Chapter 14 - Name

We spent out time in the bath quietly.

The girl simply relaxed in my arms as I lightly massaged her scalp with soapy fingers, but as no matter how much I scrubbed, the soap refused to lather up. It was definitely mixing in, as her hair had gotten slimy with the crude soap, but the results were confusing.

It might've been a lack of water, so I tried dripping some onto her head before going back to massaging.

"It hurts!"

I froze as the girl leaned forward and started to rub her eyes.

"Wait, don't do that! It'll make it worse!"

I grabbed her hands, then rinsed one hand and wiped her forehead back, drawing the soap that ran down before tilting her head back and lightly pouring her face with water using magic, washing away as much of the suds as I could.

"Sorry, is that better?"

The girl nodded, but I panicked and wiped her hair back to avoid the soap from dripping into her eyes again.

"Stop. Don't do that. The soap'll get into your eyes again. Wait a sec so I can finish washing your hair first"

"Soap?! You're using soap?!"

Once again the girl was panicking for some reason.

"There something wrong with that?"

"It's soap! You don't need to use something so expensive on me!"

"Is soap that expensive?"

"You really aren't a noble lady?"

I really couldn't see how the two concepts connected. From what I remembered soap had existed for quite a long time. It wasn't hard to make either, just some fats or oils and lye. I got the fats as various monster drops in the dungeon, and the lye came from burning wood and soaking the ashes before filtering them out. I even learned it in a summer event as a kid along with rope, candles, and a few other primitive things.

"I'm not. You think a noble lady would be living in a cave in the middle of a forest?"

"I don't know. There's all sorts of nobles out there"

I couldn't refute her point. No matter how much it defied my image of nobles, theoretically it was possible.

"Well, I've never heard of a noble that lives all by themself"

If there was such a thing, then it would break my entire image of nobles.

Careful to not let any suds fall across her face, I rinsed the girl's hair then tried applying more soap. This time it lathered up a bit. It seemed like her hair was just too dirty for the soap to lather properly. I'd have to do a third run before her hair was clean.

"Anyways, it doesn't matter. I made this soap myself. Whether it's expensive or not doesn't matter if it's something I made"

"Amazing. You can make soap? If you went to town, you could become rich!"

I looked at the dark grey lump with black specs in my hands. If I hadn't made it myself, I wouldn't have recognized it as actual soap. The ones I made as a kid were much better than this due to the higher quality of materials. Mine looked like it would make you dirty rather than clean if you used it, though it did work properly.

"I doubt it. The soap nobles use are probably much nicer than what I can make"

"But, I've never heard of a commoner use soap before"

"There's not much I can say about that. I don't know anything of this world outside of this forest"

"You've never been outside of the forest?"

"I've never been beyond the forest and cave since I was born"

It was a bit disingenuous to use the word 'born', but I didn't want to lie to this girl. Though it also felt a bit weird I was hiding so much from a child, becoming too careless could easily backfire. I doubted she could keep a secret from her family if I did reveal too much.

"I didn't think there could be a village in the forest"

"There's no village. I was alone when I found this cave, and it's been just me until now"

"That's incredible! You must be so strong to be able to survive in this forest by yourself!"

"Maybe a little, but is this forest that dangerous?"

The dungeon certainly was, and if there weren't so many safe zones for me to rest at, There was no way I'd have gotten as deep in it as I had.

"Mmhmm. The hunters enter the edges of the forest, but they say that there are strong monsters deeper in. For you to be able to make a home where strong monsters live, that's amazing!"

The girl shot up her arms as she looked towards me. There was a sparkle in her cloudy eyes that wasn't there before.

"Wait, stay still so I can rinse the soap off"

For the third time, I rinsed her hair. It was still rough, but at least it was clean. Using some magic, I levitated a jar of oil and brought it over. A girl like her should take care of her hair. That said, I was also a girl physically. I should take my own lessons to heart.

As I was about to pour some oil onto my hands, the thought that just oil wouldn't be satisfying came to mind. It would do the trick, just barely, most likely, but she'd probably like it if it was scented. I thought through what I had available and came to a decision. With a bit more magic, I remotely dug through a pile of dried herbs and spices I'd collected to trade if I ever met people and brought over a small package of leaves tied around something.

