Chapter 223 – The Green-Skinned Child
Sniff- sniff-
The man with the hump on his left shot her snot out on the floor, and gave her a look-chin.
“That’s a trap dug by the green demons. Boyish?”
The lump-beaked younger brother grabbed a curved sword that was covered in sticky grass and gently cleared the bush.
Then a pit was revealed, which had been sloppily covered with thin branches.
The pit was just wide and deep enough for a person to fall into, and at the bottom were several thick twigs that had been sharpened.
However, there were dark red bloodstains all over the inside.
“A guy got lost here. There was an impatient fellow named Gilbert. I fell into a pit and my belly skin was ripped apart, and I spilled my intestines. He cackled so much to be saved-, he quickly put an arrow through his cob.”
At his little brother’s words—as Ian and Lily looked at him wide-eyed, he smiled mischievously and shrugged his shoulders.
“I was on my way to ambush the Green Ghost-. Do you want me to go away while playing a gong?”
Margery shook his head.
Although there were moral problems, it was indeed the right decision.
If the wound was so severe that the intestines flowed out, it was practically the same as death.
Where can there be a proper medical system in this era-.
If it were the clergy of the Holy Church who could handle the divine power, it wouldn’t have known—in many ways, it would have been impossible to heal in a mountainous area like this.
Since he was dying painfully with a single arrow, it would have been right to be grateful.
Ian murmured as he looked at the bloodstains left all over the pit.
“But there is no body.”
“…Well, the green demons must have taken it. Couldn’t you have had a party with Gilbert’s flesh?”
Seo-joon narrowed his eyes and looked at the path overgrown with bushes.
In front of this, there will be many such traps.
It was not an elaborate trap.
It was the kind of crude that could be avoided if you paid enough attention.
But was this just a forest? Apart from this, there are many other things to watch out for.
“Follow me. We still have a long way to go.”
He went ahead again through the bushes.
Glancing back, Lumpy-beak was looking at Seo-joon with bloodshot eyes.
Seo-joon shoved a fish stick into his snout, chewed it, and then turned his head.
After hours of walking, they found thirteen traps.
The variety was also very diverse.
Starting from weaving grass to trap feet, snare traps used for hunting small animals.
And most of them were traps in the form of digging holes and covering them with branches and bushes, just like before.
The younger brother figured out its location, and the party walked away avoiding the trap.
After walking for some time-, he pointed at the top of the hill with thick bushes.
“Come this way.”
As I followed him up the hill holding onto the vines, I saw a bare mountain with all its hair missing.
“There is a demon cave you are looking for in that mountain.”
It used to be a mine where iron was mined- My younger brother told me.
There are no workers now, and the mineral vein has been cut off, so it was said that it was a place where animals had settled for a long time.
There were mainly wild boars and bears.
However, green demons began to appear there.
“At first, I approached them without knowing anything. We must have seen a guy that looked like that somewhere.”
In the southern free city over there, green demons talk like people and live together in the same house, so I wonder if these bastards are like that too?
But it wasn’t.
They were demons led by twisted mana.
The first to encounter the green ghost were women picking raspberries, mushrooms, and medicinal herbs.
However, instead of running away after meeting the green ghost, the women gave him mushrooms and raspberries.
Even fully grown Green Ghosts are on the small side, like 15-year-old boys and girls–especially in the case of the younger Green Ghosts, there was no difference in appearance to the point where they were no different from humans.
Except for the fact that her ears are long like leaves and her teeth are triangular and pointed…
The green ghost that the leper women encountered was a young individual.
She looked like a child of about five or six years old.
He was frightened when he saw women with unfamiliar smells and unfamiliar skin colors and appearances—but at the same time, like a young man, he was curious.
So, after accepting the raspberries the women handed to her, she ate them in haste, and reached out to ask for more.
I would have been curious to see that.
It might have felt maternal love.
The women handed over everything in the basket.
But I wouldn’t have known that it would cause anger.
The guy who ate them all jumped up and down with excitement and let out a strange cry.
However, upon hearing the sound, other green spirits came to visit.
The women swung slingshots of stones and were surrounded in an instant by threatening green spirits holding sharpened spearheads.
And then he was dragged straight into the abandoned mines.
A few days later, only one person returned alive.
Also, all of her clothes were torn, and dark green semen was dripping from her genitals.
“There was no sound place. That woman-. Her face was tattered like a trampled grape skin, and there were black bruises all over her body. There were bite marks from sharp teeth on her breasts. The pus flowed from her bloody scabs, so I couldn’t tell where her nipples were.”
He giggled as he said that.
The woman said that within a month her belly had grown like a mountain—and within a few days she gave birth to a child.
She said that the child was green-skinned and had long ears, but she was no different from any other human child.
