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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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Chapter 35
1.
[Smells delicious!]
Geo had been trailing us underground all this time.
I could faintly sense his presence through the weak energy he gave off.
Every now and then, Geo would speak to me, updating me on our surroundings.
When we were captured by the bandits and locked in iron cages, Geo tried to show himself—but I stopped him.
It wasn’t a dire enough situation to warrant it.
But back then, Geo gave an unexpected response.
[But Dad… I’m hungry.]
Now that I think about it, ever since he hatched from his egg and ate the shell, he hadn’t had a single bite.
It had been nearly fifteen days.
That ‘was’ a problem.
Even if he was a mythical Earth Dragon, going that long without food right after hatching couldn’t be good.
Equinox had mentioned it at the time.
[Unlike their adult forms, baby Earth Dragons eat corpses. After your business here is done, you can let Geo handle the cleanup.]
I had agreed. And now… the time for cleanup has come.
I looked at Geo, who was staring at me with his big, round eyes.
[You must’ve been really hungry.]
[Yeah, super hungry.]
[You can eat everything lying around here.]
[Even ‘those’ over there?]
Geo glanced at the cages.
In the far one were the merchants, still alive.
Closer by were Sanchez and Mobin—also still breathing.
Naturally, Geo was asking since they weren’t corpses.
I shook my head.
[No. Not them. You can’t eat anything that’s alive. Not for now.]
[Mmm... ‘Not for now’? So that means I ‘can’ later?]
[Maybe later. I’ll tell you when. Just wait till then, okay?]
Geo gave a happy little beep and zipped over to the nearest corpse to start eating.
I gave him two more instructions before letting him go wild.
[You can eat everything ‘outside’ this tent, but don’t eat anything ‘inside’ it, okay?]
[Got it!]
[And when you’re done, could you bury the bones underground?]
[Sure thing!]
Geo responded cheerfully and kept munching away.
The body of a full-grown man was pretty hefty, but Geo swallowed it down like a snack.
With each gulp, his belly visibly swelled, and it kept getting rounder and bigger.
‘Can he really eat that much?’
I felt a twinge of worry.
Some animals don’t know their own limits and die when they overeat—literally bursting.
But Equinox reassured me.
[Earth Dragons have exceptional digestion. Especially when they enter their growth phase—newly hatched dragons digest at a tremendous speed. Their bodies grow rapidly as a result.]
[So… he gets bigger with every bite he eats?]
[You’ll understand better just by watching.]
And sure enough, Equinox was right.
Geo had already grown.
Just moments ago, his belly had ballooned every time he swallowed a body—but now, it barely showed.
That scene, oddly enough, sparked a new concern.
[How am I supposed to travel around with an appetite like ‘that’? There’s no way I can keep feeding him like this every time.]
There were bandit groups all across the continent.
But ‘finding’ them wasn’t exactly easy. Unless, like this time, they found us first.
[Earth Dragons don’t eat often. If he devours around a hundred corpses, that should last him a month or two. They’re the kind of species that consumes large quantities at once, stores what they can’t immediately digest, and processes it gradually over time. For Geo, feeding him once every one or two months will be enough.]
Well… thank the stars for that.
With every concern addressed, I returned to my seat near the campfire.
There, the pot I’d set earlier was bubbling away.
Inside, the meat stew had simmered to perfection.
I sat down, ladled myself a bowl, and slowly savored the taste.
‘Hmm… a little bland?’
I reached for the spice jar next to me.
It was stocked with pepper and all sorts of aromatic seasonings.
I picked out the salt from the spice jar and sprinkled it into the soup.
With that, the flavor improved quite a bit.
When I called William over and handed him a bowl, he accepted it wordlessly.
He took a spoonful, tasted it, and said to me,
“It’s... good.”
“You can taste it?”
“I can.”
William took another spoonful.
It wasn’t as if he could feel hunger—but still, he kept eating.
Each time he swallowed, the mana permeating his body absorbed the essence of the soup.
With every mouthful, the glow of his mana seemed to strengthen, little by little.
Once he finished the bowl clean, he spoke quietly.
“It feels like... I’m alive.”
“You ‘are’ alive, aren’t you?”
I asked with a smile. William smiled back, replying.
“So it seems.”
He stared down at his palm, still under the effects of the transformation spell.
Looking at it now, it seemed no different from a living person’s.
A body that doesn’t breathe, doesn’t sleep, doesn’t need to eat.
Those were the things that set him apart from the living—but could one really call this ‘death’?
William flexed each finger slowly, then looked at me and asked.
“What do you plan to do with them?”
He was referring to Sanchez and Mobin, who were still sound asleep in their cage.
“I’ll wait until they wake up.”
I didn’t want to disturb their peace.
Mine, either.
