I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 253

The Forest of the Four Seasons is easy to enter as you please, but leaving is a different story.

Not only that, but nobody knows where they will end up even when entering.

The alien Grylls was an obvious case, but Ludwig was also a lucky one in a way.

After all, someone else started in a swamp and was eaten by a Swamp Anglerfish before getting very far.

Because the starting points had such heavy randomness, one’s luck was bound to fluctuate wildly.

In other words, a person could step foot into a horrific place the very moment they entered.

"Cough! Cough!"

Pope—no, now high traitor—Louis II coughed violently.

Enduring a pain as if awls were stabbing his lungs, he opened his eyes.

’Where... on earth am I...?’

Inside the Forest of the Four Seasons, numerous natural environments were deployed.

Starting from basic forests to plains, grasslands, deserts, snowy mountains, oceans, and even volcanic zones.

Since such natural environments also existed outside the Forest of the Four Seasons, one could just brush them off.

However, the place where Louis set foot was different. An environment unfolded before him that couldn’t be found even in books.

’A gray and green... zone?’

Gray and green. The mismatched color combination was striking.

And what about the surrounding environment? A desert at least had sand, but here, only hard earth and vast plains existed.

Here and there were withered, twisted trees, but they only highlighted the desolation.

’If nothing else, this green glow... doesn’t feel good at all.’

The green light occasionally glowing from the gray earth. Just looking at it sent a wave of foreboding over him.

Above all, he couldn’t just stand still here. He needed a place to hide.

Ttuck- ttuck-

Because his wrist was still dripping with blood.

It was the wrist Asella had cold-heartedly severed right before he was forcibly thrown in.

’Damn it. That fucking bitch.’

Frowning fiercely, he hurriedly rummaged through his belongings.

As a pathetic excuse for final mercy, it was the baggage Asella had handed to the sinners.

She had said useful items were inside, so this was all he had to rely on.

Although it was inconvenient with only one hand, Louis somehow checked the contents.

’A dagger and jerky. This is a potion, and this is...’

What caught his eye after the potion was a small bottle. A bottle filled with a purple liquid, no less.

The moment Louis saw the bottle with the purple fluid, he gritted his teeth.

Because the purple liquid could only mean one thing.

"You fucking bitch!!!"

Chhang-grang!

Louis screamed at the top of his lungs and slammed the bottle to the ground.

The purple liquid inside the glass bottle seeped into the gray earth.

"How dare... how dare she mock me to the very end?! This is your final mercy?!"

Green or purple liquids generally symbolized ’poison’.

It was a kind of consideration—telling him to cleanly end his own life rather than being eaten alive as beast food.

Of course, his corpse would still be torn apart by beasts all the same.

It was meant to let him depart this world while feeling the minimal amount of pain before dying.

"At whose say-so?! At whose say-so?! I will never give up! Never!"

With a face warped in fury, Louis forcefully pressed his severed wrist back into place.

He then poured the potion whole over it, struggling desperately to get it to fuse.

However, unlike an Elixir, the potion’s healing effect was not that extraordinary.

Even if flesh and muscle reattached, it couldn’t fuse the bones, leaving it dangling precariously.

Believing this was enough for now, Louis tied the joint tightly with a piece of cloth from his bundle.

A powerful determination to survive at all costs and escape oozed from him.

’No matter what it takes, I will survive. Do you know how hard I worked to build my power...!’

His image of living a lavish lifestyle within the Papal See was still flickering before his eyes.

Not a single person could oppose him, and the moment anyone tried, they were purged immediately.

The taste of absolute power was sweeter than anything. Wealth and women were all meaningless next to it.

That was why he couldn’t give it up. He would survive relentlessly and reclaim it all.

’Goddess Aris-isiyeo. Grant me power.’

Subjecting himself to prayer to Aris, whom he hadn’t even cared about, just because he had technically been a clergyman.

Had Aris heard this, she would have been utterly dumbfounded.

Louis gripped the dagger with his intact hand and moved his legs forward.

"Cough! Cough!"

Was there too much dust because it was a wasteland? Louis coughed repeatedly.

