GDTEA Chapter 28

When Sharti shut her mouth tightly, Ren felt disappointed.

It would be a lie to say he wasn’t surprised at hearing Sharti’s voice for the first time.

But Ren wasn’t surprised because her voice sounded terrible.

It was the first time he heard ‘Sha’s’ voice.

Her voice heard in reality, not imagination. He couldn’t help but be surprised.

“Hmm, I’ll go get what I left outside first.”

Ren changed the subject.

It seemed pointless to try to be honest with Sharti when she was avoiding his gaze; she likely wouldn’t believe him.

Rather than risk creating more resentment, Ren maintained his boundaries.

“I caught him.”

Thud. Ren tossed the unconscious and bound Dodindt onto the living room floor with a proud look.

“I tied his hands and feet, and gagged him too.”

“……”

Sharti, who had turned pale at the sight of Dodindt, carefully took a step forward.

As she approached, she began to see his condition that had been hidden by the darkness.

‘…Why is he undressed?’

Dodindt was in his underwear.

Examining him with a sour expression, Sharti tilted her head slightly.

Dodindt’s face had changed in the meantime.

‘His face seems a bit, no, very swollen.’

Blood stains from his nose and mouth were also clearly visible.

His dental condition was also visible through the cloth stuffed in his mouth.

“……”

Sharti glanced at Ren.

Ren avoided her gaze, trying to gloss over his use of violence.

Sharti swallowed a small sigh and brought a magic stone to brighten the lighting.

As the darkness retreated, the mess inside the house became clearly visible.

Sharti rummaged through the bag she had just been packing and took out an ointment.

“Are you going to treat even a guy like this as a patient?”

Ren asked, glaring fiercely at Dodindt.

Sharti narrowed her eyes, giving Ren a sidelong glance, and held out her hand.

Ren, who was about to reflexively offer his palm, quickly rubbed his hands.

“Uh, they’re dirty. There’s soil and rain on them.”

“……”

Sharti let out a small snort and grabbed his hand herself.

As expected, the skin on the back of his hand was scraped.

When his injured hand was discovered, Ren made an embarrassed expression. But that wasn’t all.

‘He was cut by a knife.’

There was also a slash wound on Ren’s forearm from a knife thrown by Dodindt.

Sharti suppressed her churning feelings and applied the ointment.

‘The wounds on his thigh and abdomen have probably reopened too.’

Ren’s body was cold from going outside in light clothing.

All because of her.

[I’m just a patient. I’m in a position where I unilaterally receive protection and help from you, so I don’t have the right to ask or question.]

Sharti mulled over what he had said.

‘I’m just a doctor, and we’re both hiding our identities. There’s no such thing as rights in this kind of relationship.’

If there was a loud noise in the bedroom, Ren should naturally have kept quiet.

So why did Ren risk danger to chase after Dodindt?

“What are you going to do now?”

Ren nodded toward her packed bag.

“I caught him, so you don’t have to run away, right?”

As she was about to look for a note to communicate with him, Ren held out his palm.

Finding a note would require rummaging through her bag again, and since she had decided to be careful going forward, Sharti opened her palm as a compromise.

 <This person is a soldier. Probably the leader of the soldiers who came to the village. It will be dangerous if this incident becomes known.>

“He was the one who threatened and assaulted me first.”

<Because we’re not in the clear either.>

Unlike Sharti, who was calmly and objectively assessing the situation, Ren looked full of discontent.

He crossed his arms and looked down at Dodindt with murderous eyes.

“…I should have thrown him off a cliff.”

From a height that wouldn’t kill him, of course.

Ren’s eyes gleamed coldly, as if he was considering dragging Dodindt to find a cliff even now.

<I’ve already finished preparations anyway.>

“Preparations?”

Sharti pointed to various corners of the house in response to Ren’s puzzled look.

Then finally, she looked at Dodindt.

