Chapter 78: A Fever Beyond Normal

“Up there.”

“Grrr.”

When Harang pointed to where the monster was, Silver charged in and took care of it.

Throughout the process, Jinhyang did nothing.

She was only watching the teamwork between Harang and Silver Tiger.

‘Amazing.’

Harang wasn’t even using his eyes to find the monsters.

He had buried his face in her chest as if terrified, only moving his ears back and forth.

He was finding the monsters’ locations with just sound.

‘At this rate…’

He had excellent searching abilities, and he also had Silver Tiger to take care of the monsters.

Even compared to other hunters, his abilities were definitely not lacking.

Harang had gained the ability to protect himself.

Jinhyang gently stroked Harang’s back, who seemed frightened.

Then, a strange sensation made Jinhyang’s brow furrow slightly.

‘He seems to have a bit of a fever.’

Harang’s body was naturally warm, but now his temperature was even higher than usual.

Worried, Jinhyang placed her hand on Harang’s neck and looked down at her palm, noticing the dampness.

‘He’s sweating.’

The blue dungeon was generally cool.

Harang was just hanging on and moving his hands.

There was no reason for Harang to be sweating.

It seemed clear that something was wrong.

“Stop.”

“Yes?”

“Stop and rest.”

“Y-yes…”

Harang blinked his half-closed eyes.

A drop of sweat trickled down Harang’s forehead.

Jinhyang’s mouth slightly opened at Harang’s rather anxious appearance.

It seemed they would have to clear the dungeon sooner than planned.

**

Corpses. Corpses.

And more corpses.

It was a massacre that had happened in just a few minutes.

“Ugh…”

The gruesome sight was too much to bear, and I buried my face in Jinhyang’s arms.

I shouldn’t have insisted on going to the dungeon with them.

Tears welled up without my permission.

Though they didn’t stream down my cheeks.

“You can open your eyes now.”

“R-really?”

“Yeah.”

At Jinhyang’s words, I peeked around with only one eye open.

‘Where is this…’

There were no more blue plants around.

Only the usual green plants of the outside world.

“Ah.”

We were outside.

As the tension eased, my body lost its strength and slumped downwards.

Jinhyang caught me before I fell to the ground.

“Are you okay?”

“Y-yes, yes…”

I nodded weakly at Jinhyang’s question.

I wasn’t okay at all.

My arms and legs hung limply, and my tail didn’t even twitch, as if it had lost all its energy.

I had no strength in my body, so I rested my cheek on her chest to support my face.

“Are you very tired?”

Jinhyang placed her hand on my forehead.

Her hand, which should have been warm, felt a little cold.

“J-just a little. Do we have to clear a few more dungeons…?”

“…Maybe about five?”

“Wow.”

Even if each dungeon took an hour, that would be five hours.

My stamina and mental strength wouldn’t last.

However, it was hard to say that I wanted to go back to the mansion alone.

I didn’t want to run away because I was scared while they were working so hard.

“I, I can do more…”

I waved my hand to show my agreement.

But my arm wouldn’t lift, so I ended up waving my palm towards the ground.

Jinhyang just shook her head at me.

“Bora.”

“Yes?”

“He seems to have a fever, can you check him?”

What fever?

I wasn’t angry or anything.

Or am I on fire?

As I was thinking that, Yoon Bora came up to me and pressed her forehead against mine.

Her nose touched mine as our foreheads touched.

Her forehead was cool and the tip of her nose was soft, making me giggle happily.

I didn’t have the strength to do much, so I just wagged my tail once.

“Haa…”

I stuck out my tongue to show my affection somehow.

I licked Yoon Bora’s face.

Something plump was being licked, but I was too dizzy to figure out what it was.

It must just be somewhere on Yoon Bora’s face.

I didn’t care about the location and kept licking, and Yoon Bora slowly backed away.

“He’s a little hot, isn’t he?”

Yoon Bora said, placing her hand on her lips.

Her face was slightly flushed, so it seemed my fever had spread to her.

“Yeah. He needs to rest.”

Jinhyang put her hand over my eyes.

It seemed she knew.

That I would fall asleep as soon as I closed my eyes.

“No…”

I didn’t want to sleep here.

I wanted to help them and clear the dungeons diligently.

But sleepiness was pouring in.

I should probably just sleep for about five minutes.

I’ll clear the dungeons diligently after I wake up.

