“Bell isn’t playing hide and seek! Bell is running away!”
The baby, who introduced themselves as Bell, puffed up their cheeks and wagged their tail wildly.
“Then why are you here?”
“I ran away!”
“From where?”
“I don’t know!”
Bell smiled brightly at me, looking genuinely happy.
Panting heavily, they really did seem like a little puppy.
The chain around their neck made them look like a slave.
‘…Wait, does that mean Bell too?!’
According to the books, when beastmen are turned into slaves, their brains are damaged using a certain plant, and they are forced into all sorts of things.
That means Bell, who is both a beastman and a slave, might have…?
Now that I looked closer, their whole body was covered in wounds.
Their arms were full of bruises, and even though the chain around their neck was slightly loose, their skin was red and irritated.
Upon closer inspection, it seemed to be a handprint—meaning someone had strangled them.
Their legs were slightly swollen, likely from a fracture.
Now that I thought about it, even after coming out of the box, Bell hadn’t been able to stand properly and was crawling on all fours.
“Bell, are you okay?”
“Nope, Bell is not okay! It hurts!”
Bell grinned as they said they were in pain.
“But Bell is happy right now! Because Bell ate yummy fruit!”
“Fruit?”
“Yeah! There was a lot inside the box!”
I turned to look at the now-empty wooden cube that Bell had crawled out of.
“So there were fruits inside this?”
“Yeah, they were tasty!”
That seemed like an incredibly expensive luxury item… What should I do about this?
Even if someone had stolen them with bad intentions, Bell was just an innocent child who didn’t know any better.
If they were enslaved at such a young age, they probably never received a proper education.
Yet despite that, they could still smile so purely—it made me feel both happy and sad.
To understand Bell’s past before they arrived at the castle, I asked several questions.
I needed to know what kind of being they were and where they came from in order to decide whether I could help them.
“Bell, where did you come from?”
“I… don’t know…!”
Bell’s expression suddenly shifted as if they had realized something huge.
I was a bit taken aback, but I kept my smile and moved on to the next question.
“Hmm, then do you have a family?”
“I did!… My family… I left them behind…”
The tail that had been wagging so enthusiastically drooped instantly.
“…Sniff… I miss them…”
Seeing Bell on the verge of tears, I reached out and patted their head.
“It’s okay. We can go see them.”
“…Really? I can see them?”
“Yeah, I’m sure you can.”
If I begged my dad, maybe he would make it happen.
“Bell, are you really sure you don’t remember where you came from?”
“…I don’t know… A prison? I woke up in a place like that!”
Bell’s drooping tail suddenly started wagging rapidly.
They seemed happy to have remembered something.
“At night, at night, I was working and then I ran away! Bam! Bam! Bullets were flying at me, but the moon told me to dodge!”
The moon?
“The moon?”
“Yeah, the moon told me!”
Bell giggled.
How on earth did the moon tell them anything?
I stared at Bell, skeptical, and as if sensing my doubt, their eyebrows furrowed in frustration.
“…But it’s true!”
Then, with trembling arms that couldn’t fully extend, they shakily drew a large circle in the air.
“S-Suddenly, the moon became full! And then it told me!”
Seeing Bell trying so hard to endure the pain, I quickly nodded and gestured to show I understood.
Only then did Bell smile and lower their arms.
‘…If the full moon suddenly appeared… is it the GM?’
I hurriedly opened Bell’s status window.
[Entity Name: Bell]
[Species: Wolf Beastman]
[Lv.15]
[Strength: 4(11)]
[Magic: 8]
[Intelligence: 3(5)]
[Stamina: 5(25)]
[Title: None]
[Status Effects: Fracture, Bleeding, Indigestion, Growth Impairment, Memory Impairment]
[This entity is currently weakened due to multiple injuries.]
[Pre-weakened stats are shown in parentheses.]
A rather cute-looking status window.
‘…W-Wait, intelligence before weakening was 5?’
Well, that’s about normal intelligence for a beastman Bell’s age.
Beastmen rely mostly on instincts until they become adults, so it’s not unusual.
Still, after seeing only stats for dragons, demon kings, and heroes, a normal status window looks so low in comparison.
‘This is normal! The opponent is just a baby beastman!’
I tried my best not to show my surprise.
‘Their stamina is a bit high. Though right now, they look like they’d collapse from a light push.’
Aside from stats, the status window showed a significant number of debuffs.
Fracture— a debuff that affects movement speed.
Since this is reality and not a game, it must come with pain as well.
Bleeding— a debuff that affects stamina, strength, and intelligence all at once.
This one definitely comes with pain, too.
Indigestion— a debuff that slows down health recovery if the character eats after being in a prolonged state of hunger.
This one must be making Bell’s stomach a bit uncomfortable.
Growth Impairment— a passive-type debuff.
It slows down magical growth and prevents the character from physically maturing past their childhood form.
Back in the game, this was a debuff that made everyone reset their character no matter what.
