Escape From a Deserted Island With Enemy Female Soldiers - Chapter 90



89 – Adora (4)

Adora suffered from heart disease in her childhood. But she was saved by the Führer, who was her doctor at the time.

She lived, but not freely.

“Kuh-cough, keh-cough!”

Blood flowed out like a laminar stream. I tried to block my mouth, but my hands were tied. Adora spat out a trickle of bright red blood.

“Haa, haa.”

It finally stopped.

Could it be… just harboring a brief kindness towards the enemy causes this?

“What’s this? What’s wrong with this guy?”

“Just a sec, just a sec. Something’s not right.”

Tiria slammed down the bowl and rushed over. She poured as much divine power of healing as she could muster into him. Adora couldn’t die. He was the only one who knew the secrets of this island.

When she pressed her hand to his solar plexus, Adora groaned.

“Ugh…”

“There’s a strange energy here.”

It was where his heart was.

“Looks like he had an underlying condition. Did it metastasize to his lungs? The bronchial tubes are severely damaged too. The circulatory and respiratory systems are being consumed by an unidentified mana.”

Even Tiria, who had studied medicine, didn’t recognize the symptoms. Valkyrie and Riyo both looked serious. The blood Adora coughed up was extremely black. And sticky, closer to tar than blood.

“What the hell kind of disease is this…?”

“It might not be a disease.”

Erich stepped forward.

“Let me take a look.”

Erich laid Adora down and placed his hand on his solar plexus. He slowly felt around his heart, sensing the flow of mana.

Something was being caught.

Still faint.

He needed to feel it more clearly.

“Excuse me.”

Erich ignored the impropriety and pulled off Adora’s shirt. Refined skin without an ounce of fat was revealed.

While Erich examined him, Adora didn’t have time to feel shame. It hurt. It hurt so much he couldn’t even speak.

Erich’s fingertips, tracing the path of the mana trace, encountered something.

Roundish, and clumped.

Too full of mana to be a simple tumor. The lump pulsed out a murky aura, beating out of sync with the heart.

[“Miyo.”]

[“Yeah.”]

[“Remember what we talked about in class earlier?”]

Miyo nodded. She’d already guessed.

Erich stood. And spoke, his voice cold.

“This person has a geas placed on their heart.”

Anti-Talisman. A magic that steals and manipulates the organs of its victim.

So cruel it’s one of the 101 Forbidden Geases decreed by the Magic Kingdom. Because it targets vital organs like the brain or heart. The victim is condemned to live as a slave until death.

To live as a slave means to live according to the will of the caster.

If they don’t think as the caster wants, their organs are constricted. In the Major’s case, her heart would be wrung with pain.

“The caster is hostile to the Holy Spirit Church and the Beastmen. Even if the Major doesn’t want to, she’s being urged to share that anger.”

“So this woman has no free will?”

“Not entirely.”

Erich held up the Major’s pistol.

“Why would a general-rank officer carry an outdated revolver? And one with only a single bullet loaded. It’s obviously for suicide. She’d rather take her own life than be killed by the geas.”

The single bullet in the cylinder was clearly the Major’s free will.

“This geas won’t cause the victim pain if they just listen to the caster. It’s similar to the slave brands of the past, but even stronger.”

“Then what do we do?”

“Let’s get her to sleep first and think about it. She’s too injured to eat anyway.”

Without being told, Adora already had her eyes closed. She breathed in short, ragged gasps. *Don’t let yourself feel anything for these people.* If she did, her heart would just be squeezed again.

“If we keep her asleep, she won’t defy the caster’s command and won’t vomit blood. But this is just a stopgap measure.”

“Isn’t there any way to treat her?”

“I don’t know.”

“Wouldn’t applying divine power of healing help, even just a little?”

“I think that’s the best we can do for now, too.”

Erich and Tiria put their heads together. Their discussion continued late into the night. One way or another, they had to save Adora if they wanted to escape.

Tiria taught medicine, Erich explained magic. They filled in each other’s gaps.

During this process, a difference in their understanding of mana and Sephiron arose. Erich saw mana and Sephiron as different states of the same element, while Tiria viewed them as completely different elements.

Mana was impure, Sephiron was clean.

Furthermore, mana was incomplete, Sephiron was complete.

Tiria’s perspective was in line with the teachings of the Holy Spirit Church. But it was a thought she had to abandon in order to apply the derived treatment.

