Chapter 7
“Eat.”
Sitting on the ground and munching on a fruit Yellow had given her, Arin stared blankly at the chicken Deneb held out right in front of her face. Her lifeless, dull eyes met his in a chilling eye contact.
“Aaack! Its eyes… the eyes!”
That was the moment Arin realized for the first time in her life that she could actually scramble backward on her butt. She had no time to worry about the skin scraped on the ground.
“Is this okay now?”
He had just cleanly sliced off the chicken’s neck with his rust-stained dagger. Without realizing it, Arin rubbed her own neck and nodded.
‘Yes, my head’s still attached…’
Deneb tilted his head at Arin’s trembling demeanor. His attitude reminded her so much of Yellow when he first started hunting food for her.
She’d accepted the chicken somehow, but Arin had no idea what to do with a headless bird. The gruesome scene from before still lingered in her mind, making it hard to consider eating it.
She glanced at Deneb, then walked over to Yellow. Yellow was deeply moved by her gesture of offering him the chicken.
“Kyau… (Foolish girl, I didn’t raise you for nothing.)”
“You eat it, Yellow.”
“Growl. (I hate feathers. You eat it.)”
“Come on, eat.”
“Growl. (I said I’m not eating.)”
“It’s food. Food!”
While she was having a tug-of-war with Yellow, a shadow suddenly fell over them. Arin slowly turned her head to find Deneb silently standing there, his expression sour.
“Give it here.”
“Yes.”
Arin obediently handed the chicken over to him.
That evening, Deneb handed her a headless deer he had hunted.
For some reason, the deer’s thin legs looked especially pitiful today. Its blood-soaked, fine brown fur was the same color as Arin’s hair, and the sight triggered an unexpected hiccup. Deneb’s face twisted slightly at her reaction.
That night, Arin had a nightmare about being chased by a headless chicken and deer. She cried and screamed that she didn’t want to go with them, running for her life. The two animals insisted they go together, and the scene was so grotesque it drained the color from her face.
“Eugh, gross. Get away from me!”
“What? You think we’re gross?”
“Yes. You don’t even have heads…”
The headless animals laughed at her.
“What are you talking about? You don’t have one either.”
At those words, Arin touched her neck—and found it gone. She’d been beheaded by Deneb.
He rarely slept due to intermittent pain.
Before living with Arin, Deneb’s daily routine had been hunting nearby monsters out of sheer frustration from the pain. But after meeting her, his lifestyle had changed a little.
Every night, Deneb would just… watch her face.
With a surname like “Yan” and that fair complexion and clean hands, she was clearly a noble. How had she ended up on a deserted island? Alchemy was considered forbidden magic on the Cosmos Continent, so maybe she had been discarded after her powers were discovered.
A shadow of darkness passed over his handsome face.
‘Well, it doesn’t matter now. She’s here with me.’
Tonight, Arin’s brows were furrowed deeply in her sleep. Her small lips parted to let out a murmur of complaint.
“Chicken…”
The word twisted Deneb’s mouth into a grim line. He remembered how she had offered the chicken he hunted to a leopard.
The fierce aura radiating from Deneb startled Yellow awake. But as always, Arin was still busy being chased by animals in dreamland.
“Ugh… gross…”
Hearing her small muttering, Deneb’s face darkened even more.
“Eat.”
The next morning, Arin looked at the meat in Deneb’s hand. It was properly cleaned and trimmed—no fur or skin attached.
She’d eaten jerky before, but never real cooked meat. Since she couldn’t process raw meat herself, she’d been relying entirely on preserved food. This was the first time she’d have real meat since arriving on the island.
She had long since forgotten the nightmare from the night before.
“Thank you for the food.”
She stole a side glance at Deneb as she carefully accepted the meat. His hand, which briefly touched hers, was surprisingly warm.
Deneb sat back against a tree, as if he’d completed his task. He quietly hid the hand that had touched her inside the bear pelt draped over his shoulders like a cape.
Arin happily built a campfire and began cooking the meat. As the saying goes, cooking three meals a day really does take up the whole day—this dish took her two hours to prepare. It was the mud-baked roast she’d tried to make once before.
Even Yellow, unfamiliar with cooked meat, was lured over by the delicious smell. Seeing him drooling, even though he was used to processed food, Arin felt proud. As expected, ramen seasoning was always a good idea.
She saved a portion for herself and Deneb, and gave the rest to Yellow. Chomp, chomp, chomp. Watching Yellow munch down enthusiastically filled Arin with joy.
