TSSAH 11

Chapter 11

Hot blood pulsed through his veins, seething beneath his skin.

The symptoms had begun in earnest earlier today.

The Green Trading Company’s head had triggered the blood fury that had been slowly simmering for some time.

Because of a single moth that recklessly charged in without regard for its own life, the period his limbs secretly called the ‘Eclipse’ had begun far earlier than scheduled.

Though it was a sudden onset of rampage, the feeling of all the power and blood in his body surging was, as always, welcome.

That was why Killian Knox’s mood was fairly good.

Especially since he’d spent the entire day in the underground dungeon, thoroughly enjoying the Green Trading Company’s head’s blood.

But.

“Hmm.”

Killian let out a low sigh, soothing the heat that kept flaring up, and looked down at the small figure kneeling at his feet.

*’Irritating.’*

A low-level member of the action team.

A nobody was grating on his nerves.

Like prey caught in a web tugging at the strands to summon the spider, Runnelk Ains’s existence did just that.

“Your Grace, did you already… know about the assassin’s presence?”

Though trembling, the way he looked straight at him was audacious.

It had been a long time.

Both someone who questioned him, and someone who threw themselves forward saying they’d protect him.

“And if I did?”

“If that’s truly the case…”

Runnelk Ains pressed his lips firmly together.

Irritation flickered in his unusually large, upturned blue eyes.

That was all that could be read.

“Speak. How did you know the Green Trading Company’s head harbored killing intent?”

After hesitating for a moment, Runnelk Ains answered.

“A-as I said, I just have sharp instincts…”

Again, unreadable.

He couldn’t tell whether the bastard was lying or telling the truth.

The ability he’d possessed since birth didn’t work on this man.

An utterly unpleasant existence.

Killian slowly lowered his gaze and looked down at the small, round head, thinking.

Ah, I should just kill him after all.

The impulse quickly turned into action.

“Guh…!”

Killian’s large hand gripped Runnelk Ains’s throat.

The thin, muscleless neck seemed made to fit his grasp.

His hand, touching the white skin where blue veins showed through, burned as if touched by fire.

“So you’re saying it was all coincidence.”

The first ‘unreadable being’ to appear, who had come and gone from the bathroom—practically an inner chamber—and who had also saved him from the assassination attempt.

“There’s no way that’s true.”

Killian chuckled.

At that, the blue eyes, teary from suffocation, looked toward the corner of his mouth, and he tightened his grip around Runnelk Ains’s neck.

That frail body would be crushed pathetically with just a little force.

Then this irritating gnawing on his nerves would disappear too.

Killian was certain of it.

But then, a pain like a heated iron spike being driven into his head stopped him.

“G-guh…”

As Runnelk Ains struggled and a single tear fell onto the back of his hand, the headache grew sharper.

During the Eclipse, even the pain of being cut by a blade was accepted as sweet amusement—yet this sensation was so chilling it made his body freeze in an instant.

And the super-senses that had been quiet until now rang with a loud alarm.

*’I must not kill this man.’*

The realization came, and at the same time, the strength in his grip loosened.

It happened before he could make any conscious decision.

As if the blood fury had seized control, even if only for a moment.

*Thud.*

Runnelk Ains, who had fallen to the floor, clutched his throat and coughed wetly.

“Huff…! *Cough, cough*!”

Standing before him, Killian looked down at his own right hand.

As if testing his large hand, he repeatedly clenched and unclenched it in the air—a strange light flickering in his eyes.

“Interesting.”

It was intriguing.

Such an intense sensation.

And the intervention of the blood fury, no less.

It was novel.

Even the fever, which during the Eclipse could only be quelled by the warmth of blood, had now receded considerably.

*’What is this bastard?’*

Runnelk Ains, trembling on thin shoulders as if not yet fully grown and gasping for breath, still looked to his eyes like nothing more than a mangy foal.

But the blood fury that had never betrayed him before had intervened.

Along with intense curiosity, an impulse suddenly surged.

To catch his eye during the Eclipse—how pitiful.

Killian mocked his own shallow pity and asked Runnelk Ains.

“Do you want to live, Runnelk Ains?”

“…*Cough*!”

Though still dripping tears, his wide blue eyes spoke instead.

Are you really asking that right now?

Killian didn’t bother to suppress the laughter that escaped him.

The super-senses always acted solely for Killian.

Which meant this Runnelk Ains was someone he needed.

“Let’s test just how useful this ‘instinct’ you spoke of really is.”

“What do… *cough*, what do you mean?”

The thoroughly hoarse voice asked, but Killian ignored it and quietly observed Runnelk Ains.

As expected, no matter how he looked at it, this body was too frail to be a member of Knox.

If this small body slipped away somewhere, he might not be able to find it.

“Ah, there’s that method.”

There was a way to track the bastard no matter where he fled.

Smiling with satisfaction, Killian once again reached toward Runnelk Ains.

Whether meaning not to submit quietly this time, the bastard dodged back rather nimbly, but it was no use against Killian’s reach.

“Ugh! This… let go!”

“Shh, you need to stay still.”

Slightly above the already bruised nape, Killian grabbed the small chin and pulled Runnelk Ains toward him.

“If you’re going to kill me… just kill me!”

“Kill you? Didn’t you say you didn’t want to die?”

With a rare smile that even his close aides seldom saw, Killian brought his other hand to his own mouth.

*Crunch.*

The sound of white teeth tearing into the flesh of his hand was so vivid that even Runnelk Ains, who had been struggling to break free, stopped moving.

*Drip, drop.*

Blood mixed with the blood fury, tinged with a golden sheen, fell with heavy sounds.

Once he confirmed enough blood had flowed, Killian roughly pried open Runnelk Ains’s jaw.

“What are you doing…!”

“Swallow.”

Clenching the bitten hand, blood like golden threads streamed down.

“I, don’t… *hack, gulp*!”

“There we go.”

No matter how much he resisted, to breathe, he had to swallow the liquid in his mouth.

Humans were so weak.

Killian released his chin only after Runnelk Ains had swallowed several mouthfuls of his blood.

“*Cough*, *hurk*, *kek*!”

The bastard tried to vomit out what he’d been forced to swallow, but it was useless.

The blood fury that had entered his body had already been absorbed and vanished.

As evidence, the burst blood vessels around his eyes, the fingerprints on his neck, and so on were slowly disappearing.

Runnelk Ains’s face, a mess with his blood, was also quite a sight—so Killian spoke in a gentle voice.

“Do you know the term ‘dragon’s kin’?”

“How would I know about such a thing, *cough*…!”

“It means, quite literally, a dragon’s possession. You’ve just become mine.”

Killian bent his legs to meet Runnelk Ains’s eye level and smiled.

“So now, no matter where you are, I can sense you. Even if it’s across the sea to the Western Continent. As long as you draw breath, you cannot escape me.”

*Thump, thump, thump.*

Following the rapidly beating heart, his energy coursing through Runnelk Ains’s body was unmistakable.

“Now that I’ve put a leash on you, I’ll give you your first mission.”

His golden eyes, cold as a full moon, gleamed cruelly.

“Five days until the Day of Earth. Within that time, uncover Knox’s darkest secret.”

Issuing a command that could never be carried out, Killian grinned fiercely.

“If you fail, you die.”