Chapter 3: Number, 3, The Third One – translated by Doza
Carol returned to her room in the inn, closed the door, and turned around just in time to see Silvie hurriedly covering something on the bed with a blanket… With such a huge lump on the bed, just who does he think he can conceal it from?
Suddenly, Carol really wanted to crack open Silvie’s head and check what the heck was inside. It wasn’t impossible that she might find another slime inside.
Fl.u.s.tered, Silvie said, “C-Carol! Why are you back so early?”
Early? She got in a large fight, took a mission, and in order to purchase the map required for the mission, had had to haggle at the Adventurer’s Guild. She had been occupied from the afternoon until quite late at night and had only just returned. Would this still be considered early?
“What’s underneath the blanket?” Carol couldn’t be bothered to answer Silvie.
“Luggage!”
Carol raised an eyebrow, lifted her fist, and a.s.sumed the stance of someone about to throw some punches towards the blanket.
Silvie was so terrified that his face turned pale, and he hastily confessed, “Don’t hit him, it’s not luggage, this was picked up by me…” The last few words were so soft she couldn’t hear them clearly at all.
He picked up another stray animal? Carol grumpily said, “Isn’t one OhmyG.o.d enough already?”
She walked over, pushed Silvie aside in a single sweep, and lifted up the blanket, saying, “Something so large, could it be a dog? Since you hid a dog on the bed, how will you sleep at night…?”
“It’s not a dog!” Silvie said hurriedly.
… Indeed it is not a dog. Carol wordlessly looked at the thing on the bed.
Silvie said apprehensively, “Th-this is Cale…”
He already chose a name? Carol continued to be silent.
The thing on the bed was a badly wounded, skinny, unconscious… and naked man.
Silvie said anxiously, “Cale’s clothes were torn and covered in blood, so I removed them to wipe him down and apply some medicine to him. However, you just happened to enter the room, so I could only use the blanket to cover him to prevent you from seeing a man’s naked body.”
So, the reason he hid the man was not to prevent me from discovering him. Wait, then he didn’t have to lie that it was luggage earlier… Even so, none of that is the main issue!
Carol spun around and growled, “Where did he come from?”
“Hm?” Silvie worriedly said, “I don’t know where he comes from either?”
“I’m not asking about where he was born; it’s where you picked this thing up!”
“A small alley by the road!” Silvie said as if it were obvious, “When I woke up, you were already gone. I thought that it seemed like we only had a little bit of money left, so I took my harp to go find a tavern where I could sing and earn money. Halfway there, I heard strange noises coming from an alley, so I walked over to see, and then I saw Cale lying on the ground! It was really exhausting for me to bring him back!”
“Who allowed you to bring him back?” Carol was agitated and angry. “What do you think we are? A shelter for stray animals?”
Nervous, Silvie said, “B-but Cale was wounded very seriously and was even unconscious!”
“You brought an unfamiliar stranger…” As Carol roared these words, she suddenly felt that something didn’t quite fit. Frowning, she asked, “He was unconscious? Then how could you know his name?”
It can’t possibly be that Silvie had actually picked the name himself, intending to keep ‘Cale’ and OhmyG.o.d together as pets?
If so, she would beat him to a pulp!
“Previously, when I had been captured, I got acquainted with him during the auction where I nearly became a slave! At that time, Cale had also been captured, and it was he who led us out to escape!”
Carol was stunned and wrinkled her brow.
Silvie said nervously, “Carol, can I apply medicine to him now?”
Carol waved her hand, letting him do whatever he wanted, while she sat on the edge of the table, frowning as she watched the person on the bed.
“Carol!” Silvie said sternly and prudishly, “Shouldn’t you at least look away? He is naked!”
“…”
She shifted position to have her back facing the person on the bed, on the one hand listening to the intermittent sounds behind her, on the other hand thinking about how to take care of the person on the bed. But however much she pondered, there were only three steps.
Treat his wounds, help him recover, and abandon when healed.
