Raine ate the sandwich in a rather leisurely manner. Everyone was waiting for her to finish her meal first.
Meanwhile Miria was trying to reach into the bag that was behind my back.
[Little bastard, I have nothing for you!]
I grabbed her hand to put a stop to her.
[Isn't it alright? I've been waiting there that I forgot to have my breakfast! Roxy-sama~.....I can eat too, right?]
Miria always asked Roxy with this kind of begging voice. It's something usual... But since it's said towards Roxy who was still inside my body at the moment, it made me felt a tremendous sense of discomfort.
To outsiders, it'll appear that Miria was getting along well with Fate. But that's only because Roxy was currently using my body, of which not many were aware of this fact. I would've been surprised myself.
The scene was a bit too much for me.
Raine's also watched us with the kind of stare she had when she's looking at a rare specimen.
In the end, Roxy who was originally soft hearted to Miria in the first place, finally said with a sigh.
[It cannot be helped.....Raine-san, can you share the sandwich with Miria?]
[Fine, but in exchange, I want to do an extensive check on you later.]
Roxy was quite fine with it, being the usual her. She's after all, someone who are willing to accept me.....her duty actually requires her to not be caught in personal feelings. But she's not ashamed of this misgiving, which what drew me to her in the first place, though it had also brought me no less trouble.
But anyways, since Raine already approved it, Miria also got her share of sandwich.
[Roxy-sama's homemade sandwich!]
Whilst stuffing her small mouth with the sandwich, she was so moved to the point of shedding tears like waterfall.
[It's the best! I'd be fine if I died after this.]
[Do not say anything ominous like that]
[This feeling, Fate-san who has often enjoyed Roxy-sama's homemade food wouldn't understand. Please switch body with me, so I get to feel this happiness more often!]
She ate the sandwich in fervor while spouting off her annoyance. At first she was confused with the body switching, but it appeared that she had gotten used to it already.
But since I'm still in Roxy's body, she would still sometimes unconsciously threw a glance at me while blushing.
[This is really troublesome. If I hug the one with Roxy-sama's appearance, it'll be the same as hugging Fate-san. But if I hug the real Roxy-sama, from outward it'll look like I'm hugging Fate-san. Then who should I hug?]
Miria looked as though she's going through a crossroad of her life.
[How should I know!]
[Miria, refrain from hugging for the time being.]
Seeing us like that, Raine said after finishing the last bite of her sandwich.
[You guys are really noisy. It's been a while since I had this noisy of a breakfast. Now then, let's get to the main topic]
After wiping her mouth with a handkerchief she extracted from her pocket, Raine guided us to the other room. Certainly the room where she'll conduct the checking.
I and Greed always had our regular inspection on this very room. Nn? Speaking of which, I wonder what Greed is doing at the moment?
I put my hand on the sword hanging on my back, but there's no response.
Ah....of course. Since I'm in Roxy's body, this should be her holy sword. That means, Roxy was the one carrying Greed at the moment.
Since our body got switched over, I've been forgetting about that annoying little fellow. Wanting to hear from him, I approached Roxy and asked.
[I want to talk with Greed, can you hand me the black sword?]
[That's right, we need Greed-san's opinion in this. I've been having him with me all this time yet forgetting about him. Yes, here you are.]
[Thank you]
Next, to activate the mind reading.....eh....?
[I can't talk to Greed!]
Seeing the puzzled me and Roxy, Raine laughed and gave us an explanation.
[Of course that's the case. Because your body are switched. Skills are bound to the body, not the soul. So Roxy should be able to use mind reading now. But perhaps, because the switching only happened recently, the soul isn't used yet to the skills.]
[Let me try. Fai, return Greed-san to me.]
[Alright.]
Handing back Greed to Roxy, I waited to see whether she could communicate with him.
There seemed to be no response at first, Roxy appeared to have a hard time trying. But after a while, her eyes were wide open, then she excitedly said.
[I can hear Greed-san's voice! It's more astringent and lower than I thought it would be]
[That fellow has a bad attitude, be careful]
I told her about Greed's shortcomings. But according to her, he sounded like a true gentleman while being a good sword to add.
That couldn't be right. Greed is like a mass of greed and unreasonableness lumped into one being.
[Unbelievable.....]
[Don't say that. Greed-san is Fai's partner, isn't he?]
