Time passed. It had now been a month since they arrived at the fortress. After awakening Allen’s power to solve the food supply problem, Chi-Woo focused on running again. Thus, he hadn’t noticed the commotion that had occurred after another hero other than Ru Amuh was chosen by a god.
Many were stunned that Allen had suddenly awakened his powers when they were out looking for monsters every day and battling with their lives on the line for the same purpose. As expected, all the heroes bombarded Allen with all sorts of questions, but Allen didn’t go into details; he knew he would be putting Chi-Woo in trouble if he told the truth, and some heroes might even harm him out of bitterness. Thanks to Allen’s discretion, Chi-Woo was able to avoid other heroes pestering him and demanding, ‘Why did you help only him? Help me too. Help me!’
Like usual, Chi-Woo got up from his bed like a zombie and stepped out of his porch. The days were getting chilly now, and the air was cold. Chi-Woo shook his legs a couple of times and nodded. ‘Hm…I think they are fine now.’ The past few days, Chi-Woo had suffered from knee problems, which was a result of him running on top of the castle walls with Ru Hiana. Although he had liked it in the beginning—running while looking down at the scenery with sunlight shining over him—after two days of running on top of the castle walls, Chi-Woo felt a piercing pain in his knees that kept him awake at night. It was then he realized why professionals told amateurs to buy the right shoes and practice on soft dirt ground rather than hard asphalt.
“Achoo!” Chi-Woo sneezed and slouched while hugging his body.
‘Urgh…so cold.’
Chi-Woo punched his knees a couple of times and sniffled while shuddering. His knees weren't the only part of his body that was hurting.
“Cough, cough!” He kept coughing and felt chills in his body. Every single joint of his was stiff and aching like his body was screaming at him. As an ordinary person who had never properly exercised before, and was now running every morning and evening without rest, it seemed as if his body was protesting, ‘Give me a break! You bastard owner!’ But whenever he felt this way, Chi-Woo did what he always did: he took off his shirt and observed his body.
“Hm…” Chi-Woo clutched his belly fat, and a satisfied smile spread across his lips. He hadn’t become all-muscles like Allen. He was far from being fit and toned. However, he had become noticeably more in shape. First of all, his protruding belly was less pronounced now, and there was less fat for his hands to grasp.
“Agh…I really don’t feel like running today…’
There was a part of him that just wanted to rest for the day, but he still forced himself to continue because he didn’t want to break his streak. The first week of running had been really tough, but going into the second week and the third week, he began to feel that it would be a waste to miss a day after keeping a steady schedule so strenuously. It was like replacing one black stone in a full board of white stones in the game of go.
‘I can’t let that happen.’ Thus, Chi-Woo went to run that day too. ‘When Ru Hiana comes, I should ask to join her. But I will never…’
“Achoo! Achooo!” Chi-Woo let out another big sneeze and stopped. His nose prickled, and he felt a warm substance flow down from it. He thought it was his snot and kept trying to sniff it back in. But when he continued to fail, Chi-Woo swiped his nose and gaped in surprise. ‘Ah.’ His finger was wet with dark blood. It wasn’t just dripping out of his nose, but trailing down his face and staining the ground.
‘I have been pushing my body too much.’ His blood left only drops of dark stains on the ground at first, but was now spreading across the area where he stood. Furthermore, his blood wasn’t crimson or bright pink, but dark and blackish.
“…Cough.” He coughed again. ‘…Maybe I should rest.’ But then Chi-Woo shook his head hard, and his blood spluttered sideways.
“No. I can’t.” Nose bleeding wasn’t always bad. ‘I heard black blood was dead blood.’ Chi-Woo thought he was perhaps getting rid of bad blood, and new and fresh blood would be created in his system to help with his blood circulation. Chi-Woo soon convinced himself this dark blood was sort of a sign of his hard work and looked around him.
‘Ah damn it. Why isn’t it stopping?’ Unfortunately, he couldn’t see any tissue in sight, and Chi-Woo had no desire to stuff his nostrils with a dirty cloth. Thus, he quickly covered his nose with his hands and went to the moat to wash himself when a familiar voice called out for him.
