Tamed Monster - Chapter 94

Worried that someone might overhear, she quickly covered his mouth and glanced around anxiously.

Thankfully, no one was paying attention at that moment. Even if people recognized him as a Duke, commoners wouldn’t dare look at him directly for long.

Humming under her palm, he looked up at her with sly, foxy eyes, both playful and meek—as if he’d be wagging his tail if he had one.

‘Ah, I want to mate.’

It was exactly the sort of moment when those words would pop out of his mouth. Sylvia hastily let her hand drop.

From then on, she made sure to avoid the crowds, navigating by the nearest spires and sticking to narrow, secluded alleys. She got lost several times, but each time, strangely enough, Lancart always pointed her in the right direction.

Both of them were unfamiliar with these streets, so how could this man find his way so easily?

While she was deep in thought, he seemed to read her mind again and explained, “Because I’m a monster.”

“Remembering any road I’ve walked once is nothing to me.”

He boasted that he didn’t memorize roads like a map, but by sense of direction and scent. Sylvia, finding it extremely annoying, kept a slight distance as they walked side by side.

Then, once again, her stomach rumbled loudly.

Grrrrowl—

Apparently deciding enough was enough, as the sky darkened, Lancart suddenly grabbed her hand and pulled her into a back alley. He claimed there was something he wanted to check out, and, still carrying that foul-smelling severed arm, he began weaving briskly through the grimy alleys.

“W-where are we going?”

Sylvia called out her husband’s name, but since his real name wasn’t actually Lancart, the monster just ignored her call and silently headed straight for the part of the alley that reeked of monster blood.

* * *

The term ‘black marketer’ referred to unscrupulous merchants who bought and sold illegal goods. But as bad as the black marketers were, the nobles and wealthy bourgeois who bought from them were just as shameless.

Sylvia had never set foot in such a seedy alley before.

“What are you trying to do?”

A thousand wild scenarios ran through her head—was he planning to sell her to slavers? Or maybe kill her and offer up her fresh meat to some monstrous cannibal?

By the time they reached the market, Sylvia’s face had grown pale with worry.

Noticing the weakness in her voice, he finally turned back, took one look at her drawn expression, and let out a laugh. Sylvia wanted to snap at him, but she was too exhausted to protest.

He finally offered a brief, honest answer.

“To get some money for snacks.”

He’d been here once or twice before, so he found the hidden market with no trouble at all. The alley was so narrow that barely two people could squeeze through, with makeshift stalls lining one side and huddled vendors sitting behind them. Since these weren’t official shops, the market was simply set up on abandoned land.

“We’ll only be here five minutes, then we’re leaving.”

With his hood pulled low, the monster flashed a reassuring smile. Sylvia pulled her own hood down and unpinned the brooch from his chest, pressing it into his hand. She understood the kind of place this was and was helping him hide his identity. For now, their fates were still tied together.

“If it’s just for snack money, do you think you’ll make… ten shillings?”

She half-mocked, half-meant the question. But Kuinan just snorted. Having once snuck out to deal with humans himself, he knew exactly how much shillings were worth.

Just ten? What a naïve question.

“Not ten shillings—more like a hundred thousand.”

Now Sylvia fell silent, staring in disbelief at his handsome face. What on earth was he planning to sell for that kind of money? And why call that ‘just snack money’? She mumbled under her breath.

“With a hundred thousand shillings, you could buy a whole new castle… What are you talking about?”

“Humans are crazy for monster blood. All I have to do is give them a few drops of fresh blood and I can make a fortune. That’s why there are even professional monster hunters on the Western Continent now.”

If the Emperor continued his reign and succeeded in unifying the neighboring countries into a vast empire as planned, such professions would become popular here, too. And that would spell disaster for monsters. After all, humans forget their fears as their numbers grow.