Chapter 36: Ch 36: What is this Monster? - Part 4
The hopeful look in Rhiner’s eyes almost made
feel bad for him. But there was no way I was going to partner up with him when I had already rejected two other people.
"Ah, I am afraid soone else already asked
about it. But I am going to be ’sick’ during that ti, so I can’t make it."
I told the party and half of them looked annoyed and surprised.
"How can you say you are going to be ’sick’ already? You can’t know... ohhh."
Slowly, everyone realized that the ’sickness’ I ntioned was not actual sickness but my heat, and they all went red-faced, betraying their youth.
Only Rhiner looked professional. He looked a little disappointed but also relieved.
"I see. In that case, I guess I should find soone else to participate in my team. But do let
know if you change your mind. I can always have two civilians on my team."
Rhiner assured
and his team protested against this. But it was all done in jest.
They seed like a close team which made
almost envious. Compared to Rhiner, all I did with my team was bicker and ask them to stop being overprotective.
’In the end, they all died and left
all alone here. I wonder if things would have been different if we had been close....’
Sotis, I did regret the past and how things ended. But there was not much I could do to change the past anyway. So I decided to focus on the present.
I turned on the T.V. until it was ti to open the café and the early morning did not have much news coverage... or so I thought.
But as I flickered across the channels, I felt my hands freeze on a local news channel which showed the footage of a national museum nearby.
The museum had a sudden dungeon break that was handled quickly. But that was not what made
pause.
What made
pause was the face of the corpses looking back at . They all looked so familiar to
and were human... or at least, the face was.
Jun, a female beta hunter. A-ranked and a part of my previous party that went to the final dungeon with , stared back at .
But if that was not disturbing enough, the ssage written in blood sure was.
[You shall co back and return our lord to us]
The ssage was cryptic and made no sense. But sowhere in my mind, I recalled the shaman in the dungeon and the story he told .
At that ti, that monster had told
that I ’helped’ their god return and break free, and I had chalked it up as nonsense... so was this nonsense as well?
’Or maybe, this is a ssage for soone else and the face is just a coincidence. I don’t have enough information to conclude anything right now.’
No matter what the reason was, my interest had been piqued. My curiosity told
to check out what was happening, but to do that, I needed dungeon access.
This would not have been a problem in the past when there was no check on the dungeons, but currently, there was too much security around dungeons. So I needed to find another way in...
’Maybe I should participate in the hunter’s championship. It will grant
access to a dungeon... don’t be stupid. This has nothing to do with you.’
I reminded myself as I forced myself to look away and work.
The fact that only a small and local channel was talking about this incident told
that there was sothing fishy going on around here.
There was no need for
to pay attention to such topics.
However, no matter how much I knew that this was a trap, I felt my mind heading back to the topic at hand.
Even work was not able to distract
from thinking about the monsters wearing Jun’s face.
"Kyle, are you alright? You look... angry and agitated. You are also not smiling as much as you used to. Are you sure you are fine?"
Emma asked
and I tried to force my smile on my face. But just as I tried, Jun’s face flashed in front of my eyes and the smile faded away.
"I am fine. I am just a little tired. I think I am coming down with sothing. Maybe sleeping would make
feel better."
I told Emma and she looked doubtful.
Thankfully, Theo walked over toward
and placed his arms around
before Emma could make another observation.
"Looks like Kyle is tired right now. I will take him back to his room and tuck him into bed. You don’t have to worry about anything, Emma."
Emma made a worried face, but ultimately, she decided that what Theo said was right. So she left things up to him.
"Alright, you both can go to bed now. I will clean up here with Ben and Dan. Kyle, tell
if you need anything from ."
Emma softly told
before she went back to work.
She was an amazing person to be able to handle the café as well as her employees this well. Most places wouldn’t have treated
half as kindly as Emma did.
Unfortunately, my problem was not one I could share with her. Especially not without telling her everything about myself.
"Well, shall we head to your room now? You look tired enough to collapse any second, and that’s the last thing I want for you."
Theo told
with a smile on his face. But concern was also evident on his face just as much.
I nodded and allowed him to drag
to bed. However, I drew the line at him joining .
"B-But Kyle, won’t you feel safer having
around?"
The alpha asked, his puppy-like eyes widening as they looked at . He looked really cute at the mont.
Unfortunately, it had no effect on
at the mont.
"Theo, you need to cultivate a habit of sleeping in your own room from now onwards. You can’t be too reliant on , or you would face troubles in life when you need to be independent."
I reminded him but Theo looked confused.
"Why would I need to be independent from you? Are you going to abandon ? Please don’t do that. I won’t know what to do if you do. I-I might end up doing sothing wrong and I..."
The more Theo spoke, the more I felt his pheromones going out of control.
My body and mind felt intoxicated as I slled those pheromones, but that was not all I felt.
There was a weird power coming from the alpha that made my instincts scream ’trouble’ at . I had a feeling that sothing bad would happen if I don’t stop Theo now.
"H-Hey-! I am not abandoning you. I am just giving you a likely scenario... don’t get even angrier... Theo, you need to listen to ."
I tried to calm Theo down, but my attempts ended up worsening the situation as Theo placed his hands over his ears and refused to listen to a word anyone had to say.
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