Pitch-black dawn still lingered as a fresh breeze blew from one place to another, greeting the rising sun.
Grunting, a man's eyelids flickered. He felt his entire body numb. "Ugh, is it morning already?"
He gritted his teeth as he slowly lifted his body. Just as he was about to be in a sitting position, a clamor arose in high pitch.
"Mother, he's awake! The guest, the guest!!" Ziya cried abruptly till she felt pain in her throat. Lena and Yolk hurriedly came.
They witnessed the confused Eldu who feebly propped his body with arms on the bed. Seeing this, Lena quickly shook the wooden tube and familiar energy splashed on Eldu.
"You have to lay down. We have many things to explain," said Lena in a gentle tone.
Eldu, who literally just woke up, had no idea why they made a big fuss. However, he realized his whole body was swathed in bandages and leaves.
He voluntarily lay down, and as he did, he smelled an extremely foul scent. A wave of disgusting smell assaulted his nose, and his face couldn't help but turn ugly, struggling to not vomit.
Lena and Yolk smiled wryly; they knew why the man felt nausea – from the red powder. Lena shook the wooden tube again, lessened the foul smell.
Yolk tapped Lena's shoulder. "I'll explain. You should prepare the meal."
Before uttering any word, Yolk took a chair and sat next to Eldu. He looked at Eldu and said with a sigh, "first of all, I am Lena's husband. You can call me Yolk."
He raised his hand, and his gloves shone, emitting a faint, silver pentagon light for a few breaths. Shortly after, he lowered his hand and the light vanished.
"I heard from Lena that you never see her wooden tube or similar energy. This power is called Totem."
Hearing this, Eldu was puzzled. He secretly recorded it in his mind, 'so that magical force is called Totem.'
Yolk suddenly lowered his head in his deepest respect. Then, he retracted the bow and asked with utmost modesty. "Please, tell me. Have you encountered such energy?"
Yolk sincerely asked since the battle scenes in mountain blood had deeply engraved in his mind, and it would not be surprising if the young man in front of him was a big shot with an unfathomable background.
A long silence filled the room before Eldu spoke. "I'm sorry, can you tell me slowly?"
"Oh, I apologize. I'm nervous. It's not my usual self." Feeling awkward, Yolk scratched his head.
After a moment, Yolk continued. "You slept for a week. Coma, to be precise. If it's not because of me and my wife, you will sleep for heaven knows how long."
He stood up and took the red powder. "This is the medicine, contains the blood of you, me, and my wife along with several herbs."
He put the red powder back on the table. "The problem is within your blood. We don't know what that is, but it forced you into a coma. Your body tried to adapt and fight the thing inside your blood."
Yolk sank into the chair and sighed with complicated emotion. "This is something far beyond my power. But before I explain more, can you answer my question?"
Eldu fell into deep thought. He never imagined the scenario would turn this way and regretted burdening this family.
Although he felt he had slept too long, he did not feel particular changes. Prior to that last night when he was conscious, he did not feel any stimulation that could lead him into a coma.
However, he felt his deepest regret for not telling the demon fight. He hid it instead, and now in his clear mind, hiding the fight was the most foolish decision he had made.
Although he wasn't sure, if he told them that fight earlier, it might prevent this event.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know hiding one thing could lead to this disastrous event." Eldu apologized sincerely. "We... encountered one battle of two demons before we arrive at this village."
"Demon?!!" Yolk frightened. 'A demon? Near the village?'
"Uh," Eldu paused for a moment, trying to get the right word. But, he gave up. "I don't know how to call it, but here's the story."
After taking a deep breath, he began to tell the whole story. Fortunately, he remembered the story as clear as crystal.
It took a while to finish the story. Tried to be as detail as possible.
When he finished, Lena came in with the breakfast. It was steamed potatoes, meat, and some fruits. One bowl of porridge was specially prepared for Eldu.
"From your story, I don't think that's the cause. And, I don't know which species the rabbit and the snake from." Yolk paused for a moment to take one potato. "Unless their blood is spilled on you."
The latter word rang a bell on Eldu's mind. He quickly explained. "We woke up next to a snake."
"The same snake?" Yolk furrowed his brows.
"It has a larger and longer body, at least ten meters. I don't think it's the same." Eldu sighed.
Having sufficient talk, Yolk left Eldu to eat, went to the barn to take their belongings. There were bracelets, wooden straw, ropes made of twigs, pouch, and many miscellaneous kinds of stuff.
"The pouch," said Eldu in low voice. He tried to remember what he put inside.
Yolk opened the pouch and poured everything on the table. He noticed a glossy black scale with a sharp edge like a knife.
As he took a bite of potato, Eldu stared at the scale with a frown. "That scale is from the snake. We take that because it's sharp, suitable to be a knife."
Eldu deliberately said this in the hope it might be useful for Yolk. He genuinely had no idea about it anyway.
"Hmm…" Yolk tried to recognize the scale. Somehow it felt familiar, so he picked it up. He put his finger on the scale and stroked it carefully.
And just as he was about to pour his energy on it, a memory from Village Hall with Mora and Wang suddenly crossed his mind.
His pupils shrank after realizing the similar traits within the scale.
It meant these guests were related with that monstrous beast; the beast that its mere scale was very solid.
As he spent a bit more time scrutinizing it, he was convinced both this scale and Mora's scale were similar– if it was not from the same body then from the same species.
Anyway, it added up two things on his hands.
First, he knew that Mora's scale belonged to a snake. This could prevent any useless investigation on the carcass that Wang had found, and allocated the resources for other matters.
'Or... is it? How to explain that I know the scale is snake's scale? I don't know which snake is this...'
Thinking about this, Yolk came up with the second thing, a problem.
The second thing was about his sandwiched position between saving the guest or abandoning them, for he had no idea how to cover the guest if the villagers found out.
Explaining the carcass' origin would be troublesome since he had no idea what type of snake the man had seen, let alone explaining the guest's identity.
Besides, the man seemed like he was genuinely an innocent mortal who was never in touch with Totem's power.
In addition, if one beast at such level died, it meant there was another beast who was strong enough to defeat it. And that beast probably still lurked around.
'How do I solve it...' Yolk fell into deep thought, looking at Eldu who was struggling on his meal.
'If the others accept him, that's great. But, if they don't... our efforts in curing them will be fruitless. I'm not sure if my brother-in-law will be kind enough to let a threat live in the village.'
If Yolk introduced the guests' existence, it was not a problem. But, if villagers found out about their connection with the scale, most likely they would be furious.
It was as though this snake and its enemy came to the village region thanks to the guests.
The enemy of this snake was obviously the threat to the village's safety.
When this secret was exposed, any alibi would not work and Yolk would have had no choice but to hand over them for the sake of the village.
Most likely, he would also receive judgment from others. The burden...
He sighed and only hoped that this would not happen.