Ep.2 - Two Women (5)
Ep.2 - Two Women (5)
"Ohuh! Ohhuuh...!"
My voice came out slurred and garbled. Even when I tried to shout "Load," not a single proper syllable escaped—everything turned into useless mush.
My tongue, stretched limp across the floor of my mouth as if I'd been knocked unconscious, had frozen entirely, losing all function.
Panicked, I shoved my hand into my mouth and struggled to move it, but it was no use.
The tongue showed not the slightest sign of movement, as if it had been paralyzed from the start.
I'd only meant to show a little pity and grant her a single request, but one thoughtless, stupid action had brought about an irreversible consequence.
"Uuik...!"
Burning with a sense of betrayal, I glared at Philmark.
But Philmark answered my look of contempt with a smile instead.
"We're one now, aren't we...?"
My fury boiled over, making my whole body tremble. At the same time, an unprecedented crisis flooded my mind with a tidal wave of thoughts crashing in all at once.
What was I supposed to do?
Should I call for Neva-ssi?
"If you're thinking of calling that knight bitch, better drop it. If she gets even a little more pissed, she'll beat me to death without a second thought...? Heh... She can't even control her own emotions, and if she kills a capital offender like me...? I'll fucking die under torture, and then she'll die after..."
No. That was a lie.
Who would kill a knight commander that way?
Don't listen to any more of this, just quickly call Neva-ssi before the situation gets worse...
"There's gotta be over a hundred nobles who'd capture me and kill me personally. You think it's just the nobles? The neighboring country's queens, the illustrious Cardinal-nim, the Archbishop..."
...Fine.
No.
Neva-ssi wasn't the type of person to ruin things because of her emotions.
...Ugh.
Or was she...?
"Think carefully. Well, being stupid is your charm, so I won't stop you... Phut... You are cute... really..."
That furious face I'd seen just moments ago kept circling in my head.
Had something happened between them—something I knew nothing about—that left a very deep grudge?
Was it not a simple relationship, but more like sworn enemies... that kind of thing?
If so, then really, just maybe...
"Ah, ahaha! Ahahaha! Delin, Deliiin... That tight-assed bitch would kill me...? Huh? Why're you thinking so seriously about it... If she kills me, you'll be living the rest of your life as a mute cripple... Puheuheut..."
W-was that true?
But she'd helped me so much...
No, wait! Why was I letting that person's words keep swaying me...!
"Ahhhyuheo!"
Shut uuup!
"Alright. Don't get mad... It's just because you're cute... But think carefully. You think you can live without the Save&Load ability? The moment you call that bitch, the chance to fix it is gone forever... Because I'll absolutely never fix it..."
Instead of answering, I glared at her fiercely once more. It was a situation where I didn't want to answer, and couldn't answer properly even if I tried.
"You tried to persuade me a few hundred times earlier, but in the end you couldn't even do that properly, right? So just give it up already... Delin... Don't make things hard for no reason. Pick the easiest path... These stakes. Pull them out."
"Uuu..."
"You can't even go out and live like this, so what are you agonizing over... You're really an idiot... Seriously... Kup... Keuheut... Ahahahahaha! Aheuik... I'm fucking dying laughing..."
I wanted to spew curses right into her mocking face, but my mouth wouldn't open.
What pissed me off even more than that, though, was that every word she spat out was the truth.
"You know what'll happen if you go out like this, right? A boy all alone, no connections to the Albator Kingdom, living as a mute cripple... Go ahead and try if you can. I'll be rooting for you. Sincerely..."
Haa...
"Uuwoo...!"
I yanked one of the stakes with all my strength.
It was jammed in so solidly that I had to summon every last drop of strength I'd had since infancy just to wrench one free.
"Keuheuk... Good... That's it..."
As the stake that had burrowed into her flesh was pulled free, Philmark's face contorted in a deep grimace, and she let out a groan.
Before I knew it, a number of gruesome puncture wounds had appeared all over her body.
It was the kind of condition where you'd expect her to be dead...
"Last one, hurry... pull it..."
"Hueup! Eup! Uueup!"
