Thud!
The sound that had been coming from the living room window now came from Dawoon’s bedroom window.
Thud! Thoom!
The culprit making the noise was, as expected, a crow.
Seeing the pitch-black mass flapping its wings outside the window, he clicked his tongue. After quickly covering Dawoon’s body with the blanket, he staggered down from the bed.
Caw!
“Be quiet.”
He opened the window with telekinesis while simultaneously blocking the crow’s mouth. The crow, making a muffled “keuuk” sound, hurriedly entered the room.
“Suho, you—, mmph!”
“Lower your voice.”
Suho, who had blocked the mouth of Heuk Guhyeok who’d transformed into a human, plopped down on the floor with a thud. He extended his hand toward Heuk Guhyeok while holding his dizzy head.
“Give me your feathers.”
Heuk Guhyeok, whose mouth was blocked, exhaled a sigh through his nose like a rhinoceros. Then, familiarly plucking out one feather from the wings on his back, he tapped his mouth to indicate he wanted the telekinesis released first.
“Speak quietly. He’s sleeping.”
Suho snatched the large feather with his small hand and chewed it up, crunching.
Like him, as a ‘Chosen’ Beastman, Heuk Guhyeok’s body flowed with blood imbued with spiritual power. Chosen Beastmen could share blood with each other to replenish spiritual power.
Without spiritual power, they couldn’t transform into humans.
Beastmen who weren’t born with spiritual power in the first place lived their entire lives in their true forms. A life born as an animal and dying as an animal. Except for being able to converse with Beastmen of the same species, it was a life not much different from ordinary animals.
“Your body isn’t even well, yet why do you recklessly use your power…! What will you do if something big happens?”
Heuk Guhyeok, who barely lowered his voice, sat on the floor and knelt. Prostrating before Suho with the meaning of please just stay still, he stroked his startled chest.
The current Suho was still in an incomplete state. Having been sickly from birth, he suffered from illness unusually often, and even now when he was close to adulthood, he would suffer from fever or collapse at the drop of a hat.
When he was young, they only thought it was because he was congenitally weak, but that wasn’t it.
He wasn’t weak. Rather, it was the opposite.
His immature body couldn’t handle the enormous power he held, so he frequently fell ill.
“I’ve told you more than thousands of times to use your power later to your heart’s content. I’m telling you, you just need to endure 50 more years.”
Suho, who picked at his ear, rolled his eyes. That damn 50 years. It was a story he’d heard until his ears were worn out, so he felt suffocated.
“You have to wait until your body can accept the power before transforming.”
For Beastmen to transform from animal to human seemed easy on the outside, but required quite a lot of power. Even changing appearance to an animal similar to their true form used no small amount of energy.
He was barely maintaining even the cat’s appearance while pushing himself somewhat. Just changing his form a little made him tire easily and become hungry quickly.
“Shut up. I know too.”
Suho, who gulped down Heuk Guhyeok’s feather, sprawled out flat on the floor. As expected, his complexion wasn’t very good due to the aftermath of overexertion.
“If you know, why do you keep acting recklessly?”
Though he originally had a willful personality, since Suho had never forcibly transformed into a human before, Heuk Guhyeok was greatly flustered.
It’s not even when his condition is good, and he’s not someone ignorant enough to act recklessly during a weak period, so why…
Heuk Guhyeok’s mouth slowly opened as he watched the listlessly sprawled Suho. Taking one big breath, he surveyed the surroundings with bewildered eyes.
Suho’s pheromones were vibrating throughout the room. It was such a strong-presence scent that there was absolutely no way not to notice.
Moreover, this was clearly…
Detecting Suho’s pheromones laced with a lewd energy, Heuk Guhyeok suddenly raised his voice and shouted.
“What did you just do?! You haven’t even held the wedding ceremony yet!”
“I said be quiet.”
Suho, who turned his head toward Heuk Guhyeok, warned with a chilly gaze.
“He’s sleeping.”
Watching Suho jerk his chin toward the bed, Heuk Guhyeok found himself at a loss for words. He had no idea what kind of situation this was.
“Why are you rebelling when you didn’t even do that during puberty? I really have a weak heart. Please stop making me surprised.”
Heuk Guhyeok, who got up from his spot, chattered in a deliberately light tone while opening the window. He planned to ventilate first to get rid of the lewd energy and smell permeating the room.
Right, he’s at the peak of his vigor, so it’s not impossible to understand if he tried. He himself had a history of big and small rebellions in his childhood too.
“Still… you didn’t go all the way, right?”
“Do I look that promiscuous to you?”
The crow who asked carefully let out a deep sigh of relief.
He knew it would be that. He trusted that Suho was unexpectedly the most conservative among his brothers in that regard.
