But Nasir tilted his head sideways, as if he couldn’t understand why she was suddenly despairing.
“Why are you acting like this? It looked good. Back then, I was still unskilled at transformation, so I couldn’t help you.”
“It looked good…”
At those words, Haniel regained some of her senses.
‘Suddenly the fact that he’s not human feels very real.’
From Haniel’s human perspective, having someone discover her m*sturbating and knowing that someone had been watching all along was shameful enough to momentarily consider s*icide, but from Nasir’s perspective, it wasn’t.
Rather, Nasir seemed displeased that Haniel had made herself vulnerable in an unsafe place where others could see her.
And what he was really taking issue with was something else.
“So, I can’t believe you when you say you’ve never thought about having a mate.”
“Then?”
“Let me ask you again, Haniel. That Hume male staying at your house. Why do I smell his scent so strongly on you?”
Nasir’s eyes flashed.
“Don’t tell me you’ve been rolling around with him?”
At his sharp tone, Haniel opened her mouth without thinking.
“What? I didn’t…”
She did.
“I did…”
“What?”
“Well, I did… but, huh?”
Nasir’s mouth slowly opened.
He had hoped it wasn’t true.
Haniel, with her dull human sense of smell, probably hadn’t noticed at all, but the unpleasant smell of the ‘Hume’ male emanating from her body was so concentrated that it couldn’t possibly be from just rolling around once.
But what angered Nasir wasn’t simply the smell itself that permeated Haniel’s entire body, but the intense possessiveness that could be sensed from it.
Mine. My female. My possession. The marking traces were so distinct, as if loudly proclaiming these words, that it was nauseating—almost like directly witnessing their intimate act.
‘How dare he with my wife…’
Sparks flew from Nasir’s purple eyes.
Haniel was the mate of Nasir, the Reginas who ruled the skies of this area.
She was the rightful bride that Nasir had claimed long before that Hume male knew of her existence.
⋆˚🐾˖°⋆˚🐾˖°⋆˚🐾˖°
Reginas.
In ancient times, when they spread their wings, they covered half the sky in the area, and land animals could only hide in the shadows, hoping their lives wouldn’t be taken—noble rulers of the sky.
As dragons departed and the age of magic waned, with countless years passing, the power inherent in their blood had dimmed considerably. Even so, Nasir was a male Reginas who proudly ruled the skies of this forest.
Haniel wouldn’t know.
That day years ago when they first met.
She might think she happened to pick up and treat an injured baby bird, but that meeting was actually not their first encounter and was far from coincidental.
Originally, Reginas remain in the state of young fledglings until they meet their true life mate.
Due to their long lifespan, they could remain in that fledgling state for several decades or more, and Nasir was such a case.
And when they finally meet their mate and, after exploring each other, become convinced they are ready to spend their lives together, they complete the growth they had postponed within about 1-2 years and finally become adults.
So Nasir, a Reginas who was young but not really young, had been in a fledgling state in this Nightmare Forest.
Even as a fledgling, Nasir lacked nothing.
Despite his young age, his claws were as hard as iron shackles, and his beak was as sharp as a gear wheel. So even though he was a baby bird covered in down feathers, many animals in this forest feared the young king.
Land creatures that feared him. How could he find a mate, not prey, among such lowly beings who were becoming neither this nor that as they were swept into the Rifts? With such thoughts, Nasir felt the passing of time but didn’t feel the need to find his companion.
Then one day, an anomaly occurred.
<…That is…>
Nasir still remembered clearly every wind, every smell from the moment he first saw the human woman named ‘Haniel.’
A woman standing in the field.
The place where Haniel stood was a meadow in the Nightmare Forest with few trees but full of short grass and wildflowers.
It was a sunny spot filled with sunlight that didn’t match the name “Nightmare Forest.” Such fields were often visited by not only insects attracted to the flower scent but also small animals that came to hunt bees and butterflies.
But that day, the sky was completely overcast, as if raindrops would fall at any moment.
It was a day when capricious clouds quickly changed shape with the flow of the atmosphere, and a strong wind mixed with moisture blew, causing even insects to remain silent and hold their breath.
As he was diligently moving around to locate the Rifts within his territory as usual, Nasir found himself repeatedly looking toward the field that day.
Because he had a strange feeling that something, something was waiting for him there.
Looking back, he thought it was very strange even then.
Nasir wasn’t the only one who felt there was something in the field and wanted to go there.
If one listened carefully, all the land creatures and small flying insects in the vicinity, and even the trees that still had some rationality left, were all excited and whispering the same thing.
[Haniel.]
Haniel.
What was this name that all the creatures of the forest were calling in unison?
But even as he wondered, Nasir too found himself unconsciously repeating the name of this unknown person inside his mouth.
Haniel, Haniel. A strange name rolling in his mouth.
When he came to his senses, he realized he had put aside what he was doing and was flying toward where the whispering sounds were loudest.
To the field in the middle of the forest.
And then he saw her.
Haniel, standing alone among the grass, facing the wind.
While everyone in the forest was constantly whispering and calling that name, ironically, the field was filled only with the sound of wind, without a single whispered name.
Haniel, endlessly looking beyond the forest, surrounded by wind and wet grass.
Her hair, a color Nasir had never seen before, fluttered like swaying field grass in the flow of the wind, and her wet golden eyes shone by themselves despite the dark day without sunshine.
Slender arms full of scratches, perhaps from falling, with no thought of covering them with clothes.
Her white garments fluttered behind her like feathers.
Haniel revealed her round, white forehead as she combed back her wind-blown hair with her fingers.
Not bothered by the fluttering garments, she neither huddled up nor clutched at them.
A fragile body directly blocking the wind that poured and flowed like rapids.
Though her standing posture seemed to waver slightly, she never sat down, and her gaze was fixed distinctly beyond the black forest ridge.
<…>
How free she looked in that moment.
And… how lonely she looked.
Nasir, feeling as if struck by lightning, blankly watched Haniel from afar.
After standing against the wind like that, Haniel soon began to move again and started doing her work.
She began gathering materials to build her life.
How could she gather so many items with those thin arms that looked like they might break at any moment? Nasir followed all of Haniel’s movements with his eyes, filled with admiration.
Haniel leaving the field to return to her home.
Her house was within a strange boundary that Nasir couldn’t enter, but just by her occasionally appearing outside the boundary, Nasir could observe the human called Haniel sufficiently.
Days, weeks.
That short time was enough for Nasir to acknowledge that the strange being called Haniel had entered his heart.
‘Haniel,’ the most unusual and strange creature among all the land animals he had ever seen.
Even though Nasir, even as a baby bird, had seen quite a few bipedal land creatures like Humes and Elves, Haniel was different from them.
A soft body that made him wonder how she survived in this forest. Yet, her will, close to a survival instinct, to gather persistently and accomplish things no matter what.
The more he looked, the more he couldn’t take his eyes off her, and while she seemed foolish at first glance, she was ultimately lovable.
How could he come to feel such tender emotions for one person?
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Villainess No.121
Aww this boy is so cute. With this level of possessiveness how r they gonna share her? Even considering the Elf character that will enter later on. How will they be able to share Haniel? I think they are gonna fight to death, lmao.