North x Northwest
Chapter 53

Headnote: Warning for gore.

She almost inserted her finger to the knuckle. Cesar took hold of her wrist and steadied her. Lil couldn’t even look back at him as her mind went blank.

‘I don’t know how I can replace that piece of fabric…’

Lil hopelessly moved her trembling finger from side to side, before desperately turning her gaze towards Ed for advice.

But his face, distorted by the pain, seemed to be incapable of answering.

She murmured in frustration.

“…I… I don’t know how…”

“Where the bleeding is… on the side…”

“You want me to replace where the blood comes out from?”

However, Lil couldn’t feel the direction of the bleeding, it was as if she had fallen into a swamp she couldn’t get out of, and instead she only went deeper and deeper. She struggled and as she couldn’t catch anything, it felt like her struggle was all in vain. The more she stirred, the more she messed up. She popped out one side and dented the other.

‘At this rate, I’d better stay still.’

She cried and choked up. She could hardly breathe as she was sinking her finger deeper into the bottomless pit…

Suddenly, she touched something rough. Lil, exhausted, exclaimed softly.

“…I think I got it.”

Cesar handed over the tweezers without delay.

“Use the tweezers.”

Lil inserted the tweezers and slowly guided them along her finger. Despite being as careful as possible, she still made some mistakes and Ed’s body twitched and convulsed when the sharp points touched something soft. Whenever that happened, she released the strength in her hands and paused.

At this point, Lil had clenched her teeth and her body was tensing up all the way to the tip of her fingers. Eventually, her fingertip felt the tweezers’ slender, metallic edge. Again, she released some strength, before pressing on it and slowly pulled out the piece of cloth. Her finger, which seemed to melt away from Ed’s rising body temperature, finally felt the cold air. A sigh slipped out as Lil pulled out the rest of her finger, neither fast nor slow. Soon, the tip of her finger appeared with a faint tremble.

Cesar, who was waiting, took over the tweezers and checked the round piece of cloth.

Ed no longer had the energy to confirm it with his own eyes, but did his best to utter a comprehensible sentence.

“Medicine… lid… three dots…”

“You want the medicine with three dots on the lid?”

Ed rested his head again.

“Body temperature…”

“It heightens the body temperature. It’s needed because he bled so much.”

“Okay…”

Ed’s eyes once again started rolling up as if he was about to lose consciousness. At first, Lil watched the scene in relief, but suddenly screamed upon remembering that Ed’s wound was still unsutured. And because of the many attempts she and Cesar had needed to pull out the bullet and cloth, Ed’s gunshot wound had become larger than its original size.

“The sutures!”

“…”

“Ed!”

Lil slapped his cheek hard in haste. As if he had regained a bit of consciousness, his dark eyes appeared under his eyelids.

“Don’t slap… brain damage…”

“What about the stitches?! Should we cauterise it with fire?”

“Shouldn’t… burn skin… cause necrosis*.”

“Then what?!”

Lil tugged at his cheek.

‘If only I could keep his green irises from rolling upwards…’

Ed grimaced slightly due to the pain and murmured.

“…Lo…ria… Del…lorian…”

“What?!”

No matter how many times she asked, Ed only mentioned a random woman’s name. Lil wiggled his cheeks this time, but it looked like Ed had finally lost consciousness. She quickly turned to Cesar, but he shook his head.

Ed’s unfocused pupils completely disappeared into his eyelids. Lil stood helplessly with her bloody hands in the air, looking dejected at the round hole in Ed’s abdomen, which was spitting out dark red blood…

***

‘The casualties have been established. The Bell Rock suffered unprecedented damage. There are dozens of fatalities and more than half of the crew is injured. In addition, the death toll will only increase as time goes on… as our only doctor is knocking on death’s door himself…’

Lil buried her face in her hands. After Ed’s treatment, she helped the rest of the wounded crew to the best of her ability and in the process, her clothes got stained with blood. It was only now that she finally smelled the fishy scent and noticed that she had dried blood on her palms.

‘No, is it… still flowing?’