This was no time to worry about that.
I immediately shoved my lips and ankle in front of her face, signaling her to fix them fast. Not wanting to speak with my mangled pronunciation, I kept my mouth firmly shut and just fumed.
"Uueut! Eeuueut!"
"Hurry... if I die like this... you'll never get it fixed... I'm starting to feel dizzy..."
Fuck.
Maybe it wasn't an empty threat—her pupils were gradually losing focus.
I couldn't bring myself to look properly because the gruesome holes riddling her body were too disturbing, but the real problem was the staggering amount of blood gushing out of them.
In fact, she'd already lost so much blood it wouldn't be strange if she dropped dead...
Fine. Let's pull it out fast before she keels over.
Because if she died like this, I was truly fucked...!
"Keu... heuyuk..."
Pusuk—
The last remaining stake finally separated from her body.
Then Philmark seemed to mutter something, and purple liquid began to pour from her mouth—not just a little, but in rapid succession.
I watched in silence...
The purple liquid trickled down her flesh and onto the wounds, and the punctured holes began to close as new flesh sprouted. The bleeding stopped in an instant.
It was a truly wondrous ability. I felt firsthand that this was a fantasy world.
"Ptoo-"
This time she spat that liquid toward the steel chains binding her own body.
And now even those divine chains began to melt away with a slow sizzle...!
"Now I can live a little. Huu..."
And so Philmark planted both feet on the ground and stood up.
"You hweegeh! Hweegeh gah-heun yeoah!"
As she stretched her stiff body, clearly sore from moving for the first time in a long while, I marched up to her, opened my mouth wide, and pointed at my tongue. Fix it, fast!
Oh, and she had to fix my ankle too.
"Gohyeo! Gohyuhuh!"
I pointed at my ankle and threw another fit. Fix this too!
She looked at me and gave a sly grin, then—
"Delin. As expected, you..."
She wrapped her arms around my waist and, without warning, showered me with a kiss...!
"Eup!"
That sticky deep kiss went on for a very long time.
I pushed with all my strength, tried to bite down on the tongue that had slipped inside, but in the end I could only lie trapped in her embrace while my tongue was toyed with.
My tongue, unable to exert any real force, was mercilessly violated and explored by hers.
"Chuuu... There. Good, right?"
Philmark only released me after she'd pressed her tongue against mine to her full satisfaction.
Being held in her arms and kissed against my will was so infuriating that I immediately shoved her away and once again pointed my fingers at my tongue and ankle.
"Gohihahoh!"
"What, you didn't want a deep kiss? I thought you did."
"Haa..."
My head spun at her shameless words. If I were just a little bit stronger, I'd fucking smash that bitch's face in...!
"Wait. I've gotta get out first. There's no need to fix it right this second. And I never said I'd let you go immediately."
This fucker!
"Yaaa! Gohihlahgoh!"
Hey! Fix it!
"It's fine, so move out of the way. My venom stings a bit."
Philmark then stepped past me and stood before the thick door.
"They put some real effort into this. Looks like they meant to kill me for real this time. It's fine. Delin. It takes more than this to kill your noona."
Who said you're my noona?
If you're taller, you're a noona?
"Now then..."
Philmark brought her finger to the door.
Soon her finger was melting through the door, sinking in astonishingly deep.
The melted hole kept growing larger and larger, and before long it became a hole big enough for a human head to fit through, and after a little more time it was practically a cave.
Philmark stepped inside and pressed her ear lightly against the wall, and a moment later, a grin spread across her face, her eyes brimming with murderous intent.
"Now she's dead. Fucking bitch."
Wait. Dead?
"Geumang! Geumahng!"
What were you going to do to Neva-ssi!
I immediately ran at her. But Philmark subdued me with one hand, far too easily.
"Stay still for a second. I'll give you your education later... I'm busy right now. Gotta kill her in advance so there's no trouble later."
"Heeuht! Ahngaeht!"
No! Don't!
"Ah, come on...! Stay quiet! I told you it stings if you touch it!"
In the split-second our scuffle continued, a blue glow shimmered across the door.