Unwrapping the leaves, I took out a stalk of dried vanilla beans.

With the beans in hand, I scraped out the insides, then discard the pod, leaving me with a near black lumpy paste. With the main bits of vanilla in my palm, I poured a small amount of oil into my hands and mixed the two up before spreading the infusion in my hands, after which I rubbed it into the girl's hair as a faux conditioner.

"How's that?"

"It smells nice..."

*grumble*

That reminded me, I was getting pretty hungry. But that grumble didn't come from me. I looked down and the child in my lap was looking down with her hands over her belly.

"Hungry?"

"I'm fine!"

She jerked straight up as she tried to put as much strength into her words as she could, but despite that...

*gurgle*

I heard it again.

"Well I am getting hungry, so I'll go get us some food. But let's finish getting you cleaned up first. Stand up"

The girl followed my instructions, and I quickly rubbed a lathered silk ball across her body before rinsing her down. When I was done, I lifted her out of the tub and dried both of our bodies using a bundle of furs before seating her on the couch with a clean fur wrapped around her body.

"I'll be back in a bit. Sit tight"

"..."

I couldn't hear what she mumbled, but I didn't have human food stored anywhere. Just some herbs and spices and nothing of actual substance.

Once I put my clothes on, I walked over to the fountain and went around various floor gathering ingredients as fast as I could. If a kid like that had been wandering the forest all alone until she tired herself out and collapsed, she was probably starving. A hearty meal would go a long way, but I couldn't cut any corners.

With a nice chunk of pork, a variety of fruits and vegetables, a few extras, as well as a belly filled with fresh blood, I came back with a few ideas as what to make.

"You're back?"

The girl suddenly yelled while jumping up and leaned towards me while supported by the backrest of the couch she was sitting on. Her right thumb was red for some reason. Maybe she bumped it somehow?

"I...yea, I'm back. I'll start cooking, so just wait a bit more, okay?"

"Okay"

She sat back down and pulled the fur around her body tightly while she followed my movements. It looked like she spent the entire time scared. I needed to pay more attention to her in the future.

It was a real surprise that she noticed I came back so quickly though. I had used the fountain to teleport around. I wasn't aware that there were any significant telltale signs that were obvious to others if they weren't watching.

But that wasn't important right then.

I pulled out some shells of various sizes, then went to the fountain and rinsed them and my hands. I made some rudimentary stands and a pot from stone using earth magic. I greased shell, then balancing it on a stone stand, I heated it up with flames using magic. Using my claws, I sliced up the meat into strips and placed them on the shell to cook.

As that cooked, I skinned the potatoes and heated two pots, one of oil and the other water. I put some eggs and the whole potatoes in the water, and potatoes sliced up with my claws in the oil.

I grounded up salt and pepper between the palms of my hands, then wheat in a mortar and pestle made with magic as everything cooked. I throw a handful of salt into the pot of boiling water then sprinkled salt and pepper onto the sliced steaks. After a bit I drained the excess cooked fats and added some of the crude flour and mixed them in a small jar.

The cooked fries were taken out by hand and I added more, rotating as they finished, taking full advantage of the [Fire Resistance] I had.

Soon, everything was cooked, and I lay out the steaks and fries on a brand new plate made from slicing some wood with my claws. On top of it all, I poured the gravy.

Finally, I removed the potatoes and eggs from the boiling water, removed the shells, sliced all of it up along with some washed lettuce, added some oil, pepper, and some herbs, all in a simple stone bowl. With some magical ice to cool it all off formed on the outside, I mixed the batch up before filling the remaining space on the plate with my simple potato salad.

The combination was a bit weird, but I wasn't nearly prepared enough to make proper meals, since I couldn't eat it anyways. It was a lesson for the future.

The shell was put on a stand made with magic in front of the little girl. I could hear here swallowing a bunch for a while, and the sound of her grumbling stomach had been rapid firing the longer I made her wait. She even sucked her thumb like she was trying to distract herself from how hungry the smell was making her.

It was so cute.

But there was one last thing I had to do before she could eat. I grabbed an iron ingot, then using magic, separated a piece and formed it into a fork using magic. It wouldn't have sold anywhere on Earth, but it was the best I could offer here.

"Here, use this and enjoy the food"

I placed the fork into the girl's hand and stepped back.

