I’m a Young God, Won’t You Raise Me?

Mo Haein and Kwak Hanmuk immediately rose from their seats and drew their swords.

I immediately ran to the door to open it, but I couldn’t.

The paladin’s great white sword blocked my path.

Frowning, Kwak Hanmuk said,

“Hey, hey.”

Mo Haein also spoke to me in a brief voice.

“Recruit, wait.”

Leaving me behind him, Kwak Hanmuk walked toward the door.

He was about to kick it open, but seemed to remember that the restaurant would start operating the following day, so he calmly opened it by hand instead.

Creeeak.

The rusty hinges let out an unpleasant squeal.

Outside, night had already fallen completely.

The light from inside spilled outward, illuminating those who had been hidden in the shadows.

Ella was holding Ellun in her arms, covered in blood, his face completely pale.

Kwak Hanmuk flinched and muttered,

“Shit… Was it Lieutenant Colonel Je Hyuno?”

Since he had gone into the dungeon, it was only natural to think he was the prime suspect.

Mo Haein seemed to think the same.

But I knew the truth.

Lieutenant Colonel Je Hyuno wasn’t the culprit.

Because this.

Was an event that occurred just before the ending.

Infernum’s Punishment.

It was an event that could trigger randomly whenever the player managed both the restaurant and the dungeon conquest too easily.

Sensing that he would no longer be able to devour the player, Infernum flew into a rage.

And he vented that rage by punishing the twins who served under him.

I remembered the scene where the twins, each with one broken wing, stood in front of the dungeon entrance to say their final words to me.

“Gunbam. The food you made was the most delicious we’ve ever tasted. Keep doing your best.”

“Gunbam is the best chef.”

No matter how many times I chose the option to ask them what had happened, they repeated those exact same lines.

And when you entered and exited the dungeon.

The twins were gone.

You could search the village and the dungeon from top to bottom without finding them.

Only after defeating the final boss, Infernum, would you discover their remains.

Inside Infernum’s ingredient storage.

Small Red Horn of a Fire Dragon: A fresh horn from a member of the Fire Dragon Clan. Ground into powder and sprinkled over food, it provides an extraordinary flavor. Due to its small size, it is worth less than a normal horn.

The player could continue managing the restaurant and conquering the dungeon without any problems, so it was still possible to reach the normal ending.

But to me.

That was a bad ending.

And now, seeing it in reality instead of as simple pixel graphics.

I clenched my teeth at the sight of Ellun’s completely mangled right wing.

At least Ella didn’t seem to have been injured.

‘This event shouldn’t have triggered yet.’

The conditions for triggering the “Infernum’s Punishment” event were conquering the upper floors of the dungeon and reaching a restaurant reputation of over 800 points.

Furthermore, after beginning to pay Infernum the daily fee, the player had to go ten consecutive days without sending him a single dish into the dungeon.

Only then was there a chance for it to occur.

But all we had done was progress through the dungeon very quickly.

We hadn’t even opened the restaurant yet.

Suddenly, I remembered Infernum’s words.

“Yes… If I could devour you, I would finally enjoy a proper feast again after so long…”

Perhaps the problem was that he had considered me an exceptional delicacy.

In the game, he never said anything like that directly to the player.

Even so, only Ellun was injured.

That meant the punishment event hadn’t yet reached the point of no return.

There was still a chance.

I carefully called out to Ella.

“Lady Ella.”

Her trembling eyes passed over Kwak Hanmuk before turning toward the inside.

Then she shouted, almost screaming.

“Lamb!”

Holding Ellun’s limp body, Ella burst into tears before she could even finish speaking.

Large tears filled her eyes.

I turned to Kwak Hanmuk.

“Captain Kwak. Let them in.”

Before he could object, I added quietly,

“It’s indispensable for reaching the True Ending.”

And it was true.

Without the twins, reaching the True Ending was impossible.

They had to become the new rulers of the dungeon after Infernum was driven out.

Hearing that, Kwak Hanmuk looked toward Mo Haein.

She observed the twins with an expressionless face before slowly turning her gaze back to me.

“…We have no choice. If it’s for the True Ending.”

After hearing her response, Kwak Hanmuk reluctantly sheathed his sword.

I immediately ran over to Ella.

“First, I’ll examine Sir Ellun’s injuries.”

Completely shaken, Ella handed Ellun over to me.

I laid him on the floor and examined his wing.

Its condition was serious.

The wing membrane had been torn in several places.

Fortunately, only one bone was broken.

Ella’s eyes darkened with despair as she looked at it.

“What are we going to do… if Ellun can never fly again…?”

