Novel Full 74 The next year will be a truly painful one...
Having landed on the ground once again, I quickly turned to Blanca and looked at her directly, watching as she cat walked her way to me with a smile that could not hide her tinge of worry.
‘She’s worried?’
Ever since I had first met her, I had been certain that she did not care about me in the least and instead saw me as some kind of lab rat that she could learn from, however, her sudden display of affections made me a little warier of her.
Although I could see she was flirting with me, I never saw that as anything more than playing around and didn’t take her seriously, but after seeing the genuine worry she tried to mask behind her smile, I could not help but reevaluate my opinion of her.
‘Ugh… There’s no way. She was probably just worried that her lab rat might have gotten injured.’ I thought with a little annoyance before finally looking at her once again as she was only a few meters away from me now.
While no one could deny that she was beautiful beyond belief, I did not direct my eyes at anything but her face, and by doing so I could easily conclude that she was the reason why there were mountains of corpses by the dungeon portal.
“What happened to you?” I asked flatly while raising a brow.
Seeing that I was no longer analyzing her, she pouted and replied with a disappointed “Nothing, you?” At the same time, I could see her eyeing me from head to toe with a worried expression, but after a second of doing so her face went back to normal and a smile once again appeared on her face.-.
“What do you mean ‘nothing’?” I furrowed my brows and looked at her as if she was stupid.
“You asked me what I’m doing and I said nothing. Take the hint. I’m inviting you.” She winked
My eyes narrowed once again while I let out a grunt followed by-
“First off, I didn’t ask what you are doing. I asked what happened to you. Secondly, I’m not interested in snakes.” I replied bluntly with a cold expression.
“Wow, I see how it is!” She shouted and looked away with an audible harrumph.
‘Does she think copying the characteristics of a tsundere would suddenly make her cuter?’ I was left perplexed by her acts.
While I knew her personality kind of changed every time she morphed into something new, I never knew that the change would be to the point where many of her characteristics would become almost human-like.
“Answer my question.” I commanded bluntly, making her turn around with the same pout and stroll over to me like a scolded dog.
“What happened?” I repeated.
“Nothing really. Some beasts came and tried to enter the portal for reasons I could not understand. I could literally see them shivering as they got closer but it looked like they were resolved to get in. Anyway, I killed all of them-” She quickly took a glance at my face but didn’t see a change in my expression, so instead she scanned my whole body once again and let out another sigh before continuing-
“and then the gorilla came so I had to kill it too. I got dirty with its blood so I might have to shower later. No peaking.” She let out a fake smile and gave me a wink.
‘Who is she trying to fool.’ I thought with a shake of my head before finally looking her up and down.
While her dress was black, I could still see that it had been stained with the blood of the beasts she had killed. In this state, even her pristine skin, which usually radiated with the light of the sun, now seemed tainted by the smell and color of blood, leaving her in a state that could only be described with the use of one word: bloodsoaked.
“W-What about you?” She asked before taking the opportunity to take another glance at me.
“What do you mean what about me?” I asked, this time genuinely confused.
“You’re covered in blood and grime.” She said before taking the chance to touch my bare chest with her forefinger and trying to move it down, yet before she could do so I quickly grabbed her finger and twisted it until she cried- “Sorry!”
Quickly letting go of her finger, I looked down to look at my body just to scrunch up my face in what seemed like disgust. In reality, I was just scrunching my face up because I didn’t know how to feel.
I was drenched in blood from head to toe and most of it had dried up at that point. I could see my fur coat which in reality looked and felt like a fur vest due to its unique Viking look of having two openings on the side rather than sleeves, as well as an opening in the middle that I could not close without stitching it together.
Due to my lack of a shirt, I was topless under the vest, something that allowed me to see my bare chest alongside my chiseled abs that reached 8 in number.
‘This was why she was taking so many glances?’ I thought with a mocking smile.
“Hey! Why are you smiling like that! It isn’t funny okay. You could have gotten seriously injured. Even I felt an enormous amount of pressure coming from that portal, but you still went in.” She shouted in anger at my lax expression.
“At least you came out in once piece.” She sighed before grunting in anger once again after remembering how much worry she felt when she saw me go in.
‘Why do I even care about this bastard. He doesn’t even spare me a glance yet I felt ready to dive in any minute now if I hadn’t felt him coming out.’
“Well, now that I’ve conquered this dungeon, there isn’t another one nearby so we might as well go back to our ca-“
“You conquered the dungeon?!” She cut me off, making my brow twitch in annoyance while a mysterious itch began to grow on the surface of my fist.
‘I want to punch her so bad’
“Yes, I did. Stop asking stupid questions and actually do something useful for once. We have a few things on the agenda. You will make me some armor using the abomination corpse pieces that we gathered, as well as potions, pills, and a good sword. After that, you will teach me all you can about runes and affinities. Is that understood?” I asked while looking at Blanca with crossed arms.
“Yeah sure. But in return, you’re going to let me-“
“There is no in return. The contract clearly states that I don’t have to do anything for you, but you have to help me whenever you can unless it threatens your life.” I cut her off with a frown. I was well aware of what she was trying to ask and do, so I quickly cut her off and crushed her filthy imagination before it could run any further.
“But-“
“No buts. Now let’s go.” I shut her up once again and did not skip a beat as I walked away from her and went in the direction of the corpse mountains from earlier.
“Bring the gorilla with you.”
being shooed away with a second thought, she pursed her lips into a pout before turning around with regret evident in her eyes as she lost her chance to talk for the rest of the day. I on the other hand had a similar negative expression, yet instead of it being one filled with regret, it mixed it with both fatigue and anger.
‘The next year will be a truly painful one…’