Chapter 74

Mo Haein and Kwak Hanmuk immediately sprang to their feet and drew their swords.

I rushed forward to open the door, but I was stopped.

A paladin’s massive white greatsword blocked my path.

Kwak Hanmuk narrowed his eyes and spoke.

“Hold it.”

Mo Haein also shot a brief command at me.

“Trainee, wait.”

Leaving me behind, Kwak Hanmuk approached the door.

He had been about to kick it open but seemed to recall that business was set to begin the next day; instead, he opened it gently with his hand.

Creeak—the rusty hinges let out an unpleasant sound.

Outside the restaurant, the sun had fully set, leaving the world in darkness.

As the light spilled out from within, the figures lurking in the dark became visible.

Ella was clutching a blood-drenched Ellun, her face deathly pale.

Kwak Hanmuk flinched and muttered.

“Shit… is that Lieutenant Colonel Je?”

Since Je Hyun-oh had headed to the dungeon, it was natural to suspect him first.

Mo Haein seemed to be thinking the same thing, but I knew better.

Je Hyun-oh wasn’t the culprit.

Because this…

…was an event that occurred right before the ending.

It was the ‘Punishment of Infernum.’

It was an event that had a chance of triggering when the player was successfully managing both the restaurant and the dungeon raids.

It was an act of rage by Infernum, who foresaw that it would no longer be able to devour the player.

Unable to enjoy fine cuisine for so long, Infernum vented its fury by punishing its twin subordinates.

The image of the twins—each with a broken wing—standing before the dungeon and speaking to me flashed through my mind.

No matter how many times I chose the dialogue option asking what was going on—sensing an atmosphere different from usual—the twins just repeated the same words.

And once I entered the dungeon and returned, the twins would be gone.

They couldn’t be found anywhere in the village or the dungeon; traces of them would only appear after defeating the final boss, Infernum.

Inside Infernum’s ingredient storage.

Since the player faced no issues running the restaurant or clearing the dungeon, continuing the game would lead to the normal ending.

But for me, it wasn’t the normal ending—it was the bad ending.

And now, seeing it in reality rather than as pixel art…

I gritted my teeth as I looked at the twisted right wing of Ellun.

At least Ella didn’t seem to be injured.

‘It’s not time for that event to trigger yet.’

The conditions for Infernum’s “Punishment” event were clearing the uppermost level of the dungeon and having a restaurant reputation score of 800 or higher.

The event would trigger with a certain probability if the player paid the daily quota to Infernum but failed to send any food to the dungeon for ten consecutive days.

But right now, while I had cleared the dungeon quickly, that was all I’d done. I hadn’t even opened the restaurant.

Infernum’s voice suddenly flashed through my mind.

“Yes… if I can eat you, it will be a rare treat…”

Perhaps the problem was that he viewed me as a special delicacy.

After all, in the game, there was never an instance where a character spoke such lines directly to the player.

Still, since only Ellun was injured, it didn’t seem like a full-blown “punishment event” had been triggered yet.

There was still a chance.

I carefully called out to Ella.

“Ella-nim.”

Her trembling eyes darted past Kwak Hanmuk and fixed on me.

Ella called out to me, her voice sounding like a scream.

“Little Lamb!”

Holding the limp form of Ellun, Ella choked back sobs, unable to finish her sentence. Tears welled up in her large eyes.

I made a request to Kwak Hanmuk.

“Captain Kwak. Please let them inside.”

Before he could object, I quietly added:

“It is essential for clearing the True Ending.”

In truth, achieving the True Ending was impossible without the twins.

After all, the twins had to drive out Infernum and become the masters of the dungeon.

At the mention of necessity, Kwak Hanmuk glanced at Mo Haein.

She stared at the twins with an expressionless face before slowly turning to look at me.

“…I suppose we have no choice. If it’s for the True Ending.”

At Mo Haein’s words, Kwak Hanmuk sheathed his sword, looking slightly displeased.

I immediately ran over to Ella.

“Let me check on Ellun’s injuries.”

With a dazed look on her face, Ella handed Ellun over to me.

I laid him on the ground and examined his wings; the condition was poor.

The wing membranes were torn in several places, though fortunately, only one bone was broken.

As she gazed at his wretched state, Ella’s eyes darkened with despair. “What if Ellun never flies again…?”

“That won’t happen. We can definitely heal him, so don’t worry.”

As I reassured Ella, Dominic spoke from above me.

