Thanks for the Invite, I'm on Terra, and I'm a Parasite

It's definitely not because I had to consider your nowhere-to-place sympathy, Mr. Goooood Guy~

[Don't use that teasing tone when you're acting tsundere. And even for a tsundere, this is way too cliché.]

[Still... thanks, Laurentina.]

"Um... Painter? Was I talking too much—"

Seeing Laurentina remain silent, Anita timidly shrank back.

"How could that be?"

Coming back to her senses, Laurentina answered with a gentle smile.

"But... people here don't like it when I talk too much..."

"Is that so? But I think lively girls are cuter."

Zuo Jian answered in Laurentina's stead.

At the same time, he crouched down and pinched Anita's slightly grimy little face.

"Cuter? What does that mean?"

The girl looked at Laurentina in confusion.

"By the way, Painter, your eyes are so pretty. They're like sapphires."

"Laurentina" rubbed Anita's head again.

"Really? You like my eyes?"

"Mhm, they're even prettier than the glowing scales by the sea."

"Then that's what cute means. Being liked by others means you're cute."

"Being liked... cute... Huh? But Painter, you said I was cute."

Anita pointed at herself.

"Painter, did you say it wrong?"

But the other party merely shook her head, then stood and said,

"Not at all. Why do you think you're liked by others?"

"Because everyone says I'm too noisy."

"Does that mean everyone is always right?"

"Um... I don't know, Painter. I feel like I don't quite understand what you're saying."

"Is that so? How about I draw you a picture later?"

"A... a picture of me?"

"Look, only things people like get drawn."

"If I draw little Anita, doesn't that mean little Anita is a child people like?"

"It sounds... it sounds like that's right. Painter, you're so smart!"

Anita looked at Laurentina before her. She had never been this excited before.

"Then can Painter draw herself into it too?"

Laurentina froze for a moment, then asked with a smile,

"Why?"

"Because Painter is really liked too. Oh, no, I should say Painter is really cute too!"

"I've never seen eyes as beautiful as yours."

"Sure, no problem. But first, I need to find the Grandma Petra you mentioned. I'll have time after I ask her some questions."

"I'll show you the way, Painter! You don't know this, but our place is actually really big. You can get lost if you're not careful. I'll lead the way, and we'll reach Grandma Petra's house really soon."

"Bench, wait here for me, okay? I'll come back after I show Painter the way."

"And don't just take other people's things."

After reminding the boy, Anita skipped over to Laurentina.

Say, do those eyes of yours have some strange ability? Why does that kid keep praising your eyes? She even said you're pretty.

[? Isn't this your face? Aren't you happy she's calling you pretty?]

But when I talked to her just now, she looked really scared!

So it really is because of your eyes, isn't it?! Do blue pupils get some kind of affinity bonus?!

[First of all, my eyes weren't blue to begin with. They're blue on you probably because you swallowed some Seaborn blood, so they got stained.]

[If I wanted to, changing them to any other color wouldn't be a problem,]

[I could even make them do something like color-changing lights.]

[Second, if we're talking about why I have high affinity, it's probably because I'm good at coaxing and looking after children.]

[Of all age groups.]

"All... age groups? Why did you specifically mention that?"

Laurentina frowned and thought about it.

[Mhm.]

..

I'm not a child!!!!!!!

[Mhm.]

Don't treat me like a child!!!

[Alright, alright, no problem. Not a child. You're a grown lady.]

The hem of her skirt rose without warning and patted Laurentina's head.

Damn it, you bastard, aren't you still treating me like a child?!

(I like girls like Anita from the anniversary story—girls who remain positive despite being in such a terrible environment.)

(But suffering should never be glorified. What should be glorified is the spirit within people that lets them face suffering.)

(And toward Anita, what I feel more than anything is heartache.)

(But it's fine. It's fanfiction, after all. It should differ from the original work.)

(And the traditional ways of helping villagers escape suffering are already outdated.)

Lu

6

2

Liu

Ridge

0

Ba

2

?

(I'm going to try something new!)

Liberation? You Deserve It?

By the time Laurentina and Anita reached the outskirts of the village, Zuo Jian hadn't been idling around either. At the edge of the coastline, three little cuties disguised as hunting hounds were still waiting for him to deal with.

"Grandma Petra always says that when she was young, she was someone truly remarkable around here. Lots of people in the city respected her. Anyway, she was the kind of amazing person everyone liked!"

"Is that so? Then I'm really looking forward to—"

"Huh? Singer, why have your eyes turned red again?" Anita turned around and saw that Laurentina's pupils had returned to that clear shade of red.

Laurentina froze. Why was this child so fixated on her eyes???

"Ahem, actually, this is a special talent that people from outside have. Like how, under certain circumstances, our pupils can change characteristics and things like that."

Laurentina began making things up with a guilty conscience.

For some reason, Laurentina had suddenly asked Zuo Jian to stay inside the body and let her interact with Anita personally.

Maybe it was some strange sense of competitiveness, perhaps.

[That said, is it really okay for you to casually describe the outside world like that? Aren't you afraid she'll develop some strange fantasies?]

You're so annoying! Then tell me what I should've done!

[? If it were me, this situation wouldn't have happened in the first place. My eyes were blue from the start, and I wouldn't have gotten bored enough to change their color in front of her just for fun.]

Zuo Jian's reply was a direct match killer!

[Need help? It's obvious you're not very good at dealing with girls this young. Well, that's understandable...]

No need! She's just some little brat. Of course I can handle her!!!

Laurentina seemed very eager to prove herself... which wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Anyway, given the current situation, a local little girl probably wouldn't have any particularly important information to provide. Letting Laurentina interact with her in her own way wasn't a bad thing either.

Still, he was rather concerned about the Grandma Petra Anita kept mentioning.

The insight possessed by an elder who had witnessed who knew how many different kinds of people in this world wasn't something to be overlooked.

Even if she happened to have dementia or something, the slight abnormalities displayed when they casually switched control of the body could very well expose his existence.

Although, given the current situation, there was practically nothing that could pose a threat to them even if his existence were exposed, there was no need to take unnecessary risks.

The place they were in wasn't somewhere they knew inside and out.

The Church of the Deep had been wiped out, but what if—what if there was still something hidden?

Laurentina could rely on Zuo Jian, but who could Zuo Jian rely on?

Caution would never let him down.

Helping the unfortunate was naturally something he intended to do, but only if it didn't put his little shark in danger.

Zuo Jian watched Laurentina struggle to communicate with Anita—or perhaps simply struggle to keep up with the girl's nonstop chatter and train of thought.

For now, it seemed she wouldn't need him.

Then...

He linked part of his consciousness to the depths of his mind, then synchronized with that newly appeared "door."

The sensation was extremely strange.

It was as though his limbs had received an invisible extension. Laurentina, the main body, was clearly right here, yet he could touch somewhere much farther away.

The nerves of his pupils began to connect. Then, on the coastline beyond Saltwind City—

Three hunting hounds lying on the beach, gazing blankly at the setting sun, suddenly stood up in unison.

They suddenly pressed tightly together. Their fur vanished, their flesh merged, and in the end, they gathered into a humanoid outline.

Of course, it was only a humanoid outline.

Only one pupil opened on its face. As for why there was only one...

The other one was on Laurentina's chest.

It was serving as a brooch, while also observing her interactions with Anita.

Zuo Jian experienced the feeling of possessing a body he could freely control for the first time. Within it were the consciousnesses of countless people he had devoured. They intertwined and merged, eventually becoming the "commands" that drove this mass of flesh forward.

So these were the impurities he had sensed at the beginning...