Kallen was indeed a girl.
It wasn’t wrong, but the breathing I’d just gotten under control sped up again.
However you heard it, the man’s words carried a lewd undertone.
“Hey—hey! What do you think you’re doing!”
When the man moved toward Kallen, I forgot I was tied up and my voice came out combative.
He paused, then turned back to me with a fishy smile. Every motion looked like slow motion.
“What do you think. Doing what I was told.”
“W-what were you told.”
“He said since she’s untied, torture her all you want. Make sure it’s right in front of you.”
The sentence was made of easy words, but it took me a long moment to understand.
And very slowly, I realized why Kallen hadn’t been bound.
For a second I’d thought it was consideration for a young girl. The truth was filth.
Before the shock even faded, what the man said next snapped me fully awake.
“Heh heh... he didn’t order a method, so I can torment her how I like, right? I can’t even remember how long I’ve been starving. I was about to burst—perfect timing.”
He didn’t mean just a stomach. I didn’t even want to guess what was about to “burst.”
Every time I’d fallen into danger since I landed in this world, I’d repeated to myself: Stay calm. Think.
I couldn’t be calm now. I had no room to think.
“What... you fucking bastard! Don’t! I said don’t!”
When I thrashed and shouted, the man who’d stopped in front of Kallen turned around.
Maybe to make “proper preparations,” he’d already unbuckled what he wore at his waist and had it in his hand.
“I won’t kill her right away, so don’t worry. Can’t just waste a fine girl. Ah, but she might wish she were dead.”
Even with the drug fully worn off now, the muscles of my face were stiff.
At the impish grin, no reply came. I just stared, blank, and when his hand moved my voice burst out.
“You bastard, don’t! I said don’t! Don’t lay a hand on the kid!”
“The kid?”
He echoed the one syllable. Even cocked his head.
All I could do was pray this beast of a man had the bare minimum of sense and decency.
“She’s nineteen. She’s still a kid.”
His shaggy, bearded mouth twitched. He smacked his lips and stroked his cheek.
Then he smashed what little human faith I had left.
“Heh heh, nineteen? I thought she was younger. She’s had plenty, then.”
Ah... son of a bitch. I was the moron for expecting humanity from one of Jed’s lackeys.
How was I supposed to stop that huge mass. Even free-limbed, I couldn’t take him in a brawl.
And tied head to toe, the only thing I could move at will was my voice.
“Hey—hey! Don’t! You fucking piece of shit, I said don’t go to the kid! Are your ears clogged? Hey! Aagh—look at me! Look at me!”
I glared and screamed myself hoarse. I even pounded the floor with my bound feet.
Even with the noise, Kallen barely cracked her eyes. Through the tousled orange hair, her face still wasn’t right.
“Kk—good show.”
The man set the leather belt and the sheath he’d been holding down on the floor. With a clank of heavy metal, my heart dropped.
Lighter now, he dropped to one knee. His greed-soaked eyes never left Kallen.
“Uugh... you—fuck...”
At last the nausea I couldn’t swallow, the despair, the helplessness of being useless to stop any of this had me retching.
I wrung the last of my strength out and screamed toward Kallen.
“Kallen! Kallen, get up! Get your head on, you brat! Open your eyes! Run!”
My voice shredded as I bellowed, and the man sighed, full of annoyance. He [N O V E L I G H T] whipped around, saying we were too loud.
At last his filthy gaze left Kallen and came to me. The urge to vomit surged again.
And yet pinning his eyes on me was the only thing I could do.
“Please... please don’t. I’m begging you.”
Just one scream and my voice was already cracked. I even had reflexive tears from gagging.
“What... what do you want me to do? You like hitting people? Is that your thing?”
“Hm.”
“F—then hit me. What are you doing touching that tiny girl. I can take it. I won’t scream and I won’t fight back... hit me as much as you want.”
It was the first time in my life I’d made an offer like that—hit me instead.
It was a blunder tossed because I had no other way. But at last interest lit in the man’s eyes.
He rose slowly, smiling broadly.
“Leaving the girl alone is a problem. Then who’s going to take care of this, huh?”
He stepped up to me and tapped his own fly.
I squeezed my eyes shut rather than look at the bulge jutting there.
Like a predator before prey, drunk on victory, he laughed out loud.
