I Opened an Illegal Animal Hospital in Another World - Chapter 96

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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96

Chapter 21. The Right to Revenge (3)

I wished that closing my eyes would make the explosion sounds disappear, but reality didn’t have such a convenient feature as forced shutdown.

BOOM!!!

The moment Renate embraced me tightly, the bomb exploded with a thunderous roar that shook everything, followed by a wave of scorching heat. I knew that sound was created by vibrating air, but this was the first time I felt it with my entire body.

“Hold on tight.”

“Ugh, urgh!”

Before I could even respond properly, Renate leaped up high, and the arm around my waist pressed hard against my stomach. I thought my organs would pop out. I hugged Renate’s neck with enough force to strangle him and squinted my eyes.

The Small Girl confirmed that Peti was safe and burst into tears of relief.

‘If they’re so precious, why think of detonating bombs and dying? If family members would be sad when they die, it’s the same thing even if they die together – that person would still disappear from this world.’

Murder-suicide was a foolish act, but seeing the one-eyed Small Girl embracing the collapsed Peti, I couldn’t bring myself to say such words. How desperate must they have been. How utterly desperate.

Similarly, the others who had thrown bombs helped the two people up.

“Tch, if you’re going to run away, why detonate the bombs…!”

Renate positioned me against the uneven protrusions of the wall and covered me with his body like a blanket. There was another rumbling, booming sound. Renate anxiously licked his lips with his tongue and looked up.

“If another bomb explodes, the ceiling will collapse too. At this rate, the Central Square will cave in from above. We need to evacuate first.”

“Are all the bombs detonated?”

“Only 2 have exploded. But the underground passage walls and ceiling are already cracked all over. If one more goes off, it’s really the end.”

“So there are more.”

“The amount of gunpowder I detected wasn’t just that much.”

Still, there was a way. I spread healing clay thinly over Renate’s back. The burns were severe. It must have hurt terribly, yet he didn’t show me even a hint of it.

“Renate, if we leave those people as they are, they’ll all die.”

“They brought it on themselves.”

Renate’s voice was colder than ever before.

“Let them die. And I can’t leave you here. We don’t know when another bomb might explode.”

“I have it all figured out. This, this, this…”

I randomly hung the artifacts I’d been carrying around Renate’s neck and ears. They were items I couldn’t use anyway since I lacked the mana to activate them. They suited him well.

“These are protective gear Mother made. Put one on each of those kids and let them escape on their own. Meanwhile, I’ll stick here like a bat without moving, so don’t worry!”

“I said I’m not going.”

“Renate. Don’t do something you’ll regret.”

“…”

“I’m not saying this out of some sense of justice that we must save those people. It’s because of someone who couldn’t pass by an abandoned human baby even with an injured leg. They were brainwashed, and you’ll suffer later knowing you could have saved them but didn’t.”

“…”

“Renate. You know I’m a human walking protective gear. I have lots more besides this. I’m confident that even if all the bombs explode, not a hair on my head will be harmed.”

It was a secret that I lacked the mana to activate them, but if they did activate, I would have been fine even right next to a bomb. I was a pay-to-win item collector, after all.

Renate seemed almost convinced.

“Save your ‘kin’ who are in immediate danger rather than a ‘human’ who’ll be fine without protection.”

“Shana! Don’t talk like that,”

“Go quickly!”

When I pushed his chest away with my arms, Renate reluctantly stepped back. In truth, if he hadn’t wanted to move, he wouldn’t have budged no matter if I kicked or bit him.

‘His heart is too soft, really.’

How could it be otherwise for a Renate raised by Ron?

The first warmth that saved me in this world.

When the monkey tribe spoke of what they had endured, Renate wasn’t particularly surprised. His calm expression, as if accustomed to it, only showed sick disgust.

I could easily guess that before Ron took him in, Renate had experienced things not much different from theirs.

In fact, most Beastmen were like that.

Whether little or much, small or large, there were hardly any children who hadn’t suffered unjust violence from humans. Even Evelyn had come to me beaten nearly to death.

“We’ll have to discuss this again later. I’m going because there are things to hear from them about who’s behind this.”

“Got it, save the nagging for later!”

He was the one trying to draw lines and keep distance because I was ‘human,’ yet when I was the first to mention the line, he got angry as if stung. Renate leaped down and transformed into a dazzling white wolf.

I gathered clay and wrapped it thickly around his body. For a while, it would heal any wounds he received immediately. This was also a trick I’d learned from Seth.

‘Now what’s left…’

I looked up at the ceiling. Even though only 2 bombs had exploded, as Renate said, the pillars and walls were cracked and looked ready to collapse at any moment.

