Chapter 249 — Will It Mean Anything? (3)
[Um… I was going to stay out of this.]
I dreamed that something soft, wet, and vivid red was wrapped around my entire body.
[But is this really the best way……?]
Every so often I felt something hard too.
Those hard things were lined up evenly in a row, so I thought maybe they were some kind of railing.
[Wasn’t there… some better option than carrying him in your mouth?]
Ah.
Right.
The dream was constantly battered by wind and rain.
It was so intense that rain kept blowing in through the open sides.
Even from the ceiling.
Though the rain falling from the ceiling was strangely viscous, and the droplets were enormous enough to make me question whether it was really rain at all…
but since it was a dream, I assumed it only felt strange because of that.
[I give up…….]
Anyway.
It was a truly bizarre dream.
I didn’t particularly want to have it again.
* * *
“……!”
And I was staring at an unfamiliar ceiling.
No.
Was this a cave ceiling?
I slowly relaxed the muscles around my eyes without realizing I had tensed them, then rolled my gaze around.
My irises shifted sideways, carefully taking in the surroundings.
Within the tilted world, extraordinary nature waited for me in gentle colors.
This is…
actually beautiful.
I blinked in admiration.
A massive cave with its ceiling open in the center.
Sunlight pouring through that opening.
All sorts of plants thriving on that light.
Clear spring water running between the vegetation……
I’ll say it again.
It was impossible to look at this and not be impressed.
“Do you like the scenery of the swamp?”
But no matter how beautiful the scenery was, figuring out my situation should have come first.
I forgot that.
Thanks to that, when the question suddenly came, all I could do was clamp my mouth shut.
Why had I woken up here?
Who exactly was speaking to me?
Did this person know who I was when they helped me?
Or had they helped without knowing?
Those belated questions hammered furiously against my skull, telling me it still wasn’t too late to start thinking now.
“Please do not move.”
During that process, I tried to sit up and reach for my sword.
The attempt ultimately failed.
The other person stopping me was one factor, but the decisive issue was that my body simply refused to obey properly.
My torso, which had risen only slightly above the layers of cloth beneath me, collapsed back down with a flop.
“Your fever has not fully broken yet.”
So heavy as a thousand pounds wasn’t much of an exaggeration after all.
I groaned faintly through my teeth at the thought.
Not in character?
There are limits to how much pain you can endure while staying in character.
This was the worst muscle pain I had ever experienced.
My whole body trembled.
Everything felt heavy.
I could barely put any strength into my limbs.
Honestly, it felt surprising that I had even managed to regain consciousness.
My body—which couldn’t feel cold, or maybe had been made unable to feel it thanks to equipment effects?—shivered with chills as my fingers twitched weakly.
“…Why… why am I here?”
At least there was one fortunate thing.
The face I’d glimpsed while falling back down looked extremely familiar.
Breathing hard, I asked the person I remembered as the priest of Serhang.
The woman, who had just begun dipping a dry cloth into a bowl of water, shrugged.
“It seems you do not remember. The Mountain Lord brought you here.”
Once she judged the cloth thoroughly soaked, she lifted it out and wrung it.
Maybe having multiple hands made things efficient.
While some hands prepared the wet cloth, another poured water into a cup.
“…When?”
“You first arrived here seven days ago.”
What?
Seven days?
I’d been bedridden for an entire week?
“Before anything else… please drink some water.”
I was so dumbfounded I wanted to ask something more, but she was faster.
While wiping the sweat from my skin—
that was when I finally realized I wasn’t wearing anything on my upper body. I had neither the energy nor the desire to get angry about it, so I pretended not to notice for now—
she brought the cup she had just filled to my lips.
“This is a tea brewed from fruit with pain-relieving effects and herbs that lower fever.”
Perhaps she thought I might refuse it, because she even added a short explanation of its effects.
It wasn’t as though I had the strength to refuse anyway.
