Chapter 17
Chapter 17
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>Translator: Lord First
>Chapter: 17
>Chapter Title: Where Are You Touching!
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Where are you touching!
Fruits spread their seeds far and wide through various methods. The fruit Rian had split open was one such type. However, this particular fruit tempted animals not with a sweet scent, but with one similar to raw meat.
Like a strawberry, this fruit had a great many seeds embedded in its flesh, so it was advantageous for even a single bite to pass through an animal’s mouth. As a result, it had evolved to resemble raw meat to entice a wider range of creatures.
No one in the kitchen knew this.
‘What in the world… what in the world happened?’
Noah looked at Rian, whose eyes were darting about, his gaze trembling.
Although she was the one who had turned a blind eye to his sacrifice and run away to live a comfortable life, she couldn't ignore the sight of him cleaning with blood-soaked, swollen hands.
“Look me in the eye and tell me. Was it really a bug? If there’s a bug like that, we have to find it immediately. Otherwise, the children will be in danger.”
“Uh, well… the thing is…”
Flustered by Noah’s serious gaze, Rian began to spill everything that had happened.
The problem was that, in his panic, he began to tell an expansive story starting from the moment he arrived in the kitchen.
‘Ah, this isn’t it!’
Rian’s face fell as he cut short his story about dropping a glass jar in the kitchen.
‘The point, yes, I’ll just get to the point.’
In the Gag World, if you talked for too long, most people would ignore you and walk away. Because of this, Rian had a habit of keeping his words brief and sticking to the main points.
“Huu… To put it simply, when I got to the kitchen, it was a mess. While I was cleaning up, Rania-nim came by and found an intruder hiding here. And then…”
“What?! W-wait! An intruder?”
“Ah, yeah. A person with arms this big and a skinny body…? Oh, right, his cheekbones were really prominent.”
At those words, Noah’s face went deathly pale.
A man with bizarrely thick arms and ridiculously prominent cheekbones—Noah had seen that man before.
The sound of pouring rain, the sound of haggling heard between the downpour, and someone’s scream seeped into her ears like an echo that couldn't escape the forest.
The surrounding temperature had dropped considerably, and Noah clenched her hands, which felt frozen to the point of pain. She shared body heat with Nero, somehow clinging to her tenacious life.
“Tsk, this place is always so disgusting and filthy.”
Just as she was huddled up as small as possible to maintain her body heat, she heard a sharp voice. Noah pulled Nero closer into her embrace and cautiously shifted her gaze outside their small cage.
Grotesquely swollen arms and a gaunt body. Cheekbones so prominent they were striking even when looking up from below.
“Welcome, sir. Is there something you’re looking for?”
Doban was wearing a robe that only high-ranking Black Mages could use, so the slave trader came running over with a servile expression, rubbing his hands together like a fly.
“Hmph, you don’t know who I am?”
“Pardon? Ah-… It’s you, Doban-nim!”
The slave trader broke out in a cold sweat, glancing at the man’s ridiculously protruding cheekbones.
“Then you must know what I’m looking for.”
The slave trader felt cold sweat trickle down his back. A mad Black Mage who showed no mercy and enjoyed cruel experiments.
More desperately than ever, the slave trader wracked his brain. His efforts paid off, and he managed to recall what kind of tastes Doban had.
“Ah! O-of course, I know! This way, please. I’ll show you our highest-grade slaves.”
The slave trader bowed so low it looked like he might snap his back in half, gesturing to one side with both arms. Apparently not displeased by this sycophantic attitude, Doban started to follow the slave trader without a word.
Just as Doban was about to take a step, a slave who was being dragged along by a leash like livestock collapsed in front of him.
His tendons had been cut, so he couldn't walk properly, and he had slipped on the muddy ground.
Splat.
The gaunt slave collapsed into a puddle of muddy water on the ground. He gasped for breath like a fish pulled from the water and looked up at Doban.
“....”
Doban silently looked down at his shoes and trousers. The water that had splashed when the slave fell had soiled the tips of his shoes and the cuffs of his pants.
“How dare you…”
Doban’s eyes flashed murderously as he pointed the small wand in his hand at the slave.
When he opened his mouth and chanted an incantation, a magic circle exuding an ominous aura appeared in mid-air.
Fwoosh!
A fireball half the size of a man’s head flew toward the slave.
