Chapter 14: Calm before the storm (2)

The dark, square space was filled with moisture.

From the outside, it looked like a regular store, but inside, it was so empty that it was practically empty.

There was no bed, no kitchen, no desk, or any furniture in the room.

There were no items necessary for a person to live.

All that was visible were bandages lying loose on the rotten wooden floor, a potion bottle half-filled with red liquid, and unidentified herbal remnants.

The smell of blood?

After staring blankly at the scene for a moment, Yooseong looked around the room more closely at the pungent smell of blood that he could smell with his nose.

And he found it.

Something crouching in the corner of the room…

To be exact, a small girl with red hair.

He took a step inside and examined the girl’s appearance a little more closely.

Her clothes were completely torn to the point of being rags.

The bare skin and bandaged parts that were revealed between the torn gaps passed by.

Judging by the dark red blood stains on the bandage, it seemed like it was wrapped because someone was injured somewhere.

This isn’t proper first aid.

Yooseong’s expression darkened even more as he examined her from the tips of her feet to her waist, stomach, and chest.

And after checking her face…

“Dead?”

“She’s not.”

Yooseong let out a breath that had been building up in tension for a moment and said.

Swish.

He reached out and checked her condition first.

He placed his finger in front of Karen’s pale lips and felt her pulse at the same time.

‘She’s breathing, but her pulse is faint.’

She’s not dead for sure.

However, if I leave her like this, she’ll definitely die.

Yooseong stared at Karen’s face for a few seconds in silence.

“If it were me, I would have wanted you dead.

No, actually, even now, I wish you were dead.

It’s such a horrible memory for me.

Karen, you.”

But it’s not all your fault.

Yooseong swallowed his last words and carefully lifted Karen’s body.

He knew that she was light to begin with.

Karen, who he lifted now, was much lighter than when he had come to find her and forcibly thrown her out the door before.

Thinking of her small body, as cold as ice, and her weight as light as a feather, it was easy to imagine how Karen Redleaf had spent her time here.

Because she had spent her time on a dirty floor with not even a little bit of heating.

He felt a strong trauma at the thought of Karen still in his arms, but at the same time, he couldn’t help but feel pity for her.

Squeak-!

Yooseong pushed open the iron door of the workshop that was slightly open with his foot and went straight into the workshop.

He laid Karen’s body on the bed he had been lying on.

Squeak Squeak.

Then, he ripped off Karen’s clothes without hesitation.

After a while, Karen was revealed to be in only her underwear.

‘I think it’s a penetrating wound?

The wound is festering.’

Yooseong began to examine Karen’s wound and physical condition while undoing the bandages that were tied up roughly one by one.

Karen, who was currently lying down, was as skilled as any healer in first aid and self-treatment due to the magical backlash she had used in the past.

“What kind of toxic herb did you apply?”

Yooseong frowned as he picked up the green powder-like substance on the wound and smelled it.

It got even worse because you rubbed this on an herb with toxic ingredients that shouldn’t be used on wounds and then poured a rapid recovery potion on it.

If he had just left the wound alone, it would have healed naturally with the mana circulating in his body.

However, due to the wrong herbs and indiscriminate use of potions, the wound had festered, and the flow of mana circulating in his blood vessels had been blocked.

“No matter how I look at it, it looks like he was stabbed with a sharp object…

Did you harm yourself?”

Yooseong asked Karen, who was lying down, with a look of disgust.

Of course, there was no answer from Karen, who was unconscious.

What on earth is going on in her head…?

As far as Yooseong knew, there were few beings on the continent who could hurt Karen, an Archmage considered to be on the same level as a Grandmaster.

So naturally, the conclusion was that Karen Redleaf had harmed herself.

“This is driving me crazy…”

Yooseong couldn’t help but think that Karen had harmed herself because he hadn’t met her.

In fact, when his friend Seyeon told him that three members of his former warrior party liked him, Yooseong didn’t believe him.

-How can you like someone in a few months when you didn’t even go through the direct attack route?

-And even if you did like them, how horrible would that be?

The perpetrators you didn’t even want to see came back to you after time had passed and you had forgotten about them and told them you liked them.

