OKHS 07

Chapter 7

Her vision flickered red.

At the same time, a sound like tens of thousands of monsters wailing in seizure rang through his brain.

“I was wrong. Prince Richard, please…”

As Richard was suffering from a splitting headache, a voice buzzing like a fly droned annoyingly at his ear.

He tilted his head askew.

Begging for his life, was he?

When he betrayed me, hadn’t he already resolved to die?

The man groveling and pleading was his close aide who, not even ten minutes ago, had brought assassins and driven a blade into his abdomen.

It wasn’t even surprising.

Lately, there had been no end to attempts to buy off Richard’s close associates.

The higher his fame and popularity rose, the more blatant his enemies’ backroom schemes became.

“Aaaargh!! Urk…! Hehe— ugh. Prince Richard, please… please, spare me…!”

Richard, having unhesitatingly silenced the annoying fly’s mouth, suddenly twisted his lips.

In truth, the petty power struggles surrounding him were nothing compared to the monster rampaging inside his body.

While subjugating the berserk Black Dragon, Baelmos, he had been swept into a massive, unidentified hole.

A space reminiscent of the “Chaos” described in the holy scriptures’ account of creation—where God’s hand could not reach. A place shrouded in chaos.

The Chaos that was said to have birthed sinister things.

Having entered and emerged from that deep abyss, a monster had taken residence inside Richard’s body.

Yet even swallowed by that terrible Chaos, he had not become a complete monster.

An unprecedentedly powerful mana core suppressed the demonic energy, leaving him in a state neither fully monster nor fully human—a half-monster.

At the same time, his body had entered a strange state where mana and demonic energy coexisted—and today, of all days, the demonic energy’s movements were unusually violent.

The arteries bulging across his skin were gradually turning black, and his muscles swelled abnormally, writhing.

Amid the pain of his blood vessels feeling as if they were burning, he briefly traced back the cause of the demonic energy’s rampage.

‘Was it that cigarette…’

The moment he inhaled the smoke of the cigarette with the peculiar herbal scent that the peddler had offered, the mana within his body twisted subtly.

Had that caused the internal fracture?

The demonic energy that had been suppressed by mana began rampaging all at once like a horse with its reins cut.

And today was a full moon, which strengthened demonic energy—plus he had shed blood from the ambush, so it was bound to become even more ferocious.

As the burning sensation coursing through his entire body grew worse, Richard’s patience began rapidly depleting.

Before he knew it, the demonic energy extending from behind him writhed like a living creature, swallowing everything around him in black, and his round pupils narrowed to slits.

If he surrendered his body to the monster, it would become easier.

But if he ran amok in the capital, the aftermath would be far more troublesome—so he scraped together his remaining patience down to the bottom.

‘The demonic energy weakens when the sun rises, so I just need to hold out until morning…’

That was when.

“Ha…”

Beyond his blood-tinged vision, he heard a small intake of breath.

‘So there’s still a fly left.’

The annoying feeling that had been circling in his gut all day seethed and boiled violently.

He rolled his eyes and glared in the direction of the fly.

The moment those vertically slit pupils looked as if they would pierce through her body, primal fear clamped down hard on her ribcage.

‘That’s not something I can handle like a slime.’

She had to run.

Mona stood frozen like a herbivore, then barely managed to lift her foot.

Then she hurriedly turned her back, clutched her skirt tightly, and began running like mad.

But she didn’t get far.

Kwaaang—!

Suddenly, the surrounding mana warped violently, and the high walls surrounding the alley exploded.

“Ugh!”

From the fierce pressure and the fragments flying in all directions, Mona tumbled straight to the ground.

To make matters worse, the wall collapsed with a thunderous crash, perfectly blocking her only escape route.

“Ha…!”

Reduced to a mouse in a trap, Mona swallowed her trembling breath and looked back.

Beyond the thickly rising dust, a figure with blood-red eyes was gradually drawing closer.

“…!!”

By the moonlight now freed of clouds, she saw the predator’s face growing clearer—and Mona’s eyes flew wide open.

‘Richard Kronel…!?’

The face of the war hero who, just hours ago, had received people’s awe and praise at the banquet hall—the sight of it made her breath catch in her throat.

