A continuing episode

"Rah! Agh!... "

Perhaps it was because I and those who I was talking to were the only ones being loud at the moment it made Hazel turn her attention from Sutow towards us. She was still trying to free herself from Brolee's strong grasp, but this time, she was struggling to charge at us instead of Sutow. Alas, to no avail. 

Brolee and another one of my followers were holding onto her arms, and they did not dare to loosen their grip on her at all. It's thanks to them that Hazel had yet to kill any of my followers.

"Brolee and... You! Good job. Just keep holding her like that. I have a way to deal with these strange things inside Hazel's body." I said while walking towards where Hazel was struggling to be freed. I was no longer meddling with the kids who were praising human meat, as I had no reason to further talk to them exactly because of this topic. 

Since I had already given them my advice and they had heard it, all there was left for them to do was to respect it and not take my opinion with a pinch of salt.

'If they can't do that, so be it. Their actions will have their consequences.' These had been my thoughts when I walked away from them.

As I was walking closer to Hazel, my attention focused on one thing only which was her abdomen. I remembered what had snapped her out of her zombie state last time. Therefore, I was curious to know whether that might just be the way to fix her.

Without hesitation, I acted swiftly. Like a drunk father who had enough of his yapping daughter, I struck Hazel in the abdomen, even though I was aware of how she had been kicked in that area earlier. 

Unlike that man, and unlike what I had done before, I did not kick Hazel in the abdomen. Instead, I threw an upper punch right at the spot that I knew would have her throw up!

"Ah!"

I backed away immediately, but a bit of that acid was still able to touch my skin. It was me who had let out a pained sound instead of Hazel. At that moment, I was wiping away the worms that had been trying to get into my blood vessels through the exposed blood from my melted skin.

For some reason, they died not even a second after coming into contact with my blood. I figured it might have been because of something like different immune systems.

'That or… the worms just die that fast after leaving their host's body.' I thought to myself.

'Talking about immunity…' My head slowly moved to turn to where the bell was. It was on the ground.

"Sutow. Come over here. There's something I need to confirm," I called out.

Hearing my words, Sutow came over. When he was close enough, I immediately moved my body before bringing my fist towards his abdomen in a similar manner as I had done with Hazel.

Sutow did not throw up immediately like Hazel had done. But he was going to vomit eventually. I knew that much alone after looking at the expression on his face, and I was also confident that my punch would be able to cause him to vomit.

After casting numerous questioning glances my way while clutching his stomach, Sutow finally regurgitated his stomach's acid.

"Oof… Well, this is a bit scary." I muttered after inspecting Sutow's vomit. It was similar to that of Hazel, although less green and more natural looking. What I found scary was that his vomit also had worms in it. 

This meant that not only Hazel but every one of my followers might have visible worms inside their bodies.

The thought of that disgusted me. But, it also made me wonder why Hazel was the only one going crazy.

'Are the worms not the reason for her mindless rampage?' I wondered what exactly functioned as what. Then I recalled, 'The bell maybe?'

It seemed to me that the more things were revealed to me, the more puzzles I had to solve. 

Moving my eyes towards the bell again, I thought about the men who had all been killed by me and my followers. This thought made me realize that I didn't have much time to solve puzzles. 

'But I still want to solve the mystery of why there are parasites within our bodies. Well, except the body of mine, since it shouldn't have any parasites, I think?… Do these parasites even have a correlation with that bell? If it doesn't, my body might have parasites too then…'

My hand gripped the bell while Brolee and the guy next to him held onto Hazel. Sutow was still recovering from the trauma that his body received after my punch. 

Since the little hammer might be an important tool to activate the bell, I went ahead to pick it up before ringing the bell.

The bell rang; however, nothing happened during this time. There was no extra to the scene before me, as everyone seemed to be the same as before I had shaken the bell. 

I figured that it might have to do with magic. The fact that the guy who had the bell was very weak led me to such a conclusion.

'Perhaps it has to be activated with magic.' That was what I concluded after having hit the bell many times.

With such a conclusion and acknowledging my lack of knowledge about the science behind magic, I gave up on the bell.