For those reasons, he couldn’t believe it at all.

Of course, his thoughts wavered a little when he saw Sylvia face to face and how she was obsessed with him to the point of looking for him even in her hallucinations, but he fundamentally didn’t believe it.

No, it would be more accurate to say he didn’t want to believe it.

“It’s so annoying.”

Yooseong only wanted to focus on creating the dimensional transfer gate.

“Tsk… I brought her here for nothing. I should have just left her alone regardless of whether she died or not.”

Yooseong grumbled while busily removing all the bandages roughly tied around Karen’s body, making her practically naked.

Yooseong continued his work, staring at the half-elf magical girl lying naked as if she were an insect.

“She’s dirty, so wash her first.”

Yooseong immediately carried Karen into the bathroom like luggage.

Her body was so dirty that he had to wash her at least once even after applying medicine.

Swish.

“What am I doing right now… phew.”

Splash-Splash-

He put her in a bathtub filled with water as if he was doing laundry, and literally washed her after adding soap and shampoo.

Bubble bubble…

“Oops.”

Yooseong belatedly lifted Karen’s head in case she suffocated, and washed even her red hair perfectly.

Thud.

He threw Karen’s body on the towel-covered floor.

Wiiing-

He roughly dried Karen’s head and body with a hair dryer equipped with a magic stone and placed her back on the bed.

“Then… disinfection first.”

Click.

He took out the disinfectant and the special ointment that he always keeps on hand from the drawer where he kept emergency medicine.

Swish Swish.

And he personally applied the ointment to each of Karen’s wounds.

Actually, he should have put cotton in the bag and applied it, but he was lazy so he just applied it by hand.

Kkwak-

And he tied the bandages perfectly around her arms, legs, and forehead.

Finally, he put on a white dress shirt that he rarely wears and covered her with a blanket up to her neck to finish off.

“At this point, I don’t think we’ll have to clean up the body.”

After placing his finger in front of Karen’s lips for a moment and confirming that she was breathing, Yooseong looked at Karen, who was fast asleep, with a displeased gaze.

“I never imagined that this guy would end up in my bed. Should I just take another look at the blueprints?”

Not wanting to waste even a little time because of an intruder, Yooseong sat down on his chair and took out the ore analysis chart and blueprints that were piled up next to the desk and started reading.

Although he couldn’t concentrate well, he soon became lost in thought about the ‘dimensional transfer gate’ and when Yooseong forgot Karen’s existence…

“Ugh.”

Karen opened her eyes.

Karen blinked her golden eyes.

Here is..?

She looked around with blurry vision.

But perhaps because she had been in such a deep sleep that she woke up, the blurry vision didn’t return quickly.

The smell of a meteor.

Karen buried her head in the blanket covering her body and began to sniff the scent of her memories nearby.

“Huh?”

Then, when her blurry vision returned…

Swish swish.

Karen opened her eyes to the sound of parchment being turned and looked in the direction of the sound.

A meteor..?

There was Yooseong, who had turned on the lamp on his desk and was concentrating on a bundle of parchment.

A dream with a meteor..?

And Karen recognized the current situation as a dream.

She always wanted to receive Yooseong’s forgiveness and go back to the good old days, but Karen knew that imagination and reality were different.

She was sniffing the sleeve.

Yooseong’s slightly annoyed expression made it clear he hated Karen, and she knew that it couldn’t be easily reversed.

But she couldn’t give up on Yooseong, someone who would see her purely without any prejudices about race, bloodline, etc.

“Hmm… You’re awake?”

“Yooseong is… kind…”

Karen thought that Yooseong was the only person on this continent who was kind at the same time.

Not only was he kind before he left for the adventure of the warrior party, but he was also cold to her now after five years.

Even when he glared at her, cursed at her, and treated her coldly and violently, Yooseong’s eyes contained sadness and a little sympathy.

While she was searching for Yooseong from the Griffin Royal Palace, she had thought several times whether it was really right for her to go find Yooseong and whether it was right to just forget about him and live on.

However, the moment she met Yooseong again and saw his face and eyes, Karen couldn’t let go of her attachment to Han Yooseong.

