Chapter 124 – Preparation for the Journey (2)
“Ohhh… ! It looks like a real hand!”
“I don’t even know it’s a prosthetic arm when I’m wearing a gauntlet or long gloves.”
Roden, who was enjoying the strange gaze of the twin sisters sitting next to him, tried to move his new body from now on, holding the prosthetic arm that would become his left hand, and moving it regularly.
Movement is awkward in many ways.
First of all, it moves as I want, but… ．Reactions and movements are subtly slow, yet quite heterogeneous. How about the sense of pain?
After thinking for a while, Roden held out his prosthetic hand to her twin sisters in order, saying that they could touch it as much as they wanted.
“As expected, unlike the original hand, it’s a bit hard and cold.”
“I think you will be able to sleep soundly if you hold it on a hot day. By the way, oppa, isn’t this heavy?”
Every time the twin sisters touched or fumbled with the prosthetic arm, the feeling of being touched was also clearly conveyed.
“It’s a bit heavy, but you’ll get used to it gradually.”
It’s a tingling sensation as if the anesthetized area is being touched. Is this also because the nerves are just connected and haven’t adapted?
I wanted to go outside right now and do various tests with my prosthetic hand, but… It’s already a full night. Moreover, a considerable sense of fatigue has also set in.
After exchanging a few simple words, Roden and her twin sister lay side by side so that the bed on which Roxia was lying first would not move, and went to sleep.
It is a fairly large bed suitable for the largest room in the inn, so it is not too much trouble for the four of us to lie down together as long as they are close together.
That’s how Roden’s party was finally able to finish the day that felt very long.
* * *
“Here… ?”
Roxia was the first to stand up in response to the morning sunlight filtering into the room through a crack in the window and the powerful crowing of a chicken from afar.
As soon as she opened her eyes, she faced an unfamiliar ceiling.
Loxia herself was seated at the end of the large bed, and right next to her was Roden, and next to her was Merim and Marill, who were sleeping soundly close to each other.
Under the circumstances, it was presumed to be an inn. Sleep completely ran away, and Loxia, who slowly recalled the events of the previous day one by one, hugged Roden tightly.
“Master… Master… Master…”
At the end of the fight, it felt like her world had collapsed when she saw not only Roden, but her twin sister as well, falling down trying to defend themselves.
After that, she didn’t know how on earth she was able to wield such power, but she just thought that she was lucky now.
After hugging her owner’s body, Roxia, who had buried her face before she knew it, vividly felt her warmth, touch, and smell, and realized that she was definitely alive.
Then Roden, who inevitably woke up, looked at her demon girl and gently touched her hair while talking to her gently.
“… You woke up early. Did you sleep well?”
“Yes, master. I slept well.”
“Do you feel any pain or discomfort anywhere?”
“Yes, Master. It’s not uncomfortable, it’s the first time in my life that I start the morning in such a refreshing mood.”
“I’m glad.”
I didn’t feel any fatigue from her, perhaps because she fell asleep while losing consciousness.
“Are you and your sisters all right?”
“Everyone is fine thanks to you recovering yesterday. Everyone lives thanks to you.”
The three suffered serious injuries that were life-threatening if left unattended, but now they have recovered completely without any aftereffects.
It is said that the high-ranking priests used recovery magic one after another.
It was obviously a great achievement, but it seemed that Roxia herself was not satisfied with that alone. Rather, she was very sorry.
“But Master. After all, the left hand…”
Roxia, who recalled Roden’s left hand, which had not been recovered even after the recovery, became gloomy as he blurted out the end of his words.
To think that the owner has to live with only one arm for the rest of his life.
From now on, I can use this power to replace my master’s left hand… No, you have to be strong enough to feed yourself without lacking!
Loxia, who had been imagining all by herself, slowly reached out to the place where her master’s left arm had been.
Ah, the arm of the master who was so dependable is so stiff… ．
“… Hard?”
Thinking that it would be empty, she felt the touch of a cold yet hard piece of metal at the tip of her fingertips.
Roxia, who opened her eyes wide at her unexpected touch, took the risk of rudeness and lifted the blanket that Roden was covering.
Observing Loxia’s reaction, Roden smiled lightly and snapped the fingers of her prosthetic arm, her movements still a bit stiff.
“It’s one of the artifacts I acquired in the dungeon before. I put it while you were sleeping. It’s pretty cool, right?”
“So, does that mean that this is your new left hand?”
“Well, that’s how it is.”
She felt at once drained, but also relieved that in this form, Romana Loden had recovered her left hand.
ㅡ Kururureuk.
… At the same time, the problem is that the feeling of hunger rushed together.
