Chapter 17. Newlyweds (1)
Chapter 17. Newlyweds (1)
He was as heavy as he was huge.
Like a slave building a pyramid.
I gripped the rope binding Bruno with both hands.
And took a step forward.
I'd already been milked all night long.
Moving this massive body was pure hell.
But what has to be done has to be done...
"Honey, let me lend a hand too!"
Helen, unable to just watch, jumped in to help.
My pride took a bit of a hit.
But I had no choice except to accept her help.
With the rope slung over my shoulder.
I pulled forward with all my might.
Bruno, who'd come to his senses by now.
Started spewing curses from his mouth again.
"Hans, you think you're gonna get away with this scot-free? Baron Kargon is one obsessive bastard. He'll catch you for sure and make you pay!"
Finally, I dragged Bruno all the way to the workshop.
"Helen, you head back."
"No way. I..."
"You planning to defy your husband?"
I put on a stern face.
Helen flinched in surprise, shook her head vigorously, and headed back to the Cabin.
The workshop was pitch dark inside.
The stench was brutal.
A nauseating mix of blood and beast musk.
It was bound to be that way.
They always butchered game here, after all.
The walls were lined with blades.
Just looking at them sent chills down my spine.
Probably for carving up beasts.
I hoisted Bruno up.
And plopped him on the workbench.
He looked just like a fish about to be gutted.
"Hans, can't you just let me go this once?"
Bruno asked, his voice cracking with sobs.
No can do.
I'd already burned that bridge to the ground.
Can't leave loose ends.
Half-assed mercy always comes back like a boomerang to smack you in the head.
"No."
"I'll give you all my money!"
"Once you're dead, it's all mine anyway."
"I'll give you Helen too!"
"Helen's already mine. She's totally hooked on this thing."
I grabbed my drained dick and grinned.
"Fuck..."
Bruno squeezed his eyes shut.
He'd given up.
"You've kidnapped women like this before, haven't you?"
At my question, Bruno's eyelids snapped open.
"How'd you know?"
"Crimes like this never stop at just once."
To get his hands on a woman he liked, he'd mercilessly kill innocent people.
This wasn't amateur hour.
He'd done it plenty of times before.
So what happened to all the women he'd kidnapped up till now?
"Where'd you bury them?"
Bruno smirked at my question.
"Out in the front yard. I marked 'em with stakes, so they won't be hard to find."
"Why'd you kill them?"
"They got old. Once they did, I'd kill 'em and kidnap new ones."
But Helen never got old for him.
Bruno added that bit.
Murder. Robbery. Rape.
He'd committed felonies like they were daily meals.
Time to pay the piper.
"Death sentence."
I handed down the verdict to Bruno.
Then I picked the sharpest-looking knife from the wall.
"Can't you spare me? I can work like a slave."
"Dunno, won't a slave as strong as you just beat his master to death?"
"Please... spare me... please...!"
Begging for his life, he looked pathetic.
The women he'd snatched probably begged like this too.
Instead of answering.
I plunged the knife in with all my strength.
Blood sprayed from the slit throat.
Must've nicked the carotid.
The workbench was soaked in blood in seconds.
Right then.
My gut started tingling.
Like something was swelling up inside.
I could sense my mana pool had grown several times over.
At the same time, a voice rang in my ears.
Lieselotte's voice.
"Take good care of the poor souls. Think you can manage that?"
A few months back.
The day I first met Lieselotte.
That's what she'd said to me.
It was such an enigmatic line, it stuck with me.
But why was it echoing in my head now?
Maybe this is what Lieselotte wanted.
Rescuing kidnapped women.
And finally taking out the culprit.
What else could "taking care of the poor souls" mean?
My mana pool probably expanded as a reward...
Of course, still just a hypothesis.
Won't know for sure till more cases pile up.
I looked down at Bruno.
The guy, with his vocal cords severed, gurgled for a bit.
Then went limp.
Red blood poured steadily into the basin I'd placed under the workbench.
I'm exhausted.
But if I don't finish the job, it'll haunt me like a nightmare.
I grabbed a shovel.
And started digging in the front yard of the Cabin.
Early morning sunlight poured down.
Weather's getting cold.
But working under direct sun like this, you'll sweat buckets anyway.
"Honey, why are you digging?"
Helen tilted her head and asked.
I told her the secret Bruno spilled before dying.
Helen's face went ghost white.
No time for comfort.
Gotta collect the bones quick.
And hold a simple rite for them.
If I do that.
My mana pool might expand again.
Well, not just for the mana pool.
For the women who died unjustly.
Giving them a modest funeral might be the duty of us survivors.
Sweating my ass off with the shovel.
Helen came over with a tray holding a teacup.
"What's this?"
