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Bermuda Chapter 117
🕑 Added 2024-05-25 09:07:22 +0000 UTCChapter 117
Near the dense forest where the scholar and Kenis had collected mushrooms together, there was a fairly large swamp. The swamp was full of floating green algae and moss, making it impossible to tell from the outside what was living inside or how deep the water was.
The reason Leonardo asked Kenis about the location of the mushroom collection was that there was a monster that used those mushrooms as its main food. This monster, named Corgel, had a balloon-like body with limbs, ears, and a tail, resembling a fat rat.
Leonardo, who had easily caught a Corgel hiding near the mushrooms, was now holding its carcass in his hand and had his arm deep in the murky swamp. It was because the final target that went crazy for the plump Corgel lived in there.
"Mr. Blaine..., isn't this too dangerous? The scholar said not to go near here..."
"It's fine, I told you. Just wait a bit."
"What if you get bitten?"
"Then I'll get bitten, so what."
"But you'll bleed!"
"Shh."
When there was no response for over 10 minutes and he was getting tired, Leonardo, who had sensed something, put his finger to his lips as if telling him to be quiet. Seeing him, Kenis also held his breath and covered his mouth and nose with both hands.
The surface of the swamp began to ripple slightly. At that subtle movement, Leonardo, who had even stopped breathing, stared intently at the dark water surface as if he would never miss it.
Currently, his hunger was raging like crazy as his fasting state had well exceeded 24 hours, making him quite sensitive. Moreover, his body was crying out for meat, so his hungry stomach couldn't be satisfied with mere mushrooms and tree fruits.
Unlike the tension of the scene, his face was filled with a strange anticipation and excitement. Kenis thought he looked like a beast just before the hunt.
However, Kenis was quite anxious, worrying that the arm he had in the swamp might be bitten off by something that could pop out at any moment. Because of that, he was nervously watching, feeling like he would have a nervous breakdown, and finally, when he slowly opened his mouth to say it would be better to stop, it happened.
Rooooaaaar!
"Aaaahhhh!"
Suddenly, a huge alligator burst out of the dark swamp with its mouth wide open. Kenis, who directly witnessed the huge mouth with ferocious teeth right in front of his eyes, screamed and tripped over his own feet, falling flat on his back.
Leonardo timely grabbed the neck of the creature that had rushed to tear off his arm with one hand, lifted his arm upward, and pulled it straight out of the water.
The large reptile, easily over 2 meters long, thrashed violently in Leonardo's grip. The creature flailed its strong, thick tail, striking the swamp, but Leonardo paid no attention and gradually tightened his grip on its throat.
Kenis, who had fallen and was crawling backward, saying he would live, trembled with even more fear at the sight of Leonardo's bloodshot eyes than the monster in front of him. It was because he had heard him say, "That looks damn delicious..." while looking at that flailing thing.
A little later, having succeeded in the hunt, they immediately returned to the place where they had first woken up. The scholar, who had been consistently wearing an inscrutable smile, seemed a bit flustered upon seeing what they had brought.
What Leonardo had caught was not an alligator but a monster that looked similar to one. It looked even more hideous and creepy than an alligator and was also larger in size. Kenis was appalled, asking how they could eat a monster, but Leonardo unfolded a mysterious logic, saying that these bastards also eat humans, so why can't he eat them.
Still, Kenis refused, saying he couldn't eat it, to the point of dry heaving, but as he watched Leonardo boil the monster in hot water and grill it instantly at ultra-high temperature, he slowly became interested, saying it smelled like steak with butter from somewhere.
Kenis, who was swayed by Leonardo's temptation that if he didn't eat it now, he would never taste it again, took just one bite, and upon feeling the taste of well-roasted chicken that he used to eat at restaurants from the crispy outside and juicy inside of the meat, he began to devour it in a daze.
"Hey, it's delicious, right? I told you it was delicious."
Watching him eat well, Leonardo spoke with a nuance of pride.
"It's really, really delicious."
Kenis grabbed the meat with both hands, took a big mouthful, and showered it with praise, saying it was chewy and full of meat juice, and that it was a flavor he would never forget in the future.
He was also a healthy adult male, so mushrooms alone would have been far from enough to fill his stomach. Seeing Kenis wolfing it down as if he had been starving for days, just like himself who had been unconscious, Leonardo slowly put more sliced meat on his plate as if telling him to eat slowly.
