Chapter 184

The Paladin Riding a Giraffe (2)

A paladin riding a giraffe.

Just hearing the phrase made it sound like an utterly bizarre combination.

It was like encountering a zebra in the middle of a city.

Regardless, what mattered was that I had finally encountered another person.

I also could not ignore the fact that this person was on the verge of starving to death.

Sh-Should I make him some porridge? I need to feed him something first...!

Eating ordinary food after starving for several days could shock the stomach.

In other words, it could make him seriously ill.

That meant I needed to feed him something easily digestible, like porridge. But where was I supposed to find porridge on such short notice?

He looked as though he might die at any moment.

After considering my options, I hurried into the cave.

Perhaps the honey I had gathered yesterday could serve as a substitute for porridge.

Even if it could not, it might at least buy me some time. I could prepare fish porridge in the meantime.

Drip—

I poured some honey into the paladin’s mouth as he peered through half-closed eyes.

Feeling sweetness on his tongue for the first time in ages, the paladin began moving his lips.

This was honey that had made my skin smooth and supple in just one day.

It was bound to have some effect.

Next...

It was time to make fish porridge.

Preparing porridge was not particularly difficult.

After my parents passed away, I had once become seriously ill and made porridge for myself.

This time I had fish instead of rice, but that should not pose much of a problem.

“Piiing...”

While I was at it, I should probably feed the giraffe some fish porridge too.

When the paladin fell to the ground, the giraffe had let out a pained cry before slumping down as well.

Still, it seemed to be in better condition than the paladin, as it at least had enough strength to raise its head.

Bubble, bubble—

While the fish porridge cooked, I continually checked the paladin’s condition.

This man was probably Ludwig.

The fact that he had arrived on a giraffe made it practically certain.

His condition is... far from good.

I did not know how many days he had gone without food, but his cheeks were deeply sunken.

Judging by his battered armor, I could imagine how much hardship he had endured.

According to the head moderator, Ludwig was extraordinarily powerful.

Yet even he had barely managed to survive.

It was another reminder of just how harsh and dangerous the Forest of Four Seasons truly was.

Shwaaa—

The decisive proof that this man was Ludwig was his sword.

When I infused mana into it, a green galaxy appeared along the blade.

It was definitely the sword I had given him.

Since he still carried it, he must have found it useful.

This isn’t the time to be thinking about that.

His armor was already in terrible condition. Who knew how much worse his body might be underneath?

I retrieved an elixir from the cave to treat him.

Then, grunting with effort, I began removing his heavy armor.

I struggled at first because I did not understand how it was fastened, but I eventually managed to take it all off.

“Ugh...!”

The instant I removed the armor, an overwhelming stench assaulted me.

He apparently had not washed for several days, as he reeked of sour vinegar.

Once his condition improved, I would have to wash him immediately.

After he had fully recovered, of course.

There aren’t many wounds on his body, thanks to the armor. That’s a relief.

The thick armor seemed to have done its job, as there were no visible wounds on his torso.

Still, to be safe, I poured some elixir into his mouth.

He must have retained a sliver of consciousness, because he swallowed it without difficulty.

I gave him half the elixir orally and decided to apply the remaining half to his wounds.

With that in mind, I removed not only his upper armor, but also his lower armor and footwear.

There was nothing particularly wrong beneath his lower armor, aside from the sour stench.

But when I reached his feet...

I could no longer even notice that foul odor.

His left boot was still on, but the right one was missing.

What in the world is this...?

Maggots writhed throughout the wounds covering his bare right foot.

Then there was the skin itself.

It had turned pitch-black, as though every part of it had died.

There are signs that he cauterized it with fire too...

It appeared that he had burned the wound as an emergency measure.

However, even that had not prevented the maggots from infesting it.

He had likely cauterized it merely to disinfect the wound.

That minimal first aid was probably the only reason he had survived this long.

After staring blankly for a moment, I hurriedly poured the remaining elixir over his foot.

Perhaps the elixir could heal it.

Sizzle!

The maggots twisted violently and died when the elixir touched them.

Elixirs also possessed the ability to kill parasites.

Maggots presumably counted as parasites.

Now that they were gone, all that remained was to heal the injury.

Why... isn’t anything changing?

However, the foot showed no sign of healing.

