“Provocation is for those who can win the fight.”

The administrator’s face reddened from being unable to breathe, looking like he’s about to burst. He tried desperately to remove the hand gripping him, but his unsightly movements couldn’t even scratch the back of Alois’s hand. His eyeballs were precariously rolling back in their sockets, with bloodshot whites. Drool dripped from his gaping mouth. Alois’s hand pried open the man’s eyelids and inserted his fingers into the skin gap, about to tear out his eyeballs.

“D-die, ugh, that, woman, gahh!”

The hand gripping his neck threw the administrator to the ground. Huff, huff. The administrator urgently gasped for breath, scratching at the floor. His desperate attempts to check if his eyeballs were still properly attached were pitiful. Despite being destined to die, the administrator struggled noisily, and Alois’s foot stomped and crushed his back.

“Aaaaargh, kuugh.”

“It would have been better if you had just died, but since you opened your mouth, go ahead and say what else you want to say.”

“K-kuk, if you kill me, ugh, that woman will die too.”

The duke fell silent at the administrator’s taunt. Thinking his threat had worked, the administrator giggled and wriggled like a wingless insect, trying to escape from under Alois’s foot.

“That’s fortunate news indeed.”

“W-what?”

“So the reason Olivia hasn’t appeared here is none other than you?”

Alois, who had completely regained his glow, stabbed his sword into the ground with a face shining with excitement. Gasp. The administrator, who thought his neck was about to be pierced, convulsed and wet himself. The sword, which had just grazed the administrator’s skin and stuck into the ground right next to his neck, was overflowing with shadowy energy. The black energy was slowly sucked in through the administrator’s eye sockets.

“I’ve been waiting for Olivia all this time…… And you took her away for this boring, unmoving event?”

“Guh… Kek… Gaaahk…”

“S-save me… Mmph, mmph!”

“I’ll give you one chance. Tell me where Olivia is.”

The administrator hurriedly rummaged through his possessions. Alois quietly let the administrator do what he was doing. Normally in such situations, a wise person would spill Olivia’s location, hoping for another chance later.

“You, you die too!”

But this one isn’t a wise person. The administrator, who had been rummaging through his possessions claiming he would provide a map, splashed liquid from a small glass vial onto Alois. A scent Alois had smelled before splashed onto his face. Though he hadn’t expected much to begin with, the predictably stupid act didn’t even make him laugh. His calm demeanor as he carelessly wiped away the liquid with the back of his hand was so peaceful that the administrator stared bewilderedly at the empty vial he had splashed.

“What, is there a problem?”

“T-this can’t be… happening…… It’s supposed to attract the curse……”

“Some kind of aphrodisiac, I suppose?”

Alois kicked the administrator’s leg to knock him down again, then this time precisely stabbed his sword into the man’s shoulder joint. He filled every orifice of the man’s body with black shadows as he struggled in pain. Not just through the eyes, but also through the ears, nose, and mouth, black smoke rushed in. Looking at the completely blackened place where the eyeballs had been, Alois showed a gentle smile.

“If you wanted revenge on me, you should have just kept quiet. Did you think I couldn’t find her without your help?”

“T-this, this can’t be happening.”

“No. The drug is working quite diligently. Ah, though now you can’t see it.”

The administrator, whose world was covered in darkness, couldn’t see Alois’s face gradually growing fur like a beast, or his hands transforming into those of a ferocious monster. Alois created a dark cocoon for the administrator, ensuring he would neither die nor live, and carelessly hung him on the spider web.

As the drug took effect, his body began to change. Though transforming into a beast’s form, Alois didn’t hide in the mansion but watched the remaining humans. When he glared at each of the surviving soldiers one by one, they screamed at the sight of the grotesque monster that was neither animal nor human, and immediately ran toward the thorn bush passage they had entered through. Many humans crowded into the narrow passage, tangling and pushing, creating chaos.

Alois deliberately followed them slowly, then threw his sword like a spear, targeting the men’s backs.

