Savage Forest - Chapter 61 - Belle Reservoir

The maggoted old man seemed to have died after all. After a few days, the dugout he used to live in was demolished and used by others.

Then, the girl disappeared for several days.

Although Tarhan didn’t actually go looking for her, he only noticed it. A spectacle and causing a disturbance was something he did not count.

“…Suck this c*ck once, and I’ll give you grain every time white water comes out.”

“Uuhp! Ahhk…!”

The girl was lying with her cheek on the ground, her hands and feet were tied by a couple of men.

He knew them. One was the marksman who worked in the butcher’s shop, and one cut out the bones of monsters.

He, too, knew that there were Aquilean men who periodically visited the abandoned fields. Their ages varied—some were old people with crooked backs, and there were also occasional ones who were much younger than a boy—those who were ignored by the tribal women because of their lack of ability.

The men never came empty-handed. They always had something in their hands.

He also occasionally saw some handicapped women who lived in the abandoned fields taking grain or a few ripened fruits against such men. Inside the dugout where the women lived, screams that were unknown whether it was pain or pleasure, always leaked out from time to time, making the surroundings noisy.

…He didn’t know what kind of anger or what impulse it was.

Seeing his dead sister in that girl who was starving so much that she didn’t even look her age was the root cause of this trouble. The kind-hearted child who he couldn’t see dying in her hometown… the image of his younger sister overlapped with the girl’s image who was being trampled and violated.

Sparks burst in front of his eyes.

‘D*mn it! Crazy Cartantina b*stard…! Go become the hippi’s host and die in the water!’

When he came to his senses, he was sitting next to the girl, holding on to her beaten and bloodied face.

There were grain scraps and grains scattered around the child, who couldn’t even cry at that moment. In the meanwhile, the men had already run away, grabbing their broken nose bones before collapsing like a corpse.

He frowned as she looked more skin-and-bone and haggard, like she couldn’t even eat a bowl of porridge after the maggoted old man died.

“…Rather than eating something rotten like that, eat this.”

Ignoring the burning pain, he rolled some fresh fruit and brought it towards the girl. Her expression as she accepted the roll he gave her shone brightly as if she had seen a god.

Tarhan immediately regretted what had happened that day.

Perhaps it was the first time someone handed food to her besides the milk her mother gave her? From then on, the girl began to follow him as if she was following God. She could find him everywhere, like he was shining uniquely bright in his color among soot.

The girl had bad feet. It was obvious when seen up close that her left leg looked uncomfortable anyway. She dragged that leg around while she chased him everywhere.

Tarhan, of course, did not leave her alone.

“Sh*t… won’t you just go…!”

Still, the girl didn’t care how much he yelled at her.

It was an unusual obsession.

No matter how much he spat on her legs and cursed, she didn’t give up. Eventually, the boy began to pick up speed so that the annoying girl could no longer catch up.

The girl also hurried her immobile leg and followed him tenaciously.

No matter how much he tried to push her away, pretended to hit her, and raised his arm, the girl followed him again the next day like nothing ever happened. When he looked back and shouted, she would duck down and pretend to have collapsed, and when he hurried up again, she jumped up and followed him again.

Even when he asked Piache, the answer was always that it was his fault.

“Well. Why did you touch something you couldn’t even take responsibility for?”

“…You are the one who saved us.”

Tarhan growled at her like a weary, wounded she-wolf. Still, what he said was true. It was this old woman who brought him, who had fallen at the empty field, covered in blood, carrying his dying mother’s body on his back, and saved his life.

Despite his harsh voice, the old woman’s wrinkled face did not move at all.

“I already have a lot of people to take care of. Thank you for thinking I saved your life… Do I have to take care of you, who is young? I took care of people who were not blood, and I sent my grandson away without seeing his face properly.”

The woman who had too many people to take care of looked extremely tired today as well. Her wrinkled hands, as she ground the herbs, squeezed and opened briefly as if they were itching.

Tarhan watched her with fierce eyes.

“I am already tired. I won’t come to the empty fields anymore.”

The old pharmacist’s eyes were as dry as drought-cracked ground.

“…You guys were the last.”

Piache put the last medicine in his hand with a determined look, showing she would not seek out the empty fields anymore.

She thought people were starting to notice that she went in and out of the fields. Nonetheless, she was not going to get involved in the affairs of the abandoned fields anymore since she also has a family to be responsible for.

The pharmacist’s eyes, which were already full of things to do, said cruel words without hesitation.

“Even if you take care of it, it never ends, and I’m tired of repeating things.”

