No Entry Except for the Master - Chapter 70 - Bonds

It was a dream from a very long time ago. A dream from when she was not who she was now.

Even on a dark night, the beach shimmered faintly under the starlight. The calm waves gently lapped the shore, bathed in the bright glow of the moonlight. The hair of the one walking slowly along the coastline fluttered softly in the breeze.

“Don’t tease me. It tickles.”

“Hmm, it’s not like I was angry.”

“You’re really hard to fool, huh.”

With a light laugh, a gentle wind stroked her shoulder as if to comfort her. The breeze that had been drifting around her in a formless flow began to shift into the shape of a person. The arm that gently wrapped around her shoulders was warm.

“It’s just… I was thinking how difficult it is to be a king. I don’t know how the former rulers did it so well.”

“Even so, could you have not chosen me? We’re supposed to choose the one we love most.”

The spirit gave no answer. As if expecting that response, she let out a radiant laugh. The spirit felt a burning sensation in its chest. Spirits didn’t have hearts like other beings, but if it had one, it felt like it would be thundering wildly by now.

“Still, most people believe in me. So it’s not too painful.”

<Ravie.>

The king of the werebeasts, called Ravie, closed her eyes and slowly stepped along the sand. Since her selection as king, her name, Ravie, had gradually vanished. People only referred to her as the King of the Werebeasts. The spirit by her side was the only one who still called her by name.

“Time will pass, and they’ll understand eventually. Those people are only acting that way because they want a better kingdom.”

The spirit nodded. Though it especially loved Ravie, spirits fundamentally cherished all werebeasts. Even the factions that disapproved of Ravie after she became king were not ones the spirit could bring itself to hate. That was simply how things were—an irresistible force of nature.

Her hair, glowing warmly like it had been steeped in starlight, swayed in the breeze led by the spirit. Her snow-white skin glowed even in the dead of night, capturing the spirit’s gaze. The spirit reached out. Ravie widened her eyes and looked at it, then laughed, as if the sensation tickled.

I want to touch her. The spirit yearned desperately.

But spirits had no physical form. Though others could feel their presence—like a passing breeze or warm sunlight—the spirit could not physically touch another. It was a living being, yet akin to a soul. The fact that it couldn’t hold or touch her drove it to maddening despair.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Staring at me like that makes me feel shy, you know.”

The king of the werebeasts replied playfully, her cheeks slightly flushed. Then, as if embarrassed, she began to walk backward with exaggerated steps. The affectionate gaze made her heart flutter. As she ran away as if fleeing, the spirit quickly followed after her.

Ravie’s pure laughter echoed along the quiet shore. The spirit’s chest swelled with emotion.

In that moment, the spirit forgot who it was.
The girl fluttering in front of its eyes was its entire world.
The spirit’s heart overflowed with an emotion it could not name.

They hadn’t known back then—how cruel the consequence of an emotion that was never meant to be allowed could be.

From early morning, things were noisy outside. Summoned in haste, Ravie rushed out as soon as she woke up. At the beach, the werebeasts were gathered and murmuring anxiously. As she appeared, they bowed their heads in greeting and stepped aside to make a path for her.

“This can’t be…”

The werebeast king muttered blankly. At the end of the path they opened stood a human who had washed up on the beach. She approached cautiously to check if he was alive. His breathing was faint, but unmistakably there.

“Your Majesty, what should we do?”

The chieftain of the canine tribe, who had urgently called for her, awaited her decision. Apparently, he had found the human during his routine morning patrol along the shore.

“…He’s still alive, so let’s monitor him until he wakes. I’ll question him myself.”

Following her command, the werebeasts carefully carried the unconscious man away. None of them wanted to bring a stranger into their home, wary as they were of outsiders. In the end, the man was laid in the home of the werebeast king.