I’m the Only One With a Different Genre - Chapter 16
Fruits have various methods of dispersing their seeds. The fruit that Lian had split open was no different. However, instead of enticing with sweet scents, this fruit attracted animals with an odor similar to raw meat.
The fruit, heavily seeded like a strawberry, stood to benefit from even a single bite from an animal, facilitating the spread of its seeds. Hence, it had evolved to mimic the scent of raw meat, attracting more animals.
Nobody in the kitchen was aware of this fact.
“What in the world…what happened?”
Noah looked at Lian with trembling eyes, rolling his gaze back and forth.
Despite having abandoned him to lead a comfortable life herself, Noah couldn’t ignore Lian as he went about cleaning with hands that had swollen and were drenched in a blood-like substance.
“Tell me straight. Was it really an insect? If such a bug exists, we need to find it instantly, or the kids might be in danger.”
“Well, the thing is…”
Confused by Noah’s grave stare, Lian began to explain the situation.
The issue was that flustered Lian, in his panic, started recounting a story so detailed it began after his arrival to the kitchen.
“No, that’s not it!”
Lian interrupted his account about dropping a jar in the kitchen, his face turning into a frown.
“Focus on the main points.”
In the comedy world, when someone talks too much, people tend to ignore them and walk away. Thus, Lian, out of habit, cut down his words to the main points.
“Phew…to simply put it, when I arrived, the kitchen was a mess. As I was tidying up, Lady Lania came and discovered an intruder who was hiding there. And then…”
“What?! Wait, an intruder?”
“Yeah, yeah. Some person with really big arms and a scrawny body? Oh, right, and the cheekbones were sticking out incredibly.”
Noah grew pale from hearing this.
He could remember a man with bizarrely thick arms and jutting cheekbones—Noah had seen him before.
The sound of rain pouring down, bargainings underscoring the rain, someone’s screams not escaping the forest, clinging to his ears like an echo.
The temperature dropped significantly, causing Noah to grip his hands until they hurt from the cold. He tried to keep himself and his brother Nero warm, share their body heat, and somehow cling to their tenacious lives.
“Ugh, it’s always so disgusting and filthy here.”
Huddled up to preserve her body heat, that’s when a sharp voice pierced through. Noah pulled Nero closer within his arms and carefully shifted his gaze outside the narrow confines of their cage.
Bulging arms and an emaciated body, even when looking up from below, the protruding cheekbones were strikingly noticeable.
“Please, come in. Are you looking for something in particular?”
Dovan, outfitted in a robe reserved for high-ranking black magicians, had the slave trader scrambling over, obsequious, rubbing his hands together like a fly.
“Heh, don’t recognize me?”
“What? Ah…it’s you, Master Dovan!”
The slave trader, with beads of cold sweat running down his face, took quick peeks at the jutting cheekbones.
“Then you know what I want.”
The slave trader felt cold sweat streaming down his back. He was a mad black magician who relished in merciless, cruel experiments.
Desperate like never before, the trader wracked his brain, hoping his effort paid off as he remembered Dovan’s peculiar tastes.
“Ah! Of course, I know what you seek! Come this way, I’ll show you the finest slaves we have.”
The slave trader bowed so deeply it seemed he might snap, pointing one direction with both arms. Pleased with the groveling demeanor, Dovan seemed ready to follow without a word.
But as Dovan was about to step forward, a slave, tied at the neck and dragged along like livestock, fell right in his path.
The slave had fallen because their tendons were cut and could not walk properly, and the sludge-covered floor caused them to slip.
Splat.
The emaciated slave toppled into the muddy puddle. In the water, they struggled to breathe, looking up at Dovan like a fish gasping for air.
“…”
Dovan silently inspected his shoes and trousers. The mud splattered from the fallen slave had dirtied the tips of his shoes and the cuffs of his pants.
“Daring to…”
With a menacing glint in his eyes, Dovan pointed the small wand in his hand at the fallen slave.
As he began to chant, an ominous magic circle appeared in the air.
Whoosh!
A fireball, the size of half a human head, flew towards the slave.
Bang!
“Aaaagh!”
In an instant, the slave was engulfed by the black flames, incinerated like desiccated kindling.
