“Didn’t I throw it to you to drink?”
“It’s not that, hmm, never mind, rather, I like it, it just means he’s a man with high adaptability…ouch.”
Gu Seoryong was poking my foot under the table.
Thinking it was some kind of mischief, I stepped on Gu Seoryong’s foot to signal to stop bothering me.
Gu Seoryong skillfully slipped away and then wrapped one of his legs around mine.
“Why do you keep wrapping your body around me?”
“Do you not know what this means? How innocent.”
Seeing no hostility, I decided to ignore Gu Seoryong’s legs and devoured the newly served barbecue in five bites.
Then, Gu Seoryong placed another meat in front of me and asked.
“So, how did CXI escape?”
“I woke up in W City.”
“Huh? What? Are you saying you just woke up here?”
“Yes.”
“What, so they scrapped you?”
“They did call me a failure.”
“CXI is a failure…? Did they succeed in making a monster stronger than you?”
“I don’t know.”
Right before killing the researchers, the lab guys had placed another drugged monster in front of me, but none of them felt particularly threatening.
“So why did they scrap you?”
“Probably because I didn’t follow their orders.”
“Hmm, sure, even the sharpest blade is useless without a handle… still, I’m a little disappointed. I thought CXI escaped like me.”
“Did you escape on your own?”
“Yeah, curious how?”
As I nodded, Gu Seoryong gave a mysterious smile, stood up, and sat on my thigh.
“It’s not much~ Researchers are ultimately human, you know. Those who only study until their faces are full of wrinkles can’t resist a woman. So, I tempted, tamed them, and said ‘I’ll do whatever you say, please let me out, I love you~’. Then, oh my, they started listening to me. I gradually influenced the high-ranking researchers, and one by one the other researchers as well… When I came back to my senses, zaaan! Test subject Gu Seoryong was already outside.”
“You were lucky.”
“Oh my, call it skill, not luck? Temptation is a woman’s weapon, hehe…”
“Don’t touch me.”
“Nu, nu, Sister!”
I grabbed Gu Seoryong’s neck as he tried to encircle my head.
At once, the waiters in suits nearby channeled their abilities, but when Gu Seoryong placed a finger to his lips, they all froze.
“Hmm, CXI doesn’t like to be touched much?”
“No, I don’t care.”
“Then what’s this? Our little tough one, care to tell me why you’re upset?”
“There’s an unpleasant smell on your hands.”
“Oh my, how sharp.”
Gu Seoryong took his hand away from my head and shook off the venom at the tips of his fingernails.
I carefully watched his fingertips.
“While talking, memories of that time came up, so I just played around. I apologize, it’s not a very fatal poison anyway, just something that makes you want to listen to me a bit more…”
“You’re only being forgiven once.”
That’s the meal I can provide to Gu Seoryong. As I tossed him aside and chewed on the bones of the meat, Gu Seoryong spoke with a voice tinged with excitement.
“Uhoh…what should I do? I want you more and more…”
“Sister… I’m sorry during the meal.”
“Ah, you’re here? Bring it.”
At that moment, a man in a suit climbed the stairs at the corner of the rooftop and bowed at the table. I quietly stared at the loan shark who came behind him, and the loan shark with a swollen eye as if hit by someone else looked up startled at Gu Seoryong and me sitting next to him.
The loan shark was pressed to his knees in front of me by the men in suits and smashed his head against the ground.
“Sorry…I didn’t know you were such a high-ranking person! Impoliteness…!”
“The necklace?”
“I, it, it, I just received a bribe…! I didn’t steal it! I…”
“Girl? Don’t you understand the question? I asked where the necklace is?”
“He’s not answering properly!”
Since the loan shark was trying to say he had no fault in this matter instead of answering about the necklace’s whereabouts, Gu Seoryong signaled the man in the suit with a glance.
Instantly, the man in the suit grabbed the loan shark’s head and smashed it into the floor again, causing the loan shark to bleed from his broken front tooth.
“Aggggh! Uuuuugh…It wasn’t me…It’s not me…!”
“The necklace?”
With the continued failure to give a proper answer, I stood up and squatted in front of the loan shark. The loan shark trembled with fear when our eyes met, and after frothing at the mouth, finally gave an adequate response.
“It, it, I… Excuse me…It already belongs to Min Jihee…”
“Who is Min Jihee?”
“Min Jihee…the manager of Unit 108.”
“Guess she took it as payment for her services? Didn’t I tell you to never accept anything unless it was cash?”
“Excuse me. Re-education will…”
“Go and fetch Min Jihee. Check if she has the necklace.”
Having said that, Gu Seoryong approached the loan shark with more venom dripping from her fingertips. Sensing a faint killing intent from her slightly rising lips, I stopped Gu Seoryong.
“Do you intend to k*ll?”
“Huh? Of course, it’s the one who stole an important customer’s item.”
“A bit too harsh for punishment of theft.”
“Eh, AAAAAAAHHH!”
Before Gu Seoryong could lay hands on the loan shark, I crushed both his hands.