I dropped a few chunks of meat into William’s empty bowl, refilled it with hot soup, and handed it to him again.
We sat and ate like that—until the moon vanished and the sun began to rise.
It was the most peaceful night we had in a long time.
＊ ＊ ＊
When Sanchez opened his eyes, the surroundings were thick with fog.
The scent of mountain dew pricked his nose.
Fresh, but tinged with a smoky edge.
Most likely the lingering smell from the campfire the night before.
That’s when it all came back to him.
He remembered the bread and soup brought by one of the underlings.
And then—nothing. He’d blacked out.
‘Shit!’
Sanchez bolted upright and looked around.
Mobin was still fast asleep nearby, but the priest, Father Lyernoff, and Andre—who had been in the adjacent cage—were nowhere to be seen.
A chill ran down his spine.
“Father!”
He jumped up and shouted again.
“Father! Where are you?! What have these bastards done to our priest?!”
Just then, a familiar voice came from ahead.
“I’m right here, so don’t worry.”
It was Father Lyernoff’s voice.
Through the thick fog, figures appeared.
Lyernoff, wearing his clerical robe, and Andre were walking toward Sanchez.
“Father! I thought something terrible had happened.”
“Nothing of the sort.”
Lyernoff chuckled warmly and soon approached to unlock the cage door.
He held a bunch of keys in his hand.
“What’s that?”
“When I woke up, someone had thrown these inside my cage.”
“Ah, I see.”
Sanchez quickly made the sign of the cross and offered a prayer of thanks to God.
To experience such a miraculous stroke of luck—he hadn’t expected it.
Up until he was locked in the cage the day before, he’d thought he was as good as dead.
‘I’m truly grateful. Thank you, God.’
After finishing his prayer, Sanchez woke Mobin and looked around.
The fog still hung thick, making it hard to get a clear sense of the situation.
“Father, where are those guys? Have they gone out raiding again?”
“I’m not sure.”
Lyernoff stroked his chin thoughtfully, then smiled and gestured.
“For now, come over here. Aren’t you hungry?”
Sanchez was feeling hungry himself, and Mobin looked just as famished.
They followed Lyernoff to an old tent with a campfire burning nearby.
They sat down to warm themselves, and Lyernoff handed them some soup.
“There’s no sleeping potion in here, so eat as much as you want.”
“Thank you. But...”
Sanchez glanced around, lowering his voice.
“What really happened? Won’t it be a problem if the bandits find out?”
“The real problem is that we got inside here at all.”
Sanchez looked confused at Lyernoff’s cryptic words.
Just then, Andre spoke up from beside them.
“Looks like they moved during the night, leaving us behind. They disappeared without a trace.”
“Seriously?”
It was astonishing.
Bandits leaving their hostages behind while relocating?
Maybe it was because these were priests from the Calios Church.
Sanchez blew on his hot soup and asked again.
“Then what about the hostages from the band? What happened to them?”
“Well... once the fog clears, we’ll look for them together.”
Lyernoff smiled kindly at Sanchez, who felt some relief and began eating.
The meat soup was a bit salty.
The meat had become very tender from slow cooking, but the seasoning was somewhat strong.
Still, it wasn’t unpleasant enough to avoid eating.
Mobin seemed to think the same and quietly finished his bowl quickly.
After filling their stomachs, the fog gradually began to lift.
Soon, a clear blue sky appeared, and brilliant sunlight poured over the forest.
As the light brightened the woods, the surroundings became clear at a glance.
An empty mountain village and forest.
The only sounds were the chirping of small mountain birds in the silence.
Sanchez followed Lyernoff up the mountainside.
Below, dozens of tents were visible—but there was no sign of life.
The campfires that had lit up the night were all extinguished.
‘What happened here last night?’
Had the bandits really moved their camp, just like Lyernoff said?
But why move and leave all these tents behind?
‘It can’t be that easy to get new tents. Did the band have high-quality tents in their wagons?’
While pondering, they discovered something stranger—the hostages from the band’s group.
They were all alive. Not a single one was hurt.
Lyernoff used a key from the bunch to unlock their cages and set them free.
A weary-looking young man bowed deeply.
“Thank you, Father.”
“Give your thanks to God.”
Lyernoff urged.
The young man knelt on the spot, and the other six hostages in the same cage did likewise.
Following the Calios Church custom, they made the sign of the cross toward the sky and offered prayers of gratitude.
Seeing this, Sanchez realized they were well-trained people.
After the prayer, Lyernoff asked the young man for his identity.
The young man answered,
“I am Ray of the Blackleaf Merchant Guild.”
‘Ray?’
Sanchez recalled distant memories and asked again.
“If you’re Ray... are you the fourth son of the Guild’s master?”
Ray nodded.
“Yes. That’s right.”
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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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