48. Pet Human (1)
48. Pet Human (1)
"I really enjoyed the meal again today. Thank you for always cooking such delicious food."
"I, I'll do the dishes! Narim-ssi, you go get some rest."
We seem to be living our daily lives, but it's not normal at all.
I've never seen a better house than this one in my life. Actually, it's a bit ambiguous whether this should even be called a house.
It's just a part of a giant cave, but Lea-unni...? Lea-nim? Your Majesty? Anyway, Lea-unni calls this place a bedroom.
I never step even one foot outside this bedroom. I don't want to go out.
It's called a bedroom, but it's so big that there wouldn't be any problem calling it a mansion.
It might be called a bedroom, but the bathhouse is the size of a decent mansion, and there's a kitchen—it has everything.
Originally, this was a bedroom Lea-unni used alone, but now there are two other unnis here.
Yui-unni, who is a Mage and currently manages people at that terrifying place called the human farm.
Erina-unni, who is a Healer and had all her Holy Power taken by Lea-unni, but has recovered enough to serve as a doctor at the human farm.
Right now, I am in charge of cooking for the two unnis.
Life here isn't particularly uncomfortable.
Other than breakfast, lunch, dinner, and the occasional tea time in between, there's just nothing to do.
So, I spend my time trying out various dishes I couldn't make before, but that only lasts a day or two; not being able to see the sunlight made me feel increasingly depressed.
I carefully mentioned that fact to Yui-unni, and after going outside the bedroom with her, I regretted it immensely.
Even without going far outside the bedroom, the surroundings were swarming with monsters—ah, creatures—and they were so terrifying that I felt anxious, wondering if they would suddenly go "Wack!" and pounce on me if I took my eyes off them for even a second.
Every time I saw those creatures, I was reminded of the person I killed with my own hands.
The feeling of a person dying in my hands was so shocking that even thinking about it now makes me want to throw up the food I just ate.
'Lea-unni is definitely Korean... why did she change like that...' No.
Is she actually trying her best to hold back?
Thinking back to when I went for a walk to see the sunlight, or when I went down to the basement and saw tens of thousands of creatures in the giant underground cave, it was an enormous number that would have been enough to destroy all the surrounding countries and cities.
Even though I have no head for combat, it's not like I haven't done anything in this world.
It's clear that Lea-unni is intentionally not attacking.
On top of that, she is farming people to avoid killing them as much as possible.
The problem is that even just doing that is a horrific act that disqualifies her as a human.
'Does Unni see humans as just ordinary chickens or pigs now?'
I just can't wrap my head around it.
Actually, there's no need to sort it out. To survive, I have to live here quietly and keep my mouth shut.
The only reason I'm alive is because I'm good at cooking.
I don't know why, but it seems like Lea-unni doesn't really taste much in ordinary cooking. In the midst of that, she was so moved by the food I made that she even kidnapped me.
Her goal is for me to make dishes using people as ingredients to feed the creatures.
For now, she understands that I don't cook human dishes. But I don't know how long that understanding will last.
I don't know when or how Lea-unni's mind might change.
So, I need to cook human dishes as soon as possible.
But the problem is that I'm still not used to it.
Even now, just looking at ordinary pork to cook with makes my stomach acid reflux.
I know for a fact that it's pork, but if I don't keep my wits about me, I start thinking the meat in front of me is human flesh.
Since I'm guaranteed to die if things go on like this, I've started going to the human farm with Yui-unni and Erina-unni to watch human deaths a few times to get used to it.
Over 100 women are being farmed in a confined space.
The pregnant women live there knowing they are being farmed more comfortably than anyone else, and seeing them split into factions and fight makes me realize that humans are truly foolish animals.
"P, please save me! I, I'll definitely get pregnant! I'll definitely get pregnant next time!!! So pleeease...! R, right! Heal! If you use Heal to cure me, I, I'll get pregnant easily!"
One of the daily routines, promoting pregnancy and checking for pregnancy, is the most cruel routine.
Because it's the time when women who can't get pregnant are killed. To be precise, it's the time they turn into food.
How long does it take for all 100 women to get pregnant?
They say it's been about two months since they started running the human farm.
Since not all women have the same fertile period, they said they gave them two months.
If they can't get pregnant during a total of two fertile periods, the end is death.
