Chapter 334: The Mating Room (4)
Sinclair J Bourgeois.
She was still a child. Long hair flowing like the Milky Way down to her waist.
She looked up at the tall man in front of her and asked,
'Father, why do I have to go out?'
The little girl asked while hugging her teddy bear.
But the tall man didn't answer.
Instead, it was the old butler standing next to him who answered.
'When you grow up and come back, everything will be yours.'
With those words, the little girl left the family home.
After cutting her long, flowing hair short, she looked back at the back door of the house.
Everything was still in its place. Nothing would change even if she left.
Then. A small shadow flickered high above the family's building.
Was it an illusion? Or just a shadow? The hem of a curtain that swayed in the wind?
No, it wasn't. It was a tall man. He's standing there to look down on her final journey.
That's what the girl thought.
'Why did you abandon me?'
'Did you love me?'
'Is that why you abandoned me?'
'Can I go back to you?'
'...Then can you love me again?'
So many questions, so many footprints in the snow, so many doubts.
And. at the end of it all, the answer was not a pleasant one.
[It wouldn't be a bad idea to weed out useless relationships at this point. As of this time, all plays have ended.]
The tall man's face as an adult was much different from what she remembered as a child.
He was so tall it was hard to see, but still, the glimpses of gentleness in the center of his bluntness were gone.
A hideously contorted expression. The bloodshot eyes. And that fierce, demon-like rampage.
The grown child reverted to the child she had been.
The child who had been forced to leave her family on the day of the heavy snowfall.
'I understand,'
'I know you did it because you loved me.'
And the truth is, you never abandoned me.
'I'm back.'
'Please love me again.'
The answer the little girl had been preparing for so long boiled down to one.
'... I wanted to see you.'
But she couldn't bring herself to say it.
'The demon kills.'
A hound tore through the nightmare, leaping from the depths of the underworld.
Its gaping mouth and sharp teeth tore at everything before the girl's eyes.
'It's over. You worthless one.'
That was the last of the tall man.
The girl had lost her only family.
And with that, the only source of record of her existence in the world was completely lost.
She was left alone in the world without any ties.
Now who will testify to her existence?
By what means should a person who has lost her source reveal herself to the world.
Esse, Non Videri. 'To exist, but not to be seen'
From that day forward, the girl became one who exists, but is not seen.
King of the Bourgeois.
The girl made up her mind.
She was determined to see that vicious hound from that day, that nightmare-like mouth and teeth, and those eyes that shined with ominousness.
* * *
"...huh!?"
Sinclair gasped, her body jerking awake.
She must have had a terrible nightmare, but she couldn't quite remember. Her mind and body were dazed.
The next thing she knew, she realized she was completely naked.
"Kkyaaahh!"
She quickly covered her hands up and down.
Then a nonchalant voice came from the back of her neck.
"You're awake."
Sinclair turned her head quickly.
Vikir, also shirtless, was hugging her from behind.
"Bro, bro, bro, bro, brother? Wh, wh, What is this...?"
"Maintaining body temperature."
The voice, still flat.
Sinclair could finally take in her surroundings.
There was sawdust all around Vikir and Sinclair, who were naked and close together.
A burrow dug so deep that the sawdust around them hadn't been soaked by the rain at all. They weren't cold because they were buried in the dry sawdust.
The moisture that had soaked their bodies was long gone.
Vikir had spread Cerberus's hide across the center of the wide den and built a small fire.
Firewood turned to sawdust, and smoke escaped through a vent dug into the den's ceiling.
Cerberus's hide was fireproof, so the fire didn't spread to the sawdust.
Vikir had made a small fire in a pouch of Cerberus's hide, and was tossing dry sawdust into it, little by little.
He made sure to spread the damp sawdust around to prevent sparks from flying.
"...ah."
Sinclair suddenly realized what had kept her awake.
Vikir had done the best he could.
A cold, dark world. Yet so bright and warm, even with only a single matchstick of fire.
