Chapter 121
Chapter 121
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: uly
Chapter: 121
Chapter Title: Monster Hunt #1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Still too early for people to wake up.
The diligent birds were just beginning to chirp faintly. It was that time when cool dew trickled like honey between delicate petals—.
“Eek, heek—.”
I had to run hard around the Ark grounds.
My breath rose to the tip of my chin, my vision turned yellow, my chest ached like it was tearing apart, and my throat pounded, but I couldn’t stop.
I was extremely exhausted and tired, but if I paused even a little—.
“Hey, you whining? Not much left! Don’t stop, keep running! If you can’t run, at least walk!”
Thanks to Elga poking my back with a toothpick like this, I had to keep going.
“Just a bit more! Not much left! Two laps almost done!”
“Heek, heek, haa...!”
Pathetic groans escaped my mouth on their own.
When was the last time I pushed my body to such extremes? One thing was certain: among recent times, this moment was the most physically draining.
“Huuu—.”
“Good. Two laps done—. Took about 30 minutes—. Now shave that down to 15—.”
“Huu—. Huuuu—.”
Elga was saying something, but nothing reached my ears.
I simply collapsed flat on the bare ground, drenched in sweat from the morning breeze, my chest feeling like it would rip open.
It had been several days since I started jogging like this at dawn, but today it felt like Elga was tormenting me even more harshly. The reason wasn’t anything special.
“Theo Gospel, you seem to have run faster than last time.”
Today, Mirna was watching me jog. She approached me as I lay there, unscrewed a water bottle, and poured it over my head.
Splashhhh—.
The cold water felt pretty good.
“Here’s a towel.”
As I wiped the water from my face and neck with the towel Mirna offered, Elga—who hadn’t broken a sweat despite running with me—snorted with an “Hmph—.”
“You her big sister or something? Why fuss over him like that?”
“Theo Gospel is my suitor, after all.”
“Hmm—, a suitor, huh?”
Elga eyed Mirna with narrowed eyes. Mirna shot back, “Why are you looking at me with such a displeased expression?”
But Elga, as if she’d been waiting, fired off a few more words.
“Suitor means you’re not family yet. Right? Strictly speaking.”
“…That’s true? What are you getting at? Your expression is utterly distasteful, Lady Lioness!”
Mirna seemed to sense with her sharp instincts that Elga was scheming something unpleasant. But Elga wasn’t merciful enough to let slip an opening like that.
“If he’s not your husband yet, then Theo here is single. And single means he can do whatever with other women, no problem. Like this.”
Elga grabbed my arm, yanked me up, and pulled me into her embrace. Thanks to that, my face buried into Elga’s half-open tracksuit and tank top.
Soft and squishy.
Elga’s chest against my face was warm and fluffy, the kind you could fall asleep to just like that. Her unique apple scent wafted sweetly into my nose, feeling amazing—but—.
“What are you doing right now…!?”
Mirna shrieked from behind in horror and grabbed my arm, yanking me away from Elga.
Thus, I couldn’t help but feel a slight sense of loss. Like a child deprived of warm maternal comfort.
Sad. But soon, something soft touched my face again. It was a handkerchief.
“For a man and woman to commit such an unholy act first thing in the morning…! Lady Lioness’s frivolity has stained my suitor’s face…!”
Mirna pulled out a handkerchief and wiped my face. Elga furrowed her brow at the sight.
“A hug, and you make such a fuss?”
“Grown man and woman, unmarried at that, hugging? It’s unholy…! Does Lady Lioness have no concept of chastity…!?”
“Chastity, huh—.”
Elga chuckled as if hearing something amusing, making Mirna tremble.
“Why, why are you laughing like that?”
“Then, Mirna Draco, you’re saying you do have a sense of chastity?”
“…Of course!”
Mirna’s reply came half a beat late. Probably because something from her memories surfaced, causing that brief silence.
Anyone else might have glossed over it.