Then she tiptoed over to Deneb with a plate for him. For the record, she planned to return to eat with Yellow after giving Deneb his share.
“Aren’t you going to sit?”
She probably wouldn’t have, if Deneb hadn’t invited her to sit across from him.
“I will.”
Chew, chew. Even though she felt like she might get indigestion, her body obediently chewed and swallowed. What made it worse was that the meat was really good.
Chew, chew. Gulp.
“You’re… not eating?”
She asked because Deneb hadn’t touched his meat and was simply staring at her in silence.
It was unsettling, but since this kind of thing had been happening for days, it didn’t make her feel like she was going to die. In fact, he even seemed in a better mood today than yesterday, so death seemed off the table—for now.
Though her stomach was about to burst, Arin cleaned her plate. Just as she finished, Deneb slid his portion over to her.
“Eat.”
“…”
“Eat more.”
‘Okay, I take it back—maybe I am going to die today…’
Arin was now convinced that Deneb’s plan was to kill her by overfeeding.
Night fell once again on the island. Arin made up her mind to run away while Deneb was asleep. Sure, it was lonely, but living with Yellow was better than dying a miserable death. She didn’t want her already sad life to end so pointlessly.
She crawled into her sleeping bag and tucked herself in like a caterpillar, hiding her face. It was so warm it made her sleepy.
‘Arin, you can sleep when you’re dead.’
It was her own thought, but it struck her as cruel. She opened her eyes wide and waited. About two hours passed. She peeked out from the sleeping bag—and locked eyes with glowing golden irises in the dark.
“Go to sleep.”
Gulp.
Arin yanked the sleeping bag back over her head.
Operation Code #1: Escape while Deneb is asleep. That clearly wasn’t going to work. Growing nervous, she began nibbling on her lip and silently cursing Deneb.
“Sleep.”
Deneb had only said it because her internal energy was becoming unstable, but Arin panicked, thinking he’d discovered her escape plan and the insults.
Just then, she heard a soft groan behind her. Because she’d been so focused on Deneb, even the faintest sound rang clear.
“What’s wrong?”
She saw bluish veins rising visibly on Deneb’s skin. Shocked, she forgot all about running and rushed to his side. She gently grabbed his shoulders and laid him down.
“Does it hurt a lot?”
“I’m… fine.”
‘Is this the poisoning symptom mentioned in the novel…?’
Deneb’s condition was worse than she expected.
She turned to get a blanket from her backpack. Just then, something like a corpse’s hand—cold beyond human—grabbed hers.
She took hold of his hand. Just moments ago it had been warm, but now it was chilling enough to pass for a dead man’s.
She had to warm him up before he lost even more heat. Gently, she pulled her hand away.
His lips, once red, had turned pale from the pain of his mana circle breaking. Black mist was violently swirling out of him and tearing at the earth.
Deneb struggled to suppress the wild mana leaking from his circle. This had never happened before, but not having had troll’s blood recently seemed to have worsened his condition.
“Ugh…”
He had held back until now, but the pain was becoming unbearable. Arin, who’d never seen someone suffer like this up close, was at a loss.
“I’ll go get a blanket first.”
She hurried toward the bag. But as she grabbed it, she had no idea what to do next.
‘Blanket, and… um… what else?’
The answer came from the system.
Ding!
「System: Survival Backpack」
Energy Tonic: Strengthens mana roads and circles, temporarily granting vitality to weakened constitutions for 24 hours.
Cooldown: 24 hours per dose.
Would you like to use it? (Yes) / (No)
“Huh?”
Arin’s eyes widened at the effect of the tonic she’d packed for emergencies.
Deneb, also staring at the system window, looked stunned. Then, as his eyes filled with hope, Arin suddenly remembered a passage from the novel:
“Deneb had a brilliant idea. His eyes sparkled with glee.
‘I’ll kill her and take it.’
The next day, the artifact’s former owner was found dead in a back alley.”
She saw her own grave flash before her eyes.
The moment she stopped in her tracks, Deneb’s dark mana erupted. Razor-sharp black mana curved like a snake and struck toward her.
Yellow, witnessing the scene, hurled his tail at Arin, pushing her aside. She avoided a fatal wound, but her leg was slashed deeply.
In the chaos, Yellow—panicking—grabbed the strap of her backpack instead of her collar and bolted. Clutching the bag tightly, Arin was dragged along behind him.
