## Chapter 161 – Distance (17)
“There’s no need to be so scared. I’ll make sure it doesn’t hurt, okay? ♡”
“…Ugh…!”
Jiyu tries to move away from Chaeyun, who is rolling a seed between her fingers.
Perhaps realizing that the being in front of her isn’t an ordinary human,
she frowns, cold sweat trickling down her face, her composure from earlier now gone.
Chaeyun, seemingly amused by Jiyu’s obvious fear, hums a cheerful tune.
It’s as if, even though she usually enjoys teasing humans, something is different today.
There’s a strange sense of unfamiliarity and familiarity in her actions and words…
Even with this unease, I can’t do anything. Or rather, I can’t think of anything.
Nothing matters. I just want to see what’s in front of me, smell the scents, taste and touch.
Simple, childlike instincts swirl in my head, and I revel in this hazy state.
Is this the lingering effect of the alcohol I drank earlier, or is it another ‘abnormality’?
I blankly stare at Chaeyun and Jiyu, as if focusing on a TV that’s playing out of focus.
Because right now, I can’t do or think of anything else.
“You’re trembling so much… Are you perhaps scared?”
“…Haa… No, it’s not fear, it’s just that I feel wronged.”
Chaeyun tilts her head, seemingly surprised by the unexpected response.
She looks down at Jiyu with an expression that says, ‘What do you mean by that?’
“What did I do so wrong to deserve this? Getting kidnapped, encountering strange monsters…
Can you just answer me this one thing? What did I do so wrong? There are so many bad people in the world.
But why me of all people?”
“…Hehehe, and here I was wondering what it was… You’re saying you feel wronged because of that?”
Jiyu’s face, as she vents her seemingly justified grievances, still seems relaxed,
but behind that light expression, a faint, resigned smile and small tears welling up in her eyes glint.
Chaeyun, who had been looking at the human questioning her, bursts out laughing, ‘Pfft.’
Then, she bends down, lowering her knees to match the eye level of the fallen Jiyu.
“There’s no particular reason it had to be you. You were just unlucky.”
“…Is that so?”
“Yes, that’s how it is. Why? Humans don’t just randomly pick and kill bad pigs and cows, do they?
But if I had to point out something you did wrong… it would be daring to insult that person twice, perhaps?”
She revels in the superiority of looking down on someone weaker than herself, indulging in extravagant and arrogant emotions.
Chaeyun, who is crushing what has already been crushed and enjoying the act itself, tramples on Jiyu’s pride.
She wears a poorly feigned expression of sympathy, but the corners of her mouth are turned up,
and from that mouth, tentacles like a snake’s tongue extend out, licking Jiyu’s cheek.
“……”
Jiyu once again confirms that the being in front of her is a monster disguised as a human woman.
She seems to have accepted her fate, dropping her gaze from Chaeyun’s eyes to the floor below the bed.
“…But you know, I’ve been learning about humans for almost half a year now?
I know how you feel right now, how miserable you must be.
So, I’m going to save you from that misery right now…♡”
Chaeyun wraps a tentacle around the seed she was holding and lifts it up.
Just as the tentacle holding the small seed is about to reach Jiyu,
“…Thanks, but no thanks!”
“Ah?!”
Jiyu, who had been looking down with an expression of resignation, raises her head again.
And straightening her bent knees, she kicks Chaeyun’s ankle, throwing her off balance.
Chaeyun slides across the mattress, having the leg supporting her kicked out from under her.
Jiyu rolls out from between the helplessly fallen Chaeyun and jumps off the bed, passing by me.
“…I don’t care if you guys are monsters or people. Whether you eat people or whatever.
But I don’t want to be the victim. Oh, and I really won’t report you, so don’t worry.”
Chaeyun throws off the blanket tangled around her body from the fall and raises her head.
And my gaze naturally shifts from Chaeyun to Jiyu.
She grabs the doorknob, looks back at us with a relaxed expression, and smiles weakly.
Wiping the small smile off her face, Jiyu pulls the doorknob with a tired expression.
“…You’re really getting on my nerves.”
“Ugh?!!”
I turn my head back towards Chaeyun, who is muttering quietly, but her expression is hidden by her long hair.
But her voice was truly cold. The voice Chaeyun makes when she’s angry.
That voice is heard, and exactly one beat later, Jiyu’s loud groan is heard.
When I turn my head again, I see a white object connecting her neck to the ceiling.
