By Zephyria ========
〔Medicine shouldn’t taste good, Pruru.〕
“Who decided that?”
〔Chemistry did.〕
The foul smell gradually grew stronger. Silver pinched his nose and turned away from Starry eyes. His vision blurred. He felt as if God had deemed it insolent for a Stohl person to dare remain virginal until the age of twenty and had thus handed down a punishment. An aggravated punishment, at that.
However.
“Hey, Starry eyes. That Type 1 you mentioned earlier? What is that?”
〔Type 2—meaning, male mutants capable of conceiving a spruce tree.〕
“Huh?”
Silver frowned. What on earth was this about?
“I thought it didn’t matter as long as they were a man?”
〔No. Only Type 1s can get a spruce tree pregnant.〕
“There are mutants like that? I’ve never heard of them.”
〔Yes, they are a type that doesn’t often catch people’s eyes. However, according to the information in my storage, the probability of birth is similar to other mutants.〕
Silver started to ask for more details about Type 1 but decided to put it off. There was a more pressing problem at hand.
“If the birth probability is similar to other mutants, that means they’re ultimately rare. I doubt there’s someone like that in a pirate village. There’s no need to go as far as taking this medicine…”
As the smell intensified, he truly didn’t want to take the medicine. To the point where he felt like he had gone back to the time when Black Weasel approached him with a string wrapped around his finger, claiming he was going to pull out his baby teeth. I hate things that taste bad! I’m a gourmet, despite how I look!
〔Reproductive Prevention Drug preparation complete! Pruru, time to take your medicine!〕
Finally, Starry eyes flew over, clutching a tin cup with his green forepaws. Silver held his breath and scooted back.
“Starry eyes, no matter how much I think about it, there’s no way a Type 1 or whatever is here. So, I’m not taking it. I’m not an idiot who burns down a perfectly good house because he’s scared of transparent ghosts.”
〔You must take it, Pruru. In a crisis situation, risk factors must be eliminated as much as possible. It’s a basic rule.〕
〔Safety first! Minimum regret!〕
Starry eyes thrust the tin cup right up to Silver’s mouth.
〔This Reproductive Prevention Drug is high-potency! It doesn’t even compare to the crude contraceptives secretly brewed by human specimens!〕
〔A single dose suppresses the cycle for two months! It works the same for general female specimens as well as both male and female mutants!〕
“Listen…”
Silver opened his mouth to speak but closed it again. Starry eyes’ crooked bonnet came into view. The white apron, which was always kept clean with the fastidious pride characteristic of a chef fairy, was stained in various colors from crushing berries and leaves.
I… can’t refuse!
“Fine, I’ll drink it. Whatever… Thunder wouldn’t be defeated by something like this…”
Silver pinched his nose so hard that tears welled up. With his other hand, he snatched the cup and poured it into his mouth before he could change his mind. It tasted as if muddy boots had been ground up and boiled. His tongue writhed violently like a struck orca, but he endured it and drained the cup to the bottom.
“I drank it all! Praise me!”
Silver turned the tin cup upside down and shook it. Not a single drop fell. Starry eyes buzzed around, clapping his forepaws.
〔Full dosage intake complete! Reproductive risk safely reduced for two months!〕
〔Warning. On average, abdominal discomfort is reported in two out of ten subjects. Sufficient hydration is requested.〕
“Was there no report of the tongue rotting?”
Silver tossed the tin cup aside and flopped onto his back. Starry eyes placed his forepaws on his temples and landed on Silver’s chest.
〔Indexing… Indexing…〕
〔No matching records! Such a symptom has not been reported. You can be relieved about the integrity of your tongue, Pruru.〕
“…Thanks. I’ll sleep soundly now.”
Silver closed his eyes. After taking the dog-shit tasting contraceptive, it finally felt real. It would start as early as tomorrow.
A battle not against anyone else, but against himself.
〔You can think of it as becoming like someone who has taken an aphrodisiac.〕
When Silver asked what happened during the Rut, Starry eyes explained it that way.
〔It goes beyond just wanting to have intercourse; your head becomes filled with nothing but thoughts of the partner’s genitals. Your expressions and behavior also become strange.〕
Silver had encountered several idiots during his travels who mixed animal aphrodisiacs into alcohol to liven up orgy parties. Fuck, so am I going to be crying and whining with a flushed face, saying ‘cock, please fuck me’? Blegh!
I’ll win! I’ll win!