I opened my parched mouth and slowly swallowed the water she let in.
【Aori, how is the Thunder Serpent?】
【The Thunder Serpent has just awakened. We will need to observe the condition a little longer… but I believe the danger has at least passed.】
For about five minutes, I drank the water in tiny sips like a baby while she wiped every part of my bare torso.
Then an unfamiliar face approached.
Of course, it was also possible I’d seen this person before and simply failed to recognize them.
My whole body felt like a chunk of stone, heavy and rigid.
The more time passed, the less clear my thoughts became instead of the opposite.
【What incredible fortune. Until yesterday, we were worried because we could barely find a pulse…….】
【The Thunder Serpent is no ordinary person.】
Still, falling asleep again would definitely cause trouble…
Not health-related trouble or anything like that.
Something more along the lines of my personal safety……
I forced my drooping eyelids to stay open and dragged my rough tongue along the inside of my mouth.
There was an unpleasant bitter texture, like when my tongue dried out during a bad cold.
Even though I’d drunk enough water to moisten my throat, it remained.
My condition really must have been terrible.
【For now, I will continue tending to the Thunder Serpent. Could you bring something light to eat instead?】
【Of course. I will bring it shortly.】
While I somehow kept myself conscious, the conversation between the two finally ended.
Meaning the priest of Serhang returned to my side and began wiping away my sweat again.
Each time the lukewarm cloth touched me, my skin shivered from the chills.
“…I.”
But I wasn’t about to lose to something as trivial as cold.
I somehow dragged out my clouded voice.
The result of squeezing my throat with everything I had sounded cracked like drought-stricken earth, which was unfortunate, but I would have to accept it.
“I’m… here… Who else knows?”
More importantly, when was the medicine I’d drunk going to start working?
If even that took effect, I felt like my body might improve slightly.
“Please do not worry. The fact that the Thunder Serpent is here has been shared only with the priests of the swamp and the Grand Chieftain.”
“…Why?”
“The Mountain Lord ordered us to keep it secret.”
Hmm.
That was actually reassuring.
I had been worried that outsiders who had begun interacting with the Great Forest might have heard about my presence……
“So set aside your worries and rest. Unless the Thunder Serpent or the Mountain Lord gives further instruction, our mouths will remain closed forever.”
Hearing even that let me relax a little more.
Not completely.
Just a little.
“I am… being pursued.”
“…I see.”
Because…
their attitudes could still change if they learned the truth.
And if they didn’t change and continued trying to help me—which I seriously doubted—then that would create its own problem.
If the people outside learned that the Great Forest had hidden and aided me, the consequences might spread to the entire Great Forest.
“Protecting me… is against… what is right.”
“Is that so?”
But.
“If the Order finds out, they will surely……”
“O Black Thunder Serpent, first, we do not worship the god revered by outsiders. We honor only the Mountain Lord and nature, and the Mountain Lord’s will is the will of us all.”
But……
“Furthermore, O Black Snake, you protected young lives with your blade and saved those suffering persecution through violence.”
I breathed out hot air.
The heat was obvious even in my shallow breaths.
It must have been worse inside my body.
I was cold.
And hot.
And in so much pain.
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“When others brought them nothing but blood and death, you alone returned life and living things to them.”
It made me unbearably miserable.
I had nowhere to go.
Nowhere to rest my heart.
And now I was sick on top of it.
It was simply miserable.
“Because we know what kind of person you are, we gladly carry out the Mountain Lord’s will not through coercion but from sincerity, not as a performance but through action. We do so so willingly that the Mountain Lord’s will and our own can no longer be distinguished.”
And those words were so sweet.
“Therefore, please swallow whatever you were about to say next. The Grand Chieftain would be saddened to hear it.”
I knew I shouldn’t.
And yet they were sweet enough to make me want to ask whether I could stay here a little longer.
* * *
“…I’ll leave in three days. Nothing good will come from me staying here.”
