Chapter 75

Chapter 75

Investing Through the Status Window.

Episode 75: Demonic Disease (3).

Falling.

Endless falling.

Natasha screamed in the dreadful void. What was at the bottom was the monster’s terrible maw. However, no matter how much she struggled, nothing changed.

“Ah—.”

She woke up from the nightmare. Then, in this darkness where only a single candle flickered, she first groped her own body.

Whether her head was still attached, her shoulders hadn’t been gnawed off, her arms and legs hadn’t fallen off….

After that series of checks was over, only then did she realize she was still alive and felt relieved. That was the first routine that habitually started upon waking from a terrible nightmare.

Natasha meditated to steady her mind tormented by nightmares throughout the night. In fact, she didn’t even know whether it was day or night now. The concept of time had long been lost to her. For her, the time she woke up marked the beginning of the day, and the time she slept marked its end.

After a long meditation session, it was time to eat. It seemed that a maid had carefully visited while she was asleep as, on the table was a bowl of grain porridge made by finely grinding various grains and boiling them. That was her daily meal.

However, eating was the most painful act for her. No matter how delicious and sweet the food, it felt to her like rotten food waste… Perhaps this was what it felt like to stew and stew garbage until it boiled vigorously.

As soon as it touched her mouth, she felt a surge of nausea, but she had to eat to survive. Somehow, enduring and enduring.

’……I must hold it together with mental strength. It can be overcome with the mind……!

After barely finishing a bowl of porridge, she immersed herself in meditation again. She especially spent a lot of time thinking about her swordsmanship.

A time to reflect on everything calmly. ……Only when death was imminent was she finally able to contemplate herself starkly.

‘……To perish like this, it is too regrettable a life.’

Whenever her emotions intensified, she gagged and retched. It seemed that if she relaxed even a little, she would vomit everything inside, but she endured to the end.

Because she had to. …Because that was how she could survive.

Then, there was a knock, knock, knock on the door. Natasha slowly moved her gaze towards the door.

“- It’s Allen.”

…It was that person.

The man who had suddenly leaped into her hellish life.

Since she started having seizures upon seeing the sun due to the demonic disease, she entered this lonely room on her own. With the determination to overcome the demonic disease herself and the pride of not wanting to harm others…

However, as time passed and hope for treatment faded, she felt an even deeper loneliness.

In that terrible solitude, as if she was the only one in the world, she gradually sank deeper into the swamp of death.

Death now seemed evident… As if to prove her father’s words that there were things in the world that couldn’t be solved even with willpower.

“Come in.”

Natasha, unlike usual, cleared her voice once more and said to come in.

The door clicked open, and the man peeked his head in first with the softest smile in the world. Regardless of whether he was handsome or not, she really liked that smile. Ever since she contracted the demonic disease, she had seen nothing but worried expressions from people.

“Good morning, Lady.”

“…Yes, Mr. Allen.”

“May I come in for a moment…?”

“Yes, come in.”

With permission granted, Group Leader Allen and Blind Saintess Ordnung cautiously entered the dimly lit room. As the group leader nodded to Sister Ordnung, she removed her blindfold and checked Natasha’s condition.

“She’s still okay.”

“That’s a relief.”

Once Ordnung finished her duties, she left the room first, leaving Allen alone. It was under the pretext of some form of mental therapy and stabilization.

However, Allen did not spout the usual banalities about how she was feeling or if her body was alright.

“A few months ago, a dungeon hole was discovered in a silver mine.”

“…A dungeon hole, you say?”

Natasha, too, had been a member of the Count’s mercenary group before she fell ill with the demonic disease, but unlike the Allen-Mercenary Group, she did not wander around the continent. She stayed here, dealing only with incidents that occurred near the domain.

To her, Allen’s tales of adventure were a source of considerable interest and amusement.

“Yes, a dungeon. It was a very cold and damp place, the nest of a monster called the Susalber. While wandering around there for days, I accidentally fell into the feeding chamber of the queen monster. The area was completely a mucous swamp, and the smell was so foul… Lady, you really can’t even imagine.”

“How fascinating.”

