Chapter 140
“No, I should escort her myself.”
“…Yes, understood.”
Marcel felt a little disappointed. The human looked soft even at a glance, and he had wanted to try holding her at least once. While an awkward silence flowed between the two men, Sia kept looking around and finally spotted a familiar path.
It was the road connected to the hill she had followed Cola to when she first arrived in this world. After Cola had disappeared back then, she had searched this area, so she remembered it.
And wasn’t Karin not far from here? If she followed that path, she should be able to reach Karin’s house safely. Wrapped in the blanket, Sia clenched both fists tightly and waited for an opening.
No matter how fast werebeasts were, she thought they wouldn’t be able to chase her if they didn’t know the way. She intended to create some kind of chance and run.
While Marcel instructed a subordinate disguised as a coachman to detach a horse from the carriage, Aesir stood holding Sia and quietly looked down at her.
Seeing her large eyes moving around restlessly, he narrowed his own. Although this was a kidnapping, she hadn’t resisted much, so he had thought she wanted to leave the cat tribe. Apparently not.
And there was something that had been bothering him for a while. Even though she was tightly wrapped in the blanket, the scent of a cat tribe male’s pheromones lingering on her was extremely unpleasant.
As if marking her as his own, that male had done a complete pheromone shower all over her. Feeling displeased, Aesir subtly brushed his own pheromones onto the back of her neck where it was slightly exposed. When even a faint trace of his scent spread, his twisted mood eased a little.
Aesir felt a deep sense of regret. How nice it would have been if the human had fallen into snake tribe territory from the beginning.
“Your Excellency, it would be best if you ride this horse.”
“Very well.”
Sia had no intention of getting on the horse. The moment she mounted it, she would surely be dragged away like before without being able to do anything.
So she did the best she could. Suddenly lifting her upper body, she lunged forward and bit hard into the exposed back of Aesir’s neck. She bit down with all her strength, and the moment she felt his arm loosen, she dropped from his hold.
Because she was tightly wrapped in the blanket, she staggered for a moment, but she quickly regained her balance and started running. It seemed that when faced with a life-threatening situation, humans could find strength they didn’t know they had. The pain she had felt earlier disappeared as she ran with surprising energy.
Without looking back, Sia ran desperately toward the path she knew.
“Haa, haa…”
Her breathing grew rough, but just as she unconsciously smiled, thinking she had succeeded, Aesir’s voice sounded right beside her.
“That won’t do.”
“Eek!”
Startled enough that her heart felt like it would jump out of her mouth, Sia instinctively lowered her head and stopped. Aesir and Marcel, who had been running lightly as if out for a stroll, also stopped.
“Cough, cough…”
Breathing harshly, Sia couldn’t straighten her bent upper body. Looking down, she saw the two pairs of feet within her field of vision and couldn’t hide her dismay.
She hadn’t even heard footsteps behind her. She had thought she had shaken them off. Shouldn’t they at least have been startled for a moment after being caught off guard?
“…Are you alright?”
Seeing Sia unable to stop coughing, Marcel asked in a worried tone and reached out a hand. Sia hesitated and tried to step back, but Aesir was already standing behind her.
Before she could say anything or decide what to do, Aesir spoke in a voice tinged with amusement.
“As expected, human teeth are far too weak. It felt like a fledgling’s nibbling. It tickled so much that my scales came out without me realizing.”
At his words, Sia lifted her head with a horrified expression. She immediately checked the spot she had bitten, then instinctively stepped back as goosebumps rose over her skin.
Jet-black scales had emerged on part of the back of his neck. They were clearly scales, glittering under the sunlight.
Fish tribe?
Can fish really walk around on land like this?
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