"What do you want, your highness?" Lev asked, his voice like rolling waters, the 'your highness' spat out like venom.
"I um…well I…I was wondering if you'd like to go somewhere a bit more private?"
"Unfortunately I can't do that. We have an expedition outside the walls in fifteen minutes. Have a good day, your highness." He walked past her, and she caught a whiff of his scent. He smelled clean and dangerous, like a storm about to happen.
Damn, he'd be a total catch in the real world!
Nina grabbed his sleeve. "Wait! Maybe you should hear me–"
A loud smack filled the air.
It took a couple of seconds for Nina to realize that he had just smacked her hand off.
"Excuse me," Lev said, gripping his sword hard.
Nina swallowed. He hates me! System what do I do?!
[…]
Time continued to tick.
Nina panicked. This man was a wall! What the hell did the original body do to him?!
"Lev!" Nina called out, her voice desperate. He paused, his mane bristling and standing on edge, as if it was a living thing.
The beastman felt shocked. Did that woman just call his name? She never had a shortage of names for him, kitty cat, frosty, big bad…but she never called him by his name.
"A minute of your time, just one minute!"
Disgust filled Lev. Why was she so desperate! It was revolting. Without a doubt she had thought up another disgusting experiment to try on her people.
Her evil knew no bounds.
"That's an order!"
Lev growled.
Nina jumped back, grabbing her heart which was about to burst. He's scary! Should lions even be commanded?! I mean all the documentaries said they're pretty proud! He's gonna kill me!
"The kingdom's safety comes first, your highness. Unless you'd like to explain the hundreds of dead bodies that will pile up by morning."
Dead bodies?
Oh right! The AI beasts that roamed this land, corrupting beastmen and causing widespread panic and deaths. Nina didn't read much to know about them in detail, and they were a background threat in the earlier chapters.
Lev fought those monsters every day, leading the army on dangerous expeditions.
No wonder he's so scary, Nina thought.
Back to the mission!
"Oh I…I understand that the mission is inportant, but come on! It's just one cup of tea! And I bat a little eyelash and we both go about our days! How hard can it be?!"
Lev turned around, his blazing amber eyes pinned on Nina. She squeaked, taking steps back the closer he advanced to her. He paused in front of the tea table, picked up a tea cup and downed the entire hot tea without flinching.
"Good?" He gritted out, a snarl caught in his throat.
Forget it. Seducing this man will never work. I'll have to suffer the blindness. After all, it's only for a while.
[what are you doing?]
"It's okay," Nina said, her head bowed. Her orchid spores darkened till they no longer gave off any light, signaling her downcast mood. "Sorry I bothered you." She mumbled and walked away.
[host! What are you doing?! You have to complete the task!]
"I can't. He's too intimidating. I peed my panties a little."
[get back there and complete the task!]
"It's just a couple hours of blindness. I'll go to sleep so I don't miss out on anything, you know like, my eye sight?"
The system went silent. Too silent. Nina had the idea that she had just crossed a line.
Meanwhile, Lev watched the princess walk away, and a dozen emotions stirred in his cold heart.
What drugs was she experimenting with this afternoon? She wanted to have tea? Spend some time together? The only time they spent together was when she needed fresh lab rats for her absurd experiments.
Lev could barely control his anger.
That woman. After all she did, she dared flash a smile in his face and act like nothing happened. What a despicable person she was!
The only reason she was still alive was because of the king and queen.
She apologized? That woman never apologized for anything. Surely this was a new tactic of hers. A way of getting what she wanted.
With an annoyed huff, he turned on his heel and stormed off, heading to the royal army barracks.
On the other end of the palace, in a dark and damp room, a bat beastman hung from the rafters. Large, membranous wings covered his too thin body, and his thin but large ears twitched, listening to the sounds of the palace.
Conversations. Voices. Secrets. Heartbeats. He heard them all. Filing the information away in a secret vault in his head.
And then, one voice caught his attention.
"I've always wanted to know how blind people felt."
His eyes open, revealing entirely black eyes filled with stars.
That voice. It had to be that flower Princess.
"Fifteen minutes till I'm blind. Heh. And I have a political meeting to attend. Fuck my life."
Huh?
Why did that flower sound so strange? Usually she'd be barking orders at this time of the day, or holed up in her laboratory poring over rare specimens and samples.
The beastman closed his eyes and listened harder. It was hard, but he drowned out all the noises of the palace until he focused on the flower's heartbeat.
And then he heard it.
A beat. Two. Three. The seconds passed as he timed each individual beat.
His eyes flew open. His expressionless face shocked.
Something was wrong with that flower.
Her heartbeat which was usually 40bpm, rarely fkuctuating no matter what happened, was now over 112bpm.
Strange.
This needed to be investigated.
He swooped down from the rafters, landing gracefully on his feet.
"Time to pay my flower wife a visit."