“I also encountered the queen monster there. It was immensely huge, but I killed it with magic. The sight of hundreds, thousands of monsters rushing towards us was really……, even thinking about it now makes me feel dizzy enough to pee. ……Ah, was talking about pee a bit crude?”

Natasha, who usually doesn’t react much, couldn’t help but burst into a chuckle at that point. Then she quickly straightened her face again.

“……Excuse me.”

Allen thought to himself that she really had a no-nonsense personality. It wouldn’t hurt to laugh when something was funny.

He made a few more brief comments and then got up from his seat.

“I’ve kept the lady too long. Please rest now. I’ll come again tomorrow.”

“……Ah……”

Natasha felt so reluctant to let Allen go. She wanted to hold onto him. To ask him not to leave. To ask him to stay with her longer.

However, being inherently blunt and inclined to internalize her feelings, she couldn’t bring herself to hold him back. And once again, she lamented her lack of mental fortitude.

“……Yes, take care on your way.”

He walked briskly to the door with a friendly nod, but her gaze, unwilling to let go, clung to him.

…Just then, he turned around with a sigh, saying, “Ah.”

“Soon, we’ll start the mission. If not tomorrow, then the day after at the latest, we’ll commence.”

“I see.”

“Don’t worry too much. I’ve gathered only the best mercenaries staying in Markas. …The mission won’t fail.”

Natasha smiled faintly and nodded.

“Even if I were to die, I wouldn’t blame anyone.”

“…That won’t happen.”

‘……Because I won’t let it.’

Allen swallowed the words he had inside and turned away without saying them.

After the group leader left, Natasha returned to her lonely world once again.

‘…I’ve held on well until now. Let’s not waver. I must not waver. I’ll overcome this with mental strength. With mental strength, this trivial thing…!’

However, today, she couldn’t control her troubled heart at all.

…The desperate wish to live today unusually swelled up massively. And that desperation immediately reacted physically.

Ugh…

Vomit——.

Eventually, Natasha couldn’t hold it in and threw up everything inside her.

Hearing the sound, the maid hurried in and cleaned up the vomit.

“…Bring more porridge.”

“…Pardon?”

“Bring more porridge, I said.”

She wanted to live.

She couldn’t collapse.

She had to eat and hold on.

…Somehow, it felt like there was hope that wasn’t there before.

Natasha suddenly opened her eyes.

Today, her body felt unusually light and her mind clear.

She meditated quietly, waiting for people to come.

After a while, the Count entered his daughter’s room. His expression was much more solemn than usual.

“Natasha… how are you feeling?”

“Much better than usual.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Today was the day the mercenary group would go down to the underground space to cure her demonic disease. Natasha also decided to wait nearby.

“Allen, that man, is trustworthy. So don’t worry too much.”

“…I know. I’m not worried.”

She was sincere. …Even if she were to die in some unavoidable accident, she was prepared to accept her fate calmly.

It was fate to die anyway. Perhaps this was that last struggle.

“Would you at least like to eat some porridge?”

“No. I will go on an empty stomach.”

“Understood.”

At the Count’s signal, a burly servant entered the room, covered Natasha’s head, who was as thin as a skeleton and light as fluff, with a cloth, and hoisted her onto his back with a rustle.

Three men and women came out to the open space in front of the building. There, a mercenary group, having finished all preparations, was quietly standing, waiting for the Count to emerge.

“Let’s depart.”

They walked in line towards that suspicious door.

The cool dawn air, soaked with a faint excitement, chilled their bodies.

After a while, those who arrived at that place took a final break and time to reorganize before entering.

Allen gave a brief speech in front of the members who were huddled together on the ground.

“We do not know what lies beneath us. However, if we do not forget our roles and carry them out correctly, I assure you, we will all return safely.”

He took a brief breath and scanned his team members once.

“You are the warriors who survived even through that hellish war. So, believe in yourself and trust your comrades.”

“We understand, Group Leader.”

All the members pledged their resolve.

Natasha, who had been wrapped in a cloth, slightly lifted it and looked at Group Leader Allen.

‘……Please return safely, Group Leader Allen. I, too, will hold on until the end. Definitely……!’

And then, the sudden dizziness surged up.

But Natasha bit her tongue and endured it with her willpower.

…She hoped that this, too, would someday become a tale of his adventure that she could reminisce about.