He hastily covered his mouth with his hand, but felt something wet.

’Th-this is...’

It was blood. A glob of blood came out as he coughed.

Louis couldn’t help but turn pale at the sight.

Apparently, his body had become severely weakened due to being imprisoned.

Had he known, he would have taken a sip of the potion; he had been too hasty.

’Water. I have to find water first.’

The most important thing for survival was water. Without water, one couldn’t live past three days.Enjoying the story? Read on at novelрing.com.

He walked quickly, scrambling about in search of water.

However, finding water was not easy. Only a desolate gray zone stretched out endlessly.

The water pooled on the ground occasionally was either glowing green or closer to murky sludge.

"Cough! Cough! Cough!"

Strangely, his coughing was getting worse. And that wasn’t all.

"...Ah?"

The wrist he had forcibly sealed. A minute change began occurring on that wrist.

Starting from the seam, green cracks were slowly spreading outward.

It looked ominous, as if he had caught a plague.

"W-what on earth is...!"

Kkum-teul!

That wasn’t the end of it. A faint twitch occurred in the hand that had been severed and forced back on.

Louis wasn’t moving it. Since the nerves were severed, he shouldn’t have been able to move it.

Kkum-teul! Kkum-teul!

The movement grew even more intense. Louis’s hand squirmed as if it were a living creature in its own right.

Kkwa-deudeuk! Kkwa-deuk! U-deuk!

The situation grew even more dire. Now, it was a grotesquely alien motion.

The fingers twisted bizarrely as though they had turned into a mollusk.

After a moment of turning pale, Louis acted quickly.

Since his other hand was intact, he used the dagger gripped in it.

"Euaaaaah!"

Screaming in terror, he hacked through the joint once more.

Whether the nerves responsible for pain were already eroded or if he was simply consumed by fear—

He felt no pain whatsoever until the hand was completely sliced off.

Tuk!

Soon, Louis’s hand fell onto the ground.

However, even after being detached, the hand did not stop its grotesque movements.

Ddook! Dduk!

Blood dripped from his severed wrist. But Louis didn’t even pay attention to it.

"Die! Die! You monster!!!"

Because he was busy stomping on the bizarrely moving hand with his foot.

It was his own hand until just a moment ago, but not anymore.

Whether it was possessed by an evil spirit or not, something had definitely taken hold of it.

If it were up to him, he would have loved to burn it cleanly with fire.

[...urt.]

"?!"

It was while he was frantically stomping on it. Louis flinched.

What was that sound just now? Where did it come from?

Before he could ponder the question, Louis gasped in horror.

[It... hurts...]

"Huuuuh?!"

Because ’words’ were coming out of the very hand he was stomping on.

It wasn’t even another language; it was clearly the language of Eldorado.

The moment Louis heard those words clearly, he had no choice but to stumble backward.

So shocked was he that the strength left his legs and he collapsed.

[It... hurts... It... hurts...]

"Ah... aaah..."

Louis could see it with his own two eyes.

A small ’mouth’ had formed on the completely crushed finger.

And that mouth was speaking in the language of Eldorado.

U-deudeuk! Kkwa-deuk! Kkwa-deuk!

The bizarre phenomenon didn’t end there.

The hand, which had stopped moving for a while from Louis’s stomping—

That hand began moving again, and soon started to gradually swell up.

Skin peeled off, bones and muscles were exposed, and then new skin covered them again.

As this process repeated infinitely, it transformed into a gigantic monstrosity in no time.

It wasn’t just that it grew huge; the problem was that it became hideous.

[It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.]

[Where is it? Where is it? Where is it?]

[#%$%. #@#$. @$%%.]

[Give it to me give it to me give it to me give it to me.]

Mouths sprouted all over the hand. All sorts of voices burst forth from those mouths.

Furthermore, it wasn’t just mouths; noses, ears, and even eyes were attached.

Even fingers—far from being just five—had sprouted in a dense swarm of at least ten or more.

Could this even be called a hand anymore? Or what on earth should it be called?

It was an abomination shrouded in questions, but one thing was certain.