“Senior?” Ru Hiana was coming through the door and stopped upon seeing Chi-Woo. Her eyes turned round, and her jaw dropped further. She looked completely horrified.
“W-What happened?”
“Ah, it’s nothing,” Chi-Woo answered while covering his mouth. “It’s just…”
“What do you mean it’s nothing! Let me check!” Ru Hiana rushed up to Chi-Woo and forcefully pulled Chi-Woo’s hands away from his face. Tears brimmed her eyes when she got a good look at him.
“Sen…ior…?”
Chi-Woo’s face was a mess. He continued to bleed from his nose, and shaking his head earlier had splattered blood everywhere. His hands were also covered with blood after wiping his nose with it. Thus, even his upper lips and the edges of his mouth were coated thickly with blood; it looked like he had coughed it up. The fact that his blood was dark made him look even more messed up.
“How…What happened…” Ru Hiana’s voice shook, and her face looked full of grief.
“Cough. It’s nothing.” Chi-Woo pulled his hand back and covered his mouth again. “I’m going. I have to wash myself again. Also, I’ll be running below the walls from today on.”
“S-Senior.”
“Ms. Ru Hiana. Cough. You can continue running on top of the walls. Cough, cough! Anyways, I’m going first,” Chi-Woo muttered and turned around quickly. He felt slightly embarrassed and moreover, he wanted to quickly wash off the sticky blood all over his body.
“Senior! Senior!” Thus, Chi-Woo increased his pace as Ru Hiana called out to him desperately.
Ru Hiana didn’t follow Chi-Woo. She couldn’t when her mind froze at the sight of Chi-Woo running away even while pouring out a significant amount of blood like he was hiding something. All that rushed through her mind were bad thoughts.
“What in the world…”
Chi-Woo had bled so much that the ground was soaked with blood. Her worried face turned even more solemn. After standing in the same spot looking anguished, Ru Hiana suddenly began to run. She didn’t run outside the fortress, but returned home and banged on the door.
“Hmm? Ru Hiana?” Ru Amuh, who was preparing to go out, turned to her in surprise. “What happened? Weren’t you planning to go running with Sir Chi-Woo again?”
“Ruahu…”
“Why? Is he still sleeping? Or—?” Ru Amuh blinked, the levity in his voice fading. Ru Hiana’s expression could only be described as grave; her breathing was unsteady, and her eyes were misty like she would burst into tears at any moment.
“What happened?” Ru Amuh’s gaze instantly sharpened.
“W-what should we do…?” A tearful sob escaped Ru Hiana’s mouth.” Senior…Senior has…!”
When Ru Hiana looked ready to collapse, Ru Amuh hurriedly went up to her and held onto her shoulders. “Calm down and take a deep breath. Take your time telling me what happened.” Ru Hiana gulped and nodded before slowly going into what just happened.
Rumors usually became exaggerated to terrifying proportions, especially when they came directly from a witness. According to Ru Hiana, Chi-Woo’s condition was extremely alarming. He was bleeding from every orifice of his body, and he vomited out a huge gulp of black blood. In short, in Ru Hiana’s telling, he had become a critically ill patient who was liable to die at any moment. On the other hand, since Chi-Woo had overextended himself for the past few days, he really did look sickly like a patient, so it was understandable that Ru Hiana misunderstood him.
“What?” Ru Amuh was obviously shocked. “Ru Hiana, if this is a joke, then stop. Look at my eyes and say it. Are you sure?”
