[Chapter 33]
“Lemoni!”
A man’s voice echoed faintly in the distance, as if wrapped in mist. Was it Deon? She wasn’t sure. There was no pain, but her mind felt warm and heavy. Her eyelids, suddenly weighed down by sleep, slowly closed.
Monsters continued to crawl up from the riverbank. Most suffocated immediately in the air, as they were creatures that breathed through gills. However, a few with stubborn vitality still thrashed around, toppling nearby trees or fighting among themselves.
“Milady!”
Deon whipped his head around at the unfamiliar voice calling for the prison guard, his eyes widening.
“Damn it.”
The woman was recklessly firing a gun. Fortunately, a guard quickly picked her up and carried her away as she stumbled from the recoil, but the monster chasing them was dangerously close. It wasn’t a large one, but enough to threaten the pair.
“Hey, what are you doing?!”
But his focus was broken by Ian’s shout. Bare feet, hardened with calluses, crushed the rough, sandy ground, raising a faint heat haze. Stepping onto a severed tree stump, Ian twisted his torso in a swift, fluid motion and drove his sword straight into the monster’s heart.
Dark red blood splattered across his face as the mutated creature collapsed. His cold, unshaken eyes watched as the monster died. Once the threat was handled, he turned to check on the woman again—and saw her holding the gun once more, having slipped free from the guard’s arms.
His eyes widened slightly at her irrational behavior.
If she had just stayed quietly in the guard’s arms like before, even if someone had been bitten, it would’ve been the man with his back exposed, not her. If one of the two had to die, Deon would’ve preferred it be the guard without hesitation.
But that foolish woman…
Cursing inwardly, Deon left the rest to Ian and ran toward her. The biggest problem was that she couldn’t tell the difference between pain and immortality.
She kept pulling the trigger without even realizing her wrist was twisting at an odd angle. By luck, she managed to hit the monster’s arm. But as soon as she realized her bullets were all gone, her face turned deathly pale. Just then, as the guard called out her name—“Lemoni!”—Deon instinctively froze.
Her neck was bitten, hard.
Pinned beneath a hulking, hunchbacked creature, she blinked slowly like a dying deer before losing consciousness. Deon’s body trembled with rage as he screamed her name, unable to control the emotion rising from deep within.
He had always believed she was in his grasp. That she might die at the hands of such a filthy, mindless beast? Unthinkable. Staring at Lemoni with a mix of disbelief and fury, he moved toward her like a man possessed.
A monster lunged at him, but he struck its face with a powerful blow and knelt beside her crumpled form.
Was she dead? No. She couldn’t be.
His breath grew uneven with panic. He checked her pulse—she was still breathing.
But what next? What now?
He hurriedly took out a bandage from his bag and wrapped it around the torn, bloody flesh of her neck. As he worked, his mind began to clear—and the dreadful realization dawned on him.
If someone is bitten by a monster, they get infected.
“Lemoni… is she okay?”
Ian rushed back, panting from exertion. But Deon didn’t answer. He just stared at her, half-crazed.
It was odd. He was gripping her wrist with one hand and straddling her as if waiting for something. Even if he’d hated her, this wasn’t how you acted toward someone who had just died.
Ten seconds passed. Then thirty.
Ian, with hands on his hips, was about to speak—when Lemoni suddenly let out a shrill scream and thrashed wildly. Hissing and screeching sounds escaped her throat. Her human teeth, lacking sharp canines, were bared. She screamed hoarsely as if Deon were assaulting her, flailing her unresponsive arms.
A black line slashed across her previously jewel-like amethyst eyes.
Monsterification.
“…”
Ian clamped a hand over his mouth, face pale. Both men stood in stunned silence. Then, as the guard who had stood frozen in the distance approached, Ian suddenly turned and punched him hard across the face.
“You bastard, it should’ve been you who died!”
The guard collapsed like a lifeless puppet. But Ian wasn’t done. He grabbed the man by the collar and yanked him up.
“As a man, shouldn’t you have at least saved one woman?! You useless fuck!”