Neva-ssi was probably about to open the door to check the situation inside.
"...Fuck!"
Philmark immediately hoisted me up from where I'd been clinging to her thigh, slung me over her shoulder,
and then she pressed her hand against the bottom of the door as it began to open and began to spray something out.
It was a purple liquid even darker in hue than the one I'd just seen moments before.
"Uuu...!"
Even I, with no real knowledge of magic or abilities, could instinctively sense its danger.
If that stuff touched you, you died. And not just any death—a very painful one.
"Ehah Hee! Pehehyoh!"
Neva-ssi! Dodge!
"Delin-ssi! What's going on!"
Neva-ssi's voice seeped through the gap beneath the door.
"Mooun, ahnahyoh!!"
Close the door!
But my words and my intent didn't get through to her properly.
"Emergency! Emergency!"
Neva shouted.
The door kept opening.
"Kuluk...!"
Very fortunately, Philmark's venom spray was cut short at a moment no one could have predicted.
Whatever effect the stakes had had, I didn't know, but it seemed they'd been properly interfering with her ability.
Which meant she currently couldn't wield her power freely!
"Sh...it."
Philmark forcefully suppressed her trembling hand and hurriedly retreated backward.
Soon she stood in the middle of the cell, looking around in all directions as if searching for something,
and then she placed her palm against one wall and began chanting something at a very rapid pace.
"Sheeuht!!"
Nooo!
I thrashed on her shoulder, desperately trying to be put down, but even that frantic struggling couldn't hinder Philmark.
Jureureuk—
The wall where her palm touched began to melt away at a terrifying speed.
The wall and floor of the cell melted at a slant, like a passageway angled upward, and soon it all came pouring into the cell like a waterfall.
After a short time, a round tunnel leading up to the surface had formed.
"Let's go."
She yanked me along and squeezed into the hole.
"Shihyuht!"
No!
"Haa... Do you still not get what'll happen if you don't follow me right now!? You seriously... You're dead if you go out there. We'll see about this later. How do you just not listen like this? Just wait. I mean it."
My desperate struggle to grab onto the wall and resist was rendered utterly meaningless. Just as I was being dragged into the hole by her hand—
"Kuhuk...!"
Neva, having waded through the pool of venom, lunged forward and grabbed my leg.
"You... son of a bitch..."
A curse flew from the mouth of that noble knight commander. Like the pain of the venom sizzling and boiling, her eyes blazed as well, her ferocious gaze, sharp enough to pierce rock, fixed squarely on Philmark.
"Agh...! Do you have to be such a pain in the ass right to the very end? Get the fuck off, come on!"
Peok, peo-eok—
Philmark kicked with all her strength at the face of Neva, who was desperately clinging to my leg.
But Neva didn't let go.
Her jaw clenched so tightly her teeth might break, she endured all of that pain and held onto me.
"Keureuk..."
She lost consciousness in the end.
Yet her arms, still wrapped around me, stubbornly refused to release their strength even as she collapsed.
"Commander!"
The knights began to swarm in.
"Haa, fuuuck..."
Philmark glared down at the unconscious Neva for a moment, as if considering killing her.
Then her expression turned sorrowful, and she shifted her gaze to me and spoke.
"...I'll come back to get you soon. Hang in there. And remember. My name isn't Philmark — it's Riko. Delin..."
With those words, Philmark put me down and vanished.
She must have climbed up through that hole and fled immediately.
Was it because she'd judged that she couldn't escape while carrying me in her current physical state?
"Commander, Commander...!"
The knights, swarming in within moments, checked the state of Neva, who was still clutching me, and shouted frantically.
"Pursue Philmark! Hurry! Seal off the entire surrounding area!"
Their booming voices echoed through the jail cell.
"Heuuu..."
But my voice still wouldn't come out of my mouth properly. Only mangled sounds seeped out helplessly.
In the midst of this stifling situation, my stupid, sluggish brain — which barely ever worked on a normal day — suddenly began to turn.
A capital offender had just escaped. And the one who'd been with that criminal until the very end...
was me.
Which meant...