[.....I just hope you won't fall for that little trick of his, but alright. What did he say?]
[About that]
Roxy turned to the black sword once more, then whispered something. Then, her face became red all of a sudden.
What in the.....world are they talking about? I couldn't help but to wonder.
[Roxy, what's the matter?]
Apparently he just teased her, telling her to keep watch on me so that I won't do lewd thing to Roxy's body.
Damn you! How dare you to say that, Greed!
It hadn't even crossed my mind....yet....you arsehole!
[I'm sorry. Despite the long-standing relationship, he tends to say something awful.]
[Just now, I felt like my eyes are swimming.]
[It's just as Roxy-sama said. Fate-san is a boy after all. Someone needs to keep watch of him so that he won't do anything weird to Roxy-sama's body at night!]
Come on now, my integrity is at stake here. Everyone, please remember about the flow of events since this morning.
Did I even have a chance to think something dirty? No! I was preoccupied with thinking about how to cope with the body switching.
Now that my mind had settled down.....it does start to cross my mind, but please pardon me as I'm still a normal healthy young man.
Then, Roxy said while staring at me.
[I believe in Fai. It'll be alright!]
[Eeeeeeee, is it really alright! Letting this guy off?!]
[It'll be alright!!]
Miria desperately tried to convince Roxy to consider. But she didn't change her mind.
Regardless of what others said, she trusted me in the end. Besidesly, it's a matter of life and death here.
There is no time to even have any strange thoughts regarding Roxy's body.
[Thank you, Roxy.]
[No no, Fai has done many things for me while in Gallia. This much is nothing.]
As I let her words sinked in, I heard sound of coughing coming from the side. It was Raine, seemingly annoyed judging from her expression.
[You guys, can you keep the lovey dovey talk for later? Can you understand? The problem is already severe as it is!]
[ [ I am sorry ] ]
When I'm talking with Roxy, it just felt enjoyable regardless of the topic. Even if we knew how bad the situation is, it wouldn't stop us. This is a quirk that both I and Roxy developed recently.
Miria then reprimanded the both of us.
[That's right! What Raine-san is about to say is very important. You two better listen carefully!]
[ [ As if Miria has a say in it! ? ] ]
Truthfully speaking, she's just trying to throw us off. Even putting aside her other antics, her acting like she's above us all is a bit taxing on my patience. Even the usually sweet Roxy was annoyed by that.
This is the first time Roxy acted like that. And it's quite cool too.
Originally, there was Mugan who acted as her guardian, keeping her in check. But he is currently escorting Eris in investigating Rafal's base at the mountain city.
It's really hard without Mugan around.....I can say that for sure now.
Raine seemed to understand this, thus she grabbed Miria by the neck and threw her out of the lab.
[Eh, what? But why? Wait a minute. Raine-sa......n.....]
Raine shut the door and promptly locked it. Knowing she's been locked out from the lab, Miria could only look from behind the thick glass window attached to the door while crying her eyes out.
Raine ignored it then came back to us.
[The obstacle has disappeared. I can talk with ease now. When Miria's around, the topic would always get derailed, and we won't see the end of it.]
[Aah...I can agree with that.]
[Me too...]
This time, no one voiced their pity toward Miria. It's been decided unanimously, that she needs to leave.
Glancing sideway, I saw Miria watching at us with begging eyes like abandoned kitten. I shouldn't be bothered... it's becoming peaceful thanks to this.
Raine again passed the door while ignoring Miria. She returned to fetch her equipments.
Shortly after, she's back with a trolley carrying a glass containing green liquid. The gray arm was in that glass container.
[This is, the fellow from the previous day.]
[That's right. Because it's an important sample, it has to be preserved so as not to let it decay. Allow me?]
Raine showed a shimmering smile as she asked for our consent to begin her analysis. She then looked at the monster's hand inside the container with vivid interest.
Meanwhile Roxy had a deadpan face. Perhaps I did too.
[By the way, have you found out what kind of monster that arm was belonged to?]
[Of course! But don't be surprised when you hear it]
She then resumed staring at the arm intently. Me and Roxy raised our voice so that she would resumed the talk.
[ [ Tell us, quick! ] ]
[Okay okay, no need to make such a loud noise.]
Raine put the so called precious sample back to the desk, and started explaining.
