chapter_0383

Chapter 381: Using What I Learned Well

“Ah! Aah…!”

The woman couldn’t move with her injured limbs.

Perhaps in panic, she was forcibly waving her injured arm.

When Gaeul and I touched her body, she startled and squeezed her eyes shut.

“It’s okay. We’ll help you.”

Blood dripped steadily from her limbs.

Though fear made my body tremble, I couldn’t act like a coward.

Gaeul and I carried the woman up the nest.

Sharp branches stuck out everywhere in the nest, tearing our clothes.

The slope was so steep that we barely managed to climb it while struggling together.

I’d thought this world’s Gaeul was strong since she’d moved the wild boar, but maybe not?

How had Gaeul moved the wild boar?

The question was quickly answered.

“Master! This way!”

Gaeul, carrying the woman’s upper body, walked the mountain path like a guide.

At the end of Gaeul’s path.

I could sense quite a few people about several hundred meters away.

‘Human sounds.’

At least a hundred people.

I’d heard the pterosaur had taken many lives by snatching people – had Gaeul been saving those people?

Perhaps someone among them had helped move the wild boar.

“Master!”

Gaeul walked backward while looking at me.

Though her bright smile was lovely, she might get hurt walking like that.

“Gaeul, you need to watch where you’re going. You’ll hurt yourself.”

“Nyuu…!”

As we walked watching Gaeul’s bouncing tail, a mountain cave appeared shortly after.

Standing guard at the cave entrance was none other than Park Min-kyu.

The one who had tormented me relentlessly for so long.

“Heuk!”

I unconsciously made the same startled sound as Levinas.

Both Gaeul and the woman we were carrying reacted to my behavior.

“King?”

“W-what’s wrong…?”

“…It’s nothing. I must have seen wrong.”

Had I acted too cowardly in front of the patient?

I forced myself to maintain a neutral expression.

Perhaps sensing our commotion, Park Min-kyu approached with his spear.

“…!”

Just standing before Park Min-kyu made my ears and tail bristle.

I tried hard to put on a fierce expression.

Though my ears and tail showed fear, only my face looked fierce.

I knew it was strange, but it was the best I could do.

“I-I’m a predator…”

“Huh…?”

“I’m a predator…”

Don’t mess with me, I’m dangerous.

That’s what I wanted to convey, but being nervous made my words come out wrong.

“R-right?”

But somehow Park Min-kyu’s reaction was strange.

He showed none of his characteristic violence, and unlike the Park Min-kyu I knew, his eyes were gentle.

Perhaps he had a different personality from the Park Min-kyu I knew.

“Gyeoul… no, let’s move the patient first.”

Park Min-kyu ran into the cave carrying the patient.

After hesitating briefly, I followed him into the cave.

“Ah…”

There were quite a few people inside the cave, all wearing exhausted expressions.

There were many injured, and some stared blankly at the sky.

“Gaeul, were they all here?”

“Nyuu…!”

“Why didn’t you come to the guild?”

At my question, Gaeul showed me her claws.

“Monstel scaly.”

“Ah… monsters…”

I’d seen it while being carried by the pterosaur.

The city and mountains were filled with monsters.

It wouldn’t be easy moving injured people while protecting them.

They also had to protect people the pterosaur brought.

I could fully understand why people hadn’t returned to the park.

“Ah! Aah!”

“Please hold on a little longer…!”

Deep in the cave.

The woman we’d rescued screamed loudly.

Perhaps lacking proper first aid supplies, pain-filled screams kept escaping.

“Ah…”

“Haah…”

The people in the cave didn’t even show despair.

As if used to it, they just stared at the cave walls while sighing.

“…!”

Gaeul’s ears perked up as she pressed down on my ears.

In the muffled world with sound blocked, I was lost in thought.

‘What to do…’

I still had about two emergency potions the guild had given me.

The problem was there were too many injured in the cave…

“Ugh…”

Was there no solution?

Rummaging through my bag, I found leftover dandelion honey tea ingredients.

One remaining honey cube and a few dried dandelions.

Though I wasn’t sure it would work, I decided to restore people’s strength first.

**

I lit a campfire near the cave entrance.

Though monsters might come seeing the fire, we needed to vent carbon monoxide outside the cave.

“Heave-ho.”

I put the few remaining dried dandelions and honey cube into a badly dented pot.

Finally, I poured in one of the high-grade potions from the guild.

Though diluted in the tea, it might heal minor wounds.

“Gaeul, we need to share tea with everyone. Do you have any cups?”

“Here!”

Gaeul handed me leaves folded into cup shapes.

Would these work as cups?

I ladled some boiling tea into one of Gaeul’s leaf cups.

It didn’t leak at all.

The cups were better quality than I’d imagined.

“Gaeul, let’s share these with everyone. It’ll help restore their energy.”

