He grabbed his own crotch. He shook his *rect p*nis as if showing it off.

“Look, Riena. It’s not because of my greed. We’re going to mix our bodies together. Jair too, Neizan too. They’ll thr*st their c*cks into your body. And after we subdue Murat, you can be worshipped by the rest of the people too.”

“Mmph, mmng……”

“It’s because that bastard Murat is being selfish that this trouble is happening. Lady Riena, you can enjoy all of us. Day and night, as much as you want, no, more than you want, you can always live by eating men through this hole.”

He sharply scratched her private parts with hands that didn’t consider the person who should actually be served.

“Now…… Enjoy it. It’s not something to cry about but something to be happy about.”

Saya’s blue eyes rolled wildly.

***

Murat called for the house owner for quite a while in front of Saya’s house. He knocked on the pitch-black door before sunrise.

“Saya. Saya? Come out for a moment.”

Since it was a time when everyone was sleeping, it was difficult to raise his voice too much. He didn’t want to disturb even the neighboring houses’ sleep for no reason.

Even while tapping the wooden door with his knuckles and waiting for Saya to wake up, there was no response. Only silence returned. When he couldn’t feel any presence inside the house, he thought he couldn’t delay any longer.

He became anxious, feeling uneasy about leaving Riena alone.

“I’m coming in, Saya.”

The moment he opened the door, he felt an ominous aura. The interior was as cold as the outside air. The brazier fire had almost completely died out, so heat hardly spread.

He first put the bowl down on the table. The milk inside was so little it wasn’t even half a mouthful. At most it was enough to pool at the bottom, but the fragrance was dizzying enough to confuse the mind.

He paced around for a while, but Saya didn’t return from wherever he had gone.

Maybe he enjoyed the feast by the bonfire too much. His stomach might be uncomfortable, so he might be late. What other business could make him leave this place? Maybe he shared leftover food with comrades and fell asleep at another house.

Until then, Murat didn’t have much sense of crisis. The situation of threatening and hurting each other among the same tribe didn’t feel real to him. He thought he would willingly endure clashes with tribe members if only he could monopolize Riena, but that was preparation for when the worst situation came. In reality, he firmly believed that the last remaining twelve comrades should depend on each other.

He was worried about leaving Riena alone. Because she couldn’t even catch small bugs. Once when a lizard was crawling on the wall, she screamed in fright and called for him. Worried that such a thing might happen again, he felt uneasy even leaving her sleeping at his house.

Uneasy.

His stomach churned.

‘Why isn’t Saya coming?’

His heart raced at an unknown speed. Thump thump. While thinking it couldn’t be so, a premonition that something big would happen flashed through his mind.

He turned over the brazier. It wasn’t just the top covered with white ash. Even the bottom was cold, in a state where fire hadn’t been touched for a long time. If Saya had been home last night, this could never have happened.

“Riena.”

Calling out the name precious as life, he rushed out of Saya’s house.

Please let nothing happen. Let her be lying on the bed making sweet sounds in her sleep just like when he left.

He ran with all his might, out of his mind. It was the first time the distance from one end of the village to the other felt this far. Dozens of houses, warehouses, and auxiliary buildings passed by beside his flying hair. Among the houses for residence, quite many were empty.

The unusually bright stars of dawn followed Murat as if mocking him.

His intuition always hit the mark. The deceased chief had called this feeling shamanic talent. But he hadn’t heard how to handle it when the feeling he hoped would be wrong became the correct answer. The bed that should be raised in a mound was flat and the blanket was cold when touched.

Where on earth had Riena gone? His flustered feet ran through the village.

He heightened his nerves. All his senses turned toward her. Only the feeling that something was not normal was certain. There was no way Riena had left the house on her own feet. She had been disgusted by his hint that snakes frequently appeared at night.

‘Where? Where on earth did she go?’

It was obvious it would take quite a while to search the village thoroughly. He couldn’t look for her one place at a time. Among the abilities given to him, if he had shamanic talent, he earnestly prayed it would manifest now.

Please, please let God’s will descend upon me.

He listened carefully and brightened his eyes while passing several nearby houses. He couldn’t feel any sound or form.

Then while passing a certain empty house, he momentarily felt a strange intuition. It was a house where an entire family had been sacrificed when all the village people were massacred by a beast attack. His running that had been unable to find direction approached that place.

He heard a faint crashing sound. He had found the right place. Right here.

“Riena!”

When he rushed inside, particularly white flesh caught his eye in the darkness. The form of black bastards surrounding her was exactly like hyenas tearing at prey.

He let out a roar and pounced on the one treating her most violently. When he wrapped his forearm around the bastard’s nape and pulled with all his might, he recognized that bastard as Saya. The other two were Jair and Neizan, who were like Saya’s lackeys.

Murat swung his fist at Saya. The pretty face became pulp in just a few hits. But this wasn’t enough to satisfy him. He seriously tried to k*ll Saya.

Then he heard a crack from behind his back, followed by a numbing sensation.

While choking Saya’s neck with one hand, he looked back. Jair was repeatedly striking him with a thick wooden club.

Murat didn’t even know he was in pain. His killing intent toward these crazy bastards was stronger than his own pain. Extreme excitement and rage had surpassed physical suffering. Rather than pain, his body not moving properly fueled his anger. Some bone somewhere in his body seemed broken.

He blocked the descending club with his forearm. Jair muttered in terror.

“This guy’s a complete monster.”

Murat added more strength to the hand twisting Saya’s neck while being wary of Jair behind him.

This time he was struck in the head. He felt a ringing sensation and blood flowed from above his forehead. When he glared with eyes reddened by blood, Neizan was holding a stone. Murat’s bloodstains were smeared on the sharp-ended stone.

“Aaahhh!”

With a roar, he struck Saya’s jaw and knocked him unconscious.

He raised his body that seemed about to faint and pounced on Jair and Neizan. He fought entangled with the bastards with his reason completely severed.

If he lost here, he couldn’t imagine what would happen to Riena, so he absolutely couldn’t fall.

The close combat taking place in the dark abandoned house was desperate and cruel. It was a war that could only be decided when one side completely fell. After fighting back and forth, Murat finally succeeded in bringing down all three bastards with his battered body.

He escaped from Neizan sprawled on the floor and crawled on all fours toward Riena. Staggering with his broken head, he burrowed between her knees.

“Ha, huh…… Are, are you alri, ght?”

Blood flowing down his forehead blocked his vision. Rubbing his eyes with the back of his clenched fist, he checked if she was injured anywhere.

“Murat.”

Riena was crying. Traces of injuries could be seen here and there. Perhaps she had been gagged, as both sides of her mouth were all scratched and bruised.

“Sorry, ha, I’m sorry. I couldn’t protect…… Cough.”

“Murat, you’re badly hurt. What should we do.”

Murat roughly wiped his stained hands and carefully touched his knuckles to the corners of her mouth. Her cheeks were soaked from sobbing so much.

The fault for injuring her and making her cry was entirely his. Though Riena had chosen him despite the tribe’s opposition, he couldn’t even protect her personal safety. He had injured God’s gift who should be preciously served and the woman for whom his life wouldn’t be enough. He had confessed his love but failed to take responsibility.

Devastating self-loathing washed over him. He didn’t dare ask her to stop crying carelessly.

He rummaged through her body to see if there were more injuries. The inside of her thighs was red. It was clearly a trace of that crazy bastard Saya trying to harm her.

Murat calmed the trembling Riena while first finding clothes to dress her.