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Chapter 20 – Did Husband Do All This, By Any Chance?
“Keeeiik!”
Tok, tok, tok.
‘Why do these birds fall on me instead of poking me with their pointed snouts?’ Some even fell on my side. ‘I’m not too old to kick them with my feet, right?’
However, Sinclair’s slender neck and spine were too weak to bear the weight of monster birds five times that of Theodor’s and three times my own body. I smiled at Theodor, telling him it was okay and he shouldn’t be scared. For a moment, I grasped a small hope that I might be able to live because I was Sinclair, not Kang Joo-hee.
Sinclair is the daughter of a witch. Even when her brother and father tried to kill her, she didn’t die. But soon ‘Hiiik!’ The burning pain in my back covered my whole body.
“Ha.”
My flesh seemed to melt. The opponent was not a human being. Even if I have an incredible regenerative ability after being stabbed by a human or surviving a poison —created by humans— I was not sure I would survive the monstrous digestive enzymes of a devil beast. Just like Sinclair couldn’t survive Theodor’s ripping her body apart and burning it down.
Even when I was drowning in the fear of death, hot and squishy things constantly hit my back with a roaring noise.
‘Damn, if you want to kill me, just kill me in one shot!’
‘Why are these heavy things trying to melt me and cover me with dirty bile and crush me?’
Nevertheless, it was bearable. Suddenly, the surroundings became dark. ‘How many of them have come?’
‘Wouldn’t the Shlezen Castle be in danger with so many monsters in the forest?’ Or is it that these beasts don’t recklessly cross into the human world?’
‘If I remember correctly, monsters only appeared in the novel when Theodor emerged as the demon King, right?’
It was strange…
This was the human world ruled by Gerard, and it wasn’t a place where monsters could run wild like this.
“Stepmother.”
Theodor’s tender hands came through the vines and tried to touch me.
“It’s okay, Theo. Just wait a bit more.”
I winked that I was fine. Theodor wiped the sweat from my forehead and head with his small hand. My legs and arms were shaking, but I didn’t want to make the child nervous.
“Don’t worry. I’ll take you out of there soon.”
Theodor nodded, his eyes full of trust.
After a while, the dull vibration of bumping into my body stopped. ‘Is it over?’ I shook my back a little to shake off the filth that was stuck on my body.
RRMMRROARR!
Huge bodies slipped sideways making loud noises. Enveloped in a musty stench, my body felt like I was inside a dirty monster jelly. And suddenly, a monster bird spread its massive beak to have my head for a between-meal snack.
Reflexively, I raised the guard and threw a jab.
Tuk! The foul fowl faltered and fell to the floor.
‘What? How can it be this easy?’ I lowered my head and looked down at the monster bird, but, well, it was a head without a body.
‘What? Why are they dying? Weren’t you trying to kill us?’ As I looked around, I could see the monster birds were all dead.
‘Huh, what is this?’ I was puzzled standing in front of a pile of dead birds. I roughly shook away all the dead monsters that were crushing me. A cold wind blew past my back. Except for the vines that supported me and Theodor, dead monster birds surrounded us like we were the center of a krispy kreep donut. It was like the Oreum in Jeju Island.1 As I pondered how to escape the ring of dead birds, I fell on my butt due to surprise.
Gerard floated above the dead birds. He, the savior, looked scarier than the dead birds. I couldn’t tell if I was frightened or pleased to see him. Dressed in a white uniform with blue blood stains all over his body, he was glaring at me with a murderous look.
‘Did he kill all these birds?’
Only then did I understand the situation. Gerard glared at me and asked, as if about to scold me.
“What happened?”
“That, that…”
Suddenly I was stuttering. Gerard’s gaze passed me and fell on Theodor.
“Come here, Theodor.”
“Donwanna!”
Gerard reached out his hand, but Theodor shook his head.
“Theo!”
Gerald’s thick, deep voice reverberated through the Demon Realm forest. Nevertheless, Theodor didn’t budge.
“Stepmother saved Theodow’s life. So Theodow vont leave Stepmother’s armz!”
“…!”
‘I can’t believe Theodor is clinging to me!’ I was moved.
“Did I tell you not to enter this forest?”
“Theodow iz hungwy.”
Calming my bewildered heart, I quickly stood up holding Theodor.
“And you, why are you here?”
“I left the study and got lost.”
Gerard didn’t appear to believe me, but he seemed to provisionally accept my statement because he was in front of Theodor.
“Theodor will be forbidden to leave the Castle for ten days, and you!”
“I’ll wash Theodor first and then prepare dinner.”
I wanted to run away with Theodor in my arms, but it was impossible because I was surrounded by demons.
“By the way, did you do all this?”
Since Theodor was there, I asked as politely as possible.
“Then, who do you think would have saved you from this situation?”
‘As expected of a swordmaster. He was not a simple bookworm as I had read in the novel.’
As I admired him, Gerard, who was still floating in the air, alighted next to us.
He sighed as he tried to hug me and Theodor. I looked down at my and the child’s bodies. Not surprisingly, we looked like a dirty filthy frog covered in blue blood and yellow ichor. Nevertheless, Gerard hugged us.
“Why are you like this?”
“To return to the Castle.”
