[V1C11] Inside Human Skin
Translated by Jodas 1: The Wedge Tower(Good, it hasn’t cracked.)
Neither the small bottle from her bag, nor the candies inside, had a single crack in them.
Tia threw one of the candies in her mouth and immediately bit down. The candy was filled with syrup, and the sweet smell of flowers filled her whole mouth.
While biting down on the candy, Tia quickly removed her shirt, boots, and socks, then stuffed them into her bag.
Under her shirt was a simple piece of underwear that covered her chest. Wearing only that and a pair of shorts, she was very lightly dressed.
It wasn’t that she was feeling hot, but that if she didn’t do this, her clothes would tear.
Tia opened her mouth and made a voice from the bottom of her throat. She was practicing her voice.
“Pirororororo….Ahh…. AAAAHHHHH—”
It had been a long time, yet her throat still remembered how to sing.
Tia unconsciously smiled, and lifted both arms skywards.
The surface of her arms shook violently. Her shoeless bare feet warped and changed shape.
“AAAAHHHH—”
The pale feet of a young girl were covered by rough scales, and her toes and nails grew longer.
Her raised arms split open, and like a bug emerging from its cocoon, white wings sprung out from her arms.\ Large, beautiful, white wings—Only, they lacked their flight feathers.
“Ahhhhh—”
“AHH—AHH”
“Aaaa—AAAHHH”
In the girl’s voice, three of the same voice layered in differing pitches.
This throat could produce three sounds at the same time.
In the darkness, Tia’s eyes shone in a faint honey glow.
On the face of an innocent young girl arose the smile of joy from being liberated from a dull body. She voiced a song in an ancient language.
—The time of liberation has come, the time of liberation has come.
—Joy is our nourishment, the song of the skies fills our cup.
—Becoming a liquor to delight you.
Three voices layer atop each other, playing a discordant harmony.
Even without understanding the meaning of those words, anyone would sense that it was a song of jubilation.
The voice that sang filled with such joy, was both sweet and beautiful. Those who heard it would be pulled along with the charm and granted a sense of blind ecstasy.
A singing voice that could manipulate the ears and hearts of those who could hear; a monster with the face and body of a young girl and the wings and feet of a bird.
A Harpy of the Breakneck Gorge, Folulutia.
That was Tia’s true form.
Tia had lived deep in the mountains, even farther north from here, in a place called Breakneck Gorge.
But then one day, she had been captured by humans, and her flight feathers had been clipped.
Then she had been trapped in a cage, and forced to act as a songbird to comfort her owner with songs.
Flying through the sky and singing songs. Those were the greatest joys to a Harpy.
With her flight feathers stolen, Tia could no longer fly, and harbored intense hatred towards the humans who kept her prisoner. Then, when she finally fled from those humans, she was saved by a certain man.
That man told her:
“If you become a mage at the Wedge Tower and learn flight magecraft, you will be able to take to the skies once more.”
The man granted Tia a way to disguise herself as a human and a basic level of human knowledge, then sent her to the Wedge Tower’s entrance examination.
—Melt, melt, into my arms.
—Give me your body, and your kiss.
—And if I were to ask sweetly, your whisper.
The black werewolf lost its sanity to Tia’s song, and stood mindlessly.
(Ahh, how fun, how fun…… Being able to sing with everything I have is so fun.)
She would like to keep singing like this forever, but she didn’t have the time.
Tia could only remain in this form for a mere five minutes.
She still couldn’t read clocks very well yet, but she made sure to remember the feeling of five minutes. It was a short time that could go by in a flash.
Tia grabbed her bag with the human hand-shaped appendages on the end of her wings, and set it back across her body. It would be bad if she lost her candies and clothing.
Then, she ran back up the slope with intensity. She ran stiltedly without bending her legs, but it was much easier for Tia to run in this form than with human legs.
Her sharp claws dug into the earth, making a very different sound from human footsteps.
She ran up to the side of the mindless werewolf and reached the collapsed Wren and Sevil.
She grabbed both of their bodies with the hands on the ends of her wings and pulled them up.
Tia’s wings had no flight feathers. That’s why Tia couldn’t just fly away from here.
(I can’t fly, but…. If it’s just gliding….)
Tia grabbed tightly onto Wren and Sevil’s bodies with the claws on her feet. To harpies, the claws on their feet were their weapons, and they could grip far stronger than human hands.
Then, Tia flapped her wings, and sang.
Unlike the song of joy from before, this was a spirit song, dedicated to the sprits of wind.
