Chapter 20

I ran without looking back in the opposite direction of where the Lesser Outer God was pointing.

I kept running until I was sure the smiling plants she controlled were no longer chasing me, leaving me out of breath and with aching legs.

"Are they still chasing us?"

I could tell there was nothing chasing me anymore when I saw the Lesser Outer God, who had poked its head out of my pocket, shaking its head.

Only then could I stop for a moment to catch my breath.

"Haa, phew..."

Although I looked perfectly fine on the outside, I kept feeling drained, so I wasn't sure what state I was in anymore.

Thanks to the Super Chicken Mod, there were no visible external injuries, but it was becoming a problem that I had no way of knowing the actual state of my body.

For now, I was moving because my body could still move, but I was worried that my insides might be completely twisted.

...Imagining the worst-case scenario doesn't help, so let's put aside negative thoughts and try to think for now.

Since the Gardener is so hostile to humans, I can never confront her alone.

Then what I need is the power to fight back.

If I had skills like the Hunter, I could handle it in an instant.

But I don't have such things, so it's impossible.

"Friend, can you take out the candies?"

The Lesser Outer God went into my pocket and took out three lollipops one by one.

Physical enhancement, mental enhancement, and suicide.

The most useful for me, who's mentally immune, would be physical enhancement, but how much would it increase and how long would it last?

There was no way for me to know on my first use.

"This isn't enough to defeat the Gardener."

Unless I had a weapon.

They wouldn't give weapons to a criminal who might waste precious Outer God hunting tools.

To break through this situation, as expected...

"I need Muyeon."

The strength that shattered the ground in the underground prison.

The axe that split trees as if cutting paper.

The story of being Mushin's daughter that I saw in the community.

If only Muyeon were here, everything would fall into place and be resolved.

But even this would be meaningless if Muyeon had already escaped and left.

"Friend."

When I called the Lesser Outer God, she flew up to meet my eye level.

"Can you guide me to where Ms. Muyeon is?"

But the Lesser Outer God shook its head.

Can it not detect people, unlike showing the way to escape?

...Come to think of it, when I asked about how to escape, it pointed to the Gardener, and the questions towards the Lesser Outer God seemed to have a more complex mechanism than I thought.

"Then can you fly up and find a woman with pink hair?"

At those words, the Lesser Outer God nodded and went "ung ung" before zooming up.

I was worried that it might get caught and hurt by the Gardener, looking so defenseless, but perhaps living up to her name as the Gardener, she couldn't interfere in the sky.

Fortunately, the Lesser Outer God came down to my shoulder without incident.

"Did you find her?"

It nodded, but its expression was darker.

Could something have happened to Muyeon?

"Guide me. Let's go quickly."

Following the Lesser Outer God's guidance, we arrived at the place with the main gate.

As expected, it seems Muyeon had fled towards the exit, but...

The exit seemed blocked by stems with no way to escape.

Muyeon is supposed to be here, but...

With the mindset that I should grumble a bit even though I was in the weaker position, I looked around, but my mouth shut tight.

"W-what is this."

I had thought they were beautiful flowers when we came in, but now the flowers were crawling out of the ground and heading towards one place.

The flowers, moving their small stems and leaves, hopped and started to surround something in layers.

Stems abnormally thickened by intertwining with each other.

And there, I could see Muyeon trapped, surrounded by a cage.

"Wake up, Ms. Muyeon!"

Her condition looked serious no matter how I looked at it.

I quickly ran over and tried to tear away the stems with my hands, but they were too sturdy, like touching wood.

After struggling for a while, the Lesser Outer God handed me lollipops of different colors.

Right, physical enhancement!

The Lesser Outer God pointed to one red lollipop.

Is this the physical enhancement candy?

"But is this really a candy that enhances physical abilities?"

Due to the Super Chicken Mod, all the candies looked similar, so I couldn't remember which one was the one I wanted.

One of these was also mixed with suicide medicine, so if I ate the wrong one, I might have to say goodbye to this world without being able to do anything.

The Lesser Outer God was pointing to one candy, but...

