Invisible Leash
Invisible Leash
The lecture hall was no different from a slaughterhouse reeking of blood.
Knights with broken limbs lay strewn across the floor, groaning and foaming at the mouth.
Above that hellish vista, alien and delicate particles of light began to fall like snow.
A woman with her brilliant red hair flowing long.
Her dazzlingly white robes gleamed arrogantly, untouched by even a speck of dust.
A low-grade healing spell bloomed from her fingertips, spreading ripples of warmth across the entire lecture hall.
"Ooh..."
"To show such mercy even to filthy beasts like them..."
Both the elderly professors who had been chanting magic and the soldiers who had been pinning me down let out gasps of admiration.
They hurriedly withdrew their weapons and dropped to one knee toward the woman, as if facing a savior.
Eyes filled with blind reverence.
With my cheek pressed against the cold floor, I swallowed a bitter snort.
Light? Holy power?
A passing dog would laugh at that.
This was nothing more than crude magic that twisted mana into the form of light.
Compared to the vast and sublime authority my lover had emitted while coughing up blood to save the world in the previous cycle...
The light scattered by that red-haired bitch was a nauseating counterfeit, no more and no less—something that seemed like it could be blown out by the wind at any moment.
"Shh, you poor child. Calm down."
The woman approached the corner with graceful steps.
Toward Ines, who was rolling on the floor and biting her own flesh, she extended her hand with a benevolent smile.
Thin particles of light flowing from the woman's palm poured down onto Ines's blood-reddened crown.
The moment that light touched Ines's body...
"Aah... Aaaahk!"
Far from calming down, Ines's convulsions grew violently worse.
She thrashed about, utterly repulsed by the foreign energy touching her body.
Because the only salvation her empty body—her mind turned to that of a beast—craved was my heavy warmth and the sound of my heartbeat.
"AAAARGH!"
A beast's scream.
Ines flailed and swung her claws at the air.
The hand of the woman pretending benevolence was scratched by Ines's nails.
Siiik-.
White skin split open, and fresh blood beaded up.
"Ah!"
The woman shrieked and staggered backward.
At that moment, her endlessly elegant and gentle face twisted grotesquely.
Like a crack in a mask, what flashed for an instant was plain contempt and disgust toward a beast wallowing in a trash bin.
"How dare you touch Saint-nim's sacred body!"
One of the elite holy knights standing firmly behind the woman burst out in fury.
His eyes rolling back, he drew the greatsword at his waist without hesitation and raised it high.
The chilling blade lunged forward, poised to sever Ines's slender neck in a single stroke.
Just as the blade was falling through the air—
Udeudeuk-! Kwahang!
The magical restraints binding both my arms tightly behind my back exploded outward.
Blue sparks flew as the binding magic imbued in the restraints shattered.
Ppaggak-.
At the same time, grotesque cracking sounds rang out from around my shoulders and wrists.
It wasn't the release of mana or some high-level dispelling magic.
It was the price I paid for tearing apart the restraints using only the sheer physical force of my grip strength and expanding back muscles.
The still-undeveloped, frail bones and muscles of a teenager couldn't withstand that brutal recoil, breaking and tearing on their own.
Bright red blood dripped from my dislocated wrists.
But I felt no pain.
Compared to the pain of my guts spilling out on the battlefield of the previous cycle, a few broken joints didn't even register as an itch.
"Wh-what?!"
The two soldiers pinning me down were sent flying by the backlash, rolling across the floor.
Completely ignoring the pain of my broken arm bones, I exploded the muscles in my crouched legs and kicked off the ground.
An acceleration so intense my vision blurred.
In a split second, I crossed the lecture hall and, with my blood-soaked bare hand, violently struck the side of the greatsword just inches from Ines's neck, twisting its trajectory.
Kkang-!
The sound of heavy steel being deflected.
The holy knight's eyes widened in shock.
Without reducing my speed, I spun my body and drove my boot mercilessly into his unprotected abdomen.
Peo-eok-!
"Kugh, huk!"
The holy knight's massive frame flew more than ten meters like a cannonball, crashing into the lecture hall wall.
The heavy armor crumpled, bones shattered, and spiderweb-like cracks split across the wall.
The holy knight spat out bloody foam and fell unconscious on the spot.
"Insane!"
"He broke magical restraints with pure strength?!"
The entire lecture hall froze in terror and shock.
The knights retreated, and even the red-haired woman gasped, her face pale.
In that suffocating silence.
I pulled Ines's thin, trembling body—huddled on the floor—fiercely into my arms.
