TSSH 11

Chapter 11

Hot blood pulsed through his veins, churning beneath his skin.

The full onset of the symptoms had begun that afternoon.

The Green Merchant Guild master had triggered, without restraint, the gradually boiling hemolysis that had been building inside him.

Because of a single moth that had thrown itself at him without regard for its own life, the period his subordinates secretly called “Eclipse” had begun far earlier than scheduled.

Though it had been an abrupt trigger for his rampage, the sensation of power and blood surging through his entire body was, as always, welcome.

So Kilian Knox was, at the very least, not in a bad mood.

Having spent the entire day in the underground prison indulging in the Green Guildmaster’s blood made it even better.

And yet.

“Hmm.”

Kilian exhaled softly, calming the heat that kept surging up in waves, and looked down at the small figure kneeling at his feet.

Annoying.

A low-ranking member of the strike unit.

A nobody was irritating his nerves.

Like prey caught in a spider’s web tugging at the strands to call the trap’s owner, that was exactly what Lunelk Ains felt like.

“Did Your Excellency already… know about the assassin’s presence?”

Even while trembling, the fact that he looked straight at him was insolent.

It had been a long time.

Someone who questioned him—and someone who threw themselves forward claiming they would protect him.

“What if I did?”

“If that’s really the case…”

Lunelk Ains pressed his lips shut tightly.

A trace of irritation flickered across his unusually large, upward-curved blue eyes.

That was all that could be read from him.

“Speak. How did you know the Green Guildmaster harbored murderous intent?”

After a brief hesitation, Lunelk Ains answered.

“A-as I said, I just have a good intuition…”

Once again, he could not read him.

Whether the boy was lying or telling the truth, he couldn’t tell.

The ability he had possessed since birth did not work on this one.

An unpleasant existence.

Looking down at the small head with half-lidded eyes, Kilian thought:

Ah. I should just kill him.

The impulse immediately turned into action.

“Cough…!”

Kilian’s large hand closed around Lunelk Ains’s throat.

The thin neck, as if it had no muscle at all, fit easily into his grip.

His hand against that pale skin, where blue veins stood out, felt burning hot, as if searing it.

“So you’re saying this was all coincidence.”

Even the fact that this ‘unreadable existence’ had been entering what was practically his private inner chamber—the bath—and had saved him from an assassination attempt.

“There’s no way.”

Kilian let out a faint laugh.

And as he saw the blue eyes, now glossy with tears from lack of air, tilt toward the corner of his mouth, he tightened his grip.

That fragile body would crumble from just a little more force.

Then this irritating unease would disappear.

Kilian was certain of it.

But at that moment—

A sharp pain, like a heated iron nail being driven into his skull, struck him.

“Gh…!”

As Lunelk Ains struggled and a tear fell onto his hand, the headache grew even more piercing.

It was a sensation so horrific that even his body—one that usually treated even sword cuts during Eclipse as pleasant amusement—stiffened.

And then, his dormant heightened senses rang an alarm.

You must not kill this one.

The realization came, and his grip loosened.

Before he could make any conscious decision.

As if control had been momentarily stolen by his bloodline itself.

Thud.

Lunelk Ains collapsed to the floor, clutching his throat and coughing violently.

“Haa…! Cough, cough!”

Kilian stood above him and looked down at his own right hand.

Flexing and unclenching it as if testing it, a strange light flashed in his eyes.

“…Interesting.”

It was fascinating.

Such an intense sensation.

And the interference of the bloodline itself.

New.

During Eclipse, even wounds that should have been agonizing were usually dulled into intoxicating pleasure—but that heat of fever had already retreated far into the background.

What is this boy?

Lunelk Ains, still gasping as his thin shoulders trembled, looked to Kilian like nothing more than a weak, mangy colt.

Yet the bloodline that had never betrayed him before had intervened.

Along with intense curiosity, a sudden urge welled up.

To think he would appear during Eclipse, of all times. How unfortunate.

Kilian mocked even his own hollow pity and asked:

“Do you want to live, Lunelk Ains?”

“…Cough!”

Still shedding tears, the sharp blue eyes shouted the answer instead.

Are you seriously asking that right now?

Kilian did not bother suppressing his laughter.

His heightened senses always worked solely for him.

Which meant this Lunelk Ains must be someone he needed.

“Let’s see how useful that so-called intuition of yours really is.”

“What… are you… talking about?” the hoarse voice rasped, but Kilian ignored him.

As expected, no matter how he looked at it, the boy’s body was too frail to belong in Knox.

If he ran somewhere, he might not even be found again.

“Yes, there was that method.”

There was a way to track wherever he went.

With a satisfied smile, Kilian reached out again.

As if refusing to be caught so easily this time, Lunelk Ains tried to dodge quickly—but it was useless.

“Ugh! This… let go!”

“Shh. Stay still.”

Kilian grabbed him by the chin, just above the already bruised neck, and pulled him closer.

“If you’re going to kill me… then just kill me!”

“Kill you? Didn’t you just say you didn’t want to die?”

Letting out a rare laugh seen only by his closest subordinates, Kilian brought his other hand to his mouth.

Crunch.

The sound of white teeth biting into the flesh of his palm was so vivid that even Lunelk Ains, who had been struggling, froze.

Drip. Drip.

Blood tinged with golden light mixed with the bloodline fell heavily to the floor.

After confirming enough blood had flowed, Kilian forced Lunelk Ains’s jaw open.

“What are you doing…!”

“Swallow.”

As he clenched his bitten hand, threads of golden-red blood poured down.

“No… I won’t… ngh!”

“Good.”

No matter how much he resisted, to breathe, he had to swallow.

Humans were that fragile.

Only after Lunelk Ains swallowed a few mouthfuls of his blood did Kilian release his jaw.

“Cough, urgh, hack!”

The boy tried desperately to vomit it out, but it was useless.

Once inside, the bloodline had already been absorbed.

As proof, the burst blood vessels around his eyes and the handprints on his neck slowly faded.

Even his face, smeared with Kilian’s blood, was becoming less of a mess.

Kilian spoke in a soft voice:

“Do you know what it means to be a dragon’s retainer?”

“That kind of thing… how would I—cough!”

“It means, quite literally, the dragon’s possession. You’ve just become mine.”

Kilian bent down to meet his eyes, smiling.

“So now, wherever you go, I can sense you. Even if it’s across the western continent. As long as you’re alive, you cannot escape me.”

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Along with his rapidly beating heart, Kilian could clearly feel his own energy circulating through Lunelk Ains’s body.

“I’ve placed a leash on you. So now I’ll give you your first mission.”

His cold golden eyes, like a full moon, gleamed cruelly.

“In five days, by the Day of Earth, find out Knox’s darkest secret.”

Issuing an impossible command, Kilian laughed savagely.

“If you fail… you die.”