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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Teottry
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The sensation of handcuffs, which I felt for the first time, was surprisingly cold and rough.
My mind just went blank because the soft bed I was lying on and those brutish handcuffs just didn’t match.
“heh-ah?”
Neiva?
First, I tried to call for Neiva, but…
“Ebeub…”
As expected, my tongue was still stiff.
In the end, I got out of bed to go find her myself, but…
“Ahe-eeek!!”
Fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck-fuuuuuck!!
The moment my foot touched the floor, a terrible and vivid pain, as if all the nerves from my ankle through my spinal cord to my brain were burning up, washed over me.
All sorts of pain. It felt like being bitten by a lion, like being seared by fire, like being torn apart…
“Eueueueueueueueueu!! Ahya-aak! E-eueueung!!”
I grabbed my ankle and rolled around, trying to get it to stop hurting. My mind went blank from this awful pain. It was an intense pain that made it impossible to think clearly.
I forgot my ankle was fucked up! Shiiit!
Just as I was filling the quaint room with groans and creaking sounds, I heard a familiar sound in my ear.
-Tadadadak
The sound of a woman’s footsteps. A sound like she was running in a hurry.
“Delrin…!”
Neiva opened the door and rushed to me, then embraced me as I was falling about from the pain.
“Aha-aaaak!!”
“It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay now… I’m here.”
What do you mean, it’s okay!
I feel like I’m going to die!
“Eueueueup…!!”
It wasn’t as if all the pain would melt away like snow just because she held me tight, but being held in that soft body, I could no longer move.
The convulsions in my body subsided entirely thanks to her strength. Given the pain I was in, I should have been foaming at the mouth and thrashing about like a madman, but in her arms, I was reduced to nothing more than a twitch.
“It’s okay. It will subside soon…”
She whispered rather sorrowfully into my ear, calming me down.
Just as she said, my body began to gradually calm down.
The intense pain subsided, and only its afterglow remained to torment me.
I no longer felt the pain. The trembling and convulsions in my body subsided.
“Huu…”
Only then did Neiva let me go and move my exhausted body, drained from the sudden fit, onto the bed.
“You used your leg. You shouldn’t move. The poison Pilmark engraved is dangerous… Cough…”
As she covered me with the blanket again, she too coughed repeatedly, as if the energy of the poison still remained in her.
“Huu, hu… It’s okay. It seems my body has overcome it to some extent now. It seems I’ve become stronger than before. I figured I was already used to that bandit’s poison…”
Neiva soon sat on the edge of the bed and looked at me. In her eyes, there was pity along with sadness.
“Delrin. Don’t worry. I will take responsibility and protect you. Pilmark will definitely return.”
“hah’s ho’ ih, whah’s wih hehe… eh, eh-euh…”
That’s not it, what are these handcuffs for…?
I lifted the handcuffs that were squeezing my wrist tightly, imbuing the gesture with meaning. When I shook my handcuffed hand in front of Neiva’s eyes and pointed at them, she gently pressed my arm down again and spoke in a calm voice.
“It couldn’t be helped. I defended you as much as I could, but in the eyes of others, it was you who helped Pilmark escape… They insisted that you should be considered a dangerous person and executed immediately.”
Executed…?
This is insane…
I did cause some trouble, but that was too much…!
“Eueueung…”
I shook my head from side to side and looked at her. I prayed that my desperation would be conveyed.
“Don’t worry. It was concluded that you should be used as a hostage to lure out Pilmark…”
Ah. A hostage.
At least I wouldn’t die…
“However, most of them wanted to torture you to lure out Pilmark as soon as possible. Before that… as you were subjected to…”
Neiva clenched her fist tightly and trembled.
Was she getting angry on my behalf again?
To think that such a kind and righteous person existed. It seemed this world wasn’t so rotten after all.
“Eung…”
Still, I did not want her to get too angry, so I soon gently placed my hand on top of hers.
She would know what I was trying to say.
“Delrin.”
Although I could not speak, communication was not an act carried out only with words.
Gaze, expression, atmosphere…
With all those things, one could convey one’s heart to the other person.
