Chapter 210: Alfia, Who Wants to Suffer Eternally (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 210: Alfia, Who Wants to Suffer Eternally (2)
Karami was not asleep.
He couldn't sleep.
The sound of insects crawling on the ground. The sound of them flying. The sound of something, be it animal or demonic beast, howling from the distant forest.
And maybe it was because Alfia was next to him.
The spirits, no longer hiding, had revealed themselves and gathered around the campfire, singing.
And Karami had the Blessing of the World Tree.
Even as he lay still, the spirits came to bother him.
“Hey! This human reeks of the World Tree’s energy!”
“What? Yo, for real?”
“This guy’s something else, lol.”
He was even having auditory hallucinations like that.
I’ll have to convince Alfia we’re staying at an inn tomorrow, no matter what, he was thinking.
“Master. Are you asleep?”
Alfia suddenly asked.
He was awake, but a mischievous thought struck him. If he pretended to be asleep, he figured Alfia would try something strange.
Then he would sit up and catch her in the act!
But contrary to his expectations, Alfia did nothing and simply left the tent.
He thought she might be going to relieve herself, but Karami’s intuition had been honed to a razor’s edge during his time as a slave trader.
If she were just going to the bathroom, she wouldn't have needed to check if he was asleep. Her behavior was that of someone with a secret plot, something that required Karami to be sleeping.
So, Karami secretly followed her.
Alfia entered a dark, gloomy area.
It was too dark to see what she was doing.
But soon, a light flickered on, revealing what Alfia was holding in her mouth.
“What are you doing right now?”
*
“Alfia. Don’t tell me you’re smoking right now?”
“Wh-what?”
Alfia jumped in shock.
In the process, the leaf cigarette she was holding fell to the ground.
As Alfia panicked, Karami quickly snatched it up.
“What is this?”
“Th-that… it’s just a normal leaf from the World Tree! It’s like a tonic for elves, and I didn’t know how long I’d be away, so I brought a few.”
Alfia didn’t think she’d done anything wrong, at least when it came to self-harm. In fact, hadn’t it succeeded in getting Karami to stay?
But cigarettes were a different matter.
Especially drug-laced cigarettes.
It was a shameful secret she never wanted to reveal to Karami, of all people.
“Hmm. Is that so?”
Karami narrowed his eyes, looking back and forth between the rolled-up leaf and Alfia, before bringing the leaf to his nose.
“Don’t!”
When Alfia tried to snatch the cigarette away, Karami pulled his hand back. Her hand swiped through empty air.
Karami feigned ignorance and spoke nonchalantly.
“What’s the matter? If it’s a leaf from the World Tree, it shouldn’t be a problem for a human to smell it.”
“Well…”
“Your reaction tells me there’s something in here I shouldn’t be smelling.”
He had already figured it out, for the most part.
“It’s a drug.”
“It’s not a drug…”
“How about you stop your hands from trembling before you lie?”
“Ngh…!”
Alfia clasped her hands tightly and pulled them to her chest.
Karami sighed.
He’d had a strange feeling. When he’d met Alfia after so long, her complexion had been unusually haggard.
It was different from simply lacking sleep or being tired from travel. Her dark circles were deep, and she couldn’t keep her hands still.
Her anxious fidgeting made even the person watching her uneasy.
Karami had met many people like that. It was a common sight among junkies who had wasted away on drugs and were rolling in the streets.
Alfia wasn’t that far gone, but she was on the verge of crossing the threshold.
“What’s in it?”
“Lachnia pollen…”
A powder that caused paralysis or hallucinations.
Inhaling the powder was fatal to the human body.
Even Karami, who had no interest in drugs, knew that much, so no further explanation was needed.
“When did you start?”
“Half a year… B-but I only started using Lachnia pollen recently! At first, it was just normal magic herbs, but they weren’t stimulating enough anymore…”
Feeling the weight of Karami’s gaze, Alfia fell silent on her own.
Karami let out a heavy sigh.
As if self-harm wasn’t enough, she had turned to drugs. At this rate, she was no different than before he had liberated her.
Was this some kind of Oedipus paradox?
Did she think she had escaped her fate, only for it to find its way back to her?
Of course, he had no intention of accepting that.
“Hand it over. Everything related to the drugs.”
“But…”
Alfia hesitated.
Karami lowered his voice, his tone heavy.
“What are you to me?”
“Your slave…”
“And what am I to you?”
“…My master.”
Karami gestured with his outstretched hand.
The meaning was simple. After glancing between Karami and his hand, Alfia had no choice but to hand over her entire pouch.
“I’m confiscating this. Don’t even think about getting it back. You can have it if you want to completely end our relationship.”
To treat a drug addiction, the first step was to cut off all access to the drug. Sudden withdrawal would be difficult, but it couldn’t be helped.
There were things in the world you could compromise on, and things you couldn’t.
Karami extended his hand once more.
“What now? I don’t have any more.”
“Not that. Your hand.”
“My hand?”
