Piyod, who had staggered to his feet, looked around anxiously. He was alone in this place.
‘My last memory was….’
He had been sleeping with Matiel in a large tent and woke up at dawn. It was because the wind was blowing hard. The tent swayed as if it would fly away in the intense wind that raised small waves on the lake’s surface.
After seeing that, he woke the sleeping Matiel and on their way back to the lord’s manor… what happened?
He couldn’t properly remember from that part on.
Seeing that this was the lord’s manor party hall, it seemed they had made it to the lord’s manor, but he had no idea why they came to the party hall instead of going to a room.
Piyod looked around blankly in turn, then staggered to his feet. As if he’d tumbled down stairs, his body was covered in bruises and scratches here and there. But he didn’t sit back down.
He wasn’t sure, but he felt he shouldn’t keep sitting in a place like this. Above all, he was worried about Matiel. He wasn’t the kind of person who would leave him alone in this condition.
Which meant something had gone wrong.
If he was collapsed somewhere, he needed to save him.
“Where… should I go…?”
Piyod went to the door and tried pulling the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. Then he should go out through the window.
However, Piyod, who had approached the broken window, could only recoil in horror. Outside the window, countless monsters were prowling about.
“Eek…!”
Piyod, who had made a sound without realizing it, covered his mouth with both hands. However, the monster that glanced this way turned its head the opposite direction again, losing interest.
It was an absurd reaction.
If it was a monster, it should have charged at him the moment it saw him…?
Piyod thought maybe, and tried to climb over the window, placing his hands on the window frame and half-climbing up when a monster’s threatening growl startled him and he fell back into the party hall.
Fortunately, thanks to his fluffy tail, he didn’t bash his head.
“Matiel….”
What had really happened?
It was when Piyod was mumbling his ability user’s name in his confused state.
Something fell from above and landed in the middle of the party hall.
“A-a demon beast…?!”
Shocked by the sight of the fierce tiger demon beast, Piyod sprang up and hid behind the piano. Did it see me? It must have, right? But why isn’t it chasing me?
No, I mean, it’s good that it’s not chasing me, but….
Piyod, who had been continuing his thoughts in confusion, saw a shadow cast over his head and looked up with a gasp.
There was a giant tiger there.
‘Now I’m going to die and never see Matiel again….’
The tiger’s large front paw approached Piyod. Piyod braced himself for death and squeezed his eyes shut.
“Hngh….”
A heavy weight pressed down on him.
However, sharp claws did not scratch him.
* * *
They had to strike the demon beast before the nest was completed.
However, right now wasn’t a situation where they could do that. The knights scattered throughout the city were currently occupied with evacuating the beastkin. If they summoned them, the beastkin would be bitten to death by monsters.
They shouldn’t have sent an evacuation signal in the first place and should have dealt with the demon beast. However, thinking back, the best option at the moment Azram was injured and collapsed was to carry him and run.
“We’ll subjugate it right away tomorrow morning.”
This was the best decision that could be made now. Since it had come to this, the knights should rest until morning, and when the sun rose, they had to behead the demon beast as quickly as possible.
With that judgment from the lord, Taeyon and Kaniel were given rest time.
Taeyon was assigned one knight’s tent to use with Kaniel.
“Kaniel, how’s your cold? Are you feeling better?”
“Ah…. I was so startled that I think even my cold ran away.”
“Seriously.”
“Really. I don’t have a fever either.”
Kaniel said while touching his own forehead. He really wasn’t breaking into cold sweats, and the languid sensation in his body had disappeared too.
“I guess the medicine worked well.”
Was it children’s cold medicine? He’d heard that beastkin, whether herbivores or carnivores, don’t catch colds easily. The adults who catch colds are at most elderly people, and since the elderly usually have medicine custom-made for them, there’s no such thing as general adult cold medicine at all.
So he’d thought, what if it doesn’t work well, but the medicine’s effect was better than expected.
“Yeah. That’s a relief.”
Even while saying that, Taeyon only felt relieved after directly checking Kaniel’s forehead himself.
“But you still need to be careful until tomorrow.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll start a fire, so sit there.”
“Yes, Taeyon.”
Hearing Kaniel’s answer, Taeyon used his ability to light the firewood stacked in the middle of the tent for a campfire. A small lightning bolt that flashed with light struck down on the firewood and raised flames.
