Chapter 4: Number, 4, Cale – translated by Doza
Cale opened his eyes and momentarily thought that he needed to hurry in making his escape… Then he remembered that he had apparently met up with two strange fellows.
He struggled to crawl upright and initially antic.i.p.ated receiving an acute pain from his stomach wound. However, he didn’t expect feeling merely a faint sting. This puzzled him a little, but the next thing he saw fully diverted his attention… Other than trees around him, there was also a lake.
If he remembered correctly, the last time he had fainted he seemed to have been in an inn.
Fortunately, he also saw a person’s back, and that person’s radiant golden hair allowed him to instantly know, without looking at his face, who this person was ─ Silvester.
“Silvester, where is this?”
That person turned his head back, and as expected, he was Silvie who was smiling from ear to ear. He happily said, “You’re awake? We’re in a forest.”
Cale could not comprehend the situation at all. “Why am I in a forest? Wasn’t I in the city? Did you guys leave the city that same night?”
“It wasn’t the same night! A day has already pa.s.sed. Since we needed to do a mission and had to leave town, we had to bring you as well. Fortunately, you only woke up once along the way.”
One full day has already pa.s.sed? Puzzled, Cale said, “But I don’t have any recollection of waking up earlier.”
“Because Carol just happened to be beside you…”
So he sent me another punch? Cale felt somewhat morose.
“Where is that guy?” Cale looked left and right but didn’t see the other person.
“That guy?” Upon seeing Cale’s nervous expression, Silvie understood. “Do you mean Carol? Carol went hunting because we don’t have enough money to buy a lot of food rations. Oh, right! You’re hungry, aren’t you? Here, I used bread and dried meat to boil a pot of soup. Use this to fill your stomach first. When Carol returns, there will be meat to eat.”
Cale accepted the bowl that Silvie pa.s.sed over. There was bread and shredded meat in the bowl, and it seemed like something similar to milk or cheese had been added. It smelled very savory and was simply a delicacy in his opinion. He immediately held up the bowl with both hands and started to eat heartily.
In rapid succession, he ate two bowls. Although he felt like having another bowl, he felt too embarra.s.sed to request it.
However, Silvie smiled delightedly. After taking the bowl, he refilled it with soup again and gave it to Cale.
After his third bowl of soup, Cale saw that there was only half a pot of soup left. He truly felt a little embarra.s.sed. After he pa.s.sed the bowl back, even the tone of his words softened considerably.
“Did you carry me here? Thanks a lot.” He really didn’t think that Carol would have carried him here.
Silvie quickly shook his head, saying, “It wasn’t me, it was OhmyG.o.d.”
“Oh, my G.o.d?1” Cale blinked. “You have yet another companion?”
“That’s right!” When he finished replying, Silvie patted his chest saying, “OhmyG.o.d, come out to greet him.”
Just as Cale was about to ask out of confusion, he saw something odd… A thing like a ball of thick fluid crawled out of Silvie’s collar, bounced twice, and then turned from a flat-shape to an object that was oval-shaped, like bread, yet looked extremely flexible…
Is this a slime? Cale was rather bewildered. But aren’t all slimes green in color? I’ve never heard of a gold colored slime before!
“What the heck is this?”
“OhmyG.o.d.” Silvie pinched OhmyG.o.d’s cheek, then fished up a bit of shredded meat to feed it.
“G.o.d as in ‘deity’?” Cale asked, feeling extremely doubtful.
“No, Carol chose this name and said it means ‘oh my G.o.d what is that,’ ” Silvie complained, “I also felt that it should have been G.o.d as in deity!”
‘OhmyG.o.d’ from ‘oh my G.o.d what is that’ is truly very suitable. Cale silently agreed with Carol in his heart.
“Are you saying it carried me here? That’s impossible!”
“Of course it’s possible!” Silvie said in a matter-of-fact tone, “OhmyG.o.d can carry me and an additional pile of luggage! Of course it’s possible to carry you here.”
