Elegy from Another World

The silence after the battle lingered in the valley, broken only by the howling wind through the blood-soaked earth. I first examined my body. On the back of my neck where the carnivorous plant had infested the wound, although I had cleaned the wound with magic, some tiny, barely perceptible roots seemed to remain beneath the skin. They had not continued to grow, nor did they cause any discomfort, as if they had entered a dormant state.

"It should be under control for now, right?" I touched the skin, and there was nothing unusual to the touch, so I temporarily suppressed my doubts.

Next came cleaning up the battlefield. I scavenged some coins, a few decent weapons, and a small amount of magical materials from the bandits' makeshift camp and the corpses, stuffing them all into my spatial backpack. Then, I found where they held their prisoners—a stench-filled cave.

The scene before me weighed heavily on my heart. Twenty-three people were imprisoned in the cave, but five of them were already cold corpses. The eighteen survivors were also in dire straits; many were missing limbs, their wounds crudely bandaged, destined for infection sooner or later. Even more heartbreaking was that several of them had vacant eyes, huddled in corners, unresponsive to my presence. Only when I accidentally touched their wounds, causing pain, would they emit an unconscious growl or twitch, as if their souls had been ripped away, leaving only empty shells reacting to pain.

I forced myself to remain calm and quietly questioned those who could still communicate. From their fragmented, terrified accounts, I learned the truth: they were not simple prisoners, but "sacrifices." The beast tamer who could control the monsters maintained and controlled them through sacrifices. The missing limbs and mental breakdowns were the consequences of these cruel rituals.

My heart sank. The healing magic I possessed was limited to treating physical injuries and illnesses; it was utterly powerless against limb regeneration, and especially against complete mental collapse. I couldn't leave them here to die, but leading such a group of immobile, mentally unstable people across the hills back to Valencia was virtually an impossible task.

Left with no other choice, I distributed the limited food and water I had found in the bandit's den. Then, I chopped down nearby trees and, using magic and brute force, managed to build a huge, crude wooden wagon. I placed those who could still move on the wagon, and had a few of the less injured and stronger individuals help pull it, while I pulled it from the front with a rope.

The group moved extremely slowly. By nightfall, we had only covered a short distance. I chose a relatively safe, leeward slope to set up camp, used magic to light a campfire to ward off the chill and wild animals, and then used branches and rags from the campsite to build several makeshift tents.

I intended to let these tormented people rest in the tent, but something strange happened. Those few people who had been mentally broken and indifferent to everything staggered toward me and then clung tightly to my arms and waist like cubs seeking shelter.

As I was feeling confused, one of them even stuck out his tongue and gently licked the skin on the back of my neck where the parasite had once been.

A faint but undeniable tingling sensation washed over me. I turned my head in surprise, and by the light of the campfire, I saw something wriggling beneath the skin where I had been licked. Then, a small, pure white bud, emitting a faint glow, grew and bloomed at a visible speed!

I froze completely, my mind went blank.

What shocked me even more was that the person who had licked me, as if discovering a sweet spring, began to carefully suck the nectar from that little white flower. In his empty eyes, there seemed to be a fleeting, extremely brief glimmer of satisfaction.

"What... what's going on?" I steadied myself and asked the few remaining conscious survivors nearby. They all shook their heads blankly, indicating that they had never seen anything like this before.

I quickly checked my entire body and found seven similar small white flowers growing on my neck, arms, and even waist. They bloomed quietly, emitting a faint life energy and a strange fragrance. When I sucked on them, I could clearly feel a sensation of being drawn out, but accompanying it was a peculiar pleasure, like a slight electric shock, derived from "Eternal Burning." It wasn't uncomfortable; on the contrary, it was somewhat...comfortable? Moreover, the pale complexions of those who sucked on the nectar seemed to show a barely perceptible improvement.

"Could it be... a mutation caused by the carnivorous flower that parasitized it before? My 'immortality' constitution didn't completely eliminate it, but instead allowed it to survive in a... symbiotic form?" I looked at the survivor in my arms, who was clinging to me like a baby and sucking on the nectar, and my feelings were complicated.

For now, these white flowers don't seem harmful; in fact, they might even be beneficial to these people. Suppressing my inner turmoil, I decided to observe for the time being. "Well, since there's no harm, let's leave it at that for now. Let's observe further before making any decisions."

The night was deep, and the campfire crackled. I sat there, a few strange little white flowers blooming on my body, nestled among several delirious survivors, creating an eerie yet tender scene.