“Hehe— ugh. Prince Richard, please…”

At the same time, the pleading voice she had heard moments ago came back to her.

But even amid the fear that engulfed her, Mona felt a sense of wrongness.

That… is that really the war hero?

‘Something’s off.’

To Mona’s eyes, the being before her was not a person but a monster.

She could stake her long life of monster obsession on that assertion.

As evidence, the mana around this area was flowing in reverse, centered on that thing.

Those reptile-like slender pupils, too, were hardly something that could be called human.

‘But still, Richard, the Grand Duke and the Emperor’s nephew, can’t possibly be a monster…’

Then what on earth is that?

Ah…!

Suddenly, a plausible answer flashed through Mona’s mind.

Doppelgänger.

She had seen it in old books as a child.

That monsters mimicking human appearance weren’t only in ghost stories but actually existed…

But perhaps because their true nature was vague, the information about doppelgängers written in old books was scant.

Only that they had no body heat, disappeared in the daylight, and were classified as high-ranking monsters due to their high intelligence…?

“A single little mouse remained, I see…”

That was when Mona was recalling the characteristics of doppelgängers.

The air around them vibrated, and a chillingly heavy bass tone resonated through her brain.

Before she knew it, the thing presumed to be a doppelgänger had closed to within three or four steps of Mona.

As the distance narrowed, the smell of blood wafted sharply into her nasal cavity, and Mona sucked in a breath.

Through the slashed, rag-like shirt, a dagger was lodged in the firmly revealed abdomen.

Dark red blood streamed down around the blade that had torn into the pale flesh, and Mona covered her mouth.

‘In that state… how is it moving?’

Did monsters not even feel pain?

Swiish—

As she stood frozen at the horrifying sight, the man—no, the monster—pulled out the knife with gleaming eyes.

“…Who sent you?”

The tip of the blade the monster aimed pointed at the mask Mona wore in place of her glasses.

The blade tip flicked past the mask, but she had no time to straighten the askew mask.

Immediately, the blade tip came down to her chin, and her lips trembled involuntarily.

The fear that her throat would be pierced by the blade at any moment assailed her.

To that degree, the hostility contained in those blood-red eyes was fiercely intense.

‘Well, he was stabbed in the abdomen. It’d be strange if he didn’t harbor hostility toward humans.’

Even knowing her back was blocked by the collapsed wall, she desperately shuffled backward.

Tak— When her back finally hit the wall, Mona clenched her ever-twitching hand as if in resignation.

‘Touching that is out of the question.’

She had supposedly transformed into a special constitution that monsters followed after that ill-fated experiment, but that ability only manifested through contact.

But right now, her throat was about to be cut before she could even reach out her hand.

She had come to observe monsters trusting in this constitution alone, but she never imagined such a terrifying thing that was even hard to touch would appear…

‘Is there really no other way…’

But no way to survive came to mind.

Biting her lip hard, Mona rummaged through her skirt pocket with the feeling of grasping at straws and pulled out a small perfume bottle.

What was in the bottle was the concentrated essence of a perfume that drew friendly responses from monsters.

The so-called “perfume that makes you friends with monsters.”

Around age seventeen, even after a spectacularly failed experiment, Mona hadn’t given up.

Far from giving up, she had secretly continued her research at an abandoned monastery near the Academy.

‘It’s incomplete, and I’ve never actually used it, but…’

Right now, she had no choice but to hope this would work.

Hope that the perfume would work and that thing’s killing intent would soften even a little…

‘Open, please.’

Cold sweat beaded on her palms.

Trying to open the lid with only one hand so as not to draw attention, her fingers kept fumbling.

Click.

It opened…!

Just then, the sensation of the blade tip aimed at her throat pricking and digging into her skin made her heart drop with a thud.

In the end, Mona dropped the glass bottle from her hand.

‘Oh no…!’

The perfume bottle spilled over Mona’s skirt, and the concentrated, thick scent of the essence spread everywhere in an instant.

The moment the scent spread, the being before her let out a short groan and staggered.

Clang—

At the same time, the sword aimed at Mona’s throat fell helplessly to the ground.