Chapter 4
Blood was pouring from the man’s head, covering his face.
“Kyaa! Blood! He’s bleeding!”
Mel flitted over to the man in a panic.
But the man probably couldn’t see her.
Maybe he felt safe knowing someone lived here, because he collapsed on the ground.
Joo-hee blinked in surprise.
“Joo-hee, what do we do? What should we do?”
Joo-hee frowned.
Everything had been peaceful lately, and now a stranger had shown up.
And unfortunately, he collapsed right in front of her house, so she couldn’t just ignore him.
“First… let’s bring him inside.”
She needed to take a closer look at his injuries.
It was too much to carry him alone, so she called for Roo.
She had named him recently—she couldn’t just keep calling him “wolf.”
“Roo, I’ll give you a bath at the pond later.”
Roo, who hated getting blood on his fur, paused at those words. Then he grabbed the man’s shirt with his teeth and dragged him inside.
With Roo inside, the small room felt even smaller.
“Thanks, Roo. Wait outside now.”
Joo-hee looked down at the man with calm eyes and placed her finger under his nose.
His breathing was shallow, but he was alive.
She slowly unbuttoned his shirt to check the wounds.
And what she saw was worse than she expected.
There wasn’t just one deep gash at his side.
There were cuts and injuries all over his body—some big, some small—and blood was still flowing out of them.
If left like this, he might bleed to death.
“The smell of blood is so strong.”
Mel covered her tiny nose with her hands.
The metallic smell of blood filled the air.
Joo-hee went to get a towel and wiped the blood off first.
Once cleaned a bit, the wounds became clearly visible.
She was unsure what to do—it was her first time seeing someone this badly hurt.
Just then, Mel sniffed the air and flew closer.
“Joo-hee, I smell a spirit! Did you call Undine?”
“Yeah, at the pond earlier.”
“Perfect! Let’s ask Undine to heal him! Even a low-ranked water spirit can easily treat wounds like these!”
Joo-hee hesitated for a moment, then quietly called out the name.
“Undine.”
“You called me?”
A water droplet appeared in the air and formed into the shape of Undine, just like earlier.
“Can you help me?”
“If it’s your request, I’ll even kill someone for you!”
Her cheerful voice made it sound like a joke.
Joo-hee made a face.
“No, that won’t be necessary. Just heal this man, please.”
“That’s easy! Joo-hee, I’ll need to borrow a bit of your energy.”
Undine floated toward the man and merged into his body.
At that moment, Joo-hee felt like something drained from her.
But to her amazement, the man’s wounds slowly began to heal.
In less than ten minutes, his body was completely restored.
Undine came back out once the treatment was finished.
“How was that, Joo-hee? Satisfied?”
“Thanks.”
“Call me again next time!”
Undine gave Joo-hee a kiss on the cheek and disappeared.
Now, the man was sleeping peacefully, like he had never been hurt.
If not for his blood-soaked clothes, no one would have believed he’d been seriously injured.
Joo-hee covered his body with a blanket and stepped outside to let the smell of blood air out.
She opened the window for ventilation.
“Mel, I’m curious about something.”
“What is it?”
“What exactly is Undine?”
“She’s a low-ranked water spirit!”
“Then does that mean I’m a spirit master?”
“Nope! You can summon spirits just by calling their names—even without a contract!”
“Just saying their names is enough?”
“Yep! But you didn’t even like spirits before. Last time you summoned one, you yelled at her to go away… Did you change your mind?”
“I’m just curious now.”
It seemed like Eiril didn’t like this power too much.
Maybe because being called a witch was already dangerous—and if people found out she could summon spirits too, it could cause even bigger trouble.
Mel twirled around Joo-hee and asked,
“Joo-hee, do you want to try calling other spirits?”
“Do you know their names?”
“Of course! The earth spirit is Gnome, the fire spirit is Salamander, and the wind spirit is Sylph!”
She had heard of those names before.
Things like this could never happen in Korea, so it reminded her once again: she was inside a book.
Joo-hee looked around, then quietly said a name.
“Sylph.”
“Ah, finally! You’ve only been calling Undine, I was getting jealous! I thought I’d suffocate waiting for this!”
A figure appeared in the air, looking similar to Mel.
The only difference was that instead of arms, it had wings.