Gulp…

“I go out like that… there’s no place to buy groceries. I’ll even give you food.”

Yooseong was cooking while telling her to wait.

The bed she was lying on was also Yooseong’s bed, and the clothes she was wearing were definitely Yooseong’s clothes based on the smell and feel!

“Yeah… this is a dream… a dream with Yooseong in it!”

“Yeah! Yooseong!”

Karen, who eventually recognized that the current situation was her dream, decided to enjoy her current happy situation as it was.

Yooseong’s clothes… Yooseong’s smell and a pleasant fragrance mixed together, it smells so good.

She sniffed the sleeve of her white shirt with a blissful smile on her face.

“Come and sit down.”

Yooseong’s voice was heard.

Knock knock…

Karen immediately got down from the bed, ran barefoot to the table where Yooseong was standing, and sat down on the chair.

A pot and two bowls containing warm beef porridge.

“Eat.”

Although Yooseong had an expression and attitude that seemed so emotionless for a dream, Karen was so happy just by eating with him.

And she lowered her head and looked at the food in the bowl.

‘Food that Yooseong made!’

“I thought I’d never be able to eat this again… Ah..!”

Gulp.

Karen swallowed dry saliva as she looked at the beef porridge in front of her.

She already knew what ‘porridge’ was.

Because Yooseong had made it for her during the past journey of the warrior party.

“I’ll eat well… well!”

Karen picked up a spoon and started eating the beef porridge like an excited child.

‘It’s delicious…! It’s delicious! The food Yooseong made is so delicious!’

Karen ate the porridge with her head buried in the plate as if she had starved for days.

In fact, it was true that she had starved for days.

Like any other palace magician, Karen, who was not good at cooking but was picky, had a picky personality where she would not eat something that didn’t taste good even if she was hungry.

Also, in case she missed the sight of Yooseong coming out if she left the place for a moment, she would hang on to the glass window without eating.

“L… I ate it all because it was so delicious… Can I eat more? Yooseong?”

“…”

Karen emptied the bowl in an instant and asked with rice on the corner of her mouth.

Yooseong was momentarily dumbfounded and couldn’t answer right away.

When I saw her before, she looked like a cat that had been rained on and was begging for forgiveness, but now she was very confident, as if she had been a guest living in this house from the beginning.

The girl who spilled her bowl while on an adventure, asking how she could eat soggy food waste like porridge…

Of course, that attitude was also because of ‘something’ the goddess had done, but he couldn’t help feeling bad.

“Can’t… I?”

“Okay. Eat.”

Karen asked with a blush on her face, Yooseong even handed the porridge in his bowl to Karen.

“Hehehe… It tastes just like the food that Yooseong made!”

And looking at Karen who finished the bowl and smiled happily again.

“If you’re done eating… Should I leave now?”

Yooseong burst out saying what he wanted to say.

“Ugh…”

“Get out. If you’re going to do it, you should clean up the herbal medicine shop in front and not come near it at all.”

For a moment, her eyes trembled at the icy, stern gaze of Yooseong.

Soon, Karen, who had been looking down at the table with a drooping expression, carefully raised her head and opened her closed mouth.

“It’s a dream… Can’t it be a little longer?”

“A dream..?”

Yooseong thought for a few seconds to understand what Karen had said.

“You were so confident because you thought it was a dream..?”

Soon, he understood what she was talking about, let out a hollow laugh, and looked at Karen again.

“This isn’t a dream.”

“It’s not a dream?”

Karen, who had been looking at Yooseong with an expression of disbelief for a moment, opened her eyes wide when she saw Yooseong’s gaze that was still emotionless.

“Then why?”

“Ah.

Why did you treat me, let me sleep, and feed me?

Even if you think about it, it’s strange, right?

The reason is simple.

I built a building in front of me so that the guy who secretly spied on me would follow me as a ghost if he died.

That’s all.”

With those words, Yooseong got up from his seat and took the empty plates in front of Karen, who was blankly looking at him as if he were a stone statue, to the kitchen shelf.

Clank…

Clank…

He drew water and started washing the dishes.

