Thanks, I'm on Terra, I'm a Parasite

Laurentina really was...

Was she relying on me too much? This wouldn't be a good thing if it continued.

Just thinking about how anxious and panicked Laurentina looked whenever she woke up and couldn't see him...

Her dependence was undoubtedly abnormal, pathological... Logically speaking, from their time together, Zuo Jian didn't think Laurentina was someone with such a severe lack of independence.

The essential qualities an Abyssal Hunter should possess surely included strong independent judgment and adaptability.

[Was it... from the very beginning? Laurentina had already been in an extremely unstable state then. Rather than completely soothing her mental trauma, had my appearance caused it to develop in another direction?]

[I really need to find a way to solve this problem—]

As he contemplated in silence, a sound suddenly came from outside the dilapidated house.

Tap.

The corner of Zuo Jian's mouth curled up.

["He" has returned.]

[There's no rushing Laurentina's issue. Something like this needs to be adjusted and changed step by step. At the very least... before that, I really should stay with her.]

He briefly returned to Laurentina's mind and looked at the little shark sleeping soundly on the bed.

He stepped forward and gently stroked her head.

[But now, it's time to handle business.]

Strips of fabric extended outward, eyes growing at their tips. They reached out the window and looked at the wooden crate set outside the door.

As well as the figure kneeling beside it.

"Ugh—Aaaah—Kill... kill me... kill me..."

The figure let out an indistinct howl. He crawled to the corner, his pleading gaze humble as a dog's as he begged,

"Please... kill me... kill me!!!"

"Let me die... let me die..."

[Bishop Quintus, I never expected your will to be tougher than I imagined.]

"Quintus... I... Right... I'm Quintus... No... I... I don't want to... Please... please! Spare me! I'll repent, please! I don't want to—"

The figure struggled on his knees, his face now writhing madly like a twisted lump of flesh.

One moment, it became the gentle-looking nun; the next, it became the numb face of that one-eyed middle-aged man.

His face kept changing as he tried to piece together... the face that had originally belonged to him from his memories...

Yet the more he did so, the more twisted and grotesque the place where his face should have been became.

[What's so bad about this, Bishop Quintus? Compared to Bishop Lai Ke, at least your memories can still be preserved by us.]

[Your consciousness is being torn apart bit by bit and stripped from your original body. At the same time, the portions removed are being reshaped by me into entirely new... independent consciousnesses that I can command.]

[Look, you can even watch this child being nurtured—don't you think that's wonderful?]

Zuo Jian stepped forward and touched Quintus with a tentacle.

The body swiftly split open at the neck, and flesh and blood pushed out from within, forming a new head.

It bore the nun's face, though it had been adjusted slightly from before.

The faint resemblance to Laurentina had been erased, making it less excessively perfect—not like a doll, but more like a living person one might see every day.

The girl's face appeared beside Quintus's terrified head, whose features could no longer even be considered human.

His lips sat on his forehead, his two eyes had been pressed where his ears should be, and the rest could no longer maintain even a basic shape, merely writhing chunks of flesh.

[Look. From your flesh to your soul, every part of you is atoning for what you've done.]

[Watching your consciousness gradually become nourishment that gives birth to a purer new individual—don't you think that is also a—]

[Transformation and rebirth?]

"Aah—wo... hhaa... riaa..."

[You can't even speak anymore? That's all right. I look forward to speaking with you again after your transformation.]

[But before that, I still need you to do a few things for me.]

Zuo Jian opened a mouth on that tentacle and revealed a demonic smile.

"Ah—"

Laurentina opened her eyes.

Morning sunlight had already streamed through the window and fallen beside her bed.

For some reason, she had slept exceptionally peacefully last night.

Was it because of Zuo Jian?

"Zuo Jian, by the way, did you get enough rest?"

She lowered her head and glanced at the brooch on her chest.

"Zuo Jian?"

[Good morning, Laurentina. Looks like you slept very well last night.]

The eye on the brooch opened and looked at her somewhat helplessly.

"Hehe, because locking someone by my side somehow lets me feel at ease. Then I won't wake up in the morning and, and discover that someone ran off in the middle of the night and left me ignored in a corner."

As she spoke, Laurentina raised her chin, and there even seemed to be a little... excitement in her voice.

