Ghoul Evolution

Chapter 20: Saved

When Oliver finally opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a gorgeous girl around his age holding him close to her.

For a few seconds, he simply stared at her.

The girl had an ivory skin tone and striking green eyes that seemed almost luminous. Her face was delicate and carried an innocent charm that made her look really gorgeous. Her long brown hair cascaded over her shoulders in a wavy half-up style; though, it was slightly messy, it still somehow managed to make her appear even more charming.

Seeing her face, Oliver immediately came to a slightly stupid conclusion.

’Ah... one of those dreams again.’

This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened.

Since his teenage days, he occasionally had strange dreams involving a mysterious woman who kept asking him to marry her. Usually, he never managed to see her face clearly before waking up but now, however, he finally could.

And honestly...looking at the girl’s face, he couldn’t help but think,

’Maybe marrying her wouldn’t be that bad.’

Still trapped between sleep and wakefulness, Oliver smiled faintly and spoke in his most charming voice,

"Yes, gorgeous... I’ll marry you."

The words left his mouth so naturally, that it took him several seconds to realize he had actually said them aloud.

The girl blinked several times before giving him an awkward look, it seemed as though she didn’t want to say anything rude; still, the expression on her face made her thoughts painfully obvious.

It looked as though she genuinely believed he was some escaped mental patient who had somehow wandered out of an asylum and into the Spirit Realm.

A short distance away stood two other people, one was a woman who appeared to be five or six years older than him, while the other was a boy in his early teens.

For a moment, both of them stared in complete silence but then the boy completely lost it.

"Hahaha!"

He bent over laughing, clutching his stomach as though he had just witnessed the funniest thing in his life.

Meanwhile, the older woman wasn’t doing much better. She was clearly trying to maintain some dignity, but the corners of her lips kept twitching upward.

It was only now that Oliver paid proper attention to the other two.

The older woman appeared to be of Korean descent. She possessed porcelain-white skin, sharp black eyes, and short jet-black hair that were styled in a lob. Though her features were more mature than the brown-haired girl’s, she was also really beautiful.

The young boy standing beside her looked to be in his early teens. He had short black hair styled in a faux hawk and warm brown eyes that were currently filled with amusement.

Meanwhile, the brown-haired beauty had politely moved away from Oliver during this time, seemingly deciding that putting some distance between herself and the stranger who had proposed to her within seconds of waking up was the safest course of action.

Oliver had wanted to say something to the brown-haired girl and somehow salvage what remained of his reputation after his sleepy marriage proposal but then, he suddenly remembered something far more important.

"Goldie... where’s Goldie?"

The Korean woman raised an eyebrow for a moment before seeming to understand who he was referring to.

"Ah, that little beast? Are you a beast tamer?"

"Huh? What? No...I’m not." Oliver immediately shook his head. "Where is he?"

This time it was the brown-haired young lady who answered. Even her voice was surprisingly sweet.

"Ah, he tried to drag you out of the river himself. In the end, he somehow managed to do that, but after that he wasn’t very successful in helping you stay alive. He then, eventually found us and somehow convinced us to come help you." freewebnøvel.coɱ

A small smile appeared on her face as continued,

"He’s very cute."

Oliver agreed to the lady’s opinion, but he was still worried as that wasn’t really an answer.

"But where is he?"

The young woman hesitated for some reason and scratched the back of her head.

Seeing her reaction, the boy decided to answer instead.

"Well..."

He pointed to the left.

"He fell asleep after leading us to you. We were worried he might suddenly attack us or something, so we tied him to a tree with some vines."

Oliver immediately followed the direction the boy was pointing and there, beneath a nearby tree, was Goldie.

The squirrel was tied up with several loops of rope around his body and fortunately, he seemed completely unharmed.

In fact, the little beast didn’t even appear to care about being tied up.

His head was drooped lazily, his eyes were closed, and he looked as though he was having a great sleep.

For a moment, Oliver simply stared but then sighed in relief.

’Thank goddess! Praise the Maiden of Silver Light.’

He then noticed that his body didn’t feel as weak as it did before, and even the injury on the back didn’t hurt, even though he had been injured a lot.

"I am healed?"

The brown-haired young lady smiled at him.

"Ah, yes. One of my attributes allows me to heal people, though unfortunately, it’s not very strong."

’Damn... a healer.’

Oliver had heard that people with healing abilities were very rare. They were supposed to be incredibly valuable, and usually treated like treasures by any group lucky enough to have one.

As he was thinking more about that, he suddenly noticed that his own hands were also tied behind his back. Somehow till now, he had managed to remain clueless about that.

He blinked once and asked about it, his tone cautious.

"Ahem... why am I tied up too?"

The brown-haired girl replied immediately in a completely cheerful tone, as though there was absolutely nothing strange about the situation.

"Isn’t that normal?"

Oliver stared at her confused as she continued smiling.

"There are two beautiful girls here, and we’re in a dangerous place like this."

She gestured toward herself and the Korean lady.

"We have to look after ourselves, don’t we?"

Oliver opened his mouth, then closed it.

’Honestly, if she puts it like that...’

But then she delivered the finishing blow.

"Besides, you proposed to me the moment you woke up."

She puffed out her cheeks looking at him.

"Who knows? Maybe you’d get forceful if I rejected you."

Oliver nearly choked on his own saliva hearing her words.

’Woah! Directly rejected, huh?’

Still he couldn’t actually say that and instead said,

"What kind of image do you have of me?!"

The young boy at the side, immediately burst out laughing again; while the Korean lady had to turn her head away for a moment to hide her smile.

Meanwhile, the brown-haired girl looked quite serious even with her puffed up cheeks, which somehow made the accusation even worse.

"Ahem...I was half asleep and wasn’t quite in control of what I was saying!"

"That’s what all suspicious people say."

"I literally almost died!"

"Exactly. Near-death experiences can make people impulsive."

The girl nodded confidently as if her argument was flawless, but in the end, she couldn’t hold it in and ended up curling her lips too.

It took him some time, but Oliver finally understood seeing that smile that she was teasing him.