All of this phenomenon was caused by the Forest of the Four Seasons.

"Aueua... aaah..."Get faster updates on novelp⁠ing.com.

Ddak-ddak-ddak-ddak-ddak!

With a pale, deathly face, Louis stared at the monster that used to be his hand.

His teeth chattered endlessly, and his trousers soaked wet as he even pissed himself.

A state where human dignity had completely vanished.

Yet anyone who witnessed the process and result of that monster’s growth would have done the exact same.

[Hahaha! Hahaha!]

[Fun! Fun!]

Just then, a voice echoed nearby.

Louis, with a feeling of dreadful suspicion, checked the severed stump of his wrist.

Sure enough, a mouth had also formed on his arm, which had been corrupted by the green energy.

"A-A-Aris-isiyeo..."

[Aris? Aris? Aris?]

The mouth repeated his exact words. Louis’s mind went completely blank.

However, even that blankness didn’t last long. A massive shadow fell over his head.

With an expression that seemed to have abandoned all will, Louis raised his head.

A hand sprouted with countless eyes, noses, and mouths stood proudly right in front of him.

The eyes attached to the hand were staring at Louis as if observing him.

The noses attached to the hand flared their nostrils, sniffing Louis’s scent.

The ears attached to the hand were listening to Louis’s erratic heartbeat and heavy breathing.

And finally, the mouths attached to the hand...

[Hungry. Hungry. Hungry.]

[Hungry. Hungry. Hungry.]

[So hungry. So hungry. So hungry.]

[Want to eat. Want to eat. Want to eat.]

[Let’s eat. Let’s eat. Let’s eat. Let’s eat.]

They were treating Louis as ’prey’, drooling profusely.

Thus, the hand began to slowly approach. All its organs were focused on Louis.

"Aaah..."

Louis despaired. And he thought:

If hell existed in this world, was it a place like this?

Did the political enemies he had sent off to be purged meet such an end as well?

How on earth was Ludwig able to make contact with Grylls?

Kkwa-deuk!

Soon, the hand completely covered Louis—

Kkwa-deudeuk! Kkwa-deuk! U-jeok! U-jeok!

"Keuaaaaahk! Aaaaaahk! Aaaaaaaa!!!"

Louis was eaten alive by what used to be his own hand.

His scream echoed across the barren earth, but there was no one around to hear it.

[Tasty. Tasty. Tasty.]

[Disgusting. Disgusting. Disgusting.]

[Eat more. Eat more. Eat more.]

Except for his own hand.

"Hey. You, come here."

"Wh-what is it?"

"I saw you clearly stealing sweet potatoes from the storage. Hand it over quickly if you don’t want your wrists chopped off."

"Ooooh..."

Where does this guy get off trying to steal and eat sweet potatoes?

I gave a harsh scolding to Lackey, who had secretly swiped a sweet potato.

If he had dug it up himself, that would be one thing, but taking it from storage is intolerable.

"Here. Look at this. This is called a seed. You just plant this right here. Got it?"

"Can I dig it up then?"

"Don’t eat too much."

So I taught him how to cultivate sweet potatoes.

Since he’s working hard right now, he needs a proper carrot.

Lackey looked surprised when I kindly instructed him, but after a moment, he enthusiastically started farming sweet potatoes.

’Is it almost summer soon?’

Summer would probably arrive tomorrow or the day after. Naturally, an overwhelming swarm of bugs would break out.

’Will I be able to see the Sky Whale too?’

I wonder if it’ll drop Ambergris again this time. I was looking forward to it a bit.

Well, aside from that.

[Heavenly Demon: I am sorry. I wished to eliminate them all, but I let some slip away.]

[Wild Grylls: How many people entered?]

[Heavenly Demon: Four people. I am concerned they might bring harm to you.]

[Wild Grylls: Please don’t worry too much. I’ll make my own preparations.]

I should prepare to welcome potential guests, though they’ll be different from Ludwig.

’By the way, she really seems to be the actual Heavenly Demon?’

I also realized a new fact while I was at it.

’Whatever, who cares.’

She’s someone who helps me, so I should extend my goodwill to the end.