Tamed Monster - Chapter 65

From the moment Kuinan earned the full trust of the Crown Prince, his workload piled up.

Now was the perfect time to meticulously plan how to infiltrate the imperial treasury to obtain the deadly poison—and how to smuggle it out without being caught.

Even entering the monsters’ territory didn’t faze him; he felt no threat to his safety and rather a comforting warmth, as if wrapped in a cradle. It was the ideal place for contemplation.

While everyone around him remained alert and watchful, Kuinan alone had a carefree expression.

“Are we… here already?”

After crossing mountains and lakes, traveling across plains, camping overnight, and crossing the notoriously ominous Black River, the familiar landscape finally appeared.

Kuinan hummed a tune inwardly, excited alone.

“Almost there?”

He was supposed to be strategizing, but the woman riding in front kept whining and interrupting, distracting him completely. His attention was focused solely on teasing her.

“What’s that?”

“Huh? What?”

He could hear the pounding of her heart pressed tightly against his back, the vibrations almost striking his chest. Pointing with his finger toward a black shape in the mist, the entire group—including her—quickly turned to look.

Kuinan, with his exceptionally sharp eyesight, chuckled quietly to himself.

‘None of them can see it. It’s just a rock.’

As a cold wind swept away half the fog, the object’s true form was revealed. The humans sighed in relief as they recognized it as a boulder.

Kuinan murmured casually, thinking it was nothing, and slowly urged his horse forward. The hooves sank deeply into the earth; soon, the horse would tire.

Heh heh—.

Horses can tell the difference between monsters and humans. They instinctively recognize monsters as far stronger and more fearsome.

But wild animals other than humans tended to submit rather than resist monsters. So even knowing the Duke was a monster, the horse didn’t try to shake him off.

In fact, it behaved more obediently than when carrying its true master. If the Duke’s steed could speak, it would probably be screaming now, begging for help, realizing it was carrying a monster.

But with no way to call for help, the horse could only obey.

“How do you like it? Not so bad, right?”

Kuinan casually spoke nonsense to Sylvia, who was barely hanging on the horse, panting. His attempt to comfort her only broke her composure.

Mounted and trapped, she suddenly snapped at her carefree monster husband.

“Are you seriously insane?”

Her outburst silenced Kuinan. They had entered the swamp’s edge tens of minutes ago, yet hadn’t encountered a single low-level monster. Unaware this was Kuinan’s plan, Sylvia angrily shouted outright inside monster territory.

“Why are you angry, wife?”

“Why else? How can someone come here with his wife riding on the horse when we’re supposed to be fighting monsters? What if one suddenly jumps out? And you ask if it looks like a nice place like a picnic—!”

As her voice rose, Sylvia suddenly froze. She saw something writhing deep in the distant fog—a large living form, not just a rock.

“….”

‘Aw, no need to butt in.’

Kuinan glanced toward where his silent wife was looking and guessed what she’d seen. Adjusting the reins, he sighed heavily.

“You’re just excited because you’re with me, no matter where we are.”

His surprisingly mature tone calmed her heavy breaths little by little. She fell silent again. Kuinan glanced back. Behind him, five large figures of knights followed. To him, they and their servants were nothing more than burdens.

‘Should I kill them? Or send them back…?’

To avoid arousing the Crown Prince’s suspicion, he’d unnecessarily brought over a dozen useless followers besides his wife.

In truth, he wanted to come alone, like a quiet walk. Since she had already partially assimilated with his fluids and blood, her chance of getting attacked by a monster was low.

However, if he ever eased his demonic energy even briefly, the humans behind would be killed in an instant. He thought it through: if they naturally separated from the group, those humans would handle themselves.

Kuinan groaned softly, then noticed a gaze and lowered his eyes.

“…”

This won’t do. Judging from his wife’s tired, heavy-lidded look fixed on him, if he acted out again, she’d grow even more suspicious.

Though there was no real need to tiptoe around her, Kuinan lately felt trapped by Sylvia as if he truly was her husband.