It remained completely black.

I was momentarily flustered, but then I remembered something Starlight Princess had told me.

Elixirs were indeed exceptional medicines, but they were not omnipotent.

There were precisely two things an elixir could not heal.

The first was disease.

It could heal symptoms caused by an infection, but it could not cure the underlying illness itself.

The second was restoring life to something—or some tissue—that had already died.

An elixir merely heightened the body’s regenerative abilities to their absolute limit. It could not bring the dead back to life.

When she told me elixirs couldn’t cure baldness either, I just laughed it off...

But witnessing a similar limitation firsthand felt completely different.

Necrotic tissue could not be restored.

At this point, it was effectively nothing more than a piece of rotting meat still attached to his body.

Amputation might be necessary.

However, I was not a medical professional.

Bubble, bubble—

...Let’s feed him the porridge first.

While I was considering what to do, the porridge finished cooking.

Whatever happened next, I had already administered all the first aid I could.

For now, helping this man recover some strength took priority.

“You should eat too.”

“...Lick.”

I gave the giraffe some fish porridge as well.

It cautiously licked the porridge at first, then began eating quietly, apparently famished.

I then fed Ludwig the fish porridge a little at a time.

Perhaps the elixir had restored some of his strength, because his eyes began darting around.

“#%$#...”

“Stop talking and eat quietly.”

I had no idea what he was saying, but I continued feeding him.

Ludwig seemed aware of his condition and obediently accepted each spoonful.

In this manner, he managed to finish an entire bowl of fish porridge.

Part of me wanted to carry him straight into the cave, but I resisted the urge.

Judging by the condition of his foot, it might have to be amputated right here.

“Grrrr...”

Would you look at that?

Now he was sleeping without a care in the world.

I let out a disbelieving chuckle, then considered everything he must have endured.

Let me make one thing clear: I had been incredibly lucky.

I had a cave that took care of shelter—one of the three basic necessities of life—and I could also use the Gallery.

Ludwig, on the other hand, must have traversed this dangerous place relying solely on his own abilities.

Worse still, he had been stranded in the grasslands.

Unlike this region, the grasslands did not have an abundance of food.

Hunting was essential if one wanted to obtain anything to eat. Even finding water must have been difficult.

Any source of water would inevitably attract other beasts.

I did not know how he had tamed the giraffe, but that creature was clearly no ordinary animal either.

After watching Ludwig sleep to recover his strength, I accessed the Gallery.

Shouldn’t I spread the joyous news far and wide?

That was what I thought.

Title: The Paladin Riding a Giraffe
Wild Grylls

(A photograph of Ludwig sleeping on the ground)
(A photograph of the giraffe also sleeping after its meal)

I met the paladin riding a giraffe. This man is in terrible condition.

I’ve administered every treatment I could for now, but his foot is seriously injured, so I’ll need to keep an eye on it.

Meeting another person is definitely a good thing, but I don’t know whether I should be celebrating... I’m not going to end up disposing of a corpse, am I?

└ Heavenly Demon: You have finally met. I am relieved that you need no longer live in solitude.
　└ Wild Grylls: That’s what I think too, but I can only hope he’s a good person.
　　└ Heavenly Demon: He must be a good man. Can you not sense his steadfast character from the photograph alone?
　　　└ Wild Grylls: He just looks like a beggar to me. He smells terrible too.
　　　　└ Heavenly Demon: That is difficult to deny.
└ Lmaooo, she couldn’t bring herself to disagree.
└ He really does look like a beggar, lol.
└ What is that animal, though? Why is its neck so long?
└ What kind of animal looks like that?
└ Don’t Abandon the Hero: My goodness! Is that really Mr. Ludwig?! He isn’t an impostor, is he?!
　└ Wild Grylls: How would I know? He’s holding the sword I gave him, so there’s a high chance it’s really him.
　　└ Don’t Abandon the Hero: Thank you! I would love to repay you, but I don’t have the means at present...! It may take some time, but I promise I will repay you somehow!
　　　└ Wild Grylls: There’s no need to repay me. More importantly, his foot is in such bad condition that I may have to amputate it.
　　　　└ Don’t Abandon the Hero: What?! What do you mean?!
　　　　　└ Wild Grylls: (A photograph of the blackened, dead foot) As you can see, it looks like this. It was originally crawling with maggots, but I washed them all away with an elixir.
　　　　　　└ Don’t Abandon the Hero: Ah... Its condition is... extremely poor.
└ How serious does it have to be for the head moderator to stop using exclamation marks?
└ At that point, it’s nothing more than a lump of dead meat. You need to cut it off immediately.
└ What happens if it remains attached?
　└ The necrosis has already spread inward, so he could develop sepsis. Hurry up and amputate it.
└ Passing Dwarf: Hey. I’ll send you a bottle of liquor, so make him drink it. It’ll hurt less when you cut the foot off.
　└ Wild Grylls: Do I really have to amputate it?
　　└ Passing Dwarf: He’ll genuinely die if you leave it like that. Stop complaining and accept the bottle.
　　　└ Wild Grylls: All right, for now...