“Roasted Chestnut. Let me try using magic. I see I have a healing spell among my skills.”

It seemed he’d taken a liking to magic after defeating the boss in the dungeon, but that was absolutely out of the question.

Judging by the way he used magic, he might well end up turning Ellun into a metallic mechanical dragon in the name of healing him.

I also had to be careful, remembering how the system window had crashed twice because of Dominic since we entered Slutufle.

Fortunately, there was one viable treatment method available in the current situation.

‘I need to set the bone back in place first, though.’

I tried to ask the captains for help.

But Mo Haein had disappeared somewhere, and only Kwak Hanmuk was standing there, watching me.

“Where did Captain Mo go?”

“Said he was tired and went back up.”

I blinked in surprise, having never heard him say something like that before.

I found it hard to believe Mo Haein would do such a thing, but now wasn’t the time to question it.

“Captain Kwak, please help me. I need to set this bone.”

Kwak Hanmuk ambled over and squatted down beside me.

He frowned as he looked at the broken wing.

“I’ve never set a wing bone before.”

“We just need to align that protruding part back into place.”

“Hmm… okay. I’ll set it on the count of three.”

“All right.”

With a tense expression, I held onto Ellun’s body. Ella held onto the other wing. Kwak Hanmuk carefully gauged the position of the bone before placing his hand upon it.

Then, without counting down, he snapped it right back into place.

“Aaaargh!”

Crack. As the bone reset, Ellun—who had previously been struggling to draw even a ragged breath—let out a sharp scream.

Ella and I hurriedly pinned down Ellun’s body as it thrashed reflexively.

“Y-y-you insolent…!”

Small sparks spat from Ella’s mouth.

Even as she glared furiously with pink eyes—her pupils narrowed into sharp slits—Kwak Hanmuk replied with utter nonchalance.

“It was going to hurt anyway.”

…He wasn’t wrong.

I asked Kwak Hanmuk to hold Ellun steady while I put on my raven-feather gloves.

Then, I ran to the brazier and retrieved a Flame Slime core.

I placed the core—seething with contained flames—onto Ellun’s damaged wing.

The moment it made contact, the slime core hissed, sending up a puff of smoke as it slowly melted down.

I spread the now-viscous, liquid slime evenly over the wing, much like an ointment.

I gathered the torn wing membrane with my hands; once the slime was applied, the edges bonded together.

As the liquid seeped in, Ellun’s breathing gradually began to steady.

After applying the entire Flame Slime core, the damaged wing had more or less regained its original shape.

Since I had merely reconnected the membrane, the line of the tear remained visible.

The broken bone needed stabilization, so with Kwak Hanmuk’s help, I folded the wing against the body.

Then, I wrapped it tightly with a makeshift bandage fashioned from a long strip torn from my apron.

Finally, I attached leather straps to the bandage to secure the wing firmly against the torso. It was a device designed to keep the wings from flapping.

Only after finishing that step could I finally catch my breath.

It was fortunate that I knew the treatment for bat wings.

I had simply looked it up after playing Sla2Plate, never imagining I’d actually use the information.

I offered some words of encouragement to Ella, who was weeping silently.

“Things will get better little by little.”

Probably.

The fact that Fire Dragons used Flame Slime cores as a sort of cure-all was just a snippet of information I’d picked up in the game; I had never actually tried it myself.

I didn’t know what the outcome would be.

But for Ella’s sake, I spoke optimistically.

If all else fails, I could just buy a mechanical dragon wing to replace the right one.

That might actually look pretty cool. Just as I was entertaining this extreme idea, I heard a dejected voice.

“Little Lamb.”

Ella looked up at me, her wings drooping low.

“If we don’t have the Flame Slime core, we can’t cook, can we…?”

She knew, too, that the core was essential for roasting monster meat.

Of course, we could always go back to the dungeon to get another one, but the problem was the mountain of lizard tails that needed cooking right away.

If Flame Lizard tails weren’t cooked on the day they were harvested, they would all spoil.

They were ingredients that required roasting over a fire to extend their shelf life.

“That… will be fine.”

“Why would it be fine? You’re lying to me!”

“Oh, no, that’s not it. You’re going to help me, aren’t you, Ella-nim?”

“Me?”

I nodded in response to the bewildered Ella.

“Yes. Let’s roast some of those lizard tails together.”

I successfully finished preparing 500 lizard skewers.

