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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Yuziro
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She hated humans.
Though she had lived among them her entire life, she could never bring herself to like them.
Their needlessly complex emotional exchanges and excessive formalities.
They would put on a show in front of you, while behind your back, they harbored more insidious thoughts than any other race.
She was sick of their alienating behavior, as if they were living behind masks.
And those who didn’t wear masks were even more beastly.
…No, she knew it herself.
She didn’t need to make excuses.
She simply loathed the human race on instinct.
The hatred that had grown from seeing the dirty side of humans since birth was unavoidable.
Of course, all sentient beings were different in their own ways.
Humans were no exception.
There were bad people, and there were good people.
But in the end, she couldn’t bring herself to feel any goodwill towards those good people.
She couldn’t trust the true intentions behind their masks.
She believed that humans were all like that.
From a very young age, from the earliest childhood she could remember, she had grown up among humans.
‘You are not your own. You are mine. Always remember that the ownership of your existence belongs to me.’
Those were the words that the human who had ‘raised’ her always said.
In front of others, he would put on a show of virtue, but when he came down to the basement to see her, he would always teach her that he was superior, the dirty bastard.
You are not your own.
You are a tool that must follow my orders for the rest of your life.
He would say those words every single day.
And of course, his education of her wasn’t just limited to words.
‘You’re still not listening, Guinness! Take off her clothes!’
When she didn’t listen, her arms would be tied above her head, her back exposed, and she would be whipped.
Even though she was still young, her Dragonewt hide was beaten until it was tattered, so if she had been a normal person, she would have been half-dead.
Growing up seeing a human who would spread honeyed words and dirty money above, while torturing a teenager below in the name of education, it was… perhaps only natural that she developed a hatred for humans.
‘Let’s earn money and buy a house.’
She had a small dream.
To save enough money to build a house in a remote mountain.
And to spend the money she had saved little by little, living a comfortable, if not a luxurious, life until the end.
She dreamed of a life where she wouldn’t have to meet anyone, where she could spend her days alone with nature… that was her goal and her dream.
Even though she had grown up among humans, lived among humans, and earned money from humans.
She wanted to escape the world of humans more than anyone else.
Just waiting for that time, she did dangerous work every day.
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“Ugh, ugh…”
She opened her eyes to an intense pain that pierced her entire body.
The pain was so severe that she wished she could just pass out.
Clenching her teeth to suppress a scream, she barely managed to open her eyes and look around.
It was dark.
A space where not a single ray of light penetrated was, in a word, an abyss.
As her pupils gradually adjusted to the darkness, allowing her to distinguish objects, she realized that she was lying down some distance away from the rock fragments.
Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, her body, having fallen to the ground, seemed to have bounced once, moving her away from the fragments of the collapsed ground.
If she hadn’t bounced away, she would have been crushed under those fragments and would no longer be among the living.
‘M-my body…’
Her body wouldn’t move.
Even when she simply tried to move her arm, it wouldn’t budge, and at the same time, she felt an intense pain.
It wasn’t just her arm.
She couldn’t move any part of her body.
When she realized that… a moment of fear gnawed at her insides.
If she was trapped under the collapsed ground, unable to move her body, the only outcome left for her was one thing.
Death.
And for an adventurer, the most agonizing death of all: starvation.
A cruel punishment where she would have to wait for death without being able to resist the encroaching end.
She had always kept death in mind while working as an adventurer, but she couldn’t accept this kind of end.
“Kk, aaaaaah!”
She screamed to forget the pain.
She struggled to move her body somehow to resist the fear that was eating away at her heart.
The pain, as if her muscles were being devoured, tormented her body, but she endured it somehow.
But in the end, all she could do was twitch her body or move her fingers.
“D-damn it…”
All she could do was utter a small curse at the encroaching pain.
Guinness closed her eyes tightly at the helplessness she had felt for the first time in a long while.
Then.
“Guinness? Guinness, are you there?”
A human voice reached her ears.
Guinness’s eyes, which had been tightly closed, snapped open.
“Guinness, answer me. Where are you?”
The owner of the voice kept calling her name.
Guinness felt the faint sound of footsteps that had been far away grow a little closer, and she mustered all her strength to speak.
“Here…!”
“Guinness!”
Thank goodness, the owner of the voice seemed to have heard Guinness’s groan-filled voice.
The sound of footsteps grew closer to her.
What she saw in the corner of her vision was a young man with black hair.
He had found Guinness, who was lying there, unable to move.
The young man, Iyerpol, who had rushed to Guinness’s side, quickly checked her condition.
But in doing so, he moved Guinness’s body, causing her unnecessary pain.
“Ah, it hurts…! It hurts, don’t touch me…!”
“I’m sorry. Just bear with it for a little while.”
Even though Guinness shouted at him, Iyerpol relentlessly continued to move and press on her body, checking her condition.
It seemed he was checking if any bones in dangerous areas were broken.
If a broken bone pierced an internal organ, it would be a truly dangerous situation.
Iyerpol’s actions were very appropriate.
“Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like there’s a problem with your limbs. I’ll take off your amour to see more clearly, so please bear with it a little longer.”
Iyerpol took out a dagger from his waist and cut all the belts that were tightening her armor.
As the armor that was constricting her body was removed, the pain lessened a little, but it didn’t disappear.
Rather, the pain grew even more intense because of Iyerpol’s hands, which had started to press on her abdomen after removing her armor and clothes.