The ghastly smell of a human burning alive forced Noah to cover his mouth and his brother’s with a rag that was as good as a quilt of tatters.
Thump, thud!
“How dare you! How dare you soil my clothes!”
Dovan kicked the charred corpse, spewing insults and curses.
Crunch.
A horrendous sound reverberated, and Noah squeezed his eyes shut. He felt choked, an urge to weep loudly. But he couldn’t.
Crying out could lead to quicker sale or even a beating to near-death for the noise. Noah had witnessed many children die for such reasons.
“Why are you staring at me like that?”
“What? What?”
“Do you wish to perish?”
“Aaaagh!”
Boom!
Dovan, in his fury, hurled a spell at the terror-stricken slave trader who could barely meet his eyes.
Fearing Dovan’s rage might turn towards them, Noah hid a trembling Nero within his embrace.
‘He was in the kitchen?’
Noah’s face turned pale again.
“But there was no serious trouble… wait, what are you touching!”
“You, where have you been injured!”
Noah suddenly yanked Lian’s red-stained clothes and shivered at the touch. Scars, familiar from past horrors, scribbled randomly across the skin, caught his eye.
“I’m not really injured!”
Lian pulled his lifted garment down forcibly, shouting in response.
“But there’s blood…!”
“Talking about blood since earlier – oh, this?”
Lian then finally grasped that Noah had mistaken the juice stains on his clothes for blood.
‘It does indeed look like blood, especially with the smell.’
In the realm ruled by the Demon King, such fruits that smelled of blood or pulsed like a beating heart were not uncommon.
Some fruits that caused human ailments were also shaped in an unsettling way.
“This isn’t blood; it’s juice from making this.”
Lian gestured to the meticulously poured juice in the cups. The juice, sitting in the cup, resembled the blood gathered by a vampire for consumption.
“That’s… juice?”
“Yes, it tastes quite good. Wait a moment.”
Lian had set aside some fruit he’d been snacking on as he worked. He brought over the fruit he had left to one side, and Noah’s pupils flickered with uncertainty.
“Try it.”
“This…?”
“It’s really good.”
At that, Noah hesitantly swallowed and, with trembling hands, picked up the supple fruit.
Lifting the fruit caused the juice—but not blood—to run. Swallowing another dry gulp, Noah pushed the fruit into his mouth.
“…!”
“Tastes good, right?”
Noah nodded silently; the fruit was plain delicious. As he inadvertently grabbed another piece, Lian placed a plate in front of him, looking pleased as he urged him to eat as much as he wanted.
“I’ll go and bring the juice, you keep eating.”
“Wait…!”
But before Noah could gather his senses to hold on to Lian, Lian had sprinted away, leaving Noah unable to catch him.
“…then why are your hands like that?”
Noah finally realized Lian was concealing another injury.
“When he comes back… I must ask properly.”
Was it an accidental wound, or was it from a more recent event?
Such worrying thoughts quickly gave way to a self-mocking insight.
‘And what are you going to do once you know? Even if you find out, what can you do?’
Noah silently gazed down at his hands stained red from the juice. His hands, dyed red like blood, felt as if they had just inflicted wounds upon someone.
Drip, swoosh!
Urgently, Noah turned on the water in the sink and vigorously washed his hands, rinsed them of the red stains.
“it’s just a fruit. Yes, it’s nothing.”
He scrubbed obsessively, but the redness seemed reluctant to fade, or at least that was his perception.
Swoosh…
Hearing the sound of cascading water, Noah’s mind conjured up Dovan’s face. He remembered the days he secretly wiped away tears while huddling with his brother Nero.
“…”
Noah silently watched the water disappearing down the drain. A feeling of desolation engulfed him.
While Noah was grappling with his trauma, Lian was arriving in the reception room.
“Urk, guaaak!”
“Hm, what’s this?”
“Please finish the cookies before talking, Master.”
Upon opening the door, the sight that greeted him was Dovan, bound tight with iron chains, rolling on the floor, and Lania, with her mouth full of cookies, casting various spells at Dovan.
Mia sat on a sofa, leafing through a thick book.
“Hmm.”
Lian closed the door he had opened.