“Nyuu.”

Carrying the steaming tea, I approached someone sitting against the cave wall.

I offered tea to a man with bandages over one eye.

“…Gyeoul’s here too?”

“Yes. Got caught in that monster pterosaur’s foot.”

“Oh dear…”

Tsk.

The young man clicked his tongue.

I handed him the tea.

“This is dandelion honey tea, please try it.”

“It’s fine. Give it to others…”

“No. You need to drink this.”

“Ah… okay…”

He accepted the dandelion honey tea.

The steam showed it was hot, so he blew on it before drinking.

“Oh…”

After a few sips, he froze like stone.

Then he started feeling around his bandaged eye.

“M-my eye…! My eye…!”

“W-what’s wrong…?”

He quickly removed the bandage.

Though blood stained the bandage, his eye was surprisingly fine.

“My eye is back!”

Not just fine – it was healed.

I’d worried the diluted potion wouldn’t work well, but fortunately it had worked perfectly.

“What, what? Young-jin’s eye is back?”

“How…?”

A tiny hope appeared among people who had lost their will to despair.

I held out cups of dandelion honey tea to them.

“This is dandelion honey tea with high-grade potion. Please everyone come have a cup.”

**

People who drank the dandelion honey tea rested more comfortably than before.

The cave’s atmosphere transformed just from the disappearance of people groaning in pain.

“This worked well, right Gaeul?”

“Nyuu! Good!”

As we wagged our tails together-

A piercing scream came from where the pterosaur’s nest was.

-Screee!

‘Oh…’

A baby pterosaur’s scream.

Focusing more on the sound, I heard hitting impacts.

Was someone fighting the baby pterosaurs?

Carelessly attacking them might make things more dangerous.

I quickly ran out of the cave.

“King!”

Gaeul followed behind me as I ran toward the nest.

She looked quite desperate.

“Screee!”

Baby pterosaur screams still came from the nest we arrived at.

Along with the sound of impacts.

Who could be fighting the baby pterosaurs?

I climbed the wooden nest and peeked over.

Gaeul peeked out beside me.

“Yah! Yah!”

“Screee!”

Thud! Thud!

The one stomping on the pterosaur was none other than this world’s Saebyeok.

With an enraged expression, she stomped on the pterosaur’s wings and legs as if intending to cause pain.

In her hand was a torn piece of my clothing.

‘Oh…’

Other children were with Saebyeok too.

This world’s trembling Levinas, and our Gaeul.

Our Saebyeok was there too, watching this world’s Saebyeok with an expressionless face.

Did they think I’d been eaten by the baby pterosaurs?

I quickly went down the nest with Gaeul.

“Saebyeok.”

“…!”

“Heuk?!”

The children startled at my voice.

Saebyeok calmly lowered her foot that she’d raised to stomp the pterosaur, and very slowly turned toward me.

“Saebyeok, I’m alive…”

Before I could finish speaking, this world’s Saebyeok tightly hugged both me and Gaeul.

The embrace was so tight it was hard to breathe.

“Masterrr…!”

This Saebyeok’s hug must have been too strong, as this world’s Gaeul squirmed around.

While still licking Saebyeok’s cheek.

“K-kids, I…”

“Princess! Gaeul puppy!”

This world’s Levinas and our Saebyeok too.

As they started clinging to us one by one, it became even harder to breathe.

Though the unexpected reunion was joyful, at this rate I’d suffocate…

“Screee!”

Suddenly an enraged scream rang out from above.

The mother pterosaur in the sky sent killing intent toward us.

“Heuk!”

Right.

This was the pterosaur’s nest.

Had it come hearing its babies’ screams?

This wasn’t the time for a joyful reunion.

Just as I hurriedly broke the group hug, the pterosaur dove toward us.

Whoosh-!

It raised the claws of its remaining foot sharply.

Not a foot for capturing, but for killing.

“Yah!”

Seeing this, ‘our’ Gaeul ran to the edge of the nest.

As if trying to lure the pterosaur, she jumped in place and waved her hands to provoke it.

The provocation worked – the pterosaur flew at Gaeul at incredible speed.

“Gaeul, no!”

In that urgent moment as I ran toward Gaeul, I saw it.

Gaeul pulling out a large cloth.

Covering her entire body with the cloth.

“Yah!”

Shouting a battle cry, Gaeul ran into a gap between the wooden nest materials.

At the same time, the pterosaur’s sharp claws tore through the cloth and destroyed the nest behind it.

Our Gaeul was perfectly fine, having dodged by a hair’s breadth.

The pterosaur had been fooled by the teleportation magic trick.

‘My goodness.’

To think she’d use teleportation magic here.

I wasn’t the only one surprised – this world’s Gaeul opened her eyes wide.

“Hoek!”

Her surprised voice was exactly like our Gaeul’s.