Chapter 44
Chapter 44
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Translator: Mod7
Chapter: 44
Chapter Title: Chapter 5 - Imprinting
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While Isaac hesitated, torn between abandoning me and saving himself, Jenny’s long tail had already wrapped around my body.
“Juho…!”
Humans were strange creatures.
Isaac, who just moments ago had been comforting me with his wisdom and experience, now hesitated, his own life in danger.
“Just go! She’ll be more agitated if you stay. I’ll handle this, so just go…!”
I tried to mask my scent.
I handed Isaac the rifle and slowly approached Jenny, practically unarmed.
Isaac finally accepted my decision and turned to flee. Jenny’s eyes flashed in the darkness, tracking the new prey, but…
“Jenny!”
I stepped in front of her, and her sharp tail hesitated.
It had been about to strike, to impale Isaac, but it stopped short of attacking me.
“Remember me? Lower your tail.”
I extended my right hand slowly, cautiously,
And lowered my body, meeting her gaze.
The darkness receded.
The crimson mist that had separated us dissipated.
I finally saw Jenny clearly.
The cute, childlike features were gone, replaced by a more mature form, but the essence of her remained.
The Jenny I knew, her beautiful face now older, her body more womanly.
Her black hair and eyes,
Her even darker claws and tail…
Everything about her had grown, matured,
And she was covered in the blood of other creatures,
But she wouldn't have forgotten the scent and the appearance of the one who had raised her.
“Kyao-”
Jenny circled me, her head tilted, studying me.
She moved low to the ground, like a puma or a jaguar, sniffing the air, trying to identify my scent.
“It’s me, Jenny. Stop playing around. You don’t need to sniff me. You know who I am.”
I stood up, asserting my dominance. I was her parent, the one who had cared for her, and I wouldn't be intimidated by her playful threats.
Jenny’s tail, the same tail that had slaughtered the flesh-lumps, twitched in the air.
It resembled a sharp, bony harpoon, and each movement produced a chilling sound.
Crack-
The sound of death echoed around me.
Even with Alraune’s enhancements, a direct hit from that tail would be fatal.
It moved closer, the sharp tip grazing my cheek, my waist.
“Stop! Lower your tail!”
I raised my voice, and
Jenny’s tail slowly retreated.
She still recognized me as her parent. While I was physically weaker, our bond remained.
She climbed the walls and the ceiling, her sharp claws finding purchase on the slick surface.
She was still testing me, observing me.
Or perhaps, she was simply playing a cruel game.
“Stop! Enough!”
But now, she ignored my warnings. She hung upside down from the ceiling, her nose inches from my face, sniffing me.
“I said stop… I’m not kidding…!”
Cold sweat trickled down my skin.
My scent, intensified by my fear, seemed to agitate her. Her tail twitched more rapidly.
A low growl rumbled in her chest, reaching my ears.
“Kyao!”
And then,
Jenny lunged.
“Agh!”
I screamed involuntarily, but
Contrary to my expectations, she didn't bite or impale me.
Instead, her soft, warm tongue licked my face, soothing my fear.
“Ha, haha…”
Fortunately,
Jenny still saw me as family.
The only difference was,
That she could speak now.
“Daddy! Did I do good?”
And like me, she used a mixture of languages.
The alien tongue she had learned from the mermaids,
And my own human language,
She combined them, her speech still a little clumsy.
***
It was good that we could communicate,
And it was good that she had grown stronger.
“Jenny, calm down… please…!”
“Kyaa-!”
But her affectionate displays, now amplified by her larger size, were a little overwhelming. She tugged at my clothes with surprising strength.
If I tripped, my clothes would rip. While I was grateful for her affection, her puppy-like behavior, combined with her newfound strength, was dangerous.
Imprinting,
The phenomenon where a newly hatched offspring forms an attachment to the first moving object it sees.
Jenny was no longer an offspring, but she still saw me as her parent.
“Did I do good? Did Jenny do good?”
She demanded praise, hopping around me excitedly.
“Y-yes… you did good.”
And she was hopping around a pile of corpses. Blood splattered as she moved, staining the already crimson floor.
I forced myself to smile, trying to calm my churning stomach, and petted her head. Jenny, pleased with my praise, wagged her hips.
“Ah.”
Thud-
And then, seeing a twitching body, a creature not quite dead, her expression hardened, and she impaled it with her tail.
I flinched. Her tail moved faster than I could see, the impact echoing through the nest.
The creature’s body burst like a balloon, its flesh and bones exploding outwards. The sheer force of the impact was terrifying.
“Kyaa- Did good! Hmm! Jenny did good! Did good again!”
“Yes, you did good…! Yes…!”
The stench of blood and death was overwhelming, but I forced a smile, stroking her head.
If I didn't praise her, Jenny’s expression turned… strange. Like a child disappointed in its parent…
“Done praising?”
“Huh…? Ah, no. You did really good. Yes!”
“Kyaa-”
I had to shower her with praise, to maintain our relationship.
I was still her parent,
And if I lost that position…
I would become,
Just another meal.
***
“Daddy stay here. Jenny hungry!”
Her vocabulary and sentence structure were still at the level of an eight-year-old, but her rapid development, both physical and mental, was astonishing.
Not only her physical growth,
But also her ability to learn and use the languages I spoke.
“Ah, ahaha… okay, but can Daddy go out for a bit…?”
I had to leave, before it was too late.
Isaac was out there, alone,
And Amy was waiting for me in the altar cave.
“No.”
But Jenny wouldn't budge.
She was clearly aware of her own preferences and wasn't afraid to express them.
“Daddy stay here.”
I had to treat this like a parenting challenge.
I had to be firm with her.
If I let her control me, I would never escape her influence. And it wouldn't be good for her either.
But this wasn't about winning a power struggle.
It was about finding a different approach,
A gentler way…
“Jenny, listen… I want to give you a delicious chocolate bar, but I have to go get it. A chocolate bar is better than this, right?”
“Hmm- is it?”
Crunch-
I continued my persuasion, speaking over the sound of Jenny crunching on bones and organs.
My voice gentle,
But my reasoning firm.
“Yes. I’ll be back soon.”
I promised her a reward. Her favorite treat, the chocolate bar…
“Hmm-”
But Jenny was stubborn. Perhaps due to her rapid development, she had lost some of her childlike innocence, replaced by a teenage petulance.
“Then come with me.”
And then,
She said something completely unexpected.
“Why? Don’t you want to?”
“O-of course not. Let’s go together. Yes.”
“No. Daddy wants to go alone.”
It was strange.
She had been so affectionate just moments ago, and now she was unnervingly calm.
She even set aside the corpse she had been eating and approached me.
I instinctively backed away,
But Jenny crawled towards me, looming over me.
Her face was close.
The stench of blood was overwhelming.
“Why? Did that wriggly thing tell you to abandon me?”
She could see the fingers.
“Or did that head-only female tell you to leave me behind?”
And,
She resented Amy.