Chapter 27 The insect eggs were both fearful and respectful... just like those people...
What is this...?
Catherine was horrified. She reached out to touch it, but the next second, the downy hair and the extra bone vanished as if it were a hallucination. Her heart, which had been pounding violently as if it were about to burst out of her chest, slowly calmed down.
Catherine took a breath and froze on the spot.
Thump thump—thump thump—
A knock at the door pulled her back to reality. Catherine went to open it, and the aroma of food wafted in first.
"My lady, it's time to eat," Erica's gentle voice rang out.
Clearly, Catherine hadn't fully recovered from the strange changes in her body just now, and her mind was still somewhat dazed. Hearing Erica's words, she simply gave a casual "hmm," took the plate, and turned to go back inside.
The curtain fell, blocking Erica's view.
She touched her nose, somewhat bewildered: "Witch... what's wrong with you?"
"Erica, what are you doing? Come and eat!" Before she could think, her companion's voice came through the wind.
"Ah! It's coming... Don't steal my meat!"
Erica responded and ran back. She was busy stopping her companion from picking up the last piece of meat from the pot, and her earlier thought was long forgotten.
-
There are very few forms of entertainment in the Devil's Forest. However, for humans, a race at the bottom of the food chain in the Devil's Forest, there is not much need for entertainment.
Normally, just being vigilant about the surrounding dangers, dealing with intruding monsters, and hunting enough meat to feed a large group of people in the camp would take up a lot of their time.
However, those tasks were all assigned to the adults in the camp; children had no part in them, let alone witches—in fact, they wouldn't dare trouble witches for help.
Healing Barth was a desperate plea for a miracle from the gods.
To them, she was more like an unattainable deity, inspiring their awe and reverence.
So Catherine had nothing to do ever since she came to the camp with them.
She lifted the curtains and looked outside. There were more people gathered in the camp than in the previous two days. This was probably because the monsters hunted during the day were enough to feed the entire camp for a day, so the hunting team didn't need to go out again in the afternoon.
Catherine thought for a moment, then pushed open the door and went out.
This was the first time she had left her tent. Everyone in the camp turned to look at her, but even with so many eyes on her, Catherine calmly walked through the camp.
The tents, large and small, were scattered around the campsite, numbering nearly a dozen. What they all had in common was that the other tents were located quite far from her.
The tents were clustered together on one side, while hers was on the other, separated by a large, irregularly shaped open space. These spaces were designated for washing, cooking, and laundry, but all the tents faced her. From above, the tents appeared to radiate outwards from her, forming a fan shape, like a protective shield.
She felt both fear and respect... just like how those people treated her.
The people in the camp, seeing her just walking around casually, gradually stopped looking at her and began to focus on their own tasks. But whenever she made any other move, they would steal a few more glances.
Catherine couldn't help but laugh, finding their expressions inexplicably amusing.
Several children ran out of the tent, laughing and playing a game of tag, completely unaware of Catherine not far behind them.
"Oh dear! Ah... Witch!"
Unsurprisingly, the fastest child turned around and bumped straight into Catherine.
She had initially turned her head curiously to see who she had bumped into, but the moment she saw Catherine's face clearly, her face turned deathly pale. The other children around her scattered in panic, disappearing into the cluster of tents.
Catherine pinched the girl's soft, marshmallow-like cheeks; the pleasant feel made her feel quite good.
"Are you that afraid of me?" she said with a smile.
The girl nodded subconsciously, but then seemed to realize something and shook her head vigorously.
Catherine crouched down, and the girl's gaze followed, her head lowering completely.
“I’ll ask you a few questions. If you answer truthfully, I won’t be angry. But if you lie…” Catherine’s smile vanished, her eyes sharp as a viper’s, the unspoken words leaving everything unsaid.
The girl was instantly frightened, her eyes welling up with tears. Her big eyes blinked helplessly, and she didn't dare let the tears fall. She looked pitiful and cute.
Catherine raised an eyebrow; she could say she had absolutely no qualms about scaring children.
Why did you come to Devil's Forest?
The girl sobbed, "Come...come to the witch."
Catherine straightened the girl's disheveled clothes: "That's not what I was asking."
“I know you were once servants of nobles. In a noble’s house, although your treatment was not as good as that of the master, it was certainly better than that of the poor, not to mention that it was better than escaping here.”
