Chapter 8.2
No matter how much they made a fuss outside, as there was no internal reaction, the fuss gradually subsided as if they got tired.
Emma, who thought the worst had come to pass, walked nervously with lowered shoulders and headed for the kitchen. She only realized how thirsty she was as a burning sensation was made known in her throat.
Emma looked around relying on the lamplight and saw a ceramic water bottle in the corner of the shelf. When she found the water, she thought it was a good decision to not drink the water blindly a while ago.
The moment when Emma was going to tilt the water bottle and drink the water in the cup, a subtle scent soared above the smooth surface and wafted through Emma’s nose.
“……?”
The hands holding the glass stopped midway. She frowned and tilted her head, carefully sniffing the contents, almost pushing her nose into the water. Soon enough, her face distorted.
‘It smells bad.’ It was a different scent from the odd smell on the table earlier.
If the smell of the table was a mixed odor of butter that was unpleasant, this scent seemed to be more of an exotic, complex scent. Like a mixture of more than one or two medicinal herbs, but the smell of the main medicinal herbs gave off a subtle scent of soil.
Emma, who focused on her sense of smell, fervently dug through her memory.
‘It smells like dirt.’ But it wasn’t any ordinary soil. ‘It smells like medicinal herbs that smell like soil.’
But there were more than one or two such medicinal herbs.
Emma had been wandering around the herb store since she started walking as a young child. It was difficult to pinpoint the certain herb as she was familiar with most of the herbal scents.
‘First of all, it’s not a common herb.’ But Emma knew for sure that she had smelled it in the past. ‘Can it be a poisonous plant?’
It was known that the line between medicine and poison was thin.
Emma, who drew a rough classification in her head, put her nose close to the cup again. After accepting the smell from the water surface deep into her lungs, Emma was able to classify the small scent. After inhaling and analyzing it over and over again, Emma came to the conclusion that it could be a poisonous plant, but not poison itself.
‘… I’m confused’
There were less than a hundred extreme readings handled by the herb store, and Emma had been thoroughly educated about taking good care of the extreme plants. She knew that if a plant was mishandled it would bring a big commotion out in the society.
‘The smell is ambiguous. But it’s definitely not a type of tea.’
In addition to the smell of soil, there was a slight smell of grass, but the characteristic scent was also weakly mixed.
“Hmm.”
Emma first tilted the cup slightly and tasted it with her tongue. As expected, it was close to not having a taste at all, but she felt a faint taste of soil.
‘A soil taste…Indeed, it’s very vague.’
It seemed like the man lived drinking this all the time, so Emma thought about just drinking it but quickly changed her mind as deep down she felt a bit uncomfortable.
Emma poured the water from the cup into the drain and headed to the bathroom without hesitation. Emma concluded that it would be better to drink water received as bathwater than to consume unidentified herbs to quench thirst.
‘But what if it upsets my stomach?’ Emma, who wrapped her hand around her stomach without realizing it, hesitated. ‘…An upset stomach will make traveling very difficult.’
If there were any symptoms of dehydration even with enteritis, not only would it slow the traveling process but also harm health. In the worst-case scenario, the water could also lead to food poisoning. Since it was water used for bathing, Emma felt uncomfortable to just drink it.
Emma, who sighed in front with burning thirst, slowly turned around.
“Can I start a fire?”
When Emma returned to the living room and opened her mouth, the man was nowhere to be seen. Confused, she looked around.
The back of the sofa where the man was located was the hallway where she just walked out. If the man had passed through the hallway, Emma would have heard his footsteps, and she would have encountered him, thus he would not have entered the hallway.
So it only made sense that the man in the living room suddenly disappeared.
Her heart sank. ‘He’s gone! Just gone!’
Emma’s anxious eyes headed towards the front door. There were only two exits from the living room. If it was not the hallway, the only thing left was the front door.
“Did he leave?”
‘All of a sudden? Is he not afraid of anything?’
No matter how young and powerful he was, there were more than five armed people outside, including a scheming Otto and Dora. If the two started working together to attack, that would cause a huge commotion.
‘There’s no reason why they wouldn’t attack. They literally made up their minds to commit this crime.’
Emma began to wander aimlessly. She glanced at the front door. It was firmly closed.
‘It’s definitely disadvantageous in numbers.’
A long anxious and nervous time passed.
‘What should I do?’
Emma tried to wash her face to soothe her heart, but instead of calming down, her anxiety intensified.
Finally, her body wandered in front of the front door. However, she didn’t dare to look outside because she was afraid something bad would happen if she opened the door viewer.
As Emma closed her eyes, all kinds of ominous imaginations stretched out from the depths of her mind. She stopped wandering around and looked around the room.
‘But is it still safe inside here? It’s a mountain cabin in a deep forest with no people crossing by, so what if no one comes? What if he doesn’t come back?’ she wondered fearfully.