The captain stood above a small hill, observing the falling snow as it landed softly against the houses.
"The following days are going to be magnificent. The blood drenching this pure white will be heavenly."
His eyes fell on the villagers as he continued, "Who knows whose blood will spill, and by whose hands..."
"It would be a real shame if their blood were spilled because of another person, wouldn't it? But at the same time… it would be even more beautiful."
His armor felt heavier as those thoughts settled in.
'I guess I also need to kill him, don't I… but he did save my life. Wait, did he? No, no, he most definitely did. Agh, I sometimes hate my power. But I can't really disobey the king's orders, and that bastard is practically impossible to kill. The only times he's died in the past were when his friends were forced to kill him, but that takes too long, and then the bastard just shows up like, "Yo, I'm back." I still don't know how the hell he does that.'
His thoughts paused for a moment before continuing.
"I miss that bastard…"
Ren was sitting in front of a campfire in the middle of the night.
'Damn it, when is that bastard going to wake up? I really need him.'
Ren was covered in blood—both red and purple—but the red seemed to completely drown out the purple. Right behind him lay a monstrous bear, an Adam. Its breathing was rigid and unnatural, its eyes gouged out, its limbs covered in cuts, and its fur drenched in as much blood as Ren—if not more.
"Damn bastard… damn myself too for being so weak."
Ren clicked his tongue as he looked at his body, then glanced at the fallen Adam.
"You took at least a thousand blows… you better be some kind of king among Adams, because if you're just a normal one, I swear I'll haunt your dreams and kill you all over again."
Ren's eyes lingered on the beast's body before returning to his own, thinking about the pain he had endured because of it.
Ren sluggishly forced his body upright and dropped himself onto the Adam's back. The creature was so weak it didn't even try to resist or lift a limb in protest.
Ren raised his bloodied dagger, aiming it toward the Adam's heart.
"STOP!"
Ren's gaze snapped toward the voice. His eyes locked onto the figure before him, the murderous intent within them suddenly replaced with a strange calm.
"Wow, you're finally up. You sleep for too long, you know that, Ken."
"Wow, seems like you had a whole villain arc while I was gone. What the hell happened?"
"Well, you know… I ran for my life, then got tracked down, then tripped and fell again—alerting my presence—so I had to run for my life once more. Then I needed food, so I found some berries, ate the wrong ones, then finally ate the right ones, so I'm fine now. And lastly, I've been stabbing this bastard with hit-and-run tactics for about three hours, using the trees as cover. So what about you? Did you have a good dream, or are you just happy you got some rest?"
"Well, that's wonderful, but as for my happiness… you could say it's because of what you brought me right now."
"You mean this bastard? What, are you finally going to take a physical form and eat with me?"
Ken looked at Ren as he lowered the dagger toward the Adam's chest.
"I told you to stop, didn't I? If you kill it, you'll only weaken yourself. Especially with our current situation, we need as much strength as possible."
"Fine… then what do you want to do?"
"Simple. We're going to tame it. Considering what you've already done to it, taming it won't be difficult. The hard part is knowing a suitable technique. You need to drench it in your soul energy and then draw a few symbols. Normally that would be very easy."
"So you're telling me to do something I don't understand, and then draw weird symbols that are supposed to tame this beast?"
"Well, when you put it like that, it does sound ridiculous. But that's only because the principles of this world are just as ridiculous. Just trust me. And if you think it's going to be simple, think again—it'll take at least ten minutes just to draw the symbols. Every time you mess up, you'll have to start over from the beginning. We might end up spending the entire night doing this."
"Fine, let's start. I'll be even more annoyed if you're the only one who got rest. Also, have you resolved your issues? You don't seem as pale as before."
"What, you think I'm so weak that a mere enemy could bring me down?"
"Wait, if it's this easy to tame them, then why don't people just tame one at a time and build an army?"
"Well, first, people don't even know this is possible. The only known way to tame monsters is through 'Talents,' but you're using a technique. Second, different monsters have different lifestyles. Adams, for example, are bound by instinct to stay in white environments, meaning they can't leave their natural habitat no matter how much you try. Third… it's because you have such an amazingly magnificent teacher guiding you. Without me, you wouldn't even dream of doing something like this."
"So… I'm just lucky?"
"Yeah, that sums it up."
After hours of attempts and failures, Ren finally reached the last symbol.
"Okay, idiot, last one. Don't you dare fall asleep."
Ken felt the need to say that as he watched Ren's movements slow down. His eyes were closing longer between blinks, and his reactions had dropped to a crawl.
As Ren began drawing the final symbol, his finger moved painfully slowly—not from precision, but from exhaustion.
'If… only they had… coffee…'
Ren's body started to collapse. Ken's eyes widened as he saw Ren's figure slowly falling.
"IDIOT, WAKE UP!"
Ken screamed at the top of his lungs, but it was useless. His voice echoed as he tried again and again.
By sheer luck—or fate—Ren's finger completed the final line just before it slipped away.
"This damn bastard… hmm, well I suppose that's interesting, but right now it's very bad."
Ken's eyes locked onto the Adam. It wasn't normal sleep. The muscle tendons were regenerating, the blood on its fur was seeping back into its body, and the residual soul energy was being absorbed deep within.
'This damn bastard is entering hibernation. I was planning to have it hunt with Ren, but this might take months—at least three for full recovery. The problem is the monster raid is coming within two weeks at most. That's nowhere near enough time to prepare…'
His gaze shifted to Ren's bloodied body. Looking deeper, he saw a boundless sea—like a night sky filled with dark, radiant stars. But something was off.
The stars were all concentrated in the center, while the rest of the vast darkness was nearly empty.
'This idiot used too much. It'll take him nearly a month to recover… unless I teach him another technique. But then he'll start questioning how much I really know. There's still too much I can't tell him.'
Ken hovered above both Ren and the Adam before settling on a nearby tree branch. He glanced at their exhausted bodies, then down at his own hand.
It wasn't injured, but it was unnaturally pale. And running along his wrist was a black strip, embedded into his skin like a mark… almost like a brand.