Tamed Monster - Chapter 136

When he collapsed, Rossa ordered two of the men to approach him. The hand holding her knife trembled violently.

“My son… Soon, Mother will save you.”

For a fleeting moment, Sylvia hesitated. If he refused to speak, should she—his wife—be the one to tell Rossa the truth?

That body was not Lancart’s. It was a monster’s flesh, shaped to resemble the dead man.

Unlike what Rossa believed, this was not a matter of driving the demon out. There was no solution. Lancart was already dead. The man before them was a monster—body and soul alike.

“Lady Rossa—”

“Shut up!”

All of Rossa’s attention was fixed on the fallen Lancart. When Sylvia suddenly spoke, she jolted violently. Her blade twisted sideways by accident.

A sharp, chilling pain shot through Sylvia’s neck. Instinctively, she shoved Rossa away. In truth, she had never truly been overpowered, Rossa was a frail woman to begin with.

“Ahh!”

Rossa tumbled to the floor and screamed at the remaining men to help her up. In that moment of confusion—while the last two hesitated—the monster moved.

Kuinan had remained still only because Sylvia had been held hostage. In even a single second, she could have been stabbed to death. That was why he’d lain there so pathetically.

But now that she was free, there was no reason to keep crawling like a worm.

How many seconds did it take to kill the two men?

Perhaps five.

His elongated, sharpened claws pierced through thick flesh and cleanly impaled their necks. He crushed their already lifeless bodies beneath his feet and lunged forward. The remaining men, who had been lifting Rossa by her arms, twisted around in panic.

“What the—ghrk!”

The poison had done nothing. It hadn’t even slowed him down.

They didn’t even register how his right arm had grown longer and thicker, or how the blade-like claws at its end were anything but human. They fell before they could comprehend.

Slash. Slash. Slash. Flesh was shredded without mercy.

“Ugh—! La—Lancart! What is this—ghh!”

Rossa didn’t even attempt to seize Sylvia again. The carnage before her was too horrific.

Kuinan peeled back part of the human mask he wore. Half monster. Half man. He looked down at her.

Rossa nearly foamed and fainted—but fear kept her conscious.

“…!”

Grinning wide—too wide for a human—Lancart finally revealed the truth.

* * *

“Your son died a long time ago. Do I really have to spell it out for you?”

It wasn’t that a demon had possessed her son’s body. The demon had imitated the body from the start.

Kuinan finally confessed that he had killed her son with his own hands.

As he delivered the truth with a crooked smile, the color drained from Rossa’s face in an instant.

She couldn’t accept it. But denial would not bring her son back.

Kuinan rubbed his stomach, feeling the poison spreading internally. A monster’s digestion was formidable. It was already too late to vomit it out.

“…Tch. I’ll probably be bedridden for a while.”

He could pretend to be fine for now. But for some time, he wouldn’t be able to fight at full strength.

He clicked his tongue. Sooner or later, he would have to clash with monsters—or humans. He didn’t think he’d lose. But a familiar thread of unease began creeping in anyway.

“…Four are dead. That leaves one.”

He pointed directly at Rossa.

She was already collapsed on the floor, her legs useless beneath her. Her teeth chattered violently as her eyes darted across the ground.

She was searching for a weapon.

Sylvia leaned weakly against the corridor wall, catching her breath. Seeing she wasn’t gravely injured, Kuinan turned his back to her and approached Rossa instead.

He crouched down. Lowered himself to her eye level and leaned close.

When he brought his monstrous face near hers and stared at her in silence, a strange sound came from below.

The woman had wet herself.