haziness.
haziness.
“Cough Cough Cough.”
In front of a crackling bonfire. Jamel held out his hands toward the fire and shivered.
“It’s a bit cold…”
First of all, they pulled Jamel out of the river, but it was already late and the day was getting dark little by little. With our soaked bodies, we searched for a place to stay. I didn’t mind walking around in slightly wet clothes, but Jamel didn’t have a drug-modified body like mine.
The night wind was still chilly, but if I took her with me in wet clothes, I might get seriously ill.
Fortunately, we found a small naturally created cave while looking around. The cave was full of weathered debris here and there, as if some beast had once lived there, but the dust that settled on the floor suggested that it had been a long time since the owner of the cave hadn’t found it.
I set the trembling Jamel down in the cave and quickly searched the surroundings for dried twigs and set them on fire. Jamel reached out to the warmth of the campfire, but her face was still slightly pale. It was evident that the wet clothing he was wearing kept losing body heat.
“I need to dry my clothes first. First, take off the wet clothes and spread them around.”
“Sniff. yes yes!”
Jamel, who was sniffling from the cold, heard me and, without hesitation, began to take off the loose top he was wearing. Fortunately, my mother’s clothes, which had been changed by hand, were dry, so it was enough for me and Jamel to dry them.
When I took off the robe I was wearing over my clothes, the priest’s uniform with Yuji’s protection became dry in an instant with the help of the protection. I thought it would be enough if I roughly dried the outer robe. After examining the condition of the robe, I turned and looked at Jamel, and I was startled.
“How about taking it all off?”
I quickly turned my head to the flesh-colored feast that filled my vision. Jamel’s voice came from behind.
“I got all wet, even my underwear…”
It was a very natural story since he was completely immersed in water. Although the choice of words was a bit like that.
I quickly took off the top of my priestly uniform and pulled it back. Although Jamel’s divine protection wouldn’t be invoked if he wore Yuji’s priest’s uniform, this was the only dry clothes he had at the moment.
“Please wear this for now. You’ll catch a cold if you’re all naked.”
“Thank you!”
creaking sound. After the sound of putting on the cloth, I slowly turned my head to see Jamel, who was wearing my priestly robe loosely. She looked around at the priestly robe she was wearing and smiled broadly.
“It’s so fluffy!”
“Because I dried my clothes with blessings.”
‘Murder…’
My mother narrowed her eyes and glared at Jamel wearing my clothes, but contrary to my expectations, my mother did not express any complaints. I think it was probably because of Jamel’s sacrifice to save his mother, but I wasn’t the only one who could read what my mother was thinking.
“Etch!”
Jamel coughed suddenly, shivered again, and looked at me.
“It’s cold… What should I do…?”
A bleak night breeze blew in from the entrance of the cave. It will still take a while for the clothes to dry properly. Now I’ve been thinking about how to warm up Jamel’s body, but there’s only one thing that comes to mind right now.
I glanced at my mother and gestured toward Jamel. If you are a mother who has grown up recently, you will understand that the current situation is unavoidable.
“Come here.”
“yes? yes.”
At my call, Jamel came walking barefoot along the bonfire. I sat cross-legged and tapped my thighs.
“If you stick around for a while, you’ll feel a little better.”
Jamel rolled his eyes to catch his mother’s attention, then quickly closed his lips and sat down with his back leaning against her bosom. I could feel the soft skin through the not-so-thick fabric of the priest’s uniform. I asked while holding Jamel with one hand.
“Are you a little better?”
My mother’s eyes, looking at me and Jamel, narrowed even longer. Judging by the bleakness in his eyes, it was clear that his patience had reached a very fine line. After a while, the mother jerked her head away, took out the slaughterer from her bosom, and began wiping it thoroughly.
unspoken permission. If she had been her mother in the past, she would have gone berserk regardless of whether or not Jamel saved her.
“Ah, it’s so much warmer than before! Hehehe…”
Jamel laughed, rubbing the back of his head in my arms. I couldn’t see her face, but I could see what kind of expression she was making.
“If it’s cold, you have to tell me it’s cold. It’s a real big deal if you catch a cold. I wish there was a village nearby…”
Looking around earlier, I couldn’t see any signs of people. If there were people coming and going around, there would have been a road at least roughly.
But once you move along the river, anything will come out. There is a high probability that there will be a village near a place where there is water.
“Hehehe.”
Jamel smirked all by himself while sitting in my arms, wondering what he liked so much.
“Did you think of anything interesting?”