Memory Impairment— a debuff that makes it take much longer to learn skills.
Another must-reset debuff.
‘…How did this happen?’
I looked at Bell with a pitying gaze.
Completely oblivious to my thoughts, Bell just smiled brightly and wagged their tail rapidly from side to side.
– Swish! Swish!
And as if in response, my own tail started wagging along with theirs.
“But, little lizard, what’s your name?”
“Lizard?”
“Yeah! Lizard!”
Bell giggled and pointed at me.
It seemed they had mistaken my tail for that of a lizard’s.
I was about to laugh and tell them my name when—
“…A deer? A lizard?”
Bell suddenly got lost in their own world.
This time, it seemed they were mistaking me for a deer because of my horns.
Even when I tried to explain, Bell waved their hand as if to say, “I got this!” and fell deep into thought.
Crossing their arms and puffing out their cheeks, Bell’s tail began to slow down.
After some time had passed—
“Ah! I got it!”
Bell’s tail suddenly stood straight up like an exclamation mark.
At this point, I was genuinely curious—what kind of conclusion had they reached?
“Salamadeer! Maji!”
Bell’s eyes sparkled with confidence.
It seemed to be a combination of “salamander” and “deer.”
Such pure, childlike innocence.
I smiled at Bell and formed an “X” with my arms.
“Wrong!”
“Eh?!”
Bell’s eyes went wide.
They looked so much like a puppy—it was unbelievably cute.
Now, it was time to tell them the correct answer.
“The correct answer is Dragon!”
“Dragon?!”
“Yep, Dragon!”
“W-Wooow!”
Bell’s tail started wagging wildly.
“R-Really a dragon?! A real dragon?!”
“Bell has never seen a dragon before! So cool!”
“I saw one in a storybook!”
“Dragons are so awesome!”
Bell began to shower dragons with compliments, saying they were strong, beautiful, and shiny.
When I plucked off a loose scale from my tail and handed it to them, Bell bounced up and down in excitement.
“Ahh!”
Then, suddenly, Bell collapsed onto the ground.
“Bell?!”
“Ugh… It hurts…”
They whimpered as they licked their own injured leg.
The wounds on Bell’s swollen leg had festered and turned a bluish-green color.
“…Bell, are you sure your leg is okay?”
“N-No… it’s not okay…”
Bell’s ears trembled.
The pain must have been severe— even as they licked their wound, they let out small whimpers, as if afraid of the pain itself.
‘Maybe… I can heal them?’
I had already managed to save Sister Emila.
If I borrowed just a little more power this time, wouldn’t I be able to heal Bell too?
That thought crossed my mind.
“Golden Sister, can you do it?”
I immediately called out to Golden Sister, and a status window appeared before my eyes.
[The King says there’s no reason you can’t do it.]
[To avoid burdening you, the King sends an appropriate recovery skill.]
As the message ended—
[Title: Child of the Emperor has been activated.]
[Skill: Emperor’s Blessing has been activated.]
[Title: Child of the Emperor has borrowed a skill.]
[Skill: Hand of Salvation has been acquired.]
[The user’s specs are sufficient for use.]
[Temporary skill borrowing has been upgraded to permanent acquisition.]
‘What?!’
A dazzling light flashed, and I felt a sudden dizziness.
Just as I was reeling from the unexpected changes—
[The King winks and calls it a gift.]
[Encourages you to make good use of this top-tier healing skill.]
Golden Sister proudly declared that this was a gift from her.
“…Thank you!”
[The King squeals in delight.]
[Grins, saying, This is why raising an apostle is so fun.]
She was practically overjoyed at my pure gratitude.
It seemed that gods were surprisingly simple and held deep affection for their creations.
But enough chit-chat.
I turned my attention to the skill now in my possession.
[Hand of Salvation]
[Borrows divine power to remove any status ailment.]
[A skill that saves even the soul— it can heal congenital disabilities.]
[However, it cannot be used on the caster.]
Of course.
There was no way I could use such an overpowered skill on myself.
A little disappointing, but with this, I could heal Bell.
I looked at Bell, who lay weakly on the ground, whimpering in pain.
They seemed to be hurting so much that they had stopped licking their wounds altogether, instead just looking at me helplessly.
“Does it hurt a lot?”
“…Yeah, it hurts… it’s hard…”
“I’ll fix it.”
I moved closer and plopped down beside them.
“You’ll feel better soon.”
[Skill: Hand of Salvation is activated!]
—Kwaaaa!
The skill turned out to be much more dramatic than I had expected.
A divine beam of light pierced through the ceiling, descending upon Bell.
The moment it touched them, all their wounds began to heal.
And before long—
“Huh?”
“It doesn’t hurt anymore!”
Bell’s energy returned in an instant.
“Hehe, thank you, Draggy!”
“Whoa—!”
Bell suddenly pounced on me, enthusiastically licking my cheeks.
Idk what’s happening but I’ll just enjoy the comedy