“Khahaha—hey. If you want to beg, pay a price worth it. Ever heard of the basics of a deal?”
“......”
“Who’s going to handle this, I asked. Huh? You really won’t scream and you won’t fight back? Once won’t be the end.”
With my vision cut off, his heavy footfalls and fevered breathing were even clearer.
As he tromped closer, the reek of sweaty excitement gusted over me. To hold down the vomit I had to bite my lower lip now.
Before I knew it he was in front of me, reaching. Even through clothes, the rough palm made my body flinch on its own.
“Never done a man... well, that’s a change of pace.”
I had succeeded in pulling him safely away from Kallen. With the immediate fire out, thought began to crawl back.
Where had it gone wrong.
Had I gotten too excited with the Eterna Nest ahead. Was it the carelessness that dropped me into a shoddy pit.
I should’ve taken the safer route. Even if it took days more, loop far north.
No—I shouldn’t have brought Kallen. If I’d put her on Ella and sent her fast to where her siblings waited, there wouldn’t have been dangers through the forest.
More than anything, she wouldn’t have had to see this ugliness.
Should I have sent Varen alone to begin with. The Dragon Hunters might have caught him, but if luck held he might have escaped safely.
No, none of those. If I hadn’t saved Varen from the start... if I had...
Damn it. How could I.
“...Let go of that! Aaaagh!”
I tried to lose myself in thoughts to forget reality, but I couldn’t bear the man’s hand on me through my clothes.
Instead of reaching elsewhere, he went straight to drag my waistband down. The cord slid loose without resistance and my eyes flew open.
I’d rather be beaten to death. I had no intention of letting trash like this touch me.
At last, grinding my teeth, I let out the shout I’d held back.
“Fuck off, you psychotic pervert! Don’t touch me!”
“Hey now, hold still. Just taking your pants off.”
“Ugh—damn it. Fuck off! Won’t you? I’ll kill you!”
“Kk—you’re going to kill me? How? Ah—gonna kill me with your ass? Khaha!”
I wanted to tear him limb from limb, but reality couldn’t be more dismal.
How had I ended up transmigrated into a shitty novel to suffer things never in my fate.
Now my head was drowning in grievance and fury. Only one person rose in the bleak future.
“F... dragonboy...”
The pet name caught in a sob—no answer.
Varen, what in hell are you doing.
You’re supposed to be a great, mighty Dravergh. If you wanted, you could burn the forest and kill every hunter.
You said you loved me from the depths of your heart.
“Dragonboy? That’s a strange name. Your lover?”
A log-heavy thigh crushed my lower body. Like he was saying no more struggling would be allowed.
Even a last resistance was useless. There was no persuading a beastlike bastard with words.
I shut my eyes against the nightmare of reality. That only made the fevered breathing and foul stench stronger.
When a dragon in rut mounted me in the woods, that had been shocking. This was fear and disgust beyond comparison.
“Don’t... I said don’t!”
I twisted my torso, but when he pressed my chest with his palm my breath caught.
“You said you’d give it up without a fight—now you’re changing your tune. This is fun in its own way, heh.”
Damn it, Ceryl Aylos. How did you end up so weak.
If I’d transmigrated into a bandit-looking brute riding me now, life in this world would be easier and safer.
Then most dangers wouldn’t touch me, and no one would have an easy time with me.
“Kh...”
Then the man’s movement stopped.
“Kh—kek—”
Not the breath of arousal—a strangled groan.
At the changed sound I cracked my eyes. His chest heaved in quick pants.
I lifted my gaze slowly. The thick neck, fit for a grown brute, twitched. Skin blackened like a life under scorching sun writhed.
His eyes, bulging wide, were shot through with veins bright red against the whites, like from a heavy shock.
“Kuk—kurluk—keh—”
It was as if someone had hit pause. He just jerked, unable to make a rash move.
I studied him with baffled eyes. And in that brief instant, I found what had changed.
A short knife handle bobbed at the nape of his neck.
“What the...”
The last thing my sight caught was the white hand gripping the hilt.
The hand that gathered herbs, that plucked fruit. A small, soft girl’s hand.
“D-don’t... lay a hand... on Ceryl...”
Kallen, clutching the hilt, murmured, face drained bone-white.