With a sound similar to chewing fatty pork belly filled with metacarpal bones—cracking noises—his broken hands dangled weakly. After screaming, the loan shark rolled his eyes and fainted. Standing up, I looked at Gu Seoryong.
“People say those who steal will have their fingers cut as punishment.”
This is what I was told by the workers I met on the job when one worker put his hands on another worker’s wallet.
The punishment for theft is sufficient at this level.
Ignoring the unconscious loan shark as I stood up, Gu Seoryong questioned.
“Why not just k*ll him? This guy stole your precious thing.”
“This is enough.”
“Punishments are for those who take penalties and change their hearts, but aren’t people from Nine-Dragon Castle all like that?”
“I don’t like repeating myself.”
The party involved, CXI, says this is enough.
Attempting to unnecessarily cause d*ath here would feel unpleasant even to me. Glaring at Gu Seoryong with such emotion, she stuck her tongue out and licked her fingertips.
“Hmm… Got it, you’re so full of male aroma.”
“Not possible, I took a bath today.”
“Ahaang…? What’s that supposed to mean? Are you trying to tease me now?”
“What nonsense.”
I returned to the table, picked up the meat with my bl**d-soaked hands. The terror in the men in suits grew as they watched me clutching a handful of meat to eat. Their stares were directed at my bloodied hands, but I ignored them and ate.
To a monster, human bl**d is akin to chicken stock added to food for flavor.
“I ate well.”
“You’re already done? We’ve got drinks and desserts still.”
“The necklace takes priority.”
“Hmm, I’ve been clumsy. When something precious to you is in another woman’s hands, I wouldn’t let it go either.”
“But what’s the dessert?”
“Are you interested?”
Thinking the necklace could be retrieved any time, but free desserts are like the ice cream you get from the foreman after a job—once offered and not taken, they disappear like smoke.
“Rice cake covered in sticky, sweet syrup?”
“Rice cakes.”
For some reason, the taste of the honey rice cake I ate as a child came back to me, and I swallowed the saliva pooling in my mouth. Seeing this, Gu Seoryong gave a sly smile and made a strange sound.
“Ahahaha… Expected, aren’t you tempted after seeing bl**d? How about it? Want to go get some dessert together? We can tell that girl Min Jihee to get the necklace herself.”
“Hmm…Alright.”
Is it because the smell of bl**d has increased my appetite? Thinking it’s not bad, I accepted her invitation.
“Uhuh… Good, then follow me. You guys, properly wash and send over the necklace once you’ve retrieved it.”
“Understood!”
“Why not clean your hands? Or are you the type who enjoys leaving marks?”
Gu Seoryong took the lead beside me and directed the way while stepping into the elevator and handing me something like a tissue. I wiped the bl**d and grease off my hands and tossed it away like a used napkin.
“Oh dear, that was something I cherished… oh well.”
“How dare he use Sister’s cherished handkerchief like this…”
“Ugh… Sister actually likes tall, handsome, well-built, and powerful types like him… Fucking unfair world.”
The men in suits muttered and followed behind, having witnessed the scene. I followed Gu Seoryong towards an apartment building.
The apartment interior buzzed with the sounds of many people, and beast-like cries echoed from various places.
“Is this the whole apartment copulating?”
“Hooh… that’s why, you see. This is the Brothel of Nine-Dragon Castle. Where anyone can enter as long as they pay. Of course… except me.”
“Humans pay money to engage in int*rcourse as well?”
“Oh my, might this be… Ahaha, intriguing?”
Gu Seoryong clung to me in a manner that was almost unpleasant, rubbing her body against mine.
Since this time she didn’t present her claws, I left her be and followed where Gu Seoryong led me to stop in front of an apartment. The entrance was unlike any others, adorned with sculptures of dragons and snakes.
“Don’t disturb me when I’m going inside. Oh, in case someone comes for the necklace, send it up.”
“Understood.”
“Then… shall we go up?”
A peculiar sticky feeling arose as we boarded the elevator. As Gu Seoryong clung to my arm, I found her continued intimacy irritating and pushed her away while speaking.
“You’ve been clinging to me for too long.”
“Ahaha! How cute, suddenly feeling shy?”
At the ding of the elevator arriving, a spacious room opened before us.
On the top floor of the apartment, the entire floor seemed remodeled. The room was filled with black, gold, and red colors. Sculptures shaped like snakes, carpets with intricate knotting of several snakes, a bed encircled by a sculpture of nine entwined dragons, a window overlooking the entire apartment complex, and humidifiers shaped like dragons scattered around that exhaled warm mist. Perhaps this was why the elevator felt so sticky.
I shook off Gu Seoryong once more and looked around for the dessert.
“Where’s the rice cake?”
“Here~?”
At that moment, I heard the swish of fabric falling from behind. Turning around, I frowned to find Gu Seoryong, now n*ked, standing with her pale body on display. She flaunted her curves with a self-satisfied motion.
In sync with the vibrations from the club outside, her monster core pulsed. Disappointed, I sighed.
“You… tricked me.”
