Chapter: 193
After the commotion, Lian and Jess followed the two Beastmen with fresh bruises on their faces.
The snow was deep and fluffy beneath their feet, leading them into a dense forest. The conifer trees, blanketed in white, occasionally shook off snowflakes. Thanks to the recent snowstorm, the woods resembled an endless maze.
Everywhere looked the same—front, back, left, right—no distinguishing landmarks. The Beastmen pressed on confidently, as if they saw something Lian couldn’t.
‘Why are they glancing over like that?’
Furrowing his brow slightly, Lian turned his eyes towards the Beastman in front, keeping some distance. This one kept scanning their surroundings and cast fleeting glances at Jess, mirrored by the other Beastman.
Their tails wiggled, unable to hide their emotions, and it felt eerily similar to fingernails on a chalkboard to him.
‘What kind of relationship do they have with Jess?’
As the unanswerable question floated in his mind, the path began to incline steeply. They made their way up the snow-covered rocky and icy trail, facing an uphill challenge. The Beastmen, including Jess, bounded up the incline with the ease of mountain goats, but for Lian, a regular human, it was impossible.
From their perspective, his struggle must have looked like a worm crawling, and Jess quickly swooped in to lift him effortlessly.
“Eh?” In the blink of an eye, he found himself on solid ground. With wide eyes, he scanned his surroundings and noticed the shocked expressions of the two Beastmen.
Before long, their faces began to twist into strange smirks. To them, strength was law and everything, so Lian’s appearance clearly marked him as ‘weak.’
Before he could catch a glimpse of their mocking grins, he was suddenly overshadowed by something warm and soft.
“Ugh..! Wait! J-Jess!?”
Not wanting to set Lian down now that she had him in her arms, Jess pulled him deep into her chest. Lian flailed his arms, barely managing to escape her grasp.
“…”
“…”
The eyes of the two Beastmen, which were once filled with ridicule, were now brimming with deep envy and jealousy.
Jess expressed her feelings openly, as if they were the only two in the world, offering Lian unrestrained affection. Though he thought her behavior was somewhat embarrassing, oddly enough, the feeling oddly soothed his previous discomfort, making him feel at ease.
‘Ah… is this what it feels like when your daughter prefers friends over her dad?’
Lian recognized that he felt ‘jealous,’ but he couldn’t quite place what kind it was, leading to some awkwardness in his thoughts.
After a small fiasco, the group resumed their hike. The rough and untamed path led them to a small valley, and clearing this, they finally arrived at a campsite deep in the woods.
It didn’t seem like they had set up long ago; only about a third of the campsite was in the form of cabins, while the rest were tents.
As they approached the campsite, two female Beastmen wielding weapons strode toward them with sharp gazes.
Standing around 170 cm, these agile female Beastmen radiated an unsettling aura like a predator lurking. Lian couldn’t help but glance at Jess without realizing it.
‘Jess is actually pretty cute.’
Though Jess was a bit shorter compared to the other female Beastmen, she wasn’t cute to the point of being called such. Just how she wagged her tail like an innocent puppy in front of Lian created an image in his mind of her being petite, with large ears perking up and sparkling eyes.
Of course, such perceptions would be shattered in the face of a bear attack, but fundamentally, he recognized her that way.
“Commander?”
“..! The Commander is back!?”
As the two Beastmen approached, wide-eyed and shouting, sensitive-sensed Beastmen began revealing themselves one by one.
“Commander?!”
“The Commander has returned!?”
“Commander!”
A variety of Beastmen appeared, surrounding the group.
*
Inside the central tent of the campsite, layers of thick carpets were spread across a spacious area. The conical tent protected them from the strong winds of the snow mountain and the accumulating snow, while the thick carpets helped mitigate the chilling cold seeping from the ground.
Sitting on cushions that likely marked the head of the gathering, Jess and Lian occupied the prominent seats, with six Beastmen sitting around them in a circle.