“Only those who leave quickly will be spared.”

The sword flew like the wind, piercing the narrow passage in a line from the very back. After skewering the humans like kebabs all the way to the exit, the sword crumbled like sand and disappeared as it passed beyond the thorn bushes. Those whose hearts were pierced flailed like living zombies as they fled outside, then collapsed one by one to the ground. The floor was soaked with blood. With each step, the shallow pools of blood splashed droplets up along the heels of his shoes.

He could feel the heat fever slowly boiling up inside his body. This is actually good. The intensifying heat fever began using all five senses to search for a mate who could relieve it.

What Alois instinctively desired and wanted to take most. He revealed his sharp fangs and smiled grotesquely. Never had he welcomed the curse that had fallen upon him as much as today.

“Is Olivia here! W-what is all this?”

Lime, who was urgently searching for Olivia, covered his mouth at the sight of fallen corpses everywhere and streams of blood flowing down. Though he had grown up seeing all kinds of brutal corpses on the battlefield, this was the first time he had seen people so messily and blatantly torn apart.

“I’m sure I entrusted Olivia to you, so why are you standing perfectly fine in front of me while Olivia is nowhere to be found?”

He needed only Olivia to return to the mansion, but instead of her, there was the administrator, soldiers, and now Lime. Alois made no attempt to hide his discomfort. When the half-transformed beast growled and bared its teeth, even Lime unconsciously stepped back.

“M-monster duke……”

But faster than that, the duke’s sword touched Lime’s nape. He didn’t want to hear unnecessary explanations and only wanted to quickly confirm his usefulness.

“So, where is Olivia now?”

Lime shook his head from side to side. If he had known that, he himself would have gone to rescue Olivia instead of coming here.

Annoyed at being threatened with a sword by a being that hardly seemed human, Lime simply pushed the sword down with his bare hand. His appearance was physiologically repulsive. Just looking at it evoked both fear and disgust at the same time.

So this is useless too. Regardless of Lime’s reaction, Alois simply moved on, leaving him alive because he didn’t want to waste time.

“Are you going somewhere you know she’ll be?!”

It was a question not worth answering.

A sinister desire for Olivia heated his heart feverishly. He didn’t care how others would see him. The fact that someone might get caught up and die had already been erased from his mind. Compared to the deadly despair that Olivia might have abandoned him, such wounds no longer caused him pain.

The distorted salvation stripped everything of its value to Alois—except Olivia.

The beast, with eyes reddened by heat fever, opened all its senses to find the one female who could cool its heat. Find her. Find her and devour her. Soak her thoroughly with your seed. The voice of someone who began shouting in his ear sounded particularly beautiful today.

* * *

Her head felt like it was about to split open. When she touched the back of her head with her hand, she felt a stinging pain along with slightly sticky dried blood. Trying to recall the situation before she collapsed, Olivia remembered that she had gone outside in response to someone knocking on the door, then was suddenly hit on the back of the head by something flying at her and fell.

“There’s only one person who would do this……”

Without anyone telling her, Olivia immediately recalled the administrator’s face and ground her teeth. Though they say there are bad people in the world and sometimes relationships that should never have formed, she shuddered and recoiled at how one person could be so persistently entangled in such a malicious connection.

Having determined that she had been attacked by the administrator, Olivia got up to look around and see where she was. The narrow iron cage smelled damp and musty.

“Everything alright?”

Hearing a human voice, Olivia pretended to still be unconscious, curling up in one corner of the cage with her eyes closed. Through her closed eyelids, she could sense a bright light coming closer and then moving away repeatedly. When the human presence receded, Olivia opened her eyes slightly to examine her surroundings. Slowly, things that had been invisible in the darkness came into view.

Olivia wasn’t the only one imprisoned. Inside the large tent were various cages of different sizes haphazardly stacked besides the one Olivia was in. Most contained animals, and Olivia seemed to be the only human.

“With the weather like this, I wonder if customers will come properly.”