Because there is no reason to keep a human who can't get pregnant alive on the human farm.
And that is also the reason why I came here.
To get used to human death.
Women who don't get pregnant are dragged to the basement right below the human farm.
That basement is where a creature called Ners resides.
Thousands of Ners live there, and it is the most hellish place I have ever seen in my life.
The moment a person enters that place, small Ners swarm in and envelop them to the point where you could say they just bury the person.
Seeing the Ners enter every single hole in a person's body gives me goosebumps all over.
The most painful part was the indescribable gore when the Ners that entered a person's mouth eventually ate everything from the inside out and came back out.
While I was slowly and gradually getting used to human death, the colony started to ring.
"W, what is it!?"
I grabbed Yui-unni's hand right next to me.
"Looks like they've arrived. Let's go up right now."
My curiosity about the colony ringing was resolved before long.
It was a vibration caused by countless Ners entering the colony all at once.
The problem was that those Ners brought large cocoons with them, and now that I was used to people, I knew that there were people inside those cocoons.
[ Human. ]
Gulp.
As a creature called Dagos, who was similar to other Ners but induced an overwhelming sense of fear, approached, I immediately hid behind Yui-unni.
"Thank you for your hard work."
[ I leave it to you. ]
"I will perform it perfectly."
[ If there is a problem, call this body immediately. ]
"Yes."
I don't know how she can talk so comfortably with such a monster, no, creature.
Even if I get used to people dying, my legs still tremble when I talk to such creatures right in front of me.
Who wouldn't tremble in fear when a monster you'd only see in movies is right in front of you?
As the Dagos creature moved with its giant legs and disappeared, Yui-unni let out a slight sigh at the cocoons starting to pile up in front of her.
"We need to hurry before the Queen arrives."
The Ners hung the cocoons they had brought from the ceiling of the colony.
The cocoons hanging like that were so numerous that if you looked from a distance, you might mistake them for snow falling.
'That's all people...?'
The moment I thought that there were people inside all those cocoons, I got goosebumps all over.
Click. Click. Click. Click.
"Eek!"
Startled by the sound of a Ners' teeth suddenly heard from behind, I clung tightly to Yui-unni's body.
"Isn't it time you got used to it?"
I wanted to scream at Yui-unni's words, which she asked as if she found me pathetic.
I'm an ordinary person!!!
Not just an ordinary person.
I'm a person who transferred to this world from peaceful Earth.
Yui-unni might have been able to adapt quickly because she was an adventurer who fought monsters and people, but I'm different.
In the first place, I've only ever seen monsters or creatures in movies or comics!
It's only natural that I can't adapt!
Of course, I knew I couldn't keep making excuses like that, so I turned my head slightly to look at the Ners to adapt as quickly as possible.
The Ners that made eye contact with me tilted its head, then lifted one leg and reached out toward me.
The leg stopped right in front of me, and without realizing it, I reached out and placed my hand on the Ners' leg.
I felt a cold, hard, and smooth sensation.
"We're busy because we have to determine whether all the humans here have mana or not, and whether they have Holy Power or not. Let's move quickly."
"Y, yes!"
Coming to my senses at Yui-unni's words, I tapped the Ners' leg and followed Yui-unni to the place where numerous cocoons were hanging.
Perhaps because the Ners helped move the cocoons from the side, we sorted the people faster than I thought, and after the sorting was finished, we returned to the bedroom, and Lea-unni was there.
"Welcome back. There were a lot of humans, so it must have been hard to sort them, right?"
"No. But you've brought another woman, haven't you?"
At Yui-unni's words, I checked the woman sleeping soundly on the bed.
"G, Gwen-nim!?"
"Ah, Narim-nim, you know her? That's right. It's Gwen-nim."
"Wh, why is she here..."
"I adopted her this time."
"A, adopted?"
"Yes. As a pet human."
Gulp.
At the word "pet human" that Lea-unni said so naturally, my whole body began to be consumed by fear again.
"I'm going to start some taming training from now on."
Lea-unni smiled contentedly while stroking the hair of Gwen-nim, who was sleeping on the bed.
But even though I hadn't known Lea-unni for long, I knew what that smile meant, so I prayed.
That there would never come a day when she would cook Gwen-nim with her own hands.