But my fairy ears were sensitive enough to catch that half-beat, and Elga—who had dodged arrows on the battlefield—wouldn’t miss that fleeting moment either.
“Then the pious Draco lady has never kissed a man before marriage, I suppose?”
“…Why ask something so obvious?”
“No, just... Truly pious Draco family. Impressive.”
Elga’s attitude seemed smug yet somehow angry. Still better than Mirna, who looked utterly panicked.
Mirna was trembling like someone gripped by fear.
For the pious Mirna, lying was a grave sin, especially lying about purity—it was practically taboo.
No need to hide it: Mirna and I had already done it before formal marriage. And though Mirna didn’t know, Elga did.
How much hell had I been through because of that?
—What? You and Mirna are family? Family my ass. You wanna die for real?
—Lady Elga, please calm down…! Just calm... Eek...!
That night, I nearly died.
If Elga hadn’t finally cooled off and compromised with “—Then do the exact same thing you did to Mirna, to me—,” I really would’ve died.
That day, I had to cum four times in a row to satisfy Elga, and passed out in the end. I truly felt like my semen was being exploited and drained.
The next morning, after Elga had calmed, she said to me as I came to:
—Does she know? About our relationship.
—No. Haven’t told her yet.
—Hmph, I’m magnanimous, so I forgive you. If it were Mirna, you’d be dead. Those narrow-minded Draco folk would accept her as a concubine?
Elga spoke as if it were settled that Mirna was the concubine and she the principal wife.
In truth, with no hierarchy between them and their families evenly matched, dividing principal and concubine seemed meaningless.
Of course, Elga’s words had one useful point: what if Mirna found out about me and Elga?
“You look thinner in the face. Want some water?”
Mirna treated me kindly now, like a gentle sister, but if she learned of my infidelity, she might rage more than Elga and slit my throat.
—To cheat on me with another woman? Repay this shame even in death, for life...!
She might not kill me but enslave me as an undead slave forever. Chills ran down my neck at the thought.
Of course, I didn’t recklessly mess with Mirna Draco.
The Draco family had sworn eternal loyalty to the Angmar family for generations. That contract still held.
If Mirna learned I was the last Angmar, I could persuade her somehow.
Conversely, she might go berserk: “The rightful Angmar prince has appeared—let’s oust the cowardly usurper Tarantara!”
So I wanted to keep it secret as long as possible….
“I’m a woman with no chastity, so I can hold hands with Theo like this.”
“Get that hand off him...!”
Watching the two ladies growl at each other, I had an uneasy premonition that my big secret would come out soon.
Ideally, after both were pregnant and beyond turning back. Then they’d submit to me.
Someday, they’d all kneel at my feet, striving for Angmar’s revival.
“Heh heh heh—.”
As I schemed various plots.
“Hey, enjoying yourself? Huh?”
Elga flicked my forehead hard.
“Eek...!”
The knuckle popped my vision white, and a scream burst from me. Mirna swooped in protectively, wrapping me up.
“Why hit him? There’s a bump now!”
“Hmph—.”
Elga just snorted dismissively. But Mirna’s next words left even Elga flustered.
“Bl-blood’s coming out too!”
“…What? I didn’t hit that hard...?”
Elga looked genuinely panicked at the mention of blood. Trembling anxiously, she snatched me from Mirna’s arms.
“Let me see...!”
She peered at my crown.
She patted my scalp with her palm, then furrowed her brow curiously.
“What? No blood? It’s just red hair growing from the crown.”
That startled me instead.
“What? What did you say?”
“Your hair—red hair growing. Just at the roots, though.”
No way.
Suddenly?
I jumped away from Elga and Mirna in shock.
“Hang on—. Got something to do.”
“What? Where? We’re eating breakfast together?”
“I packed lunch. And we’re going to the ancient dead language lecture together—”
I heard Elga and Mirna calling after me, but I couldn’t stop my legs.