The beating continued. Meanwhile, Deon held the struggling woman in disbelief.
Something felt wrong. She was always calm, or fearful—but now, seeing her rampage like a madwoman, a deeper despair crushed his shoulders.
“…Lemoni.”
He called her name in a low, cracked voice.
“Lemoni. Shut your mouth and open your eyes.”
Just maybe…
They had a special relationship. A life-or-death connection. Maybe even in her unconscious state, she’d recognize his voice. Maybe she’d wake up in surprise.
“Shut up.”
He tried speaking more forcefully, but she didn’t respond. Watching her struggle like a lunatic, Deon realized the truth.
Lemoni was as good as dead.
“…Why can you, but not me?”
Rage surged in his blood-red eyes. His expression, which had been dazed as he stared down at her, crumpled suddenly.
“Did I look that weak to you? Wasn’t I scary enough?”
He had thought he meant something to her. Maybe not enough to make her respond like a dog to his voice, but at least enough to occupy part of her subconscious.
“‘Maybe when I grow up, I’ll come find you.’”
She had been his entire life. He had learned both happiness and rage from her.
“If you screwed me up this badly, don’t you think you should take responsibility?!”
“…Deon.”
Just then, his mind on the brink of breaking, he was snapped back to reality by a calm voice calling his name. He looked up, his breathing still uneven.
It was the guard.
“Can you hold her without being bitten, Your Grace? I think I can treat her.”
His face was swollen and bloodied.
“Then move. Can you keep her from biting?”
Ian, who had approached behind the guard, looked at Deon without expression. Deon couldn’t fully read his face—but there was no usual mischief in it. He nodded and lifted his body.
“…Hold her wrist.”
Ian came over and, with a slightly softened expression, held Lemoni’s wrist down. Taking the opportunity, Deon tore a strip from his sleeve. The black fabric made an effective gag. He tied it around her mouth and secured it behind her head, though Lemoni struggled angrily against the cloth.
Even if she was now a monster, she was still Lemoni. Deon gently lifted her into his arms. At the very least, she wasn’t dead.
And for now, that was enough for Deon.
At that moment…
When I came to, I was packing things into a small bag. Chocolate, candy, a compass. I poured all the trinkets into what looked like a child’s bag, and a boy who had been watching me nearby asked,
“What are you doing?”
“Running away.”
Once again, the words left my mouth on their own. It wasn’t my will. Just like before. Small hands, like maple leaves, moved busily. It seemed I was dreaming again—and strangely, it felt like a continuation of a previous dream.
“Running away?”
The boy’s red eyes darkened.
“Don’t you want to be with me?”
“No. It’s not that. I just… I want to leave this world.”
“That’s the same as running away.”
I hesitated, slightly guilty at his disappointed response, and slung the gem-studded bag over my shoulder.
‘What should I do? I didn’t mean to make him upset.’
Oh no. I could hear the dream character’s inner thoughts too. Ridiculous. But all I could do was watch the boy through her eyes.
His fine black hair swayed in the wind, and as his stubborn brows furrowed, I scratched the back of my neck awkwardly. He seemed angry—or rather, sulky.
“I’ll come back later. If I stay here, Mom and Dad might scold me.”
‘Why is this dream so long? It’s kind of scary that I’m not waking up.’
Smiling to calm him down, I watched as the boy stared at me, then gave a small laugh before quickly shaking his head and returning to a pout.
“Then I’ll take you.”
“You’ll take me? What if you get lost and can’t find your way back?”
“Do you think I’m some idiot? I can find my way just by smell.”
Hmph. The boy suddenly snorted and grabbed my hand, pulling me along. As if taking on a solemn duty, his young face was filled with determination. Following him, I looked around.
“This place is dangerous.”
“But you’re safe.”
The ground reflected the night sky like a mirror. The world was so still and calm that it was impossible to find the line between horizon and sky. What would it feel like to live alone in a place like this?
Looking at the boy bravely leading the way, I murmured without thinking:
“Do you have any friends?”
“What?”
The boy stopped, surprised.
