By Zephyria Near the lush forest where the scholar and Kenneth had gathered mushrooms together, there was a fairly large swamp. The swamp was full of floating green algae and moss, so it was impossible to tell what lived inside or how deep it was just by looking at it.
Leonardo asked Kenneth about the location where he had gathered the mushrooms because there was a demon beast that primarily ate those mushrooms. This demon beast, named Korgel, resembled a fat rat with a balloon-like body, limbs, ears, and a tail.
Leonardo easily caught a Korgel hiding near the mushrooms and was now holding its corpse, his arm deeply inserted into the seemingly bottomless swamp. This was because the ultimate target, who was crazy about the plump Korgel, lived inside.
“Blaine, isn’t this too dangerous? The scholar told us not to go near here…”
“I told you it’s fine. Just wait a little.”
“What if you get bitten?”
“If I get bitten, I get bitten.”
“Then you’ll bleed!”
“Shh.”
After waiting for over ten minutes with no reaction, Leonardo sensed something and put his finger to his lips, signaling for silence. Kenneth, seeing this, also held his breath and covered his mouth and nose with both hands.
The surface of the swamp began to ripple slightly. Leonardo, holding his breath at the subtle movement, stared intently at the dark surface, determined not to miss anything.
Being more than 24 hours into a state of fasting, he was extremely sensitive due to the overwhelming hunger. Moreover, his body was clamoring for meat, so mere mushrooms and berries were not enough to satisfy his empty stomach.
Contrary to the tension of the scene, his face was filled with a strange anticipation and excitement. Kenneth thought he looked like a wild beast just before a hunt.
However, Kenneth was extremely anxious, worried that his arm, which was inside the swamp, might be bitten off by something that could emerge at any moment. He was so nervous that he felt like he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Just as he was about to slowly open his mouth to suggest that they should stop,
Kroaaaaar—!
“Aaaagh!”
Suddenly, a huge alligator burst out of the dark swamp with its jaws wide open. Kenneth, witnessing the terrifying mouth filled with savage teeth right in front of him, screamed and tripped over his own feet, falling to the ground with a thud.
Leonardo, with perfect timing, grabbed the thing that lunged at his arm to devour it by the scruff of its neck with one hand, lifted his arm upwards, and pulled it straight out of the water.
A large reptile, easily over 2 meters long, thrashed violently in Leonardo’s grip. It slammed its strong, thick tail against the swamp, struggling desperately, but Leonardo relentlessly tightened his grip around its neck.
Kenneth, who was scrambling backward to survive after falling, was even more terrified by Leonardo’s gleaming eyes than by the monster in front of him. He had overheard him saying, “That looks so delicious…” as he looked at the thrashing creature.
Shortly after their successful hunt, they immediately returned to the place where they had first woken up. The scholar, who had maintained an inscrutable smile the whole time, seemed slightly taken aback by what they brought back.
What Leonardo had caught was not an alligator but a demon beast that resembled an alligator, but it was more grotesque and eerie, and also larger. Kenneth was horrified at the thought of eating a demon beast, but Leonardo presented a bizarre logic, arguing that since these bastards ate humans, there was no reason why he couldn’t eat them.
Kenneth, who refused to eat it and even gagged, watched Leonardo boil the demon beast in hot water and then quickly grill it at a high temperature. He then noticed a smell like steak with butter coming from somewhere and slowly became interested.
Succumbing to Leonardo’s temptation that it was a taste he might never experience again, he took just one bite. He tasted a well-cooked chicken, like something from a restaurant, in the crispy outside and moist inside, and began to devour it mindlessly.
“Hey, it’s good, right? I told you it was good.”
Leonardo said with a proud nuance, watching him eat so well.
“It’s really, really good.”
Kenneth, holding the meat in both hands, stuffed his mouth full and praised it, saying that it was chewy, juicy, and a flavor he would never forget.
He was also a healthy adult male, and mushrooms alone would not have been enough to fill his stomach. Leonardo, seeing Kenneth, who had been unconscious, eating as ravenously as if he hadn’t eaten for days, gently placed more cut meat on his plate, as if telling him to eat slowly.
