Chapter 180: Chapter 179: The Curse Plague (Part One)
The lamb leg was perfectly roasted, golden brown on the outside with no hint of char. A bite mark on the leg revealed tender lamb meat inside, looking plump and juicy. The aroma of fat mingled with the scent of cumin wafted through the air.
Even the curly-haired one felt that the meat was chewy for a moment, only to lose its flavor and become extremely unappetizing.
But it was a lamb leg, a lamb leg roasted by humans! Those whimpering humans should be the livestock raised in the pen.
Irritated, the curly-haired one dug at the ground with its hooves and swung its axe to chop off the lamb leg. It made a conscious effort not to look at the half leg lying on the ground, glancing left and right, shouting:
“Livestock! Come out.”
“I see you!”
“Baa!!!”
The yellow-haired beast approached with a cleaver and asked, “What’s the matter?”
The curly-haired one pointed at the half-roasted lamb leg on the ground: “Some livestock hung… hung the leg here.”
The yellow-haired beast stepped forward, feeling the roasted lamb leg hanging from the branch.
“The eye… still warm, just out of the fire,” the yellow-haired beast couldn’t help but extend its tongue to lick it, “It smells good.”
The curly-haired one swallowed, saying, “That’s a lamb leg.”
The yellow-haired beast widened its eyes, stepping back a few paces, clutching its throat and uttering, “Why didn’t you say so earlier?”
“Can’t you see?” the curly-haired one bleated, pointing at the half-buried leg in the dirt, “Don’t you see the hooves?”
For the beastmen, since lamb legs and their own legs looked almost identical, a roasted lamb leg was just as disgusting to them as a roasted human leg would be to humans.
And who knows, this lamb leg might have been chopped off from some beastman.
The yellow-haired beast angrily chopped down the hanging lamb leg with its axe, saying, “This is a provocation!”
After that, the two enraged beasts, with the roasted lamb leg as their center, sniffed around the bushes, searching and shouting:
“I smell your stench, livestock! Come out, or you won’t like what you see.”
“We also have good beasts among us, who will be gentle with you.” The curly-haired one couldn’t forget that enticing aroma, which was far better than the lamb it roasted itself, swallowing again, “Come out, and I’ll spare your life, just give us a roasted calf.”
The yellow-haired beast corrected, “Roasted breast meat is more delicious, it’s leaner.”
“Baa! Roast them all!”
The two beasts cried out even harder, calling back and forth for nearly half an hour before they remembered they didn’t have much time.
So, they cursed and grumbled, emerging from the forest towards the humans in the wooden cage.
Seeing them approach, the farmers in the cage huddled together in fear, crying and wailing.
The curly-haired one kicked the cage, stammering in the common tongue, “Baa… you… are not as delicious as roasted lamb legs, cry? Cry?!”
It seemed that after realizing they wouldn’t be the prey of beastmen for now, the noisy cage fell silent.
After causing a ruckus, the two beasts dragged the cart carrying the humans away, moving towards the setting sun, as the sunlight elongated the shadow of the half-dismembered body hanging from the branches.
In the branches above the half-dismembered body, an invisible voice, mockingly feminine, spoke:
“These wild monsters have truly become accustomed to being livestock; a day without pulling a cart makes them feel uncomfortable. Don’t they know to tie the humans’ hands together with rope in a line, together?”
Aside from the half-dismembered body hanging from the deformed branch, no one heard Jima’s voice.
The figures of the two cart-pulling beasts grew smaller in the distance, appearing like two cattle bowing their heads to pull the cart.
Jima gazed at the air in front of her, recording her experiment in the system text visible only to herself:
“Verified, even roasting lamb legs can become a medium for curses; the curse is already lying in ambush on subject number one, white mouse.”
“Next step: test if the verbally described roasted lamb leg can also serve as a medium, and the extent of its influence.”
“Test subjects: the fortunate beastman tribe. Total number of beasts is about a thousand, including strong ones and a few minotaurs.”
“The curse plague will spread…”
Below her, a human hung on a tree, having consumed only half of his portion. The rough rope cut into his soft neck, elongating it. He opened his mouth wide, his face twisted, rolling his eyes, frozen with the fear from before his death.
He would rot here, be pecked by crows, and gnawed by worms.
After finishing the experiment report, Jima lowered her head and glanced at him. With a wave of her hand, the rope was cut, oil was poured on him, and with her “simulation” ability, she conjured flames of magic, hastily burning both the human and the tree together.
The entire process took less than a minute, smooth and fluid.
The deformed tree burned, flames consuming the corpse.
Jima revealed nothing of her presence throughout.
…
…
The next morning.
In the forest, the beastmen were in their hidden camp.
The captured humans, like livestock, were locked in cages. Among them, only the lucky ones who got leftover food thrown to them by the beastmen survived the bitter end of winter nights.
Every day, their numbers decreased.
But this didn’t concern the curly-haired one. The captives given to the Mother of All Beasts were handled by other beasts.
He got up from his den, feeling an itch in his nose, as if fur was blocking it, and he sneezed.
At that moment, a tuft of black fur fell in front of his eyes. He grabbed it and saw it was curly black hair, his own. Reaching for the top of his head, he merely had to touch it for the slightly curled black hair to fall like soft spring rain.
“Shedding?”
The yellow-haired beast laughed, “Eye… Curly one, you’re going bald.”
The curly-haired lamb’s nose flared with anger, and he turned his head, only to see a horrifying sight.
Large patches of yellow fur were falling from the yellow-haired beast, exposing areas of pink skin, which sprouted little red spots, forming some kind of rash. Yet the yellow-haired beast remained oblivious, laughing while more yellow hair continued to drop.
It was completely unaware of its own condition, laughing and cheerfully saying, “You look like a hairless monkey.”
A thickness of fur had already accumulated around the yellow-haired beast.
The curly-haired one was quickly frightened to stand up, yelling, “Baa, you’re sick.”
“You’re the one who’s sick; you must have a problem in your head.” The yellow-haired one said, standing up, its soft fur shedding like dandelion seeds.
“Don’t come over; look at how much fur you’ve lost?”
The yellow-haired one looked down and saw its pink, hairless skin.
“What’s going on?” It rubbed its eyes, reaching out to touch, and as its fingers brushed against the fur, the last bits of down fell.
As it became awake, the itchiness ignored during sleep surged to the forefront.
“So itchy, Eye, so itchy.” It clawed at its throat covered in red spots, scratching non-stop. The sounds made the curly-haired one feel itchiness on its own skin, unable to resist scratching its arms, stepping back a few paces.
The bald curly-haired one let out a warning beast roar, “Wake up!”
An unbroken series of beast roars responded to him.
“What’s going on?”
“Enemy attack?”
Other beasts awakened one after another, emitting hissing beast language.
“The yellow-haired one is sick; everyone stay away from him…” The curly-haired one hadn’t finished speaking before it fell silent.
Because he saw that every beast rising found their fur flying off like dandelion seeds, revealing pink skin and protruding red spots, amidst the sounds of the yellow-haired one scratching at the red spots.
They too couldn’t help but scratch the red spots on their skin.
“So itchy.”
“Why is it so itchy?”
Claws scratching on uneven skin filled the entire beast den, and with every scratch, the red spots burst, oozing fluid.
The curly-haired one was terrified and turned to run. While running, it couldn’t help but scratch its own arm, hitting a red spot.
“Pfft.”
The red spot burst.
