Demi-human Girls Completion Manual-Chapter 8 - . Map

At night, after the research had finished, Raphael limped back to her room harboring a sense of hatred. Her right leg and left hand were both wrapped in bandages, the wounds throbbed terribly, and every movement brought pain that seemed to bore into her bones.

Unable to move, she quietly lay on the bed for a good while before her companions returned one by one.

They had been in the cage for too long, rarely having the opportunity to move about outside, so when they came back, the reluctance was clear on their faces. But soon, they were drawn to the pitiful sight of Raphael on the bed; Lar carefully knelt at her side, dragging her claws, looking quite worried.

"Lord Raphael, your wounds..."

They all knew about the shots Raphael had taken before, and they also knew how those wounds tormented her at night.

"It's nothing..."

Follow current novels on ƒreewebηoveℓ.com.

Raphael cracked her eyelids open a bit, but since she didn't fully open them, her vision was still rather blurred.

But Lar wasn't convinced and lowered her head to sniff vigorously at the bandaged spots, then exclaimed with her nose covered and a crumpled face,

"So bitter.. that human must have poisoned Lord Raphael! I'm sure of it! My mother used such poison before; I saw with my own eyes her pigs squealing!"

Kexier smacked her on the head hard,

"Don't talk nonsense, your mother raises Lulu Pigs, why would she use poison on them, step aside..."

She leaned down and sniffed at Raphael's wound, then raising her head to speak to Fasher and Mier,

"It's Blue Flower, a medicinal herb used for stopping blood and healing... Lord Raphael, he treated your wounds. That fat one before definitely didn't heal you properly, or else it wouldn't hurt like this at night..."

"I didn't ask him to treat my wounds!"

Raphael was a bit ungrateful, suddenly opening her eyes and interrupting Kexier. But seeing the worried look in her companions' eyes, she pursed her lips again and closed her eyes.

How could she not know that the human had treated her wounds? She simply didn't want to admit it, or perhaps she wanted to treat the help she received as mockery, making it easier to assassinate him later.

"...Anyway, the most important thing now is to let Lord Raphael get some proper rest. Lar, stop making noise, come sleep over here. Your tail's always twitching; it'll be bad if you hit Raphael's wounds."

Mier chuckled, smoothly changing the subject. She looked at Lar, taking Raphael's place and arranging the sleeping arrangements for the night.

"No, no, why is it always about my tail moving? I clearly don't!"

"You're asleep, how would you know?"

Fasher said teasingly with a smirk as she touched her tail,

"Lord Raphael likes to sleep holding her tail; I was just imitating her. I'll hold it properly and won't let it move."

Lar hurriedly lay down beside Raphael, imitating her by grabbing her own blue tail, but her tail wasn't as long as Raphael's, so it was quite a struggle to hold, and she soon felt uncomfortable in that position. She pouted at Raphael who lay motionless beside her.

Tonight, Raphael couldn't hold her.

But Mier, understanding as ever, took her in her arms and lay her down in the bedding,

"Alright, alright, we all know, it's just somewhat unruly... at least your intention to hold it was good..."

"You just spoil her, Sister Mier, her mother will think you've spoiled her rotten."

"My mother would never think that!"

Kexier also lay down on the bed, murmuring to herself. She and Fasher were on the same side, lacking patience for Lar, the mischievous child.

"..."

The room remained brightly lit, with the kind of luminous objects Raphael had seen in Fisher's room ever glowing overhead. They never turned them off, thinking that humans slept in light during the night.

Raphael felt somewhat weary, so she closed her eyes. With each breath, the pain at the wound slowly subsided, turning into sensations akin to coolness and heaviness; she grew sleepy.

But just before sleep took over, she suddenly couldn't remember when was the last time she and her companions had such a conversation.

When exactly had they been captured by humans?

Several months? Half a year, or even longer?

She thought groggily, suddenly feeling a strong desire to go home.

...

...

"It seems the wound doesn't hurt anymore."

The next morning, Fisher called Rafael to his room. When Rafael saw him, he was wearing a white shirt, standing behind a desk, drinking cooled coffee.

After Rafael approached, he clapped his hands to turn on the lamp beside him and, just like the night before, gently held her right leg. This time, her scales didn't rise, nor did they release the intimidating steam.

That human seemed extraordinarily serious when he was researching. His eyes focused entirely on her body, as if visually scanning every one of her scales, each inch of her skin.

Thinking about this, she suddenly felt somewhat uneasy and shifted her gaze to the other decorations in the room.

"Um..."

It took her a long time to reply to his question.

Fisher didn't mind. After confirming that the wound wasn't bleeding anymore, he slowly stood up and said, "The recovery speed of a dragon-man is beyond my imagination. I estimate within a day or two, you'll be able to run at full strength..."

"Dragon-man are born warriors. Our blood is ignited with flames from birth. Such trivial injuries..."

Rafael withdrew her right leg and stretched her claws on the ground, her words tinged with pride.

Fisher didn't continue her line of thought. He returned to his desk to clean his hands with water and addressed her, saying,

"There's no breakfast today. We're temporarily changing our route, going to the nearest Keken City for supplies first. We'll stay there for a day and a night. This period away from the carriage would be a good opportunity for you..."

...

Rafael had no recollection of the city mentioned in his words, let alone understood their current location. The South Continent's land was vast, and for the dragon-man species that lived on the southern coast of the continent year-round, they didn't even realize that the circus had taken them across half the continent to the north, closest to the Western Continent.

Fisher dressed neatly, donning a waistcoat and pocket watch, transforming back into a proper gentleman. With a light tap of his finger, a map unfolded from the wall, revealing its pattern.

"This is..."

A "world map" made by the Saint Nali Royal Cartography Committee appeared before Rafael's eyes. Though she couldn't understand any of the text, the vast extent of the lands still allowed her some simple guesses.

"This is the continent where your people have lived for generations. As for your homeland, it's probably in this area, and at most wouldn't extend to the central region..."

Fisher pointed to a small section on the southern part of the South Continent, encapsulating the history of many generations of the Dragon-man Clan with a simple stroke.

Rafael had once longed to travel far from her tribe, to see the outside world. She left home several times and embarked on journeys alone, thinking she had gone very, very far, to the ends of the earth, but in reality, she had only traversed a small corner of this vast continent...

She looked further up on the map, to another land with more detailed divisions and many more annotations. It was as large as the South Continent and faced it from across the sea, laden with human script.

"You... you really came from across the sea..."

They had come from the sea bringing slaughter and flames, occupying this originally tranquil and peaceful land.

"Yes, to be precise, we came by steamship... If your assassination attempt hadn't failed, I would've shown you what that is..."

"I don't want to see it!"

"Mm-hmm... Go wake them up; we need to set off."

Fisher snapped his fingers, and the map that had left a deep impact on Rafael rolled back up. He grabbed his hat and hand cane and pulled out a cigarette from his pocket, walking out from the staircase of the carriage.

Outside the carriage, the early morning wilderness brought a breeze laden with moisture. Fisher lit his tobacco, surrounded by a wisp of smoke. Through the purple array outside the carriage, he gazed into the distance and faintly made out a wisp of grey smoke rising from a distant mountaintop.

There lay a settlement of West Continent people, no doubt the Keken City they were heading for.

He whistled softly, and the purple magic slowly retracted to the outside of the carriage. The horses, woken up, shook their tails and went down to the river to drink.