Chapter 85 (2/2)

Firstly, she dragged the young man's shuddering body away from the enemy's line of sight. Then, she very gently scratched the location of the bleeding with the spear oozing with icy coldness. Ice spread out in an instant to cover up his wound.

Next up, she firmly but gently grasped Seol Ji-Hu's head with both of her hands and looked straight into his eyes. His irises were quaking around like lone leaf against stormy winds. He gasped out Keok, keok, as if he couldn't breathe, and his dark irises tried to go upwards, showing the bloodshot whites below. It was the tell-tale sign of him going into shock. Most likely, he was not understanding his current situation.

”Seol? I need you to listen to me.” (Teresa Hussey)

She pressed her face closer to his ear and spoke to him, making sure to enunciate every word clearly.

”It looks like we have failed to escape. However, we came this far and I'm not planning to die like this. Please, come back to me! Wake up!” (Teresa Hussey)

The chaotic trembling of his confused eyes gradually lessened. He dazedly looked up at her before coughing out a mouthful of blood.

”Seol!” (Teresa Hussey)

”Keuh…. Keu-reuhk…!”

Even though bubbles of blood oozed out from his mouth, he began searching around. Teresa saw him rummaging around his pockets below and hurriedly slid her hand in one of them. That's where she found a piece of paper folded in half.

She pulled it out to find a map. His trembling hand then pressed to a certain spot and, with a shaking finger, drew a broken, unsteady line. The winding, b.l.o.o.d.y line stopped at a different spot on the map.

”Dummy?” (Teresa Hussey)

Right next to where his finger came to a stop, there were a couple of lines on how to enter this s.p.a.ce. Teresa Hussey's eyes gleamed brightly. For some reason, it felt like he was telling her to go there.

There was no time to waste. Even if the sky bridge had been cut off, they were still in the middle of the enemy camp. It was pretty obvious that they would come knocking very soon.

‘This spot is where we are currently, and….' (Teresa Hussey)

”Keung!!”

While grasping the map tightly, she used the wall behind her as a support to push herself up. Although it was hard to control her own body right now, she was not planning to leave this young man behind.

‘Because of me, he…' (Teresa Hussey)

Somehow managing to help him up, Teresa Hussey began laboriously stepping forward, one step at a time.

”It's a dummy hideout.” (village head)

The village head rubbed his nose.

”What do you mean, a dummy hideout?” (Seol Ji-Hu)

”I told you before, haven't I? I'm a meticulous person.” (village head)

The village head smirked confidently.

”The day they issued the order to shut down the laboratory, I was immediately expelled from the research itself.” (village head)

”You told me that you were the loudest opposing voice.” (Seol Ji-Hu)

”That's right. They pretended to ignore me, but I'm sure they marked me as someone to keep an eye out for.” (village head)

The village head continued on.

”Let's go back to the main topic, shall we? The hideout you're going to use will be a bit cramped. Actually, it's a bit ambiguous to call that room a hideout, to begin with. However, the dummy hideout is a different story altogether.” (village head)

”Just its location alone, it's located in a place as deep as the third underground floor. The entry procedure is complicated, and it's been designed to withstand some hefty impact, too. I'm pretty sure it can even withstand the Dwarves' Thunder. I really paid a lot of attention on that room.” (village head)

”But, you worked that hard on a mere dummy hideout?” (Seol Ji-Hu)

”It's not ‘mere', young man.” (village head)

The older man shook his head.

”That's how you get to perfectly fool others. I created that place thinking that it'd be found out eventually. However, if the hideout is too amateurish, what would those discovering it think?” (village head)

”Mm…  Were you worried about them being suspicious?” (Seol Ji-Hu)

”That's right. I'm supposed to be a famous wizard, so if I did things half-heartedly, they would have suspected me even more, instead. That's why I decided to use that stereotype against them.” (village head)

”Aha. Something like, it's the darkest below the lamp, is it?” (Seol Ji-Hu)

Seol Ji-Hu let out an amazed gasp.

”Indeed. Now, think about it. Who would ever imagine that a wizard known to be meticulous and thorough in his planning went ahead and created a hideout right behind his own bookshelf, a place right under everyone's noses?” (village head)

The village head smirked again.

”That's not all. Besides fooling others, I also had a need for a second hideout. Well, escaping isn't the end of the story, is it?” (village head)

”Are you talking about the possible pursuit?” (Seol Ji-Hu)

”Right. Long story short, the second hideout also has a transfer magic circle.” (village head)

Seol Ji-Hu's eyes gleamed brightly.

”However, it'll be for the best that you don't use that one.” (village head)

”But, why not?” (Seol Ji-Hu)

”It's connected to somewhere in the centre of the Empire. Well, if you want an audience with the Parasite Queen, you can go ahead and use it.” (village head)

The location the village head escaped to was the vicinity of Haramark. In other words, the dummy hideout had one more trickery built-in to fool the potential pursuers.

