! That is a hug pillow! A dog-eared-loli-type hug pillow! And as a bonus, she's an item for men hidden under the bed!!"

That's a hug pillow, hug pillow, hug pillow, hug pillow, hug pillow, hug pillow, hug pillow…

Imagine it. That is a hug pillow. A hug pillow that feels wonderful when you squeeze it tight. Playing with its dog ears would be fun, and you could add options like knee-socks or clothes to stroke and admire… Ah, somehow I feel like this might work.

Yeah, such a great hug pillow must not be allowed to burn.

Ahh, I want to sleep using that hug pillow.

Maybe I'll switch up the options on its legs, trying different knee-socks and such?

It seems like it would feel nice to touch, and when it's cold, it could work as a hot water bottle. Speaking of hot water bottles, Rokuko had her core used as a hot water bottle by the bandit boss, didn't she? Ha ha ha.

Whoops, I got a bit sidetracked.

Come to think of it, there's an item called the Heavenly Pillow, but I wonder which is better—that or a hug pillow?

I think a brown-skinned dog-eared loli hug pillow scores pretty high. For some people, it would literally be a heavenly pillow.

… Ah, I just remembered something unpleasant. Geromelon was using her exactly like that.

Being secondhand is a minus, but it should be fine if I wash it thoroughly. Purification really is convenient. Can you wash hug pillows with it too?

Well then, I need to hurry up and get that pillow so I can give it a good wash.

At this point, the dog-eared girl looked like nothing but a hug pillow to me.

Glancing at the map, instead of a red dot indicating an intruder, there was now a green dot indicating an item.

"Alright, it's a hug pillow. Retrieve."

The conclusion? It worked.

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

"Whaaat…?! H-how did you retrieve her?! An intruder in the master room—"

"Hm? I just retrieved a hug pillow. More importantly, Rokuko, don't absorb the bandits' corpses before they burn out. Leave half of them alone until they're burned up—a knight might come back to check."

Ah, her hair's a bit singed. What a waste of such nice black hair. Well, it has an auto-repair function, so I'll just cut off the singed parts. Short hair might look good too… Ugh, there's some white stuff caked on it. Disgusting. Clean up after yourself, Geromelon.

"Eh, r-right… No, no no, wait a moment. Intruders can't enter the core, so how could she be retrieved? This doesn't make sense!"

"What are you talking about? A hug pillow is an item, so of course it can enter."

"O-oh… Somehow I feel like that makes sense…"

And so, I cast purification magic on the hug pillow.

As the foam characteristic of purification magic flowed from top to bottom over the hug pillow, thoroughly cleaning off the dirt—

"Uah?!"

—the hug pillow let out a cute sound.

… Oh, right. I remembered. Yes, I retrieved a dog-eared slave girl.

Phew, I almost couldn't come back from that self-hypnosis…

"O-okay, I've regained my sanity. Right, so… I was able to retrieve her after all…"

"Ah, you're back? Then I demand an explanation!"

"Ah. It's simple… I could do it, so I did."

Thinking I couldn't do it was just a mental block. Magic is more free-form and flexible than I thought… Though I'm pretty tired now.

"You saw it, right? Slaves can be retrieved."

"So that's how it is… So you can retrieve slaves, huh."

Yeah, it's probably better to let Rokuko believe that.

… So, what should I do with this dog-eared girl? For now, should I actually use her as a hug pillow…?

"By the way, what's her name? It's hard to call her without one."

"Ah, that's true… What's your name? Something people call you? Do you have one?"

"Eh… ah… … Niku, is what they called me, Goshujin-sama."

Her reaction was a bit sluggish, but she answered properly.

For the time being, I decided to let her sleep properly for the day, so I spent DP to get her some sweet buns and a futon with a pillow.

At first she didn't try to move, but when I ordered her to rest, she obediently ate the bread and went to sleep in the futon.

Decisions about how to handle Niku could wait until after the knights left.

Please don't let the knights cause any more trouble.

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

In the end, the knights confirmed that the bandits' corpses had burned sufficiently and then left.

As expected, I couldn't stay awake the whole time, so I slept through part of it.

After that, they simply camped and left without doing anything else. Yeah, I found it impressive in a way—after slaughtering all those bandits, they just casually grilled and ate meat like nothing happened. Genuinely.

Including the bandit subjugation, we got a decent amount of DP thanks to the thirty-knight company staying around for about a day and a half.

Even the burned-up corpses could become DP without any issues, so that was also a considerable income.

Combined with our previous savings—the total is 14,504 DP.

"Amazing… I've never seen this much DP before."

For now, compared to our DP up until now, we'd suddenly become moderately wealthy.

However, with the bandits gone, our income had decreased.

Gobsuke is no longer with us… but in exchange, we've gained a dog-eared slave, so I have to provide for her.

Three meals a day, assuming I provide an assortment of bread and drinks… that's 15 DP consumed per day.

And the income from the core is only 10 DP. The dog-eared slave seems to generate 0 DP even if left alone, probably because I retrieved her as an item. Or maybe she's just not strong enough to generate any DP to begin with…

Well, anyway, if I cut back to two meals a day, we'd barely break even… No, to avoid suspicion when adventurers come, I need to deploy goblins, which puts us in the red. Could I sleep soundly in a situation like that? No, I couldn't. I'm a coward—I can't stand watching my savings slowly dwindle away.

So, unable to tolerate operating at a deficit, I intend to fundamentally change the "Mere Cave" from the ground up.

… Haah, I don't want to work.