Thinking that, I closed my eyes.

**

“Huh…?”

I slowly opened my eyes and looked around.

Looking out the window, the sun had already set.

“Ah.”

I wanted to clear the dungeons.

I wanted to clear a lot and be praised and have my head patted.

I sighed deeply in disappointment and slowly got up.

“Ugh.”

As I stretched my legs out and sat on the bed, my head was very dizzy.

Maybe I was sick.

I lifted my hand, which didn’t move easily, and rubbed my forehead.

I felt something like a patch and a coolness washed over me.

‘Come to think of it…’

Before I fell asleep, they said I had a fever.

I guess I caught a cold.

The patch seemed to be a tool to lower the fever.

I seemed to need rest, so I decided to just lie down.

“Ugh.”

It’s not like I’m a young child with a weakened immune system.

Lying down with a cold at this age.

My face flushed with embarrassment, but it wouldn’t be visible because of the fever anyway.

And there was no one watching me now.

It seemed like it would be better to rest for now.

As I lay back down on the bed and covered myself with the blanket, click—

The door opened and Raxy Bora entered the room.

“Harang, are you awake?”

“Yeah. I’m awake.”

I smiled slightly at Raxy Bora.

However, my facial muscles were heavy, so the corners of my mouth didn’t rise as much as I wanted.

I just gave a vague heehee smile.

“Harang, can I take your temperature for a moment?”

“Yeah.”

At my answer, she took out a gun-shaped thermometer.

‘There’s something stuck to my forehead.’

As she was about to take it off to take my temperature.

“Huh?”

At the same time as she removed the patch-like thing, a hot fever came over me, and it felt like my head was melting.

Shiver, shiver, I felt a squeezing pain all over my body, and cold sweat poured out.

Tears welled up before I could even try to hold them back.

“Ugh, ugh…!”

I had never felt such pain in my life, and I even thought I was going to die.

“Harang, I’ll take it quickly, just bear with it.”

“U-ugh.”

I frowned and quickly nodded.

My heart was filled with the desire for her to take my temperature quickly.

Beep—

With a light mechanical sound, Raxy Bora’s gaze turned to the thermometer.

However, I couldn’t see the temperature from my side, so I had to ask her.

“B-Raxy, what’s m-my temperature?”

“…”

There was no answer from Raxy Bora to my question.

She just quickly put the patch back on my forehead and stroked my cheek.

“Raxy, is my temperature very high?”

“Huh? Ah, no?”

“Really? That’s a relief…”

I said, breathing heavily.

The shock of removing the patch hadn’t disappeared.

Now that I noticed, I was breathing out steam every time I breathed.

“Harang. Nothing will happen, so don’t worry and get plenty of rest, okay?”

“Yeah. I’ll get plenty of rest…”

Raxy Bora chuckled and massaged my body here and there.

Just that alone was making me feel calmer.

‘I should sleep more.’

I wouldn’t feel the pain if I was sleeping.

Maybe my cold would be completely gone when I woke up.

With that thought, I closed my eyes tightly.

Don’t think about anything, just sleep.

Just as I made up my mind.

Twitch—My ears twitched, detecting voices coming from outside the window.

“Bora, when will the helicopter arrive?”

“It seems like it will take about ten more minutes…”

“Haa…”

The voices were Jinhyang and Yoon Bora’s.

More than that, a helicopter.

Did something urgent happen?

As questions arose, I continued to eavesdrop on their conversation.

“It’s not a normal cold, is it?”

“No.”

“What on earth is it that made him like that…”

Haa.

Yoon Bora sighed.

Listening to them talk about a cold or whatever, it seemed they were talking about me.

‘It’s a normal cold.’

It was just that my body had a fever.

They were too worried.

Calling a helicopter because of a cold.

Wasn’t that too much of an overreaction?

‘I’m fine.’

I should recover quickly and make a surprise appearance to ease their worries.

I smiled heehee with my eyes closed.

“Ugh!”

Suddenly, it felt like a fire had been lit in my stomach, and heat flared up.

It was so hot that I scrunched up my face and twisted my body.

“H-Harang!”

Raxy Bora urgently grabbed my body, but I had no time to pay attention to her.

The heat in my stomach was rising to my throat.

“C-cough! Hack!”

After a painful cough, I wiped my mouth.

‘H-huh?’

There was blood all over the place I wiped.

It seemed I had coughed up blood.