Chapter 134
I was startled and stepped back.
He raised his eyebrows and stopped in his tracks.
"Are you feeling okay? Does your head hurt?"
Enoch, with his inhumanly strange face, asked me as usual. I rubbed my temples.
I think I'm hallucinating.
"I feel terrible. My head hurts a lot, and I'm seeing things."
As Kaiden, who was standing next to Enoch, was about to say something in response to my answer.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
I heard a heavy footstep from somewhere. The dirt floor vibrated slightly.
Everyone who was looking at me turned their gaze to the direction of the sound.
"Looks like Monsters are gathering."
Kaiden cursed at Enoch's words.
"Damn it, Margaret. We'll explain later, just cooperate. We're going to Seal your Mana using your Magic implement."
"What? Why?"
"There's... no time to explain. Sorry."
Kaiden forcibly grabbed my hand with the ring on it.
I was so surprised that I shook off his hand and stepped back.
Kaiden looked at me with a bewildered expression.
"...Temporarily Seal Margaret's Mana..."
He definitely said that yesterday.
Was it really not a dream?
"Explain even if there's no time. Why are you Sealing my Mana?"
"It's... dangerous for you."
He spoke as if he were giving candy to a child to appease them. It didn't sound like the truth, but like flattery to calm me down.
"I don't think we have time to delay like this."
Luzef slowly approached me. The headache rushed in again, and Luzef's face became strangely distorted.
Damn it, what is it? I keep seeing things.
I frowned and shook my head, stepping back. Then the three men looked at me with bewildered faces.
"What are you going to do after Sealing my Mana?"
"...The most dangerous person might be Margaret..."
"If that's the case, how about we try testing it out..."
"It's not too late to test it and kill her..."
If what I said yesterday wasn't a dream, maybe they're trying to test me now. And if they decide I'm a danger, they might kill me.
Yeah, maybe I've been trusting them too much all this time. Haven't these men distrusted and disliked me since the first time we met?
Was I too naive to them until now?
The musty smell gets a little stronger. I felt nauseous from the disgustingly dizzying smell and touched my forehead.
My head hurt, so I kept getting angry, and rage surged. Feelings of injustice and sorrow flooded in like a burst dam. Not only was my judgment clouded, but I kept hearing strange hallucinations.
"Hey, Margaret. Wait, what's going on? I think there's a misunderstanding?"
Kaiden looked at me with a troubled face. I narrowed my brows and sighed at the wave of fatigue.
"I don't think I can believe anything you say right now. It would have been nice if you had explained it properly before a misunderstanding arose."
"It's not that, Margaret..."
Kaiden took a step towards me, but at that moment, his face changed into a ferocious form like the others. Horns sprouted from his head, his face lengthened forward like a horse, and when he opened his mouth, sharp teeth were menacingly revealed.
I was so surprised that I took a step back, and he smacked his lips while looking at me.
The men in Monster masks slowly approached. I took out Flares and aimed it so they couldn't come near me.
The three men with terrifyingly scary faces raised their hands at the same time.
Watching them, I slowly picked up the bag that had fallen on the floor. Eunji, who was watching, quickly clung to the strap of the bag.
Thump.
Thump.
A huge roar was heard again from somewhere. I was on edge at the heavy footsteps, as if searching for something. It was similar to the footsteps of the Orangutan monster.
"Margaret, are you okay? You have a nosebleed."
A Monster with Enoch's voice tried to approach, so I aimed Flares at him.
"Looks like the poison gas hasn't been fully detoxified yet?"
A Monster with Kaiden's voice shouted. His voice was louder than before.
Poison gas? Was I poisoned by something? My head hurt so much and I felt terrible, but I didn't feel poisoned.
I tilted my head with a puzzled expression and rubbed my nose. As Enoch said, I really had a nosebleed. A hollow laugh came out.
Is my body breaking down? It was nothing strange. I already felt like my mind and body had reached their limit.
Maybe the hypothesis I had made someday was correct. Maybe all of this is an experiment to push us without Mana to the limit.
But what does the Experimenter get by doing that?
'Whatever it is, it's hard. I really want to rest now.'