Sitting on the plank bed and watching that scene for a moment, Kaniel couldn’t help but think of it again.
‘He’s using his ability after all.’
The story about not being able to use abilities because he couldn’t find a matching Tuner was nonsense. Taeyon was using his ability comfortably whenever he wanted to use it.
What was going on? Was he really secretly going to receive tuning?
But why? No matter how much he thought about it, there was no reason for Taeyon to hide that from him.
“Kaniel, what’s wrong?”
“…What do you mean?”
Kaniel replied while hugging his knees and glaring at the campfire.
“You don’t look good. Do you have a fever again?”
Taeyon checked Kaniel’s forehead again. Made to look up by the hand pressing on his forehead, Kaniel quietly gazed at Taeyon’s face.
“You need tuning to use abilities, right?”
“Yeah. That’s right.”
“But while traveling with me, you haven’t received tuning, have you, Taeyon?”
“……”
“Have you? When?”
Troubled eyes stared at Kaniel.
Meeting that gaze, Kaniel flinched in surprise. Recently, all the times Taeyon had needed tuning were because of him. Taeyon had used his abilities to save him. He had essentially pushed Taeyon to a Tuner.
And yet he wanted to question why he was secretly going to receive tuning. He couldn’t even understand why he felt hurt about Taeyon’s tuning in the first place.
It was a strange emotion.
‘I felt a little… like he was being taken away….’
Having developed an attachment to the wolf he first met on the Surface, when he heard the story about tuning involving kissing, he felt like he was losing him.
In that instant, an intense emotion of not wanting to lose him surged up.
Just imagining Taeyon kissing someone called a Tuner made his head heat up.
‘I must be crazy.’
As if he and Taeyon were in some kind of relationship.
He’d never had Taeyon in the first place. No, there wasn’t even anything to have or not have, was there? Taeyon and he were different species, and they were both men—what on earth was he thinking?
Kaniel suddenly felt embarrassed and lowered his gaze. He didn’t want Taeyon to see this expression.
“Kaniel.”
At the gentle voice, Kaniel hesitantly raised his head again. The troubled look had been erased and a face full of tenderness was looking at him.
A face so tender it was momentarily captivating.
“Give me just a little time.”
Taeyon took Kaniel’s hand and kissed his palm. A soft, supple sensation pressed firmly against his palm.
“Then I’ll tell you everything.”
“Everything…?”
What did he mean by everything? Even while thinking that, Kaniel nodded blankly.
“Thank you. It won’t take long.”
If Taeyon asked for time with such a tender face, Kaniel had no choice but to gladly agree. Because Kaniel wanted to grant him anything he wanted.
“Then let’s sleep.”
Saying that, Taeyon lay down on the plank bed where Kaniel had been sitting.
“Uh, do you like it here? Then I’ll go over there….”
As Kaniel hesitantly started to get up, Taeyon’s hand wrapped around his waist and pulled him in. To lie on the narrow plank, the two ended up in a position as if tightly embracing.
“T-Taeyon?”
“Let’s sleep together. The blankets here are thin. It’s better to overlap them and sleep under them together.”
“Huh? But….”
There was no way he could sleep comfortably like this.
Kaniel was too conscious of Taeyon’s chest muscles he could feel against the arm he was using as a pillow and his cheek. So things like cold or heat didn’t feel important at all.
It seemed like it would be better to sleep separately.
When Kaniel fidgeted and moved, Taeyon pulled his back closer and held him even tighter.
“Sleep, Kaniel.”
“…Yes….”
Kaniel blinked his wavering eyes several times in his complicated state of mind, then soon closed them.
The howling of monsters intermittently tore through the space from far away, but it couldn’t reach Kaniel.
* * *
When Kaniel opened his eyes, Taeyon was already gone. Surprised by the empty spot next to him, Kaniel sprang up and rushed outside, where it was already bright.
Kaniel, whose heart had become urgent, grabbed a passing soldier and asked.
“Excuse me, sorry, but have the knights already left to subjugate the demon beast?”
“Yes. They left earlier.”
“Thank you….”
Ah, he should have woken up to see him off.
He couldn’t believe that while Taeyon was preparing to go fight, he’d just been lying down sleeping soundly.