Lil was startled by the feeling of warm liquid running down her face and took her hands off. The flakes that had hardened between her fingers slowly flowed out. It became watery, similar to melted snow. She traced the bright red lines that seeped down to her wrists. It felt as if the disgusting sticky liquid was alive. Lil took a deep breath. Her hands started to tremble at the unbelievable sight. As a stream of blood threatened to run down her forearm, she gasped and wiped her palms on the fabric of her pants. At the same time, she rolled her eyes around, scanning the room for the black figure always waiting in the darkness.

“…You’re wiping that for what?…”

The dreary voice was as misty as fog. Lil, who almost jumped up out of surprise, looked at a corner of the captain’s room. The windowless wall on the opposite side was dark as only the lights near the bed were on. She called a name with a voice full of fear.

“Mortu?”

The name thrown into the darkness scattered without a trace.

“…That’s right, my regular customer, it’s me. I knew I’d replace you again sooner or later…”

Lil hurriedly turned her eyes away and looked down at her own body. Like a tree that weathered over time, the skin on her arm dried up. With widened eyes, she watched the horrific scene unfold. Her left forearm, which suddenly lost its support from her elbow, bent downward in an unnatural way and hung helplessly. Her skin cracked, revealing her white bones through the torn flesh.

“Ah… ahhh!”

As if he couldn’t care less about the terrified Lil, the god of death leisurely looked around the cabin.

“…It wasn’t a bad idea to come here in advance…”

Then, a stream that flowed out of the darkness touched the tip of her toe. It was a thin, black and viscous substance. When she looked up, she could hear a dripping sound coming from somewhere. Lil instantly knew it was blood falling from Mortu’s sword. Like how rainwater becomes a river, the drops of blood from Mortu’s blade gathered to form a stream and made its way toward her. Lil moved her feet away from the puddle that stained her feet dark red.

“…You need to give me something soon, so I’m here to borrow it in advance. Didn’t you mention your toes last time?…”

Lil answered with resignation.

“If that’s what you want…”

“…Oh, no, no. Don’t look sad like you have to give them all away, my dear regular customer. You sometimes bring me what isn’t yours…”

“…”

“…I know it’s been a long day and everything is a mess right now, I understand it can be confusing for you…”

“…”

“…Oh, he’s already here…”

– Screech –

The sound of the hinges turning was particularly loud. For a moment, Lil was startled and confused to see Cesar. She quickly raised her arm and looked at her body again.

“Captain…”

Apart from some minor wounds here and there, her body was as smooth as usual without any major injuries. Lil was relieved when the delusion she just had seen, already receded.

“…Yes?”

Cesar stepped inside and carefully closed the door. After locking all the latches, he approached her and set down two buckets full of water and a towel.

“It rained for a while, so we were able to save a lot of water.”

Cesar had already washed and changed his clothes, so his shirt was clean. Lil, who had her necklace off, watched Cesar from afar, as he carried the bathtub and toiletries from the corner of the cabin.

“You look tired, Liloa.”

“Do I?”

Hearing those words, the pain that she had forgotten about hit her whole body in a dull way. Looking back at it, she did fall a couple of times. The thought of living with a bruised body for a week made her brow wrinkle.

“Yeah, now that you mention it, I do feel exhausted.”

Cesar took off her vest. It was a stiff kind of leather that seemed too thick for this type of weather. And since the vest itself was quite large for Lil’s petite frame, the collar reached the upper part of her neck. Without a second thought, Cesar pulled it back over her shoulders and removed it.

His complexion that had been smiling softly changed drastically.

“…What happened?”

“What do you mean?”

“…”

It was then that Lil felt Cesar’s gaze staring somewhere at her neck. As she didn’t understand, she tilted her head. When she looked back at him, Lil saw rage slowly take over his face.

“What’s the matter?”

“Your neck…”

“Hm?”

Lil placed her hand on her neck, only to immediately lift her hand in shock.

“Ack! It hurts!”

Her neck was stinging and throbbing as if she had been injured. As she touched that part of her body a few more times, she continued to vomit brief screams.

“Why is it so painful?”

“Don’t you know?”

“Huh?”

“…”

Lil frowned and asked irritably.

“What don’t I know?”

“Did he do this?”

Footnote:

* Necrosis: Is the death of body tissue. It occurs when too little blood flows to the tissue. This can be from injury, radiation, or chemicals.