[That sounds like a little child who can't sleep without their parents, smugly celebrating after successfully defending their right to share their parents' bed at night.]

Zuo Jian sighed. He was more or less helpless when it came to Laurentina acting like this.

...All right, he was completely helpless.

"Is there a problem with that? Then I'm a little child, the kind who needs someone to stay with me every night."

[Why are you admitting it again...? Didn't you tell me not to treat you like a child before? And even if you say that, I'm not your dad.]

Her skirt swayed slightly, as though protesting on his behalf.

Laurentina, however, didn't care. She lifted her skirt and smiled faintly.

"Since Zuo Jian doesn't want to be Dad... then, Zuo Jian—Mom?"

[Then please don't call me that either. I'd rather be your temporary father.]

"Oh? Is this what some writer from the Flame Kingdom meant by people always compromising?"

If you directly called Zuo Jian Dad, he definitely wouldn't agree.

But if you called him Mom...

Then he'd feel like becoming Dad wasn't so bad after all.

[You've even learned to quote sayings from other countries now... Did you see that in the travel guide?]

"Mhm~"

Laurentina put her hands on her hips and tilted up her nose.

"Well? Impressive, right? I can even put it into practical use."

[Very impressive... But could my dear Ms. Laurentina please not use your outstanding talent for learning in such strange places?!]

The skirt swayed again, expressing Zuo Jian's protest along with his words.

"I'm just joking. Don't be mad~"

She patted Zuo Jian, soothing the skirt's emotions.

"And besides..."

Laurentina lowered her head and spoke softly.

"I actually want to think of you as..."

[Speaking of which, we still have things to do later. We need to gather all the villagers first—What did you say?]

The skirt's tentacles stretched out and glanced at the crate outside the door. It was filled with Flame Kingdom rice seeds imported from Victoria, which had been flown all the way from a port there back to Iberia.

Because the money had been dug out from beneath a Church of the Deep chapel,

Zuo Jian had specifically instructed Quintus, who had already been tortured into a barely lucid state, to stay as far away from Iberia as possible while running errands, in order to avoid attracting attention or causing unnecessary trouble.

Quintus had still possessed a little clarity at the time and could carry out simple instructions. He could inhabit that portion of flesh and act from a distance.

Though Zuo Jian still didn't trust him, which was why he had begun slowly... turning him into something he could trust.

Into... something he could trust one hundred percent.

[Laurentina? Did you say something just now?]

The tentacle hoisted the crate, then turned the eye above it toward Laurentina and asked.

"I said—"

"Zuo Jian, you'll stay with me from now on, no matter how long it takes, right?!"

As she spoke, she suddenly stepped forward with a happy smile and hugged Zuo Jian's tentacle.

[Whoa! Don't move around so suddenly, the crate's going to fall!]

[A hug is enough, isn't it? Let go already—you've made it impossible for me to drag the crate!]

"No, I want to hug you a little longer—"

But in the next instant, the door suddenly opened.

"Painter, Painter, the nun is handing things out at the church again! I heard she's going to teach us something new this time too..."

Little Anita pushed open the broken wooden door and excitedly called out to Laurentina.

"Huh? Painter, why are you hugging your skirt and rubbing your face against it?"

Laurentina's movements suddenly froze.

Laurentina: What? My child already knows how to farm? (Part 2)

Pfft—

"Zuo Jian... what's going on here?"

Laurentina set down her hoe and looked at the field before her. It couldn't exactly be called neatly tilled—rather, it was a complete mess.

[As you can see, we're plowing the land.]

"No—I mean..."

She raised her head and looked at Anita beside her. The girl held a tiny hoe and kept turning over the soil with that child-sized thing.

Farther away, even more Saltwind City residents were tilling the land. Nearly every young or middle-aged person still capable of moving freely carried identical-looking farming tools.

There seemed to be fine patterns of veins on those iron tools, with red liquid visibly flowing through them.

"Those... were made by you, right?"

Laurentina could sense an aura from them similar to her own...

[They were separated from the nun's body. It temporarily weakens her abilities, but there was no choice. In a place like Saltwind City, it's almost impossible to find usable farming tools in the ruins.]

[At most, we could find rusted iron anchors or fishing gear. There was no choice but to make them like this for now.]

"That's not the point! Don't you have any objections to your own creations being used to...?"

[Objections? What objections?]

"I mean, I mean... uh..."