Is that so? So, slimes are actually demon beasts with a lot of strength? Cale was half doubtful.
“Cale, you should go bathe!” Silvie gestured to the lake as he said, “Last time, when your whole body was covered in blood, I only helped give you a simple sponge bath. The smell of blood on your body is still very strong. Go take a bath!”
Cale sniffed at his body. Sure enough, he did not smell nice in any way whatsoever. It was actually nice of Silvie to only say that the smell of blood was strong, when in fact it was more along the line of various stenches like rotting blood and sweat mixed together. He wordlessly walked to the lakeside, even though he knew that when the wounds on his body touched water, it would definitely hurt like h.e.l.l.
“Remember to remove your bandages!” Silvie shouted, “Later, I will help you re-apply the medicine and wrap on new bandages.”
Cale turned his head and yelled “okay!” When he took off his clothes and untied the bandages, he had initially expected to see himself in a terrible condition. Instead, he was amazed to discover that the wounds on his body had already formed scabs.
Were the wounds on my body always this light? Cale pondered yet he could not think it through.
As the wounds had already scabbed over, after getting into the water it was not painful in the slightest bit. Instead, the cool temperature of the water felt quite soothing.
Although there were already scabs, he felt he still should not soak his body for too long. Cale quickly washed himself then went ash.o.r.e, returning to the camp.
Silvie first pa.s.sed him a towel, allowing him to cover himself up, then took out a wooden box about the size of his palm from his luggage, and waved at him while saying, “Sit down here, I’ll help you apply medicine.”
“What sort of medicine is this?” Cale wrapped the towel around his waist, walked over to sit down, and said hopefully, “Can you give a bit of it to me?”
“Of course I can! I made it using herbs. It’s very effective! I can let you apply it, but Teacher said that it’s especially effective when it’s personally applied by me! So it’s still better to allow me to apply the medicine for you!”
Initially, Cale wanted to retort “what difference is there in whoever applies the medicine!” but upon considering how the wounds on his body had formed scabs at an astonishingly fast rate, he closed his mouth again and did not dare object.
While applying the medicine, Silvie asked cautiously, “How did you receive so many injuries?”
Cale said expressionlessly, “Since when does escape come without injuries?”
“Why were you running away?”
Cale fell silent before explaining vaguely, “With someone hunting me down, I had to run away.”
Upon hearing this, Silvie did not dare to ask any further because Cale obviously seemed like he did not want to talk about it, and he simply was not good at pressing someone to say what he did not want to say. He could only concentrate on applying medicine, but when he was about to apply medicine on the left arm, he found a strange mark. It was a brand, a slave’s brand, except there were numerous messy cuts on top of it, as if someone had frantically tried to scratch it off.
Silvie felt his eyes warm, and he could not resist reaching out to touch that tragic scar.
Cale felt goose b.u.mps rising up all over his body, and he turned his head to scold, “What are you…”
He only spoke up till this point as he saw Silvie crying while applying the medicine… So many goose b.u.mps are rising that they could carpet the ground! What is wrong with this fellow? Why is a grown man weeping like this?
“Carol!” At that moment, Silvie suddenly shouted, “You’re back! Have you caught any prey?”
“Mm.”
Cale followed Silvie’s line of sight and saw Carol walking over out of the thicket, right hand dragging an adult deer, making it look as easy as dragging along a small dog.
When she had dragged it to the middle of the camp, she took out a falchion from behind her waist and with a few sounds of “swoosh swoosh swoosh,” chopped off one of the deer’s hind legs, even cleanly shaving off all the deer hide on the surface. Lastly, she threw it in front of Silvie, saying, “I couldn’t hit a small one. You can roast this leg. I will turn the other parts into jerky to bring along on the road.”