“I…just…saw…” Ru Hiana replied with a tearful voice, “Even when I asked him what happened, he didn’t reply…and said let’s run separately today and quickly left…”
Ru Amuh dropped his listless hands from her shoulders. “Why…” He shook his head in complete confusion. “Why would he suddenly…” Chi-Woo had looked healthy just a few days ago, and his passion to learn fighting from Ru Amuh was also extraordinarily high. ‘There…must be…a reason…’
At that moment, a thought came to Ru Amuh’s mind. “…Perhaps.” His eyes became big as saucers. Only one thing had changed from when they were making their way through the woods and after they arrived at the fortress—
“No, it can’t be.” Ru Amuh couldn’t believe it. “There’s no way.” Even though he didn’t want to believe it, that was the only possibility coming to his mind. Honestly, he had been wondering why such a talented and great hero like Chi-Woo would suddenly come up to him and ask Ru Amuh to teach him how to fight. It wouldn’t have made sense in the first place if there wasn’t some kind of unknown circumstance.
Ru Amuh recalled how Chi-Woo had looked like he was going to die of fatigue after running only a few laps. “…Damn it!”
Thud! Unable to contain his emotions, Ru Amuh punched the wall. He had been stupid and thought too simply. Like an empty-headed fool, he had just accepted things as it was because Chi-Woo said so. ‘If I had paid even a bit more attention…’
He should have thought a bit more and realized the truth earlier on. “Where…is he right now…” Ru Amuh asked helplessly.
“He told me that he’s going out,” Ru Hiana tearfully replied and shook her head.
Ru Amuh was about to immediately run out to find Chi-Woo, but stopped himself. There wasn’t anything he could do if he just ran out like this. He couldn’t think of any solution to the problem. ‘It’s not a matter for me to worry about by myself.’
Ru Amuh bit his lips and quickly opened the door.
* * *
Meanwhile, Zelit and Eshnunna were deep in conversation. The atmosphere was pleasant. Eshnunna looked to be in good spirits as she relayed the results they had produced so far, and Zelit smiled in relief a couple times while listening to her.
“Even though it’s a very small area, the land has changed. People are also optimistic. They informed me that the land is ready for farming with a bit of care.”
“When do you think they’ll be able to start?”
“It’s not possible right now. We have to change the soil enough to make farming possible, and for that to happen, we have to manage it in the long run. But it’s only a matter of time.”
“That means we only have to wait. But Allen Leonard would have to work hard for a while.”
“Yes, he said that he would do his best to help every day.”
“Good, very good.” Zelit expressed his satisfaction, which was rare for him. “Since he had only been focusing on training his body, I wondered what he was up to, but he did it again. As expected of him.” Zelit was now talking about Chi-Woo without mentioning his name.
The beginning was always the hardest. Ever since they arrived at the fortress, Chi-Woo had been laying low, so Zelit had honestly been worried. However, Chi-Woo hadn’t been staying still; he had been moving behind the scene. As soon as he stepped forward, the problems concerning food supply had been significantly mitigated. Since there were so many tasks that needed to be addressed, they were grateful that Chi-Woo had relieved them of their biggest burden. Of course, it would be too early to say that all their problems were solved.
“We’ll have to wait a couple more months…it’ll be critical to secure food that will last until then.” Even though this was also a problem, it was a trivial matter compared to self-sufficiency in the long term. They had already formulated a plan to secure food; they just needed to carry it out now. It was at that moment—
Bam!
The door opened with a bang, and a man and a woman burst in.
“Ru Amuh? And Ru Hiana?” Zelit looked at them with confusion. Usually, he would’ve been annoyed with such rude behavior, but he knew Ru Amuh was a well-mannered man; rather than chastising the hero immediately, he asked, “What’s the matter?”
Judging by Ru Amuh’s complexion and attitude alone, he could tell that something extremely grave must have happened to stir up someone as composed as Ru Amuh—and Zelit was right on the mark.
“I have grave news. Sir Chi-Woo has…” Ru Amuh relayed to Zelit what he heard from Ru Hiana without missing a single word or making any mistakes.
“…What?” Zelit’s response was not so different from Ru Amuh’s. “What? Is that really true?” He immediately got up and stared intently at Ru Amuh. Eshnunna reacted similarly. Her bright expression immediately turned ghostly pale.
“…Yes…” Ru Amuh barely managed to get the words out of his mouth. “It seems…his body has…he is in extremely…critical condition…”
Because of one person’s misunderstanding, the situation was slowly getting out of hand.