OKHS 08

Chapter 8

Richard felt the beastly wailing that had been clamoring noisily in his head subsiding all at once.

His vision, which had been flickering blood-red as if submerged in blood, gradually regained its natural color, and the burning sensation that had wrapped around his entire body subsided as if it had never been.

The physical change was so sudden that his strength drained from his hands and his body staggered.

‘…What is this?’

Suddenly the whole world had gone quiet.

Also, the fierce impulse that had been seething in his belly had vanished.

Just moments ago, Richard had been drawing on even the mana core in his danjeon to suppress the urge to kill the rat before him on the spot.

The only reason he hadn’t lost his reason was that the rat’s breathing was small and weak.

A monster’s predatory instinct didn’t respond violently to rabbits or squirrels not even worth hunting, so he had been able to cling to the very edge of reason.

As the violent demonic energy that had been slashing through his entire body like a knife subsided, his body relaxed abruptly.

Clang—!

Without even registering that the sword he carried like a second self had fallen to the ground, Richard stood there blankly.

‘It’s quiet.’

Since emerging from the Chaos, the world had never been this quiet even once.

As he savored the silence that had come to him for the first time in so long, a woman small as a rabbit fidgeted before his eyes.

“Ugh!”

Wondering what she was doing, he saw the woman was grunting and straining to pull out the sword lodged in his abdomen.

Just moments ago, he had been consumed by the impulse to eliminate this little rat…

Looking down at her small head, saliva suddenly pooled at the corner of his mouth.

He undulated his protruding Adam’s apple.

It was because a sweet fragrance was wafting gently from the small woman’s body.

With every breath he exhaled, the fragrance grew stronger, and Richard unconsciously inhaled deeper, his ribcage expanding greatly.

‘…Sweet.’

It felt like being human again for the first time in a while.

This sensation, too, was something he hadn’t felt in a long time.

‘Two years, is it…’

Since being swallowed into that vast space of chaos and having his body transformed.

His sense of smell hadn’t functioned properly.

The perfume scents the nobles gave off were as unpleasant as the stench of filth, grating on his nerves throughout the entire victory banquet.

Yet the one standing before him gave off a scent so delicious it made his head spin—far from setting his nerves on edge.

It was enough to make her look like a supreme feast he wanted to swallow in one bite.

Just then, shhk— the sword lodged in his abdomen slid out.

“There… there we go.”

The woman pressed a handkerchief firmly against the wound.

“Hold this.”

As Richard, distracted by the good scent, obediently grasped the handkerchief, the woman subtly stepped back.

Where was she going?

Richard instinctively grabbed tight hold of the sweet presence trying to drift further away.

“…Um, I have to go.”

“Be— be good, okay?”

Each time the woman mumbled something, the sweet scent swirling around the tip of his nose grew stronger, and he drew his breath even longer.

“Now, stay still. Okay?”

When her soft palm touched his arm, a pleasant sweet stimulation—different from the violent rampaging state—rose up, and his red eyes grew dreamy and unfocused.

‘This feels good…’

Just then, the soft palm gently cradled his face.

Richard, as if bewitched, buried his nose in the crown of the woman’s head.

What is this situation, really?

Every time the hot breath touched the nape of her neck, strength drained from her body and her vision began to spin.

Mona thought with her fading reason.

‘Wha— how did it end up like this?’

The situation had definitely been going well.

The crude perfume she’d thought incomplete had actually suppressed his aggression.

It was no exaggeration to call it a miracle.

So when heaven gave her the chance, she should have run.

When the sword aimed at her throat fell to the ground, she should have fled without looking back.

But Mona hadn’t.

Seeing him standing there with a dagger lodged in his belly, she—a monster enthusiast—couldn’t bring herself to walk away so heartlessly.

Some might point fingers and call her a witch, but Mona believed monsters weren’t evil.

They simply followed their instincts, loving disorder and chaos as a child follows its mother. At least they didn’t harbor malice the way humans did.

After a moment’s hesitation, Mona had eventually pulled the sword from the monster’s abdomen and pressed a handkerchief against it.

Monsters, regardless of species, generally had good self-healing abilities, so this much should be enough.

Having roughly unburdened her conscience, Mona flinched as she was about to head home.

The monster had suddenly and quietly caught hold of her collar.

And with an incredibly sorrowful expression, no less.

Of all things, this cunning monster wore the face of the empire’s most handsome man, so the mournful look in his eyes was quite compelling.

