“It’s a predictable story. One of our tribe fell in love with a human from outside the island. They weren’t supposed to reveal their existence, but they even exposed their heat cycle to the human. But the human said they loved even that aspect. If it had ended there, it would have been a happy ending, but as the curse proves, the story ended in tragedy.”

This individual had been especially blessed by nature among the tribe. They could understand not only animals but also the voices residing in plants and natural phenomena like the wind. But the human didn’t know this. Eventually, the tribal child discovered that the human was sharing love with another human and casually spreading their secret around.

“Originally, our tribe doesn’t have the ability to cast curses. We can bestow blessings, but not curses. But the child, shocked by the betrayal, apparently prayed every day to nature, which had blessed them here, asking to be able to confirm the human’s true heart.”

The necklace wasn’t cursed from the beginning. In the human village, there was a culture of exchanging necklaces during marriage, and the tribal child exchanged a special necklace filled with blessings that they had carefully prepared with an old necklace prepared by the human.

If the human had cherished that necklace and worn it for life, no problem would have occurred, but just as anxiously predicted, the human brought that necklace to their wedding with another human they had been meeting.

The blessing, infused with all their power, transformed into a curse at the moment of heartbreak. Since the human’s words that hurt the tribal child the most were “A heat cycle? Just imagining it makes me disgusted and repulsed,” the child cursed the human to live their entire life in the form they found most horrifying.

The curse, filled with the anger of betrayal, was imposed on the human in a form even more terrible than a normal heat cycle.

“Normally, such personal, harmful wishes are never granted, but I guess nature loved that child that much? According to the stories passed down, the child was eventually found dead here on the day the curse was activated, as the price for breaking the taboo. And as you can see, the natural power that resided here also left this place.”

The beast-people on the island, having lost both their most powerful tribal member of hope and the natural power that protected the tribe due to a single human’s betrayal, began to reject humans from outside the island even more. Humans approaching the island were all drowned in the sea, and naturally, the tribal children were forbidden from leaving the island.

“But Prow, didn’t you come to the exhibition before?”

“That’s why I’m treated as an oddball. Always nagging that I’ve been contaminated by filthy humans, ugh, it’s tiresome, so tiresome. The truth is, I hate humans, but I also like them.”

“Even knowing this story?”

“It’s a story from decades ago, and how many generations are we supposed to enforce hatred because of one soured relationship? I hate being confined to the island just because of one human.”

A narrow passage appeared at the end of the wide cave. Prow, though grumbling, extended his hand for Olivia to hold and led her to the entrance of the passage.

“I hate humans because I’ve seen so many who ab*se animals as I travel around, not because I’m swayed by such stories.”

“So that time with the rabbit, you really were trying to save it……”

“I was! Isn’t it about time you believed me?”

Seeing Prow shouting indignantly, Olivia burst into laughter for the first time in a while. Hearing the story, she could somewhat understand why the beast-people rejected outsiders. Yet despite this atmosphere, she felt that Prow, who helped her—an outsider, albeit of faint mixed blood—and tried to save animals abused in human society, was a good person.

“Thank you so much for helping me. I won’t forget this favor! If you ever need anything when you come to the continent, I’ll help you.”

“Huh? R-really?”

He often escaped to the continent, feeling suffocated by being confined to the island. Though he was destined to return to the island when his heat cycle approached, he felt he would go crazy if he didn’t at least do that. Prow, who had been drifting ambiguously, belonging neither to the island nor to the outside world, felt a ticklish warmth in his chest at Olivia’s words, and a smile involuntarily spread across his face.

“Of course. You’ve told me a lot about myself too. Shall we be friends?”

The word “friend” wasn’t very familiar to Olivia either. Though she got along with all the village neighbors like friends, there weren’t many peers in the village, so she had never experienced what people typically think of as a “friendship.”

“Do humans always have to verbalize such things? Ugh, it’s embarrassing.”

Despite his gruff response, Prow liked the word “friend.” This was the first relationship he had formed outside the island. Feeling his shoulders involuntarily rising with excitement, he tried hard to contain his fluttering heart.

“From here on, you’ll have to go alone. Can you manage?”

