The Male is Mine
I had rushed here to the Saintess Village to escape the elf’s holy power. The pain in my legs from the brutal wrestling match with Pariot was one reason, but I also wanted a holy power shower to calm both mind and body after today’s chaos.
“Watch where you’re going, you idiot! Your horn shine is pathetic—did you even buff up your hooves?! You have any idea that our store’s saintesses can do a little corpse massage too?”
“Is this the place from last time where the authorities showed up?”
“Ohohoho, what do you mean?! I’ve never done any outdoor exposure treatment!”
The Saintess Village was packed today just like always, thanks to travelers of all other races. The holy power flowing between buildings was so warm it felt like a boiler heating up the entire district. Some saintesses, unconsciously releasing holy power because they knew the dungeon core was right beneath their feet, made the air feel almost uncomfortably hot.
“Back alley… hmm?”
The shortcut to Peloponnesos, Nemea’s clinic. Normally this back alley would be stuffed full of enthusiastic saintesses wanting to treat patients right here and now after some heavy medical bath. But today it was completely empty—no ants in sight.
“Huh, this is weird.”
I knew from last time that the strict new regulations had wiped out all that usual heat. The passion that once filled these streets was gone. As I stood there, something strange and blurry slid past my eyes like a phantom.
“…It really does look like something’s wrong with me.”
Those were the sights before the crackdown. I kept replaying the scenes in my mind as if trying to decide which was real—before or after the crackdown.
“…Today was a lot of chaos.”
I’d helped Dyna with her lecture, punished Pariot, and even served as the elves’ human teaching material. I’d moved a lot and gotten laid a lot.
Whoosh—
“…!?”
I reached out anyway, telling myself it was just fatigue playing tricks. But the moment my hand touched it, something solid met my fingers.
It wasn’t the faint silhouette I’d imagined. It didn’t scatter like smoke or vapor, and it didn’t pass right through. Mass. I could feel real mass right in front of me.
“What the hell… this is creepy…”
The touch vanished instantly, but I didn’t feel like it was gone. Some deeply unsettling thing felt like it wanted me to stay.
“Wait, a customer?”
“I-I startled you…!!”
I was trying to hurry past the back alley when someone suddenly grabbed my shoulder.
The cold, jump-scare atmosphere made me spin around fast.
“Hehe, cute.”
“Ah, lucky me. No, I’m just walking through.”
Was this one of the beastkin saintesses like Nemea or Leo?
I imagined a dense brown ear sitting right above the person whose mouth had opened to let me pass, like a carnivorous plant waiting for prey.
“Walking through?”
“Yes, just passing by.”
Even though the ear was round and oddly shaped like the inside of a trumpet, I still wanted to run. But the moment I saw the saintess appear, those mysterious silhouettes vanished.
“My legs hurt. Come here.”
“Yes, that’s why… oof?!”
I tried to pull away, but the strange-eared saintess pushed me straight into the wall without letting go, as if she had no intention of releasing me.
“Why are you so defenseless? Why are you acting so helpless?”
“What, what do you mean…?!”
“Walking around in front of a saintess with an injured body. Why make yourself look pathetic? You were trying to get me to treat you aggressively, weren’t you?!”
“No, I wasn’t!”
“Well, even if you weren’t, patients have been skipping our store lately because of all the weird visions. I was just scratching at the emptiness when this came along. Time to take a little wellness break!”
If it had been normal, I would have run without looking back. But I’d already seen something strange, and my legs were too sore to run anyway.
All I could do was shine holy power from both hands and suffer helplessly under the saintess’s lecherous touch. Judging by how no one else had shown up, help was nowhere in sight.
“Hehe, time to eat up…”
Just as I braced for a punch, a hero-like shout echoed from the back alley.
“…That hand. Let go.”
“Leo?!”
“Leo Hart?!”
The lion beastgirl warrior, Leo, appeared, her weak holy power wrapping her body like a hero rushing to save a friend in crisis.
“…This male is mine. Hyenas, get lost.”
“Ugh, another lion! Again…!!”
“Oh, it’s a hyena after all.”
Her usually unreadable, emotionless eyes suddenly blazed with deadly intent. She strode straight up to me, yanked my shoulder behind her back, and glared at the hyena saintess right in front of me, ready to bite her head off at any moment.
The hyena saintess, who had been cowed by Leo’s sheer size, protested.
“No, share! Let’s all eat together! You can’t have it all!”
“…Even if you’re a hyena, I can’t let you. This male is mine.”
Just from her size alone, it was obvious who would win. But hyenas are ruthless— they clean up the leftovers from lion hunts and, in a pinch, eat the lions themselves to steal their prey.
“Step aside!”
“What, what? Ah, a patient!”
“A patient appeared!”
“I’ll do it too! I want treatment too!”
“Kihihi, someone’s gonna get oiled up for a clear!”
As if obeying some instinct, hyena saintesses began popping up one after another on the back-alley walls, surrounding me and Leo. Their round ears were identical to the first one’s.
Whether they were colleagues or sisters, the increasing numbers gave the hyenas a little bit of spirit. One of them shouted at Leo.
“This is hilarious! You really think saying ‘this male is mine’ will work on me? Even if you’re a lion beastkin, you’re not my male!”
“…Really?”
Whoosh—
Leo’s tail, which looked fierce from the outside, sagged because she secretly had a soft spot for pups. But the moment I reached out to stroke it, the tail stiffened again—because she knew I was taking care of her.
She stepped forward toward the hyena saintess.
“Don’t come any closer! You know I’m a saintess, right?!”
“…I’m not hitting you. Just warning you.”
“Last time you got away with that! Stop playing innocent!”
“…It’s instinct. Hyenas. It’s annoying.”
Leo glanced at me with embarrassment, then turned her head to each of the surrounding hyena saintesses and growled. She was too big, like a male lion, to dare charge them.
“You go first.”
“I don’t want to. Last time I almost lost my ear to her.”
“I only got my belly scratched thirty-seven times by her!”
With so many, they could overwhelm me numerically, but none of them wanted to be the first to throw themselves at Leo for a brutal beating.
The hyenas shouted at their group.
“Hey! Are you just going to starve like this?!”
“Then you go first!”
“Exactly! I was about to slap on a cum pack for a clear when Leo Hart showed up! You idiots forgot to mention her!”
“Aah, you’re useless!”
Since no one was willing to step up, Leo told the hyena saintess.
“I honestly don’t believe you.”
“…What?”
“No, don’t start with punches! Y-you… you really think I’m not your male?!”
“Right! You don’t have any male!”
“Liar!”
Leo’s tail drooped again. But when I stroked it once more, it stiffened exactly the same way, and I found it oddly amusing.
“Your lion beastkin always hates what we hyenas do. So we’re going to eat this male, ohohoho… we’re pretending to do a treatment so we can cause trouble?!”
“Right! We hyenas aren’t always forced to eat scraps!”
“Let’s eat together!”
“…”
Just like the rivalry between the here-knight tribe and the drib tribe, the lion beastkin and hyena race were also natural enemies. Everyone present agreed and howled together, pressing Leo from all sides.
“…I’ll show you.”
“No way! It’s obviously a lie, you… you’re?”
“Chuuup—”
“Uwoh?!”
Before anyone could react, Leo pulled my waist in a sudden motion and smashed her lips against mine, covering me completely.