Although she saw that Silvie’s eyes were red, she did not care too much about it. Compared to Cale, she understood Silvie much better. Even upon seeing prey that would be killed and eaten, this fellow would cry and beg her not to kill it, so she always slaughtered the prey before bringing it back to the camp to avoid Silvie crying a considerable amount of tears and mucus and making her wish badly to punch him dead.
“Okay, no problem.” Regarding already dead prey, Silvie conversely did not have any apprehensions about eating it. In a short while, he strung the hind leg on a wooden stick and propped it up on the barbecue rack to roast.
Cale watched Silvie. The latter had already propped the hind leg up on the barbecue rack, which completed most of the work. It looked like it only had to be turned occasionally, and it seemed like there was nothing else he could help out with. So, Cale looked towards Carol, thinking of helping section the deer into pieces to make jerky…
At this moment, Carol had already dragged the deer to the side of the lake. She waved her falchion ceaselessly, and the deer turned from one piece to two halves and again to four pieces, eight pieces…
It seemed like there was nothing he could do to help with this side either… Cale knew for a fact that he was not capable of splitting a deer in half with a single cut. He was left only with the option of walking back to the camp to blankly watch Silvie roast the meat.
When Carol walked back from the lakeside, sat down, and began to wipe her hands clean, Silvie happily said, “We can eat now!”
After Silvie filled a bowl with soup and handed it to Carol, he busied himself with tearing the meat into strips to eat more conveniently, then filled a bowl with meat and gave it to Cale.
“I don’t need it,” Cale said politely, “I just ate three bowls of soup so I’m not really hungry…”
Carol coldly said, “Eat!”
Cale immediately took the bowl, lowered his head, and started to eat the meat, not daring to utter even a single word.
“Tasty?” Silvie asked in a hopeful tone.
“Delicious! It’s really good!” Cale nodded vigorously. This was not a mere act of courtesy. Although it was only roasted meat, under Silvie’s careful watch, the meat had been roasted until the skin was crunchy and the flesh tender, cooked to perfection, causing him to nearly swallow his own tongue.
Silvie showed a happy smile, saying, “Really? It’s great that you like it!” When he said this, Silvie stole a glance at Carol aggrievedly. “Carol never says anything no matter what we’re eating…”
However, Carol still did not speak. Silvie already does things slow enough. He would simmer a pot of soup for two hours, roast a piece of meat for an hour… If I were to compliment his cooking, next time he would cook with even more care… and also be even slower with it.
After the three of them had eaten and drunk to their hearts’ content, Carol half-laid on the ground and held OhmyG.o.d in her hand, gently caressing and stroking it.
Is OhmyG.o.d trembling? Cale silently watched as rings repeatedly rippled across the surface of the golden slime. He suddenly felt that the deer which had been turned into jerky was not too pitiful. At least it had died a quick death.
Hoping to get an answer, Silvie asked, “Cale, how did the wounds on your body come about?”
Cale froze and gave a roundabout answer. “Wounds are always caused by another’s attack. If not, how else could they have come about?”
“Cale, then who was chasing you down to kill you?” Silvie tried hard to persuade him, “Tell us the details of the situation. Maybe we can help you!”
No one would be able to help me at all! Cale lowered his head and laughed sharply, but upon looking up again, he saw Carol’s pair of cold black pupils staring at him. He immediately froze once again.
At that moment, Silvie persisted in saying, “Really! We can help you.”
Cale stiffly nodded his head. Even though he was as scared of Carol as a mouse would be of a cat, for some unfathomable reason, he had a feeling that he would not be a burden to someone like Carol… He even felt… Maybe my pursuers will be facing an imminent catastrophe?
Footnotes1 “Oh, my G.o.d?”: OhmyG.o.d’s original name in Chinese means “Little What.” It is p.r.o.nounced the same as “Little G.o.d.” Here, Silvie says that “Little What” carried Cale. It confuses Cale, who at first thinks Silvie is saying “Little G.o.d.”