Taming The Villainesses

━Spider webs?

I hadn’t seen anything like that.

From the moment I stepped in, this place was nothing but an old building. The only thing noteworthy was the musty smell.

However, out of nowhere, I suddenly sensed magic fluctuations. It was then that I saw you, Theo Gospel, randomly shooting magic into the air.

I tried to talk to you, but you climbed back upstairs like you were running away from something, and then made a bunch of barricades so I couldn’t get in.

Did you not hear me?

You were probably hallucinating. The fairy forest had a bunch of hallucinogenic grass and fruits. The most common one was the spicy and red pepper fruit-.

Oh, you ate that for dinner last night?

It seemed that the effects acted late.

You could also get nightmares when eating them.

But you would naturally recover after some time even without an antidote.

This was what Kalira explained. Basically, the spiders and webs I’d been seeing were just hallucinations…

Did the red soup that Marmar served me the day before had hallucinogenic ingredients?

Maybe the reason why I had a nightmare was because of the food Marmar gave me.

“Anyway, thanks to Lady Kalira, I survived.”

As I expressed my gratitude, I saw Marmar banging her hands at Kalira.

“Comrade! Spider, you evil spider! You bas†ard! Spit out comrade! Comrade, comrade is dead!”

I looked at the furiously beating Marmar, showing full hostility towards Kalira. Marmar seemed to still view Kalira as a giant spider.

Did I get eaten in the hallucination?

Wait, did that mean Marmar and I had some sort of mass hallucination?

It seemed that it was possible… The fact that we saw the same fantasies.

Now that I thought about it, were we subjected to some kind of spell or magic?

「You have calmly judged the situation!

You have gained experience points through the talent 《Calm Thinking》.

All job experience +5」

I guessed that answered that.

Though, it was better to put out the most urgent fire first.

“Can you give Marmar an antidote too?”

“Of course.”

But when Kalira moved her hand to give Marmar an injection, Marmar slapped it off.

“Get away from me!”

Marmar then struggled even more. The helpless Kalira sighed and asked.

“Wait, stay still-. Um, Theo, can you help me for a second?”

“Sure.”

I grabbed Marmar’s arm and secured it so she wouldn’t run away or struggle. But this just made Marmar go wild.

“Comrade! Comrade has been parasitized by a spider! He’s being controlled with a spider’s web! I’ll also get eaten…!”

“…….”

So this was what it felt like watching someone hallucinating from the side. It looked so bad that it was almost funny. Did this mean I was like this before?

Well, we better give her the antidote, before Marmar managed to create more embarrassing memories for herself.

“Alright, it will sting a little.”

Plok-.

“Hieeek…!”

As the needle went in, Marmar let out a weird, fairy-like scream. After a while, Marmar drooped as if she had lost strength in her body.

It was about 5 seconds later that Marmar woke up.

“Spider!”

Like someone who just had a nightmare, Marmar woke up screaming. I grabbed her hand and raised the girl up, asking about her condition.

“How are you? Feeling better? Do you still see spider webs or spiders?”

“No… What, what happened…? Where have all the spiders gone? Comrade drove them away! Comrade saved my life again!”

Marmar seemed to have no doubts that I had cast out all the spiders. Unfortunately, I had to burst her bubble.

“Everything you saw was just hallucinations.”

“Hallucinations…?”

I explained everything we had just gone through to the confused Marmar.

From the fact that the food Marmar served contained hallucinogenic ingredients, to the reason why we gave her an antidote.

“So it was the food… It was a hallucinogen? I had no idea…”

“I know. I’m glad it’s not toxic. But it’s amazing that you and I were seeing the same hallucinations.”

“Um, I’m sorry…. You ate something strange because of me and started seeing things….”

Marmar became restless after knowing it was her mistake.

Well, Marmar was serving the food in good faith. She didn’t actually mean any harm.

But this was what made the situation complicated…. Because, if it had been a lethal poison, not just a hallucinogen, I would have died…

It was also amazing that Marmar, who had been regularly eating such things, had been living quite well.

But… no wonder Marmar drew a watch on her hand and thought it was real…

I felt the urgent need to provide Marmar with the right living environment and diet…

Once this was all done, I would transfer Marmar to a more stable place!

Getting promoted to Silver Rank provided me with 10 million coins, which would come soon. That should be enough to pay a deposit for the employee’s accommodation.

Marmar, who was looking around for traces of spider webs and spiders, asked.

“Then, from where to where was the hallucination? And who is this woman? Did she also hallucinate?”

Oh, come to think of it, Marmar didn’t know Kalira and Kalira didn’t know Marmar. Though, Kalira didn’t really ask about it.

I thought that the two needed to get to know each other.

“I’ll introduce you two. Marmar, this is Lady Kalira. And Lady Kalira, this is the Imp Marmar.”

“Hooo, an Imp. It’s my first time seeing one. And their tails…”

Kalira seemed to be interested in Marmar. Her red eyes scrutinized the girl from top to bottom, which gave me goosebumps for some reason.

“I heard that an Imp tail is a precious medicine that can treat rare diseases. It was too expensive and there was no stock, so I couldn’t get one.”

“Hik!”

In response, Marmar quickly hid her tail, without disguising the wariness on her face.

“You won’t get my tail! Especially not now that I’ve finally got a diamond one!”

“Alright, alright. I won’t force Theo’s colleague to give me her tail. But if you’re Theo’s colleague, does that mean that we’ll work together in the future?”

“Well, pretty much.”

I nodded. Unfortunately, someone else had a different idea.

“Comrade, this woman has red eyes. Red eyes are ominous!”

In contrast to the interest given to her, Marmar seemed to have no trust in Kalira at all.

“My tail is telling me that this woman is dangerous!”

Perhaps Marmar’s keen senses were detecting the malice and blood on Kalira’s body. After all, she was an assassin.

… But wouldn’t it be rude to say such in the first meeting?

Yet, when I took a peek at Kalira, she was smiling seductively and appeared to be having a lot of fun.

“It’s good to be perceptive. You know, these days, I’m working alone and it becomes really difficult if there’s too many customers… How about it? Want to be my assistant?”

“Who knows what these ominous red eyes are up to!? You’re obviously going to use me as a test subject, aren’t you!? A very Imp-phobic experiment…!”

Marmar said sharply. But then, she also slowly asked in a very small voice.

“… How much is the hourly wage…?”

“Hourly wage? We’re not on an hourly system, but a daily system. Well, let’s see. It would be about 80,000 coins for a six-hour work day.”

“Hieek…!”

Marmar let out a loud shriek. I shrank back in surprise hearing her scream louder than when she was hallucinating earlier.

• Edited by: faker