He offered food, washed wounds, and sometimes absentmindedly stroked his head. There was even a moment when he lightly kissed his horns!
“…!”
To monsters, horns weren’t mere decorations.
No, more precisely, to Damian.
Not all monsters had horns, but to monsters, horns were power and dignity. Damian’s horns were special even among those. They were smooth and beautifully extended, so admirable just to look at that they naturally drew admiration.
His kin held envy and awe, and those who sought mating always started by praising his horns and caressing them with their fingertips.
And this human kissed those horns?
Is this also a trick to seduce me?
Could it be, does this weak human want to mate?
Damian’s red eyes slowly narrowed.
Of course, with that weak human body, he absolutely couldn’t handle his own. Embracing him would be impossible in the first place.
Nevertheless, Damian was falling into a delusion close to certainty.
Then one day.
It was when Damian had finally recovered enough to remove the collar himself.
The human with shaggy hair approached first and reached out his hand without hesitation.
Click—
As the collar came off, the sound of chains scattered into the air. The human looked at Damian for a moment, then muttered quietly.
“You can’t come anymore, okay?”
That smile was so bright that Damian felt strange.
…Strange human.
If a monster fell into one’s hands, exploiting it would be the natural order, yet he’s letting me go without regrets.
Of course, that human probably couldn’t even guess that he could remove the collar himself. Damian looked at the human for a moment, then soon threw himself into the darkness.
The beast’s steps kicking off the earth with four legs soon changed to bipedal walking, and the dark red fur became scattered hair.
Before he knew it, the horns rising above his forehead had grown larger and thicker.
Returning to his beautiful human form, Damian immediately went to Vasha’s domain, who commanded centipede kin, and made a complete mess of it.
Blood flowed profusely, and torn centipede heads rolled on the ground. Damian crushed them in his grip without any hesitation.
Crack—!
Blood burst and a fishy smell spread through the air.
Originally, it should have been a familiar scent.
But perhaps because he’d recently become accustomed to the warm, savory smell of gukbap? This scent somehow felt unfamiliar. One thought led to another, and in the end, the face of the shaggy-haired human came to mind.
The human who smiled and approached him.
The human who kissed his horns.
“…?”
When he thought of that human, a strange feeling arose. A sensation like insect-type monsters gnawing beneath his fingers washed over him. Though those insignificant monsters couldn’t actually wound him, it was like when tiny teeth burrowed under his nerves—it was irritating. It didn’t hurt, but it was an unpleasant sensation deep somewhere.
What is this emotion?
Is it anger at being treated like a dog, given the bizarre name ‘Happy’?
Or is it displeasure at the human who witnessed my humiliating state?
Monsters inherently don’t agonize. They move according to instinct, and Damian, who reigned above them, was the same. Therefore, harboring doubts like this now was an unfamiliar thing.
And what was truly uncomfortable was the very fact that that human kept coming to mind. Damian exhaled slowly as if grinding his teeth.
Whatever it was, there was only one answer.
If I’m curious, I should check.
If it’s anger, I can smash it, and if it’s desire, I just need to seize it.
Damian narrowed his red eyes and ran toward the inn on the boundary again. His dark red hair fluttered, cutting through the pitch-black darkness.
Running without rest, it was soon around lunchtime.
Inside the inn where light faintly leaked out, the human was breathing evenly on the bed, completely defenseless.
Damian slowly approached and laid his body over his.
Dark red hair flowed down and tickled the human’s cheek. As if dreaming, he scratched his cheek and carelessly waved his hand, then soon—flutter—opened his eyes.
In that moment, golden eyes captured Damian’s red eyes.
“…?”
Looking down at the human gazing up at him with a stupid face, Damian raised the corners of his mouth with a fishy smile.
“Interesting. A mere human daring to seduce me.”
He couldn’t know how much of what the human did to him was ‘seduction.’ But what was certain was that Damian himself had been quite caught by that seduction.
“Bold.”
The sight of the human making a dazed, vacant expression was quite amusing and worth watching.
***
If there had been an internet community in this era, I would have written a post like this:
[Urgent] Guys, I woke up and there’s a crazy bastard in my room;;;;
I woke up because my face was itchy while sleeping, and a long-haired lunatic is straddling me and staring at me.