“It’s trembling. I should hold it for you.”
Alfia’s eyes widened.
She just stared at him blankly.
“You’re not… going to scold me?”
“What right do I have to scold you? It’s the master’s fault for not being there when his slave was struggling.”
“You don’t… hate me?”
“What master in the world hates their own slave? Of course, that’s only as long as you are my slave.”
As Alfia, still staring blankly, dazedly reached for his hand, Karami subtly pulled his arm away.
Confused, Alfia once again grasped at nothing.
Karami answered her unspoken question with a deadpan expression.
“The moment you take this hand, you are my slave. Your body, your heart—they are not yours, but mine, your master’s. No one is to harm them without my permission. Not even you, Alfia.”
Karami paused for a beat before continuing.
“I’ll ask you. Are you my slave?”
Alfia couldn’t tear her eyes away.
It was a question that required no thought.
Ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times.
Ten years, a hundred years, a thousand years from now, the answer would be the same.
Alfia smiled, a fresh, vibrant smile, and took his hand.
“Yes. I’m your eternal slave. My body, my heart, everything is yours. You can do whatever you want with me.”
*
Rustle, rustle.
The sound of grass crunching underfoot tickled their ears.
The sound of two sets of footsteps echoed through the forest.
The two of them were heading back to the campsite.
Their hands were still clasped tightly together.
A faint blush colored Alfia’s cheeks.
Compared to the other slaves, Alfia hadn’t had much physical contact with Karami.
Even back when they were traveling together, the most intimate they had gotten was sleeping in the same room, and even then, they used separate beds.
For such an Alfia, even holding hands was stimulating. And the one she was holding hands with was Karami—the man she desperately hoped would make the thousand-year vow of elven tradition with her.
It was more than enough to hammer away at the heart of a girl who hadn’t felt a shred of romantic emotion for hundreds of years.
This is so strange.
The trembling in her hands, the anxiety that wouldn’t stop no matter what she did unless she took the drug, had vanished as if by magic.
Her heart was still pounding, though.
Perhaps even more than before.
They returned to the campsite.
It was late, but it wasn’t a situation where they could go right to sleep.
“Let’s solve this one step at a time. First, let’s treat the wounds on your arm.”
The most immediate problem was the injuries from her self-harm.
“Will you treat them with the water spirits?”
“……”
“Alfia?”
Alfia asked with an anxious look in her eyes.
“You’re not going to say ‘Pain resolved’ and leave once I’m all healed, are you…?”
“Don’t tell me you were deliberately not treating them because of that?”
“Yeah…”
Karami covered his eyes with his hand.
A beautiful elf had returned as a complete basket case.
“I’m not leaving. And even if I did, I’d have to take what’s mine with me.”
“What’s yours… Right, I’m yours. Ehehe.”
Alfia giggled, as if she had never been depressed.
Meanwhile, Karami’s sense of the gravity of the situation grew in proportion to her smile.
Are all my girls turning into masochists?
No matter how high their affection was, this was too much. One was asking for shackles, and this one was smiling happily at being treated like an object rather than a slave.
The only silver lining was that she listened to him well, even without shackles.
Droplets of water rose and wrapped around Alfia’s arm, bubbling gently. The wounds healed cleanly, without a single scar.
Her skin was restored to the pale, smooth skin of an elf.
“All done.”
“Good job. But can’t the spirits also treat withdrawal symptoms?”
“I never thought about it. I never thought I needed to be treated.”
On the contrary, as her wounds increased and her symptoms worsened, she had felt a sense of relief. She thought that if she were like this, Karami wouldn’t be able to leave her behind.
Of course, Alfia kept her true feelings hidden.
“The water created by water spirits has significant healing properties. Your servants should be even more effective. Drink it whenever you think of it.”
“Okay. But…”
“I’ll still hold your hand even after you’re better, so don’t get any strange ideas.”
“Okay! Hehe.”
“Sigh. It’s late. Let’s go inside and sleep.”
They entered the cramped tent again.
The scent of Alfia.
The space was filled with the unique forest fragrance of an elf.
It had a calming effect on the mind and body. Perhaps because he was quite tired, Karami quickly fell into a deep sleep.
This time, however, it was Alfia who was awake.
He didn’t let go of her hand, even in his sleep.
Unlike Alfia’s hands, which were calloused from drawing a bow, Karami’s hands were softer, a testament to how comfortably he must have lived.
They weren’t thick or hard, but they were still larger than hers.
“……”
The quiet space.
It was the perfect environment to get lost in one’s imagination.
As she held Karami’s hand tightly, an improper, lewd thought flowed into Alfia’s mind.
A way of thinking that couldn’t be cured even by water spirits—not broken, but twisted.
If he slapped my cheek with this hand.
If he wrapped this large hand around my neck.
What would that feel like?
Wouldn’t it feel so good it was beyond description?
It definitely would.
The imagined sensation affected reality.
A tingle, like an electric current, shot down her spine.
Alfia only drifted off to sleep when her body went limp with exhaustion.