<I’ll call the soldiers. If we hurry, we can meet them before they leave the village.>

<I’ll go turn myself in.>

“What?”

 <For excessive treatment.>

Sharti smiled faintly from beneath her robe toward Ren, who was about to stop her right away.

She was neither righteous, nor weak, nor stupid.

Hadn’t the kind and innocent powerless girl been burned to ashes?

“What should I do?”

Sharti revealed her plan to Ren, who seemed to understand the gist.

Ren was incredulous at first, then became hollow and couldn’t help but smile.

Her strategies were always reckless but also the only breakthrough.

****

Tristan and the soldiers who were called to the old log cabin were speechless at the scene before them.

The house interior was in shambles as if a typhoon had swept through. The bedroom door and windows were all broken. And in front of it all, one person was glaring at the soldiers with bloodshot eyes.

“…Squad leader Dodindt.”

The person with a face covered in fungal infections and blisters was undoubtedly their leader, Dodindt.

But his appearance was so shabby and dirty that half the soldiers whispered in disbelief.

“Ugh, ungh, ungh…!”

In front of his astonished subordinates, Dodindt was drooling and repeatedly opening and closing his mouth.

No matter how hard he tried, all that came from Dodindt’s mouth were animal-like groans.

After confirming the scene before him several times, Tristan turned to look at Sharti.

They had been delayed in departing at dawn while waiting for the typhoon to subside when Sharti unexpectedly came looking for them, causing them to hurriedly climb the mountain.

“Doctor, so you mean the squad leader—no, this guy threatened you?”

His voice conveyed disbelief.

And for good reason—currently, Dodindt couldn’t speak, and despite being physically free, he couldn’t even move a finger at will.

Sharti calmly handed over a note.

<I left the house at dawn to gather herbs, and a thief broke in during that time. I was so startled that I sprayed him with paralytic powder.>

“A thief…”

“Well, he must have heard rumors about the doctor in the village just like us. He probably wanted to get his wounds treated, even if he had to hide.”

The soldiers all nodded in unison, condemning Dodindt’s shamelessness.

Sharti quietly caught her breath.

Without the notes, lying would have been much harder.

“Is the paralysis why he’s like this? Is there no antidote?”

<I did use an antidote, but I think he might have eaten poisonous mushrooms in the mountains because it’s not working. I’ve tried several medications, but…>

Oh my. Tristan frowned, glancing at Dodindt and clicking his tongue.

It was true that Sharti had used various medicines on Dodindt.

‘I used a rather strong paralytic powder. Even after the paralysis wears off, the after-effects will last quite a while.’

The paralytic powder she used was famous for causing longer-lasting side effects the more one tried to neutralize it.

Even after complete detoxification, there would be side effects such as stiffness of the tongue.

Dodindt would have to pay the price for his loose tongue for quite some time.

“And why are his joints like that…?”

<When the paralysis started, he may have tried to escape, but he slipped and fell.>

This was somewhat true as well.

Dodindt, who had been unconscious while bound, had convulsed and tried to escape as soon as he regained consciousness upon seeing Ren, only to collapse immediately, further twisting his already compromised joints.

“But still, for a woman alone…”

As expected, some soldiers expressed doubts about the story being too far-fetched.

Even if he had eaten poisonous mushrooms, Dodindt was a squad leader with experience and skill.

He wasn’t someone who would be caught so naively as Sharti claimed.

‘No choice.’

Just as Sharti was about to raise her hand to give a signal, it happened.

“Doctor!”

“Sha!”

“…!”

Startled by voices that shouldn’t have been heard, Sharti turned to see Virena running up with Tein.

Moreover, behind the two, Vireta was also climbing the mountain, repeatedly patting his back.

Sharti gulped.

“Doctor! Where is the bad person? Doctor, you must escape!”

“Sha, let me see. Someone broke into your house?! Who?! Where?! I won’t let that bastard get away with this! How dare they sneak into your house like a thief?! What kind of bastard is it?!”

When Virena raged with blazing anger, glaring around with wide eyes, the soldiers all shook their heads.

Sharti covered Tein’s ears and smiled awkwardly.

It was difficult to make eye contact with Vireta behind Virena.

“I heard the gist of it from Patricia.”

When all the soldiers followed Sharti up the mountain after she came to the inn at dawn, a curious Patricia immediately went to find Vireta.

Patting her hunched back and leisurely looking around, Vireta spotted Dodindt at a glance.

“So I hear one of the soldiers who came to check on the village’s security dared to touch our child, is that right?”

Tristan reflexively nodded in response to Vireta’s intimidating aura.

As Vireta slowly moved forward, the soldiers hurriedly made way.

Walking up to Dodindt, Vireta tilted her head this way and that.

“There are many rumors about vile creatures hiding in the mountains and harming villagers, so I told our child to prepare plenty of defensive poison powder…”

Dodindt trembled at Vireta’s chilling gaze.

“It seems our child is soft-hearted and only used paralytic powder.”

At the mention of poison powder, the soldiers’ whispers temporarily ceased.

It was only natural that Sharti, who was knowledgeable about herbs, would also know about poisonous plants.

As Vireta said, it was fortunate that Sharti was kind enough to use paralytic powder rather than a deadly poison.

Meanwhile, Dodindt felt like he was suffocating.

No matter how much he tried to shout to his subordinates that they were being deceived, that it wasn’t true, that it was all lies, only groans came out.

Vireta watched Dodindt’s silent struggle for a while, then turned to Tristan.

“So, do you have more questions for our child? Are you talking about compensation for the harm done to our child?”

“Well…”

In truth, Tristan was in a difficult situation.

Dodindt was a person who had committed selfish and vile crimes and fled. He naturally deserved to be punished severely, but at the same time, he was still a border soldier and the squad leader of Tristan and the others.

Separate from the desire to see this as heaven’s direct punishment and find satisfaction in it, Dodindt and Sharti’s statuses were at stake.

“We need an accurate investigation of the circumstances, elder. While we believe in the doctor’s response and innocence, leaving any suspicious aspects could cause trouble for the doctor in the future.”

Tristan spoke carefully, having a vague understanding of Sharti’s circumstances of living in hiding.

That was also a fact that Vireta was cautious about.

That’s why she had brought her granddaughter and grandson up the mountain at dawn to show their faces before the imperial soldiers.

“So what part is problematic?”

“There’s someone here!”

A soldier searching near the log cabin shouted.

Sharti squeezed her eyes shut.

All the soldiers and Vireta’s family stared at the man who suddenly appeared.

“…Patient mister?”

Tein muttered, tightly gripping the hem of Sharti’s robe.

The man brought by the soldier was Ren, with bandages wrapped around his face and body.

“A suspicious person! Bandages all over his face and body…!”

“State your name. Are you a villager? What business do you have here?”

“……”

Instead of answering, Ren looked at Sharti. Sharti approached Ren, avoiding Vireta’s persistent gaze.

“Do you know this man, Doctor?”

<I’ve been keeping him with me.>

“…Pardon? But you said you lived alone…”

Tristan, looking back and forth between Sharti and Ren, gave a suspicious look.

This was an expected reaction.

As Ren slightly tried to grab Sharti’s sleeve, Virena, who had been exchanging glances with Tein, stepped forward.

“He’s a slave!”

“He’s the slave mister!”

“Aye. Our child’s slave.”

Vireta, who had been fondly watching his granddaughter and grandson who had shouted with clenched fists, looked at Sharti.

“Isn’t that right, Sha?”

As soon as their eyes met with Vireta smiling, Sharti realized.

Vireta already knew about Ren’s existence.

Sharti broke into a cold sweat.

Meanwhile, Ren, who had suddenly become a slave, was overwhelmed with mixed feelings.

From a bear to a baby, then a patient. Now he had become a slave.