His gaze moved back to the cooled bowl. Though it had cooled, the savory broth’s scent was strangely vivid. Unable to resist, Damian buried his face in the bowl and licked up even the remaining broth. Though it had gone cold, the lingering taste remained in his mouth for a long time.
After licking it clean until the bowl was empty, his gaze turned again to the man’s arm. Looking at that wound where claw marks clearly remained, Damian pondered briefly, then without much thought, licked the wound with the tip of his tongue.
It was fishy.
Along with the familiar scent of blood, a strange sense of fulfillment lingered, but no particular interest beyond that arose.
There was no reason to eat humans when he had that food anyway. Besides, if he killed the human, wouldn’t he no longer be able to eat that warm soup he made?
Of course, demon beasts that actually ate humans were rare. They’d rather choose other prey; these weak things’ blood and flesh spoiled quickly and weren’t worth eating.
Then, the eyelids of the human he thought was asleep trembled, and between disheveled bangs, golden eyes faintly emerged. The eyes that had been closed as if steeped in sleep opened thinly, and for a moment, their gazes met with Damian’s.
Damian immediately turned his head away.
The human lived not because he had saved Damian, nor because of Damian’s whim, but because of his cooking skills.
***
The time afterward flowed strangely peacefully. The man still wiped Damian’s wounds and never skipped a single meal. The more this happened, the more something somewhere in Damian’s heart rippled complexly.
Why was this human treating him so well? He hadn’t hidden poison, nor schemed any plot. And it’s not like he had any use value to the human either. Then what could it be?
Then, what suddenly came to mind was a memory from long ago.
His father was a man of few words, but when it came to his mother, he was unusually talkative. Eighty percent of it was pathetic and useless talk, but—
For instance, when mother smiled, it was as if Bonita—a precious flower that rarely bloomed even in the demon beast forest—had bloomed fully, or that her laughter was something even a Mimic couldn’t dare imitate.
Looking back now, it all seemed like futile flowery language, but father would repeat those stories ad nauseam. Endlessly. As if that moment was his entire life.
Among them, what he brought up especially often was a recollection of their first meeting.
In the midst of a bloody battle over the throne, father said he suffered a fatal wound and collapsed beyond the Boundary. And when he opened his eyes, he was in a cabin in a remote village.
Beside him was a young girl, and she was silently nursing the blood-soaked father.
Damian would shudder every time he heard that story. Receiving help in a world where strength is everything. And from a human woman, the weakest of all. What a pathetic thing to do.
But ironically, thanks to that, father recovered his body and ascended to the throne, and took the girl who saved him as his companion.
Damian hadn’t paid attention to that endlessly repeated story for a long time. But now, that memory suddenly came to mind because the situation was strangely similar.
A human nursing his wounded self, preparing meals without compensation.
Was that why? Even though instinct kept sending warnings, delusions kept blooming in his mind.
Damian unconsciously recalled his father’s words.
‘Listen, Damian. Those who serve you meals without any compensation surely harbor affection for you.’
……Then, was this human also constantly ‘seducing’ him now?
Of course, it was a great misunderstanding. When father collapsed, his form was human, and humans originally feel affection for appearances similar to themselves. With a demon beast form with horns protruding like Damian’s, unless one had a particularly twisted fetish, there was no way they’d harbor romantic feelings.
But Damian had nearly made up his mind. And somehow, that conviction evoked a subtle displeasure.
Should he call it laughable, or should he call it irritating? Even that trivial act of occasionally smiling while looking at him—thinking it was a signal of affection—became unbearably uncomfortable.
Was it around the third day? Damian finally left the inn without a sound. His body still wasn’t fully recovered, but every time he recalled that human’s gaze, an inexplicable heat rose along the back of his neck, and he could no longer stay.
While running, he glanced back, and that bizarre landscape still stood there. On the Boundary Line between humans and demon beasts, the sight of that incongruous building standing alone was anything but ordinary.
Unable to return straight to the demon beast forest since his body wasn’t fully recovered, Damian instead wandered around the area and felt several presences targeting that place.
