Chapter 21
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 21
Chapter Title: I'm the Real Victim Here!
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Narae and I had parted ways exactly at dawn yesterday.
Right after that, I'd been knocked out by Jeon Suji and dragged to this abandoned factory by the seaside... Sunlight filtering through the cracks in the door told me it was already morning.
And standing before me on all fours, like she was defending her territory after biting off the horns on Jeon Suji's head—the woman who'd tried to brainwash me—was Narae.
Finding me right on time was something to be grateful for.
But at the same time... the sight before my eyes made it impossible to relax.
She was still in her underwear, with a dog collar around her neck.
The fact that she'd chased me here in that outfit, at this hour with the sun already up...
If she'd run into anyone on the way, it might have made the news with a headline like "Woman in Underwear Strolls Through City Center."
My throat went dry on instinct.
But unlike my anxiety, she spoke in that familiar, airheaded tone of hers.
"Master, if you're worried about me... I'm fine woof!"
Was she still keeping our role-play therapy promise not to speak like a human?
Even in a situation where she could talk normally now, she stubbornly tacked on a "woof" at the end.
She wagged her fluffy tail and subtly thrust her plump rear toward me.
And then, proudly:
"I only took paths with no people on the way here woof!"
"Ah... that's a relief."
I let out a sigh of relief, but at the same time, I thought about the distance.
From the heart of Seoul to the seaside, she could've easily lost control to her instincts while traveling in just her underwear...
The fact that she'd suppressed her desires the whole way under the banner of "protecting her master" meant the therapy was clearly working.
At that thought, a smile crept onto my face unbidden.
Right then, a panting voice shouted from behind.
"R-Relief...? Y-You... you're really Yoo Narae?! The beast Yoo Narae, right?!"
Jeon Suji, covered in blood with one horn severed, glared at Narae in disbelief.
She blinked repeatedly, scrutinizing her with the sharp instincts of an A-Rank hunter to confirm her identity.
But as soon as Narae stopped wagging her tail by my side and let out a low growl at Jeon Suji, her expression twisted, and she flapped her bat wings as she yelled.
"Th-This is huge! This is a massive scoop!"
It was the fervor of someone who'd just spotted a long-held grudge's weakness right in front of her eyes.
"Counseling sessions in underwear with a dog collar, and she's an A-Rank hunter...! I heard all the servants at Yoo Geumhui's mansion got early dismissal at dawn yesterday, so I checked it out, but I never expected a secret like this!"
"...So you were spying on us from the start."
"You got it~ I collect weaknesses on A-Rank hunters and above as a hobby. And my number one thorn in the side right now is..."
Jeon Suji's eyes narrowed.
"You, Yoo Narae."
"Grrrrr...!"
So they did know each other after all.
But something felt off.
While Jeon Suji ground her teeth and glared at Narae, Narae was just reacting like a fiercely loyal dog upset that her owner had been kidnapped.
She showed no lingering attachment or emotion toward Jeon Suji herself.
So I casually asked.
"Hey, bitch. Do you know that woman?"
"I don't know her woof!"
"...What?!"
Even though they were both A-Rank hunters—and she'd stalked her—Narae flatly denied knowing her.
I was more shocked than Jeon Suji, my jaw dropping.
At that moment, Jeon Suji's face contorted.
Her bat wings flapped harder, slicing through the air.
"Yoo Narae, don't play dumb! I still haven't forgotten the 'humiliation' you put me through that day!"
"That day..."
"Humiliation?"
She let out a sharp laugh, then gritted her teeth as if reliving the moment right then.
"Yeah. It was half a year ago, during a raid on a mid-high dungeon at the 70th floor...!"
According to Jeon Suji, back then, Narae had joined a top-ten guild in Korea that she'd personally founded.
Even among hunters who disliked beastkin, they'd reluctantly accepted her because she was the branch chief's granddaughter.
They acted like it was a special favor on the surface, but their true intentions were clear.
They planned to milk various association benefits under the pretext of Narae.
That companionship started off fine, but unexpectedly, it fell apart not during combat, but during a break.
"That day, you... grilled me the minotaur boss's intestines."
Jeon Suji said through gritted teeth.
"Oh, I remember! You were the guild leader, so I gave you special service, right? It's a dish I often made when raiding dungeons solo!"
"Yeah. The taste... I'll give you that. It was my first time realizing monster meat could be edible like that. But... that was the problem."
She paused, trembling with rage as she clutched her rear.
Tears glistened in her eyes.
It was genuine fury mixed with shame and anger.
"But you didn't tell me about the 'effect'."
"Effect? Bitch, what kind of effect does eating monster meat have?"
"Effect...? I didn't have any."
"You fucking bitch! You saw what happened to me that day and pretended not to know? I lost half my guild because of that!!"