A scream escaped Guinness’s lips.
“Aaaaaah! D-don’t touch me… Don’t touch me…!”
“I’m sorry, but please bear with it.”
“Stop it…! I’ll kill you, Iyerpol…! I’ll kill you…!”
Normally, Guinness would have known that Iyerpol’s actions were appropriate.
But the waves of pain that came with each press of her muscles were enough to blow away the reason she was barely holding onto.
Even with Guinness’s constant curses, Iyerpol silently continued to do what he had to do.
It was about three minutes later that his hands, which were driving Guinness crazy, stopped.
“I don’t have any knowledge of medicine, and I’m only good at first aid, so I can’t give you a definite diagnosis, but it doesn’t seem like any bones in dangerous areas are broken.”
“Hh, ugh…”
“I don’t want to think about the worst-case scenario… but the fact that you can’t move like this might mean you’ve injured your back.”
If she had injured her back, she wouldn’t be able to move.
The fact that she couldn’t move meant that she wouldn’t be able to escape from this place.
With Guinness and Iyerpol alone, and Guinness unable to move on her own… it meant that the two of them wouldn’t be able to move.
Yes. ‘The two of them,’ that was the point.
If he chose to abandon Guinness, who couldn’t move, Iyerpol had a chance to survive alone.
Guinness couldn’t trust the human race.
“First… Guinness, I think we need to move you.”
“What are you talking about…”
“This place isn’t flat, and there might be more fragments falling from above. Just wait a moment.”
But Iyerpol didn’t seem to be thinking about that yet, as he started looking around for a place where she could lie down.
After finding a flatter spot and clearing away all the stones and fragments around it, he returned to Guinness.
“Should I carry you on my back or in my arms?”
“Leave me alone…”
“I’ll carry you in my arms. It’s going to hurt a lot.”
After saying that, Iyerpol rolled up a piece of cloth and put it in her mouth like a gag.
It was to prevent her from biting her tongue while screaming.
Iyerpol lifted Guinness’s upper body, holding her from behind, and dragged her to the spot he had prepared.
Of course, it was only natural that Guinness unleashed all sorts of curses during the process due to the pain she felt.
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“Haa, haa…”
“Hmm…”
Looking down at Guinness, who was breathing weakly with her eyes closed, I let out a groan.
What should I do about this…?
Guinness’s condition was worse than I had thought.
Of course, it was amazing that she was still alive, thanks to her Dragonewt body, after she fell from a height that would have killed a human instantly.
But as a result, she had injured her back, and she couldn’t move at all.
If she had broken a leg or something, I could have put a splint on it and helped her move, but since I couldn’t do anything about her back, her condition was definitely not good.
Even now, her body was burning hot from a sudden fever.
I had taken off the robe I was wearing and the clothes I had on underneath and covered Guinness with them, but her condition didn’t seem to be improving.
“Guinness. Guinness, wake up.”
“Ah, ah…?”
“Eat something.”
I took out some dried meat from the bag I was carrying, but then I hesitated.
Guinness didn’t seem like she would be able to chew something tough like this properly in her current state.
But I couldn’t just not feed her either…
In the end, I put the dried meat I was holding into my mouth.
Only the last resort remained.
Chew, chew.
“…Ptooey.”
It might be a little dirty, but I’m sorry, Guinness.
You know it can’t be helped, right?
Just don’t hit me later.
I chewed the dried meat little by little and spat out the small pieces onto my hand.
The dried meat, which had been chewed and rolled around in my mouth, had become a little softer after absorbing the moisture from my saliva.
If we had access to water, I would have cut it into pieces and soaked it in water, but unfortunately, all we had was the leather water skin I was carrying.
“Here, Guinness. Eat this.”
I forcibly grabbed Guinness’s chin, who was trying to turn her head away, and put the saliva-soaked pieces of dried meat into her mouth one by one.
Guinness seemed to dislike it at first, but soon she started to slowly chew and eat the pieces that were put into her mouth.
Guinness was probably not in her right mind due to the high fever.
So I had to force her to eat, even if it was against her will.
“That’s right, that’s right. Here, I’ll put in one more.”
“Uuung…”
I supported Guinness’s head with my knees and put in one piece of dried meat each time she chewed and swallowed.
Then, I glanced at the bag that was placed next to me.
Guinness’s bag seemed to have been lost during the fight with the Sandworm earlier, and all that was left was my bag.
In that bag, there was enough food and water for one person for the rest of the search period…
Hmm.
If two people ate it, it wouldn’t last long.
Then, I could just starve.
I didn’t feel hunger until I hadn’t eaten for a week, so not eating food and water wouldn’t affect me right away.
There was no way we would be trapped here for a week, right?
For now, I should distribute all the food and water I had to Guinness.
And I should try to find a place to get water.
Since it was a cave, wouldn’t it be good to collect water dripping from stalactites?
“Cave, can you hear me?”
I knocked on the wall, and a small vibration was transmitted.
Good.
It seemed that I could still communicate with it here, which meant that there wouldn’t be any major problems with surviving.
If we waited for rescue with this food, and if that didn’t work, I could just get this guy to guide me and quickly join up with Wagner and bring him here.
The situation was definitely not good, but it wasn’t like we were going to die.
I had the thought that we could definitely return alive.
“Come on, come on. Let’s eat one more, our Guinness.”
So let’s just hold on a little longer, Guinness.
We can definitely return alive.
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