[This is the result of the analysis. This arm belonged to an ancient monster thought to have gone extinct more than a thousand years ago. I couldn't find a match when comparing to the currently existing monsters. But, when I compared it to a fossil excavated from Gallia, Bingo! There is a match.]
[An extinct ancient monster...]
Something surfaced back in my mind, back at the place called Green Valley on Gallia―― the only green oasis on the devastated land, I remember seeing a certain monster
It was silently sleeping forever at the bottom of the valley. Greed said that the strange looking monster could not be compared to any of the modern monsters...
[Why did such an ancient monster appear on hobgoblin forest?]
[I don't know about that. But this monster is called Goblin Shaman. This came from the data obtained from Gallia's ancient ruin. Who would've thought that the data will be useful in this occasion.]
Whilst saying so, she turned around to operate the equipment. Soon, the display showed a large picture of a monster.
It wears a head ornament which appear to made from rockbird's feather. And on its hand is a big shakujo (TL note: staff with metal rings on it, usually carried by wandering monk).
Its size is larger than normal goblin, but smaller than hobgoblin.
It was the eyes that concerned me the most. Instead of two like normal goblins, the goblin shaman had four.
[Such a creepy looking goblin...]
[Een...it is different alright.]
Me and Roxy had similar opinion about it.
Not only it's a creepy looking goblin, it also capable of casting a magic that even allows body switching.
Since it's an ancient monster, Raine said that it's no wonder that it can invoke lost mysterious arts that modern knowledge did not know of.
[Interesting, isn't it? If possible, not only the hand. I want a living sample of this goblin shaman as well.]
[That aside, did you find out how to cancel the magic?]
[Easy. I've checked the magic diagram that was drawn on the ground, and while it has slight differences, it's similar to the present day's magic diagram. Well, we have nothing that could switch body like this though.]
Raine smiled as she said how easy it is.
[But we have killed it]
[Is that really the case?]
[Well, for starter, it's a kind of curse. The caster must provide steady supply of magic power to maintain it. That fellow must be still alive somewhere keeping the curse on going.]
In the gloomy hobgoblin forest, I imagine a figure, having lost an arm, was chanting a curse.
The thought made me felt uncomfortable.
Now that I know the solution, I felt like wanting to rush ahead immediately. The matter regarding why such an ancient monster could reappear at this age could be considered later after the curse has been solved.
[Roxy, shall we go to the hobgoblin forest.....!?]
I called out to her, but her state is a bit strange. She had unusual amount of sweats on her forehead.
Calling my name was the best she could do before she fell down on the floor. When I checked her condition, it appeared that she had lost her consciousness.
Raine's countenance turned serious after checking on Roxy's condition. She immediately asked me to lay Roxy on the equipment that she always use to inspect me.
Has it been sufficiently long enough? All I can remember was what we've done since morning up until now couldn't even be considered as warming up.. I would usually rely on Greed's advice on times like this, but I had no way to communicate with him as I'm currently on Roxy's body.
When I heard the test result, I was stunned.
[That thing you already know so well.....it's happening to her soul.]
[Could it be.....?]
[The starvation state of the Gluttony skill. It appear that her soul could not cope with an impulse so strong. That's why she's unconscious.]
Raine said, because I was born with Gluttony skill, I had some amount of resistant to it.
Furthermore, I had Luna protecting my soul. She helps me relieve some amount of starvation emitted by the Gluttony skill. All those had allowed me to keep my sanity.
But that's not the case with Roxy.
Now that I think about it, considering the trend with Gluttony skill.....after killing the Tenryu...the starving state must be even more intense than before.
Thinking so, I felt my hair rose up.
Raine had remained level-headed despite the severity of the state.
[You need to kill the goblin shaman before the symptoms get worse. At this rate, Roxy's soul won't last long. I'll take care of her for as long as possible.]
However, I already had someone who could help this situation in mind.
[No, I'm taking Roxy to the Barbatos mansion for now. Can you meet us there?]
[Eh!? But why.....?]
[I'm sorry, but I'm going ahead.]
[Hey, wait!]
I didn't answer, and instead lifted the limp body of the unconscious Roxy outside.
Miria who had been waiting outside worriedly did not say anything this time. She instead quietly followed me to the Barbatos mansion. Fortunately she's someone who could read this kind of situation properly.
I have to hurry.....Mimir was still at the Barbatos mansion. With her help, Roxy will definitely be saved for the time being.