Obsession... What's That? I Just Wish Someone Would Help Me Escape - Chapter 41
The man who opened the door not with his hand but with his foot was Johann.
He was carrying a huge wild boar around the same size as me on his back.
I sat up and widened my eyes in amazement.
“Wow, did you catch that?”
He dropped the wild boar onto the floor with a thud.
“It was caught in a trap someone else set up, so I just took it.”
He was a man who acted without conscience, always taking the easy way out.
Enrique, a similar type, stroked his sharp jaw and spoke.
“How long has it been since we had meat? This should last us a few days.”
“Right? I was about to pass out from eating those oats. Tastes like sawdust.”
They looked as happy as if they were on vacation.
While others struggled to survive, I was living comfortably thanks to my companions.
I felt truly fortunate.
As the weakest among them, I wasn’t in a position to worry about others, so I decided to fully enjoy this stroke of luck.
“Johann, is there anything I can help with?”
“Do you know how to butcher a wild boar?”
“No.”
“Do you know how to cook?”
“I could if we had cooking utensils.”
“We don’t have anything like that here.”
Johann sighed lightly as he watched me cough.
He slapped his hand on my forehead.
“You’ve got a fever.”
“I’m sick often, it’s no big deal.”
I smiled as if it were nothing, but he turned his gaze away, seeming to ponder what to say, then looked back at me.
“You must feel like s**t.”
Why is his idea of sympathy so crude?
“Yes.”
I had to admit, he was right about how I felt.
Enrique approached and placed his hand on my feverish forehead.
I felt a cool sensation spreading from where he touched me.
“Just lie down. We’ll take care of everything.”
What if they just abandoned me here because I was sick?
If they left me alone in this condition, I’d surely die.
I looked at Enrique with a face full of worry.
“It feels wrong to just sit around while everyone else is working. I feel bad.”
“If you understand, then get better quickly. We won’t leave you behind.”
His words weren’t particularly kind, but they gave me a sense of relief.
As time passed, my throat felt hotter and my whole body shivered.
I groaned in pain and closed my eyes.
I must have dozed off.
When I opened my eyes again, I was a bit alarmed to find the hut empty.
The chilly air felt even colder in the vacant space.
“Where did they go?”
They wouldn’t just leave me behind after saying those sweet words, right? Surely not.
I tried to sit up, but I collapsed weakly.
My entire body felt like it had been beaten, confirming it was definitely a cold.
My head pounded, and my vision spun.
“Water…”
My throat felt parched and burning.
I swallowed some medicine without water, barely forcing it down my dry throat.
Unlike the past when the best medical staff and servants took care of me, there were no servants, hospitals, or doctors to look after me now.
The world has changed so much.
‘Kido, our poor child… Such a miserable life…’
I heard my mother’s lament from somewhere. It must be a hallucination since she had already passed away.
I wasn’t miserable.
Even though I was sick, I had a proper family and good circumstances.
But my parents didn’t see it that way.
Whenever I said I was fine, my mother would cry with a face full of guilt.
‘It’s all my fault. It would be better if you just died instead of being sick for so long. At least you would be comfortable…’
They blamed themselves every time they saw me.
They say long illnesses exhaust even the closest family.
One day, my parents started to look like sailors drifting aimlessly on a sea of despair.
My once kind father became cold, and my optimistic mother turned increasingly pessimistic and cynical.
‘You are our blessing and our curse.’
Contrary to everyone’s expectations that I would die soon, I continued to live in pain, making them feel both hope and despair.
It was like torture by hope.
My parents crossed the ocean in search of a way to cure me, only to die in a shipwreck.
Just like a voyage in search of hope that ultimately sinks.
But I don’t want to die.
“You’re not dead?”
A strangely cheerful voice came from behind.
The first thing I saw was the pair of prisoner’s shoes heading my way.
I managed to lift my gaze to meet a pair of eyes tinged with green.
Johann was looking down at me with a grin.
Damn it, I thought you left me!
I wanted to cry, but I didn’t have the moisture to spare.
Once again, he had something slung over his shoulder.
“I found some cold medicine.”
I was speechless as I saw a prisoner struggling desperately in his grasp.
Did he bring someone as medicine…?
Johann added nonchalantly.
“It’d be troublesome if you disappeared.”
“…Why?”
A raspy sound escaped my throat.
He dropped the kidnapped prisoner onto the floor with a thud and looked at me quietly.
Then, in a suddenly lowered, hoarse voice, he said.
“I told you. I need you, for various reasons.”