Olivia examined the narrow passage before her. Not a speck of light entered it, making the inside of the hole seem like pitch-black darkness.

“I can’t see anything. Will I be able to find my way?”

“From here, you don’t need to find your way. The path will open by itself to where you desperately want to go.”

It was a kind of spell. Though he said it was a passage connected to the continent, due to the stubbornness of the orthodox tribal elders, the two caves weren’t connected by an obvious path.

No matter what method one tried, it was impossible to reach the cave connected to the island from the beach cave. One would only wander endlessly through a labyrinth with no end; the only way to enter the island was through the sea. However, from the island, one could exit through the coastal cave, though even this had a mental mechanism that only opened the path to those with a clear will to leave.

“Where I desperately want to go?”

“Yes. You can think of the coastal village, or think about wanting to meet your mate, just wish strongly for it.”

“I’m confident in that.”

At this moment, what she most desperately wanted was to meet Alois again, nothing else. Olivia shook hands with Prow to say goodbye, then took a deep breath and stepped into the darkness.

* * *

Since she couldn’t see anything in the darkness anyway, she tightly closed her eyes. With her hands clasped together, she continuously murmured the name of the person she desperately wanted to meet.

“Lord Alois, Lord Alois, please let me meet Lord Alois quickly.”

She considered trying to recall the tent or the beach, but it wasn’t easy to accurately remember a place she had visited for the first time. In the end, she carefully walked forward, repeatedly visualizing Alois’s face, which was the easiest and most desperate image she could recall.

“Huh?”

A faint light entered through her tightly closed eyes. Gently opening them, she saw a small entrance where light was coming in far away in the darkness.

“I’m finally going back!”

With joy, she ran with all her might toward the light. As she threw herself into the bright light, she covered her eyes with both hands against the blinding brightness. The painfully piercing light gradually felt gentler, and finally, the surrounding landscape began to appear clearly.

“Huh?”

The place she arrived at wasn’t the beach cave entrance she had imagined. Though light was coming in from somewhere, she was still inside a cave surrounded by rocks on all sides. As she hesitantly entered, she heard the sound of a beast howling in the distance. The ground even shook slightly with a roaring sound, as if something was hitting the cave wall with impact. She slowly moved her steps to find the source of the sound.

‘Why can’t I hear any words?’

Usually, any animal’s sounds, even those that seemed like screams, carried their own meanings. Whether from pain or suffering, screams always had their reasons. But this sound, though clearly agonizing, carried no meaning. It was as if the desperate scream itself expressed everything.

In the distance, she saw a large silhouette charging at the wall. The floor, already roughly scratched by sharp claws, was terribly gouged, and the cave wall where the beast had charged showed faint cracks along with red bloodstains. Such strong impacts would surely hurt the excited beast itself, but despite its agony, the beast didn’t stop its behavior.

“It would be better not to approach.”

Someone grabbed her as she was about to move, thinking she should intervene. No matter how much she looked around for the source of the voice, she couldn’t see any presence other than herself and the beast. But the strange tremor and unfamiliar feeling were clearly not ordinary sounds.

It was a unique form of communication used only by beast-people. A strange type of sound that Olivia could only hear but not imitate.

Though the restraining message was clearly conveyed, Olivia chose to stop the self-harm happening before her eyes rather than follow the voice of someone she didn’t know.

As she slowly approached, the silhouette of the beast became clearer. Her initially cautious steps gradually quickened. Finally, turning into an urgent sprint, Olivia rushed toward the injured, howling beast.

“Lord Alois!”

Though she embraced the large body with all her might, the beast easily shook her off, sending her flying to the far end. Even as she tumbled across the floor, Olivia couldn’t believe what was happening.

‘Why is Lord Alois here?’

It felt like they had returned to when they first met. No, the situation was even more serious than then. The first time she encountered his heat cycle, Alois couldn’t bear the heat fever and harmed himself, smashing everything around him, but she could sense his desperate struggle not to completely lose his mind. But the beast before her now showed no trace of rationality, making her doubt if it was really Alois.

“This time, he might really kill you. You’ll be severely punished for fearlessly crawling in here on your own.”