episode_0006

The deer legs were much heavier than expected.

Since it was a one-piece suit, I wanted to wear it cleanly, so I carried it home without getting any blood on it, but it was too difficult, so I carried it on my shoulder.

It wasn’t a good feeling to see the blood dripping through my clothes and making it sticky. Still, feeling comfortable is the priority right now.

Part of me wanted to get away and rest, but I don’t know if some carnivore would be interested. My father prepared fish by the river.

Shoot ───!

The pleasant and loud sound of water welcomes me.

I had just arrived at the stream where I had groomed the rabbit with my father.

Gulp-gulp-!

First, I drank water until my stomach felt refreshed.

Is it because they arrived in a safe place?

Ogeum, which was shaking with fear, cries out that it wants to get tired. When I discharged my urine into the river, my limbs felt tense and weak.

“Haaa…! This is sex…”

Let’s take a little break, just a little bit.

It will be okay because Ganga steals all the smells.

‘Even carnivores lose their sense of smell in the river.’

For a while, I lay down on a rock by the stream and cooled off with the cool air.

Afterwards, I rinsed my bloody clothes with water and wiped my body.

The fresh blood stains were immediately removed, but it was inevitable that most of them would stain. My father’s heart will be relieved, but my mother will start to hate me.

From now on, try to keep your clothes from getting wet with blood as much as possible.

The moment I was dressing up like that.

The body vision detected movement.

It was on a rock by the river.

My ears were fluttering.

Yesterday’s little Terup was peeking his head out from behind the rock and looking at me!

To be exact, the deer leg I have.

The sight before my eyes became yellow.

─Have you seen such a bastard of the world?!!!

“Hey, you fucking pig! Are you still hungry after eating eight rabbits and two salmon?! This fucking dog and pig?!”

He took the arrow and threw it away.

The terup glanced at me, crawled on all fours, crouched down, and approached me with its tail wagging. This is a cat’s unique camouflage. But why is your tail wagging?

“Don’t hide like an asshole! You know you can hide worse than me?! I can see everything! Get out!”

He sarcastically kicked the stone.

Terub picked up a stone that had fallen nearby, looked around, licked it, and threw it away with a curse.

Does that crazy guy look like he could eat a rock?

Seeing Terup tilting his head like that reminds me of a baby kobold eating food. Those bastards.

Can I kill that guy with one arrow?

Or is it right to give this meat and walk away?

If I run away, won’t they come after me?

My head became so complicated that I couldn’t do anything.

─No matter how young and demi-human he is, he is a beast.

Like a prisoner who committed a crime and is presented to the judge, I was hoping for leniency without even realizing it.

I could see my sharp arrowheads, the dagger at my waist, and Terub’s fingernails that had torn through my leather gloves yesterday. Even though my body gained strength, the fear was so great that I couldn’t pull out my weapon.

The moment you let go of this bowstring, there will definitely be a terrifying stabbing attack like you only see in movies.

Terup, who was now just a stone’s throw away, slowly approached me and nuzzled me like a pet cat.

What are we going to do? Why are you biting yourself?

Bright eyes with extremely relaxed irises look up at me.

It was as if he was being cute.

It was difficult to feel hostility from that appearance.

The way he bites me makes me feel like a pet rather than a human being. Thanks to this, I stroked my head without realizing it.

Because the eyes looked like they wanted that.

“Hmm…”

Terup made a strange noise and bit at me like a cat.

I touched it without realizing it, but it didn’t seem to feel any resistance.

From that point on, we became even closer.

Soon Terub stood up and hugged me.

As if he was being cute.

This terup knew he was cute.

He must have been loved by his parents.

It was almost unkempt now, but there were traces of the hair being braided.

It must have been braided by your parents.

The trace reminded me that Terub was not a beast but a demi-human.

okay. This is not a monster, this is a person.

Orphans who lost their parents. When I thought that, the poison disappeared.

“Ugh, you pig. What happened to your parents…?”

“Pig? What does that mean?”

‘Do you know how to talk?!’

Later, my body began to tremble.

···I’m really glad I cursed in Korean.

“Can you speak?”

“I know.”

If I knew how to speak, wouldn’t I have first apologized for yesterday? I wanted to ask, but I had to hold back.

At the same time, even a hint of anxiety disappeared.

Because the other person is a person.

Terup continued to rub his body and become entangled.

It looks similar to a cat and has similar habits, so it seems like a rough fit. Terup’s body stuck to my wet body and it was itchy.

“What about your parents?”

“···You were seriously injured.”

I guess he’s dead.

Blue eyes look up at me.

“My parents are starving.”

The large dilated owl-like pupils and small face were very cute. This is why animal ears are not allowed. You look so cute!

“···You should have said that from yesterday. Why didn’t you say anything?”

Hunting was really hard.