After shouting “I’ll win!” five times, Silver fell fast asleep.
* * *
The next day.
As soon as he woke up in the morning, Silver solemnly put on a gag and tied a bib around his neck. Looking like something between a fierce fighting dog and a baby eating weaning food, he sat and waited for his body to transform into an angry volcano.
Lust did not explode throughout the entire morning. The forest was silent, save for the sound of rolling fallen leaves. After lunch, stomach acid exploded in his gut.
“Good.”
Silver removed the gag and spoke.
“I’ll have brunch first and then resume the battle. Don’t worry, Starry eyes. The beast inside me won’t interfere with my meal.”
After filling his stomach, he put the gag back on.
Even when the moon rose high in the sky, the beast in his lower body did not wake. At Starry eyes’ earnest plea, he fell asleep that night while wearing the gag.
The following day.
Still no sign of lust today.
His physical condition was annoyingly perfect. Unable to bear the boredom, Silver scrubbed Starry eyes’ bonnet and apron in the stream. In the afternoon, he spent his time counting the crows flying in the sky.
The third day.
Overriding Starry eyes’ desperate opposition, he did not wear the gag or bib.
The beast in his lower body slept soundly all morning. Out of boredom, he asked Starry eyes about Type 1 mutants, and this was the answer he received.
〔There is no way to identify a Type 1 by appearance.〕
〔Like you, they have asexual tendencies in their teens. The biggest difference is early death. Most die in their early twenties.〕
“What, fuck? Why are you telling me this now! Those pirate bastards are all uncles in their thirties! I took the contraceptive for nothing!”
“They might look like uncles, but their actual age could be twenty, Pruru.”
“I already estimated them lower than their apparent age at thirty. But I’ve felt this for a while, your group seems to know a lot about Stohl people. Do you happen to know how many types of mutants exist that even Stohl people don’t know about?”
〔I am an external tool in charge of the kitchen, Pruru. The amount of information in my internal storage is limited and brief, so a detailed answer is difficult.〕
〔To put it simply, the records of congenital mutations classified by our domain while observing the Stohl human target group are at least 7,400 types.〕
〔If you include diseases, deformities, and constitutional abnormalities, it exceeds 10,000 types.〕
“…Were there that many disabled people in Stohl?”
〔Hearing only the numbers, you might misunderstand that the ratio of defective specimens is high, but that figure refers to the number of mutation types, not the number of individuals.〕
〔Most survive asymptomatic or are naturally eliminated during the pre- or post-birth stages.〕
Even after hearing Starry eyes’ explanation, it didn’t feel real. At that rate, wasn’t it like winning a random prize from a loot box? And unfortunately, he was a symptomatic person who had won the right to wear a gag.
He didn’t dare ask Starry eyes any more questions. An old proverb came to mind: ‘Even if the crow cries, the deaf man sleeps.’
On this day too, lust remained quiet until late at night.
The fourth day.
As soon as he opened his eyes, Starry eyes approached with the gag and bib. Silver swatted them away without hesitation.
“I’m not doing it! Get rid of them!”
〔Pruru…〕
“My jaw is killing me, so why bother? Right now, I’m as pious as an Atania monk. Thoughts of male genitals? I don’t have a single one!”
〔They say the calm before the storm is the quietest. A powerful recoil will come, Pruru. It will be painful, but you must prepare.〕
“I’ll prepare when the lust burns.”
That day also passed piously.
* * *
The fifth day. Nothing happened.
The sixth day. Still nothing!
“Aaaaagh—!”
Silver kicked the air violently.
“Fuck, when is the lust going to explode—! I’m all ready to fight, so why isn’t the enemy invading! Why! Whyyyyy!”
〔Calm down, Pruru! I told you there are variations in the Rut interval for each person!〕
“Even so, this is too late! Too late!”
〔Don’t let your guard down! The Rut could hit suddenly!〕
Starry eyes held out the gag and bib side by side.
〔So put these on now, okay? What if you bite your tongue!〕
“Get rid of them! I’m not a baby waiting for weaning food! I’m not a fighting dog either!”
Silver wailed, clutching his head with both hands.
“I’d rather bite my tongue and die! How long do I have to wait! If I stay like this for one more day, I’m going to go crazy!”
By this point, Starry eyes also seemed to be getting suspicious. He suddenly placed both forepaws on his temples, let some time pass, and then spoke.
〔Pruru, they say the Rut is not delayed by more than four days.〕
106 – Hell’s Execution Order