The situation was so grave that even the dwarf immediately sent me some liquor.

Alcohol dulled the senses.

He was presumably telling me to use it as an anesthetic.

It was a method frequently employed by survivors stranded in extreme environments.

No matter how powerful a person might be, the pain of having a body part severed was not something they could easily endure.

“Mmm...”

I was still contemplating the matter after receiving the liquor from the dwarf when Ludwig regained consciousness.

Only thirty minutes had passed.

Perhaps the combination of honey and elixir had worked, because he seemed to have recovered some strength in that brief period.

“Are you awake?”

Ludwig opened his eyes halfway and looked at me.

His overall appearance was dreadful, yet he could not conceal the intelligent gleam in his eyes.

“#$%!@?”

As expected, I could not understand a word.

I pointed at my ears and shook my head.

Ludwig apparently understood the meaning because he nodded.

Should I ask the head moderator to interpret for us?

Among the registered users I knew, the head moderator was the only one from El Dorado.

Unlike the Heavenly Demon, however, the head moderator was extremely busy.

Worse still, she was currently being pursued.

In the end, Ludwig and I would have to communicate through gestures and infer each other’s meaning.

If that proved impossible, I could always upload a video to the Gallery and ask for help.

A peculiar silence settled between us.

Ludwig looked down at his right foot.

It was already black and dead.

The instant he saw it, his brow furrowed.

He seemed to contemplate something before looking back at me.

“₩%#%...”

I still could not understand him.

This time, however, he used his hands.

He mimed drinking something and then spun a finger around his head.

Since we had just been discussing the matter, I could roughly guess what he intended to do.

“Here.”

I handed him the liquor I had received from the dwarf.

Ludwig accepted it and effortlessly removed the cap.

After smelling it to confirm that it was alcohol, he stared at his foot with a somber expression.

“$%@$%?”

He then gestured for me to help him.

As if that were not enough, he brought the edge of his hand down in a chopping motion to indicate that he wanted the foot cut off.

I blinked at him before pointing to myself.

“You want me to cut it off?”

“0o#%!@#?”

His expression seemed to say, Who else is going to do it?

It was absurd, but realistically, he was right.

If he tried to do it himself, he might cut at the wrong angle.

More importantly, he was still severely weakened.

It would be difficult for him to sever it cleanly in a single stroke.

“Are you sure you want me to do this?”

Even so, the idea made me deeply uncomfortable.

This was not an animal. I would be cutting through a human being’s flesh and bone.

I asked him several times because of my instinctive aversion, but Ludwig refused to reconsider.

Ultimately, I had no choice but to perform the amputation myself.

I also made sure to prepare everything thoroughly, since carrying it out directly on the bare ground would be unhygienic.

Of all the things I’ve had to do in my life...

What would I use as a surgical instrument?

The Heavenly Demon’s sword.

It was the blade that had sliced cleanly through even Mad Dog’s flesh and bones.

With this sword, cutting through a rotting foot should be effortless.

“Whew... Fuck.”

The curse escaped me involuntarily.

Once every preparation was complete, I looked at Ludwig.

He had already finished making his own preparations.

He had drunk every last drop of the liquor the dwarf sent us.

At this rate, I worried that acute alcohol poisoning might kill him first.

“I’m... doing it now, all right?”

Ludwig nodded.

After a brief hesitation, I placed the Heavenly Demon’s sword against the point of amputation.

And then—

Slice!

I applied force and carried out the operation.