For reference, I’m male, and so is the other person.
…And comments like these would probably appear:
└ Congrats on being chosen lol
└ Chosen or whatever, that’s trespassing.
└ Welcome to the gay world~
└ Proof pic plz
└ If no photo, it’s bullshit
Of course, if I saw a post like that, I would have dropped a comment like ‘└ Bro that’s a cockroach antenna lol’ and giggled.
But the problem is, this isn’t just bullshit—it’s my current reality.
I froze solid in that position lying on the bed. Blood-red eyes were looking down at me, so my spine chilled coldly.
…Who the hell is this? Who is it, why in someone else’s inn, even in my room, on my bed where I’m sleeping? And what? Until just now, “A mere human daring to seduce me”?
I don’t even know what bullshit this seduction talk is, and besides, he even has horns on his head.
Could he be a new part-timer who saw the job posting?
…That can’t be, fuck.
No matter how much I’ve entered a fantasy novel, there’s such a thing as reality. A human with horns on their forehead? I’ve never even heard of it.
Probably, this. It’s really a monster, right?
With a deduction close to certainty, I couldn’t say anything and just froze with my lips trembling, when the man brought his face even closer through that gap. When my forehead was poked by the horn, a groan instinctively flowed out.
“Ngh…!”
At that sound, the man tilted his head back slightly and muttered quietly.
“Why so quiet? You’re usually so talkative.”
How do you know that?
How do you know I’m usually talkative?!
It was definitely a nuance that he’d been watching me from somewhere.
Was he a customer? Or maybe… that guy who stained the area around the inn with bloodstains? Because, well, Happy guarded the inn for a while.
…Wait. Happy?
In that moment, my mind lit up.
Dark red hair. Horns rising from his forehead. Blood-red eyes.
“…Happy?”
What popped out of my mouth was an absurd word. I thought it was nonsense myself, but soon I objected again.
No, why wouldn’t it make sense?
It’s a world where an inn owner can smack monsters with a frying pan, and there’s even a country whose ancestors were reptiles. So even if the monster I knew transformed into human form, it wouldn’t be strange at all, right?
Toward me, who was stupidly dazed, the man raised the corners of his mouth with a grin.
It was like the smile a beast makes when discovering prey, and there was also a somehow pleased air. Looking at me with what must be a stupid face, he whispered.
“Not that ridiculous name.”
“…?”
“It’s Damian. Human.”
…So, could you please move your face away?
I couldn’t bring myself to say it and only my awkwardly raised corners trembled. As I still couldn’t open my mouth with a pale face, soon the man—no, Damian—pulled back his body a little.
As my airways opened, I immediately raised my upper body and pressed my back firmly against the backrest.
“H-how did you get in here?”
The voice that came out with effort was trembling badly. But the most important thing in this situation was ‘why is this bastard in my room?’
At those words, Damian tilted his head as if puzzled. And he opened his mouth far too calmly.
“I walked.”
“…”
…Who doesn’t know that?
So why did you walk into someone else’s inn, on my day off no less, more precisely onto someone else’s bed so brazenly, fuck.
As I stared at him with a pale face like that, Damian slowly tilted his head as if puzzled.
Once, twice, and once more.
Every time his dark red hair swayed gracefully, strangely Jeffrey came to mind.
No, do I have some kind of bad connection with long-haired people? Why do all the crazy bastards involved with me grow their hair down to their waists?
“…Why are you here… what’s your reason for coming to this place?”
At that moment, Damian’s eyebrows rose, and he spoke in a strangely resonant voice.
“To see how far you’ll go.”
“What… do you mean?”
“Your seduction.”
So why do you keep spouting that bullshit about seduction or whatever?
“When did I ever seduce you?”
“Because you gave me food when I was injured.”
“…”
What about gukbap.
Why gukbap again.
In the monster world, is giving food a marriage proposal or something?
There was a guy who went on about love over a bowl of rice, and a guy who found alchemy in food, and now this bastard has established the novel formula that food is seduction.
If there’s anything fortunate, it’s that he’s not immediately after my body? No, wait. He’s a monster, right? He might really be after my body. …Of course, in the sense of devouring it.
