Chapter 44: The Magical Beast and the Truth Within the Wall
Episode 133: The Magical Beast and the Truth Within the Wall #2
“About 10 cm long. Thin, not easily bent. The taste… Hmm, huh…?”
Gideon, who was licking a thorn given by the butler Harmony, suddenly widened his eyes.
“Delicious. It’s delicious. An indescribable taste, but it’s like a stretched-out mint chocolate. There’s also a grape flavor that changes with every lick. Excuse me, but could I pluck one of your thorns?”
Baronet Gideon asked for my permission.
I wagged my tail twice to signal my consent, and Gideon placed his hand on my back and plucked a thorn with a pop.
Gideon compared the thorn in his hand to the one on my back.
“Similar length, similar thickness, and the taste…”
Gideon stuck out his tongue and licked my thorn. I grimaced at the sight of this dignified old gentleman licking my body part.
“Mint chocolate. The taste is the same. No grape flavor, though. These two thorns are from the same beast.”
━Wait, that thorn is mine? I’ve never even been near the garden! And my thorn tastes like mint chocolate?
My mind was in chaos from all the information.
The beast that disappeared from the garden—why was my thorn found at the scene?
As I pondered this, Baronet Gideon looked at me and furrowed his brow.
“Alpha, I have to ask. Did you eat that beast?”
Gideon held out a black tail to me. I sniffed it, and a familiar scent wafted up—a faint sweetness.
‘I’ve never seen this tail before, but the smell is familiar. What is it? It smells like grapes.’
To be precise, it was the scent of a Wildling. That cute, mysterious, and delicious blue creature that’s rarely seen deep within the Ancient Nest of the World Tree.
But how could the scent of a Wildling be here in a human’s mansion? My head tilted in confusion.
“Now that I think about it…”
Harmony, the butler, who had been quietly observing, finally spoke up.
“Last night, something unusual happened. As usual, I was patrolling the mansion and the corridors after midnight. That’s when I found an empty guest room on the third floor—Alpha’s room. It seemed like it had been empty for quite some time. Where were you last night?”
Harmony smiled at me.
From his tone, it seemed like he was implying that I had left my room to hunt beasts in the garden.
“Is that true? Was Alpha’s room empty last night?”
Gideon, the seasoned soldier, looked at me with suspicion.
‘It’s true that I left my room for a long time last night. It was because of Vitali.’
I recalled the passionate time I had spent with Vitali.
Now, I was being suspected of the beast’s disappearance. If I had actually eaten it, I wouldn’t feel wronged, but being framed felt unfair.
‘This is a trap. Someone’s trying to set me up. Why was my thorn at the scene? Or was it even really there?’
Harmony, the butler, had brought my thorn. Could he have picked it up somewhere else and lied about finding it at the scene?
I turned and headed to my room.
“Where are you going? Did you really eat it?”
I heard Gideon calling from behind, but I couldn’t stop. I needed to check something.
When I reached the corner room on the third floor, I jumped onto the bed.
Lifting the blanket, I found a couple of thorns that had apparently fallen out while I was rolling around last night.
‘He said he checked my room during his patrol. Maybe he took these thorns from the bed.’
I instinctively felt that Harmony was trying to frame me. I didn’t know why or for what purpose, but it seemed clear.
However, the situation took a dramatic turn when someone unexpected appeared.
━Kyuiing.
━Wait, Yingyi, what are you doing here!?
A soaked servant approached Gideon, holding a large Cloudring in both hands.
“This creature was in the garden…”
━Kyuiing.
━Yingyi! What are you doing here!?
I couldn’t understand why the once soccer ball-sized creature had swollen to the size of a small sheep, or why its bluish-white body had turned black, but it was undoubtedly the Cloudring Yingyi.
━Krrrung.
Thud.
Something hard and white fell from Yingyi’s swollen body. Gideon picked it up carefully, his eyes lighting up.
“This is a bone. Looks like the femur of a canine. Could it be from an Alio Jackal…?”
━Kyuiing.
“Hey, are you trying to run away!?”
The swollen Cloudring slipped from the servant’s hands and clung to my body. Its body was damp and heavy, like a waterlogged sponge.
When I squeezed it with my front paw, water gushed out as if from a wet sponge.
“Water!?”
The servants around us stepped back in surprise.
━Kyuiing.
━Stay still. Why are you so wet? Are you a rain cloud?
After creating a puddle on the marble floor of the second-floor balcony, Yingyi returned to its small size. Its color also reverted to its original white.
At the same time, white, hard bones fell from Yingyi’s body. There were enough to make up a whole beast.
━Hey, I told you not to eat weird stuff.
━Kyuiing.
“Hmm, a Cloudring. This must be the one Alpha brought to the royal palace. I’ve seen them in books and documents, but this is the first time I’ve seen one in person. But these bones…”
Baronet Gideon sifted through the beast’s bones on the floor. Among them, he found something sharp—a thorn.