But against my expectation, she didn't immediately dig in. Instead, she felt up the fork, but just gave a confused expression.

It took me a minute before I realized my mistake.

"It's called a fork. You hold the long end and use the flat, pronged bit to pick up your food. Most of it is hot, so you might burn your fingers if you didn't use it. I put the plate of food on a stand in front of you"

Technically it was to avoid her from getting her fingers dirty, but that was a minor concern to me at this moment.

The girl groped the space directly in front of her and found the stand, then the plate. Using that knowledge, she poked around to find the food using the fork, then with an unsteady movement, she shovelled a bit of it into her mouth.

Just watching her made me nervous, as she had proved herself again to be completely blind, she wasn't even aware how close she was to dropping the hot steak slice onto her lap.

In a hurry, I grabbed a spare pelt and placed it into her lap just in time to catch the piece.

"Ah! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I dropped it!"

"It's okay. There's plenty left. Don't worry about it"

"But! But I wasted...!"

"It's fine. I don't mind. Just eat and enjoy your meal"

"...But what about your meal?"

"Huh?"

"You didn't make a serving for yourself"

Her words made me wonder if she really was blind for a second, but when I thought about it, just because she couldn't see didn't mean that she wouldn't be aware of what was going on around her. I didn't make any attempt to hide the fact that I wasn't making any for myself, so it wasn't really all that difficult for her to realize that I only made enough for one.

"I...I ate while I was gathering the ingredients. It wasn't very mature, but I couldn't help myself. I'm already full, so you don't have to worry. It's all for you"

(It wasn't a lie. Technically it was all true)

I felt bad just from the fact that I had to justify what I had said to myself.

"I...see..."

Leaving behind those ironic words, the girl tried picking up a piece again, this time even more carefully.

My hands were working at my next project already, mixing a new batch of extra finely ground wheat with some milk, eggs and sugar. But despite that, I was completely distracted at watching the girl take her first bite of the food I had made. Maybe I was even more nervous about it than she was.

As the fork moved, she lifted the piece of pork into her mouth, then chewed.

In an instant, her eyes lit up more brightly than I had ever seen, and her chewing had grown more vigorous than I thought was possible from such an emaciated child. Soon, she swallowed, and blinding smile lit up on her face.

"It's so good! Is it really fine for me to have this?!"

"I made it for you, so I'd be the one in trouble if you didn't eat it"

I couldn't actually eat any of it, so it really would go to waste if she didn't like it. Finally knowing that she did though allowed me to release a breath I didn't realize I was holding.

"Thank you!"

With those two words, she started to dig into the plate in earnest.

A smile had blossomed on my own face as I watched her eat my food with such joy. I was glad someone could enjoy the food I used to like. It made all the effort of making it worth it.

But I shook my head. I wasn't done, and there was still the shining crown of the meal left to make. I had to finish it before she was done eating.

I made a new stone pan and placed it on a cooking stand where I put a fire under and greased the surface. As I waited for it to heat up, I cut up some fruit into small pieces. When the stone pan reached a decent temperature, I poured the watery dough mixture onto it and spread it as thin as I could. I flipped it with a spatula, then removed it and put it onto a second plate made from wood. I spread honey over the entire surface, sprinkled sugar on top, then carefully cut it up into rough squares.

Next, I lay the fruit pieces onto each slice, and finally folded the ends and wrapped it up, making something halfway between a crepe and a dessert spring roll.

Originally it was going to be a regular crepe, but then I realized that it would be difficult for the girl to eat since she was blind. Cutting food on a plate, or even finding the pieces without ruining something so delicate would've been extremely hard. This was my solution to that problem, an easy finger food for dessert.

I looked up at the girl. She was moving her fork across the plate, looking for any remaining food with an eager look on her face. It seemed like she had finished what I had made, but it wasn't enough. I was glad she was still hungry, since it wasn't over yet.

"Here's dessert"

I swapped her empty plate with the new one while taking her fork.

"This one's eaten with our fingers"

After turning towards me for a second, she lowered her hands and found the plate, then groped around before she found one of the wrapped crepes. Carefully and wearily, she brought it to her mouth and took a bite. But as the taste of sweet filling touched her tongue, she shoved the rest of it into her mouth and started to chew while pressing both hands against her lips as if she was scared that her food would jump out of her mouth mid bite.

