Don't Be Holy! - Chapter 19
“Hah.”
There shouldn’t be an Alupu that could fly that far when kicked by a human. No, it would be more accurate to say there shouldn’t be a human who could kick an Alupu like that.
He fought so brutally and impossibly that Eir could only feel amazement rather than any sense of danger. Lost in a daze, she belatedly threw her dagger to deal with an Alupu trying to ambush Rubel from behind.
In response, he glared at her with a look that seemed to say ‘what nonsense is this, you could have gotten me killed.’
“Hey, I’m good at throwing knives!”
Though she protested late, he showed no interest and continued slaughtering the Alupu as if he were simply chopping firewood.
Soon, after some time passed, not a single Alupu remained around them. Though he should have been tired after facing so many alone, the man even dragged the remaining corpses and burned them clean.
The smell of burning monsters after so long made her cough. Rubel watched the fire blazing intensely even in the rain as if doused with oil, then turned to look at her.
“Can we go home now?”
“What?”
Surprised by his tone that suggested she had been the one preventing them from leaving, she questioned back. The man irritably threw a severed Alupu leg into the fire. It burst into flames impressively as soon as it went in.
“We’ve killed them now, so we can go, right?”
“I…… suppose so.”
“There are no more monsters around.”
He said this and turned to head back home first. Only then did Eir realize that the subject of his question about whether they could leave wasn’t himself, but Eir.
So did he really come all this way because of her?
Something about it didn’t feel quite real, but the smell of burning monsters snapped her back to reality, and Eir quickly got up. Then she picked up the dagger that had somehow ended up at her feet, and when she went to retrieve the blood-soaked axe, she clicked her tongue upon seeing it completely broken and chipped.
So he had fought all this time with such a poor weapon?
Indeed. The man was called a monster.
Though it seemed beyond repair, since the axe had been expensive, she tried to salvage even the broken and chipped pieces. But perhaps because it was covered in blood, the half-broken axe kept slipping from her grasp repeatedly. Finally, somehow managing it, Rubel strode back, took the axe from her, and returned home.
Eir felt a strange sensation as she watched the man’s thoroughly drenched back growing more distant.
Gratitude…… embarrassment…….
Was it something like that?
Eir was categorizing her emotions one by one when she entered the house a bit late. But as soon as she walked in and came face to face with the man’s bare upper body, all those soft feelings turned to bewilderment.
“What are you doing!”
“What do you mean? I need to treat these wounds.”
He answered irritably before sitting in a chair and beginning to unwrap the bandages around his body.
Eir peeked at the man through her fingers covering her face.
His smooth white skin was completely soaked in blood. She had unconsciously assumed all the blood was from the monsters, but looking at it now, that clearly wasn’t the case.
Her gaze was caught by the line of his spine flowing like water down his nape. Between the split muscles, she could see wounds that had just barely started healing had all burst open again.
“Ugh.”
When she let out a short groan, feeling hot somewhere just from looking and instinctively pained, he turned to look at her with disbelief.
“Whose fault do you think this is?”
It would be quite petty to say ‘I never asked you to’ at this point. Eir gave up, lowered her hands, cleared her throat, and began looking for herbs and painkillers.
“By the way, you fight really well. Even though you say you have no memories.”
“Seems my body remembers something.”
“Were you a swordsman?”
“Maybe.”
He answered halfheartedly while wiping his body with a wet cloth. The sticky darkness that had followed was wiped away, and soon the cloth was thrown into the fire. A pungent smell like burning oil spread through the room instantly, forcing her to open the door wider while searching for herbs.
Though her rain-soaked body made her shiver from the cold, steam rose steadily from the man’s body.
When Eir, wrapped in a blanket, handed him the herbal ointment, the man applied it to his water-cleaned wounds and wrapped them with fresh bandages. When she helped slightly with places he couldn’t reach or found uncomfortable, he glanced up at her as if wondering if she could even do such things, or rather, with a look closer to questioning if she was trying to hurt before helping.
“Why did you do it?”
He suddenly asked.