To be honest, this deer’s leg was really stuck, and it was actually difficult to find any traces of it. If there weren’t kobolds, would they have caught them? There was no way a kid younger than me could do that.

“I will definitely pay you back later. Can you give me that leg? You still have a lot left to eat, right?”

‘You’re really good at making sarcastic remarks.’

Because of you, I’ve been scolded since morning.

It’s so pitiful and disgusting that the poison melts away.

Because I didn’t even know what was wrong in the first place.

Now that we can communicate, Terup finally feels like a person.

‘I’m glad I stopped my father.’

People in this world call all demi-humans human, but I, who lived in a world where only humans were humans, seemed to be the only one who couldn’t adapt.

The reason I swore at Terup in the first place was because I deep down did not accept the fact that Terup was a human.

‘We need to change this perception.’

If Terup hadn’t approached me in a friendly manner, I might have actually pulled out my sword. If he had been a hostile person to begin with, there would not have been a folk religion that involved offering food.

“You were hurt? Are you receiving proper treatment?”

These are all humans, and humans are just a type of demi-human.

In that case, it was natural to help.

Terup shakes his head gloomily.

“You don’t know how to do it?”

The innocent expression on his face was cute and made me pet him again.

In the meantime, it is like a cat that it tries to touch the deer’s leg.

Even the exposed goosebumps.

Even if I knew, I was afraid to stop it.

“···Let’s take a look. I might be able to help you.”

I stood up while holding Terub in my arms.

*

The place we arrived at was a small cave created by the roots of different trees intertwined to create a cavity. Strangely enough, it’s right behind the tree on the hill, just a short walk up from the house.

‘How did I not know until now?’

I could understand why they had set up a hideout here.

It must have been a way to avoid predators that would come after smelling blood.

It is said that the medicine that is sprayed around the house to ward off wild animals is so strong that it is difficult for carnivores to withstand it. But for a person with a bad sense of smell, it didn’t matter.

—But it wasn’t the smell inside the oyster.

Bloody smell. It was unusual.

Inside, an adult female, covered in blood, was lying motionless with her back against the wall.

It reminded me of a kitten that I sometimes see in novels and TV media, guarding the bodies of its dead parents, not knowing they were dead.

“I’m sorry, but your parents—.”

“Rit…ta?”

I guess I watched too much TV or novels.

The sight of Terup crawling out into the sunlight was gruesome.

The marks on her body are not signs of a fight.

Even as a layperson, I see signs of torture.

All fingernails and toenails had been pulled out, and blood was still flowing.

One of his legs was broken, and the deep wound across his chest was swollen from red to purple.

I think it’s on the verge of festering.

The inside may have already festered.

The body is naked, and the genitals are torn.

When I saw that, I was filled with disgust.

What kind of crazy person could do something like this?

‘There are only wolves.’

Why would Oor Dragonia do something like this?

According to what my father explained, the only demi-human capable of doing something like this was a wolf.

If my father’s guess is correct, the wolf entered this mountain a few days ago. If this is a wound you got a few days ago, it’s safe to say you haven’t died yet.

I thought this young Terub ate all the meat like a pig, but that wasn’t the case. The bones of eight rabbits were piled up inside the root.

At that sight, something in my heart clenched.

Because it looked similar to my mother.

“Mom. It’s dangerous if you come out. It’s inside.”

You’re being stupid!

“If you stay in a place like that, it’s obvious that your wounds will get worse, right?!”

I took out the herbs from the bag.

The deep wounds in the heart are the top priority. If I get treatment now, will I be able to save my life? no. Let’s not think negatively. If you’re really sick, you can’t even eat, right?

“Aren’t you human…?”

The mountain owner’s appearance was beyond words.

It seems like my eyes are so clogged up that I can’t even open them properly.

He was as big as my father, but with his brown hair soaked in blood and the dirt that stuck to it, he looked like a corpse that had been secretly buried.

“I am the child of a hunter who lives right down the street. I’m here to help you because I heard you’ve helped my parents several times before. Please lie down comfortably.”

Terub looked at me, then looked at the younger Terub, and turned around on the floor, looking awkward. All I could do was really simple.

There was a time when I fell and seriously injured my leg, and my mother put an unknown herb in my mouth, chewed it thoroughly, and applied it to the injured area.

I still don’t know the name, but there was quite a lot of it piled up in the mangtaegi because it was grass that was spread all over the mountain. He chewed the grass and pushed it into Terup’s wound.

‘Does it hurt…?’

I was worried about the military. Usually, watching media such as movies is very painful, but Terup tried to scratch his chest as if it was tickling.

“Never scratch even if it tickles. iced coffee! soil! Don’t touch the dirt because your hand is hurt!”

‘Sprinkle dirt on the wound?! Don’t you know about tetanus?!’

They are seriously ignorant about hygiene.

I wonder how he survives after getting hurt like this in the first place. It was difficult for me to trust myself to administer first aid that I had only seen in passing.