It even made her feel like she was doing something cruel, and Mona bit her lip hard.

Surely he wouldn’t… grab hold of her like this.

‘I think the perfume worked a little too well.’

Well, of course. The old books said two or three drops were enough, but she’d spilled the entire essence…

On top of that, the concentrated scent of the essence was affecting even Mona, the perfume’s creator.

Continually breathing in the sweet fragrance rising from her skirt where the essence had spilled was making her head dizzy.

Before she knew it, her nape and cheeks were burning hot, and Mona hurriedly rubbed her heated cheeks with the back of her hand.

‘I’m dizzy…’

The physical reaction was almost identical to when she’d downed three shots of tequila in a row without knowing her limit.

What is this? This doesn’t feel right.

‘Could this be another experiment side effect?’

I should probably go home first…

Her head definitely thought that.

But the danger signal that had briefly lit up in her mind was blurred by the sweetness that constantly stimulated her nasal cavity.

Before she knew it, Mona was reaching out as if bewitched toward the monster who was clutching her collar tightly like a child.

Was it because she was drunk on the fragrance?

Now that things had come to this, an impulse rose to explore the beautiful being before her even more.

When would an opportunity like this come again?

A doppelgänger would disappear when daylight came…

“Now, stay still. Okay?”

Mona lightly patted his arm as if handling a slime, then began observing the monster.

‘Aside from the red eyes, just looking at his appearance, I really can’t tell he’s a monster…’

Would it be different if I touched him?

That was when Mona, who had unconsciously swallowed dryly, carefully touched his cheek.

Suddenly her hand was seized tight, and a hot breath touched the crown of her head.

Because the monster had abruptly begun drinking in her scent deeply, Mona flinched.

When she unconsciously took a step back, he took a step forward—and this time buried his nose in the nape of her neck.

What is this situation, really?

The peculiar, unfamiliar sensation of his nose rubbing against her sensitive nape made her vision begin to spin.

“Haah, um, we shouldn’t be doing this… Stay still…”

When she barely managed to mumble with a thoroughly tangled tongue, he once again looked at her with those sorrowful, wet eyes.

Before she knew it, they were no longer the predator’s red eyes but eyes like the deep night sea, rippling as they reflected the moonlight.

Mona found herself tracing the monster’s eye area without realizing it.

“Your eyes…”

They changed…

“Are you scared…?”

In that moment, the small, low voice that reached her ear strangely sounded lonely to Mona.

When she shook her head, the monster pulled her palm and brought it to his thick chest.

At the heartbeat and hot heat transmitted through her hand, Mona murmured dazedly.

“It’s hot…”

A doppelgänger couldn’t possibly be hot.

Naturally, it couldn’t have a heart either.

How strange.

Then, a tongue holding even hotter heat passed across her palm.

Even though her palm was burning as if seared by fire, the burn-like sensation slowly tracing up to her wrist made her mind go blank.

The heat rising from her palm passed through her wrist and before she knew it had spread through her entire body.

For a moment, a tingling pain spread through her shoulder—the one that had been burned long ago.

But soon the pain was forgotten due to the thick heat that touched her lips, and only the sweet sweetness she had never felt before in her life remained.

Along with the soft sensation of lips slowly covering hers, the sweet fragrance rising from her entire body filled the spaces between her breaths.

Her toes kept curling, and her body felt like it was floating.

With this strange stimulation she had never felt before, thirst kept rising in her throat.

Before she knew it, Mona was held in the man’s hot embrace as if bewitched, swallowing sweet saliva as if craving it, and wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

Chirp chirp.

Birdsong came from somewhere.

Aagh! My head…!

Mona’s eyes flew open as she felt a splitting headache as if her head were being hammered and a terrible thirst.

The first thing that entered her vision upon opening her eyes was a strangely tilted, unfamiliar ceiling.

‘Wha— where is this?’

The moment she tried to hurriedly rise, creak— the sound of wood friction rang out.

Checking the state of the bed, Mona was startled. Because one of the bed’s legs was completely shattered, the mattress was tilted to one side.

On top of that, the floor was a mess with all sorts of broken objects.

It looked exactly like a scene after a full-blown war with a monster…

‘…Wait, a monster?’

In that moment, Mona’s thoughts came to a complete stop as she held her breath and turned her head.

Beside her, bathed in dazzling sunlight, a golden-haired, devastatingly handsome man was sleeping like a picture.