“Phew! I’ve finally finished applying the medicine. Cale is pretty severely injured indeed.” Silvie walked over to Carol and sat down beside her, deeply worried as he said, “And many of his wounds are past injuries. Furthermore, they don’t look like wounds caused by accidents!”
Carol frowned as she looked at Silvie, asking, “You’ve studied a lot about wounds?”
Silvie laughed, “It’s because I often get hurt!”
That is true.
Carol stood up and walked to the bedside. The other person was already wearing shorts and a shirt, and although the exposed arms and legs were swathed in bandages, she could still faintly see some old scars. Barely giving the wounds a second glance, she indifferently gave a verdict, “Majority of the scars are from whipping and clubbing, he was formerly tortured or mistreated by someone, and the duration was at least several months.”
Silvie’s eyes widened.
Cale groaned and rather unwillingly opened his eyes.
During his escape, he finally could not hang on any longer and pa.s.sed out, so he was now most likely in the dungeons right? Listening, he seemed to already be able to hear the bellowing frequently heard in dungeons…
“No keeping!”
“B-but he’s so pitiful!”
“There are numerous pitiful people in the world; don’t tell me you’re going to pick up every one of them and look after them?”
“Of course I won’t! I’ll only pick up those that I know!”
“…What’s your definition of people that you know?”
“That is… people I’ve met, talked to, and whose names I know!”
“After picking someone up, how would you not have met, talked to them, and know their names?”
“Eh? When you put it that way, that’s also true!”
… This sounded very different from conversations that would normally be going on in a prison cell. Cale forcefully opened his eyes, twisted his head to look, and realized that these people were not strangers. Astonished, he blurted out, “Silvester?”
Startled, Silvie turned to look at him, even walking to the bed, and asked concernedly, “You’re awake! Are you hurting anywhere? I was very worried that you might have broken bones!”
Carol walked to the bedside, reaching out a hand to touch the person on the bed. Cale froze, but he recognized the other’s face. He had previously seen Carol using only two fists to dispose of several dozen dagger and sword wielding guards, so he did not have the slightest intention to resist that person at all, not even if Carol wanted to snap all the bones in his entire body from head to toe.
Silvie hastily said, “Relax, relax, Carol is helping me check if you have any broken bones and isn’t s.e.xually hara.s.sing you!”
… He had not even thought of this point. Cale did not consider his looks to be good enough to cause a man to think of s.e.xually hara.s.sing him. Makes more sense if Silvester was the one who was s.e.xually hara.s.sed!
When Carol touched a rib, Cale was in so much pain that he wheezed out a deep breath. Calmly, she said, “It’s not broken, but it could be a fracture.”
Silvie started panicking, “Th-then what should we do?”
“Stay put and don’t move.”
It will heal just by not moving? Only then did Silvie calm down. Since Carol said that Cale would heal if he did not move, then it was definitely not that serious. He had a lot of trust in her conclusions about the conditions of injuries… Every time he was injured, Carol just had to casually touch it to determine whether the bone was broken or not!
“No way! There are people chasing me. I have to leave this city as soon as possible!” Cale struggled to get up and admonished, “If it’s discovered that you sheltered me, there won’t be a good end for the both of you too! So hurry up and let me go… oomph!“
Cale groaned, lay back on the bed, and slipped into unconsciousness again, while Carol slowly withdrew her fist.
Silvie cried out in a small voice and exclaimed in alarm, “How could you hit Cale! He’s suffering from wounds!”
“The wounded need to recuperate, and sleep is the best for recuperation.”
“Oh, I see!” Silvie relaxed, smiling as he said, “I knew that Carol is a good person!”
Bang—!
Singlehandedly, Carol threw the considerably injured man onto the ground. Silvie was so alarmed he hurried forward to support Cale, then raised his head and threw a puzzled look at Carol.
Carol looked down at Silvie and coldly said, “This bed is mine. Do you have any objections?”
“No…”