After a moment, a bright light surrounded us. ‘Ah! This is the teleport magic I read about in the novel! Am I finally enjoying the magic of a fantasy world?’
I looked expectantly at the bright light covering us. ‘In web novels, people get dizzy. What if I get motion sickness?’ I looked at Theodor. He smiled softly as if familiar with this kind of magic. Theodor’s body flew through the air like a firefly with a bright light. And…
The light disappeared.
I was left alone in a dark forest surrounded by dead birds.
[tl-n: can we finish the ch here? This is the best cliffhanger ever.]
‘Uhhh!!! What is this?!’
‘Oh my God, I’m trapped alone in the mountain of dead monster birds.’
‘Amazing. Is this some kind of evil plot from Gerard?’
‘Of course, he was suspicious of me after I broke his barrier. If that’s the case, is he trying to eliminate me by claiming some monster bird killed me?’
‘Wow!! I didn’t know, Gerard is truly an insidious bastard.’
Curses started to fly out of my mouth.
“You!! You’re worse than radioactive water contaminated with Strontium-90, plutonium, iodine, and carbon-14!”2
As I screamed loudly, I heard a monster crying from somewhere.
‘…Let’s be quiet.’
Ha… I sighed and looked around the corpses.
‘How the hell do I get out of here?’
I contemplated whether to climb the mountain of corpses or to squeeze through a gap.
Scaling Mount Corpse seemed impossible. If I stepped wrong and slipped, I would end up crushed immediately.
In the end, I decided to crawl through the side with the most gaps. Exercising my ability to roll on the floor when I fought, I turned to the side and squeezed through the gaps. The stench gave me a headache. I held my breath, put my arms together, and, using the power of my legs and feet, barely managed to get my head out of the first gap I found in the wall of carrion and exhaled heavily.
Then…
The head of an enormous monster buzzard was right in front of me with its large eyes wide open.
“Huh?”
But the monster’s eyelids moved and,
“Keeeiik!”
The monster bird opened its mouth wide and spewed yellow saliva and a foul-smelling mucus on my face.
‘I’m so doomed.’
I pushed my face and back as far back as I could, kicked it in the stomach with both feet, and moved away.
“Keeeiik!”
I could hear the rumbling sound of wings flapping. I struggled to break down the mountain of corpses of the bird’s colleagues above me and escape from death. I moved my feet as if I had a turbo engine on my thighs.
Soon, the ground began to rumble with a thumping sound. Thump, thump, thump. I was scared, but I couldn’t help but look back. Just as expected. A monster vulture with one wing cut off looked at me and followed me with its eyes full of anger and vengeance.
“Keeeiik!”
I groaned and ran away with all my might, looking ahead. Falling, scratching, and leaning against branches, I ran without stopping. Even if I died, I would die with my own hands, and I didn’t want to die soused in the disgusting saliva of such a demon.
Finally, the dark and stuffy forest was coming to an end.
‘Okay, just a bit more.’
‘Faster!’
After leaving this forest, I could live. If only I could get to Shlezen Castle, I would not die. If I exit the forest, even if it’s not Gerard, the knights of the Castle will kill the monsters, so I decided to think about everything later and just focus on escaping this forest. When I emerged from the dark, my eyes couldn’t grasp my surroundings properly due to the sudden bright light blinding me.
But I got chills in my spine. I slowed down. It didn’t feel good. A strong wind blew in front of me and hit me. I stopped. There was a cliff under my feet.
‘Whew, one wrong step, and I could have rolled down.’
I looked down. There was a large lake at the bottom of the cliff, where monster crocodiles that looked about five meters tall were floating leisurely while enjoying the sun.
Terrified, I looked back.
‘Of course.’ A mad monster bird waving one wing was rushing towards me letting out an angry cry.
‘This is what you call a dilemma, right?’
For the first time, I cursed the chairman’s —son of a b*tch— son. ‘You bastard that can’t even be called a cockroach, what kind of hellish hardship is this because of you?!’
No matter how immortal Sinclair was, there was no guarantee that I would come back to life if my flesh was torn and laced with the digestive enzymes.
Will I be caught and killed by a monster bird?
Will I die from being eaten by a monster crocodile?
I had to decide.
‘Oh, if there is still a God!’
I decided to leave my life to my 2% of luck. Closing my eyes tightly, I stepped one foot down the cliff and carefully gathered my feet, and jumped. As soon as I jumped, a monster bird three times the size of my body was unable to overcome the acceleration and shouted a last ‘Kiieeek’ sound as it fell over my head.
The howl of a monster and the rustle of heavy feathers passed rapidly in front of me.
Splash!
I opened my eyes.
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1. [Jeju Oreum (Hangul: 오름, Hanja: 岳) is the rising small defunct volcano in the Jeju Island in South Korea. The word “oreum” is the Jeju dialect which implies the parasitic cone. The name refers to a small volcano within a main volcanic crater in Jeju-do and is usually applied to the hill in Jeju]↩
2. [I was about to describe each element but it was too much. Either way, you can understand these elements are quite dangerous and toxic (some you can find in nuclear bombs). If anyone can add more info in the comments please do. Sinclair is lovely but so teacher-like!]↩
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