Chapter 218: [218] Appreciation

Olivia could feel something incredibly soft underneath her head. It was as though she had been propped up on the clouds, and there was a pleasant warmth all around her.

’Wasn’t she meant to be cold?’ The last thing she could remember was bitter cold, the type that had you wishing you were thrown into a volcano just to heat up.

But now, things were different, and she felt strangely calm. She opened her eyes slowly, and the first thing that greeted her was the dark sky above.

The moon was out in its full glory, casting a cool white light over the world, while the eclipsed sun was nowhere to be found.

Olivia blinked, then adjusted her gaze, only to see a skeleton staring down at her, expressionlessly.

She cocked her head to the side, her mind trying to process what she was seeing. Strangely, she did not feel spooked by the skeleton. If anything, it felt far too natural to be in his presence.

Why?

Olivia furrowed her brows. Did she somehow know this skeleton from somewhere? She glanced to the side, only to see that she had actually been resting her head on folded fur placed on the skeleton’s thigh bones.

Then she turned her attention back to him, trying to search her mind for an answer.

The skeleton reached for her forehead slowly, as though afraid to scare her, and then he brushed her head to the side, placing the back of his hand on her forehead to check her temperature.

After he was done, he lifted his fingers away, then suddenly...

Thwack!

He flicked her forehead so hard that a red spot appeared, throbbing.

Olivia immediately sat up straight, her eyes widening. "A-Ark?? What the hell are you doing?!"

"It looks like all you needed was a little smacking to reset that brain of yours."

"Hey, I was attacked, aren’t you supposed to be babying me? What is with the insults?" She glared at him, folding her hands across her chest.

Ark shook his head. "All you needed to do was escort Cici to pee. How did you end up getting kidnapped?"

Olivia frowned, then pouted. "There was a cave... I went to check it out, and then..."

Her eyes suddenly widened. "Cici!"

She jumped to her feet, only to stumble and fall down into a sitting position on Ark’s lap.

"She is fine, don’t worry about her." Ark pointed at a certain spot in the camp where Cici was.

The little mage was staring at the flickering fire in the center of their camp while munching on a piece of braised bear meat with her good hand.

The only reason she had survived was because the Tribesmen had administered some form of crude, barbaric first aid...

She would have still died if they had not gotten to her on time, so Ark was happy that she had pulled through.

Olivia seemed to calm down a little, but Ark could see sadness in her eyes. Her eyes were glazed with tears, and under the light of the fire, they gleamed like gemstones.

"Don’t blame yourself over this, it’s not like there was anything you could have done. It’s not your fault."

Even the strongest people often fell when ambushed. There was little anyone could do if they were to be stabbed from behind.

Olivia sighed. "It is only because of me that we investigated the cave... if we didn’t go..."

"If you didn’t go, we would have still faced them. Maybe they would have ambushed us from the snow, maybe someone would be dead."

"Your decision to check it out was good, don’t think otherwise."

Cici had already told them all that had happened. Olivia had not purposely driven herself into danger. No one would have expected to encounter NPCs in the cave.

"I... I guess you’re right." Olivia stared up, likely to prevent her tears from slipping out. They stayed in that position for a few minutes before Ark finally spoke.

"Now get off my legs, you’re heavy."

"W-what?" Olivia turned around to glare at him. "No! I’ve already warmed up your legs, so I have a stake in them. Do you know how long it will take to warm up another chair?"

"Do I look like a chair?"

"What is the difference between you and a chair, Mr. Bones?"

Ark gave her a deadpan stare, then sighed as he shook his head.

"Anyways... do you have any idea why they kept you two alive?"

From the way the tribesmen acted, they didn’t seem like the type to keep hostages.

Olivia’s face darkened slightly, as though she had just remembered some sort of horrific memory.

She turned to face him, her face twisted with disgust.

"They are cannibals."

"Those people... they eat other humans."

The revelation felt like being hit by a bus. Ark just sat there, completely dumbfounded. Did that mean Cici’s arm was...?

He stopped his mind from straying too far and shook his head as though it would shake off his imagination.

Technically, it made sense that there would be such kinds of people in this world. When driven to the very brink of despair, humans had a way of doing despicable things.

Most of the animals in this world had likely died due to the ceaseless snow. The only things left to eat were monsters...

But monsters were difficult to hunt. Trying to take down a monster would mean risking your own life, so some of the people must have resorted to other means of sustenance.

The thought of it made Ark feel sick down to his non-existent stomach.

"They were despicable people..."

"Were?" Olivia raised a brow. "Come to think of it, how did you rescue me? What happe..."

It was only then that Olivia noticed that the snow all around them had been caked in blood, and frozen bodies had long been discarded in the snow.

"Oh."

’Did Ark get angry?’ she wondered as she watched him. It was always strange whenever he got angry. It was even harder to connect the angry version of him to the person she was so fond of teasing, the person who she was currently using as a chair...

"Try to rest." Ark lifted Olivia and placed her on the bench, underneath the warm coat she had been sitting on. Olivia noticed that it had a few stripes.

Then he waved his hand in the air, summoned another white coat, and handed it to her.

"Agneth finished working on them while you were sleeping. The coats have a special enchantment, so they are nothing like a regular coat. You will never get cold with this..."

Olivia grabbed it and smiled. "Finally, the cold was getting unbearable!"

Ark nodded and turned to leave when Olivia suddenly held his arm, keeping him in place.

"Ark..."

She turned her face away, patches of pink already appearing on her freckled face, like crimson roses in a garden of white.

He had gone out of his way to rescue her after she messed up, and instead of scolding her, he had actually encouraged her.

"Thank you."

Ark stared at her for a few seconds, and then he gagged. "Don’t do that again, I think I’m going to be sick!"

Olivia’s face turned red with rage, her feathers ruffling. "Get out..."

Her eyes suddenly widened as Ark placed his hand atop her hair, ruffling it slightly. He was a skeleton. His hands were cold and hard, not soft like any other person’s would have been.

He could not smile, nor could he show emotions...

And yet, at that very moment, to Olivia, his hands were far softer than the wool she sat atop, and his face showed more emotion than she could have ever dreamed of....

"You’re welcome~"