Frankly, it was pretty adorable and I couldn't help but smile at the sight.

But as I watched, tears started to fall from her cloudy eyes.

"Did...did I die?"

"Wha, what? What makes you think that?"

(Where did such a question come from?!)

I rushed over and started to pat her head as she tightly gripped her knees.

"I was all alone and lost in the forest. Nobody comes back from so deep in the forest. I was cold and fell asleep. But when I woke up, everything was so warm, and I got to eat food more delicious than anything I had ever had. How couldn't this be heaven?!"

I sat down beside her and pulled her into my chest as I hugged her.

"If this was heaven, then it's a pretty lonely place. You're the first person I've been able to talk to in a long time. There's only the fluffballs and dangerous monsters around. I don't think heaven would be such a hostile and lonely place, because if it was, nobody would want to go there, no matter how warm of a place it was or how good the food was"

The girl nodded and wiped her tears before sitting up straight.

"Then, I'm really alive? And this is still in the forest?"

"That's right. You're a bit deeper in the forest right now, but you're still alive. You'll continue to live too. I'll make sure of that. And all along the way, you can eat all the good food you want!"

I pat her head once more.

"Now then, if you're still hungry, there's plenty more dessert left"

"Yes! Thank you!"

With the brightest smile yet, she greedily devoured the plate of sweets, holding one in each hand as a happier brand of tears ran down her face this time.

Once the girl finished her meal, we were sitting together on the couch. She was leaning against me and rubbing her belly. It looked like she ate too much and was in pain. From my side it looked pretty funny, but as someone who had done the same thing before, I could sympathize. I could, but chose not to and just enjoyed the thought that she liked my cooking that much.

The dessert I made was almost as big as the rest of the meal. It was actually pretty surprising to see such a little child finish all that when I realized what I had done.

"Next time, you don't have to force yourself to finish everything. I can put it aside for you to have later on"

"...okay..."

(Was that reluctance because she wanted to finish it at all costs or something?!)

With how much she was enjoying it, I couldn't deny that possibility.

While she really did need to eat so that she'd reach a healthy weight, if she kept eating to her limit every time, she'd get fat. There was no doubt whatsoever.

(I'll restrict her intake for now)

"So...what do you want to do from here?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do you want to go home? If you tell me where it is, I can take you back"

I hadn't asked because I was worried about her circumstances, but if I didn't ask, it was hardly better than kidnapping.

"...*cough*"

Despite being unable to see, the girl looked own at her lap.

It was the answer I was worried about.

"I don't mind you staying but..."

"I'll do chores! If it's something I can do, I'll do it!"

That answer was much more forceful than I expected, and inadvertently I pulled back.

"...I know I can't do much. I'm young and don't have many skills...and I can't see"

Well, I knew all that.

"I already said I didn't mind you staying. And I said that knowing all that without you saying so. What I did want to say though, was ask you why you were all by yourself in the forest"

"Huh? You knew I couldn't see?"

The girl turned her head towards me. The surprise was clear on her face.

Rather, it was pretty interesting to see someone who was completely blind, yet knew and understand all these facial expressions. If she was blind from birth, then it was telling how much of human expressions were hard coded into our genes...their genes. I wasn't human anymore.

"I don't think it's the kind of thing you can hide, even for the little bit we've been together"

"Th...then..."

"I said it before, but I don't mind. I said you can stay knowing that you can't see. But I do want to know why I found you the way I did"

"..."

It was one thing if she was changing the subject, but another if she was only thinking. I had plenty of time, more than what I knew to do with. While I got bored easily, I was patient, as paradoxical as that sounded.

"We were always hungry in my village, but the harvest was even worse than usual this year. We didn't have enough food for the winter, so mama and papa said we were going to get more food from the forest. Everyone always said that the forest was dangerous, and only the hunters should go, but the hunters couldn't bring enough food back for everyone, so I went with mama, papa, my brothers and sisters. Even though I couldn't see and almost always stayed at home. We travelled far, mama and papa holding my hands as we walked. But they stopped. Papa said to wait while everyone looked for food. But they didn't come back. It was getting cold, yet nobody came back. I started to worry, so I went to look for them, calling for them, but I couldn't find anyone. When I got too cold to move well, I sat down to rest. When I woke up, I was with you"

Midway through her story, I had pulled her close to me again. Just by mentioning that there was a famine was enough for me to understand, but I didn't interrupt her story. It seemed like she understood too, despite how young she was.

