35 – Marks on the neck
“…Hmm.”
Even when I opened my eyes, there was no way I could get up.
Because there was a dragon sleeping with me buried in its arms, making a pleasant snort.
Despite the wind cooling my back, my body was very wet.
It felt like my wet and heavy clothes kept dragging me down under the bed.
“Ugh… It’s wet…”
Is it the sweat I shed?
Or did my mom do something to me while I was sleeping all night?
…I couldn’t have regretted the decision I made while watching my mother grieving.
But it cannot be reversed,
More than anything, when I see you sleeping while hugging me with such a happy face,
“Phew…”
A sigh came out along with a helpless laugh.
Mom’s arms and legs wrapped around me so I couldn’t let go.
Why does my mom love me so much?
Not as a son, but as something else.
“Grunt.”
With a faint groan, I tried to break free from his embrace.
When I think about it, it seems like something like this has happened before.
I’m sure my mom drank a lot of her alcohol back then.
Now that he has come closer to me with his sanity, should I say that it is a difference?
And if there’s one thing that hasn’t changed, it’s that it’s beyond my power.
“Are you awake?”
She gently strokes her red hair, which is always flowing, with her hand.
The smile she made while lightly tucking her hair behind her ears was truly beautiful.
There seemed to be no room for sadness in a face so bright that even the eyes could clearly see that it was smiling.
“…I want to wash up, but a little – “
“Sure.”
Is it because of the refreshing feeling?
Instead of squeezing me with your tail like before,
Mom obediently took me out of her arms and immediately started making her bed.
The sheets and blankets, which had become so wet, all floated up in an instant and began to dry out.
What was gray is turning white,
Even the slightly unpleasant yellow stain disappeared as if it had never been there.
“Hey.”
It was that time.
I felt a stinging pain in my neck.
“Why are you doing this?”
“No, that’s…”
Something itches,
The skin on the neck becomes painful when pressed with a finger at the same time.
As I rubbed the left side of my neck, which was particularly sensitive, I tried to shake off this foreign sensation.
“Don’t touch it too much. I tried… Huh. I guess it got bitten by a bug.”
I gently grab your hand and move it away from my neck,
Her mother, who had her eyes close to her, swept her tongue over her lips and spoke like that.
It appeared, gliding through two red hills, as if it had delicious food right in front of it.
“If you touch it too much, it may wear off.
Even if it feels a little itchy, endure it.
Did you say that if you’re having a hard time, you’ll feel better if you wipe it off with water or apply saliva when washing?
hehehe.”
As the hot warmth was continuously poured onto my neck, it made beads of sweat form.
“Well, then I’ll wash up and come back!”
How tightly did he hold on to me?
While massaging my throbbing arms and shoulders, I left the place as if running away.
Even at the moment when you go into the bathroom to wash your body,
Mom was smiling and looking at me.
As I wet my bright red lips even more.
***
“…”
Mom said she would rest in her room.
When asked if she would like to go with me to discuss compensation and the rest of the story, she shook her head and-
“You’re a pretty big kid, so I don’t think there’s any reason for me to follow you.
And – now that we’ve given enough warning to this village, no one will touch you.”
The meaning of those words was clear.
The mother who blocked Ashley and growled in front of her was clearly a threat.
Despite his human appearance, the energy that weighed down so many people…
When I think about it again, it was truly amazing and terrifying.
As I slowly walked down the street, I arrived at a place full of adventurers.
The place that gave me my second nightmare.
Making you run away from the countless outstretched hands,
For letting me reunite with my mother.
“…!”
Some women who recognize me look at me with their eyes wide open –
“Tch.”
She clicked her tongue and turned her head away.
Maybe her mom’s help that day really helped.
Thinking like that, I moved forward further, and suddenly I came face to face with someone who left an impression on me again.
A blonde woman walking with her fluffy golden tail.
It was especially so because the blue shining eyes were not something I could easily forget.
She just stepped forward slightly to apologize for rushing away from her spot.
At first she opened her face wide, as if she was glad to see us again, then
Then she frowned,
She twitched her nose a couple of times and then-
“Ugh…!”
Her face became sad and she ran in the opposite direction.
For a moment, I was startled by that unknown behavior.
“Wizard Russell?”
The guards recognized me and slowly approached me, waving their hands.
They blocked me with their shiny iron armor as I chased after the blonde hair disappearing in the distance.
Only the fluttering golden threads gently filled the empty space.
“The village chief and the guard captain are looking for you. Are you lost?”
I was shocked for a moment by what happened so suddenly.
Her head started rolling again as she tried to think of answers to the questions she had been asked.
But it wasn’t smooth or smooth.
I held my forehead, which was throbbing as if I had been hit here and there, and opened my mouth.
“…Wouldn’t it have been there if you kept going this way?”
“You’re not familiar with geography yet. You’re on the other side.
I thought you came here because you had something to see –
hahahaha. This is it.
If you don’t mind being rude, wouldn’t it be okay if we showed you around ourselves?”
I walked along with the guards smiling brightly and opening the way.
Then, when I turned my back to a tingling sensation, there were people turning their heads in my direction.
The gaze was quite explicit and intense, making me flinch.
“Mr. Russell?”
“Ah, yes, yes! I’ll go!”
He took off his feet as if running away and quickly ran out of the street.
But I had to raise my hand because of the tingling that didn’t stop.
The place it touched was none other than the left side of my neck.
It might have been bitten by a quite poisonous bug.
***
“Hey… Hmm?”
“Oh my.”
Following the guidance of the guards, we arrived at the village chief’s house.
What greeted me were quite strange reactions.
“Is there anything… Strange?”
“No, that’s… Well, I don’t think it’s something I should worry about.”