Her men drew her sword, but the woman begged her to leave her child alone.
I’m sure she’s crazy – but it makes a little sense.
These were not ordinary peasants – lepers.
People with leprosy who have had their noses melted, their eyes necrotic, and they have lost their fingers -.
They were persecuted by the people and lived in hiding in this remote mountainous area.
Abandoned by their parents and children, it was a village made up of people who wandered around to die.
At the woman’s words not to kill her green spirit because of her different appearance-, her men had no choice but to insert their swords into her. Foolishly -.
Nokgwi grew up.
The guy, who grew up like a strong boy in 11 days, spoke human words albeit clumsily and did what he was told to do well.
He twisted ropes, helped with field work, and cried when bitten by leeches.
He used to play pranks with other kids his age.
However, at times it showed excessive violence.
There were cases of chickens wandering around the yard frantically shaking their heads, twisting the necks to drink blood, or biting off the wrists of other leper boys.
Although the boy said he punched the green demon first—but that wasn’t the problem.
The Green Ghost chewed and swallowed the boy’s flesh.
That was the problem.
It was a moment to show that he was not an ordinary child, but a man-eating monster.
Eventually, the Nokki was forced to leave his mother’s arms.
The mother cried out, but there was nothing she could do.
The Green Ghost was imprisoned in the stable and for three days and three nights screamed and cried and ran wild.
He said that the villagers, who had seen the child born and grow up, couldn’t bear to kill him.
They tied the Green Ghost to her pole and tried to ignore it, and the mother brought the Green Ghost some food.
After that, the situation outside continued to deteriorate.
The number of green demons began to increase terribly, and the area around the abandoned mine became a forbidden area that no one could approach.
Mountain keepers, herb hunters, and hunters also perished in a violent manner after stepping into the vicinity recklessly—and a few green demons even tried to climb over the village wall.
They were hit by arrows shot by Brother Lumpbeak and ran away.
I followed the bloodstains – a crude stone sling and a spear fell.
Realizing that they didn’t come with good intentions, the villagers thought that if they added more, they wouldn’t be less.
So, they reinforced the wooden fence and formed a hunting team led by the Lumpy Brothers.
Was fifteen.
Most of them died, and among them, only two of them returned alive—the Lumpy Brothers.
“You can’t look down on those kids. They are very mean babies… Especially for women.”
The lump-beaked younger brother muttered such words and giggled.
Ian looked anxiously at the women behind him.
Eventually, we reached the entrance of the abandoned mine.
“`
At the entrance of the abandoned mine, there was a minecart with traces of handling from a long time ago.
The screws connecting the boards were rusted red, and there was a lot of dirt inside the cart.
Green sprouts were shaking their heads above the soil.
Occasionally, in the dark abandoned mine, a whistling sound could be heard.
To Ian’s ears, it sounded like a giant whistling.
“That’s all we are talking about. Those bastards don’t usually come out of their caves when the sun is up, but their ears are unusually bright. They’ll even hear the rattles of the bug antennae crawling inside. It would be better to communicate only with hand signals from the inside.”
Seo-joon knew it wasn’t that far, but he didn’t respond.
After setting up a few hand signals for advance and stop, surprise and retreat, the lump-beaked brothers crouched down and began examining their weapons.
First, the elasticity of the bow and the tension of the string were tested.
I checked the arrowheads to see if they were dull or broken – I counted them correctly, and then checked again in reverse order.
The fact that only the two of them came back alive from such a rough land seemed to have their own reasons.
Seo-joon repeatedly squeezed and unfolded the handle of his sword, and poured all the remaining fish into his mouth.
“…But what happened to that green ghost?”
Seeing the actions of the lump-beaked brothers, Lily, who was also checking the condition of his bow, asked——the older brother narrowed his eyes and glared at him.
She startled – her shoulders trembled, but she didn’t avert her eyes.
“…You mean that green demon who was born and raised in the village?”
“Yes.”
Lily nodded her head at her little brother’s question.
The guy tore his mouth open enough to tell through the cotton thread and laughed, then asked back.
“How do you think it turned out?”
At his question, Lily pursed her lips—and then closed them.
Instead, it was Margery who answered.
“I’m sure I’m dead. Are there only one or two people who lost their family members to the green ghost? Would they have been there?”
At Marjorie’s words, the lump-beaked brother giggled.
He even answered.
“It would be nice if I did too… Unfortunately, the baby is alive and well. Still tied to that barn. I am surviving on the chunks of meat my mother brings me. See you when you return to the village.”
The guy finished with those words and lit the perch.
After distributing perches one by one according to the number of people, Seo-jun stepped into the demon cave following him.
The cool yet damp air of the abandoned mine was sucked into the lungs.
From now on, it was the domain of the bastards.