As he noticed the dimmed look in the pharmacist’s eyes, similar to his own mother’s, he couldn’t bring himself to continue yelling at her. The weight of his own demands weighed heavily on him. He had asked her for a place to live, something to eat, or at the very least, guidance on how to survive.

Feeling like a beggar, he returned home to find his mother’s bed in disarray once more.

Her limbs were tangled in a bizarre manner as if she had suffered another seizure in his absence. Seeing her in such a state, all his resentment and anger dissipated in an instant, replaced by an overwhelming sense of sorrow.

Still, he kissed her on the cheek, where the tear marks didn’t dry, before pouring the last of the medicine into her mouth, wiping her soiled lower body clean and taking out the laundry.

As he went to the river to wash the cloth stained with his mother’s excrement, the girl followed him once again.

“Go away.”

Tarhan threw a stone at the girl again. He didn’t aim it right every time.

Once again, the persistent girl showed no signs of giving up easily today. As he walked along with his mother’s filth-stained bed in his hand, she followed him as the shameful and grotesque feelings could not overcome him.

Eventually, Tarhan let out a roar with choked groans.

“D*mn it, stop following me around! I guess you’re hopeful since the old man told you to follow me, but I am barely even able to take care of my mother…! I can’t afford to take care of a crippled girl like you!”

Even though he cried out in desperation, it was all true.

He was so overwhelmed with his current situation that he couldn’t even afford to take care of the girl, although he knew it was a disgrace as a Cartantina, who considered caring for the sick and weak a virtue.

He thought it embarrassing even though he said it himself.

‘…I don’t think I have any pride left.’

Tarhan sneered at himself before he threw the stone again and threw it somewhere near the girl.

Despite fiercely yelling at her multiple times to stop following him, the child finally relented and left. However, Tarhan couldn’t help but glance back a few times to ensure she was no longer following him as he reached the riverside, remaining cautious in case she returned.

When he reached the river, there was a commotion.

As another lifeless body, now a host to the hippis, drifted down the river, even the esteemed elder of the Aquileas appeared to witness the grim scene.

The hippis were a cunning species of monsters that resided in nests near water bodies. Using the rings on their tails like tentacles, they would embed themselves in the skin of unsuspecting people or animals and drain their vitality.

“Lift it up! It can still wiggle. Be careful not to get bitten…!”

The village had enlisted strong and capable men to retrieve the lifeless host, which hung limply like seaweed dissolving in water. The unfortunate victim was likely still connected to the hippis’s tail, and the men handled the situation with extreme caution, aware that they could become new hosts if they made any mistakes.

Amidst their efforts, one of them called out, wiping away sweat from his brow.

“D*mn it, another one this time. Maybe it’s because it’s the breeding season, but they’re being very active? What to do, Master Haron? Shall we warn them not to use the surrounding riverside?”

Towards the direction the man carefully asked, Tarhan also saw a familiar face. It was Haron, one of the highest elders of Aguilea.

He groaned as he touched the tip of his long beard.

“Don’t mind it. I only came out because I was afraid it would flow into the village. This place is…”

Haron’s eyes glancing around were insensitive like he was looking at an animal pen, not a human habitat.

“…The more prey it had to distract, the better. It will rain soon.”

Tarhan watched the scene from behind, feeling his body tremble at the cold voice.

Shortly after, another man from the group swiftly used an axe to sever the host’s lifeless head as if confirming its demise. When it was done, they disposed of the contaminated corpse by tossing it into the river and swiftly vanished from view.

As soon as they were gone, Tarhan felt a wave of nausea and had to cover his mouth to contain it.

He was well aware that the elders and others did not consider them, who were living in the barren field, as human beings. Still, knowing that he was regarded as mere prey for the monsters, a sense of deep resentment and curses welled up within him.

‘D*mned b*stard…’

Suddenly, he was worried about the child. The amount that the hippis going out to eat would increase even more during the monsoon season, which was about to begin. Day and night, they would search for prey that could serve as their host.

She still snooped here and there alone after losing the old man she had been taking care of, so wasn’t that an optimal condition to be a host?

Nonetheless, Tarhan shook his head.

‘Who should be worried about whom now? Am I in a position to worry about others?’

Upon entering the house, there was no familiar scent that used to sting his nostrils.

Rushing to his mother’s side, he peered into her burrow to find her eyes open and slowly shifting to meet his gaze. As her dark eyes slowly rolled to reflect him, he quickly approached her, feeling indescribable joy.