episode_0047

The man who shouted my name loudly cut off the monster’s leg as easily as if it were a weed.

It was funny to think back to the day I was just now struggling to figure out how to do something with an arrow.

Haha, I guess I ended up like this because I was stubborn for no reason. If I had just done as you said from the beginning, this wouldn’t have happened.

My body began to be controlled by gravity again. It was only natural, since the legs of the monster that had been holding me were all rolling around on the floor.

And as I was falling towards the ground, the old man quickly caught me. The old man’s body was warm, if not hot. How could his body be this hot when it was only a few degrees outside?

The old man’s body was like a runaway train, spewing out steam in all directions. He came in such a hurry to save me.

“Danhwa, you’re not hurt anywhere… No, you’re not okay. Let’s go back to the shelter and check.”

The old man’s voice was filled with worry. I was grateful, but also angry at myself. Not only did I make a big deal out of it by talking too loudly, but I almost left the partner position vacant.

I’ve never had any doubts about my abilities or lost confidence in myself, but this was the first time I felt that way.

‘I can’t help it.’

‘Who knew Screamer would change so much?’

‘Honestly, it wasn’t a bad decision. If you had gone, we wouldn’t have been able to save Hyeji so quickly.’

‘In the end, you secretly believed that the old man would save you, right?’

In my mind, all kinds of defense mechanisms were busy making excuses to keep watch over me.

I laughed. Was I really such a weak person? What was I doing, nagging and meddling while standing next to the old man, offering advice and suggestions?

I thought it would be helpful to you, sir.

To be honest, I thought that if I wasn’t there, it would be a lot harder for you too, and that I was keeping you alive so that you wouldn’t get taken advantage of and die in this shitty world…

The thought that it was all my fault and that the old man was actually acting as my nanny grew stronger.

Even now, when I look at myself in the old man’s arms, I see that I am not a proper partner, but rather an obstacle holding back the protagonist.

Someone who talks a lot about weak subjects and only criticizes others…

“Sorry, sir.”

I forced myself to speak. I thought that was not enough, but I couldn’t say anything more.

“Short story, don’t be sorry. It was my fault.”

As the old man said that, he carried me on his back and tied me up with wires and such to keep me in place.

‘Ugh.’

Maybe because I was leaning on the old man’s back, the sound of him gnashing his teeth was transmitted directly to me. The old man’s gaze was directed at the monster, and judging by the loud sound of his heart, he seemed to be quite angry.

“I’ll kill you right now.”

The old man said that and moved towards the monster. As the old man approached, the monster swung its legs back and forth as if trying to block his approach.

It didn’t really work though.

Whenever it seemed like the old man was putting strength into his arms, the monster’s legs would inevitably fall to the floor.

As the legs that had been regenerated with great effort were cut off, as well as the previously healthy ones, only the hideous torso was left screaming on the floor, with rotten internal organs and blood dripping out.

The old man’s jungle knife, which was covered in grease from cutting off the monster’s legs, was stuck in the monster’s torso.

The old man took a hammer from some unknown source and struck the head of the guy who was screaming as if it was going to be torn apart. The noise that had been bothering his ears disappeared.

I heard blood spurting, but since I was being carried on the old man’s back, nothing came into my possession.

The old man kicked the unconscious monster, and its body flew up in an instant.

A lump of flesh that looked like several men were gathered together and flew into the sky for a moment at the old man’s kick. The monster flew away with a loud noise and crashed on the stairs.

The part of the guy’s leg where it had sprouted twitched, but the severed leg did not regenerate or grow back.

The old man tried to go down the stairs to cut off the monster’s breath.

“Coloc.”

The problem is that the black smoke from the fire on the first floor is diligently flowing into the second floor through the place where the guy is sitting. I had been holding it in somehow until now, but when it poured in from the front, I didn’t have the strength to endure it.

“Sorry, I didn’t think of you.”

Instead of going down, the old man went towards the window at the back of the stairs.

“What are you going to do?”