Remembering how it had guided me to where the Gardener was earlier, I gave it a distrustful look, but the Lesser Outer God jumped up and down as if to say it was real.

...I won't die from eating this, right?

Alright, it's an urgent situation with someone dying, so let's put it in my mouth.

Whether I die from eating this or die from not defeating the Gardener and getting killed by the knight order, it's all the same.

I unwrapped the candy and put it in my mouth. A tingling yet sweet taste filled my mouth.

How should I describe it, an extremely sweet and delicious cherry flavor?

To the extent that I'd be willing to keep eating if such tasty candies kept coming out.

Ah, right.

This isn't the time for such thoughts, so I chewed it with my molars and swallowed it.

As soon as I felt it going down my throat, I suddenly felt like it was evaporating.

Maybe because it was made from Outer God body parts, it seemed to be absorbed into my body without any digestion process.

Did I eat it properly?

Maybe because I was too nervous, cold sweat started to flow from my head.

A few seconds passed like that.

Still, there was no reaction.

Could I have eaten the mental clarity medicine by mistake?

When I looked at the Lesser Outer God once, it made an expression like an angry emoticon and pointed at the flowers with its finger as if telling me to try it now.

Well, I don't feel particularly stronger, but I might as well try.

Thinking that, I grabbed the flowers surrounding Muyeon and pulled, and...

Crack!

As if proving I had eaten it correctly, the stems that hadn't budged before still felt heavy, but started to tear bit by bit.

If it's working, shouldn't there be some sign? How can there be no feeling at all?

This is perplexing.

"Ms. Muyeon, I'll save you now!"

Seeing Muyeon's vitality gradually fading away, it seemed there was no time to waste.

I quickly tore off the flowers clinging to Muyeon, and I could see that some of these flowers were wrapped around Muyeon's legs.

This seemed to be what was killing Muyeon.

These things seemed determined to kill Muyeon too, as every time I removed one, they would stick back to Muyeon like gum.

But thanks to the enhanced physical abilities, I could move faster than the stems, and for a very brief moment, there was a time when Muyeon wasn't held by any flowers.

Not missing that moment, I immediately grabbed Muyeon's arm and pulled, and the stems all thrust sharp tendrils into where Muyeon had been.

Tong tong tong!

The sound was endlessly cute, but it was creepy nonetheless, considering they had tried to stab something into Muyeon's body.

"Ms. Muyeon, excuse me!"

I ran like mad while carrying Muyeon in both arms.

Conversation had to be postponed.

Now that their source of nutrients was gone, the stems were all rushing towards me.

As the drug effect gradually wore off, my body started to lose strength rapidly.

"Is it safe enough here?"

After running for a while, at some point the stems stopped chasing us.

Do they have their own territory like other plants?

Reaching a flat area without flowers, I could finally find a space to rest.

First, I laid Muyeon down and put a mental stabilizing candy that the Lesser Outer God had taken out into Muyeon's mouth as emergency treatment.

I've done everything I can for now...

Sighing at this crazy day, I looked at Muyeon and saw that where the flower stems had been pulled out, there were only slight marks left, looking clean as if nothing had happened to my eyes.

Even those disappeared instantly, showing how remarkable Muyeon's recovery ability was.

"Ms. Muyeon. Please wake up."

I called out to Muyeon in a weak voice, but there was no answer.

"You're already awake, aren't you?"

When there was still no response, I shouted.

"I won't criticize you for running away, so please get up."

Then she slowly started to open her eyes.

Her expression, filled with endless sadness, seemed to make even me solemn.

Finally, tears started to flow from Muyeon's eyes.

"...Sniff, I'm sorry. I was scared, I wanted to run away, because of the orders..."

"Don't cry, just talk."

"It's kind of you to save someone like me, hic, but it hurts my heart so much to deceive you, I'm sorry, I have no face to show..."

"Come on, I said calm down."

Muyeon was so immersed in crying that her pronunciation was all slurred.

I unconsciously put my hand in my pocket, and suddenly something like a handkerchief was in my hand, so I immediately passed it to Muyeon.