* * *
The place I rushed to, skipping first period, was the school infirmary.
Right on time for work hours, a woman in a white coat with long red hair tied back was there.
Her languid eyes behind intellectual glasses and healthy crimson lips were striking.
“Oh my, who’s this? Come in.”
Kallira—my spy and assassin planted in Ark, also the school nurse.
The fallen Skoll family lady welcomed me and opened the infirmary door.
“What brings you? As a patient? Or as my employer?”
I sat before her exam table and urgently said.
“Can a person’s hair color change?”
“Hair color changing? What do you mean? Explain slowly. You should calm down first. You’re sweating so much....”
Her words made me realize I was overly agitated. I exhaled deeply to activate calm thinking.
“Fuu—.”
My stray thoughts seemed to drain from my mind.
“So, now tell me. What’s wrong?”
Kallira placed her cool palm on my forehead—swoosh—. “No fever,” she concluded briefly.
I told her.
“Not exactly unwell, but something clicked. Check my crown.”
I showed her my scalp. She let out a “Hm—?” then chuckled “Huhuhu—.”
“Red hair sprouting amid the dark strands. Like fallen autumn leaves—cute.”
“That’s it. Red hair’s growing. Know anything about it?”
Assassin Kallira was well-versed in human physiology and medicine.
When I asked, she “Hmm—.” pondered briefly, then questioned me.
“No dyeing, right?”
“No.”
“No special intake? Like constitution-altering elixirs or rare treasures like millennium ginseng?”
Constitution-altering elixir.
“Only thing I recall is the Jiksangari antidote.”
“Ah, the Jiksangari antidote. I gave it to you. Our first meeting.”
Kallira reminisced sweetly, “Hee hee—. Time flies.”
Her allure made my lower belly twitch, but now wasn’t the time.
“Could that antidote have caused this?”
“Possible. Hair color’s sensitive to mana. As your mana circuits recovered from Jiksangari corrosion, it might’ve affected your hair...?”
“Is that feasible?”
“Yes. Apprentice mages often change hair color in puberty. Mana permeates the body, manifesting traits from one parent.”
“…….”
You’ve heard, right? I nodded vaguely.
I recalled something similar.
Sudden curly hair from hormones in puberty—something like that.
Kallira said.
“A touch of lovely red hair. Rare even in Angmar, like mine.... Probably one parent had red hair. Or a distant ancestor.”
Likely father’s side.
Dark hair must be from my nymph mother.
Realizing my unseen parents’ blood like this.
But oblivious Kallira comforted me casually.
“It looks odd now, patchy like autumn leaves, but don’t worry. Soon all hair will turn red. Won’t look weird then.”
Far from comfort—it heightened my tension.
Rare red-haired mage skyrocketing in magic power.
Like advertising “Demon King’s descendant.”
“If the mottled look bugs you, I’ll do root touch-up dye.”
“Perfect. You’re quick on the uptake, Lady Kallira.”
“Of course. Gotta be sharp in wits and hands for underworld work—. Sit here.”
Kallira draped a tablecloth-like cape over my neck.
She pulled out tools, mixed dye matching my dark hair, and swiftly applied it to my roots.
Swoosh swoosh.
The dye on my crown itched, like I’d sneeze.
“How long will the dye last?”
“Hmm, a month? Roots will keep growing red.”
Eventually, all my hair would turn red—dye could only hide so much.
Lazing about, now the hourglass spins, signaling time limit.
Much like that. Accelerate conquering the ladies before my identity leaks.
But how?
No connection to Belhawk, and Aira’s a top mage beyond me....
As I pondered, Kallira kept brushing dye while saying.
“Oh, right—something to report, Theo. About that bizarre party you told me to investigate.”
“Right. Anything on that guide guy?”
“Yes. From one of the party’s priestesses.”
Kallira began a fairly long tale.
Even I was shocked hearing it.