Chapter 87
[You stabbed me with that f*****g dagger.]
“…Heh.”
[And then you cut off my arm. It was only because the poison on that dagger was diluted by chance that I’m even talking right now—if you’d used a fully potent weapon to hack off my arm, I wouldn’t be here, flapping my beak.]
He’d be dead for good, both his true self and this clone.
The only reason his severed arm could transform into this crow was because his main body had recovered enough energy. If he had been any closer to death, all his strength would have drained away and he wouldn’t have even been able to animate this clone.
It wasn’t as if Kuinan had planned things so carefully.
[Be honest. You really meant to kill me, didn’t you?]
Hector’s tone was suddenly serious.
Kuinan just wiped at his eyes and nodded without a hint of guilt. His manner was so shameless that even the monster Hector was momentarily speechless.
Sigh…
The crow swiveled its head a full 180 degrees to glare at the sleeping woman.
Kuinan cut in immediately, saying “Enough,” and Hector spun his head back around, speaking in a low, menacing voice.
[You and I are monsters, and that woman is a human.]
He was laying out the obvious reason why Kuinan shouldn’t betray him. No matter how insane Kuinan was, as he was called a mad beast even among monsters—there were some lines you just didn’t cross.
A monster and a human woman simply could not be together.
[Did you forget that?]
“As if I could forget. I know it very well. She’s human, I’m a monster.”
He poked a finger toward Sylvia to define her species, then pointed back at himself for his own.
No matter how much of his blood he gave her, Sylvia could never become a true monster. It was a law of nature. Even monsters, for all their defiance, ultimately obeyed those laws.
“I’m a three-hundred-year-old mad monster, and she’s a clueless victim. The moment I killed her husband and started pretending to be him, I knew things were getting seriously f****d up.”
The woman’s shoulders twitched and trembled. She was overhearing everything. Kuinan, knowing this, kept talking anyway, while the crow seemed too focused on the serious discussion to notice her stirring.
Feeling reassured, Kuinan continued.
“She’s mine.”
His voice rang out clear, reaching both Sylvia and the crow.
The crow immediately flapped up into the air, letting out a piercing caw as if to threaten him not to say such outrageous things.
It was almost as if Kuinan was making a confession of love—his gaze was so possessive and longing that it was impossible to miss.
“I told you to shut it. You’ll wake Sylvia.”
Hector’s crow-clone could still speak and flap its wings, but that was about it—he didn’t seem capable of the usual threatening attacks.
If he could have, he’d have tried to gut Kuinan a hundred times over while he slept. At the very least, he’d have made an attempt.
[You! Are you seriously insane?]
“How many times are you going to ask that? Of course I am insane. Tell me, have you ever mated with your own woman? …Oh, right. You don’t have one. My mistake.”
It was a classic bit of human provocation: those with partners rubbing it in to those without. That Kuinan, a monster himself, was using it now, and smirked as the crow’s feathers bristled, made it clear his jab had landed.
[…]
“Maybe you’re into males. That’s the only way you could go this long without ever using your d**k.”
[Like you should talk. Weren’t you a virgin yourself until just recently?]
If Hector hadn’t witnessed Kuinan mating with a human woman for two days straight, he’d still have believed Kuinan was a virgin. Even among monsters, that kind of crude taunt was irritating.
Seething, Hector fantasized about tearing himself into four more clones and beating Kuinan to death.
“Don’t bother. You can’t make clones properly without your right arm.”
Kuinan grinned, as if reading his mind, making Hector want to explode. It was just the usual banter, but that ‘woman’ talk was really starting to get under his skin.
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