Tamed Monster - Chapter 83

What just happened?

Did he win? Even though she’d watched it all unfold with her own eyes, Sylvia still couldn’t process what had just taken place.

Her husband had won. He’d defeated the monster.

The two of them had faced off for a long while, almost as if they were speaking to each other. Then, suddenly, her husband stretched his mouth into a wide, chilling grin, rushed the monster, slipped into its arms, and plunged his dagger up under its wing—then cut it down.

And now, he was cutting off its arm.

He was… cutting off its arm.

Even though she knew that was the right word for what he was doing, Sylvia kept searching for other, softer words. But changing the description didn’t make her husband’s actions any more justified, or any less grisly.

Squish, squish.

Slice, slice!

The sounds were awful. Even worse than the stench of monster blood that now clung to her hair and clothes was the faint, wet noise of an arm being severed in the distance.

And the smell from the big head monster was a thousand times worse than the one from the little monster before.

She felt like she might pass out with her eyes open.

No, she wanted to faint.

Those were two different things. Sylvia was so desperate to escape reality that she tried to let go of all tension and slumped to the ground, trying to breathe deeply. But far from dulling her senses, the sickening sound of flesh being hacked apart only grew clearer.

After about fifteen minutes, Kuinan finally finished hacking off the monster’s arm and picked it up, calling out to Sylvia.

“Hoo… Wife.”

The monster was barely breathing now, clinging to life by a thread, but Kuinan said it wouldn’t last long. He told Sylvia they should leave now.

“Let’s go home. I’ve killed the leader, so the rest of them won’t dare come after us.”

That wasn’t how monsters usually behaved. If their leader was killed, monsters tended to go wild, attacking every living thing in sight, even their own kind. Monsters were naturally aggressive, after all.

But Sylvia only knew the bare minimum about monster behavior, so she simply believed what her husband said. And, just as he claimed, the looming shadows behind the fog merely growled and whimpered, making no move to attack.

Thump.

Kuinan wrapped the severed arm in thick, tough leaves nearby and slung it over his shoulder. The putrid stench made Sylvia dizzy.

“If the smell’s too much, just walk a little farther behind.”

He was also wrinkling his own nose as if he could barely stand it himself. Sylvia glanced at the muddy water underfoot, longing for a bath. Kuinan noticed and scolded her, still facing forward as they walked.

“Tsk. I’ll wash you later. For now, just keep moving.”

He made it sound so easy, but in truth, there was no guarantee the monsters wouldn’t attack. The only reason they were holding back was because they’d just witnessed the savage fight—and Kuinan’s overwhelming victory. If even one monster snapped out of its shock, the whole situation could turn in an instant.

The journey back was far longer than the fight itself. Kuinan held out his free hand to Sylvia, inviting her to walk with him. When she refused, he simply kept his hand out, stubborn as ever, until she finally relented and took it.

Woooo—

Caw, caw!

Ignoring the jeers and cries of the monsters behind them, Kuinan quickly led Sylvia away from that hellish lair.

* * *

Even after they’d left the den, the journey was a long, grueling one.

Kuinan was more exhausted than Sylvia. Caked in black blood, he watched her as she sat by a boulder, knees pulled up, hugging herself and staring blankly into space—like someone trapped in a waking dream.

“What are you thinking about?”

Kuinan asked. Startled, Sylvia blinked and finally focused her dazed gaze.

Kuinan scooted closer. Sylvia instinctively tried to scoot away, but with the rock at her back, there was nowhere to go, so she simply endured his presence.

“…That monster. I keep thinking about it.”

“Ah. Thinking about another man, are you?”

Sylvia made a face at the ridiculous comment, but calmed herself and went on.

“Did it… speak to you?”

It was common knowledge that monsters had a language of their own. They weren’t mere beasts, but intelligent, cunning creatures.

Human scholars insisted people were the smarter species, but Sylvia doubted that claim. After all, if monsters were truly mindless brutes, how could they have conquered so much human land over the centuries?

It had almost never been taken back, while humans had lost their lands to monsters countless times.

“Speak?”

“It seemed like it was talking to you. Or maybe just talking to itself.”

Just as she didn’t judge Lady Rossa too harshly, Sylvia didn’t hate the monsters that had stolen her homeland—she only feared them. She never felt disgust or hatred.