Chapter 365 - 327: She Doesn’t Like Me
Chapter 365: Chapter 327: She Doesn’t Like Me
"CHIRP!" Ah Mo lifted a wing and smacked the silly bird on the head. He poked Philinos’s forehead with his wingtip and chirped, "If Windsor hadn’t asked Little Mei for men, you would’ve been a goner today!"
Philinos: "The General’s orders were absolute. We couldn’t reveal our mission to anyone, not even the Marshal."
Ah Mo chirped angrily, "CHIRP!" (You were about to die!)
Philinos: "I’d rather die than violate my orders."
Ah Mo couldn’t be bothered to waste his breath on this stubborn, silly little bird. "CHIRP!" (Do you want to find Little Gu Ning or not?)
At the mention of Gu Ning, Philinos’s eyes brightened, and he pushed himself to his feet.
Ah Mo steadied him with a wing and chirped, "Get on. I’ll take you to her."
Seeing that he was still holding the shattered knife, Ah Mo added, "It’s broken. We’ll get you a new one later."
Philinos’s lips trembled. "I can’t be without a knife in front of her."
Ah Mo sighed internally and chirped, "You’re just afraid she’ll think you’ve lost the ability to protect her, aren’t you? You’re always moping around her without saying a word, never even having a proper conversation. How could you possibly know what she’s thinking?"
Struggling, Philinos grabbed the straps on Ah Mo’s neck and climbed onto his back. "She doesn’t like it when I talk too much."
Ah Mo: "CHIRP. Silly boy, you’ll suffer if you don’t listen to an old bird. Don’t worry, she won’t care if you have a knife in your hand. She’ll only care if you can stand before her in one piece."
Philinos: "How can I stand before her in one piece without a knife?"
Ah Mo: "Where’d all your usual cleverness go? Look at me. When I’m with Windsor, I just focus on living a long life, and she’s never once looked down on me for how I am."
Philinos: "How do you know Teacher Windsor hasn’t looked down on you?"
Ah Mo’s takeoff motion paused for two seconds, his tone slightly angry. "CHIRP!" (I don’t like it when *you* talk too much, either!)
’This little bird... he’s had a sharp tongue since he was a hatchling.’
Philinos was silent for a moment before asking, "Is Teacher Windsor with her?"
Carrying him, Ah Mo flew into the pitch-black sky, chirping as he went, "She should be by now. Luckily, Windsor anticipated this. But we can’t use soldiers from Zone 5 to escort you to Zone 5, or Little Mei will have our heads. You’ll have to figure out the rest on your own."
Forget bringing Zone 5 soldiers; even he and Windsor couldn’t set foot in Zone 5 territory. If they were discovered, Little Gu Ning would face restrictions later, whether she tried to settle in Zone 5 or go to any other district.
Philinos swallowed the coppery tang rising in his throat. "You knew that, and you still asked her for men. I don’t even know how I’m going to explain this to the General."
Ah Mo flew into a rage. "CHIRP!" (You ungrateful brat, do you have any idea I just saved your life?! You think I *wanted* to borrow them?) He really didn’t want to get an earful from Little Mei, and Windsor would have to take a scolding, too.
Hearing no response from the little bird on his back, Ah Mo’s tone softened. "CHIRP." (We’ll deal with the rest later. For now, you need to hurry up and heal. You don’t want to fall behind, do you? None of those young pups around her are easy to deal with. In your state... Hmph, you’ll be crying your eyes out with nowhere to turn.)
Philinos: "I won’t cry."
Ah Mo said no more. ’The little bird is still too young.’
After a long silence, his tone turned serious. "Don’t do suicidal things like this anymore. You can’t burden someone with something as heavy as you dying for them. Even if you’re out of options, you have to find a way to live. You have no idea how the person you did it for would feel."
Philinos clutched the broken knife in his hand, his head bowed. "She doesn’t like me."
’So she wouldn’t be sad if I died.’
Ah Mo: "CHIRP." (Talk to her more. Say more nice things. Learn how to be with her, to understand her.)
Philinos didn’t answer for a long time.
Ah Mo twisted his head to look back. "CHIRP?" (Silly boy, are you still with me? Hang in there. We’re almost at the transit station. Little Gu Ning is waiting for you there.)
He’d been talking so much to keep Philinos conscious. The silly boy was too badly injured. He couldn’t be allowed to fall asleep; otherwise, even if he was still breathing, he would most likely begin to degenerate.
"Don’t take me to her. Don’t... tell her."
As soon as the words left his mouth, Philinos lost consciousness and collapsed onto the bird’s back. The broken knife slipped from his hand.
"CHIRP!" (Silly boy!)
Ah Mo snatched the broken knife, his eyes dark as he flew rapidly toward a distant light.
*
「On the outskirts of the 12th District.」
The small hospital, quiet in the winter, had few patients—only two Dog Clan Beastmen lying on opposite sides of the hallway, glaring at each other. They’d gotten into a fight and each had a broken arm and a broken leg to show for it.
The emergency room doctor waited for the two Alaskans, who had been arguing for ages, to quiet down before he sauntered out of the examination room, hands in his pockets.
Just then, the clinic’s main door was thrown open. A figure carrying something rushed toward him. Before the doctor could get a clear look at the person, he was dragged into an examination room, and the door was slammed shut with a BANG!
"WOOF?" The two dogs shot up. "What the hell? We were here first! Are they cutting in line?!"
The night-duty doctor dozing at the triage desk was woken by the cold draft from the entrance. He got up, closed the door properly, then flopped back down to sleep, muttering to the two dogs, "Keep it down. You’re next. That person’s in a real hurry."
The dog on the left: "How do you know?"
The night-duty doctor mumbled, "His heart rate is so fast his heart is about to explode."
The dog on the right: "You can hear that?"
The night-duty doctor dug at his ear, annoyed. "Why else would I be a doctor? Now shut up, both of you. Keep yelling and you won’t be seen until tomorrow morning."
The two dogs glared sullenly at the closed examination room door.
Inside the examination room, the ER doctor’s jaw was hanging open as he stared at the bundle on the medical bed...
A female?!!!!!!
"Examine her." Wanai braced himself with both hands on the side of the bed, panting heavily, his forehead drenched in sweat.
He had originally planned to take Gu Ning to the hospital at the 12th District’s transit station, but he had smelled the scent of people from the Third Military District from a distance. He had no choice but to take a detour and find this small hospital.
Even for him, a dead sprint of over a hundred kilometers was a little too much to handle.
"Hurry up!" Seeing the doctor still frozen in place, Wanai turned and snapped.
The doctor was snapped out of his daze by Wanai’s fierce gaze. He stepped forward. "What’s... what’s her condition?"
Then he added, "What is your relationship to this female? Why did you bring her here to see..."
Wanai flicked his wrist, pressing a short knife to the doctor’s chest. "Fewer questions. Just treat her and prescribe what she needs."
The doctor remained relatively calm and raised his hands. "You need to move so I can examine her."
’I’ve worked in the ER for so many years, what kind of beastman haven’t I seen?’
But a male bringing a female to such a remote little hospital was a first for him. And this female... He sniffed the air around her—
’...’ ’So many male scents. It’s quite pungent.’
Wanai took a breath, retracted his knife, and stepped aside.
Hearing the female’s labored breathing, the doctor couldn’t be bothered to call someone in to deal with the Leopard. He rushed forward to check her condition.
He pulled down the tattered cloth covering the female’s mouth and nose, and immediately froze on the spot.