“Hmm, who’s that human with the Commander? Is he like… emergency supplies?”
A Bear Beastman, nearly three meters tall, pointed at Lian with his thick index finger as he asked, while others looked at Lian with various expressions.
Feeling their gazes, Lian subtly tapped Jess’s hand.
‘Oh man… can’t I at least change my posture…!’
Lian had half-lay down on the plush cushion, but the problem was that cushion wasn’t a cushion at all—it was Jess’s soft, ample chest.
Jess pulled Lian closer from behind and smiled slyly.
“He’s my partner.”
“What?!”
“Partn—wait, does that mean… lover?!”
“Oh wow…”
Would Beastmen misunderstand if they called her ‘master’? Lian was lost for words, staring blankly with his mouth agape as he processed Jess’s declaration.
Caught off-guard by Jess’s confession, Lian’s brain short-circuited. Meanwhile, conversations among the Beastmen devolved into chaos.
The most vigorous reactions were from three male Beastmen. In a world where strength was law and everything, Jess, as the Commander, was the desired bride for all male Beastmen.
These infatuated males were fervently wishing for Jess to take multiple concubines.
With the entrance of ‘Lian’ during the silent battle over Jess’s partner position, it was like a bomb dropped unexpectedly.
‘That weakling is the Commander’s partner?’
‘No way! Pairing with a dimwit like him will only result in sickly offspring!’
‘He looks weak… Hmm, but looks like a weakling suits the Commander’s style?’
Clearly weak, Lian being Jess’s partner garnered doubtful expressions from everyone. Regardless, Jess merely wagged her tail happily, pulling Lian in deeper.
“Uh, umm… tha-thank you?”
Lian barely managed to stammer out the foolish words with a creaky mind.
His little thoughts screamed at him, “Thank you!? You look totally dumb!” and “What about Noah!? What will you do? You’ve already (in your imagination) had three kids with him!” causing him to fall quiet.
“…”
Jess responded with joy to Lian’s clumsy words, casting a sly eye toward the female Beastmen seated in the tent.
These were the six strongest female Beastmen next to Jess. While they may not be as strong as Jess, they were still strikingly attractive. There were three of them gathered together, with even more outside the tent.
‘As long as I’m here, the master’s Beastmen are only for me.’
Though he thought there was no way that would ever happen, even the slightest chance that Lian might pamper another Beastman made him boil with jealousy.
Imagining even that sparked a flame in his heart as he slapped down on the very notion of ‘partner’ with a heavy coat of saliva.
When the subtle aura of danger swept over the female Beastmen, their tails stood erect for a moment before slowly lowering.
‘She means it.’
‘With that appearance, she must be worth having.’
The slender-bodied, beautiful female Beastmen averted their gazes, musing those thoughts.
‘Is he really not emergency supplies?’
A female Bear Beastman, so muscular she could casually lift an adult male with one hand, tilted her head, a question mark floating above her head but eventually surrendered to Jess’s fierce glare.
‘If the Commander says so, then it must be true.’
While those females had their thoughts, the male Beastmen burned with sharp gazes directed at Lian.
Just as Jess had glared at the female Beastmen, she was about to send similar icy glares to the male ones when a male Beastman with a hyena tail abruptly sprung to his feet and growled.
“Grrr…! Commander! I can’t accept such a weakling as your partner!”
“Yeah! I can’t recognize such a feeble guy as the Commander’s mate!”
“…!”
As one spoke out, two more male Beastmen shot up from their seats, glaring at Lian fiercely.
The predatory aura exuded from them jolted Lian’s dulled instincts back to life thanks to Jess’s declaration. Before he could react, however, Jess spoke softly.
“So what?”
Lian flinched.
Her gentle question, void of anger, made the three male Beastmen’s tails droop limply. Their perked ears began to lower, as if assessing the situation.
“And if you can’t accept it?”
Jess smiled sweetly, but her eyes were icy, making the female Beastmen perceptively slink away to the corners of the tent.
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