Chapter 733 – Dangling Tree (1) DeepL

A tactile game for babies’ cognitive development.
I’m going to have some fun with it.

It sounds ridiculous, but I realized that adults would enjoy it as well.

-Mulkung.

Squeeze and unclench your hands and play with your chest.

Reaching, holding, pouring, and squeezing is a great physical activity.
In addition to physical development, it lowers the heart rate, which helps children feel calmer and improves sleep quality.

-Castings….
-Pinch!

Touching, stroking, and pinching the unresponsive bead’s large, white breasts.

The sweet-smelling milk squeezed back and forth like dough.

-Quack!

This time, I squeeze the udder with all my might.
A mesmerizing mass of fat squeezed between my fingers.

When I loosen my grip slightly, the ugly mammary returns to its original shape, still bearing my handprints.
The nipple, having recognized the male, twitches as if it wants to be squeezed once more, and the smell of flesh is thick in the air.

“Mmm.

This is a big deal.
I really can’t think of anything.

The tactile plaything, made for kings only, was so ecstatic to touch that he couldn’t think of anything but caresses.

“Why. Are you touching my breasts?”
“No?”
“It’s pointless to cover your ho’o. Both you and I will return to our magic powers, and isn’t it much better to wait for death as it is?”
“Then keep still.”
“Yes. Understood.”

This one is a complete machine.
It doesn’t react, it doesn’t give me anxiety.
He leans back in my arms, and doesn’t move when I touch his chest, even though I know he doesn’t want to.

“Raise your hand.”
“…Why?”
“Just listen.”
“Just isn’t a reason.”

Enough, I raised my arm and made him raise his hand.

-Flash.

“…Why do you make me raise my hand?”

Without resistance, I took off the hood of the raised hand to see what it was wearing.

It was the same butler’s suit he always wore when we met, albeit with a few tears.
The suit was open at the stomach, so that the morning dew pooled at his navel every time he looked at it.

His arms and collar were covered, while his chest was so heavily cupped that his white nipples stuck out into the air.
Beads wore a blank expression.

‘She’s dressed like this until the end.

I wonder what I was thinking before I lost my memory.
It wasn’t something I’d planned to do while touching her breasts, but then again, falling into Engahelo’s trap wasn’t such a bad idea.

Or maybe I was reading too much into it.
For now, I wrapped my arms around the orb, hugging him from behind to warm his cold body.

“……?”

Still a confused face.
I buried my nose in his backside and exhaled, the smell of his flesh making my nostrils flare.

What to say.
Compared to the nauseating smell of rotting dead wood around me, the smell of a seductive human female is a quality of life enhancer.

It smells like a freshly washed, badminton-playing woman.
It smells like lemon-scented body wash, with a hint of pheromones from sweat. …. The dreadlocks that stimulate male desire.

Before getting up and looking around. I hugged the orb and asked a few questions.

“Where am I?”
“…This is the Maw. It’s a compost bin. A graveyard of nameless trees, where the world’s tree breeding failed, and nameless trees fell.”

A compost bin.
The end of a dimension.

I touched my chest earlier, spreading out my magic, and the dimension was nowhere near the size of a normal dungeon or tower.

I can see a dead end, but there is no end.
An infinite maze with no entrance or exit.

“How do you know that?”
“…Because I was born here.”
“You were born here? Is this where the trees interbreed?”
“No. My memories began here. Until Angahero took them and gave them power…. I was no different than any of the old trees here.”

The orb was a test subject, too.
A dimensional reject from the World Tree’s failed experiment.

That would explain the concentration of magic in the air.

“There must be far more failures than successes among the shepherds.

The prototypes of fruits and vegetables that humans have modified for human consumption are more different than you might think.

Watermelons, cantaloupes, and other fruits were small and tasteless.
The myriad of species that have changed over the course of time would have been forgotten and abandoned.

Just like this one.

“It’s strange.

On this world line, where trees are no different than humans, the breeders of my world are the shepherds of my world.
And the byproducts that fall off are also visible and remain here.

‘If you think of the world tree as the pinnacle of the ecosystem, it’s no different from humans. You can actually consume it or…. There are multiple uses for world water.’

It was none of my business that I was treated as less than human.
If it weren’t for the orb, I wouldn’t even know this place existed.

“Marbles.”
“…….”
“Hey.”
“What?”
“Why aren’t you after me now?”

Marbles looked up and glared at me.
Unlike her playful, mean-spirited self, the quiet, black-haired girl somehow looked cute and true.

“Engahero’s purpose has been fulfilled, and mine as well, as my contract with him is broken. I have lost my utility.”
“You mean abandoned.”
“Something like that.”
“Not similar, but abandoned forever?”
“Is that right?”
“Sort of.”

The bead looked completely unshocked.
Even the mightiest of nations answer without bias or preconceived notions.

“Which means you just betrayed me.”
“Betrayed? You mean me?”
“If not you, then who?”
“I didn’t betray you.”

He touches a nerve.
I nervously squeeze her nipple, and the beads crinkle at the corners of her eyes.

“It hurts.”
“I said it hurts.”

I crushed the top of the sand castle I’d built on the beach with the tips of my fingers.
Fingers buried in flesh, tangled with the sweat that pooled on her nipples, making them sticky, teasing her squeezed areolas and nipples.

