2.Saint Karina (2)
“What?”
…Do I look like a monster?
I stared blankly at her shocking remark that came out of her pretty mouth. Pale skin, emaciated but still unfading, odd-eyed, darkened but still not losing her firearms.
And a voluptuous body that covers only the places to be covered.
Ah.
I hurriedly turned around.
“I am not a monster.”
It’s a bit shocking to hear that the saintess is a monster, not from anyone else. Is my face that monstrous? Even if you approach the mirror hanging on the wall and look around at your face, you don’t feel alienated. What on earth do you see as a monster?
It’s unfortunate. I’m cancerous, but I’m not ugly enough to be called a monster. I wondered what was on my face, so I walked to the mirror hanging in the corner of the room and checked my face. The mirror I got from a shipwreck that washed ashore one day reflected my image clearly.
Ah.
My reflection in the handmade mirror is, well, I think it’s a bit like that. The beard had to be shaved off quite cleanly, but the scars across the face, the unmanaged messy hair covering the eyes, and the upper body with nothing on.
And the torso full of mangled, torn, melted scars. He must have been surprised to see the traces of my rough life on my body. It might have felt intimidating because the body I possessed was subtly large.
Overall, it’s surprising to see a man with a rugged appearance who only wears pants looking at him. Still, being treated like a monster…
“Uh, that…sorry. I was so surprised that I made a mistake…”
“It’s okay.”
I came back and sat down in front of her. She and I didn’t talk for a while. I wonder if she is picking her words as I am. The two of us looked at each other, looked away, then looked again.
It’s so awkward that I feel like I’m suffocating to death.
It is never easy to talk to people after 10 years. Thinking about how to continue the conversation, how to answer, how to say it without offending, what kind of answer would be appropriate, should I say that my brain feels like abandoning its duties?
I think I need to lighten the mood, what can I say? Wouldn’t I say something strange? We can communicate, but didn’t we just say the wrong thing and get entangled from the start?
Perhaps because I was silently opening her mouth, the sickly saintess gathered up the courage to speak to me first.
“You are the one who saved me…? Thank you.”
“It was a job to do. That’s all.”
If there is someone who bought it, you should pick it up and see it. They lived without humans, but their love for humanity did not die.
Karina laughed warmly at my answer and choked. Although she is in front of the furnace, it must be because she moved too much. I quietly hugged her and put her on the bed and covered her with a blanket.
“Thank you. An unknown gentleman.”
“John Quartz.”
This is the name written on the status window. Because I didn’t have to give my original name. Having lived in this body for 10 years, I had no hesitation in naming the possessed body. Karina repeated my name once, and then she asked me while lying on the bed.
“Meals are…”
Ah, we should feed them first. It is said that Mt. Geumgang is also an after-meal view, so it is correct to ask for anything after feeding. I stirred the contents of the pot with a ladle, and scooped the soup into a bowl when it was ready to eat.
The savory green soup filled half of the bowl. It’s not a very big bowl, but it’s going to be hard for a patient to digest even this much. I scooped out the soup with a hand-carved wooden spoon and blew it over Karina’s slightly parted lips.
Karina eagerly ate her soup like a baby bird. After emptying her bowl, she asked Karina, looking up at me with her wistful face.
“Can you give me more?”
“If you eat too much at once, you will get sick.”
Because you starved for a long time, your stomach must still not function properly. Now was the time to eat little by little and revive the function of the stomach. Karina is looking at her pot with her dim eyes, but it doesn’t matter.
I removed the dishes and set the pot on the table I had made from hanging over the brazier. I looked at Karina and she was now staring at the pot on the table. I should have given you a little more My heart is getting weak for nothing
“Wait for your next meal.”
“That, that’s right…Ah, maybe anyone else besides me…”
I shook my head instead of answering. At my reaction to her, Karina muttered, “As expected…” With a melancholy expression. We don’t know exactly what happened, but it’s hard to find any survivors of her except her as it was her wreck.
Looking at the dozens of people I’ve buried in this land, it’s like that. The people who died were caught in the whirlpool of the unknown surrounding this island. Karina miraculously survived because she was blessed by God.