“That will never happen. We’ll heal him, I promise. Don’t worry.”

While I was trying to reassure her, Dominic spoke from atop my head.

“Mr. Gunbam. Allow me to use magic. I see there’s a healing spell among the available abilities.”

Ever since defeating the dungeon boss, he seemed to have developed a taste for using magic.

But I couldn’t allow it.

After what I had seen earlier, he was perfectly capable of “healing” Ellun by turning him into a mechanical metal dragon.

Besides, he had already caused two corrupted system windows since we entered Slay to Plate.

We had to be careful.

Fortunately, I knew a method that might work to treat this injury.

‘First I have to set the bone.’

I was about to ask the captains for help.

But Mo Haein had disappeared.

Only Kwak Hanmuk remained there, quietly watching me.

“Where’s Captain Mo?”

“She said she was tired and went upstairs first.”

I blinked for a moment.

I couldn’t imagine Mo Haein saying something like that, but this wasn’t the time to worry about it.

“Captain Kwak, I need your help. We have to set this bone back into place.”

Kwak Hanmuk calmly walked over and crouched down beside me.

Kwak Hanmuk frowned as he looked at the broken wing.

“I’ve never set a wing bone before.”

“You just need to put the part that’s sticking out back into place.”

“Hmm… All right. I’ll count to three.”

“Yes.”

With a tense expression, I held Ellun’s body still.

Ella held the wing from the opposite side.

Kwak Hanmuk carefully judged the position of the bone and placed his hand on it.

And, without counting to three.

He set it immediately.

“Aaaah!!”

The bones snapped back into place with a dry crack.

At the same time, Ellun, who had barely been breathing, let out a cry of pain.

Ella and I hurriedly held him down as his body jerked on reflex.

“Y-Y-You heartless bastard…!”

Small flames burst from Ella’s mouth.

She glared at him with her pink eyes, whose pupils had narrowed into slits, but Kwak Hanmuk answered calmly.

“It was going to hurt anyway.”

…He wasn’t wrong.

I asked Kwak Hanmuk to hold Ellun still and put on the Raven Gloves.

Then I ran to the brazier and took out the Flame Slime Core.

I placed the glowing core on Ellun’s mangled wing.

The moment the Flame Slime Core made contact, it hissed as steam rose from it and began to melt slowly.

Once it had turned into a viscous liquid, I spread it over the wing like an ointment.

First I pressed the torn membrane together with my hands, then applied the slime, making both sides fuse back together.

As the liquid seeped into the wing, Ellun’s breathing gradually began to stabilize.

By the time I had used up the entire Flame Slime Core, the damaged wing had recovered roughly its original shape.

The membrane had only fused back together, so the lines of the tears were still visible.

The broken bone also needed to be immobilized, so, with Kwak Hanmuk’s help, I carefully folded the wing.

Then I tore my apron to improvise a bandage and tied it firmly in place.

Finally, I secured the bandage to his torso with leather straps, keeping the wing completely pressed against his body.

It was a method to prevent him from flapping his wings.

Only then could I finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Thank goodness I had looked up how to treat bat wings.

After playing Slay to Plate, I had researched it out of curiosity, but I never imagined I’d end up using that knowledge like this.

I looked at Ella, who was crying silently, and tried to encourage her.

“It’ll gradually get better.”

At least, I hoped so.

In the game, I had only found fragmented information that Fire Dragons used the Flame Slime Core as a sort of panacea.

I had never used it myself.

Not even I knew what the result would be.

But I still wanted to give Ella hope.

‘If it doesn’t work, we can always turn only his right wing into a mechanical metal dragon wing.’

Thinking such a ridiculous thought, I heard a subdued voice.

“Lamb.”

Ella looked at me with her wings drooping.

“Without the Flame Slime Core… you won’t be able to cook, will you…?”

Ella also knew it was indispensable for properly cooking monster meat.

Of course, I could always get another one in the dungeon.

The problem was the mountain of lizard tails I still had to cook that very night.

Flame Lizard Tails spoiled if they weren’t cooked on the same day.

They were an ingredient whose shelf life was only extended once they had been cooked over fire.

“It’s fine.”

“What do you mean it’s fine?! You’re lying!”

“Ah, no, that’s not it. It’s because you’re going to help me, Lady Ella.”

“Me?”

Ella looked at me in complete confusion.

I nodded.

“Yes. We’re going to grill a few lizard tails together.”

***

You have successfully prepared 500 Flame Lizard Tail Skewers.
Great Success! You have prepared Flame Lizard Tail Skewers (★★★★).

