We all waited anxiously for Suda's next words. Though I had no idea what could've been worse than Nakamura's death, I wasn't about to underestimate the cruelty this world was capable of.
I said all of us, but Mizuno and Shrug hadn't at all been phased by the mention of bad news. They must've been too used to it to be bothered.
"What?" Mizuno asked impatiently, visibly folding her arms underneath her cloak.
"The one that died, Nakamura, had some kinda disease or infection in his leg. So I'm worried the bear might be..." She laughed nervously. "Well, it might be contaminated if it bit 'im."
'What? Why does that matter?' I was utterly confused. I mean, who cared if the bear was infected by whatever the hell Nakamura had? It was dead. HE...was dead. 'What we SHOULD be worried about is burying him!'
I found myself irritated at their strange and almost offensive priorities.
Unlike me, the beast being "contaminated" must've mattered a lot to Mizuno. Considering how she groaned in a frustrated tone and arced her head back in irritation.
"Can we tell?" she asked, looking back at Suda with a tired expression.
"I'm not sure..." Suda cautiously replied. Then, turning toward Kamida, she asked, "hey, I'm sorry tah have to do this, but do y'all know how long it took for those veins to show up on yer friend?"
For a moment, Kamida only replied with a stare. Getting questioned about a recently departed friend was a difficult thing, after all. Once a few brief moments passed, he managed to will up a response.
"I believe it was instant," he replied awkwardly. "Immediately after he'd been bitten, the veins around his wound...they became black."
"You're sure 'bout this?" Suda leaned in wide-eyed, pressing a hand to her mouth in contemplation.
"He's right," I affirmed. I thought back and remembered when Nakamura had received his first wound.
It wasn't a memory I enjoyed thinking about, back when he'd had his first brush with death, so I tried my best to forget it as quickly as I'd reminisced on it.
Upon hearing Kamida and my assertions, Suda glared at the two of us, her eyes penetrating deeply into ours.
The whole experience was awkward for me, to say the least. Despite always being a sociable girl and having had my fair share of staring contests, her stare put me endlessly on edge.
Rather than being of a playful nature, her gaze was fierce and imposing. It'd been so intense the pressure was practically digging into my brain!
My eyes and lips twitched, and a slight sweat broke out on my skin. Both were telltale signs of a liar at work. Not that I was lying, but somehow, her stare's strength convinced me I was. Just her intently glaring at me was enough to leave me consumed by self-doubt.
Surprisingly, she managed to see past my nervousness to the truth, given how she nodded to herself in satisfaction. Either that, or she was just too easily trusting.
Suda smiled at Kamida and me warmly before casting her gaze back toward Mizuno. "Looks like I do have a way tah tell, after all!" She speedily spun around toward the bear and began humming a sweet tune.
Thus, she began an almost pleasant skip over to the corpse of the beheaded quillbeast. Mizuno followed, but not before nodding to Shrug, likely telling him to keep an eye on us.
I thought this could've been a chance to speak to the others, but, frustratingly, I couldn't with Shrug's unblinking eye being locked onto us. We couldn't plan or strategize for what we'd do next, at least not right now.
'I'll wait for now.' If even a minuscule opportunity presented itself to talk with my allies privately, I'd jump on it in a heartbeat.
I looked over to Suda and Mizuno as they'd made it to the beast's corpse. It was difficult to discern what they'd been saying, given the distance.
Though my hearing was impaired by distance, my vision was still completely unhindered. After Suda had slung her bow over her shoulder, she unbuttoned a holster at her waist and retrieved a hunting knife.
It was curved with a finely-grained light brown wooden handle. Jutting out from the grip was a flawlessly sharpened and well-maintained steel blade. The most notable detail was probably its size, though. It'd been big enough to slice an arm clean off, if given the chance.
She knelt down and, in one smooth motion, shaved off a large patch of the beast's fur to expose a large area of skin near its bloodied belly.
With the grizzly's skin revealed, she brushed her fingertips along its bare hide. Then, she moved to appraise the fleshy area near its open neck and inside its severed head's mouth.
pαпdα Йᴏνê|,сòМ I couldn't be sure what Suda had been looking for, but it was safe to say she'd seen what she hadn't wanted to see. She threw up her hands in frustration before falling backward and sighing out of weariness.
She supported herself with her arms and laughed in slight irritation. "I was tracking that bear fer weeks!" she shouted and gritted her teeth.
A few moments later, after she'd finished her fit of frustration, Suda stood up, and the two walked back over.
She had a sulky pout on her face with slightly flushed cheeks, while Mizuno wore the same expression we'd seen her in so far. Well, as much as we could see, given the cloak.
"Looks like it's squirrel again, Shrug!" Suda exclaimed with sarcastic cheer.
Hearing her assertion, he shrugged in response with a blank expression.
"Huuuuhhh," Suda griped and ran a hand through her hair, "what'll we do about cam-"
But she was stopped in her tracks when Mizuno shot her an irritated glare. It'd been like Mizuno wanted to silence her from speaking, like she'd been trying to hide something from us.
After such a blatant display of shadiness, any hesitation I had vanished about talking to the others. We were going to plan an escape; tonight, at the latest.
Mizuno spoke up, distracting me from my plotting. "We'll figure it out; we always do," she replied to Suda.
She looked at Mizuno with an expression of worry and gave a twitchy smile. "Are you sure?"
"No," Mizuno replied flatly, "but we need to prioritize." She cast her gaze up toward the receding Sun and sighed. "We need to make camp; nightfall's coming."
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter