Chapter 85. The Devourer, No. 10 (2)
“What do you mean?”
Yukgap asked, confused.
Victoria immediately made a fuss.
“I mean the fact that they’ve supposedly had nothing but daughters for generations!”
“Even if you calculate it roughly, the odds of that happening naturally are absurd!”
Yukgap looked unimpressed.
“How should I know? Maybe whenever a boy was born, they killed him and only raised the girls.”
He shrugged.
“They seemed to hate men enough for that.”
“Sounds like the Amazons from Greek mythology.”
Victoria muttered.
Yukgap flopped down beside her.
“So how long are you planning to keep playing doctor?”
“I don’t know.”
Victoria sighed.
“This village is much more isolated than I expected. They don’t even have basic medicine.”
“They were treating the disinfectant and painkillers I made like treasure.”
Outside the mountains, those were things anyone could easily buy from a convenience store.
Even if not, Victoria could create them quickly with alchemy.
But to the people here, even such ordinary supplies were precious.
Yukgap murmured,
“This really is a strange village.”
“Yeah.”
Victoria agreed.
Then, after hesitating for a moment, she carefully said,
“Yukgap, to be honest, I want to stay here for a while.”
“Why?”
Victoria finally explained what she was thinking.
“These people have been suffering from chronic respiratory diseases for a long time.”
“It doesn’t look like they’ve ever received proper treatment.”
She lowered her gaze.
“I can’t just leave them like this.”
Apparently, she could not stop worrying about the villagers.
Yukgap asked,
“You’re planning to treat everyone in the village?”
“I already collected epithelial cell samples while examining them earlier.”
Victoria nodded.
“If I create a genome map from those samples, I might be able to treat the genetic disorder that’s been tormenting them.”
“They’re all relatives, so their genetic structures should be fairly similar.”
“How long will it take to finish that genome map?”
“If I use the engineering equipment installed in Robert, probably a few days.”
That meant staying in this remote mountain village without electricity for at least several days.
Yukgap thought for a moment before answering casually,
“Do whatever you want.”
“We know Archons are targeting this place anyway, so I was planning to stay prepared for that too.”
They had not found any useful clues yet.
And the Archons had not appeared.
There was no harm in treating it like a short vacation and staying a few more days.
“Thanks.”
Victoria smiled softly.
Yukgap yawned and answered lazily,
“You’re my employer.”
“I have to listen to what my employer says.”
Several peaceful days passed.
“There’s really nothing here.”
Yukgap muttered weakly while looking across the mountain valley.
He had searched the area thoroughly in case Abraxas had left traces behind.
But he had found nothing.
Even the abandoned mine he had entered with high hopes contained nothing but layers of old dust.
“Ugh...!”
While Yukgap was killing time, he noticed Mijin in the distance.
She was staggering along with a huge pile of firewood balanced on her shoulder.
It was clearly far too heavy for her.
“Hey. Isn’t that heavy?”
Yukgap called out.
Mijin immediately turned away and answered stubbornly,
“I-I’m fine. This is nothing.”
But even while saying that, her arms were trembling.
Unable to watch any longer, Yukgap walked over and lifted the entire pile with one hand.
“Give it here. I’ll carry it.”
Mijin stared at him in shock.
“Isn’t it heavy?”
“This much is normal.”
For someone modified by Abraxas, carrying something like this was easy.
Mijin looked at him curiously.
“Are all men naturally that strong?”
“No. Some men are just strong.”
Yukgap could not be bothered explaining the truth.
Apparently curious now that he had answered her, Mijin asked another question.
“What kind of relationship do you have with the alchemist?”
“Are you two married?”
“We’re not like that.”
Yukgap immediately denied it.
“Victoria is my employer, and I’m her employee.”
“That’s all.”
“So you’re kind of her subordinate?”
“Something like that.”
Perhaps because of Victoria, Mijin no longer seemed as wary of him as before.
Instead, she chatted with him in a surprisingly friendly tone.
“It must be nice having someone so smart beside you.”
“She can probably fix you right away whenever you get sick.”
“You don’t know Victoria.”
Yukgap sighed.
“She does some bizarre experiment almost every day. Do you know how much trouble that causes me?”
“But I’m grateful to her.”
Mijin smiled.
“We don’t have proper medicine this deep in the mountains.”
“Everyone’s happy because the medicine she made stopped their coughing.”
They were that delighted over simple medicine Victoria had produced with alchemy.
Thinking about how completely disconnected they were from the outside world made Yukgap feel strangely sorry for them.
“Why don’t you just go outside and buy medicine?”
“It’s not that expensive.”
Mijin answered cautiously,
“We can’t leave.”
“Why?”
“The adults said the air outside is filthy.”
“They said if we breathe too much of it, we might die.”
“That’s why we’re supposed to stay here in the mountains, where the air is clean.”
Yukgap gave a short laugh.
“Air is air.”
“Besides, you’re young.”
He glanced at her.
