TSROTRATBP Chapter 8

As expected, Ahin's family seemed to occupy quite a high position within black panther territory.

I recalled the Raebien household maids chattering about how friction between the black panther clan and the wolf clan was frequent, wondering if war might break out.

When night deepened, I cautiously raised myself and checked on Ahin, who lay with his back to me.

Perhaps because of his wound, today he wasn't wearing a gown but instead had his broad back exposed.

Had he been attacked by wolf beastmen? My wandering gaze settled on the bandages vivid with bloodstains.

'That must hurt.'

Ahin had acted as if it were routine, but there was no way a deep cut that required stitches wouldn't hurt.

Besides the wound he'd received today, his back was covered in small scars.

'Was it the wolf beastmen's doing?'

'The bastards even used a paralyzing incense.'

The earlier scene kept floating through my mind. As I stared blankly at the bandages marked with blood, my vision suddenly began shaking wildly.

'Wh-what!'

Ahin had turned over in an instant and abruptly pulled my body near his face. When his hot breath touched my lower back, I startled and flailed.

He's not suddenly going to eat me without warning, is he! I thrashed my hind legs desperately, but Ahin's hand showed no sign of releasing.

After holding his nose against my nape for several seconds, a low voice flowed from him.

"From your neck—"

I flinched and turned my head to find Ahin's red eyes right before my nose. His crimson eyes, which had seemed drowsy and hazy, grew deeper as time passed.

"—I smell pheromones."

My mind grew hazy from the breath touching my nape.

I thought he was really going to swallow me. I barely calmed my pounding heart and shook my head.

'Pheromones...'

That couldn't be right. Pheromones were distinctive scents that only appeared in beastmen who'd undergone humanization.

They could function as a kind of ability and were sometimes used in sexual communication as well.

Moreover, predator pheromones were mainly aggressive and strongly scented, while herbivore beastmen often had barely noticeable scents.

So for me—an herbivore beastman who hadn't even undergone humanization—to possess pheromones was truly absurd.

I was already upset enough without such misunderstandings, so I kept shaking my head vigorously.

Perhaps reaching a similar conclusion, Ahin's grip on my nape loosened.

"...An oddity, then?"

Oddity is putting it harshly, isn't it? But I couldn't really argue. I'd been abandoned based on the priest's claim that I was cursed—beyond odd.

"Suspicious."

He gazed at me with ambiguous eyes, then curved his red pupils into crescents.

"I should just eat you tomorrow after all."

Why does it connect to that? I made the most pitiful eyes I could manage and brought my front paw to the back of Ahin's hand.

"Begging me to spare you?"

Nod, nod. We've been sleeping in the same bed for two days now—surely you can show that much mercy, right?

Faced with my timid plea for life, he gave another inscrutable smile.

"I told you—if you cry, I'll let you live another day."

His voice was gentle yet teasing. My jaw dropped slightly at the absurdity, and Ahin propped his chin as if savoring the sight.

"It gives me such a thrill."

Ah. He's a lost cause. I'd thought he was just a deranged black panther, but apparently he was no ordinary pervert.

Horrified, I tried to pull away and flee, but failed. Ahin had caught my hind leg and pulled me back.

'Let go!'

No amount of struggling would free me. I grasped at the bedding with my front paws, but could only be dragged helplessly.

'This wicked beast...!'

When I glared reflexively, he seemed satisfied again and gently rubbed my lower back.

If you think I'll crumble from one touch like this, you're gravely mistaken. Despite that thought, I'd tensed every nerve, but somehow drowsiness kept washing over me.

Eventually, as I lay limp with my hind leg still caught, the amusement faded from Ahin's eyes as he looked down at me.

As if thinking about something, he tapped the bed with his finger and murmured.

"I should have not killed those men in one strike yesterday."

I went pale, recalling those gruesome corpses again. He probably meant he could have interrogated the beastmen who'd been carrying the basket about my identity.

If this black panther learned that I'd been abandoned for being cursed, how would he react?

It was strange to begin with that he found me suspicious yet took no particular action.

Was I just a plaything to amuse a predator? As I continued such thoughts, my eyelids grew heavier and heavier until I dozed off without realizing it.