Right after she had consumed most of her demonic energy in the fight the previous day, and because she had been lying down a while ago, the feeling of hunger she was feeling was enormous, and in proportion to it, the rumbling sound of her stomach spread so loudly that even Roden could hear it clearly. ．
Roxia, whose face reddened at once, felt more embarrassed than her hunger.
“Shall we all start by taking care of it in the morning?”
“… Yes.”
Immediately after, the two woke up Merim and Marill respectively, went down to the first floor, and the four of them filled their stomachs together and then came out.
The group started walking around the city in the morning and started walking toward the collapsed store. Yesterday, I had to find a place to rest right away, so I left it as is, but there are some things I need to check.
… Not long after, the four people who arrived at the potion shop, which had become a pile of rubble, witnessed people in shabby clothes rummaging among the rubble.
Some of them go beyond their shabby outfits and wear only pants. Judging by the upper body with dry ribs exposed, it didn’t look like they had their tops covered as a fashion concept.
“The story must have spread all the way to the back alleys overnight.”
You are very diligent from early morning.
The lives of all citizens living in the same city cannot be the same, and if there is a downtown area in the city, there will also be slums.
There is a very high probability that people who are looting here and there must be beggars in the slums.
Most of the items that must have been laid among the wreckage must have been damaged and destroyed anyway, so I didn’t intend to dig through there to carefully retrieve the remaining items… I didn’t want to keep watching the scene where the place where I lived was robbed, and I had work to do here right now, so I decided to drive out the beggars who would be in the way.
“Just rest there for a while. I’ll send you back nicely.”
Having seated Roxia and her twin sister under a suitable shade, Roden walked over to the beggars who were rummaging through the rubble and threatened them to leave immediately.
As long as they listen carefully, I have no intention of hurting them.
As if to prove their pitiful nutritional status, the beggars, all of whom had dwarf physiques, looked up at Roden and nodded their heads obediently as if they felt some kind of intimidation.
Roden turned his back and looked at the beggars trying to leave…
“Wait a minute.”
“Yes… ?”
“The things you are packing in a bundle before you go… Lay it on the floor. I’m not saying leave it as it is, so don’t worry. I just want to check it out.”
Just in case, I decided to do a simple inspection of my belongings. The guys showed a lot of hesitation, but when Roden picked up a nearby stone and turned it into powder, it became a mild sheep.
Hmm, I originally picked it up with the intention of breaking it moderately… I still can’t get to fine control of my strength. I need to practice controlling my strength with this arm for a while.
After brushing off the prosthetic hand covered in stone powder, Roden began examining the contents of the bag the beggars had put down.
The first bag contained tableware such as pots or plates that were slightly dented or broken.
“Okay, pass.”
The second bag contained the clothes Roden wore, shoes, and socks.
“You pass, next.”
The third bag was lined with cracked potion bottles, presumably lying on the shelf.
“Hey, old man, you hit the jackpot. Do you like it?”
“… Shall we leave it here?”
“It’s okay. The old man also passed.”
“Go, thank you.”
If that much gold was broken, the possibility that the potion itself was contaminated was quite high, so I didn’t really think about collecting it.
You might get some sort of placebo effect.
Afterwards, Roden similarly checked her contents and let the beggars collect the items.
Most of them are broken or abandoned anyway, and those who desperately need them take them. There is no problem.
Suddenly, when there was only one beggar left, Roden, who was inspecting his belongings for the last time, opened his eyes and grabbed the beggar by the collar.
“… Hey. Fuck now, why are you trying to take these? Uh?”
“Turn it off!”
What’s in the bag is underwear!
All underwear. Not men’s, women’s underwear. Of course, the owners of the underwear are Roxia and her twin sisters who lived together in this house.
And the beggar who tried to take this was not the same woman, but a black middle-aged man with a haircut.
Roden, his eyes widened at once, shook the guy’s collar back and forth.
“Now, wait a minute. This is all… !!”
ㅡJaak!!!!
“Don’t talk sucking. What’s wrong with an underwear thief?”
Roden, who slapped the guy on the cheek, stretched out his prosthetic hand and grabbed his wrist in disbelief, then in the beggar’s head, the scene in which the man in front of him ground a stone into powder with his hand was played.
“Wow!! Please don’t do that with the hand that broke the stone. Please… !!!”
“To be honest.”
Roden, who made the underwear thief confess his dark desires, instead of cutting off the boy’s hands, broke both of his index fingers and pulled out his hey arch-cut hair.
Of course, I left my underwear intact.
It has already been covered with a lot of dust, and it is impossible to reuse crumpled underwear. However, if left unattended, misfortunes like the one before could happen, so I have to dispose of it.
Anyway, after sending all the beggars out, Roden called the three women who had been seated in the shade without difficulty and found a door leading down to the cellar by clearing the pile of rubble in a specific location.