“Where are the memories?”
“What memories are you talking about?”
“Memories of me.”
“The only memories I have of you are of fighting with you.”
“What memories do you have of him?”
“Same thing.”

I wondered if it would react differently if I said my name, but apparently not.

I don’t think he has any memories from the time he was conscious.

“Do you remember the sun or Aori?”
“Who are you?”
“That’s right, you’re just a tin can that doesn’t know anything.”

There’s a problem with this.
If Engahelo can control your consciousness and swap memories in and out like an external memory, there’s no way to recover them.
The best chance we have of getting the orb back is that…. The only indication that the orb’s succession of memories would be to temporarily forget the last few years.

“Do you know me?”
“I do. I was your servant, and you betrayed me.”
“I don’t remember that.”
“The gun you used to fight with didn’t fire at will, did it?”

Shortly before he escaped from our forces. The orb disassembled the artifact on its own.
When I asked him about it, he replied dryly.

“How did you know?”
“It’s the proof. Before you were separated from me, you dismantled your own weapon, knowing you would betray us.”
“It was most likely a simple malfunction. Your story seems to be somewhat exaggerated, perhaps even distorted.”
“You don’t even listen to me, do you?”
“Oh. It hurts. It hurts.”

She pulls out a red nipple and squeezes it as if she’s going to peel away the grime.

Without changing her expression, the bead screamed out in pain.

-Snap.

This time, I stuck my fingers in my mouth and rubbed them against my inner cheeks, trying to clean off the little bit of blood. The bead stretched its cheeks and looked at me with strange eyes.

Still so different from the face I knew.

“Bead.”
“…….”
“Hey.”
“Yes.”
“Smile. Out loud.”

Bead gave him a questioning look.

“I don’t know why.”
“Smile anyway. Phew. Like this.”
“Phew, hee, hee?”

Fuck.

“Forget it.”
“…It’s unfair.”
“Do you feel unfair again? My heart is the saddest, bitch. My heart that went down with you to save you. Huh?”

I got up and took a look around.
As I thought about it, the bead paused and spat out the words.

“I… feel… sadness.”

It sounded a little muffled.

“To die without knowing the language of flowers. Sad to be stuck in this dark compost bin, living a life of no meaning.”

The damn flower language.
Even when she was sane, Gourry’s obsession with flower words was considerable.

Come to think of it, she hadn’t followed Engahero to learn flower names.

“You risk your life for nothing.”
“Correction.”
“Why.”
“To the Forgotten Shepherd, flower words are the reason for existence, the purpose of life. How much do you know about those of us who wait on our deathbeds without knowing our species?”
“So you followed the old man? What did you get out of it?”
“…….”

In the end, they found neither the seeds nor the flowers.
I don’t know if Angajero knew the bead’s species, but it’s funny how it was used and then thrown away.

The orb was silent.

“Still. Please correct me.”

Unlike before, there was a hint of emotion in her voice.
I shrugged unnecessarily at the wistfulness in her voice, as if she had forgotten herself.

“I wanted to know.”
“What’s that?”
“Because it’s what you live for.”

Frustrating.
I gulped, straining at the arm that hugged the bead.

The bead’s body, now lukewarm enough, still looked lonely.

“Is the old man still your master?”
“No, not now that the connection has been severed. It follows no one but itself, waiting for death.”
“Then follow me for a while.”
“Why?”
“Who knows, maybe that’s the way to get your tree species or flower language back?”

Wham- the bead’s head snapped around.
The way she squinted her dry eyes through her bared breasts was mysterious, like looking at an ancient, forgotten humanoid golem.

“You were my enemy. Common sense would not expect you to give me back my life.”
“Then you can look it up here.”
“…….”

When I see a straw, I grasp it.
Even the most emotionless marbles would have known that there was no animosity in my behavior.

It didn’t care what species or flower it was.
The orb opened its dry mouth and asked me.

“…Do you know my species?”
“I do.”

Its eyes widened.
I could see my face reflected in those sparkling jewel-like eyes.

With such a passionate gaze, the bead stuttered and asked.

“…Well, let’s go.”
“Is it that important, asshole?”
“It matters.”

I’d been used by Angajero all my life, hanging on to that one nutritious name.

I wiped my hands on my hips in disgust.

“Your hands are cold.”
“Touch it.”

He pinched my hand and placed the bead on his chest.
I laughed at the momentum that seemed to give me both body and soul.

-Crackle.

I squeeze a little harder, but she doesn’t say anything.
He pinched her nipple until she could feel the pain, but this time, the bead held it in.

“It’s a species, I know.

I don’t know if Engaero knows the species of the beads.
I was born with the ability to recognize the species at a glance.

An innate ability I possessed… before I acquired the Spirit King’s factor.
A power I recognized the first time I saw her.

I said her name to the bead that glared at me.

“Dangdang Inamu.”

That’s your tree species.
Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open in disbelief.

The answer came quickly.

“……Where in the world is there a tree like that?”
“Huh?”

How could a tree be named a dangdang tree.
Come to think of it, I thought the same thing when I first heard it.

It’s an answer I never expected to hear coming out of a bead’s mouth.