Boom!
“Kuaaaargh!”
The slave was engulfed in black flames and instantly went up in smoke. It was as if a pile of dry firewood was burning.
At the gruesome smell of a human burning, Noah covered her mouth with a piece of cloth that was little more than a rag and covered her brother’s mouth as well.
Thwack, thud!
“How dare you! How dare you dirty my clothes!”
Doban kicked the charred corpse, spewing curses.
Crunch.
Hearing a gruesome sound she never wanted to know, Noah squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn’t breathe. She wanted to cry out loud. But she couldn’t.
If she cried, she might be sold off sooner or beaten to within an inch of her life for being noisy. Noah had seen several children die for that very reason.
“You, why are you looking at me like that?”
“P-pardon?”
“Do you want to die?”
“Gyaaaargh!”
Boom!
Doban unleashed his magic on the slave trader, who was too terrified to even make eye contact, venting his anger once more.
Afraid his rage would turn on her, she hid the whimpering Nero in her arms.
‘That man broke into the kitchen?’
Noah’s face turned deathly pale.
“But nothing much happ—Wai, where are you touching!”
“You, where are you hurt!”
Noah abruptly lifted Rian’s blood-red clothes, then flinched. The wounds, which looked like scribbles she had seen once before, came into view.
“I’m really not hurt!”
Rian grabbed the hem of his lifted shirt and forcefully pulled it down, shouting.
“But the blood…!”
“What blood have you been talking about—…Ah, this?”
Only then did Rian realize that Noah had mistaken the fruit juice on his clothes for blood.
‘It certainly does look like blood. The smell, too.’
Since this was the land ruled by the Demon King, fruits that smelled of blood or pulsed like a heart were commonplace.
Some fruits would make a human sick if eaten, but many were just unpleasant in appearance.
“This isn’t blood, it’s fruit juice. From making that juice.”
Rian pointed to the juice neatly poured into a cup. The juice in the cup looked like blood set aside for a vampire to drink.
“That’s… juice?”
“Yeah, it doesn’t taste bad either. Hold on.”
He had set aside a little of the fruit to snack on while he worked. When he brought over the fruit he had placed to one side, Noah’s eyes trembled aimlessly.
“Try it.”
“This…?”
“It’s really good.”
At his words, Noah swallowed dryly and picked up the fruit with a trembling hand. For some reason, the fruit was slightly soft.
As she lifted it, blood—…no, juice, trickled down. Noah gulped again before pushing the fruit into her mouth.
“...!”
“It’s good, right?”
Noah nodded wordlessly. Just as he said, the fruit was normally delicious. She unconsciously picked up another piece, and Rian, with a proud expression, placed the plate in front of her, telling her to eat her fill.
“I’m going to go deliver the juice, so you can keep eating.”
“Wai—!”
Coming to her senses too late, Noah tried to grab Rian, but he had already dashed off with a whoosh, and she couldn't catch him.
“…Then why are your hands like that?”
Only then did Noah realize that Rian had hidden his injuries again.
“When he comes back… I have to ask him properly.”
How he got the wounds, when he got them.
No sooner had she thought that than a self-mocking thought surfaced.
‘What are you going to do when you find out? What can you possibly do?’
Noah silently looked down at her hands, stained red with fruit juice. The hands, stained as red as blood, felt like evidence of having hurt someone.
Splash, shwoosh!
Noah rushed to the sink and turned on the water. She roughly washed her red-stained hands.
“It’s just fruit. Right, it’s nothing.”
She washed her hands compulsively, but the red stain didn't fade easily. Or so it felt.
Shwoooosh—..
Hearing the sound of rushing water, Noah pictured Doban’s face. She remembered wiping her tears in secret from Nero, huddled in fear.
“...”
Noah stared silently at the water flowing down the drain. A feeling of misery ensnared her.
While Noah was suffering from her trauma, Rian had just arrived at the reception room.
“Ugh, gwaaaargh!”
“Hmmm, wha’ abou’ i’?”
“Seuseung-nim, please finish your cookie before you speak.”
When he opened the door, the sight that greeted him was Doban, tightly bound in chains and rolling on the floor, and Rania, who was launching all sorts of magic at him while chewing on a cookie.
Mia was sitting on the sofa, flipping through a thick book.
“Hmm.”
Rian closed the door he had just opened.