He’d sooner cause a landslide than create a situation where he’d conceive a child before the wedding ceremony—he absolutely wasn’t that kind of person.
“The Omega was in heat. So you soothed him. I see. No wonder. Our Suho-nim isn’t that kind of person.”
Heuk Guhyeok came to his own conclusion while smelling the faint Omega scent mixed with Suho’s pheromones. Whether it was heat or not could be distinguished just by the pheromone scent.
“Of all things, to enter an Omega in heat’s house. Your luck really is fucking terrible.”
Making a “tsk” sound, Heuk Guhyeok tried to examine the bed where the Omega lay. Then Suho suddenly extended his hand and yanked his wing.
“Ack! Use words. Words.”
“Don’t look. I’ll pluck out your eyeballs.”
Bewilderment and worry swirled on Heuk Guhyeok’s black face as he ended up sitting back on the floor.
Could it be that human has caught his fancy? He shouldn’t get deeply entangled with humans…
“Why did you come? I told you not to come until I called.”
Not knowing others’ burning insides. The way he kicked while asking if he was ignoring his words was exactly like a thoughtless brat.
Heuk Guhyeok first created clothes and dressed Suho’s naked body, then brought up the main point of why he’d come all the way here.
“Our forms were discovered. It’s my oversight.”
Heuk Guhyeok, who lowered his head, plainly reported the situation.
So that’s why he came alone without bringing the black flock. It seemed a problem had arisen.
Suho turned to face Heuk Guhyeok with a calm expression.
“Were you caught?”
“No, as if. Everyone is in hiding.”
Everyone had concealed their forms with Heuk Guhyeok’s ability. However, because among humans there existed beings called Espers who used supernatural abilities, in preparation for any potential problems, some had returned to the mountains.
“We were discovered while trying to obtain food. We didn’t pack any provisions at all, expecting to return right away.”
One of the flock, exhausted from hunger, had their crow nature burst out and ended up breaking away from the group. The problem occurred precisely when Heuk Guhyeok was packaging food from a restaurant in human form.
“It’s all my oversight. Suho-nim said you’d just let them sightsee for a very short while, so I didn’t prepare food for the kids. I never dreamed in my dreams we’d stay this long.”
Heuk Guhyeok repeatedly emphasized toward Suho, the source of the problem, that it was his fault. The preparation really had been insufficient too. They’d truly planned to only stay for half a day and return.
“A few passersby apparently saw the form rummaging through a trash can. Fortunately, they were all ordinary civilians.”
The crow Beastman who had been rummaging through a trash can after transforming into a human got startled by a passerby’s presence, transformed into a crow, and fled. If only he’d just kept pretending to be crazy and continued rummaging through the trash can.
“When I went to check, a bunch of guys who appeared to be Espers had also come out. Seeing how they were taking detailed witness statements, they’re probably reviewing all the CCTV in the surrounding area too.”
Suho’s sharp eyes creased. Among the words he’d just heard, the only word he understood was Esper.
“That… anyway, the situation isn’t good.”
Instead of explaining each word one by one, Heuk Guhyeok focused on persuading him. It was information Suho, who would live his entire life guarding a concealed mountain with no involvement with the outside, didn’t need to know.
“How not good is it?”
“Bad enough that we need to return right now.”
When he spoke matching the level of the younger Suho, Suho, who understood immediately, suddenly closed his eyes.
“Ah, I’m sleepy. I’m tired. It’s hard. It hurts.”
He even fake-yawned and stuck to the floor like melting snow. As if anticipating his reaction of throwing a tantrum saying he couldn’t move a single step, Heuk Guhyeok calmly stroked his face.
“Pursuers will increase for a while. We need to be careful for several years.”
Even the bird species who frequently went outside the mountains to gather information would have to go into hiding for a while. They had to wait until the attention of pursuers frantically searching for Beastmen died down.
At most 10 years, at least 3 years.
Once that time passed, the memories of the witnesses who saw Beastmen would fade. These days, something called photography technology had emerged, so occasionally irrefutable evidence would be caught, but even this was resolved by time.
Because human patience isn’t long.
They were existences like fire that blazed fiercely but ultimately went out. Thanks to such human habits, the Beastmen Clan had been able to hide and live without issue until now.
However, they needed to be more careful from now on. After beings called Espers began manifesting, supernatural abilities were no longer the unique power of only the Beastmen Clan.
Unlike Beastmen who possessed spiritual power, they used only a single supernatural ability, but recently he’d heard that those who used various abilities had also emerged.
As Esper powers grew stronger day by day, the danger of being discovered also increased.
“Our identities absolutely must not be discovered. You know even without me saying, right?”
They must not get deeply entangled with humans. If they did get entangled, it would be a matter of heavenly fortune for them, but for Beastmen it was a disadvantage with nothing good about it.