Wait, was it there originally?

Thanks to the Lesser Outer God's ability, I couldn't tell because I felt no weight at all.

What exactly is the state of my pocket?

After wiping Muyeon's tears with the handkerchief one by one and helping her blow her nose, we were finally able to make eye contact.

Then Muyeon looked at me with surprised eyes.

"Why, why...! No, wait a minute..."

Muyeon looked me over with a surprised expression, then tears poured out even more, making the wiping meaningless.

"Mr. Tanton, your body... Your body...!"

The place Muyeon was pointing to was exactly where I had felt pain.

I thought I was fine thanks to the Super Chicken Mod, but is something wrong with my condition?

"Ah, this is..."

"There's a... hole... visible... hic!"

No.

Am I injured that badly?

It's true that people only believe what they see.

Maybe that's why even after hearing those words, I didn't suddenly collapse in pain or anything like that.

I patted Muyeon's shoulder, who was still sobbing, seemingly in shock.

"Ms. Muyeon, I'm fine. Stop crying."

But she still had a shocked expression, so I sighed and said:

"...Ms. Muyeon, calm down. All the scary things are gone now. I'm a huge chicken too, so I understand well."

I thought I had comforted her well, but...

"...That's not it!"

Muyeon forcibly stopped her crying and shouted in a loud voice.

Surprised, I quickly put my index finger to her lips, signaling her to lower her voice.

She then lowered her voice, hiccupping.

"...It's not just because I'm scared... More than that, I...! Mr. Tanton got injured this badly to save me, and I... I feel so sorry about that... I hate myself so much...!"

"I understand for now, so calm down a bit."

I decided to wait until Muyeon stopped crying while patting her back.

A few minutes later, Muyeon was still sniffling but started to speak in a slightly better voice.

"...Actually, there was a hidden intention behind the Vice Captain's order for us to catch an Outer God and prove ourselves."

"What do you mean by intention?"

"Actually, except for me, the other two knights, those people are criminals.

That bead they used when playing rock-paper-scissors just now, it's an object that steals the opponent's luck to make the fight favorable for the users.

They committed various criminal acts under the status of apprentice knights. After all, a knight is still a knight."

Ah.

So it was a rigged game after all.

But what was that voice from the jade bead?

It wasn't urgent, so I decided to erase it from my mind.

"The Vice Captain only deals with people he can manage. He judges those he can't handle or who cause problems as useless.

So the Vice Captain sent us this time with the meaning of dying together with the captured criminals."

...I had thought it might be something like that, but to think it was true.

Well, from the knight order's perspective, we are dangerous elements who committed serious crimes, so they tried to get rid of us along with them?

I understand, but isn't it a bit too much considering we even repelled an Outer God?

"...Then what about you, Ms. Muyeon?"

"...The Vice Captain told me to come back alive. Because of my father's competence, and the fact that I'm a disciple of Senior White Mask, I was given the role of overseeing this task.

But I'm a coward who couldn't even accomplish this. The Vice Captain always said that those who can't properly carry out orders are useless and unnecessary.

...So, I'm no different from those two knights. Maybe I was sent with the intention of disposing of me too, a coward who tarnishes my father's name. So maybe I should have just..."

She's completely overwhelmed by negative emotions.

I put my index finger to my lips and went "shh" to prevent Muyeon from continuing.

It's true that Muyeon did something that would make me angry from my perspective.

But Muyeon just did what she was told from above, and I think what Muyeon did is proper treatment for criminals.

Of course, I became a criminal unjustly, but that's not something ordinary people would know.

So I have no feelings towards Muyeon.

Now that I've found Muyeon, I just want to tell her what I want her to do.

"Ms. Muyeon."

"...Yes?"

"There's a way for you to get rid of your guilt towards me and become a capable person."

A chicken's heart is best understood by another chicken.

So I was also the person who best understood Muyeon's heart.

Muyeon looked at me with an expression full of curiosity.

Looking at her like that, I smiled slightly.

"How about giving it a try?"