I slowly closed and opened my eyes and looked around at the three men.
"I've really done my best so far."
A hollow laugh continued to come out.
"I've been thinking about running away and surviving alone countless times."
My chest rose and fell. As my emotions intensified, my heart began to beat rapidly, and heat rose to my head.
I slowly took a deep breath and tried to calm down. And I looked at the three men and continued calmly.
"They're men who have hated, despised, doubted, and tormented me from the beginning. What is this affection?"
Haa.
I took a deep breath at the intensifying emotions. My eyes are getting hot. Unable to control the fluctuating emotions, tears finally flowed.
My emotions were not controlled strangely.
"Margaret."
"Don't move."
I slightly turned Flares, which I was aiming at the Monster with Enoch's voice, and aimed it at the Monster with Kaiden's voice this time.
I roughly wiped away the tears that were flowing down my cheeks.
The reason I'm in such a sensitive state right now is because I worked hard to subdue the Anaconda and save everyone. Since waking up on this island, have I ever not been there for them?
I've gone through all kinds of hardships, and now I'm even seeing hallucinations. I felt a deep sense of skepticism as I recalled the efforts I had made for them.
"I think it's really time to move separately now. I don't care what your intentions were, I don't want to be used."
"Margaret, it's a misunderstanding."
"I told you, it would have been nice if you had explained it before a misunderstanding arose."
"No, there was no time to explain..."
Koo-oong-!
At that time, the Monster finally revealed itself, pushing through the bushes.
Drip.
This time, I felt more blood flowing from my nose. I roughly wiped my nose with the back of my hand and slowly stepped back.
Enoch, Kaiden, and Luzef looked back and forth between me and the Monster with urgent faces.
The Monster ran towards us, and I lowered the hammer of Flares as it was and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
It hit the Monster's body, and the Monster's body exploded. But the problem was the Monsters that came rushing in afterwards.
The group seemed too busy dealing with the rushing Monsters to approach me.
In the meantime, I quickly turned around and ran.
"Margaret!"
I heard a scream-like shout from behind, but I didn't have the mind to consider their condition right now.
Yeah, it seems like it's time to go to the Bunker alone now.
My heart was beating fast. I was suffocating and my head was still dizzy.
I ran without rest.
And I succeeded in completely shaking off Enoch and his group.
It was a little later that I realized that I was poisoned by Anaconda's poison gas.
The night before the incident,
Enoch, who had taken Margaret, who had collapsed after defeating the Anaconda monster, to the safe Barrier, looked at the Barrier with an uneasy face.
"Margaret has collapsed, so I don't know how long the Barrier will last."
Kaiden, who had Diego on his back, entered the Barrier and examined the Barrier following Enoch.
"But it hasn't been long since we strengthened the Barrier, so it should last until morning."
While they were looking at the Monsters gathering towards the Barrier with nervous faces, Luzef hurriedly brought a first aid kit and began to treat the collapsed Margaret and Diego.
There were two huge Anaconda corpses around the Barrier, and strangely shaped Monsters were prowling around the Barrier.
They were sniffing around as if they were looking for something, as usual.
Kaiden, who was standing inside the Barrier and looking at them, quietly opened his mouth.
"I don't think they're looking for Margaret."
Enoch nodded as if it were nothing.
"Is it just today that Monsters are doing that?"
Kaiden looked at Enoch with complicated eyes.
He thought that maybe he was thinking more rationally than Enoch.
Enoch is blindly devoted to Margaret. And he was crazy about her. So he couldn't judge Margaret objectively.
I'm not quite there yet. I can die for Margaret, but I'm not as crazy about her as Enoch is.
So I thought it might be better for me to make rational judgments about Margaret in the future.
The Monsters wandered around the Barrier for a while and then gradually disappeared. Only then did Enoch and Kaiden move away from the Barrier and check Margaret's condition.
Fortunately, Margaret didn't seem to be injured, but her complexion wasn't good. Luzef put his hand on Margaret's cheek to check her condition and sighed.
"It seems like she's poisoned by Anaconda's poison gas. The symptoms are similar to when three people were poisoned by Anaconda poison gas on the South Island and collapsed."