IPDT 35

“…Just a little taste.”

Igor’s lips moved as if he were mumbling. The Margrave, as if frustrated with Igor, slammed the spoon he was holding down on the table. Clang.

“Tasted what, you say? What are you talking about? I haven’t heard that you ate anything separately before luncheon.”

“…”

“Hah, let’s talk about this later.”

As the Margrave let out a sigh, Igor slowly raked his gaze over his father from head to toe. Like a satiated predator looking at its prey.

But the Margrave probably didn’t know that Igor saw him as prey. A human’s senses wouldn’t be able to perceive the stench and the change emanating from Igor. The Margrave would only notice Igor’s transformation after Igor had become a complete monster.

“I apologize for interrupting your meal.”

The Margrave apologized to Yul in a polite voice. It was nice to see him showing Yul respect, even if he was a bit dim-witted. I smiled in satisfaction and accepted the apology.

“It wasn’t much of an interruption. I was also curious about what Igor ate.”

The Margrave’s face contorted strangely. It was a look that seemed to say, ‘I wasn’t talking to you, so why are you answering?’ Instead of enlightening the foolish Margrave, I turned my gaze to Igor.

“You smell like a person.”

Igor’s reptilian pupils turned towards me. Saliva leaked out from between his pale, lifeless lips, and the glistening drool spread over his entire mouth. He looked like he was about to start dripping saliva at any moment.

I furrowed my brow. It seemed the phrase ‘smell like a person’ had stimulated Igor’s hunger.

“Haha, Igor is a bit of a people person, isn’t he? The child has become a bit less talkative lately, but he has been a very good child since he was young.”

Only the clueless Margrave burst into a hearty laugh, looking pleased.

The luncheon ended before dessert was served. This was because Yul, who had suddenly risen from his seat, declared, ‘There’s no more value in being here.’ The ever-confident Margrave froze like a stone, and I scurried out after Yul as he left the dining hall.

“Yul!”

When I finally managed to get next to him on my short legs, Yul, who had been walking quickly, paused for a moment.

“Where are you going in such a hurry?”

“…”

Yul, his brow furrowed, looked down at me without a word. I wonder how long we held each other’s gaze like that. He abruptly turned his back and started walking away again. I followed Yul as he grew distant, but eventually stopped walking.

“Why are you in a bad mood again? Was the food bad? Hmm, there wasn’t much meat, I guess… But you ate your greens just fine, Yul.”

Why? I tilted my head, touching my chin, when I heard the sound of slow footsteps approaching from behind. A stench that made me want to plug my nose came with it. I whirled around.

“Igor Javier?”

“…Guide.”

Igor and I called out to each other at the same time. I felt displeased. Even as I wrinkled my brow, Igor walked slowly towards me as if he didn’t care.

Thump, thump. Every time Igor took a step, the shadow stretching out at his feet squirmed like a maggot. I crossed my arms and waited for Igor to get closer. After all, I had measures I needed to take with Igor too.

“Stop.”

At that moment, Igor came to a dead halt. I, too, uncrossed my arrogantly folded arms. Yul’s cold voice had cut across the hallway. He was standing not far away, having returned at some point.

“Yul!”

It seemed he’d walked off so far by himself but had come back because he was worried about me after all. I was about to head towards Yul with a wide smile, but Yul came over faster than I could go to him. Yul cut in between me and Igor and snatched my wrist.

“Huh?”

Yul hated it when people touched him. He would even shake off a hand that brushed against him, yet he had taken hold of me first. My eyes widened in surprise.

“Get your filthy face out of my sight before I kill you.”

“Hmm?”

…Me? I flinched, remembering he had once called my face ‘unpleasant to look at’. But thankfully, it seemed his words weren’t directed at me. Yul, who had snarled at Igor, started to turn and walk away, still holding my wrist.

“Yul, where are you going?”

“…”

Yul just kept walking without a word. But I wasn’t sad that he didn’t answer. It was because Yul was holding my wrist. Listening to my pounding heart, I glanced at Yul’s large hand. It seemed bigger and rougher than before I gave him my heart. The calluses seemed to have gotten harder too…

Thwack.

Lost in thought, I bumped my face into Yul’s back. I held my nose and looked up at Yul.

“Yul?”

“…”

We had stopped in a place close to the garden. The fragrant scent of flowers wafted from not too far away. In the leisurely afternoon, in the beautiful garden, Yul’s black eyes were glacially cold. It seemed like he had something to say to me…

“Yul, if you have something you want to say, you can say it.”

Even after hearing my words, Yul remained silent for a long while. I just stood still and waited for him.

“…Don’t talk to that monster bastard. Don’t even make eye contact, and if that bastard talks to you, cut out his tongue.”

Yul spat out each word, crushing them as if he were going to chew them up and swallow them. Surprised by his more extreme reaction than I expected, I widened my eyes. I could faintly feel the revulsion Yul felt from my heart.

