CHAPTER 19: THE GIRL WHO WAS TAUGHT TO NEVER SAY NO

"It hurts!"

Skiv screamed as Azul smeared Roxanna’s blood onto his wounds. Azul tried to be gentle, but he still had to hold the boy’s body firmly so he wouldn’t move.

"Stop moving, boy." Azul kept one hand on Skiv’s head while rubbing the blood on his injured neck and shoulder. "Next time you try to run away from the settlement, make sure you bring a weapon, or at least stay alert so you can hide in time."

Even though it sounded like Azul was scolding Skiv, he actually just didn’t want something like this to happen again, especially if situations like this ended up making Roxanna suffer as well.

While Azul continued smearing Roxanna’s blood over Skiv’s wounds, Roxanna sat on another branch with Calen beside her. Her legs dangled down, and her blood dripped steadily to the ground below.

Some people who still had injuries on their bodies rushed to catch the drops and used them to heal themselves.

"Look at them, they’re fighting over your blood," Calen said as he looked down at them. Some beastmen pushed others aside even though their wounds weren’t even that serious. "If you keep sacrificing yourself for them without thinking about your own well-being, you’ll end up becoming their blood stock."

Roxanna’s face looked a bit pale after losing so much blood in such a short time. Her head also felt a little dizzy, and her vision had become slightly blurry.

Even so, she still managed to answer, "They’re just desperate," she said. "Desperate people can do anything."

"Including hurting the person who saved them," Calen murmured. "Maybe not now... but who knows later?"

Roxanna was honestly quite impressed with him, because she always thought Calen was just a hot-headed beastman who yelled whenever he could. But now, he actually sounded calm and thoughtful.

And he had a point.

She had seen that kind of desperation before, to be exact when her ex-husband and her best friend lived in her shelter. They were the people she saved, and yet, one day... they decided to kill her because of their greed.

"Then, are you suggesting that I shouldn’t use my blood to heal people?" Roxanna asked.

"It’s not like I’m asking you to do that." Calen clicked his tongue before finally saying, "I’m just telling you not to act carelessly. You can consider today an exception since many people are injured, but next time... you can’t just say yes whenever someone asks for your blood."

He added, "If they’re not dying, then just let them wait for their natural healing ability to kick in."

Roxanna didn’t say anything for a while.

This was actually the first time someone had asked her not to help people. Since she was little, the orphanage caretakers always told her to share, because if she didn’t, she would be a bad person.

Every time Roxanna didn’t want to share her new toy with the other kids, the caretaker would punish her by making her stand outside for three hours, or sometimes by locking her in the dark bathroom.

When she was little, the adults around her always said the same thing: "If you grow up to be a bad person, then you deserve to burn in hell."

Little Roxanna didn’t want to burn in hell forever, so she tried her best to share whatever she had with other kids, even when she didn’t want to.

As she grew older, that habit grew deeper and deeper inside her heart. In the end, it became a weakness that dragged her straight into real hell.

But even though people had wronged her in the past, she still found it hard to become selfish. In the end, an ideology that had been planted so deeply since childhood is very difficult to erase, and for someone to get rid of it completely is a huge achievement that not everyone can accomplish.

"So... you’re telling me... if I don’t give my blood to someone who isn’t close to dying, it’s fine?" Roxanna looked at Calen with pure curiosity. "What if someone scolds me because I’m not doing what I’m supposed to do?"

"Then let them scold you."

Calen grabbed her shoulders tightly and stared straight into her eyes. "And if someone tries to take your blood by force, I’ll bite them and tear them apart until they die."

Roxanna shuddered a bit when she imagined that. Based on the evil Roxanna’s memories, beastkins were used to living in a barbaric way, and killing wasn’t a taboo for them.

However, as someone who grew up in a place where killing was considered a crime, she couldn’t help but feel a bit scared.

Sure, she survived the snowstorm apocalypse for almost two years, but she was one of the lucky ones who had a shelter while others had to kill each other just to find food.

So, killing still felt taboo to her, but since she once became a murder victim, she wasn’t exactly unfamiliar with it either.

"But why would you do that?" Roxanna asked the most important question. "I’ve done so many bad things to you. Shouldn’t you hate me?"

Calen froze, then slowly turned to Azul as if asking for help. Azul only shrugged. He didn’t know the answer either.

Honestly, neither of them knew whether they should tell her that they could hear her thoughts or not.

Wouldn’t it be better if they didn’t tell her? At least that way, they could understand her mind better without making her paranoid.

Azul spoke to Calen in silence, "Say something else. Just... don’t say anything stupid."

The words "Calen" and "stupid" usually came as a pair, so Azul didn’t expect much.

But fortunately—no, it was actually bad!—Roxanna suddenly lost consciousness in a matter of seconds.

Her eyes rolled back, and her body went limp like a doll. Calen caught her instantly and pulled her into his arms.

"Leader! Leader has fainted!" one of the beastmen shouted, pointing up at the branch.

Everyone looked up as well, and their eyes widened when they saw Roxanna’s face had turned as pale as milk.

"T-This is a bad omen!"

"Leader saved us until she passed out!"

"Maybe this is a sign the world is going to explode!"