It was clearly an unspoken pressure to hurry up and leave.

“I know now that this isn’t a dream, and I’m full… I’m going to go now.”

He repeated what he said before without even looking at Karen.

Karen, who had been blankly watching Yooseong, slowly got up from her seat and…

Bang!

Walked over to Yooseong and hugged his waist.

“Yoo… Yooseong too..!

You were worried about me, right?

That’s why you treated me?

You didn’t hate me after all, did you?

That’s why you treated me and cooked for me.”

“You!”

Yooseong frowned in intense rejection for a moment and tried to push Karen away, but…

“Yooseong… Yooseong…”

He stopped himself when he saw Karen, who had a forced smile on her face and tears streaming down her cheeks.

“She’s already out of her mind.”

Karen, as if she had already lost her senses from the shock, kept calling Yooseong’s name, begging him not to kick her out.

At that sight, he thought that it was only the goddess’s “fault” and that Karen Redleaf was also a victim.

However, the trauma of Karen Redleaf that he could not forget coexisted, confusing his mind.

However, Yooseong closed his eyes tightly in the next moment.

Thud.

“Ah..?”

He pushed Karen away with the palm of his hand.

“Please… let’s stop.”

He didn’t swear like before or grab her roughly.

He just pushed her away weakly and said in a wet voice.

“Ah.. ah..!!”

However, Karen was more shocked by seeing Yooseong’s expression of pain than by anything she had done to him, so she let out a scream and stepped back.

“T..T..!”

Crunch-!

She grabbed a sharp piece of iron on the work shelf nearby.

“You..?!”

“If I’m sick… If I’m sick, I can stay by Yooseong’s side, right?

Yooseong can treat me, I can sleep in his bed, I can eat with him, and I can be with him… Yooseong, right?!”

“Let go of that for now!”

Drop… drop…

Blood dripped from Karen’s white hands as she grabbed the sharp piece of iron.

“We’ll… be together..!

Yooseong… Yooseong!!”

Even so, Karen brought the tip of the iron piece towards her neck as if she didn’t feel any pain.

“It’s dangerous!”

Looking at Karen’s unfocused eyes, Yooseong instinctively felt that this was no joke and was about to grab Karen’s wrist.

Whew!

Karen’s hand moved quickly and a sharp metal blade went towards her neck where the black choker was wrapped…

Crackle-!!!

“Hukkeuk?!”

Thud…

The moment she was about to touch it, Karen fell down on the spot along with the electric current generated by the choker.

“?”

Yooseong saw Karen, who was about to do something crazy, suddenly collapse as if she had been shocked by an electric shock device…

He looked at Karen, who had collapsed with an indescribable face, and the choker around her neck that was still dripping with blue electricity.

[Ahh! You were really surprised, weren’t you?!]

At that moment, a familiar voice flowed out from the silver metal part of the choker.

“Iris?”

[Yes! It’s Iris, Yooseong!]

“Hey, what’s going on right now… think you need at least a little explanation..?”

[Hmm… Well! There’s an illegal immigrant named Karen Redleaf that I recently scolded, right? I warned her to leave quickly and even put a ‘leash’ on her in case she runs away.. But she goes to Yooseong and bothers you again, right?]

“So..?”

[As you can see! Iris took care of it! Ah… It’s about time she arrived by now..]

What’s coming now..?

While Yooseong was feeling the fear of the unknown.

Knock Knock Knock.

Someone knocks on the door.

[It’s my knights!]

Yooseong walked towards the iron door with a cold face and opened it.

Chuck.

“Warrior Yooseong! I’ve come to catch the illegal immigrant!”

“Can I take the criminal away?!”

As soon as the door opened, the Automatic Knights’ voices filled with the intent to arrest echoed throughout the workshop along with their sharp salutes.

For a moment, Yooseong glanced between Karen, who had collapsed on one side, and the Automatic Knights…

Ugh.

He stepped aside.

[Yooseong, I will take good care of this criminal, so don’t worry anymore!]

“Hero! Get some rest!”

“I’ll be going!”

Squeak.

Clang.

“Why are all the women around me… strange?”

The storm passed.