28. Orphanage (5)
28. Orphanage (5)
My plan was like this.
I would slowly approach Kwak Narim, get close to her, then subtly lure her out of town and kidnap her.
No matter how bad the city's situation was lately, every gate was securely guarded by guards and knights.
If a human with any level of recognition in the city, especially one running a restaurant, were to vanish overnight, the Knights Order would definitely get suspicious.
On top of that, through the Mimic Creature's vision, I saw that the restaurant did booming business in the evening, so I tried to be extra careful with the kidnapping.
But contrary to expectations, the Mimic Creature made a mistake. Or rather, it was my mistake.
I thought that since humans eat a lot, even if it split into a small size, it could hold out until the next day.
'I never expected it to be off by half a day from my estimate.'
The Hive Mind suddenly called me, "Queen! Queen!" urgently. The moment I entered the Mimic Creature's consciousness, the smell of ammonia hit me hard.
Seeing Narim curled up, shivering in fear, leaking tears, snot, drool, and urine, I went to where she was.
==
Sleuk.
In the dead silent room, Narim, who had been burying her face in her arms, lifted it slightly and opened her eyes, only to bury her head back in with a "Hiik!" sound.
'Oh, what do I do...! What do I do...! What do I do...! What do I do...!'
It wasn't like she hadn't been in danger since transmigrating to this other world, but this was the first time her life was actually threatened.
And in this situation, with no one to protect her, she felt like she was going crazy.
'But why is it just staying still...?'
The moment she moved slightly against the unmoving Mimic Creature.
Kung.
"Hik...!"
The Mimic Creature's body stretched and blocked the direction she moved.
'Someone, please help me...! Please, anyone...!'
As she squeezed her eyes shut and prayed to the Goddess.
Kkii-ik.
She lifted her head at the sound of the door opening.
Seeing Lea's beautiful appearance, as if a goddess had descended, she was glad and shouted loudly.
"Saintess-nim, run away!!!"
Narim, who hadn't screamed until now to avoid provoking the Mimic Creature, shouted at the top of her lungs. As the Mimic Creature in front moved significantly, Narim's face was consumed by terror and she squeezed her eyes shut.
But nothing happened.
"I'm sorry, Narim-nim. You were very startled, weren't you?"
At the voice calling her, Narim slowly opened her eyes and lifted her head.
The monster that looked like it would kill everything living in this room until just a moment ago was gone.
The large, grotesque monster that filled the entire room was gone, and she saw the room she had been staying in, and Lea approaching her.
Thinking the Saintess-nim had saved her, Narim teared up and was about to hug her in gratitude.
"Hikkeuk."
"Narim-nim?"
She stopped that thought immediately.
Narim screamed at the voice that was cool, cold, and dragged her whole body into the deep sea just by hearing it.
"Hiiiik!"
She thought the red pupils were really pretty. But those eyes were gone, and black sclera that seemed to suck in all light, along with flame-red eyes, were looking down at her.
The skin she had envied didn't look like a living person's skin, but like artificially made porcelain, and the energy that had felt warm just by being near it now made her whole body freeze just by looking at it.
The entity was reaching out its hand toward her.
She felt like her body and mind were frozen in the terror of death approaching.
As Lea's hand drew closer, Narim's breathing became ragged, and eventually, she even forgot how to breathe.
'Am, am I dying? Am I, am I going to die?'
As Narim was terrified and unable to breathe, Lea realized then that she was touching her own face and that the Saintess disguise she had been maintaining had slipped.
"Ah, I made a mistake."
Mumbling to herself, she realized her mistake.
Having come here through the Hive Mind, Lea forgot she had arrived in the Queen's form, not the Saintess's, and swapped her face back to the Saintess.
The reverse eyes and cold, porcelain-like skin changed in an instant to warm, soft eyes.
"This is a problem. Should I just kill her?"
She thought about what to do with Narim, who had seen all of this right in front of her.
Having already seen the Queen's form, even if she saw the Saintess's form next, it was a situation where she had to be dealt with anyway.
While Lea was saying that, Narim had countless thoughts running through her head after seeing the face change in an instant right before her eyes.
'Am I having nightmares because I've been working too hard lately?'
'Am I being attacked by a monster that shows illusions?'
'Did the Saintess-nim get eaten by a monster, and the monster is taking on the Saintess-nim's appearance?'
She had met her just this morning at the restaurant.
