episode_0046

“Bianca, if I’m any later, Iris will scold me. If it’s okay with you, can I just take this?”

A polite request in the midst of a crazy situation.

Bianca, with a vacant expression, looked down at her stomach and soon came to the same conclusion as before.

“This is ridiculous.”

With that, she fainted.

***

“Ah… Where am I?”

Bianca was floating in a strange space. It felt like she was floating in water, swimming, or being swept by waves.

In this strange sensation, Bianca couldn’t actively look around or do anything.

She just stayed still as if it were her destiny to float there.

Then something thick and moist licked her face as it passed by.

“Eek!”

Startled, she opened her eyes wide and looked at what had licked her face.

“Kehehe, Kehek… Jjooindim.”

Her shadow, for some reason, stood on two legs (with stick-like legs) and blushed while standing with a terrifying tongue stretched out between her menacing teeth.

Overwhelmed by the coquettish voice echoing in her head, Bianca fainted.

“Huh? Wasn’t I in a dream?”

How could she faint in a dream?

Thinking that, she opened her eyes.

Chirp chirp chirp.

She saw a small, cute bird sound and a clear sky.

“Where is this…”

A place with paved roads and towering buildings. She was standing where Lian had lived in her past life.

Chirp, jjaejack krrraaaang!

A cute bird suddenly flying opened its mouth wide, and a gun barrel popped out from inside its throat. Flames spewed from the barrel and then retracted back into the bird’s throat.

“Darling, just listen to me once. I didn’t do it on purpose, I swear.”

The long-beaked bird, which was peculiarly behind the other bird, was flying away, shouting in a hoarse voice. Bianca immediately got up from her seat in this strange scene.

“Wh-Where am I again?”

Looking around with confusion in her eyes, she suddenly heard a scream coming from the TV at the electronic goods store closest to the street where she was standing.

[ Urgent news! Currently, it appears that the city is being invaded by a purple monster, not a green one as previously thought! ]

“W-What?”

Amidst the sudden serious atmosphere, Bianca was taken aback.

Thud!

A gigantic, indescribably enormous foot landed beside her. The foot was pink.

“Ahh!”

Her body soared about three stories high before crashing to the ground.

“W-What the… What is this!”

She screamed and started to run away. Nothing around her made any sense.

…Her agony was only just beginning.

***

“Cough, cough… Ugh…”

Unconscious, Bianca writhed on the ground. Foam formed at the corners of her mouth, and her eyes rolled back.

She retched for a while, then began to vomit with a retching sound.

Gag, cough… Bleeeh…!

The shadow connected to her twisted in agony before finally spitting something out with a thud.

“Phew… That was close.”

Lian wiped his forehead with a grin, despite being covered in Bianca’s vomit.

“You almost melted in Bianca’s gastric juices.”

Although his body had been torn apart when swallowed, it had regenerated shortly after entering the stomach, but escaping from the stomach was quite difficult.

Fortunately, what had been stabbing the stomach wall seemed to help, as the shadow vomited him out.

“By the way… Are you okay?”

Bianca, who was unconscious and drooling, tried to lift her onto the sofa, but she woke up before reaching it.

“Ahh!”

She screamed and fell off me. She rolled onto the sofa instead of the floor because she was close to it.

Thump.

She frantically scratched the sofa as if fleeing from something and tried to escape to a corner.

Thud.

She made a loud noise when she fell to the floor, but she ignored the pain and continued crawling on the floor.

Instinctively, she realized that all the terrible things that had happened to her were because of Rian, and she noticed that the terrible power still lingered in him.

“Go away, don’t come near me! I hate it, I hate it now!”

She shouted like a mad person, crawling on the floor. I wrinkled my forehead after smelling the damp odor due to Bianca’s saliva.

“Bianca, could you please wash up and leave? Iris has a habit of clinging, so it might be a bit awkward if you go down like this. Your clothes are also ruined.”

“Do whatever you want! You can do whatever you want, just please…ugh, please go away…”

Bianca pulled the curtain over her face with a pale, disgusted face. I nodded sympathetically at the trembling Bianca.

“Thank you for allowing me! I’ll finish quickly and leave!”

Rian thought Bianca’s strange behavior was just due to an upset stomach. Normally, he would have given her medicine, but he didn’t because he wasn’t particularly happy about her pet being eaten.

‘If it’s an animal that swallows or chews well, I should put a muzzle on.’

Grumbling to himself, Rian went into the luxurious bathroom. He took off his tattered clothes and used fragrant shampoo and body wash to clean himself thoroughly.

“Good.”

I exhaled softly as I doused myself with warm water, feeling good enough to do so. Due to the time constraints, I gave up on entering the large bath.

Quickly washing myself, I dried off lightly and put on a gown before heading out.

“Bianca?”

Bianca was nowhere to be seen. Unable to go downstairs in just a gown, I headed towards the space she had shown me as her closet.

“I’ll return it after washing it later.”

I chuckled as I looked at the huge or small clothes that she probably couldn’t wear. She had mentioned that there were clothes worn by her disciples in the closet.

The clothes were full, seemingly true to her word that she hadn’t thrown them away due to nostalgia. Among the clothes, I found ones that fit my size. The design was exactly the same as the slave clothes I used to wear, but that was fine. If the clothes changed, Iris might worry.

“This should be discreet enough, right?”

Slipping into softer fabric than what I had previously worn, I left the room.

“I should tell her I borrowed the clothes, but she’s nowhere to be found.”

I thought about leaving a note, but I couldn’t find a pen or paper, and since Iris might be waiting, I quietly left her house.

“What if she starts crying?”

Thinking of Iris’s tear-streaked face, I took the elevator down. From Bianca’s innermost room, the sound of sobbing continued without pause.

“Scary, scary, scary, please stop, please stop, please stop! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m really sorry!”

She seemed completely out of it, as if something had gone wrong in her dream. She even looked like a malfunctioning robot.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, so please, please – … Aaah!”

She was losing her mind by the second. It was the result of recklessly eating something strange.

***

Sniff, sniff.

“Ah, Iris?”

Sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff.

When I returned to the room, Iris suddenly threw herself onto the sofa and climbed on top of me, sniffing vigorously as if checking the smell of the owner who had returned home, much like a dog.

“Do I smell?”

“…You do.”

“…!”

Thud!

Shocked, I opened my mouth dumbfounded, and Iris flattened herself on top of me with a deeply distressed expression.

“What are you doing?”

“Smelling, burying myself in your scent.”

Saying so, Iris buried her face into my chest. I couldn’t help but laugh at her adorable behavior.

“Does the smell seem strange?”

“…Yes.”

Iris pursed her lips and nodded her head.

‘Even though the smell seemed quite nice, it seems Iris doesn’t like it.’

Recalling the luxurious shampoo and body wash, I gently stroked Iris’s head. After sniffing my chest a few more times, Iris fell asleep in the warmth.

“Ah… sleepy…”

Feeling the high body temperature of a child, my eyelids grew heavy. And so, I drifted off to sleep.

***

During the time when Lian embraced Iris and fell asleep, Totojen gnawed on his fingernails and muttered to himself.

“This time, I’ll definitely succeed, right?”

If not dozens, then hundreds.

Totojen had spent a fortune ordering powerful spells.

Within a few days, in a match that was caught, Lian would either be shattered or succumb to a strong force. The situation he anticipated only brought about an anxiousness that made his legs tremble.

It’s human nature to have both expectations and fears when one has invested a lot. Totojen was in exactly that state.

“If I fail this time too – … No, no. It will definitely succeed!”

And so, after a few days, Lian once again participated in a match.