No wonder he was an unfamiliar face for a villager. Olivia responded appropriately while keeping an eye on the bear’s condition. With him holding a gun, she couldn’t call for help from other animals either. What should she do…… She grew increasingly anxious as the cigarette in his mouth burned down and grew shorter.

“So, you said you’re lost?”

The man, after looking Olivia up and down, blew an unpleasant whistle. His leering was too blatant to ignore. As expected, she had never met a person with a proper mindset who could harm innocent animals without feeling guilty. Olivia’s prejudice—or rather, her conviction—was further solidified today.

“If you do as I say, I might safely escort you back to the village.”

His lecherous gaze traveled up Olivia’s neckline to reach her plump lips. The hunter licked his own lips with his tongue, wearing a nauseating smile. Disgusting. Both his sticky gaze and the greasy, grinning face made her skin crawl, and she found it difficult to maintain her forced smile.

In this feeling of helplessness, she wasn’t sure why a particular face came to mind. The sweaty, contorted face that had forcibly pulled her out the door, and the spiteful face that had pretended to be cold while clearly unable to hide its apologetic expression kept floating before her eyes.

“Even if you refuse, what can someone like you do about it, hm?”

The man, who had approached within arm’s reach, taunted her as he lifted the gun barrel to just below her chest.

It was strange indeed. When the duke forcibly kissed her, even though he wasn’t trying to kill her, her hands had somehow lost strength when pushing him away. Yet with this hunter, even the slightest touch of his breath was so repulsive that she wanted to escape this place regardless of the gun barrel in front of her.

Olivia quietly clenched her fist, which had been hanging limply. If a gunshot rang out, the duke would come to rescue her. Leaving the aftermath to the duke seemed a hundred times better than momentarily submitting to this hunter.

‘I’ll aim for a vital point with one shot.’

She recalled learning self-defense with her younger brother as a child. Of course, they had learned it playfully, and she had never actually used it, but still, you never know.

The hunter, interpreting Olivia’s docile stance in his favor, casually tucked the gun into his side and reached his dirty hand toward the collar of her blouse.

‘Now.’

Olivia thrust her tightly clenched fist toward the hunter’s solar plexus with all her might. But just before her small but sturdy fist could make contact with the hunter’s chest…

A black object flew from somewhere and struck the back of the man’s head with force. With the horrific sound of a cracking skull, tentacles extended from the black object and grabbed the man’s face. The endless tentacles that stretched out dug into the man’s eyes, nose, and mouth, burrowing inside.

They proceeded to strangle his neck and wrap around his limbs, breaking each joint. The sight of the hunter writhing on the ground like a broken wooden puppet was grotesque enough to make one’s face scrunch up involuntarily. Blood spurted from between the gaps where the tentacles had penetrated.

“How dare you try to take the blood of what is mine in my forest.”

With an eerie voice, the beast leaped out from the elongated shadow of a tree. He pressed his sharp claws against the stomach of the hunter who was still writhing on the ground, and there was no mercy left in his touch.

The duke, who had been ensuring the hunter would die as cruelly and painfully as possible by controlling his strength, flinched when hands suddenly wrapped around his neck.

“Please stop for a moment.”

But at Olivia’s subsequent words, the beast ground his teeth, suppressing his anger.

“Fine. I’ll acknowledge your self-destructive spirit of sacrifice, but—”

“No, the bear! The bear first!”

The duke, who had frowned thinking she might be asking him to spare this human too, quietly retracted his sharp gaze at her urgent words. So she wasn’t concerned about this human after all. That alone was enough to make him more generous, and the duke tied up the hunter with shadows, hanging him from a nearby tree, and quickly gathered herbs as Olivia instructed.

Olivia’s treatment once again saved the bear’s life. The poison on the arrows was more dangerous than the wounds themselves, but thanks to the herbs abundant in this forest, she was able to neutralize it before it became critical.

By the time they had stayed by the bear’s side until it had rested enough and departed for its den, time in the forest had caught the last edge of the sunset. The navy darkness rapidly pushed away the red-burning sky. Soon the stars would appear, Olivia thought as she rose from the stump where she had been sitting.

“What did you do with the hunter?”

Only after the bear had safely returned did Olivia look around and show interest in the hunter, and the duke was pleased by her differentiated concern.

“He’s still alive. Though I plan to kill him soon.”

“It’s your forest, so do as you wish.”

The duke had always seen Olivia as someone who tried to protect others, so her unexpectedly firm response regarding the hunter made him look at her with interest.

“So you won’t ask me to spare this one?”

“He tried to kill an innocent bear and planned to hunt all the animals in this forest.”

“Indeed.”

“And he tried to touch me as he pleased—do I need to plead for someone like that?”

The duke, who had been listening to Olivia’s answers with satisfaction, flinched at her final words. In terms of touching her as he pleased, he himself was more terrible than the hunter who had only attempted it—he had kissed her, explored her body, and embraced her at will. Olivia also knew why the duke had frozen, so she deliberately kept her mouth shut and waited for him.

“I was…… looking for you to apologize.”

“It’s a bit disappointing that you didn’t follow me right away, but that’s fine.”

As the curtain of night completely drove away the traces of day, stars began to appear one by one, twinkling in the sky. As the darkness deepened, the starlight shimmering between the swaying black trees illuminated the two people. Though it should have been too dark to see clearly, strangely, they could fully sense each other’s expressions.

“I couldn’t accept surrendering to the curse and being dragged along as they wanted.”

“So you’ve always just endured it alone?”

“It’s like a bomb that can appear and disappear at any time. There are warning signs, but even I don’t know the cycle or duration. It can involve all living things around me.”

Enduring alone wasn’t completely safe either. The violence that couldn’t be contained by self-attack and self-harm sometimes resulted in indiscriminate attacks on surrounding furniture. If there had been other living beings there, it might have been their guts torn apart instead of cushions.

“I have no intention of becoming a real monster as my curse wants.”

Though it was unintended, since Olivia had been caught up in the duke’s heat cycle, he first shared about his curse that she had been curious about before delivering his apology. Olivia leaned against him and gently stroked his soft fur. The comforting pat made his heart ache with a familiar feeling, as if it had been roughly stitched together. The beast twitched one eyebrow, shaking off the painful sensation.

“I apologize for involving you in my affairs and putting you in danger. S-sorry.”

Olivia barely held back her laughter as he apologized as awkwardly as a child learning to speak for the first time. Seeing how uncomfortable he was, it seemed clear that he had never said such words before in his life. Well, he was a duke after all. It wouldn’t be strange if the word “apology” hadn’t existed in his life.

“Even if I apologize, I’m probably just as horrible to you as that hunter……”

“Wait, wait a minute. I’ll accept your apology, but I meant it earlier when I said I wasn’t that bothered.”

“A pet’s mounting?”

“No, that was half a j-joke.”

Seeing that he seemed more concerned about that word than expected, Olivia had to enthusiastically take back what she had said, waving both hands. This is why one shouldn’t blurt things out in anger.

“I’m also grateful for your treatment of my wounds. I know you were trying to calm my heat cycle. However.”

“However?”

“Next time my heat cycle comes, don’t try anything unnecessary—just lock my door and stay away, like this time.”

“Is it really okay for me to keep the key?”

“Yes. The reason you’re being held here is to repay the value of the linthes flower, so there’s no need for you to be caught up in my curse.”

As expected, he was subtly rational and kind while pretending to be cold. Looking back at everything that had happened so far, he had always been that way. If he had truly been merciless and cruel, he wouldn’t have spared Kale or released the child at her request.