The two finished their meal only after almost all of the thick, fleshy parts had disappeared. Kenneth, who had been stuffing meat into his mouth, waved his hands, saying he couldn’t eat any more, and leaned against a pillar. Leonardo, who had picked up his canteen and was drinking water, smiled at him and wiped the water from his lips with the back of his hand.
Leonardo got up and took out a cigarette case from his back pocket. Then, he put his hand under his t-shirt and rubbed his stomach with satisfaction.
Because of this, his abdomen, which was briefly exposed under his clothes, caught Kenneth’s eye. It was hard to believe that all the meat they had just eaten had gone into that stomach, as it was flat and had clear abs running across it.
Kenneth inwardly admired him. He had never imagined that such perfect abs would be hidden beneath that pretty face.
Suddenly, he looked down at his own protruding belly and, only after his stomach was full, realized again that the meat he had been eating was from a demon beast and asked with a slightly worried expression.
“Blaine, are you sure this is okay? Like, nothing weird will happen to our bodies, right?”
“I told you it’s fine. If eating this would cause problems, me and my kids would have been in big trouble a long time ago.”
‘My kids?’
Kenneth repeated the words in his mind, puzzled by the phrase he was hearing from him for the first time.
“Among my kids, there was one who was first dispatched to a remote area just like you and starved himself because he didn’t want to eat anything weird. But after eating this once, he couldn’t get enough of it, saying it was delicious. Later, he said he missed it even after going back and asked me…”
Watching Leonardo speak with a smile on his face, Kenneth intuitively knew that the ‘my kids’ he was talking about were his former comrades. He had always perceived ‘the past’ as a rather sensitive topic for Leonardo, so he was a little surprised to see him bringing up the story of his comrades first.
Also, he felt a little excited, wondering if he was comfortable enough with him to bring up that topic first.
He seemed to be reminiscing about a pleasant experience as he continued to speak, and Kenneth listened quietly until he finished.
And to Leonardo’s voice, the scholar, who had refused the offer to join them for the meal and was organizing the items used for the exploration some distance away, also quietly listened to their conversation.
“You must have been very close to your comrades. You seem to know each other very well.”
Kenneth, who was listening to the story, also responded with a pleased expression.
“Oh, we’re close. Not just close, but family who have gone through life and death together. That’s what we are.”
Looking at him speaking with a somewhat affectionate expression, Kenneth felt a little envious of those comrades. At the same time, he became very curious about what kind of people they were, to be close enough to him to be called family.
“Then, you must meet often now?”
He hadn’t meant anything special by asking. It was just a very natural question, stemming from the thought that people who were that close would still be meeting. However, Leonardo, who had been speaking with a smile, suddenly stiffened his expression at Kenneth’s question.
Kenneth realized that he had made some kind of slip of the tongue and was momentarily flustered.
Leonardo saw Kenneth’s flustered expression and unconsciously touched his stiff jaw. Then, he took out a cigarette from the cigarette case he was holding and said casually.
“You’re a rookie, so you probably don’t know the regulations of other agencies yet? We can’t meet anymore.”
“Yes? Why?”
Kenneth asked, genuinely surprised. Leonardo, with an unlit cigarette in his mouth, walked a few steps away, creating some distance. Then, he lightly sat on the railing of the structure where the light was coming in.
The light coming down from the crack in the cave ceiling shattered over his hair. He lit the cigarette, took a puff, and slowly exhaled, the smoke rising along the beam of light, creating a languid and empty feeling.
Leonardo, slightly bowing his head, looked at the smoke scattering around his shadow cast below the railing, then shifted his gaze to Kenneth and said.
“If a Dark Silver is caught contacting a banished comrade, it’s punishable by death.”
A bitter smile hung on his lips.
His wide eyes seemed to not know what to say, and remained frozen. Thanks to that, a quiet solitude, as if he was alone even though he wasn’t, lingered around them.
The scholar, who had been quietly eavesdropping on their conversation, also contributed to the silence. Quietly folding his arms, he pushed up the glasses that had slipped halfway down his nose and thought.
‘If they are ‘caught’ contacting them?’