Chapter 45

Chahaya massaged Seun's frozen hands and feet.

When the others were sprawled out sleeping, it was the perfect time to use abilities similar to Sooche. Everyone except the combat types had already left. There was no trace of delicacy, of course. Chahaya would never have taken care of Seun like this if it weren't for him.

Once Seun's body temperature returned to a certain level, Chahaya let him lie down comfortably, offering his thighs as a support. He had already become familiar with the process of emitting Cosmos to the ground at an appropriate heat. He only set up a boundary around Seun, not caring about the others who were sleeping nearby.

Seun's curled body gradually spread out, but he suffered as if it were the last night of the school trip.

It was a cold day to enter the sea, but as they one by one jumped in, Seun also leaped in. Chahaya, who was already in the water, saw in real-time how Seun's plump lips turned blue. The others, who were shouting about the cold, quickly adapted to the seawater, but Seun, who entered last, was the first to leave.

That night, only Seun shivered all night.

Seun, who often caught colds, looked frail despite his robust appearance. What good did it do to only eat expensive eggs and organic food? He grew up too delicately, making him vulnerable to all kinds of viruses.

Moreover, he was surprisingly careless. He had quit the guild leader position, but now he was swept away by the situation.

"I'll give you ten thousand more won."

A laugh escaped him, and his body shook, causing him to look down at Seun. Fortunately, Seun's eyelids didn't move, seemingly exhausted from the arduous march.

The desperate feeling of holding on to him to prevent him from falling came back to him. His chest felt tight when he embraced him with a gentle force, and Seun's purple eyes pleaded with him not to let go.

Unlike the burden he felt with Yeongil, the feeling of Seun's life in his hands was quite pleasant.

Why the hell am I getting hard at this moment, damn it.

Chahaya's face stiffened as he laughed and clicked his tongue. Had it been a while since he last used it, so it was building up?

Seun, who was lying on Chahaya's thigh, raised his hand and clutched Chahaya's leg. A groan of suffering escaped him, as if he was having a nightmare. Chahaya let him hold on tightly to reassure him.

Suddenly, Chahaya recalled his memories of living in Sulawesi.

Seun once asked how he lived in Indonesia, but as the topic was repeatedly brushed aside, he eventually stopped mentioning it. If it weren't for a day like today, Chahaya wouldn't have reflected on his past.

The place where Chahaya lived as a child was in the mountainous region of South Sulawesi, where slash-and-burn agriculture was practiced.

Chahaya entered the area holding his uncle's hand, but the people living there in clan units didn't particularly welcome him. Of course, they didn't dislike him either. They allowed him to enter the village's grain storage and dressed him in clean, though black, clothes during large-scale funerals.

Young Chahaya spent most of his days sitting in the village's cave or on the roof shaped like a boat. Perhaps feeling sorry for the young nephew who spent a lot of time alone, his uncle brought back a white puppy on his way back from the market.

Following his uncle's advice to take care of the puppy, Chahaya began to spend time with it.

Chahaya generally enjoyed his time with the puppy, especially when he was on the roof. Whenever he climbed up to the high roof, the puppy would stiffen and cling tightly to his young body.

He enjoyed climbing the roof more than going to the cave, the more time he spent with the puppy.

The puppy would tremble and wrap its front paws around his wrist as they climbed higher. The warm sensation was pleasant, and the puppy's black eyes, which looked up at him as if he were the only one in the world, were adorable.

On the roof, he was the absolute presence for the puppy.

Don't worry, I'm here.

Chahaya held the puppy's body with both hands and showed it the view outside. Unaware that the puppy's soft body was stiffening out of fear, he showed it the village from up there. After coming down from the roof, the puppy would avoid Chahaya for a while.

Young Chahaya only realized after this happened a few times that he wouldn't go to the roof again.

He realized that what he did with good intentions was terrifying for a small and delicate creature, even without anyone telling him.

He continued to take care of the puppy until it grew up and died. It had been a long time since he last felt the desperate sensation of holding it.

Chahaya tried to insert his index finger into Seun's loosely clenched hand.

It only twitched and didn't grip.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

Han Donhee, lying on his side, yawned.

"You guys are screwed because of your women."

"Is looking at Cha Seun considered being screwed? You're sometimes really weird, you know?"

"You should stop saying you don't care about me, you know?"

"Anyway, you're really weird."

Han Donhee lay back down, snoring as if he had been talking in his sleep. Chahaya, feeling inexplicably annoyed, poured cold air onto the floor where Han Donhee was lying. It was only when Han Donhee was about to freeze to death that he rolled over to Gangsan and Yuchan.