For achieving a Great Success, you receive additional Cooking Proficiency and buff effects.
Your Cooking Proficiency has increased significantly.
Current Cooking Proficiency: 54%

“Hah… haa… Lamb… are we finally done?”

Ella asked between breaths.

Her face was completely red.

Ella had been responsible for providing the fire to cook all five hundred skewers.

Thanks to the Fire Dragon’s breath, preparing the skewers had been incredibly easy and much faster.

Since I hadn’t been able to buy a second brazier today, if I had been forced to use the only one in the kitchen, it would have taken forever.

Fortunately, I had the help of a Fire Dragon.

“You’ve worked hard. We’re finished.”

I thought about giving her a skewer.

But Ella ran away, saying she couldn’t stand even the smell anymore.

11:00 p.m.

After checking the time, I left the kitchen carrying two skewers.

Kwak Hanmuk had an empty wooden skewer clenched between his teeth.

Beside him was a chest that could also be used to store items in addition to the inventory.

It was completely full of the small branches left over after Lieutenant Colonel Je Hyuno had pruned the ornamental trees the previous day.

While I had been cooking, Kwak Hanmuk had made wooden skewers from those branches.

Thanks to the speed of his hands, I had been able to cook all the lizard tails without any problems.

“Hyung Gunbam, are you done?”

“Yes. Here.”

I handed him the skewers I was holding and took the opportunity to bring up the subject.

“Uh… I don’t think we should send the twins back to the dungeon. I was thinking of letting them sleep in my room and having them help at the restaurant again tomorrow…”

Perhaps because the chopped steak had earned his trust, he took one of the skewers without hesitation, bit into it, and answered while chewing.

“Do it.”

His immediate acceptance ended up surprising me.

Seeing my eyes widen, he shrugged.

“Since we went through the trouble of fixing his wing, we might as well make use of it. Lieutenant Colonel Je Hyuno will probably be back soon. I’ll explain it to him, so Albam can go to sleep.”

“…And Captain Mo?”

“Captain Mo…”

Kwak Hanmuk stopped eating and let out a long sigh.

He looked nostalgically toward the second floor before speaking very slowly.

“She has a Fire Dragon allergy.”

All the tension I had been carrying instantly disappeared when I heard that.

Kwak Hanmuk chuckled and lightly tapped me with the empty skewer.

“She only recently got over her butler allergy. So don’t even think about going to look for Captain Mo. Just go to sleep. Got it?”

“Yes…”

After hearing him speak so seriously, I thought it would be best to do exactly that.

In any case, I still had to check on Ellun’s condition.

I went upstairs together with Ella.

Ellun was sleeping soundly on my bed.

Ella and I carefully lay down in one corner of the bed.

The pudding slime was still resting on my chest.

“Hey, Lamb.”

Ella hugged her pillow while glancing at me from the corner of her eye.

“Thank you… for helping us.”

“You helped me too, Lady Ella. Thanks to that Recovery Potion, I was able to survive.”

“It was just something trivial…”

Ella bit her lip before continuing.

“My Lord broke Ellun’s wing. But you healed it… So from now on, My Lord might consider you his enemy.”

“I’m already in the same situation.”

I couldn’t tell her that what I actually wanted was to turn Infernum into a perfectly cooked Fire Dragon Steak.

So I answered in the simplest way possible.

Ella looked at me absentmindedly.

She remained silent for a long time.

Meanwhile, I mentally reviewed everything I would have to do the following day.

Then I heard a voice barely louder than a whisper.

“Why were you the first person who came to mind?”

Wrapped in darkness, Lady Ella continued speaking as if talking to herself.

“The moment Ellun’s wing broke… I couldn’t think of anyone but you, Lamb. We’ve only known each other for two days, but for some reason, I was convinced you’d help us…”

I turned to face her.

Ella immediately hid her face behind the pillow.

“Lady Ella.”

“…What do you want?”

Only her eyes peeked over the top of the pillow.

I smiled faintly at her.

“Nothing.”

“…”

“Thank you for coming today.”

“…”

“Sometimes I imagined it. I wondered what would have happened if, back then, you hadn’t disappeared without saying anything and had asked me for help instead. I even looked up how to treat your injuries…”

“…”

“Ah, well… something similar happened to me a long time ago. In any case… I was really happy that you came today.”

“…”

“That’s all. Get some rest now.”

I lay back down on my back, looking up at the ceiling.

I felt the pudding slime, which had slipped down a little, slowly climb back up until it settled on my chest once again.

And I fell asleep.

“You’re strange, Lamb.”

Without ever hearing Ella’s soft murmur.