That white object, whether solid or liquid, is hanging Jiyu by her neck.
“I overlooked the fact that you insulted my master, and I was even going to save you…
But this time, you dared to embarrass me in front of my master?”
“Ugh…!! Cough… Ugh…!”
Chaeyun gets up from the bed and slowly walks towards the entrance.
She looks up at Jiyu, who is hanging by her neck from the ceiling, and begins to speak softly.
“So, this time I’ll ask you. Did you really think you could escape?”
“Huff…! Guh….”
It doesn’t seem like she properly heard Chaeyun’s question.
The movements of her struggling legs are gradually slowing down.
And the sound of her desperately gasping for breath is also fading.
“Haa… That’s enough.”
Soon, Jiyu’s legs stop moving completely, and the hand that was holding the object around her neck drops with a thud.
Chaeyun sighs as if she’s bored and reaches out towards the white object.
“Cough…!! Haa…! Haa…!”
Then, the object that was wrapped around Jiyu’s neck instantly flows into Chaeyun,
and Jiyu, who had fallen from the ceiling to the floor, is catching her breath while lying on the ground.
Jiyu is focused on regaining her breath, but she is also looking at Chaeyun with half-closed eyes.
What is reflected in her eyes is complete terror, the fear that she might actually die.
“J-Just a second… I…”
“No, that’s enough. I don’t think I need to hear any more.”
“W-What, no… No, wait a second…!”
A tentacle flies in from Jiyu’s blind spot as she tries to stand up on her wobbly legs.
“Oheook?!♡”
And with tremendous force, a tentacle the length of two chopsticks joined together pierces into her ear at once.
Jiyu’s body twitches violently.
The tentacle embedded in her ear begins to writhe fiercely.
“I was going to be as gentle as possible, but you refused?
But don’t worry. You won’t feel any unnecessary emotions after it’s over♡”
“Agik?! W-Wai…!♡ Hicc♡ W-What is th-that? The inside of my head…!♡”
“Where, where… It seems like I’ve roughly secured the space… Then, I’ll put it here…♡”
Jiyu’s legs are shaking like crazy, but she never falls.
Perhaps Chaeyun won’t even allow her to fall to the floor.
Half of her face is distorted with pain, and the other half is making an expression as if something is broken.
Chaeyun, who is looking at her face, which is now covered in tears and saliva, with satisfaction, is dangling the remaining tentacle.
What that tentacle is holding is none other than a seed.
A black, fingernail-sized seed.
“Shall we begin? I’m doing this for the first time too, so it might hurt… but I’ll try my best.”
“N-No…! Hooock!♡ N-Nooo…!!♡ Aggahk!♡”
The tentacle holding the seed effortlessly disappears into Jiyu’s other ear.
Once again, her body trembles greatly, and this time she wets her pants with urine,
but Chaeyun doesn’t seem to care and seems to be focused on something.
“…Aha… How fascinating, it seems that the human body is different from ordinary animals.”
Does the tentacle have eyes, or can she see inside like an X-ray?
Chaeyun, who is making a humming sound as if she is interested, looks at Jiyu, who is twitching.
What is happening? Putting a seed inside a person’s head, is that even possible?
“…Explain what’s happening.”
“Ah! I’m sorry, Master…♡ A seed has sprouted in this woman’s brain♡”
Chaeyun turns around, answering my voice, as if everything that needed concentration is over.
She answers my sharp voice with a smile and a voice mixed with affection.
Then, she smiles again and begins to explain to me.
“Usually, the moment our seed enters the body of a living creature, that animal dies.
Because the seed absorbs everything from that creature in order to sprout.
But with the ‘free division’ that I gained while evolving again, I continuously send nutrients to the seed,
and if it sprouts and connects its roots to the human nerves at the moment it sprouts and spreads its roots…”
“…Then can you even call it a human?”
“Exactly as you say♡ That human is no longer an ordinary human,
but literally a ‘vegetable’♡ An existence that can only receive and drink the water given to it and bloom flowers♡”
Chaeyun, who is wearing a bitter smile, picks up Jiyu with her tentacle and climbs onto the bed.
Then, she grabs Jiyu’s legs, which can’t move, and spreads them apart, tearing the pants she was wearing.
Black lace panties, wet with urine and sticky lubricant, come into view.
“…From now on, I need to keep giving her nutrients in order for the seed to sprout…♡
So, Master…♡ Would you please give nutrients to this ‘seed’?♡”