I understood why she sounded so desperate now, and I didn't have the heart to abandon that hope of hers.

It wasn't like I wouldn't profit anyways. Having to care for her wasn't a big deal, and in return I'd get someone to talk to. The fluffballs were fun to play with, but they couldn't talk.

(Well, leaving the excuses aside...)

"If that's the case, I don't mind. We can find something for you to do later on"

"Really? I can stay?"

"Yea, you can"

"Thank you! Thank you thank you!"

The girl hugged me with all her strength. It wasn't much, but it filled my chest with warmth. I've never known such a thing for as long as I could remember. I wrapped my arms around her as I savoured the feeling.

"Umm...by the way..."

"Hmmm?"

"Could I...could I touch your face?"

"...huh?"

"Because I can't see...I don't know what you look like. You can touch my face too"

"Ah, it's okay. Ummm...go ahead"

I remembered this was a normal thing amongst blind people on Earth as well. I even heard that they'd own cast moulds of their friends and family’s faces like how other people would have pictures.

With her hands even smaller and softer than mine, the little girl reached up and touched my face. Her hands trembled at first, but as she continued to explore the shape of my face, she let out her tension more and more, growing confident and assertive as she explored every detail of my face, like she was burning it's shape into her mind.

Rather, that was probably exactly what she was doing.

Not content with just my face, she touched my hair, my chin, neck, ears. I let her keep going until she was satisfied.

"Ah!"

"Hmm?"

"Oh, uh...do you want to touch my face too?"

"...sure"

I hesitated for a second, but this was an act of trust. Not doing so might've given her the wrong impression. So even though I didn't need to, I touched her cheeks.

They were incredibly soft and springy, like marshmallows. Her chin was pliant, and her lips, while still sticky from her meal, might've been the softest things I had ever felt.

I shook my head and stopped. Any more and I might've started to do something bad.

"Thanks"

"No, thank you. You can touch my face whenever you want"

She looked down, and her cheeks grew visibly red.

(What sort of invitation is that supposed to be?! What the hell kind of invitation am I imagining from a six year old?!)

I wanted to bang my head against something hard, like the 87th floor golems.

I was starting to suspect that my long bout of solitude had messed up my ability form pure and innocent connections with others.

"I...like the shape of your face...ah!"

"I like yours too, but what is it?"

"My name is Alicia. What's yours?"

I froze. I had completely forgotten about that. Without anyone to talk to, there wasn't any need for me to have a name, but that wasn't true anymore. I regretted not spending any time to think about it after she first brought it up.

My old name was flat out. It was a guy's name, and even if it was unisex, there was the possibility that it wasn't true here. I didn't want to be some weird woman giving out a name only men had in this world.

But it wasn't like I knew what names were like in this world. This girl had a name similar to ones on Earth, but it could've just been a pure coincidence. No, it most likely was. The likelihood that all names were similar in general was virtually zero.

I sweated in my mind as I desperately thought about my answer.

"Umm...was that a bad question?"

Alicia tilted her head as she brought her face close to mine.

"Ah, no...uh, I just...don't have one"

My mind blanked out, and that was the best I managed. The shame burned like the noon sun, but it was too late now.

"You...don't have a name...?"

"Y...yea. I never got one..."

"..."

(Ah...she must be disappointed in me! Who the hell would grow up without a name?! Maybe she thinks I'm lying? I worked so hard to gain her trust, but did I just lose it in one moment of stupidity?!)

"...how about Scarlet?"

As I secretly panicked, Alicia spoke up again.

"Huh?"

"Your name. If you don't have one, what about Scarlet?"

"Ah...uhh...is that ok?"

"Is that a bad name?"

The look of determination she had when she gave that name wavered and faded into unease.

"Ah! No! It's a good name! It's a great name! I like it! From now on, I'll be Scarlet!"

I accepted it on a whim, but to be honest, I did kinda like it. It fit a vampire like me surprisingly well. It was almost like she had figured it out, but there was no way that was possible.