“Haa… haa… Little lamb. Are you done yet?”

Ella asked me, panting heavily. Her face was flushed bright red.

Ella had been responsible for providing the heat to roast the 500 skewers.

Using the Fire Dragon’s breath to roast them made the process incredibly convenient and fast.

Since I hadn’t been able to buy an extra hearth today, it would have taken ages using the kitchen’s single existing hearth; I was lucky to have the Fire Dragon’s help.

“Thank you for your hard work. They’re all done.”

I thought about offering her a skewer, but Ella ran off, saying she didn’t even want to smell them anymore.

Checking the time, I picked up two skewers and left the kitchen.

Kwak Hanmuk had an empty wooden skewer in his mouth.

Beside him sat a chest—separate from my inventory—used for storing items; it was packed tight with the twigs Je-Hyun-oh had trimmed off while shaping the landscaping trees.

While I grilled the skewers, Kwak Hanmuk fashioned wooden sticks for me out of those twigs.

Thanks to his nimble hands, I was able to grill the lizard tails without a hitch.

“Chestnut-ie, are they done?”

“Yes. Here, have some.”

I handed him the skewers I was holding in both hands and tentatively broached the subject.

“Um… I don’t think I should send the twins back to the dungeon. I was thinking of letting them sleep in my room and having them help out at the restaurant tomorrow…”

Perhaps the chopped steak had already built up some trust; Kwak Hanmuk accepted the lizard tail skewer without hesitation, took a bite, and answered while chewing.

“Suit yourself.”

I was actually surprised by how readily he gave his permission.

When I stared at him with wide eyes, he just shrugged.

“We went to the trouble of fixing those wings, so we might as well put them to use. The Lieutenant Colonel should be arriving soon; I’ll explain the situation, so you just go get some sleep, Al-bam.”

“…By the way, what about Captain Mo?”

“Captain Mo?”

Kwak Hanmuk paused mid-bite and let out a long sigh.

Gazing toward the second floor with a wistful look in his eyes, he spoke very slowly.

“He’s allergic to Fire Dragons.”

All the tension that had been coiled tight inside me instantly drained away.

Kwak Hanmuk chuckled and poked me with the empty wooden skewer.

“You only just got over your ‘butler allergy,’ so don’t go looking for Captain Mo—just get some sleep. Got it?”

“Yes…” Given how strongly she had spoken, it seemed best to just quietly go to sleep.

I needed to check on Ellun’s condition anyway.

I took Ella up to my room on the second floor. Ellun was fast asleep on the bed.

Ella and I carefully lay down at the edge of the bed, the pudding slime resting on my chest.

“Hey, Little Lamb.”

Ella, clutching her pillow, murmured while glancing at me.

“Thank you for your help.”

“You helped me too, Ella-nim. I survived thanks to that recovery potion.”

“For something so trivial…”

Ella chewed her lip before speaking again.

“The Lord broke Ellun’s wing. But since you healed it, the Lord might view you as an enemy from now on.”

“That goes for me, too.”

I couldn’t exactly say that I wanted to roast Infernum until he was a well-done Fire Dragon steak, so I kept my answer simple.

Ella looked dazed at my reply.

It was quiet for a long while after that, and I was just mentally going over my plans for the next day…

When I heard a voice, barely more than a whisper.

“Why did you come to mind first?”

Enveloped in the darkness, Ella continued speaking, almost as if talking to herself.

“The moment Ellun’s wing was broken, you were the only one I could think of, Little Lamb. We’d only met two days ago, yet for some reason, I felt certain that you would help us…”

I turned over to face Ella.

She quickly covered her face with her pillow.

“Ella-nim.”

“…Why do you call me?”

I smiled faintly as I watched her peek out from behind the pillow.

“Just because.”

“…….”

“Thank you for coming to see me today.”

“…….”

“I used to imagine it sometimes. Wondering what it would have been like if, back then, you hadn’t just disappeared without a word but had asked me for help instead. I even looked up ways to treat it…”

“…….”

“Ah, it’s just… something like that happened to me in the past. Anyway, I was really happy that you came today, Ella.”

“…….”

“That’s all. Go to sleep now.”

I lay back down, looking straight up at the ceiling.

And I fell asleep, feeling the sensation of the pudding slime—which had slid down a bit—creeping back up onto my chest.

“You are a strange one, Little Lamb.”

I didn’t hear Ella’s quiet murmur.