"...What?!"
Half the members of an A-Rank hunter guild gone in a disaster like that.
At that point, even I perked up my ears to listen.
And the truth of the incident was this.
"Heat induction, you little shit."
"Heat...? Does eating monsters cause that?"
"Oh yeah! Now I really remember! Jeon Suji! You stripped naked in the dungeon back then and..."
"Shut up!!"
During the dungeon raid when food was scarce, Jeon Suji had given the guild members their shares and chosen to starve herself.
Unable to stand it, Narae had used her "specialty" with ingredients from the minotaur boss they'd just defeated.
She'd prepared it, infusing it with spices and rich juices to make perfect grilled intestines.
The taste was exquisite.
Even the guild leader herself had said, "Not bad for a beastkin cook," and been satisfied.
The problem came after.
That dish had a horrific—no, an absurdly idiotic "side effect" lurking within.
The monster's traits transferred directly to the human who ate it.
In other words, eating the minotaur put you in heat for minotaurs, the most pointless and dangerous effect in human history.
Narae, being a beastkin, was unaffected for some reason and oblivious to the effect.
But Jeon Suji, human as she was... midway through battle, her breathing grew ragged, her eyes glazed over like melting candy, and she walked straight toward the sturdy, muscled male minotaur corpse they'd just felled nearby.
Her expression wasn't that of a hunter—it was pure female.
No, more than that.
The buckle on her leather armor clicked open, and her gear and clothes tumbled to the floor in an instant.
Sweat beaded on her flushed, damp skin, and her thighs trembled subtly as they brushed together.
"Guild leader?! Snap out of it!"
"Ha... haaahn♥... Closer...!"
Her gaze fixed on one spot.
The monstrous thing below the minotaur's waist, barely covered by a rag.
The guild members rushed in horror and restrained her.
They barely stopped her from going all the way.
But the scene was already burned into everyone's minds, half-irreversible.
What happened after was predictable...
Dungeon raid halted, half the guild quit saying "this isn't for us."
And within the Hunter Association, Jeon Suji earned the nickname "Monsterphobia."
An upstanding A-Rank hunter reduced to needing psychiatric counseling—pure humiliation.
"You fucking bitch! Even now, new hunters look at me not like a person, but like some freak!"
"Oh, really?"
"'Oh, really?' my ass! You bitch! Do you know how it felt when, at my birthday party as guild leader, my subordinates gave me a minotaur dildo model as a gift?! There's a figurine of it displayed in my room right now! I fall asleep looking at it every night!!"
"...So you used it?"
"You little shit!!!"
...Narae, what was with that shamelessness.
Of course, Jeon Suji was the one who'd kidnapped me.
So in principle, I had to side with Narae.
But after hearing the whole story, seeing Jeon Suji—once a promising A-Rank guild leader turned Monsterphobia—and Narae just wagging her fox tail...
Honestly... even putting my hand on my conscience, it was hard to pick a side.
"I haven't forgotten for a single day since! This grudge!"
Rumble...
The ground shook then, and black, smoky demonic energy began rising from Jeon Suji's body.
Her wings flapped, tearing the air, and the shadow of a succubus stretched long across the wall.
Narae immediately dropped into a quadrupedal stance, ready to counter.
But Jeon Suji quickly regained her smirk and sneered.
"Planning a counter? Heh... One-on-one, you'd win."
"Hmph! Even taking into account you're using my master as a hostage, you're no match for me. I'm an A-Rank hunter who was right on the cusp of S-Rank?"
"I know. But... you bit my horn just now."
Jeon Suji tapped the severed horn with her fingertip.
"This isn't just decoration. It's a concentration of my magic power. The moment you chewed and swallowed it, fragments entered your body."
"...So what?"
"Still don't get it? That magic power is spreading through your organs. An S-Rank might resist external magic, but charm magic inside you? Can't block that."
And then.
Snap!
She snapped her fingers.
Crackle!
"Wh-woof?! ...Ohooh?!"
A dog's bark mixed with the pig-like grunts she only made when aroused burst from Narae's mouth.
Pink electricity sparked across her entire body.
...In that moment, I could feel it with my own eyes.
This was charm at least dozens of times stronger than what I'd endured.
As the current faded, Narae collapsed with a thud.
"Narae!"
Bound to the chair, I twisted and shouted.
But.
She jerked her head up.
The air changed.
Her skin glistened with sweat, her breaths came hot and heavy, and a subtle shine trickled down her thighs.
Her eyes were dilated into heart shapes.
Jeon Suji pulled out her phone with a victorious grin.
"Heh heh heh... It's over, Yoo Narae."
The camera lens aimed at us.
"Pounce on that counselor right now. And I'll upload this video to the hunter forums, burying you as a rapist forever!"