Breeding Season - Chapter 18
‘Whether the myth is true or not, they believe it like that in the south.’
And then the prophecy about Aquafuran had been delivered. A Wilkeron woman with blue eyes.
‘The outline is finally taking shape. What’s going on here?’
Perhaps each clan had different desires.
Where she was headed now would be a place of intense conflict over those desires.
“Siren.”
“…!”
“What are you thinking about right now?”
Startled, she trembled at the hand gently stroking her hair.
“Nothing, I’m not thinking about anything…”
“Liar.”
“……”
“Don’t even think about running away. I’m telling you this for your own good. Without me, someone like you would be stripped to the bone in ten minutes and sold off piece by piece in the black market.”
Siren didn’t take his warning lightly. She had a feeling about him.
This man was skilled at lying, but he didn’t actually lie. He had no reason to deceive someone as weak as her.
At that moment, the tension in the air was suddenly shattered as someone appeared, pushing through the bushes.
“Ahhh, oh my! Yasamin!”
Startled, Siren froze for a moment like a stone. Yasamin didn’t even look up, simply covering the fire with dirt.
“I saw the light from the fire, so I came, and it seems His Highness was here. Oh… I was scared, thinking I was left alone.”
The man who appeared suddenly was a rather simple-looking southern man, holding a sack in his arms and crying with a pitiful expression.
As soon as the fire went out, the surroundings grew rapidly dark, and though she couldn’t see him well, it seemed he was unarmed.
“I found some mushrooms in the forest, should I cook them? Have you eaten yet?”
Despite Yasamin’s silence, the man cheerfully spoke to him, and then opened the sack, pulling something out.
Siren, whose eyes were slowly adjusting to the darkness, stood up, beginning to feel tense. She hadn’t forgotten what Yasamin had said earlier.
“If we move separately, someone will come after me, and that person will be the traitor.”
Could this man also be trying to attack Yasamin?
If so, how should I respond? She had been told that remaining still was the best course of action.
Sitting awkwardly, hunched and watching carefully, Siren noticed the mushrooms that had rolled out of the sack were faintly glowing.
In that instant, an encyclopedia she had read long ago flickered through her mind.
‘Blue Glow Mushroom. Highly poisonous. It resembles the rare medicinal Blue Firefly Mushroom, but it is indistinguishable. Even a single bite will result in immediate death.’
No!
The man, with a cheerful demeanor, found a twig suitable for a skewer and began to spear the mushrooms.
Siren, in a panic, tugged at Yasamin’s sleeve.
“Why? Are you hungry?”
“No, it’s not that…”
“I understand. Still, it’s going into my precious Diet’s mouth, so I’d better test if it’s safe first.”
“……”
Yasamin’s tone was gentle. There wasn’t even a hint of sharpness.
But why was her body trembling like this?
‘Ah, he already knows. He knows it’s a poisonous mushroom.’
I didn’t even need to intervene. Is this what being a perfect, absolute being means?
In his demeanor, there was such calm that, without realizing it, Siren felt both relieved and oddly reassured.
If he knew everything, then it seemed like it really was okay to just ‘stay still.’
“Usually, when people meet me, they make strange, deflating sounds and avoid me. They either detest me or keep their distance, never approaching with a positive reaction.”
“…What kind of life have you lived?”
At that moment, he raised his hand as though finding it amusing.
Thud!
His fingertips suddenly transformed, and the man who had been skewering the mushrooms had his neck pierced.
“Gg… Grrr…”
Foam formed in his mouth.
Fortunately, it was so dark that the scene wasn’t very clear.
“I told you. Next time, I’ll handle it more delicately.”
“……!”
“Stay there quietly. I’ll clean up the rest of the pests.”
Had they already been surrounded?
She worried she’d be left alone with the corpse, but fortunately, he had indeed dealt with it “delicately.” He grabbed the dead man’s ankle and dragged him away.
In the silence that followed, Siren was left alone, laughing.
She didn’t understand what was going on. All she knew was that she was alive now.
And that she wanted to stay alive going forward. The next day, Siren was carried on Yasamin’s back.
Perhaps due to experiencing too much at once, her whole body felt like it was burning with heat.
Her fever was so high that she didn’t even have the strength to speak, and she allowed herself to be carried without resistance.
‘Not even a finger… I can’t move.’
The scorching sun dripped down from his smooth muscles as if it were melting.