“Delrin. Aah…”
She brought my two cuffed hands to her face and sobbed, pressing her cheek against them.
Unlike the other women who treated me like a rag, Neiva, at least, treated me like a human being.
She got angry for me, she cried for me…
Because she was like this, I had now opened my heart.
The sides of her she had shown in front of Pilmark were just fragmented aspects.
Neiva was an upright, good, beautiful, and righteous woman.
I could be sure now. I could trust her, at least.
“Don’t worry… All the ones who touched Delrin, I took responsibility and sent them away…”
With her help, this world…
What?
Huh…?
“E-euh…?”
“I… punished them all. All those bitches who dared to defile Delrin with their dirty and vile desires…”
Ah…?
S-she punished them for me…?
Well. It wasn’t as if I could just live while being subjected to that.
If Neiva had given those women a good beating on my behalf, it would be quite refresh…
“All of them… I cut off all their heads and crushed their faces, so that Delrin would never have to encounter them again…”
“Eh…?”
“Those vile, dirty, disgusting humans who dared to defile Delrin… I have punished them all. Don’t worry. I have already obtained Her Majesty the Queen’s permission…”
“E-eup??”
“Ah. Are you worried about me? You don’t need to worry. I have lived as a faithful sword to Her Majesty the Queen until now, so she said she would turn a blind eye to something of this extent. So please don’t worry. Delrin…”
Neiva slowly approached me and embraced me.
I was having a hard time just calming my throbbing head, wondering what on earth I had just heard.
But she embraced me with that warm body and muttered.
“It’s okay now. If you are by my side, no one will be able to torment Delrin anymore. I will protect you. Don’t worry. Trust me, and stay here comfortably…”
“Heup…”
Something soft was definitely touching my chest, but contrary to that, something quite frightening and eerie was blooming in my heart.
It bloomed from within her boobs and the faint scent of her skin, and it was caused by the survival instinct, one of the basic human senses.
We usually called it [instinct], and we tended to express it like this.
[I’m fucked.]
I was fucked. What was this.
Was this really Neiva? Something was a little strange.
I’m scared. Shit. I’m scared.
“I… I will protect Delrin. Delrin, you don’t have to worry about anything anymore, and you can just rest comfortably here. Comfortably.”
Her hands and arms, which were embracing me, slowly roamed over my back and the back of my head.
But that soft touch felt as if it were covered in sticky glue.
To dismiss it as just my imagination…
“I… I have only now realized. This lump in my chest that I felt from the moment I first saw Delrin, was the love I had believed I would never have a connection with. I will make you happy, Delrin. With me… let’s live here. Delrin.”
“Forget all those bitches who did disgusting things to you, and now with me…”
“I will take responsibility for Delrin. From now on. Always.”
“E-euh-woo…!”
Th-that…!
It was fine until a moment ago, but something was a bit…!
“It is too harsh a world for Delrin to live in alone. By my side, with me… I will protect you…”
“E-eh-euh…??”
“As is a woman’s duty, I will cherish and love Delrin for the rest of my life. I swear it. So please, be with me.”
She slowly released her arms and faced me.
Too close.
So close that…
“Delrin?”
So close, that it felt as if the emotions I was feeling would be vividly conveyed to her as well.
“Why do you have that expression…?”
I could see her expression.
It was the hesitation of someone who had mustered all her courage.
The bewilderment and confusion that were gradually encroaching on its surface.
“Delrin…?”
She called my name.
I wanted to say that I had no thoughts of it yet, or that I wanted to think about it a little more…
After saying such things, I wanted to first have some time alone to think, but…
“Delrin.”
She called my name repeatedly, demanding an answer.
“Delrin…!”
I was taken aback by how quickly her emotions changed, evident in both her expression and voice.
Her hand, which was placed on my shoulder, felt so incredibly heavy.
“W-were you surprised because it was too sudden? I’m sorry. I felt I had to say it before it was too late.”
Her voice took on an urgent tone.
“Do you need more time to think? Yes? I will wait a little longer…”
However, that urgency soon disappeared.
She had finally read the emotion in my expression.
The emotion that I could not hide.
“Why?”
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