Lea, whose very way of eating tonkatsu was elegant and made anyone who saw her smile involuntarily.
Since the Holy Kingdom hadn't made an official announcement, she couldn't technically be called a Saintess, but anyone who saw Lea couldn't help but call her that.
It was clear that such a Saintess-nim had gotten involved in some incident.
Many people had been anxious from the start.
Because she was a Saintess-nim with beauty enough to shake a nation, people would have been anxious even with the Knights Order nearby.
But an orphanage in Medherun City, the place with the most crime?
No matter how hard the knights and adventurers tried to protect the orphanage, she had thought problems would arise.
But.
Even though that thought was definitely correct, a very blasphemous thought wouldn't leave Narim's head.
Namely.
That the Saintess-nim was an entity created by the monster in front of her in the first place.
Not that the monster ate the Saintess and was mimicking her.
But that the monster was mimicking the Saintess from the very beginning.
Actually, all those thoughts didn't matter.
In the end, whether the entity in front of her was the Saintess or not, what mattered was that there was a monster in front of her.
Narim, trembling and consumed by terror, having wet herself.
"Don't worry. I have no intention of killing you. Take my hand here."
Lea, who had returned to the Saintess, spoke in a warm and soft tone again and held out her hand.
To Narim, it sounded like she would be killed if she didn't take that hand, so she hurriedly grabbed the hand in front of her.
And goosebumps broke out all over her body, starting from her arm.
The cold body, which had been sweating, wetting herself, and freezing from tension and fear until just a moment ago, changed in an instant.
At the warmth, like a mother's touch, all the loneliness, hardship, suffering, and the death she had just felt since transmigrating to this other world alone burst out at once, and she started crying buckets.
'Ugh. How annoying.'
Having never comforted a woman in her life, Lea just picked Narim up in her arms.
"Where is the bathroom?"
"Hic...! Sob...! Th-there isn't one..."
"Then how do you bathe?"
"I-I put water in a basket..."
"We're going to the orphanage."
"Y-yes, yes!? Okay..."
She thought of the orphanage as a place to go to die since it was no longer a safe place, but since resistance was already impossible, she just nodded in Lea's arms.
==
"Lea-nim? What are you carrying?"
Amber was slightly taken aback when Lea, who had disappeared after ordering her to wait, suddenly returned carrying a human woman.
Her face was already a mess, and although she had developed senses as she became a creature, she frowned at the strong smell of ammonia that even an ordinary human could smell.
"I kidnapped our chef."
"A chef? There's already a human who helps with cooking here at the orphanage."
"That's on a different dimension."
"Pardon?"
"She's really, really good at cooking. I heard her unique ability is related to cooking."
"A unique ability related to cooking? That's amazing."
"Exactly. So I kidnapped her to use as my personal chef."
Amber pondered what to do about Lea's words.
"Actually, I made a mistake and got caught."
"Don't tell me..."
"Yes. It's that 'don't tell me'."
"Are you going to use her at the orphanage? Or over there...?"
"Hmm... I want to eat Narim's cooking every day, but I got caught, so what should I do?"
"I, I will absolutely never tell anyone!!!"
Narim, who was being stared at by two—no, two monsters—shook her head violently.
"Should I make her like Amber..."
"Ugh..."
"Pardon? W-what?"
At Lea's words, Narim shuddered, recalling the sensation of a centipede entering her nose, stirring her brain, and planting countless legs into her brain and spinal cord, though she didn't grasp the situation.
"Why don't we give her a bath first? The smell seems too strong."
"That would be good."
==
"Wow..."
Narim couldn't close her mouth, turning her head left and right at the massive bathhouse built in the orphanage's basement.
Just as she was about to move to shower to get into the gorgeous and beautiful bathhouse, which she couldn't even see on Earth, she turned her head back.
Sleuk.
Ttubuk. Ttubuk. Ttubuk.
'She really is incredibly pretty... Is that appearance also a manufactured one...?'
Narim, already convinced she was a monster, was curious, but knowing her head would disappear the moment she tried to solve that curiosity, she just emptied her mind.
Right now, she was just filled with the desire to quickly wash off the smell of ammonia felt from her lower body and soak in that bath.
Of course, her heart was filled with the terror of death, but she deceived herself, saying it was just a desire to get into the bath, not knowing what would happen if she revealed that in front of the person herself.
Right now, to survive, she has to cater to that monster's whims.