What soon came into view was a giant centipede-type demon beast trying to crawl into the inn. Damian wordlessly tore it to shreds while thinking.
There’s only one demon beast who commands such centipedes as subordinates.
Vasha of the West. I know him as an indifferent demon beast who doesn’t leave his cave, so why is he interested in this inn?
His red eyes narrowed coldly.
Then soon, after one last glance at the presence of the human breathing evenly as if asleep, he snorted and hid his body in the darkness again.
And had a few more days passed?
Damian prowling and wandering around the inn had somehow become a natural scene.
The human, as if aware of Damian’s presence, put out a warm bowl of soup in front of the inn every day.
Like a lover still waiting for someone who had left. Damian thought that devotion was admirably laughable.
So sometimes, he would deliberately stop by before the bowl cooled and take a bite. The human who checked later would rejoice as if he’d obtained the entire world.
It was a day when he was just waiting for the day Damian would recover and leave.
Suddenly, a groan burst out from inside the cabin.
“Ugh… Wait, just a moment…!”
Realizing it was the voice of the flustered human along with an unfamiliar presence, Damian didn’t hesitate.
Bang!
Kicking open the inn door and entering, in his vision stood an unfamiliar human with long black hair. Damian’s claws flashed as he immediately bit into his shoulder.
“Ugh!”
Blood splattered, and the stranger writhed in pain. And a gaze flashing purple pierced through Damian.
Though his expression wasn’t greatly revealed due to his demon beast form, Damian’s eyebrows twitched minutely. That appearance, those eyes…. It was a mage bloodline famous among humans. The strongest of the strong.
Immediately without warning, ice surged from his palm. Cold energy exploded and flew toward Damian.
Bang! Crash—!
As the table and floor split and fragments scattered, Damian twisted his body to dodge. As the confrontation lengthened with roaring sounds, the human with disheveled hair blocked Damian’s path.
What? Move! It was when he tried to scratch his leg with that meaning.
“Please don’t.”
It was a ridiculously firm voice.
“Demon beasts and humans. The place that separated those two worlds is precisely this Boundary. And this is an inn built on the Boundary. So… there’s nothing strange about a demon beast being here.”
At those words, Damian’s claws stopped in midair.
Instinct whispered to him. A weak human dares to block your path. Bite him.
But for some reason, the strange resonance mixed in that voice held his fingertips back.
After their conversation continued for a while, the mage human slowly bowed. For a moment he thought about tearing his neck to shreds, but Damian hesitated because of the weak human blocking him.
Then suddenly, the mage human roughly grabbed his neck.
—Grrrrrowl…!
How humiliating! A human dares to grab the king’s neck! Fangs bared, a growl filled with killing intent leaked out.
But in front were golden eyes looking straight at him. If he killed the mage human here and now, the one who would be troubled would be precisely that human.
Damian ground his teeth and swallowed his breath. Though the suppressed growl vibrated in his throat, in the end, his claws didn’t come down further.
Just as he hadn’t bitten when his father spouted useless love talk, this too was Damian’s own patience.
And for the first time, Damian allowed himself to quietly shut his mouth like an ordinary demon beast.
Soon the two humans chattered about seals or whatnot regarding Damian. Though the words were grating to his ears, Damian only snorted.
As if crude human magic could possibly restrain me.
However, his arrogance was off the mark. The human with purple eyes, Jeffrey, was a Grand Mage among mages, and Damian’s recovery was delayed due to wounds from poison. His strength had weakened, so he couldn’t escape the restraining device for now.
“It seems to have intelligence.”
Seeing Damian receive an electric shock from the restraining device’s magic, Jeffrey smiled strangely.
“I thought it was a stupid specimen that only charges recklessly.”
At those words, Damian bared his teeth.
Damn mage! Once I fully recover, I’ll tear you apart first.
Having become a demon beast that rolled in, Damian was ironically serving as a guard in front of the inn. Though he often kicked the food bowl and acted tyrannically, sometimes he would tear to pieces the centipede demon beasts crawling around the inn—precisely Vasha’s subordinates.
In the meantime, the human took care of Damian attentively.