I felt embarrassed as the village leader cleared his throat and gave me his seat.
From Noble mtl dot com
I secretly smelled the scent of my body.
I don’t think there was any unpleasant smell since I took a bath –
“Puhup.”
“Captain Saunders, you’ll be in trouble if you do that!”
On the contrary, I became very embarrassed when people burst out laughing when they saw me like that.
He laughed for a long time, even wiping away tears, and eventually,
“Captain Saunders!”
“Yes, yes, sorry, Chief.
Ah, I can’t tell if you’re naive or if you’re just pretending to be naive.”
“Be polite.
No matter how young you are, you are a wizard who saved our village from threats!”
I got scolded by the village chief.
I took a few breaths, cleared my throat,
He rubbed his face again –
“Ah… Huh. I’m sorry.
Because everyone has their own privacy. Yes?”
Soon, he closed one eye at me and smiled again.
“Captain Saunders, if you continue to react like this, I will have you ejected from this place.”
The manager, who was glaring at him as if he did not like him, sighed heavily,
I struck him down with a sharp voice.
“Ugh, I understand.”
Was it quite threatening?
The head of the guard, who was always making fun of me with a sneer, corrected his face at that one word,
He sat up straight and closed his mouth.
“Excuse me.”
Once the noisy atmosphere calmed down to some extent,
The village leader bowed his head to me, took out a scroll and unfolded it.
“What we want to talk about today is none other than compensation for work,
At the same time, we would like to request confirmation of new facts.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I heard that three missing people were brought in.
They were all what we were desperately looking for, and for that we are truly grateful. However…”
It was that moment.
The faces of the two people facing me darkened considerably.
The sun was momentarily covered by clouds, casting darkness into the room.
“Have you checked inside the cave?”
“No, there were demons ambushing me in the cave… So I set it on fire.”
“I see. You don’t have the time to check inside.”
Looking at the two faces that seemed to be in deep thought, I felt that something was wrong.
The words of the merchant and guard who asked me to check inside the cave came to mind.
Could it possibly be a problem because of that?
“There is no need to be so nervous.
There were probably no other people inside.
Victor Mirkosin, who was able to recall the work to some extent, was a member of the merchant division of Heungbawi Rock –
According to the testimony of Tom Hederson, a guard in this town, they became ‘material’.”
“Ingredients, eh?”
Those words couldn’t have sounded that creepy.
It was strange to say that people became materials.
It was hard to imagine again.
“It seems that the demons took people from this village and conducted various experiments.
The same goes for animals.
Our previous job was to clean up the pollution, right?”
“…Yes.”
“I will pay you for it, but at the same time, I would like to give you a new job.
Your skills have already been proven.”
The opened scroll was handed to me,
The figure drawn on it was truly terrible.
“This…Is…”
“The official name is Chimera.
An easier name to understand would be hybrid. Of course, it doesn’t fall into the category of hybrids either.”
A monster with human arms, bodies, bones, and such attached to each other.
The head belonged to some grotesque beast that could not be recognized.
My forehead throbbed just looking at it, so I put it down –
“I think that maybe this was being made in that cave.
I just hope it’s for naught… But if this is completed, it will pose a great threat to the village.”
“Of course, it would be nice if it burned down, but it’s better to be sure.
Just because it didn’t appear doesn’t mean it didn’t exist… So I’m going to leave it to you like this.
More details are written on the scroll, so read it carefully when you are ready.”
My hands were shaking so much just looking at it.
I felt fear and fear at the appearance of malice…
Anger rose up.
Even though I was angry at the demons who did terrible things to people,
I wasn’t sure if I could actually do this.
Will I really be able to kill this ‘chimera’?
“You don’t have to be too nervous.
In the worst case, it is alive and moving…
Seeing as they rescued three people and came back, it would be more likely that all of those demons were burned to death.
And if it had woken up, you would have already seen it.”
“That’s right.”
“So.
But… If he’s alive, and he’s coming towards you,
It’s okay to run away. No, run away.
I don’t know how good your skills are, but you are a monster strong enough to take on several well-trained knights at the same time.
Understood?”
Somehow he woke up and came next to me,
The hand holding my shoulder was full of strength.
A different weight from my mother.
Depressing yet encouraging,
I was energized by the power that seemed to push me rather than imprison me.
It felt a little strange to receive this kind of support from someone who always made fun of me –
“Well, that’s right.
Now I’m going to move on to a slightly more interesting question.
This. What on earth is this? Huh?”
With the usual smirk on my face,
The person who clung to me persistently and asked me questions was, of course, someone I knew.
Poke, poke, poke the left side of my neck persistently,
The area that was tickling was being stimulated more.
“Ugh!”
“Ugh, Captain Saunders, let’s end this.
Get out quickly. “This is an order to leave!”
“I was dying of curiosity, huh?
I think we need to know who this bold boy is dealing with?”
“Get out now! Oh, wizard, can you stay a little longer?”
He was pushed out on his back and continued to look at me and laugh.
Immediately, I was blocked by the door that closed with a bang and I could no longer raise my voice.
“Really, I’m a person who doesn’t know moderation.
Excuse me, wizard.
I am truly sorry for showing you this way.”
“…What does everyone say about this thing on my neck?”
The same goes for the stares I received on the street.
Above all, the blonde adventurer who ran away with a strange look on his face.
I couldn’t believe that everything that had happened so far had happened without reason.
“Are you sure it’s not a bug bite?
Does it have some special meaning?”
“Ah…”
So, to the question posed,
The director looked at me with a strange look on his face, then burst into laughter.
“Phew, of course.
…Me too. What are you thinking about the little boy?
You’ve been bitten by a bug. All right.
We may have been mistaken.”
Illusion.
For some reason, that word strangely bothered me.
