Thanks to the warmth of the sun, my hair was soon dried enough for Cellestra to get working on the next phase. She started combing it one last time and asked me a question.

“Do you have any preference for a style?”

“This was your idea. Just do whatever you feel like,” I said with a smile.

“Hmmm,” The elf pondered as she took my hair between her hands. “You know, I think it would be a shame if I braided everything. There’s no shame in showing it off.”

“Sounds like you have something in mind.”

“A general idea, yes. If you don’t mind me experimenting a bit.”

“Go for it.”

Despite me being eager to set out to the dungeon, I wouldn’t want to miss this. The friendship between me and Cellestra was too valuable for me. If nothing else, maybe this time we spent together could just perhaps allow it to grow into something more…

I wished I had gathered more experience regarding all this in my last life. Dealing with these conflicting feelings about wanting to tell her, but also not wanting to push or force anything was about the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with, mentally.

I had no idea what Cellestra was doing with my hair, but I simply ignored it, closed my eyes, and let happiness swell inside of me. Her question caught me off guard.

“Say, Kealyna. I don’t know if it’s a weird thing to ask, but since you have this skill that allows you to get skills from something you eat… have you ever thought about eating those bandits?”

“I…” I started as I tried to find my words. “I haven’t. Even if I had, I wouldn’t do something like that. If I did that, would that not make me an actual monster?”

“You could see it as nothing more than a survival tool, I guess.”

“Maybe you’re right, but I don’t think I could live with myself if I did something like that. I’m trying to avoid losing who I am, you know?”

Cellestra nodded. “You’re right. It wouldn’t befit a knight to do something like that.”

I stared at the water, which had a small layer of foam from the shampoo, and let Cellestra’s words sink in. Could I eat a human, or any other sentient being if it came down to it? I mean, I could, but would I ever do it? I prayed to Elysa in my mind and hoped that I would never be put in a position where I had to choose to do so.

What would Cellestra think of me if I did?

I shoved the thoughts away. I didn’t want to think about having to do such a thing. I felt worrying over it was pointless. Instead, a question just sprung to mind.

“Hey, Cellestra?”

“Hm?” She mused as she smiled while working on my hair. I tried to not pay attention to what she was doing. I felt like it would be nice to be surprised.

“A few days ago, I believe you mentioned you planned on heading into dungeons by yourself, didn’t you?”

“I did,” She spoke softly, “But I don’t know anymore.”

“If you want, you could come with me?” I offered. “We could try to find a way to cure you together. I mean, since I’m going anyway…”

Cellestra stopped moving her hands for a few seconds. From her inaction, I gathered that she was thinking.

“If you are okay with that… I don’t know how much help I’ll be, though.”

“It’s fine,” I said as the elf continued. “I know the way through and I’m confident your barrier will keep you safe from harm. It managed to protect me. We just need to be careful about that one trap, but I think it’s no issue if I carry you down to the swamp area.”

I paused for a few seconds. “Speaking of help, how many spells do you know? I’ve seen you use several.”

“The fireball is about the best I have in regards to offense. The one you’ve seen me use earlier against that wolf wasn’t my most powerful version of the spell, but as you know, I need to be careful to avoid backlash. The more power I put in a spell, the higher its chance to fail becomes.”

“And that’s not the case with the ones that you learn from me?”

“As far as I can tell, no. Your spells are special, perfect in a way, but since their power originates from the goddess, I think it makes sense.”

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A brief pause followed before she continued. “So there’s that boulder that you’ve seen, the fireball, the flame spell, the wind blast… my other spells are more for utility, really. I have a spell that can cause the temperature in a small to medium-sized room to drop significantly. It lasts for quite a while before I need to recast it, so I use that spell every now and then in my cellar to keep things fresh.”

“You say utility, but can’t you use that to freeze creatures alive? Offensively I mean.”

“It’s too slow,” Cellestra said. “Whatever I would be trying to freeze would have more than enough time to take me out while I cast it.”

“Hum, I guess I have the same problem with one of my spells. I took out over a thousand ants with it in one hit, but the spell itself is incredibly slow to spread to that many targets. I’m talking about the spider lightning spell, obviously. I was just lucky that they were occupied with something else. That, and I manually affected the spell in such a way that it wouldn’t do any damage until I had all of my targets connected. I think that helped me keep them off my back.”

“Not everything is as oblivious as ants,” Cellestra let out. “But yeah, I’ll join you for the dungeon exploration. I’d love to see you in action there. Hopefully, I’ll be able to use some of your spells later on and be of more help.”

“I’ll be happy to teach you,” I spoke with honesty.

“Thank you,” The elf said as she let go of my hair. “How does this look?”

“As many eyes as I have, I cannot properly see the hair behind my back,” I said before putting my hands in my hair to feel what she’d done.

It appeared she had used the left half of my hair to create a long braid, while leaving the other half practically untouched. She had also moved a lock of hair on each side in front of my shoulders so they rested against my chest..

“I figured this was a neat way of still showing off your long hair, but style it somewhat at the same time. Do you like it?”

I moved some of the soap bubbles that covered the water in the tub away and used it to observe my reflection. I then took a good look at myself with my spider eyes as well, after moving slightly away from the tub. The truth was that I didn’t care how it looked. It was Cellestra’s handiwork and for that reason alone, I liked it.

“I love it,” I let out with glee. “You did a wonderful job.”

I took a look at the long strands of hair that ran over my shoulders. “I do wonder if I should cut it somewhat, at least in some places. I like my hair, but I’m not sure if it’ll be okay to have it like this in combat. I am tempted to just grab a sword and fight the way I fought before, even though I know that it’s probably not going to be as effective as my spells, or my lower body’s attacks for that reason.”

“I don’t see the harm in that. If that’s what makes you feel comfortable, since you’re already used to a sword, by all means, why not use one? It might come in handy some time, who knows?”

“You may be right,” I answered as I thought back to the sand slime. “I did have a fight with an enemy that seemed to be quite resistant to magic. I had to resort to physical combat. I imagine a sword can help with that.”

I paused for a second before I mused. “Hmmm, and I do have a spell that should work really well with physical combat. It makes my attacks much more powerful. Besides, I can still cast magic while fighting thanks to my two brains.”

“How does that even work?” Cellestra said with a grin.

“Don’t ask me,” I replied with the same grin. “I’ve got ten eyes, eight legs, two more frontal legs in the form of pedipalps, a pair of fangs, and more. Don’t ask me how I know how to use any of this, I can’t explain it. The same thing goes for being able to use two brains at the same time. It’s… confusing, yet it works.”

“But if you’re so tempted to use a sword, why didn’t you take one from before?”

“From the bandits you mean?” I said with a frown. “Those things couldn’t even be called swords. They were nothing short of an insult.”

“Ever the serious knight I see.“ The elf smiled.

“Yeah, I’m sorry for my outburst there. It’s just… as I said, this is all I used to know. Hopefully, I’ll get a proper sword sometime soon.”

“Maybe you’ll find one in the dungeon. Imagine.”

“That would be too good to be true.”

“Well, who knows? Shall we check for ourselves?”

I nodded with a smile as I looked at my reflection in the water one last time. “Yeah. Let’s go.”