Tamed Monster - Chapter 165

As promised, she handed the coachman roughly thirty percent of the jewels.

He had risked his life to keep her secret. He deserved that much. It wasn’t as if she had brought an overwhelming fortune with her in the first place. Smuggling the Grand Duchess away from the Grand Duke’s watchful eye was not something a fainthearted man could do.

“You’ve done more than enough. Thank you.”

After that brief expression of gratitude, she parted ways with him. The agreed payment included a horse, purchased in advance.

The animal proved stubborn, tossing its head and resisting her hand. She managed to calm it with a carrot before mounting. Then, consulting her map, she moved on without rest along a winding, shadowed mountain road.

She climbed and descended three ridgelines before crossing a vast plain that seemed to stretch forever. By then, the horizon had begun to burn red with sunset.

The sight of the crimson sky brought back the image of her husband—blood dripping from his face and hands.

Her vision blurred without warning. One hand rose to her cheek. When she brushed beneath her eye, her fingers came away damp. She stared at the droplets for a long moment, unsure what they were, before tightening her grip on the reins and riding on toward the Golden River.

She stopped briefly along its banks—a dangerous border region where monsters were said to appear.

She fed the horse again and chewed on dried meat from her satchel. The coachman had done his job well. He might never serve the ducal household again, but at least he had secured a comfortable retirement. She hoped he would live quietly from now on, free of peril.

Lost in those idle thoughts, she did not notice the dark, massive shape rising from beneath the river’s surface.

She had meant to rest only a few minutes, aware of the danger. When something felt wrong, she shot to her feet.

The horse, drinking from the water’s edge, let out a piercing scream and reared high on its hind legs.

Both Sylvia and the horse lifted their heads in shock.

Only one of them was dragged to its death.

A clawed hand shot out of the water and seized the horse by the throat, hauling it under. Sylvia could only watch, stunned, as the creature vanished beneath the surface.

A monster. There was no doubt about what stood before her. Only now did she fully sense the overwhelming demonic energy emanating from it.

‘I have to run…’

But where?

She had lost her only means of transport. Could she outrun a monster on foot?

No.

The moment that conclusion settled in her mind, her legs felt rooted to the ground. Even attempting to flee might have given her a sliver of hope, but her body refused to move.

[Found you.]

The red-haired monster wiped the horse’s blood from its mouth as water streamed down its naked body.

Near its collarbones, on either side of its neck, thin slits opened and closed in a familiar rhythm. Gills.

She had seen the same gills on Kuinan whenever he returned to his true form.

Sylvia ran. Even knowing she would be caught, she ran.

The monster watched her for a moment as she fled across the shore. Just as she began to cling to the faintest thread of hope, it kicked off the ground.

It was on her in an instant. A crushing blow struck the back of her head.

The world went black.

Her body dragged limply across the muddy earth, leaving a streak behind. Moments later, the mare’s lifeless corpse floated up, staining the golden river a vivid red.

The monster slipped not back into its familiar swamp but deeper inside the borderlands, moving in secret.

It had someone to meet—its comrade, its former leader.

By dawn, when the sky had taken on the pallid hue of a corpse, Kuinan appeared before them at last, far too late in search of his female. Facing the hundred or so monsters gathered there, he spoke.

[Give her back.]

The red-haired monster slowly looked him up and down. The former leader appeared unusually haggard.

With a satisfied grin, the red-haired monster tightened its grip around Sylvia’s throat.

* * *

[No.]

He had warned Kuinan this would happen.

He had told Kuinan outright to guard his female carefully.

How he encountered Sylvia at the river had not been a coincidence. For weeks, he had stalked her, waiting for the one moment she would be separated from Kuinan.