“If you see mana and Sephiron as different elements, it will be difficult for me to manipulate mana. If I mess up, what Mr. Kasten is trying to manipulate and what I’m trying to manipulate might mix. This will become clear in the microscopic realm.”

“…….”

A situation where belief itself had to be questioned to save a life.

Here, Tiria hesitated for a moment.

As a saint.

As a member of the church.

Is a human life more important, or doctrine?

I might have chosen the latter in the past. A time when I was blind, dogmatic, and living in a vain, fanatical haze.

It’s different now.

“I understand.”

If breaking doctrine can save a person, then that must be the right path. Surely the Goddess would want such an attitude.

“I’ll follow your theory, Erich.”

Tiria decided to abandon her faith.

But by doing so, she was becoming a saint.

*

Crack!

The Major headbutted me in the face. She breathed heavily, shouting.

“Who said I needed your help?”

I tasted salt and touched my lip. A lukewarm liquid was flowing out. A nosebleed.

“The Führer’s orders are absolute. I’m following them of my own volition. The interference of a traitor like you, or that trash-cult saint is just disgusting.”

From noble mtl dot com

The Major glared at me, as if she could kill me with her eyes. She was controlling her emotions. The reason wasn’t hard to understand.

“Ugh.”

The Major collapsed, clutching her chest in pain.

“Are you alright?”

“Touch me and I’ll kill you.”

“Major.”

“Even as a prisoner, seeing you struggle like this doesn’t sit right with me, as a fellow human being. Is there anything, even something small, I can help you with?”

“Hah.”

The Major scoffed.

“If you truly care for me, be loyal to your country, Major Ronstein. Release me from these restraints right now, bring me my gear. And cooperate with me to subdue those women. Then I’ll take yesterday into consideration.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that.”

“So that’s how you want to play it? Fine. The moment you return to the Magic Kingdom, you’re finished. Prepare yourself to be branded a traitor who sided with the enemy.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Then from now on, the Magic Kingdom is my enemy too.”

The Major’s face went blank at my statement. She’s probably wondering what this crazy b*stard is spouting now.

“It’s a country that can hurt even someone like you. What good is having a country like that as your homeland?”

“Is this guy…insane?”

“Maybe the Magic Kingdom is. When I think about it carefully, there are more than a few odd things about it.”

I can hear the details if I revive the Major. That’s part of why I’m offering to help.

“Living on that deserted island, I realized one thing. Whether I was a Valkyrie, a Saint, or a Combat Engineer, I would have acted the same way in those positions. It’s not that those people are inherently like that, it’s just that the situation at the time pushed them to that extreme.”

“What kind of highfalutin nonsense is he spouting all of a sudden….”

“Isn’t it the same for you, Major? Deep down, you don’t want to treat me harshly, do you? You want to think freely and live freely. I understand perfectly that you’re doing this because you have no choice.”

“……Ugh!”

A burst of bloody phlegm poured from the Major’s mouth. Covered in cold sweat, she glared at me, eyes wide. Her whole body was soaked.

“Shut up.”

“We’ll take that as agreement.”

“No! Shut your mouth already…!”

No point saying more. It’ll just worsen the chest pain. It’s not too late to talk after the treatment’s done.

Until then, I have to force the issue.

I prepped the rope Lyo had woven.

“Wh-What are you doing? Let go! Untie this!”

I forced the struggling Captain onto her back. Tied her down tight with the vine rope, fixing her in place. Now the treatment prep is done.

“Kasten.”

“Getting ready now.”

The Saint was checking over the emergency kit the Captain brought. It had some pretty useful tools. Painkillers, a blood type tester, a makeshift transfusion setup, and the like.

The Captain’s blood type was AB. Valkyrie and I were O, the Saint’s A.

“Where’s Lyo?”

“Lyo’s AB.”

“Mostly transfuse with the superior’s blood, we’ll only jump in for emergencies then.”

Valkyrie and Lyo held the thrashing Captain down. The Saint, with freshly washed hands, peeled off the Captain’s clothes, one layer at a time. The Captain’s struggles intensified.

“Stop it! You crazy b*stards–!! Give me back my clothes right now!”

“She’s wearing a necklace. I’ll take it off.”

The Saint handed me the Captain’s necklace. And when Lyo caught a glimpse of it, her face immediately crumbled.

“T-That’s…”

A silver ring with eight inverted crosses set into it.

It was the symbol of the pseudo-magician cult that had inflicted terrible wounds on the fox sisters in their childhood.