Chapter 70: The Running Spine
The knight commander was right. They really didn’t lack food. There were many edible cacti in the desert, the roots of spiked spines, and fat gerbils who don’t know where to get food. If they were lucky, they were able to catch a few round four-legged birds. Even the fuller goat has no shortage of food, and its enthusiasm of gnawing on cacti was fiercer than anyone else.
The biggest problem was heat.
When it came to heat before, Nemo could think of the summer sun and the hot soles on his boots at most. The summer in Roadside Town wasn’t too hot, but even so, he still didn’t want to go out on days when the sun was too strong. Usually, he would nest in the deepest part of the library, directly below a cool breeze array, and then stick to the stone wall with a novel that had description of a winter scene.
Now, it was different. Everything was hot. Even though Nemo covered his head with the dark shadow, the heat still pressured him from all sides. His whole body seemed to be stuffed into a red-hot metal tube, and every time he breathed, it felt like he was losing the last of the cool air that was left in his body.
Thus, he laid flat.
“…Nemo, you’re defaulting,” Ann said hoarsely, raising her hand and throwing a small piece of cactus into the sand at will. “Be a man. Since you have admitted defeat and dared gamble, you need to hold up your end and talk to Dylan.”
“But I’m dying,” Nemo responded sadly, crossing his fingers on his chest. He was lying flat on a large shadow, with some cover on his head, looking like he was imitating a half-shelled oyster. The black shadow stretched out countless tentacles and dragged the large oyster forward with difficulty, not much faster than the fuller goat. “Ann, if I really die, please be sure to leave my debt to Oliver.”
“Oliver is at least still standing,” Ann said coldly. “Even the goat is still standing— If someone were to die from the heat, that person will not be you. A demon warlock’s body is not that fragile.”
“Really?” Nemo reached out his hand from the shadows and shook the things in his hand. The gray parrot was slumped into a ball unknowingly, with an unnatural tongue that was hanging outside that kept getting longer and longer. “Superior demons are like this.”