Only after the thick meat portion had almost disappeared did the two finish their meal. Kenis, who had been stuffing meat into his mouth, leaned against a column at an angle, waving his hands, saying he couldn't eat any more. Leonardo, who had been gulping down water from a canteen, looked at him, laughed, and wiped the water flowing down his mouth with the back of his hand.
Leonardo, who had gotten up from his seat, took out a cigarette pack from his back pocket. Then, he put his hand under his t-shirt and rubbed his satisfyingly full stomach.
Because of that, his abdomen, briefly exposed under his clothes, caught Kenis's eye. His stomach was so flat that it was hard to believe all the meat that had just been there had gone into it, and the distinct abs crossing above it were visible.
Kenis inwardly admired it. It was because he had never imagined that such perfect abs would be under that pretty face.
Suddenly, as he blankly looked down at his protruding belly, only after being full did he realize again that the meat he had been eating was monster meat, and he asked with a slight worry,
"Mr. Blaine..., but this is really okay, right? Like, it won't cause any abnormalities in the body or anything, right?"
"It's fine, I told you. If eating this was going to cause problems in the body, me and our kids would have been in big trouble a long time ago."
'Our kids?'
Hearing a term he had never heard from him before, Kenis repeated it in puzzlement.
"Among our kids, there was one just like you who was dispatched to the wilderness for the first time and timidly starved, saying he wouldn't eat strange things. But after eating this once, he couldn't come to his senses, saying it was delicious. Later, he even told me he thought about it after returning..."
Watching Leonardo speak with a smile on his face, Kenis could intuitively tell that the 'our kids' he was referring to were his former comrades. Since the topic of the 'past' was often recognized as quite a sensitive subject for Leonardo, seeing him bring up the story of his comrades first felt a bit surprising.
Also, the thought that he was comfortable enough with him to bring up that topic first made him feel elated.
The way he continued to speak seemed like he was reminiscing about a pleasant experience, so Kenis quietly listened until he finished speaking.
And at Leonardo's voice, the scholar, who had refused the invitation to dine together and was organizing the items used for exploration from a distance, also quietly listened to the content of their conversation.
"You must have been really close with your comrades. It seems like you know each other very well."
Kenis, who had been listening to the story, also casually responded with a pleased expression.
"Yeah, we're close. Not just close, but a family that has gone through life and death together. Us."
Seeing him speak with a somewhat inexplicably poignant expression, Kenis became a bit envious of those comrades. At the same time, he became very curious about what kind of people they were to be close enough to hear the word family from this person.
"Then, you must meet often even now, right?"
He hadn't asked with any particular meaning. It was a question that stemmed from the very natural thought that people that close would still be meeting until now. However, Leonardo, who had been speaking with a smile, hardened his expression at Kenis's question.
At that, Kenis realized that he had said something wrong and was momentarily flustered.
Leonardo saw Kenis's flustered expression and unknowingly stroked his stiffened jaw. Then, taking out a cigarette from the pack he was holding in his hand, he spoke as if it was no big deal.
"You're a newcomer, so you don't know the regulations of other organizations yet? We can't meet anymore."
"What? Why?"
Kenis asked with genuine surprise. Leonardo walked a few steps away, distancing himself with the unlit cigarette still in his mouth. Then, he lightly sat on the railing of the structure where the light was coming in.
The light coming down from the crack in the cave ceiling shattered over his hair. As he lit the cigarette and slowly exhaled after taking a puff, the smoke rose along the beam of light, giving a languid yet hollow feeling.
Leonardo, who had slightly lowered his head, looked at the smoke scattering around his shadow cast below the railing, then shifted his gaze to Kenis and said,
"If an Armsilver is caught contacting a banished comrade, it's execution."
A bitter smile hung on his lips.
Kenis’ wide-open eyes seemed frozen, not knowing what to say. Thanks to that, a quiet silence lingered, as if he was alone even though he wasn't.
The scholar, who had been quietly eavesdropping on the conversation between the two, also contributed to that silence. Quietly crossing his arms, he raised his glasses that had slipped down to his nose and thought,
'If "caught" contacting?'
Comments
Jesse Gibson
Ah that guy is so sus
