Future Knight [EN]: Chapter 117

“……”

Kang Chan couldn’t bring himself to blame the soldier.

He wouldn’t care if other green elves withered and died. But he absolutely couldn’t stand by and watch Platina, not her.

Kang Chan stood frozen for a moment.

Then, filled with anxiety, the soldier cautiously called out to Kang Chan.

“U-um, Sir Knight of the Sky?”

“Don’t say another word.”

As Kang Chan answered, he grabbed the iron bars and pried them apart.

The thick iron bars bent like taffy with surprising ease.

Squeak, squeak, squeak…

“Eek!”

The soldier, witnessing Kang Chan’s superhuman strength, stumbled backward in shock.

Ignoring the soldier, Kang Chan entered the prison and picked up the fallen Platina.

He immediately carried her out, then narrowed the bars again.

Squeak, squeak, squeak…

Though not as perfect as the first time, Kang Chan roughly closed the bars and spoke to the soldier.

“I’m taking this woman. Farewell.”

Hugging the green elf woman, Kang Chan headed towards his barracks, leaving behind the terrified soldier bowing deeply in farewell.

“Y-yes, please, be careful on your way……”

Kang Chan brought Platina to his barracks, laid her on his bed, and trickled water between her parched lips.

Unconscious, she instinctively swallowed the water.

However, Kang Chan gave her a bit too much, and she soon began to cough.

“Cough! Cough!”

“Ah! Sorry!”

Kang Chan wiped around her mouth with a handkerchief.

As he wiped her face, he stared intently at her once more.

Her face, resembling Jeina perfectly except for her skin color.

It was a face he missed so much that he could watch it all night without getting tired.

However, the more time passed, the more Kang Chan frowned.

The unimaginable stench emanating from her body assaulted his nose.

The stench from her body, soaked in sweat for eight days, was unbelievably foul.

When he brought her, he didn’t think it was that bad because of the wind, but now that they were inside the enclosed tent, the smell was almost unbearably strong.

And he couldn’t get used to it.

Kang Chan considered what to do, even thinking of calling Elrika.

But that wasn’t easy either.

He hesitated to ask her to care for a green elf whose family she had lost and who herself had barely escaped death.

Kang Chan hesitated, then decided he should at least change her clothes, so he took out his tunic and pants and stood before her.

But when he actually tried to change her clothes, he hesitated a bit.

Not out of bad intentions, but because it was a little embarrassing.

Still, he had no choice but to start undressing her as she lay there.

Embarrassingly, her clothes were like a one-piece dress, and he had to lift it from the bottom up to take it off, putting him in a very awkward position.

‘I’m definitely not doing this with any ulterior motives. Absolutely not…….’

Kang Chan justified his actions as he slowly lifted the dress from her lower body.

Then, the stench-filled garment gradually began to come off by Kang Chan’s hand, and her bare skin was revealed before his eyes.

And the moment the dress passed over her chest, Kang Chan gasped.

“Gasp!”

She wasn’t wearing underwear.

Kang Chan, having slept with Jeina, knew that elves usually wore something similar to Earth’s bras, a thin cloth to cover their breasts.

But this green elf woman seemed to be going without.

Whether it was just her or all green elf women, he didn’t know.

But the important thing was that she wasn’t wearing underwear, and more importantly, she was awake and looking at Kang Chan.

“W-what are you doing?”

“Gasp!”

The moment Kang Chan’s eyes met hers, he quickly covered her chest and tried to act nonchalant.

“I was changing your clothes.”

She showed no particular change in expression at Kang Chan’s words.

She seemed too exhausted to even get angry.

She asked again with difficulty.

“Where is this?”

Her voice was still hoarse, even after drinking water, so Kang Chan poured her some more.

She drank it like crazy as soon as she saw the water, despite her lack of strength.

Then she held out the cup to Kang Chan, asking for more.

But Kang Chan refused her request.

“If you suddenly drink a lot after not drinking water for too long, it’s bad for your health. So drink slowly over time. There’s plenty of water.”

At Kang Chan’s words, she looked disappointed and lay back down weakly, looking at the ceiling as she asked.

“Did you bring me here?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you bring me here?”

Kang Chan handed her the clothes to change into, asking in a barely audible voice.

“I brought you because you looked like you were going to die if I left you there. Here, put these on.”

The woman looked at the clean clothes Kang Chan handed her and swallowed hard.

“Um, I’m sorry, but could you help me change?”

“W-what?”

“I don’t have the strength…… Could you help me?”

She really seemed to be struggling just to speak.

Drinking the water a moment ago was almost a miraculous act.

That’s how much she was suffering from thirst.

“A-alright.”

Kang Chan undressed her again.

Her upper body was now fully exposed.

She was ashamed of her dirty body.

“I smell bad, right?”

Kang Chan had nothing to say to her words.

It was the humans, including himself, who had made her that way.

Kang Chan silently tried to put his tunic on her.

But just then, she made an even more embarrassing request to Kang Chan.

“Um…… I’m sorry, but before you put the new clothes on me, could you wipe my body down a bit?”