Han Donhee lay down horizontally, using the two as a cushion.

"Cha Seun needs to regain his senses and escape from that lunatic. Damn, even his mouth is moving."

Han Donhee's middle finger pointed upwards.

***

"Move to one side!"

Seun's eyes snapped open at someone's shout and the sudden jolt. His body was shaking, and the dirt floor, from which leaves had fallen, looked like an earthquake was happening. Seun, who was being carried upside down on someone's back, was confused.

What's going on?

His last memory was falling asleep while shivering from the cold. Seun straightened his head as his vision adjusted to the light.

Below, something huge was wriggling and following them. It was a larva at least the size of a 1-ton truck, and there were dozens of them, each with a mouth full of sharp teeth.

"Ah! What's that!"

"Are you awake now?"

Seun clung to Chahaya's waist as he ran down the mountain. The messenger, who had only appeared once since entering the tunnel, was nowhere to be seen.

The teeth of the larva he had just seen were so sharp that they could tear the skin with a mere touch. Despite opening their mouths wide, they made no sound, making them even more eerie.

Seun tried to lift his body to get a better look, but the shaking from Chahaya's running forced him back down.

What did I just see...

He thought the larvae were chasing them, but it turned out that Gangsan and Yuchan were cutting them from below and herding them upwards.

In the chaos, Chahaya, who seemed to have lived for thousands of years, plunged his sword into a massive tree. He was at a height much higher than his own, having jumped.

Using the sword handle as a foothold, Chahaya climbed the tree further. He placed Seun on a branch about as high as the fifth floor of an apartment building. The branch was as thick and sturdy as a log.

"Hey! What do you want me to do!"

Seun shouted, hugging the branch.

"Stay here."

Without giving him a chance to respond, Chahaya jumped down to the ground in one swift motion. He was so quick that if you blinked, you might miss him pulling out his sword. He ran down the mountain in a straight line, cutting through the trees and grass that blocked his path.

Seun, who had been lying on the branch, sat up. He firmly wedged the round branch between his legs and looked around.

Below, Yuchan and Gangsan were herding a large number of brown larvae, and Han Donhee was doing the same from the top of the mountain. Their destination was the direction Chahaya was running.

Each larva had 10 to 20 legs and was covered in thick fur. The fur, which should have been small and thin, was as large as the mutant itself.

Insects that looked like head lice clung to the larvae's fur, with one as large as a human face. Among them, a larva with spines like a porcupine was firing them in all directions. If an ant saw human hair, would it feel as disgusting as Seun did? He felt like a member of a miniature race.

A variety of larvae, which would make an entomologist cheer, were gathering at Chahaya's location.

With over a hundred larvae, each over a ton, moving, the earthquake he felt on the mountain was no illusion. Not only larvae, but also dozens of centipedes were emerging from the ground, making it look like monsters ascending from hell.

Chahaya, who was emitting white Cosmos from his entire body, plunged his sword, charged with energy, into the ground.

Bang! The ground around him sank as if a massive gravitational force was acting on it. Dust rose like smoke and then disappeared, leaving a crater like a white pond. Even from a distance, the shock wave created a wind that reached Seun.

Seun hugged the tree trunk tightly to avoid being swept away. If it weren't for the deep roots, the tree would have been uprooted like the old ones nearby.

Chahaya stood in the center of the crater, waiting for the monsters herded by his guild members. They approached the crater, showing no intelligence, and tried to attack Chahaya by opening their mouths. The more mutants he cut, the more their bodily fluids splattered on him. He had already thrown away his mask, which was in the way.

As the herders approached the crater, Chahaya plunged his sword into the dirt wall and leaped up. The centipedes tried to bite his legs, but he narrowly escaped the crater first.

Although the distance between them was considerable, Chahaya seemed to be aware of his presence. Suddenly, he swung his sword forcefully at the larvae and centipedes climbing up the crater. The flame that had been extending in a straight line suddenly turned into a pillar of fire, spreading in all directions. A massive mushroom cloud, like an atomic bomb, rose above the burning crater.

Seun watched the burning crater with his mouth open. The amount of fuel was considerable, given the size of the mutants, and the flames did not easily subside. The smell carried by the wind reminded him of the meat shops he had visited a while ago, making him feel the hunger he had experienced.

Squeak... Squeak?

Seun, whose attention was on the flames, turned his head. Squeak! A piercing animal sound was right next to him.

At the end of the branch he was on, a bird with feather-like horns was perched. It was a bit smaller but looked exactly like the chicken mutant he had seen yesterday. The creature was raising its long, snake-like tail as if searching for prey. Seun slowly reached for the Matarahiri on his back, his heart pounding with fear.