animal ears

?How could it be him?

After being dazed for a moment, he carefully lifted his back, carried Sarah on his back, and led the two of them to slide slowly through the foul-smelling scarlet water, and then laid them flat on the ground. Simon leaned forward and looked at his face. The haggard Sara, later found that Cole was staring at another strange orc in a daze.

"Who is he?" Intuitively thinking that Cole knew him, he asked.

And Cole didn't hide it, he raised his eyes to look at Simon, then lowered his eyes again, and after a long time, said softly: "He is Podoka."

"... Podoka?"

He hesitated to speak, but his eyes stared at the person in front of him. He couldn't believe it for a long time. It wasn't that he didn't know him, but after all, for him, Podoka was a very old name.

How can you not remember?

When they first entered the village with Berg, the pharmacist who treated them like a father was very good.

only……

Simon swallowed, still unable to believe in his eyes.

It's just that Podoka... isn't dead.

By Tyson...

That dark memory struck again. After driving Cole away, they found Podoka's body...it was killed. At first, everyone thought it was Norman or the crazy Cole, but only Simon Notice the difference in Podoka's fatal wound.

His wounds, including fatal wounds, were on the right side of his body.

why?

If it's not the murderer's personal preference, there is another reason, and as far as he knows, Norman would not do this, on the contrary... When he went hunting before, Tyson would always attack the right side of the prey, and someone quietly told him that because Tyson Sen only has one eye left, so it will be like this.

But Simon didn't say it at the time.

Perhaps it was because he was afraid of Tyson's identity as patriarch, his young children, and Berg who had managed to stay away from wandering and live a stable life. He didn't say anything, but what could he say?Norman and Cole had both been evicted by then, and there was no point in defending them.

As a result, Berg cried and quarreled with himself.

──Since you know the truth, why don't you tell it? !Even if I go back to wandering days, it's better than having a lump in my heart!

Berg was very angry, really very angry, angry at his incompetence and speechlessness.

He didn't say anything until Berg died.

I didn't expect... to see Podoka again.

Simon was so shocked that he couldn't close his mouth from ear to ear, but in contrast, Cole was no less surprised by Podoka who was still alive.

still alive?

No.

He denied his thoughts for a moment, because Cole saw pieces of rotten flesh behind Podoka's neck... His body was full of the smell of death.

It's the smell of the living dead.

Judging by the corruption situation, it should have been a while.

Although the rate of corruption of the living dead will slow down, they are no longer human after all, and one day they will rot completely, leaving no bones left.

At this moment, Podoka, who thought he would not move, suddenly opened his eyes!

It really is blood red!

The red eyes turned slightly, looked around, and then saw Cole who was close at hand, and the eye sockets were slightly dilated.

But, nothing happens.

After a long time, the mouth that seemed to have been silent for a long time made a hoarse voice: "...Do you know that the human heart is greedy."

Terrible, dry, as if sound from another world.

Backing away vigilantly, Cole carefully stretched out his arms to block Sarah behind.

"..."

Faced with Cole's actions, Podoka just watched quietly, then looked around, and finally his eyes fell on his arm.

"Greed will eventually come back to me. It's not my own thing, and it will never be." The inexplicable opening remark, and then looked up at Cole, as if trying to pull a smile from his face, but the stiff muscles didn't move at all. No, I just felt that the whole face was trembling, and then there was a sad look—maybe it was just my own illusion, Cole thought.

"What are you talking about?" Cole asked, frowning.

Although it was strange to ask a living dead person such a question, Podoka felt even stranger.

Still looking at Cole, Podoka lowered his arms and said: "Desire annihilated the self, created an irrepressible tragedy, and then became more and more trapped, and finally could not turn back."

"……What's the meaning?"

"It's all my fault...it's me..." Podoka closed his eyes, "So, all of this is retribution."

retribution?

Podoka's weird confession made Cole and Simon on the side confused.

"Let me tell you..." With a gloomy expression, but unusually calm, he looked at Cole and said lightly, "Tell you the beginning of all tragedies..."

Red eyes, shining with the brilliance of death, cold and lifeless words.

Is this a living Podoka?

Cole couldn't help but have doubts.

Or, is this just an obsession left in the body?

obsession...

Thinking of this, my heart skipped a beat, I clenched my palms slightly, and my eyes narrowed.