‘What if I fail?’

What should I say to this young Terub if my meager knowledge makes his wounds worse and he dies? no. I’ll have to think about that later.

I needed a splint to tie my broken leg.

But there is no bandage before the splint.

No, I have my clothes. But clothes? In this place, new clothes were so expensive that they were considered a luxury item, so I didn’t have the confidence to tear them up and make proper bandages.

Let’s think positively.

It’s a job to save people, and you’re covered in blood, right?

Since I was so old, I probably couldn’t wear much.

okay. I would have ended up as a rag soon anyway.

‘It would be a good idea to use a sleeve as a splint.’

Since I had a knife that my father gave me yesterday, I struck and broke a suitable tree numerous times with the knife. It is a sharp knife like a scalpel used to cut meat. Every time I cut down on a tree, I saw the blade go out cruelly.

‘You’ll get scolded by your father, right?’

The blade was so sharp that it would have cut the tree first, but ironically, the blade came out first.

There was no choice but to take only trees that could be broken by hand, and there was still a lack of straight trees to use as splints.

In the end, what I chose was deer legs.

The area below the knee, below the thigh, where there was not much meat, was cut with a knife.

If you slice it gently, insert a knife between the joints and cut the ankle ligaments, it will be cut easily.

I really want to take off the skin and throw it in a container, but I don’t know how to take it off.

Even the blade lost its taste.

“If you leave your leg like this, you will have to live with a limp for the rest of your life. I don’t know if this will work, but it will hurt a little.”

“···Try it.”

Terub looked at me with a stern expression.

I grabbed Terup’s leg, which was completely shattered and broken.

‘What do we do···?’

I don’t know. It’s already been over 5 years since I tied a splint.

The longer this goes on, the more annoying it will be.

Even if it hurt, it was best to only hurt once.

I used my best strength to straighten my leg as much as possible and clumsily tied the splint with my clothes.

Kyaaagh───?!!!

“──────────?!!!!”

In the meantime, Terup’s tiger-like scream was heard, causing a surge of fear. I’m scared that I’m going to blow my head off right away just because it hurts.

I was so discouraged that the strength in my hands disappeared.

I looked at Terub and saw that she was gritting her teeth.

It looks like he endured it somehow.

Applying a splint is only an emergency measure.

Setting the bone was something that had to be done at an osteopathic clinic.

‘Is there an osteopath in the village…?’

I don’t know because I’ve never been down to the village.

In the first place, I don’t have the confidence to carry Terup down from this mountain.

Even if they go down, they are sub-humans whose bones are shaped differently than humans.

Is there an osteopath who can treat Terup?

However, I couldn’t leave it like that because I was certain that I would really die if I left it like this.

The good news is that the broken bone was not the thigh bone, but the shin bone. I had no choice but to wrap the long, tough vines around the bandaged clothes several times.

There is nothing I can do now.

Because all I learned in the military was how to apply a splint. In order for this terup to receive proper treatment, he had to ask his parents for help.

“Someone come up!”

At the sound of young Terub’s voice, I got up from my seat and went out to find someone.

“What, what is it? brother? Are you my brother?”

It was Damian and Stella.

Damian climbed up the ridge while holding Stella’s hand. It seemed like they were attracted to Terub’s screams.

“Did you hear?! I heard a huge noise earlier!”

“Uh. There is an injured mountain owner here.”

“What, what?!”

Damian came running towards me in one step, and immediately opened his eyes.

Terub’s residence is about 30 seconds away from home, so if his father returns, he will be able to help Terub.

“I need to ask my parents to help me when they return.”

“···Are you coming back?”

Young Terub looked up at me nervously.

The eyes, which are larger than those of a person, shine.

‘···This is why people raise cats.’

Yesterday, when I was behaving harshly, I lost 50,000 won.

“It’s right below, so if you want to come along, you can come too. And apologize properly to your parents.”

When I let go of the threat, Terup reluctantly nodded.

If you go down the hill, you will see the house right away. First, I planned to bring other items needed for first aid.

By the time the cabin came into view.

Wow!

The sound of the front door hinges creaking tickled my ears.

It looks like my parents have returned.

“Father─.”

Something covered my mouth.

It was Terub that burned my back. In this situation, did you get the idea to make a prank?! I got so annoyed that I shook Terup’s hand away.

Because I came here after seeing the terrible situation, I was in no mood to take pranks. I took a deep breath to call my father. But Terub covered my mouth again.

Just when I was irritated and was about to glare at Terup.

“It doesn’t smell like your parents…!”

The strange tone clouded my judgment.

“You have to run away…! If the wind direction changes, we will all die…”

Only then does Terub let go of my mouth.

“What crazy bullshit…”

Terup’s wide-eyed face was filled with fear that could be recognized at a glance.

“That thing in there is a wolf!”