Conversely, it means that only with that much luck can you survive the sinking and be washed ashore.
Then how did the owner of this body survive… Ah. I couldn’t survive because I died and became possessed. As often happens in common ice water, the spirit of the original owner did not even talk to me. Would you have paid?
“Lenny…”
Lenny, Lenny…It’s a name I’ve heard somewhere. As I was rolling my head at the name the saintess muttered with a sad face, I remembered that it was the name of a character in a game.
Lenny, the escort knight escorting Karina.
As some say, he is strong enough to hear Lenny’s voice without a mother. A knight who is treated as the final boss who lost on the traitor route who betrayed humanity and sided with the monsters. How absurd it was to move at high speed while wearing heavy armor.
I don’t think such a boss would have drowned.
One of the most difficult bosses in Survival Academy is drowning… With Lenny, I think you can reach the island by jumping over the sea like a martial artist. It’s a bit absurd that a boss who barely cleared it in 72 rounds in a crazy pattern besides all kinds of cheating items dies from drowning.
“John.”
“What happened.”
“Where is this place?”
This is a question that drifters are most likely to wonder about. Come to think of it, it was only a month after I woke up that I concluded that this island was uninhabited. It was a time when I had a mental breakdown while running a lot of happiness circuits, so I still have nightmares about it.
What does it feel like to hear the declaration of an uninhabited island from someone else’s mouth? I opened my mouth to Karina’s question.
“Uninhabited island.”
“An uninhabited island?”
“There is no one. Because that is an uninhabited island.”
“But John is here, right? Then wouldn’t it be an uninhabited island…? I have…”
Is it important? I didn’t answer the sudden spit out conundrum. In response to the strange conversation that seemed to destroy my brain cells, I placed a wooden cup on the homemade water purifier and filled it up with water.
After filling a cup, I noticed the strange gaze stabbing my back and leaned down again. Whenever I was bored, I used to carve trees to make simple tools, so my cup overflowed. After filling two cups with water, I sat down in front of Karina.
“Thank you.”
“No.”
I carefully poured water into Karina’s mouth little by little. Karina took the water and drank like a baby bird. I stared blankly at it. If a person is overly beautiful, just drinking water can make you feel like looking at a pictorial.
I realized that this was the meaning of being healed just by looking at it.
After drinking the water, Karina looked relieved as if her thirst had gone. I look at Carina, her eyes half-closed wearily, and realize that she needs to wash her clothes. It looks fine, so if you wash it well, you should be able to wear it again.
It was a reasonable choice since we couldn’t make her wear only underwear forever. Hmm. It’s not a shallow trick to get out of this awkward situation by any means.
“Where are you going?”
From noble mtl dot com.
“Laundry.”
“Ah… Laundry. Hmm. It’s important…”
It’s a somewhat regretful voice. Are you saying you don’t want to be left alone? Since he must have been alone in an oak barrel for a long time, it is not unreasonable that he misses people. I’ve been living alone for 10 years and I’ve done everything I can to overcome my loneliness.
When I made the fifth air friend, I felt embarrassed and quit.
Now that I have five air friends, I feel like I’m being bullied. 5 People who don’t answer when you spit out words to yourself? It’s like in a group chat room, no one responds to what I say.
“Mr. John?”
“What happened?”
“Have you ever told me who I am?”
Ah. Come to think of it, it was. I’m familiar with her character, Karina, but apart from that, she didn’t communicate with the human Karina. I’m not going to cast doubt on this awkward situation, but I’ll keep it in mind.
“…No.”
“I am Karina. I am a priest of the Calon Church.”
…Well, the priest is right. A saintess is also a priest, after all. Did I say that on purpose because I was afraid that if I said I was a saint, it would be burdensome? If it’s the girl I know, it’s probably meant to ease her burden as much as possible.
Then I should introduce myself again.
I spoke a bit more than before and told him my name again.
“Let me introduce myself again. I am Johann Quartz. I have been living on an uninhabited island for 10 years.”