I Reincarnated Into A Single-Celled Organism! - I Reincarnated into a Single-celled Organism! - Chapter 62

I looked at the carnage around me with a nonchalant expression. I wasn’t sure if it was because of being slightly inhuman, my life surviving in the pond, my former abusive gang life, or something else, but I felt very little discomfort surrounded by dead bodies. I felt nothing when it came to killing people. Although I had massacred a hundred people in extremely unpleasant ways, it didn’t affect me emotionally in the slightest.

I wasn’t the only one. Mara had watched it all happen as well, and she had barely reacted. Perhaps, her lips tightened slightly during the middle of it, but she didn’t look away and even now, her face held no expression. I was fine having no emotion. I didn’t consider myself human anyway. However Mara shouldn’t have had to grow up so quickly. She was only sixteen and had already seen some of the worst sides of humanity. If I felt any unpleasantness, it came from seeing her take it all in stride without shedding a single tear.

My eyes landed on the arm that the mercenary leader had chopped off. It crawled toward me. Even though my arm was cut off, I could still control it. All of the cells inside it were also still alive for the moment, although those cells couldn’t live as just an arm permanently. They still had a lot more resilience than a normal person’s arm, and those parts could likely survive for weeks apart from my body, and that was assuming I didn’t do anything to shift them and extend their lifespan.

I could expand my senses into any cell of my body. It wasn’t as broken as it sounded though. If I left a single cell, it’d be limited to the sensations of a single cell. I’d at least have to leave enough tissue to simulate an organ if I wanted it to be able to relay more than ancillary information like temperature or acidity. I would lose contact with such a thing if my main consciousness was farther than a few kilometers, and then the organ would quickly die.

However, these kinds of things were easily replaceable and absorbable, so they had their uses. For the moment, my crawling arm touched my foot, and then it melted. The melted parts quickly absorbed into my foot, and a few moments later my arm regrew. Even the cloth that had been cut off regrew, making me appear once again in a commoner’s tunic and hooded cloak.

I had thought to wear Tanner’s clothing that first day, but it felt somewhat disrespectful, so I fabricated my clothing. This clothing wasn’t part of my body. It wasn’t like I was naked with the illusion of clothing. Rather, after having absorbed the clothing of the assassins I killed long ago, I had worked out the chemical composition of the fabric they used. During these sixteen years, while I was bored, I did many experiments, which included replicating clothing.

I had never gotten a chance to play with it until now. I suspected that I could continue to alter the chemical composition of the clothing, creating armored clothing that could block blows like the one that cut off my arms. I would have to dwell on that more in the future, but for the moment, it was enough that I was covered and my clothing appeared to be the typical outfit of a commoner of these parts. As long as I didn’t stand out, I was generally happy.

Once my arm was regenerated, I walked over to the young woman who had called out to me, the girl named Erika Blanche. I reached down and touched her neck. I could have probably sensed her breath from where I was standing, but I still hadn’t mastered my senses enough to have that level of sensitivity. My body was not even a month old. It was thanks to my old life that I had even managed this much.

“Y-you! Hands up so I can see them!”

I frowned, turning to see a knight there pointing his sword toward me. His helmet had been knocked off and he was bleeding from the head. He was a young man, with straggly brown hair and bright eyes. He was the youngest knight I had seen to date, only about eighteen himself, about the same age as Erika was, by my estimation.

“She’s alive,” I responded, looking up at him.

He let out a breath of relief, but then his expression hardened again. “Stand up! Get your peasant hands away from her!”

Was this the appreciation for the person that saved his life? Well, he probably didn’t notice me taking them out, as he had been unconscious. I had been paying attention to the battle earlier, and he was the one who put up the most fight against the mercenary leader. Even then, he had only been knocked out, rather than killed like most of the other knights. He appeared to have some skill. I could tell he was a flawless paragon, and even a lower level than the mercenary, yet had still managed to fight against him.

I stood up and backed away peacefully. He cautiously glared at me before walking over and checking her himself. Only when she let out a little groan did he let out a sigh of relief? While awkwardly kneeling and keeping his sword pointed at me, he used his free hand to fish something from his pocket. It was a small vial of liquid. He popped off the lid and then fed it to her. She started to gulp it, and then a few moments later, her eyes fluttered open.

“B-brother?” She asked.

“Erika… are you okay?” He demanded.

“Mmm… just used too much mana. Overdraft…” she said in a croaky voice.

There were a few other groans or moans, and some movement to the side. He quickly stood up, carefully looking over the battlefields. They were not the only survivors. At least two other knights and a few servants survived. Two particular servants, a pair of women who had been grabbed by the men as they gave their lives to protect Erika, were stripped naked and covered in bruises. When the mercenaries fled, they had left them exactly in the state they had been.

The two women began to weep and hold each other. One of the knights had the good sense to hobble over to them and give them a blanket so they could cover up their shame. Although it had only been five minutes, with a group of rowdy hot-blooded mercenaries, they had quickly torn those women up. It was hard to state what they had been through in those few minutes, but they still ended up being luckier than they could have been. They could have been taken and been used for weeks or months.

My hand tightened at my side as I saw the weeping woman. I was a lot of things, but I had only ever touched women who consented. I had used any number of tricks and lies to get their consent, but I would never push myself on a girl who didn’t first offer herself willingly. Once I had lost control a bit with Carolina, and I still felt a bit guilty about it. Perhaps, that was part of the reason I hadn’t once seen Mara in a sexual light, even when she had finished developing into a ripe young woman. It was merely annoying that other men didn’t do the same.

“Brother… what happened to the Blackbolt gang?” Erika was sitting up now, rubbing her forehead like she was hungover.

“Something scared them off. They ran.” He replied, looking at the body of the mercenary leader and kicking him over to reveal his face. “Their leader was killed.”

“What could have been so terrifying that they’d run like that? They didn’t even take their loot.” Erika was glancing around the battlefield when she noticed the two naked women crying and winced.

They would have been part of the loot too, but then again, that could have been her fate as well. If she was any less pretty, she would have gone to the soldiers rather than being left to their leader.

“I don’t know.” He frowned. “Ask that peasant. He was the only one here when I woke up.”

“Peasant?” The woman turned to me and then let out a cry. “Ah, it’s you? Where is… ah… there she is. Please come over here!”

When she noticed Mara she immediately waved her over. I was expecting Mara to ignore her, but she suddenly started bringing the cart over.

“Mm!” She answered loudly enough to be heard.

Seeing Mara heading over, she let out a breath. “You must be the ones I called out to earlier. I saw someone passing by and I called out. I didn’t realize it was you. Why did you come in this direction? I did everything that I could to lure them away.”

I looked at her. “You said you were heading north. That’s why I went west…”

“That…” Her face turned red. “That was a deception. I wanted them to be confident in attacking us. If I didn’t look like I was at least trying to shake them, they’d become suspicious and cautious. I didn’t think you would take our words literally, or predict they’d attack…”

It looked like I had been the foolish one from the start.