"It's a drink good for restoring energy and stamina. Down it all at once."
Helen knows her medicine.
So whipping up a tonic like this should be easy for her.
Just like she said.
I chugged it in one go.
Bitter, sweet, spicy, sour.
Felt just like drinking omija tea.
Surprisingly, my depleted energy started creeping back.
I scooped up dirt by the shovelful.
Then something snagged on the blade.
I carefully brushed away the dirt by hand.
And bones appeared.
"No way..."
Helen, who'd been watching beside me.
Plopped down on her ass.
Her knees had given out.
"Helen, grab something like a cloth."
"Y-yes... y-yes..."
Helen staggered off to the Cabin.
And soon came back with a large cloth.
I spread it out on the ground.
And gently placed the buried bones on it.
There weren't just one or two sets.
Judging by the skulls.
At least five people.
That fucker Bruno.
Way worse than I'd imagined.
In two hours, I'd exhumed all the bones.
On the cloth.
Looking at the pile of bone fragments, Helen couldn't hold back her tears.
After filling the pit back in.
I dug new graves in a sunny spot.
Buried the women's bones wrapped carefully in the cloth, covered them with dirt, and even mounded the graves.
"Go to a good place."
I clasped my hands and prayed.
Helen knelt too.
Drew the sign of the cross over her chest and murmured a prayer.
Once more, my gut swelled.
I was certain now.
Every good deed expands the mana pool.
I loaded Bruno's corpse onto a cart.
And dumped it deep in the woods.
Starving mountain beasts would take care of it.
Even a funeral's too good for human trash.
After washing up in the nearby stream.
I returned to the Cabin.
Helen's face was still dark.
"Helen, don't be too sad."
"It's just... those dead women are so pitiful..."
I hugged Helen tight.
And patted her back.
Her sniffles gradually died down.
"You've been through a lot. Get some rest, even if it's just closing your eyes."
"Yeah, I will."
I lay on the bed and shut my eyes.
When I opened them again, it was dark outside.
Around midnight.
But my stomach was growling like mad.
Helen was cooking in the kitchen just in time.
Gonna stay in this Cabin a while.
And stuff myself with her delicious food.
Of course, can't skip the sex.
Deep in the empty woods.
Her and I will fuck till our bodies reek of each other.
Life in the woods was peaceful.
Helen and I enjoyed newlywed bliss, all lovey-dovey.
We fucked nonstop, naturally.
Drained my balls dry.
Helen, blinded by lust, demanded sex at all hours.
But it wasn't just sex.
I learned all sorts of things from Helen.
Especially archery, which she taught intensively.
After about two weeks of lessons.
I finally shot my first rabbit with a bow.
Pitiful thing wriggling on the arrow, but hey, gotta eat to survive in the woods...
Around a month in.
I even bagged a pheasant.
Helen said I had a talent for archery.
For hunting, we brought the hunting dog.
Breed called Salutz, right?
Anyway, Helen named the dog 'Bruno.'
I tilted my head, and she grinned sheepishly.
"He always made me serve him, so now I wanna make him serve. Not that I'd bully this poor pup even a little..."
"Fine, do whatever you want."
Bruno was still young.
So he couldn't hunt beasts on his own yet.
But tracking wounded prey was no problem.
As we roamed the woods together.
Me, Helen, and Bruno grew closer.
Wasn't just archery and hunting.
I learned how to butcher beasts too.
Might not need it, but no harm in knowing.
Helen demonstrated first.
Hacked off the rabbit's feet with a hunting knife.
Sliced a line.
Then peeled the skin off clean like stripping a jacket.
Sliced the belly.
Pulled out the guts.
Gotta be careful not to nick the bladder or intestines, or the meat's ruined.
Finally, chop into cuts with a heavy knife, and done.
We went ahead and hunted a wild boar too.
Wild boars are dangerous.
Charge head-on, and those tusks could end you.
But I wasn't too worried.
I've got my trump card, 'Stun Chain.'
Thanks to my hugely expanded mana pool, I could use it repeatedly now.
First shot an arrow.
If it missed, Stun Chain to take down the boar.
Got me wondering.
Could I enchant arrowheads with lightning attribute?
If so.
Even without a vital hit, one shot could drop a boar...
Decided to research it slowly.
Anyway, nabbed three boars.
Prepping for winter.
Made plenty of sausages from the intestines.
Helen and I lived like naturals deep in the woods.
So happy, I could've stayed forever.
The day the first snow fell.
We built a snowman.
No snowman culture in this medieval world, so Helen was thrilled like a girl.
We had a snowball fight too.
Flung snowballs at each other while Bruno bounced around in the cold snow.
Dreamlike days rolled on.
While we were enjoying winter like that, Helen got pregnant.