"Why did you capture ?"
The female’s voice was surprisingly soft and clear.
An Jin hung in mid-air, her face toward the ground. Her large, gray cloak billowed loudly in the gale, and the knife-like wind scraped painfully against her exposed skin.
The Eagle Beast gripped her by the shoulders, unable to see her face. All An Jin could hear was a deep, pleasant male voice coming from above.
"You’re very beautiful and very smart. I heard about you last year."
’Oh, so he’s had his eye on for a while. To think this Eagle Beast has been hung up on for an entire year.’
An Jin’s eyes grew cold. With no emotion in her voice, she said, "You must have the wrong person. I’m hideous, not the female you’re talking about. If you don’t believe , put down sowhere and take a look for yourself."
"Don’t even think about trying to trick . I have a good eye for people!"
Song Ke saw through her little ploy. ’Dreaming of escaping from ? Absolutely impossible.’ "I may not have t you before, but I’ve seen the people from your tribe—it was the sa group as this year. My mory for faces is excellent!"
"Why even think about going back? I’m a Beastman from the city—handso and wealthy. Isn’t that much better than so small tribe?"
"I can give you anything you want. I’ll treat you very well."
"..." An Jin fought to suppress the wave of speechlessness that washed over her.
They had never even t. This Eagle Beast had kidnapped her like a common bandit, and now he was making such grand pronouncents. He sounded just like a bragging, rogue beast.
Her round eyes darted about. She suddenly ground her teeth, lowering her voice to a raspy, sinister tone. "You really did get the wrong person. I’m... ex-tre-ly... UGLY!"
Song Ke felt a shiver run down his spine at her bizarre behavior and voice. The wound on his shoulder blade was throbbing more and more painfully, making his temper short and his tone frightening. "Impossible!"
"You haven’t even seen , so how can you be so sure?"
Song Ke’s heart sank, his earlier joy completely vanishing. ’Could it be... she’s actually hideous?!’
’Soone who wears a huge cloak to hide their face is either unbelievably beautiful or too ugly to be seen.’
A seed of doubt planted in his mind, Song Ke decided to make sure he hadn’t grabbed the wrong person. He flew to a nearby cliff as she’d suggested, shifted into his human form, and pulled off her cloak.
Song Ke instantly sucked in a sharp breath and recoiled in horror. "So ugly!"
"How can you be so ugly?"
Looking as if he’d just seen a ghost, Song Ke scrambled back two steps, almost tumbling off the cliff’s edge.
Thankfully, he managed to regain his balance.
But his breathing was ragged. The shock had been a major one.
The dozens of other Eagle Beasts nearby were also completely stunned. ’They’d lost several of their brothers, all to capture this ugly little thing?!’
Although most females in the Beast World weren’t particularly attractive, none were like the one before them. Her face was covered in a dense constellation of dark, blackish spots, so thick they could make a person’s skin crawl.
An Jin broke into a smile. Her small, pearly white teeth were perfectly neat, but set against such a grotesquely marred face, the contrast was simply bizarre.
’Thankfully, I put on makeup beforehand,’ she thought. ’It’s not exactly a professional job, but it’s more than enough to fool this flock of Eagle Beasts.’
She scanned the flock of dumbstruck Eagle Beasts, then deliberately leaned in closer to their handso, blond-haired leader, as if concerned she might give him a fatal shock. "So, am I pretty? Do you really like ?"
"Since you like so much and went to the trouble of kidnapping from so far away, I guess I can consider letting you be my male."
Song Ke looked as if he’d been struck by lightning. Goosebumps erupted all over his body as he stumbled back. "N-no! I don’t want to be your male! How can you look like... like that?!"
’She’s unbearably hideous.’
If females weren’t so precious and in need of protection in the Beast World, he would have hurled the one before him off the cliff in an instant.
The female before him, however, was completely unfazed. "It’s not like I can control my appearance. And I never claid to be beautiful."
"You’re the one who kidnapped without so much as a word. How is that my fault?" the female shot back, glaring at him.
Song Ke’s handso face flushed with sha and anger. The corner of his mouth twitched violently. "You... you shouldn’t... how...?"
Stuttering and stopping short, Song Ke montarily forgot how to form a coherent sentence.
Song Ke’s expression was stormy. His earlier smile was gone, replaced by a look of pure ferocity and horror, as if he wanted to eat her alive.
’n... no, all people... are just slaves to a pretty face.’
An Jin cursed silently as she slowly brushed her hair back. On a beautiful female, the gesture would have been filled with charm.
But to Song Ke, it was an eyesore that threatened to blind him.
"Sigh..."
An Jin sighed, staring down at her toes. In a sad, self-deprecating voice, she said, "I was stung in the face by poisonous insects when I was a child. We didn’t have a Witch Doctor to treat back then, so the toxins stayed in my face... and slowly, I ended up looking like this..."
"Now that you’ve seen what I look like and you don’t like , just send back. We can let the whole matter drop."
"No!"
Song Ke exhaled sharply, his voice harsh.
An Jin stared at him in surprise. "???"
"I went to a lot of trouble to bring you back, and even lost several Eagle Beasts. There’s no way I can send you back on the sa day. It would be too humiliating."
Song Ke suppressed his disgust and forced himself to study the female’s face. Beneath the spots, he could vaguely discern that her features were actually quite delicate and beautiful.
’If she hadn’t been stung by those poisonous insects as a child, she would probably be stunningly beautiful now, right?’
’It was all her tribe’s fault for not protecting her.’
Thinking of it that way, a surprising wave of pity washed over Song Ke.
"Don’t you worry," the man said, his expression suddenly resolute, leaving An Jin completely bewildered. "Once I get you back to the city, I’ll find a Witch Doctor to treat you. It might even be curable!"
Song Ke didn’t give her any ti to react. He transford back into his beast form, threw her onto his back, and soared into the air, flying away.
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