“I can cut out his eyeballs or his tongue, but with Igor—”

I was about to say, ‘I need to settle things with him.’ Had Yul not clamped a hand over my mouth.

“Don’t say his name.”

“Y?”

I asked ‘Why?’ with my mouth covered. Yul looked at me, annoyed, then removed his hand.

“Don’t you know how that bastard looks at you?”

“How does he look at me?”

Yul, who had been silent, let out a short sigh.

“What are you misunderstanding?”

“Huh?”

“Whether that monster bastard is staring or talking, you handle it yourself.”

After finishing his words, Yul turned his back and walked away. I blinked blankly at the incomprehensible flow of the conversation.

“What’s wrong with him…?”

What on earth did Yul want to talk about just now? For some reason, I thought Yul was more like a cat than Fleabag. In the sense that his actions were hard to understand.

I returned to my room and rolled around in bed with Fleabag. It was thanks to finding a decent bed after a long time. Then, I suddenly wanted to tell Fleabag ‘that’ story.

“…Are you saying that Mr. Kwon Yul is like a cat?”

Fleabag, who had heard the story of meeting Igor and going to the garden, trembled.

“Yeah. If you had seen it too, Fleabag, you would have said so.”

“Absolutely, absolutely not! Mr. Kwon Yul, a cat? This is an insult to our species!”

Fleabag clutched its head with its tiny hands and writhed. The sight, which looked like it was screaming in agony, was both cute and funny. I grinned and stuck my finger in Fleabag’s open mouth, then pulled it out. Fleabag then whined, ‘How could you do this to me when I’m in such distress?’

Knock, knock.

While I was busy playing with Fleabag, I heard someone knocking on the door. Who is it? I hid Fleabag under the blanket and flung the door open. An unknown woman was standing in front of the door.

“Who are you?”

“Lady Bibiana has summoned you.”

“Bibiana did?”

As I tilted my head, the person who had been hidden by the door belatedly came into view. It was Yul, the black-haired human, his brow furrowed as if something displeased him.

“But if Bibiana summoned me, why is Yul, the Hero, here? …Don’t tell me you were with Bibiana?”

At this time, when it was almost night? For some reason, a wave of shock washed over me.

Yul is a human and Bibiana is a human, so it’s possible they might have hit it off… What is this feeling? Betrayal? Ah, I guess it’s betrayal. But he hated it so much when I said I was going to meet Bibiana yesterday. Could it be he wanted to meet Bibiana himself…

“That is not true!”

“It’s not.”

“It’s not?”

I looked in turn at Yul, who was scowling fiercely, and Bibiana’s representative.

“My path merely overlapped with the Hero’s, so we came together! I would appreciate it if you would refrain from making rude remarks about my lady!”

“Your paths overlapped, so you came together?”

I turned my gaze back to Yul.

“Yul, where were you headed?”

“…”

Yul just scowled and didn’t answer. I tilted my head. My room was in the inner part of the building, so it wasn’t a place Yul, who had been given a room on the outer side, would happen to come by.

So why did his path overlap with the representative who was coming to my room? I thought about it for a moment, then shook my head. First, I should go see Bibiana.

“So where is Bibiana?”

“She is outside the castle. Please follow me.”

The representative, having barely composed herself, answered in a calm voice.

Thump, thump. As I followed the representative who was walking ahead, I looked to my side and saw Yul was also walking with us. He said their paths just happened to overlap, but is he going to see Bibiana with me? I looked up at Yul, who was walking at a similar pace to me.

“Yul, are you coming with us?”

“Can’t you tell by looking?”

“Yeah. But, hey, you really didn’t meet with Bibiana, right?”

Yul turned to me fiercely.

“I didn’t meet her, and I have no plans to, so don’t ask again.”

Crunch… crunch…

A ghastly sound, like bones breaking, leaked from between Igor’s teeth. After gulping something down, Igor thrust his hand into a fancy box. A handful of mysterious, purple-hued crystals was grasped in his fist. Igor hurriedly shoved what looked like colored marble into his mouth.

Chomp, chomp. The purple crystals were crushed by his incisors, which had grown sharp like fangs. The powder that crumbled and smeared around his mouth shone like mercury. The powder got under his grimy fingernails too. As if that was also a waste, Igor began to suck his fingers.

“Hah…”

After ferociously chewing and swallowing the crystals, Igor let out a pained breath.

“Hungry, hun, gry.”

At some point, human food could no longer satisfy this terrible hunger. When he first realized that, Igor had soothed his hunger with drugs. It worked for a short time, but this method soon showed its limits.

Igor put the entire drug crystal, which was meant to be burned, into his mouth and swallowed it. This was quite effective. While he was chewing on the crystals, he no longer felt hungry.

But once he started eating them like that, the hunger returned more quickly. Igor was in agony. He was hungry. He couldn’t bear the gnawing emptiness and thirst that felt like his stomach was twisting and tearing apart.