* * *
Yukgwi lay quietly in the place prepared for it and enjoyed the lazy calm of the day after the typhoon passed.
The cave that had originally belonged to the Mountain Lord alone was remarkably spacious and quiet.
It was perfect for relaxing.
【Honored One, is there anything you lack?】
[No.]
That wasn’t all.
Perhaps because these humans had respected Yukgwi’s descendants for generations, the attendants assigned here were exceptionally perceptive.
They asked whether anything was needed only when doing so would not disturb the pleasant silence.
Otherwise, they simply cleaned around Yukgwi and replaced whatever needed replacing.
Yukgwi also liked the bed they had prepared in a suitable sunny spot—though to a human, it probably looked more like a bird’s nest.
They had made it wide enough that half received sunlight while the other half remained covered by the cave ceiling.
That way, Yukgwi could comfortably sleep wherever desired.
If it rained, Yukgwi could sleep in the shade.
When the sunlight was pleasant like today, Yukgwi could move into the bright half and enjoy a nap.
Yukgwi purred contentedly at the warmth of the sunlight against its shell.
【If you think of anything you need, please call us at any time.】
[All right.]
They said that, but would Yukgwi ever really have a reason to call them?
Not because Yukgwi disliked ordering others around.
It simply seemed unlikely that any need would arise.
Meals arrived punctually on schedule.
Snacks had already been placed nearby in advance.
And they hadn’t merely left them sitting there.
If Yukgwi ignored something long enough for it to begin going bad, the humans immediately replaced it.
In circumstances like these, what could Yukgwi possibly need to ask for?
“…Hrrm.”
…Truly.
What could there possibly be?
Yukgwi glared at the only thing in this cave that it disliked.
It was a small bed positioned in one corner of the cave, on lower ground than Yukgwi’s nest.
More precisely, the problem was the human using that bed.
[Hmm.]
A full week had passed—though half of that had admittedly been spent traveling through the rain—and the human’s breathing still sounded terrible.
Yukgwi looked down at him.
If he was sick, why not simply say he was sick?
Why lie there suffering silently by himself?
Preparing to leave while his body had not even properly recovered was just as incomprehensible.
He was unbelievably foolish.
[He’s going to die if he keeps that up…….]
The declaration from earlier that he would leave in three days was ridiculous too.
Did that human honestly believe his body would be fine three days from now?
The swelling in those waterlogged feet had only just begun going down, and the fever was still there.
Yukgwi knew little about human bodies, but even Yukgwi could tell this was not a condition that would heal in three days.
It was nothing more than human stubbornness.
Idiotic.
『If the Order finds out, they will surely……』
Truly.
Stupid.
[Ancesstorrrr, I’m back.]
[All right.]
Strange.
Yukgwi had thought that human ran because he didn’t want to die.
That he must be the sort who cared about nothing but himself, like the humans Yukgwi had seen in that city.
That had been the assumption.
[I picked a few raspberries on the way back. Want some? They’re nice and sweet.]
But it felt strange to think he was trying to leave because he feared the humans here might report him.
As long as the Mountain Lord protected him, these humans could never turn hostile toward him.
And yet.
Even after hearing that fact.
The human still intended to leave.
Why?
What had the attending priest meant by telling him to swallow the words that came next?
[…Forget that. Do something about that human.]
[Why? Did something happen?]
[Says he’s leaving in three days.]
[Whaaaat???]
[Well, whether he dies or not makes no difference to me.]
[Good grief, Sir Knight…….]
…Whatever the answer was, it was hardly any of Yukgwi’s business.
After all, that thing was nothing more than a vessel carrying a demon.
[I can’t allow that. I’ll have to stick to him like glue and keep him from leaving.]
[Do your best.]
For that reason, Yukgwi decided to let the Mountain Lord’s words flow in one ear and out the other.
It was back when Yukgwi had yet to learn that the future was never something one should be so certain about.