Please Stop Causing Accidents
In the dead of night, Grandine, left alone in her hospital room, quietly stared at the ceiling while feeling the cold sensation of the IV drip flowing into her body.
The medical facilities in this world seemed far more advanced than those in Libertas.
As Jeong Hyun-soo had said, the humans here weren't like those in Libertas—they didn't show outright hostility toward her kind. But that didn't change the fact that relying on human help still grated on her nerves.
And every time she glanced at the IV needle stuck in her arm, that chilling sensation made her entire body shudder.
The moment that sharp something had pierced her arm, Grandine flashed back to a horrific nightmare from her earliest childhood.
A time over a thousand years ago, when a horde of humans had swarmed in and slaughtered her parents.
—There's a hatchling! Hatchling hearts have high purity! Kill it!
—Mom! Dad! Help me!
—Grandine!
The screams etched into her memory made Grandine burrow under the covers, trembling all over.
Her parents, still young as she was, hadn't been able to unleash their full power to protect her. They were sliced by countless human spears and swords, gradually weakening.
Though her parents' strength was immense, the humans had come in overwhelming numbers—elite warriors handpicked from their ranks. Injuries piled up, and eventually, her father was the first to take a spear through the heart.
As Grandine screamed for her dad, her mother instantly teleported her to some safe place. In the midst of vanishing, Grandine caught the last sight of human blades tearing into her mother.
Grandine herself had suffered numerous wounds, hiding in the deepest underground of a remote island, weeping endlessly. From that day on, she developed a massive trauma toward human blades.
In fact, when human civilization advanced and they abandoned spears and swords for guns and cannons, it had actually made dealing with them far less stressful.
'This jerk... He said everything was fine and didn't warn me about this... Humans really can't be trusted! Even you...'
Grandine shuddered at the memory of the needle piercing her arm, inwardly cursing the absent Jeong Hyun-soo.
Of course, she'd never told him about her parents or why she feared human blades, but right now, that didn't matter.
'Sniff... Traitor... You traitor...'
He'd enjoyed her body and vanished, only to reappear after three whole years from another world. Her three-year vow of revenge had rung hollow as he shoved that handsome face of his in front of her to reassure her, and now he'd let humans stick their blades into her body.
'Still... I finally felt at ease after so long...'
She couldn't forgive him, yet she felt anew how welcome and comforting he was.
As a hatchling, she'd lived in terror of humans discovering her and killing her at any moment. After growing stronger and leading the Anti-Human Alliance, she'd been crushed by the pressure of being everyone's pillar.
A life where she couldn't show weakness or whine to anyone, forcing her to live unlike herself.
That's when she'd met Jeong Hyun-soo.
Being human, she'd naturally tried to kill him on sight. Incredibly, though, this mere human matched her full-powered sincerity without flinching and unleashed bizarre techniques she'd never seen.
He'd seen right through her isolation and emotional desperation. Even as she cursed him to get lost and attacked, he never gave up, approaching her again and again.
Days and days of that wore her down, and before she knew it, Grandine saw him as someone she could reveal her vulnerabilities, complaints, and all to.
In her over thousand years of life, she'd never felt romantic love for the opposite sex until then. Liberating Libertas's non-humans, showing him the deepest part of her lair, and joining bodies with him had filled her with happiness she'd die without regret for.
But that sweetness lasted only one night, and Jeong Hyun-soo vanished without a trace.
Weeping hysterically as she searched for her mate, unable to find any sign of him, Grandine concluded he'd abandoned her. Burning with vengeance, she vowed to make him pay if they ever met again.
But when she actually saw him again...
'I missed you...'
Part of it was her severe injuries preventing a proper attack, but even at her peak condition, she doubted she'd have struck him with true intent.
Seeing his face after three years had pissed her off, sure—but it had also thrilled her to no end.
She'd bitten his arm hard out of anger, but she figured she deserved that much.
She'd sworn to slap him, kick his ass, and bite him bloody all over if they met, but when he calmed her panic over the blade and stroked her head, she felt safer than she had in three years.
Grandine, who'd craved that touch and warmth so badly, barely held back tears of joy.
No matter what, crying then would feel like losing to that longed-for bastard.
But she couldn't help missing him.
'Should I go see him?'
For some reason, Jeong Hyun-soo was here too with an injured arm.
Even amid the nose-stinging weird hospital smells, his scent was easy to pick out, so finding him wouldn't be hard.
And with this disgusting blade still inside her, making her shudder, Grandine confirmed no one was around and yanked out the so-called "syringe."
A few drops fell from the end to the floor, but whatever.
The moment Grandine stepped out following his scent—
A group of nurses came rushing into her room in a panic.
Grandine, just exiting, locked eyes with them and slammed the door shut, isolating herself from the nurses.
"Patient Grandine! What are you doing out here?! The monitor glitched, so we came to check, and now you're out?!"
"H-how do you know that?! You've been spying! Spying on me! I knew it! Pretending to be medical staff while it's really a camp to imprison our kind! To stop us from escaping! You damn humans, I knew it! Hyun-soo... Where's Hyun-soo?! What did you do to him?! His arm injury's your doing too! Give me back my husband!"
"She's rambling nonsense again! Please don't do anything rash and listen to the medical staff! Doctor! Doctor! Patient 407 is out of her room again!"
"You humans! D-don't come closer! I swear I'll kill you! I'm only holding back because of that guy's face—if I really wanted to—"
Grandine, on high alert, began baring her fangs.
That's when—
"Did Grandine cause trouble again?!"
That face she'd longed for came rushing over from down the hall, injured arm wrapped in some weird bandage, sprinting toward them.
The nurses lit up like they'd found salvation and hurriedly called to him.
"Patient Jeong Hyun-soo! No, guardian! Patient Grandine pulled out her IV on her own and tried to come out, but we caught her..."
"I'll talk to her. Sorry for the trouble." "Grandine? Let's head back to the room first."
"...Fine."
At Jeong Hyun-soo's soothing words, she reluctantly trudged back inside, pretending to be begrudging.
"Grandine, come here and sit down. How many times have I told you not to do things the doctors and nurses say no to in the hospital? If you keep pulling these stunts, they can't physically stop you every time, so I have to come running."
"......Yeah?"
Grandine's eyes gleamed differently, but Jeong Hyun-soo didn't notice.
"If you cause trouble, I have to come clean it up?"
"Look at you. You hate it so much it'd kill a human, and on top of that, you're so strong no one can stop you if you go for real. Hmm, sure, I've lost all the power I showed in Libertas, so I can't physically restrain you anymore... Wait, you're not thinking of killing me too, right? I mean, I did commit a huge sin against you..."
Jeong Hyun-soo's rambling explanation-slash-apology fell on deaf ears.
Only one conclusion swirled in her mind.
'If I cause trouble, this guy comes to soothe me! The smell of those other human females and that weird cat stench bugs me... but it's kinda nice?'
Grandine arrived at her slightly twisted realization.
After that, for the days until her injuries healed, she terrorized the medical staff whenever she got the chance, forcing Jeong Hyun-soo—arm still broken—to sprint over, sweating bullets, and calm her down every time.