Chapter 186: Mysterious Little Girl

Arnold saw a pair of red eyes glowing at a distance with a faded silhouette of a giant body.

Arnold quickly turned around and dashed to the other side.

ROAR!

The monsters roared as the blizzard got worse, and Arnold was hit by a massive snowball that sent him and the girl he was carrying in his arms— down the cliff.

After regaining consciousness, Arnold found himself surrounded by snow, but there was no sign of the blizzard or snow near him— except the snow he fell with.

Everything around him was normal, as though it had never snowed.

"What's going on?" he muttered to himself.

'Did I slip and fall down the cliff somehow? And then I had a weird dream about seeing a little girl and that…' Arnold remembered the monster he saw just before he was hit by an enormous snowball.

"What was that thing?" he wondered.

'Well, it was only a dream.'

Arnold moved his hand to his bag only to realize there was no bag.

'Did it fall off somewhere when I slipped and fell down the cliff?' he questioned himself.

"Wait! That means… I lost the fruits too?!" He exclaimed.

He got up and uttered: "I need to find the bag and go back to the guildhall." 

After walking some steps, he stopped and jerked his head back to see a little girl lying unconscious.

'It wasn't a dream?!'

The scene of the monster flashed before Arnold's eyes.

He quietly walked to the girl's body and sat down.

"Now, I don't want to go up."

"I have seen many monsters in my life. Strong and weak, scary and ugly. But that thing… It was something more than a monster.

GROWL~!

Arnold's stomach growled.

"I feel hungry. How long have I been unconscious?" he asked himself.

It had been more than a day since he fell from the cliff after getting hit by the snowball.

"What if master Zeus had already arrived at the capital?!" he panicked.

Zeus had already arrived in the capital in the morning, and he was currently at the palace, talking with Ajax.

Ajax was telling Zeus about his ancestors and king Apollo.

Arnold carried the girl to the nearest cave for shelter and then looked for something to eat. But he couldn't find any trees with fruits or any animals to hunt.

He chopped some wood and went back to the cave with an empty stomach.

He lit the bonfire and placed the girl near it, so her body would heat up.

Arnold covered the girl's body properly and placed his hand on her forehead to check her temperature. 

"She is cold as ice!"

Arnold's body was also cold when he was in the snowy forest, but his body temperature went back to normal after he woke up from a long nap.

However, the girl's body was still cold.

'I couldn't tell in the forest because my body was numb, but this girl is breathing slowly.'

"And her body is indeed heavy," he added.

Arnold took off his coat and clothes and placed them on top of the little girl to keep her body hot.

"What if the girl dies, and I get blamed?" He wondered.

He glanced at the girl and thought, 'Maybe I should leave her here and run away?'

'That way, no one would ever know I was with her?'

He slapped his cheeks and shook his head: "Get your mind out of the gutter, Arnold."

'If you can't protect one's life, then at least don't destroy it. If you can't save a life, then at least don't kill it.' Arnold remembered what Zeus had once told him during their travel together.

Arnold was ridiculed and humiliated his entire life because he was abnormal, and he was traumatized by it.

After learning martial arts, his life improved, and he didn't want to get blamed for something.

He laid down on the ground beside the bonfire, keeping his distance from the little girl, and fell asleep.

The bonfire eventually ran out of the wood to burn and slowly extinguished.

When Arnold opened his eyes, he first gazed at the little girl to see how she was doing. But when he looked at the girl, she wasn't there.

Bewildered, Arnold sat up and glanced around with a horrified look on his face.

'Where did she go?'

"She alone couldn't have gone anywhere," he muttered.

The scene of the monster flashed before Arnold's eyes, again.

"What if that monster… no. That's not possible."

'I am becoming stupid.'

Arnold felt something at his right, so when he glanced to his right, he saw the little girl sleeping beside him.

He immediately made some distance between them and stared at the girl.

'How did she get beside me?!' he wondered.

"She couldn't have moved…" Arnold gasped and panicked: "What if it was me?!"

"What if… I did something unspeakable to this little girl?" Arnold gulped down in disgust.

The girl opened her mouth yes and sat up. She rubbed her eyes with her hands and uttered: "You are awake?"

"That's my line. Who are you?" he asked.

"Huh? Could it be that you don't remember?"

"Remember… what?" Arnold stammered on his words.

'Did I truly… did something to this little girl?'

After you fell off from the cliff, you were in a critical state. So I healed you, but I fell sleepy again and fell asleep," the little girl stated.

"Healed me?" He snorted. "How can a little girl like you even do anything."

"First of all, stop calling me a little girl, old man," the girl uttered in a solemn voice.

That reminded Arnold of how he met Zeus for the first time.

"You are not a little girl?" Arnold asked curiously.

"I am not." The girl stood up and uttered, "My name is Rosemary; my friends call me Rosie. But you can't call me that."

"Okay then…" After a brief pause, Arnold uttered, "Mary."

Rosemary frowned her face and hissed with a fierce glare in her eyes: "Don't call me that!"