So was Vikir's hard body against his back and his tickling breath.
"Did you have a nightmare?"
Somehow, the voice that usually sounded so hard and dry in his voice now sounded so soft and sweet.
Vikir's words brought Sinclair to tears.
"...Night Hound killed ...my father."
The more time that passes, the more clearly she remembers the details of the nightmare.
No, she couldn't forget it because it had happened to her in the first place.
"...I woke up and my father was there. ...He was turned into a demon. ...He used a strange power. ...I wanted to stop him, but I couldn't because I didn't have the strength. ...So the night hounds killed him. ...Why, why did this happen. Why."
Sinclair is still babbling, having just woken up.
But Vikir could make out everything she wanted to say.
'I don't know how to explain it.'
The families of the demon-possessed are always difficult to deal with.
A dead man, just a shell of a demon?
That would only confuse Sinclair.
'Maybe it's better to hate me, to loathe me.'
It might give her a little more motivation to live.
After all, revenge is a good motivator for humans.
Wordlessly, Vikir strengthened his arms and pulled Sinclair into a tight embrace.
Bare skin rubbed against bare skin, warmth rising from the friction.
Sinclair shivered and cried.
A moment.
A whimper.
She turned her head to the side.
Sinclair's lips touched Vikir's neck.
Vikir quickly turned his head to the side to avoid it.
But Sinclair didn't let go, and she began to run her tongue along his neck.
It was creeping up.
'... Holy shit, is it time already?'
Vikir was momentarily distracted by the status bar.
Vikir quickly opened the status window in the corner of his vision.
[Creating mating environment]
[2nd timeout 00:03:21]
.
.
The air entering his nostrils had become quite sweet for some reason.
A blue mist that permeates every inch of the sawdust den.
The time between tending to the fire and pumping mana into Sinclair's body had already passed like this.
Vikir began to hold his breath.
'It's like a fog that can't hurt to breathe in....'
There was nothing particularly harmful about the mist.
The problem was that it stimulated various bodily functions too vigorously.
No wonder it was used as an estrus fog to promote mating between males and females.
-Ding!
[Human 2 (♀) is ready to mate]
[Human 1 (♂) is still not ready to mate]
The sound of humans being treated strictly as livestock.
This is exactly what happens in a Ryumajin's mating room.
Sinclair turned towards Vikir.
Then, blowing out a breath of hot air, she said.
"Brother, I have no family anymore. I'm all alone in the world."
"...."
"So I want to make a family, if it's you... if it's you."
The world is cold and dark. It is inherently lonely and solitary.
But just like in this sawdust hole, if you have a little bit of warmth, even if it's just a single match, it can give you the strength and warmth to get through the world.
Sinclair buried her face in Vikir's chest as if she could stand it no longer.
But even then, Vikir's gaze remained cold.
"...."
Of course, there's no way to be a family with Sinclair.
It was Vikir himself who had destroyed Sinclair's only family.
'... I have to admit it.'
When dealing with Bartolomeo, he didn't risk his life like he did with Camus.
He avoided risk as much as possible and took the safest route to kill Belial.
No regrets. If he had it to do over again, he would make the same choice.
But guilt and innocence are two different things.
To kill Sinclair's only family, to be her only family, was a deception within a deception.
Vikir grabbed both of Sinclair's shoulders as she burrowed deeper into his arms and lifted her up.
Sinclair's head, bowed deeply, lifted to meet his eyes, which were already dazed.
"Listen, Sinclair, I'm...."
Just when Vikir was about to open his mouth to say something.
-Ding!
[Entering mating environment]
[Begins third attempt]
.
.
The time limit was up.
As soon as Vikir stopped talking and gritted his teeth, he began to show signs.
...Thump!
The entire room shook once and loudly.
External intervention. A biofactory-style forced breeding.
The same evil hands that had forced the giant mantis creatures to mate in the past had entered the mating room to do the same thing this time.
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