He said this was under the Central Plaza. Then many people would be gathered there, and if the floor collapsed, many people would be injured or killed.

This was no joke. I couldn’t let such a catastrophe happen.

Though I was a fragile character specialized in healing others but unable to heal myself, my ‘power’ was so remarkable that Seth called it an authority. You can’t imagine how dumbfounded he was when I said I just clumped it together and played with it.

The applications of this power were endless. Though I’d never had occasion to use it directly…

‘The strength of materialization depends on how much power you put into it. Well, that’s obvious.’

‘Then couldn’t I use it like a shield?’

‘Well, at your current level, it would break if an ordinary person just punched it.’

‘…That’s useless…’

‘You have plenty of meat shields, so you don’t need a shield, right?’

‘….’

‘Ah, you don’t like that expression. Then how about spare lives to die in your place?’

‘….’

‘Okay, okay. You have many guards. Happy now?’

‘…Keep talking.’

‘Imagine stacking several layers of thinly spread membranes. And filling the spaces between them.’

‘Like this?’

‘Well done, how admirable.’

‘Hmph. I know you’re teasing me.’

‘I’m being serious. How admirable it is that you’re trying so hard to save and use your thread-thin lifespan well.’

‘….’

Since it was ultimately a ‘membrane’ made from healing power, its strength was weak, but if I packed the gaps tightly, it would hold up a little—that was the idea.

I call this the ‘health shield.’ Because the person hitting it gradually becomes healthier and more energetic.

Following ‘healing clay,’ now ‘health shield’….

Even I think I have no sense for naming things.

And actually, the ‘health shield’ was very inefficient and had poor durability, making it hardly useful.

I usually forget about it, but my power is based on lifespan.

Even for wounds just short of severing arms or legs, a single fingernail-sized piece of clay was now enough to heal completely, but to materialize enough to serve as a shield….

‘I’ll need to prepare for about a year’s worth.’

When I might die immediately, what’s one year? Besides, hundreds of people existed above my head. Compared to those lives, my shortened lifespan wasn’t worth regretting.

First, I spread thin-concentration clay widely. As it spread like waves, the pungent smell of groundwater and acrid smoke disappeared.

How wide was the central plaza? The central plaza was where that muscle-bound man who picked a fight with us had his fighting match. Anyway, I spread it wide, and wider. I spread it as far as I could manage, to an extent that was hard to gauge.

It was wider than I thought. My mind became a little dizzy. Even a year might not be enough….

As I spread the clay, I realized that the place where Renate had lowered me was blocked by two or three walls from the bomb origin and closest to the ceiling. Even so, I’d still be crushed to death if the stones collapsed, but he had left me in what he considered the safest place.

And then he returned to the most dangerous place himself.

“I need to do my best too….”

Whatever lifespan I have left.

Like inflating a balloon, I poured dense clay recklessly between the layers of thin membranes I had stacked. If only I could use shields, if only I could use magic! I wouldn’t have to do such inefficient work of cutting my lifespan just to place a single shield between the ground and the explosion.

No, no.

I was being ungrateful again. How terrible would it have been if I couldn’t do anything at all?

Had I barely filled even one-tenth? Like running a long-distance race, my breathing became labored and my vision blurred from the edges. The inside of my throat was parched.

Today had been such a long and difficult day, and squeezing out even my strength made me feel like I was really about to die.

But if another bomb exploded, those structures definitely wouldn’t hold up.

The roof would collapse along with the walls, and then, lifespan or whatever, I’d be crushed to death first. Even if I was lucky enough not to be crushed, I, who couldn’t use artifacts, would die caught in the explosion.

Either way, it was a dead ending. Sob sob.

The health shield just needed to block the explosion once and hold up until people could escape. The people’s ‘ground’ would collapse, but my shield would push them up so they could stand for a moment.

I, who was underneath, would be crushed either way. It would be better if Renate came back and saved me from the falling stones….

Or else, I’d have to leave it to luck.

Though I had many thoughts, in reality only about 2 minutes had passed since Renate left.

When I felt that at least 3 years of my lifespan had been reduced, the shield was completed, and with a thunderous roar, the entire world shook violently as if uprooted.

KWAAAAANG!! Crack, crackle….

KWANG, KWAAAAANG. Clang….

Already drained of strength, I couldn’t even scream and crouched while clinging to the inside of the wall. Ahhh, God Buddha here’s a little lamb grown bodhisattva is here….

The ringing in my ears wouldn’t stop. There was a sweet taste in my mouth.

‘I’m not going to die from overwork again, am I.’

I felt dizzy.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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