“Nice to meet you! Did you finally decide to call us? I’m so happy!”
Since things had gone this far, Joo-hee decided to call the other spirits too.
They all greeted her cheerfully, saying how glad they were to finally meet her. It left her feeling a bit overwhelmed.
After the noisy spirits left, Joo-hee asked Mel:
“Can I also call mid-level or high-level spirits?”
“No, not yet. You’re not strong enough for that.”
“I see.”
“But spirits really like you, Joo-hee. They’ll help you with anything!”
“Anything?”
“Yep! They don’t just like you—they love you.”
It sounded like Mel was talking about dangerous situations.
But since she wasn’t the main character of the story, Joo-hee thought nothing that serious would ever happen to her.
She went back inside to check if the man had woken up, but his eyes were still closed.
Even though his wounds had healed, he had lost too much blood and probably wouldn’t wake up easily.
Joo-hee looked closely at his face.
He had black hair, just like hers—and a very handsome face.
She had never seen him before in the village, so he must’ve been an outsider.
While trying to guess who he might be, Joo-hee stood up.
Either way, once he woke up, she’d just send him back.
“Mel, I’m going to the pond with Roo. Stay here and let me know if he wakes up.”
“Okay, got it!”
Joo-hee stepped outside and headed to the pond with Roo.
At the time, she truly believed the man was just a traveler who had gotten lost and wandered into the forest by accident.
But that was a mistake.
* * *
Meanwhile…
“Catch him! Don’t let him escape!”
The man ran with all the strength he had left.
The sword he had stolen earlier had already broken and been thrown away.
The horse he had taken while fleeing had died, so now he had no choice but to run on foot.
Just then, a forest came into view.
He didn’t care what kind of place it was.
All that mattered now was escaping from the knights chasing him.
The forest looked dark and dangerous, so maybe they wouldn’t dare follow him in.
He clenched his teeth and rushed into the forest.
“Everyone stop!”
The knights chasing him clicked their tongues and came to a halt at the edge of the forest.
He had entered the Melina Forest—known as the “Cursed Forest.” Going in there meant certain death by monsters.
“Captain Phillips, what should we do?”
“We retreat. No one survives in that forest anyway.”
“That’s true, but…”
“What, you want to go in?”
“N-No, sir!”
The knight quickly shook his head and ran off.
Captain Phillips, the leader of the knights, didn’t feel good about it—but he had no choice.
He didn’t want to die a meaningless death in the forest.
He decided that when he returned, he would tell his master the man had died.
And so, the knights retreated from the forest entrance.
That was their biggest mistake.
* * *
Meanwhile, inside the forest, the man wiped the blood from his face with his sleeve and kept walking with no destination in mind.
Since it was nighttime, the forest was pitch-black. He couldn’t see anything.
“Damn it…”
He had lost so much blood, his vision was blurring—but he knew if he passed out here, he would die, so he forced himself to keep going.
The wounds from the sword slashes burned with pain.
He glanced back—no one seemed to be chasing him anymore.
Holding his bleeding side tightly, he wandered deeper into the forest.
“Huff… Huff…”
He had no idea how much time had passed.
Honestly, he was surprised he hadn’t passed out yet.
With how much blood he’d lost, dying from blood loss wouldn’t be surprising.
He needed to find a way out soon.
He knew if he stayed here any longer, he would die a meaningless death in the forest.
He staggered forward.
He didn’t know how long he’d been walking, but just as he felt like he couldn’t go on any longer, he saw a light.
“…Light?”
Even if it was just a hallucination, it was beautiful.
He moved toward the light with everything he had left.
Once he made it out of the forest, a wide open field stretched before him.
Unlike the dark forest, the outside world was bright and warm.
“Ha… haha…”
Then, through his blurry vision, he saw a house.
Driven by the simple will to survive, the man began walking toward it.
It was Joo-hee’s house.
He barely managed to reach the front yard, crawling more than walking.
There were no signs of life—but it looked like someone lived there.
It was too clean and well-kept to be abandoned.
As he stared blankly at the yard, a voice came from behind.
“…Who are you?”
The voice was calm, but it somehow helped slow his racing heart.
The man slowly turned around.
A young girl was staring at him with a curious expression.
And with that final image in his mind, the man lost consciousness.