”….You really have thoroughly prepared for all eventualities, haven't you?” (Seol Ji-Hu)

”Against the Empire and the Duchy, yes, doing that much was a must. At the time, I even thought that it might not be enough.” (village head)

Seol Ji-Hu smiled wryly in reply.

”In any case. I'm telling you about it just in case, but I'll pray that you wouldn't have to use that hideout during your mission.” (village head)

The village head spoke in no uncertain terms.

”The moment you close the door, that hideout will become a completely isolated s.p.a.ce. There is no escape route out of there. It's a totally useless place during your mission, understand?” (village head)

”You don't have to worry. 30 minutes is already pretty tight, you know.” (Seol Ji-Hu)

The village head nodded absentmindedly and smacked his lips a little before murmuring with a slightly lower pitch voice.

”….Indeed. You probably have no reason to go there, unless you find yourself in the absolute worst possible situation.” (village head)

How much time had went by?

He opened his eyelids, his vision fuzzy and indistinct. He felt dizzy as if dark and white things were dancing around the edges of his eyes.

In the end, he closed his eyes again. His neck, back, b.u.t.t, and calves - the sensation of the floor supporting those four spots were cold and hard like stone.

Somehow grasping onto the slender fabric of wavering consciousness, Seol Ji-Hu woke up, only for his expression to crumple in an instant. The enormous outpouring of pain was one thing, but his body also felt quite different compared to before.

”Keuk, keuh….!!”

He tried to focus his mind and ended up gasping out a moan from all the pain attacking his body. He was suddenly reminded of the sensation he felt moments before entering the hideout. He wasn't sure what got him, but h.e.l.l, he thought his shoulder had been blown clean off back then.

However, it kind of felt like the insane pain had softened by just a tad now. Specifically, the shoulder joint and the waist on his left side felt quite cool at the moment. It was as if ice packs were pressed there before being taken away. However, the body parts above them were pressed by something soft and warm. This unexplainable warmth was being transmitted to him.

It was cold but warm? What could be the reason for these completely contradictory sensations existing together?

He could only open his eyes again a long time afterwards. The thirst scratching his throat prompted Seol Ji-Hu to slowly s.h.i.+ft his eyes this way and that. Only then did he begin wondering, ‘Where am I?'

The last sc.r.a.p of memory he could recall was the face of Teresa Hussey. He summoned up every single willpower to point out the second hideout, and…. And, he couldn't remember what happened next. He must've blacked out.

‘Just what the h.e.l.l happened here….?' (Seol Ji-Hu)

Where was this? How long had it been? Were they even alive? Once he got used to the pain to some degree, questions started rising up one at a time.

One of the first things his blurry eyes caught was his partially-destroyed armour over yonder. It served him so well since he bought it in the Neutral Zone, but now…. Next up was the miniature chain mail, visibly bloodied and with a gaping hole on the side. Suddenly, he felt fearful of looking at his own body's condition.

‘Hang on.'

His armours were off his body?

Seol Ji-Hu groaned in pain. He wanted to see what the current situation was, but he feared that moving only a little bit would subject him to an unimaginable torrent of pain. Also, his left side felt heavy too, as if he was being confined by something.

‘Am I a prisoner?' (Seol Ji-Hu)

His breathing was shallow and hurried as he forced his half-closed eyelids to open up. The fuzzy vision cleared up almost instantly.

Seol Ji-Hu slowly lowered his gaze. And he saw his naked body, with the sole exception of his underwear. The clothing he wore beneath the chain mail had been used up as bandages wrapped around his left shoulder and his body.

‘The Parasites wouldn't stop the bleeding of their prisoners now, would they?' (Seol Ji-Hu)

”M-mng….”

It was then, he heard a nasal moan tickle his body and s.h.i.+fted his gaze over to his left side. His puzzled face soon morphed into one of sheer dumbfoundedness.

”………..”

And there he was, wondering why he felt so heavy until then. It wasn't just him imagining things - Teresa Hussey's naked body was hugging him tightly.

Although he was somewhat distracted by the sensations of twin voluminous peaks as well as their inviting suppleness, he soon regained his calm. She was doing this for the sake of sharing bodily warmth. From all his body parts screaming out in pain, he could easily guess that he had been wounded pretty horrendously.

‘Which means, this emergency treatment was done by….' (Seol Ji-Hu)

Finally, he could figure out what their current situation was. One of them being, he was neither dead nor captured by the enemy. Meaning, Teresa Hussey had successfully arrived at the second hideout. Along with him in tow.

‘Whew….'

No matter how many times he thought about it, it just didn't make sense. He was almost there, yet what went wrong?

Seol Ji-Hu licked his dried lips before trying to calm his agitation down.

For sure, the future prospect was still bleak. However, he managed to survive. And it seemed that the Parasites had not discovered this place, either.

Seol Ji-Hu felt relieved for the time being and thanked the village head in his mind. And then, he quietly whispered to Teresa Hussey.

”Princess?” (Seol Ji-Hu)

”H-ng…. Mm?”

Teresa Hussey opened her eyes wide.

< 85.=”” panic=”” room=””> Fin.