Podoka continued. He looked at Cole dully, but as if he didn't see Cole, he just stated silently. He said: "My mother and father were slaves of the northern tribes, and they belonged to the Orcs. I was born after being abused. At that time, he had a good relationship with a pharmacist from the northern tribe, so he entrusted me to him before he died... because my parents didn't know who my father was..." Plain Voice, "After my parents died, I followed him to study pharmacology. From childhood to adulthood, I was very obsessed with him..."

At this time, Sarah, who was in a coma, suddenly twitched all over her body!

"It's about to give birth!" Simon, who had experience, came over anxiously and looked at Cole.

Sara's lower body began to ooze bloody liquid, and there was a painful moan from his mouth accompanied by convulsions. He rolled his eyes, his fingers scratched the floor hard, and his back arched.

The blood kept flowing, and Cole immediately turned back and hugged him, while Podoka on the side continued calmly: "Later, he was expelled by the northern tribes because of making secret medicine, and I wandered around with him. Afterwards, he gave birth to a child with someone else... In a fit of anger, I poisoned the food of him and that female, and then he died like this, right in front of my eyes..."

Breathing intermittently, with a pale face as if dying, Sarah began to unconsciously look for support.

He grabs Cole.

die.

Bloody eyes slowly cast over, looking at those people who had no time to take care of themselves, the words in their mouths gradually became monologues, and their expressions became more and more lonely. Podoka said: "Before he died, he named the child Call 'Ley' and tell me to treat that kid well..."

"That's my mother's and father's name," Podoka said.

He suddenly laughed at himself a few times.

"He doesn't love that female, and likewise, he doesn't love me... What he loves are my parents."

"I think he probably knew that I was the one who poisoned him, but he wanted to entrust the child to me. I was very surprised at the time. At first I was very reluctant. I even did a lot of excessive things to the child and wanted to strangle him to death, but in the end I couldn't bear it." Start...Maybe it's a sense of guilt, I always want the best for that child, but I can't make up for the missing piece in his heart, he hates me, hates me very much..."

"I have taught him everything I have learned, and I even did not hesitate to teach him to use the blood of the beast ear race to make medicine..."

Hearing this, Cole paused slightly, turned his head, and just met Podoka's eyes.

"I didn't expect him to be very enthusiastic." Podoka paused slightly, and then continued, "It's like being possessed, although I once told him to stop, by chance I saw him sprinkle the medicine powder made of my blood. On the animals, he looked at the dead animals indifferently, and now he feels scared... At that time, he was only seven or eight years old."

Why are you talking about Ley here?

Cole didn't understand.

"However, one day, he, who has always been withdrawn, suddenly made friends." Raising his eyes slowly, he moved his fingertips, and continued, "I thought it was very sudden, so I followed quietly and found that he often had friends with that friend." Following a young female...that female has the same animal ears as her mother and father."

Startled for a moment, Cole didn't look back.

"It's still... the first time I've seen his gentle eyes."

On the other hand, because of the severe pain, Sarah's fingertips were bleeding, her forehead was covered with cold sweat, and she yelled unconsciously.

"Sarah!" Grabbing his hand, Cole forced himself to calm down.

Podoka, who was behind him, continued, saying: "Because he can't get love, he is more withdrawn and perverse than anyone else, but he also desires to be loved more than everyone else... He is actually very emotional."

The blood flowed out continuously, as if unstoppable, and Sarah's suppressed moans seemed to hide great pain, and all the veins on his body burst out.

And the voice behind, faint, unmoved.

"However, just looking at it won't satisfy you. He is very similar to me." It was like self-deprecating words, hidden in unknown pain, "We will want what we can see every day. This kind of Desire will continue to eat itself until rationality is destroyed."

Really can't stand it anymore, Simon sighed, looked around, and then whispered to Cole: "...Let's take Sarah out of here first."

"Yeah." Nodding in agreement, Cole immediately wanted to hug Sarah.

"...Why do you say that?" Looking at Cole's back, Podoka said indifferently, "If you know that Yitzhak went mad and killed Aili because of the influence of beast blood, and that he suddenly became berserk Tyson... and Norman, whose whereabouts are unknown now, are all due to the influence of beast blood, what do you think?"

"...!" He stopped in an instant.

Is it because of the influence of beast blood... that Yitzhak went mad and killed Uncle Eli?

And Tyson?

Can't help squinting back, gritted his teeth, Cole looked at Podoka, and said coldly: "What are you trying to say..."

Hearing this, involuntarily, a distorted smile appeared on that stiff face.

"It's me, Cole."