And I trapped her securely within my broad embrace.
Her bloodied face, gripping my torn clothes, buried itself deep into my chest.
Thump, thump, thump.
The heavy heartbeat breaking the silence.
"Uu... uung..."
An unbelievable sight unfolded.
Ines, whom not even the 'holy power' scattered by the fake saint could soothe, who had thrashed like a beast before a greatsword—
As soon as she was in my arms, hearing my heartbeat, she calmed down completely, breathing softly as if nothing had happened.
Her thin, trembling shoulders slowly settled.
With one hand stroking Ines's back, I swept my cold eyes across the people in the lecture hall.
The raw strength to tear magical restraints with bare flesh.
The overwhelming combat prowess that had trampled dozens of elite knights.
And the absolute being who alone could tame that uncontrollable, mindless maidservant.
My value, at this moment, had reached an overwhelming peak—surpassing any cadet or knight in the academy.
"...Sheathe your weapons."
An old wizard in a blue robe—Professor Walder-nim, the academy's chief professor—murmured quietly.
"Professor Walder-nim! But that crazy commoner bastard even struck down a holy knight!"
"Calm yourself, Saint-nim Clarisse. The academy will take charge of this one."
Professor Walder-nim stepped forward, blocking the furious knights and the red-haired woman.
The old professor's murky eyes slithered over me like a snake.
His gaze held not anger or fear, but intense greed.
That old fox must have already calculated in his head.
The empire was on the brink of destruction, being devoured by the monsters beyond the barrier—so it was too painful to execute this kind of 'out-of-spec combat power' just because he was a commoner.
He approached me and extended a thin leash.
"Let the administration handle this quietly. No disciplinary action either. I'll cover every crime you committed today under the academy's name."
Arrogance masquerading as charity.
"But don't you dare lose your top ranking. If you keep proving your insane usefulness to us..."
Professor Walder-nim clicked his tongue as he looked at Ines curled up in my arms.
"I'll officially permit you to keep that maidservant by your side, and I'll use the church's power to provide top-grade treatment too."
A foolishly sweet proposal—believing that with just the title of top rank and treatment, he could legally control and exploit this beast I had become.
But right now, I needed a perfect shield to feed and shelter Ines.
I slowly parted my blood-stained lips.
"I understand."
I nodded obediently.
A posture of complete submission, without any hint of defiance.
It seemed the matter would settle like that.
Since I had docilely put on the leash, they would willingly sheathe their swords and step back.
"Yes. Your insolent rampage can be covered by the academy's mercy and your overwhelming talent."
But the fake saint who had drawn blood—Clarisse—apparently thought differently.
Wrapping her hands around her own white hand where blood had beaded, she strode right up to me.
The benevolent smile was gone.
In her downcast eyes, there was an icy venom and the unmistakable displeasure of the nobility.
"But that doesn't erase the crime of this filthy beast who dared to scar Saint-nim's sacred body, does it?"
Jjjaak-!
A chilling sound of tearing air split the lecture hall.
Clarisse's thin palm struck Ines's cheek without mercy—the cheek pressed against my chest.
"Ugh...!"
Ines's head snapped to the side.
Her dazzlingly white cheek swelled red instantly. A drop of blood dripped from her torn lips to the floor.
Utter terror.
Ines let out a choked sob and clawed at my clothes like a lifeline. Her small body trembled like a frightened animal.
"......"
I heard the sound of reason snapping in my head.
I wanted to reach out right now, grab that arrogant hypocrite's red hair by the roots, and tear it out.
I wanted to smash her face into the marble floor until her broken teeth slid down her throat.
My fingertips, hot with rage, trembled uncontrollably.
But.
I slowly lowered my eyes.
Kkeudeuk.
Gnashing my molars until they crumbled, I forcibly suppressed that murderous intent and beastly instinct.
The tender flesh inside my mouth burst, and a bitter taste of blood wet the tip of my tongue.
I had just put on the leash myself.
If I snapped that bitch's neck here, the only safe sanctuary I had just obtained for Ines would go up in flames.
I couldn't completely hide this mindless lover from the world's pursuit with force alone.
I fixed my gaze on the floor, biting my blood-soaked lips, and swallowed that humiliation whole.
Yes. Flaunt your arrogance all you want.
Until I use your thin sense of security as a shield to burrow into the safest, deepest core.
The day my fangs are perfectly grown and the shelter for Ines stands firm—
I will grab that fake saint Clarisse's red hair and shove her face most wretchedly into the blood my lover shed and the trash bin.