To. Dear Ian,
The medicine you requested is finally complete.
You must have had a hard time, but that's fortunate.
This time there will be no side effects,
I would like to tell you in person, but
It's not easy for me either, given the circumstances.
I don't know exactly where you live, so I'll send you to the nearest town, Town Aylon, right?
.
.
.
ps. Call me again when you run out of medicine.
I want to see your face even if it's been a while.
From. S. Edwards
Why does this suspicious letter seem to get more and more cryptic the more you try to uncover its true nature? Gray, who had been scanning the contents of the letter over and over again, furrowed his brow.
After leaving Mr. Hound's cabin and returning to her own home, she could no longer contain her curiosity and opened the letter with a paper knife as soon as she entered the house.
But inside the envelope were not only letters, but also envelopes filled with mysterious pills. The pills were transparent capsules on the outside, but inside, a red liquid potion sloshed.
The sender was even more of a mystery. S. Edward? He's not some stage actor, so why is his name like that? I searched the entire empire, but there was no family named Edward. Oh, come to think of it, Zeon is an even more absurd surname.
Gray, who had been looking back and forth between it and the contents of the letter, tapped her lips with the tip of her index finger. This was a habit she had whenever she was deep in thought. For example, when she was recalling the contents of a new book, or when she was inferring such cryptic words.
'The medicines you requested are finally complete,' 'You must have had a hard time.'As she was putting together the small puzzle pieces one by one, the preface to S. Edward's letter with the phrases written on it, the blood-colored pills of unknown identity, a thought flashed through her mind, and it was like lightning striking in a clear sky.
If you should receive this letterIan ZeonWhat if this was a critical situation? What if Edward sent the cure? As this thought emerged from among the countless hypotheses, it wasn't difficult to draw out the next thread of imagination. ...So this person needs this medicine right now.
Her boundless imagination was something even Gray himself couldn't control. Frightening scenes were already constantly forming in her mind, including the image of a man gasping for breath, teetering on the brink of death.
"..."
Coming down to the countryside, she wondered if she had been a nuisance, and although it wasn't her intention, the thought of stealing a sick patient's medicine kept pricking her conscience.
"...."
But that conscience, sadly, was squandered by the cold reason that had taken hold in my head. "You know where Ian Jeon is now, and you're not about to rush to that dangerous rocky mountain to find him, are you?"
"...Haaah..."
In the end, Gray was lying down on the table, unable to make a decision, and in her eyes'You must have had a hard time.'A headline with the phrase “” was seen.
"..But I still have to tell the owner.."
...Yeah, well... nothing will happen, no matter how dangerous the world is. Where are the monsters that eat people alive? If you have to, you can just leave it in the mailbox.
Okay, I'll go and come back as soon as the sun rises tomorrow. Thinking that, Gray carefully put the letter and the envelope away and resealed the envelope.
Gulp, gulp, in a pitch-black room where the only light was moonlight shining through the blackout curtains covering the glass window, the only sound that broke the silence was the sound of someone desperately quenching their thirst.
"ha.."
Ian, who had just finished the cold water in his glass, which had been clinking with ice cubes just a moment ago, nervously put down the empty glass and held his neck.
"Ha.. F*ck.."
It was the beginning again. These days, whenever night fell, a thirst so intense that it felt like his throat was going to burst open, if not crack, would torment him countless times.
This damn thirst wouldn't go away no matter how many bottles of cold water I drank down my throat, and occasionally I would hallucinate as if a faint fishy smell was irritating my nose, which was driving me crazy.
Every time, Ian desperately turned away from it. Even when the terrible hallucination finally forced the image of a bloody pool shining bright red before him, he resisted by biting his tongue and slapping his cheek.
But he also knew that he could not endure this forever, and inside his body, his instincts kept writhing, longing for that fishy scent and that red shape.
Somehow, a solution had to be found.
Thank you for ranking 8th on August 29th :-)