“It’s the same length as the thorns.”
Gideon picked it up and licked it.
‘This guy tastes everything. Does he have to eat it to know?’
After tasting it for a while, Gideon nodded.
“Mint chocolate with a hint of grape. The thorn we found earlier also had a grape flavor. I’ve heard that Wildlings and Cloudrings have a grape-like scent, but it seems to be true. The culprit must be this little one.”
The prime suspect in the beast disappearance case had been narrowed down. However, Harmony the butler shrugged in disbelief.
“I’ve heard that Cloudrings are gentle. Could such a creature really hunt and eat a silver-grade magical beast? With its cute appearance, it doesn’t seem like it could even catch a mouse.”
“Don’t underestimate Cloudrings. When they’re soaked in water, they become as fierce as a thundercloud. Still, it’s the first time I’ve heard of a Cloudring attacking and eating a beast. This one must be a special case.”
Gideon and Harmony discussed the Cloudring’s nature.
I turned to Yingyi, who was nuzzling my neck, and asked,
━Did you eat them? Two silver-grade beasts? How hungry were you?
I knew Yingyi had attacked and eaten a mouse before, so I had a vague idea that it enjoyed meat. But I never thought it could be bold enough to eat two silver-grade beasts.
━Kyuiing, krrrung.
━You followed my trail, ran into a rain cloud, and stayed in the nearby forest when a beast attacked you first?
━Yingyiyaing.
━So you shot it with lightning, knocked it out, and swallowed it whole?
━Ying.
I vividly imagined Yingyi, swollen like a wet sponge, flying through the sky, resting in the forest, and then being attacked and counterattacking.
It wasn’t strange that a few of my thorns, which naturally fall off, were stored in Yingyi’s body. During the fight, the thorns must have fallen out and landed on the ground—that’s how it felt.
━Because of you, I was suspected. So what about the second beast? Two beasts disappeared from this garden. Did you eat both? How hungry were you?
━Krrrung.
━What?
I frowned, unable to understand what Yingyi was saying.
Yingyi had only eaten one large dog-like creature and knew nothing about the second missing beast.
━Kyuiing.
Yingyi ended the conversation with a meaningless kyuiing.
“Then let’s settle it like this.”
“Understood.”
As my conversation with Yingyi ended, so did the discussion between Gideon and Harmony. Harmony bowed to Gideon.
“Then, as per your orders, we’ll say that both beasts were eaten by this Cloudring.”
“Yes, that’s better than saying a dead Rivga crawled out of the lake and ate them. I don’t want any more rumors about Rivga.”
“I’ll make sure the servants keep their mouths shut.”
With that, Harmony turned and disappeared somewhere. Yingyi made a kyuiing sound at his retreating back.
━Last night, in the forest, you saw that person? The butler Harmony?
━Ying.
The creature named Yingyi, the Cloudring, recalled what had happened last night.
After flying a long distance to find a friend, it rested on a tree branch, its body soaked from the rain. Several beasts had approached, taunting it.
━You look tasty. Hey, come down. Hey, you! Can’t you hear me? Come down. Come into my mouth. My stomach is warmer.
The most annoying one was a black-furred, four-legged beast. Hungry, Yingyi shot it with lightning, roasted it, and swallowed it whole.
━Kyuiing.
What a trivial creature. Even a bug like you smells delicious when roasted. Stupid beast.
None of the beasts in this small forest seemed like a threat, but Yingyi knew it could be vulnerable while digesting, so it climbed to the highest tree.
Kwaarrrung, bang.
━Kyaaak!
A bolt of lightning struck, and someone screamed in the forest. Yingyi perked up its senses and looked around.
Using its talent, Thousand-Mile Vision, it quickly found the source of the sound.
Not far from the tree where it was hiding, near the lake, a person in black was fighting with a beast.
The person had pointed ears, blond hair, and unusually long fangs—clearly not human.
━Kyuing!?
What’s that!?
Yingyi was somewhat surprised to see the person in black sink their fangs into the beast’s neck and s*ck it dry like juice.
The drained beast turned into a withered leaf, and the person in black threw it into the lake.
━Yingyiyaing.
That’s what happened last night.
Yingyi used its talent, Telepathy, to convey what it had seen to its white beast friend. The white beast lifted Yingyi high into the air with its front paws.
Had its thoughts been properly conveyed? As Yingyi wriggled in thought, the white beast let out its usual karrrruk sound.
━You’re so hungry you want to drink the lake water like a dry leaf? Hey, why would you eat that? There’s plenty of good food here. Let’s eat it all.
━Kyuiing!
No, you idiot! Be careful of that man! He’s a man who sucks the bl**d of beasts!
━What? A beast-like man who sucks carefully? What are you talking about?
━Krrrung!
It seemed Yingyi’s telepathy still needed more time to fully blossom.
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