At my question, Jamel paused for a moment before hesitating. It wasn’t a question I asked for an answer to, so I didn’t bother to press her for an answer. After a while, a small voice was heard.
“That’s it…”
“Yes.”
“Ah, I laughed because I thought it would be like this if I had a father or an older brother… It’s like that common family bond! ah. I think I imagined Joe being a bit rude! sorry!”
it’s family Come to think of it, Jamel was an orphan. I smiled.
“I was just imagining it, so what can I do to be rude? By the way, brother… If Jamel were my real sister, he would have been very disgusted and cursed at me when I asked him to sit on my lap. The relationship between an older brother and a younger sister is not as warm and affectionate as Jamel imagines. Rather, it is a wild place where the law of the weak and the survival of the fittest operate.”
“aha.”
Jamel, who gave a short exclamation, tilted his head as soon as the admiration was over.
“But how do you know Priest Marnak so well? Does Priest Marnak have a younger sister?”
“You mean my sister…?”
Jamel’s question. That word reminded me of my family relationships before I fell here.
No, I was trying to remember. Strangely, all my memories of what I experienced in reality before falling here were hazy.
Did I have a sister? Did you have any younger siblings or older siblings? I think my parents definitely existed…
No matter how much I searched my memory, I couldn’t come up with anything clear. Since when did I stop being able to recall the past? No, have you ever tried to recall the past after falling here in the first place?
“Priest Marnak…? Are you having any problems?”
It was confusing. You can’t even remember my family relationships properly because I haven’t cared for a few years? A warm hand ran through my hair.
‘killing.’
A word that’s okay. The atmosphere is somehow different from usual. My mother stood quietly and patted my head. The confusion was gone by the warm solace without any words.
“Are you okay? Ho, did I ask a stupid question…?”
When I came to my senses, my mother went back to her seat and was diligently cleaning the slayer. I smiled bitterly at Jamel.
“no. It’s not a good question. It’s family… I don’t have a bloodline like Jamel, so I’m sorry for the late reply. I fell into sentiment for a moment.”
“Didn’t Priest Marnak also have a family?!”
“There was one person I treated as family, but…”
Santos died. He was no longer in this world. Jamel turned his head back and his eyes twinkled when he heard that I had no family like himself.
“Priest Marnak is just like me! Father Marnak didn’t have a family like me!”
“What if you don’t have a family? I consider each and every one of my colleagues traveling with me to be like family.”
This was my sincerity. Those who went through various hardships with me and beside me were my family in this world.
That’s why, if my people face a crisis, I will help them no matter what, even if they have a rather unreasonable reason. Even if the threat came from a valid reason.
“…!”
Jamel’s eyes shone even brighter. Jamel muttered, his eyes twinkling.
“Family… Me, Priest Marnak, and my family…”
“By the way, have you gone from the cold now?”
“yes! I’m totally fine now!!!”
Jamel leaned his head in my arms and smiled broadly.
“It’s very, very, very warm!!!”
***
‘Killing, killing…’
My mother, who was sleeping with her back on my thigh, laughed and muttered something, as if she had a good dream.
“Um… Money… That’s a lot of money… I’ll have to put it in the big pocket next to me…” Jamel, who was lying on his back on the
other thigh, laughed hysterically, even drooling a little. Moving carefully so as not to break them, I pushed a branch into the fire.
My body was very active even after not sleeping for a day, so I volunteered to stay awake. It was a very unfamiliar place for no one to keep watch. You never know when and where a threat may come. Jamel boasted that he would keep a vigil too, but probably because he drank a lot of water during the day, he fell asleep.
Seeing her sleeping soundly without the world knowing, I had no intention of waking her up. I didn’t even want to wake up in the first place.
dark night. While watching the clothes drying in the quiet peace, I realized that an uninvited guest had arrived.
clap clap clap. The sound of metal joints colliding got closer and closer.
“Stop there. If you want to come in further than that, I think you should introduce yourself a little bit about who you are…”
The person who appeared out of the darkness was a human being wearing full body armor. The uninvited guest, male or female, looked around the cave and soon found the clothes we had hung out to dry.
“Are you in distress?”
“Yes, I was in distress after being swept away by the river. Who are you anyway?”
“I’m a little late in introducing myself. I was on guard, wondering if they might be the ones I was tracking. I apologize for the rudeness.”
sweet voice. When I took off the helmet of the armor, the coveted red hair poured down. The woman smiled and opened her mouth.
“Take it easy. I am a priest who serves the ‘light without warmth’. I was searching for information that there were reckless people around here who were conducting experiments on living people.”
