Near the dense forest where the scholar and Kenis had gathered mushrooms, there was a fairly large swamp. It was covered with floating green algae and moss, making it impossible to see what lived inside or how deep the water went.
The reason Leonardo asked Kenis about the mushroom spot was that a monster fed on them as its main food. This monster, called Corgel, had a balloon-like body with limbs, ears, and a tail, resembling a fat rat.
Leonardo, who had easily caught a Corgel hiding by the mushrooms, now held its carcass in one hand while his other arm was plunged deep into the murky swamp. The true target—mad for plump Corgels—lurked inside.
"Mr. Blaine... isn’t this too dangerous? The scholar said not to come near here..."
"It’s fine, I told you. Just wait a bit."
"What if you get bitten?"
"Then I’ll get bitten, so what."
"But you’ll bleed!"
"Shh."
When there was no sign of movement for over ten minutes and he was growing restless, Leonardo suddenly put a finger to his lips. Kenis quickly held his breath and covered his mouth and nose with both hands.
The swamp’s surface began to ripple faintly. At that subtle stir, Leonardo, who had even stopped breathing, fixed his eyes on the dark water, determined not to miss it.
His hunger was raging uncontrollably—he had been fasting for well over twenty-four hours, making him extremely sensitive. His body cried out for meat, and his stomach couldn’t be satisfied with mere mushrooms or fruit.
Despite the tension of the scene, his face showed strange anticipation, even excitement. To Kenis, he looked like a beast just before a hunt.
But Kenis was filled with dread, imagining his arm being bitten clean off at any moment. He watched, nerves fraying, on the verge of a breakdown. Just as he opened his mouth to say they should stop, it happened.
Rooooaaaar!
"Aaaahhhh!"
A massive alligator suddenly burst from the dark swamp with its mouth wide open. Staring directly at the gaping maw filled with ferocious teeth, Kenis screamed and stumbled backward, falling flat.
Leonardo caught the creature’s neck with one hand as it lunged for his arm, yanked upward, and hauled it from the water.
The reptile, easily over two meters long, thrashed violently in his grip. It flailed its thick tail against the swamp, but Leonardo ignored it and slowly tightened his hold on its throat.
Crawling backward on the ground, Kenis shook with more fear at the sight of Leonardo’s bloodshot eyes than at the monster itself. Because he had just heard him mutter, "That looks damn delicious..." while staring at the beast.
A short while later, after succeeding in the hunt, they returned to the place where they had first woken. The scholar, usually wearing an inscrutable smile, looked slightly flustered at what they had brought back.
What Leonardo had caught was not an alligator but a monster resembling one—larger, uglier, more grotesque. Kenis recoiled, asking how they could eat a monster, but Leonardo offered his own twisted logic: since those things ate humans, why shouldn’t he eat them?
Still, Kenis refused, gagging and insisting he couldn’t. But as he watched Leonardo boil the meat in hot water and then sear it instantly at ultra-high temperature, the rich smell wafted over him, like steak sizzling with butter.
Tempted by Leonardo’s words—that if he didn’t try it now, he’d never taste it again—Kenis finally took a bite. The crispy outside and juicy inside reminded him of roasted chicken he once ate at restaurants, and soon he was devouring it in a daze.
"Hey, it’s good, right? I told you it was good."
Watching him eat, Leonardo spoke with a touch of pride.
"It’s really, really good."
Kenis clutched the meat with both hands, taking big bites and praising it—chewy, juicy, unforgettable.
He was, after all, a healthy young man, and mushrooms alone couldn’t fill him. Watching him gorge as if starved for days—just like himself after being unconscious—Leonardo quietly added more slices to his plate, as if telling him to slow down.
Only when the thick meat portion was nearly gone did they finally finish. Kenis, stuffed, leaned against a column, waving a hand as if he couldn’t take another bite. Leonardo, gulping water from a canteen, chuckled and wiped ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) his mouth with the back of his hand.
Getting up, he pulled a cigarette pack from his back pocket. Then he slipped a hand under his t-shirt, rubbing his full stomach with satisfaction.
The brief glimpse of his bare abdomen caught Kenis’s eye. His stomach was so flat it was hard to believe all that meat had gone into it, and above it, sharply defined abs stood out.
Kenis couldn’t help admiring them. He had never imagined such perfect muscles beneath that pretty face.
Glancing down at his own swollen belly, he suddenly remembered he had just eaten monster meat. Only now, when full, did worry creep in, and he asked,
"Mr. Blaine... but this really is safe, right? It won’t cause any problems in the body?"
"It’s fine, I told you. If eating this caused problems, me and our kids would’ve been in big trouble long ago."
Our kids?
Hearing a phrase he had never heard from him before, Kenis echoed it in puzzlement.
"Among our kids, there was one just like you. First time out in the wilderness, timidly starving, refusing strange food. But after eating this once, he lost his mind saying it was delicious. Later, he even told me he thought about it again after returning..."
Leonardo spoke with a smile, and Kenis instantly realized that the “kids” he meant were his former comrades. Since the past was a sensitive topic for Leonardo, hearing him bring it up first was surprising.
And the fact that he was comfortable enough with him to mention it made Kenis feel elated.
The way he spoke sounded like he was reminiscing about something pleasant, so Kenis quietly listened.
From a distance, the scholar—who had refused the invitation to join the meal and was sorting exploration tools—also paused to listen.
"You must’ve been really close with your comrades. It seems like you knew each other well."
Kenis responded with a pleased expression.
"Yeah, we were close. Not just close—we were family who went through life and death together. Us."
As Leonardo spoke with an inexplicably poignant expression, Kenis felt a pang of envy for those comrades. At the same time, he grew curious about what kind of people they were to be called family by him.
"Then you must still meet often, right?"
It was a casual question, without any hidden meaning. Naturally, he assumed people that close would still meet. But Leonardo, who had been smiling, froze at the words.
Kenis realized he had said something wrong and faltered.
Leonardo saw his flustered face and unconsciously rubbed his stiff jaw. Then he pulled a cigarette from the pack, speaking as if it were nothing.
"You’re new, so you don’t know the regulations of other organizations yet? We can’t meet anymore."
"What? Why?"
Kenis asked in genuine shock. Leonardo walked a few steps away with the unlit cigarette in his mouth and perched on the railing where light filtered in.
The rays streaming through the cave ceiling scattered over his hair. Lighting the cigarette, he exhaled slowly, the smoke curling upward through the light, languid yet hollow.
Lowering his head slightly, he watched the smoke drift across the shadow cast by the railing. Then he shifted his gaze back to Kenis and said,
"If an Armsilver is caught contacting a banished comrade, it’s execution."
A bitter smile touched his lips.
Kenis’s eyes widened, frozen, at a loss for words. Silence pressed down, as if he were alone, though he wasn’t.
The scholar, quietly eavesdropping, also let the silence stretch. Crossing his arms, he pushed up his slipping glasses and thought,
If “caught” contacting?