‘Gasp!’

Kang Chan was startled inside.

Even so, it was surprising that she would make such a bold request to someone she had only met twice.

But she really wanted to wash.

She hadn’t been able to wash properly since the all-out war with the Allied Forces.

On top of that, with the enormous amount of dust she had accumulated on top of the sweat she had shed for eight days, her body was now almost like a beggar’s.

“Just a moment……”

Reluctantly, Kang Chan filled his washbasin with water and, soaking a towel in the water, began to wipe her body.

He had only wiped her face, but the towel turned as black as if it had been dipped in ink.

The woman, looking at the blackened towel, turned her head away in shame.

It wasn’t a sight a woman would want to show a man.

But Kang Chan didn’t seem to care, as he washed the towel and wiped her face clean again.

Kang Chan’s heart fluttered even more at her clean face.

Because it was becoming more and more like seeing Jeina.

Her closed eyes, her high nose, her cherry-like lips.

Kang Chan wiped every corner of her body clean.

Each time his towel brushed against her private areas, her face flushed red.

Finally, after wiping away the dust, she changed into Kang Chan’s large pants and tunic, looking much cleaner than before.

“I feel so refreshed, like I could fly away. Thank you so much.”

“Just rest well today.”

“Yes……”

She fell asleep as if she had been waiting for Kang Chan to tell her to rest.

Looking at her, it seemed like she had been desperately staying awake until now.

Kang Chan looked at her, then picked up the basin to throw away the dirty water.

Then, looking at the dark, stagnant water in the basin, he thought to himself without realizing it.

‘I could use this to write with ink.’

The next day, Elrika visited Kang Chan’s tent early in the morning.

“Kang Chan, do you know where Zikyon went?”

But waiting for her was not Kang Chan but Platina, and Elrika screamed when she found her.

“Kyaaaa!”

Startled by Elrika’s sudden scream, Kang Chan, who had been sleeping on a blanket under the bed, jumped up and asked.

“What’s wrong?”

“O-on the bed, that’s a green elf!”

“Yes.”

“Why is that thing lying there?”

“I brought her yesterday because she was dying. I thought she would die if I left her there.”

“W-where from?”

“From the prisoner camp.”

“But Kang Chan, why a green elf……”

Elrika shook her head as if she couldn’t believe Kang Chan’s actions, looking back and forth between Kang Chan and Platina on the bed.

Eventually, her gaze became fixed on Platina’s face.

“H-huh! Jeina?”

Elrika, who had lived next door to Jeina for nearly 100 years, couldn’t help but be surprised to see Platina, who resembled Jeina.

“H-how can this be……”

Elrika slowly approached Platina with a look as if she had seen something she shouldn’t have.

“She looks a lot like her, right?”

“It’s not just similar, she looks exactly the same. Oh my god……”

Elrika stared at Platina’s sleeping face for a long time, then flinched and said to Kang Chan.

“P-perhaps, Kang Chan, the reason you brought this green elf is, could it be because she looks like Jeina?”

That was definitely the truth, so Kang Chan slowly nodded.

“B-but this woman is the child of that witch who killed Jeina.”

At Elrika’s words, Kang Chan made a bitter expression and replied.

“I know……”

Elrika flared up at the word ‘I know’.

“You knew and you still brought her here, how could you do that? So what are you going to do? Are you going to make this child a replacement for Jeina?”

“Elrika!”

Kang Chan flared up at Elrika’s remark without realizing it.

If Elrika had been a man, he would have grabbed her by the collar.

Elrika burst into tears at Kang Chan’s sudden anger.

“I-I’m disappointed, Kang Chan.”

As Elrika ran out of the tent in tears, Kang Chan quickly called out to her.

“Elrika!”

Kang Chan ran out of the tent to catch her.

And a moment later, Platina opened her eyes inside the tent.

Platina, who opened her eyes, drank the water at her bedside and lay down again.

Soon, she touched the clothes Kang Chan had given her, smelling his scent on the clothes.

37. Loki’s Outing

Loki, who had acquired Vismann Empire citizenship, felt a sense of belonging to the human world, unlike before.

Loki, in these days without battles, wandered alone through the Allied camp, which had become a huge city of 1.5 million people, observing their lives.

In one company’s barracks, soldiers who were not on training or emergency standby were spending their personal time.

Men gathered here and there, washing their dirty tunics and underwear and hanging them under the summer sun.

They had foam on their rough faces, and looking at them, it seemed so peaceful that one might doubt whether this was a battlefield.

Of course, there were women here too.

“Oh my! Oppa [Korean term for older brother or boyfriend], come play!”

“What, from the middle of the day! No way. See you tonight!”

“Okay, I got it! You have to come! I’ll be waiting, Oppa!”

Loki looked at them with envious eyes.

‘Hmm, those two must be lovers.’

Loki still seemed to have a lot to learn.

“Oh my! Who’s that? Is he a newbie?”

“Who? Oh my! Oh my gosh, he’s so pretty. Whose kid is he?”