“I have to go. I finally saved you, but if you give me bronchitis, what are you going to say later?”

As if he had found some free time, the old man slyly joked around. The problem was that I wasn’t in the mood to accept such a joke.

“I’m not that bad of a person.”

I’m not that twisted of a person to say something like that about someone who saved my life twice.

The old man burst into laughter at my words. Unlike me, who was wearing a sullen expression due to the smoke, the old man’s expression looked normal except for the fact that his eyes were slightly bloodshot.

Anyway, the windows were already all broken because of the heat, and the window frames were also badly rusted, so they weren’t in a very good condition. Of course, that assessment was bad news for the building owner, but it was good news for us who had to escape this place.

When the man banged on the window with the hammer, the window frame that had been holding the glass shards fell out of the building, as if the spot had been empty before.

The old man who saw that nodded his head in satisfaction and rolled his feet. The hot heat and the suffocating smoke disappeared, and a cold winter wind pierced his lungs.

Normally I would have been annoyed by the cold, but now I just felt refreshed.

I heard something collapsing, so I turned around and saw that part of the building that the man and I had escaped from was collapsing. Even in the midst of all that chaos, I could faintly hear the screamers’ roars.

“To be honest, sir, you’re not really human, you’re more like a cyborg.”

“Was there a cyborg who was bedridden for a while because of shoulder pain?”

The old man started talking to me as if he was really curious. After listening to him, I realized that I had asked a stupid question.

“No, I was just saying…”

“Can you get to the shelter?”

At the old man’s words, I slightly tightened my waist. A sharp pain was felt along my spine. It seemed like walking would be impossible.

“…I think my back is broken.”

“Ugh… I’m sorry. I should’ve just done it from the beginning. Why didn’t you stop me?”

At my words, the old man swallowed his breath and reproached himself like this.

“It just happened because things went wrong. It wasn’t your fault, it was my fault for overestimating my abilities.”

I blurted out those words without realizing it. The words “it was my fault” felt so foreign to me. How could I have said something like that again?

The old man opened his eyes wide at my words and quickly untied the wires that had been binding my body. He put his hands under my armpits and lifted them up, staring intently as if he was exploring.

“What.”

My mind couldn’t calm down because my feet wouldn’t touch the ground. I found myself kicking my feet for no reason.

“Does anything else hurt besides your back? Like your head…”

I felt sick. I moved my foot and kicked the old man in the thigh. I wanted to smash his vital point, but I decided to hold back because there was still a long way to go to the shelter and I had to take Hyeji.

“Oh… It’s my usual short shoes…”

Don’t check like this. It makes me sound like I’m the type of person who usually gets violent or nags.

“Hmm, hmm…”

I cleared my throat a little. If I had made a sound like that, I would have been in trouble. Given the old man’s personality, it was obvious that he would be worried for a long time.

“Thank you. For saving me.”

My face was flushed with heat. What’s wrong? Did I inhale too much smoke? Or was I in a hot place too long? Did I catch a fever from the old man or something?

No, if that was the case, there should have been a reaction from the moment you came out.

A cold wind hit my face. Rather than the hot air going away, the stinging feeling only grew stronger.

It’s probably because it’s so cold outside that my body is radiating heat.

Now that I figured out the cause, the solution popped right into my head. I couldn’t look at the old man straight in the eye, so I slightly averted my eyes and opened my mouth.

“Why don’t you hurry up and pick me up? I’m cold. If you catch a cold, I won’t let you go later…”

The old man, who had been dazed for a moment by my words, hurriedly carried me on his back. His back was filled with heat as hot as my face.

As expected, the old man was definitely cold too.

Well, just a moment ago, the two of us were stuck together and fighting against the cold, so now that that’s gone, I thought our bodies would naturally react.

The more heat you produce, the more calories you burn.

It was not a good idea to go back to the shelter with Hyeji and all the miscellaneous items that Hyeji had packed away.

While the man was tying me up with wire, I moved my arms slightly and hugged him. It was common sense that the closer you were to each other, the better the heat retention.