It was common for spirits and monsters to be at odds with each other, but harpies and wind spirits were not enemies.
Wind spirits enjoyed receiving beautiful songs as offerings. Thus, when harpies offered them songs, they would occasionally lend their support.
(Thank goodness, there are spirits nearby.)
Formless lesser spirits sparkled faintly, gathering around Tia.
To these weak spirits, Tia dedicated a song.
(Lend me just a little bit of power, okay?)
The werewolf howled from behind her.
As the joyous song that made it lose its mind had ended, it had regained its sanity already.
“GGRRRROOWWWWLL!!”
Howling, the werewolf burst forwards, swinging its claws.
Tia opened her wings wide and, still holding on to Wren and Sevil, jumped off of the cliff.
The wind roared in her ears. She flapped her wings with all her strength, but Tia’s body didn’t gain any lift.
Ordinarily, harpies were able to fly even when carrying a whole cow. A load like Wren and Sevil shouldn’t be any hinderance to her flying at all. The only reason she couldn’t was because she was missing her flight feathers.
Even then, Tia stretched her wings out as far as they could go and faced the wind, slowing the speed of her fall as much as possible.
Just before she slammed into the ground, a strong wind blew, catching Tia and the rest in an invisible cushion. The wind spirits had given her their aid.
(Thank, goodness…..we, made it down……)
At that point, Tia’s feathers ruffled. Her wings shrunk involuntarily and returned into her arms.
The process was as painful as someone slicing her arms open and forcing foreign objects inside the wound.
Her feet similarly transformed from scaly birds’ feet to human feet.
“Agyuuuu, uaahhh, urgh, uuuu……”
In less than a minute, Tia’s form transformed from that of a harpy into a human girl.
The instant of transformation was incredibly painful, but as long as she could withstand that, the pain quickly receded.
“Haah, haah.” Tia exhaled with ragged breaths, while pulling her shirt and boots out of her bag and putting them back on. Humans can’t walk around with bare feet and underwear, after all.
(Is that werewolf gonna come down the cliff?)
With physical ability like that, it wasn’t impossible.
That meant she didn’t have time to hang around.
Tia tore off a reasonably long vine, lifted Wren and Sevil onto her back, and secured them to her body with the vine.
Tying ropes was very hard for her. That said, she made full use of her hands and mouth and managed to twist it together firmly.
(Mm, looks good.)
When she was a harpy, Tia’s arms had wings attached. Harpies could fly all night long with their powerful wings, so even when taking human form, her arm strength was much higher than a human’s.
So carrying Sevil and Wren should be easy for her…. or so she thought, as Wren’s small body slowly slipped out of place.
(Carrying people on piggyback is hard!)
Now that she thought about it, harpies never had to carry things on their backs. They had wings, after all. If they wanted to carry something, then they would either hold it with their mouth or grab it with their feet.
“Hmph!”
Hoisting up Wren’s leaning body, Tia swayed and waddled onwards.
She had left behind both of their bags and Sevil’s sword, but she’d apologize for that later.
Each of them had their Wedge Medals tucked under their clothing, so all they had to do was make it back to the meeting point by noon.
Harpies were bird monsters, but they didn’t have bird eyes. Monsters typically had excellent night vision.
Tia was no exception. She could see far better than humans even in darkness. Her sense of direction was also rather good, at least good enough to return to the meeting point without looking at the map.
(If I just keep walking, we should make it. But…..)
Tia twisted her neck and glanced at Wren and Sevil on her back.
Neither of them moved a muscle. They were still breathing, albeit with difficulty, but that’s all Tia could gather.
(What are you supposed to do when humans get hurt?)
Harpies were tough, and even if they were injured, they would recover far faster than humans.
So, such things as bandaging wounds and splinting limbs never occurred to Tia. She had no concept of first aid in the first place. If she was hurt, she would just go somewhere where the mana was denser and rest a while.
(Humans heal by sleeping… I think. So, it’s best not to wake them up. Yep.)
The Harpy wearing the skin of a person waddled through the forest at night.
Eventually, Tia remembered. The promise she had made to cooperate with Wren until each of them received a Wedge Medal.
By now, all of them already had their own Wedge Medals, so Tia had no reason to continue working with Wren or Sevil.
They were neither Tia’s sisters, nor members of her flock.
There was no reason for her not to just leave them here.
“Pirorororo…… Eh, whatever!”
She wasn’t able to come up with a clear answer, but her wanting to do something was reason enough for her.
Satisfied, Tia put more strength into her arms that carried the two of them.