"The Devil's Forest is fraught with danger, and humanity is at the very bottom of the hierarchy. Your entry here means you must be on high alert at all times, without a moment's respite. Even your most basic survival needs cannot be met..."
"So, why did you enter the Devil's Forest? And why are you looking for the witch?"
"I have no idea……"
The girl was clearly terrified by the previous "threats," and now her emotions had finally reached a breaking point. After uttering those four words with a sense of grievance, she burst into tears.
The cry was clear and loud, causing Catherine to immediately release her hand from her clothes, leaving it hanging blankly in mid-air, unsure whether to put it down or continue holding it up.
Catherine looked at the girl helplessly. She had actually... scared her to tears.
The girl's mother was immediately drawn by the crying and rushed over. The woman quickly picked up the girl, gently patting her back to comfort her, while whispering an apology to Catherine: "I'm sorry, Witch, the child is probably a little shy."
Catherine dared not say that the child was most likely frightened by her, and accepted the woman's apology with a slight sense of embarrassment.
The woman walked away with the child in her arms. Even from a distance, one could still faintly hear her gentle voice soothing the child. Catherine stared thoughtfully in that direction. The children were still too young; she couldn't get any information out of them. It seemed she would have to find someone else to ask.
What could possibly have caused their entire family to enter the Devil's Forest?
What could be more terrifying to them than entering the Devil's Forest?
-
In the dead of night, the inky sky was torn apart by wispy clouds, and moonlight spilled onto the tall canopy of the dense forest, but only a few slivers of light managed to penetrate the thick foliage and fog and fall on the open ground of the camp.
Everything fell silent, even the magical beasts outside the dense forest seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep.
Inside the tent, Catherine slept peacefully with her eyes closed. But soon, her brow furrowed sharply, and the violent beating of her heart in her chest woke her.
At this moment, she felt as if she had fallen into the deep sea, with an invisible pressure coming from every part of her body, making it almost impossible for her to breathe.
Catherine immediately realized that her blood was out of control again.
She instinctively tried to check her pulse, but the moment her fingers touched her skin, it wasn't the smooth feel she remembered, but a strange undulation. Moreover, that "undulation" was constantly writhing, as if there were many living things inside her.
With a tremor in her fingers, Catherine became fully awake.
She hurriedly got out of bed, found a candle, and lit it. The sudden burst of light in the tent allowed her to see what was on her arm.
Beneath her skin, plump, oval-shaped, bluish-black things were wriggling and crawling inside her body. They were squeezing the flesh and blood that should have been there, making her skin translucent and almost bursting open.
This bizarre scene was reflected in Catherine's eyes without her noticing.
Catherine took a deep breath.
Good, now I'm completely awake...
Looking at the insect eggs crawling towards her heart from all directions beneath her skin, she gained a clear understanding for the first time of the fact that "something had appeared inside her body."
Although she knew the insect eggs were harmless to her for the time being, this situation was not something that could be easily accepted.
Catherine closed her eyes, deliberately avoiding looking at her strange body.
She felt her heart still beating vigorously in her chest and began to wonder if the witch had overestimated her body's resilience. The physical changes she had undergone in just one day were enough to take away half of her life.
She gritted her teeth, struggling to suppress the euphoria coursing through her veins, and quietly counted the numbers—
“1”
“2”
“3”
...
"98"
...
"120"
As she counted to 120, her heartbeat slowed. Catherine lowered her eyes, and sure enough, the wriggling worm eggs on her skin had vanished.
Just like the bone hairs from the daytime, they disappeared so quickly it was as if it were a hallucination.
If nothing unexpected happens, although her physical ailments always come on suddenly, they shouldn't last very long.
During the day, because it was her first time, she was too flustered to remember to take notes. However, the time should have been similar to this time, around two minutes.
Catherine calmed her breathing, her tense nerves slowly relaxing, and then a wave of exhaustion washed over her. Seeing that the night was deep, she blew out the candle and prepared to go back to bed.
But as soon as she climbed into bed, she noticed a faint red spot on the tent.
Catherine walked over, trying to see what it was. But she suddenly realized that the red light was just light reflecting off the outside.
She closed her eyes, recalling the scenes from her wanderings outside during the day. If it were reflected in this direction from outside…
Catherine suddenly opened her eyes; that wasn't the place for the night watch.
Clearly, there was someone outside, just like him, awake in the quiet of the night.
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