Chapter 18

Of course, I’ve been to all sorts of places in the East, West, South and North, as Arachne. Well, that’s not important right now. In any case, the eastern part of the country was the most pleasant and pristine.

And as I said before, this was a reverse harem novel about the war set in the very east. The heroine is Annmarie Blanche. There are four leading male characters in total. A brief summary of them are:

1. Callian Crockford. (Special Issue Male Lead)

2. Xenos Sheldon. (Special Issue Protector of the East)

3. Damon Salvatore. (Special Issue Genius Alchemist)

4. Lakis Avalon. (Special Evil) And my worst enemy.

As you can see from his name, the errant male lead character, “Callian Crockford,” was the heir to his family, who ruled the eastern part of the country. He was a very tough man with jet black hair, and in it was a mysterious silver streak.

Callian Crockford was also called the “Eastern Youth” and was a local figure loved by the people. Good looks and bright specs are common among all the love interests, so I can skip the detailed description. In any case, he was the male lead and ended up together with Annmarie in the novel’s ending.

Next up is Xenos Sheldon.

Ha…

I’ll take a breather and quickly pass through this one. Because this was my favorite character who died by Lakis. He was a man who was both good natured and good looking, with beautiful purple eyes like jewelry and hair like fire. If you had to choose who made the heroine Annmarie laugh the most, you’ll pick Xenos without hesitation.

Xenos showed up like a ghost whenever the heroine needed someone to lean on, making him a solid backing. Sometimes friendly, sometimes playful, and sometimes sexy, it was good to have all the charm …Why do I have a feeling that it’s not long before this guy gets banned? If Callion Crockford was the Sword of the East, Xenos Sheldon was the Shield of the East.

Originally he was called the “Protector of the East” but later the phrase “tragic” was added to the fore. It has to do with his past, and I’m going to get through that right now. A few years ago, at the time of the novel’s inception, Xenos was excommunicated from his post for some reason.

So, he abandoned his status and lived in hiding before meeting with Annmarie.

In short, he was a recluse in the past.

Later on, he gets his status back, but ends up dying because of Lakis anyways …Well, I’m sick of saying that, so let’s go over to the next explanation. Next was Damon Salvatore, the great alchemist who made the many things that are now used in people’s daily lives, including the popular one-touch lights, heaters, and freezers.

With blue hair like waves and black eyes, he had a tough personality, unlike his cute and harmless looking appearance. Still, his gruffness was not as bad as Lakis’, so it was cute in its own way. Lastly, I think we can skip the description of Lakis, the villain. It’s enough to say that it was a bad role, and I’ve already explained it before. The men’s competition over Annmarie was really bloody, and their popularity polls were also boundless.

A saint like Annmarie was fair-hearted to everyone, so in the last minute, it wasn’t clear where her heart was pointing to exactly. Would she still be so friendly to the villain, Lakis? Of course, her affection to him came to an end after learning that he had tried to kill her sister, Hestia. Lakis, who brought about Annmarie’s hatred and resentment, reached the limit of his patience and eventually kidnapped her.

So the second half of the novel unfolded into Annmarie’s rescue, trapped in Carnot. I remember reading the novel and suspecting that it would either end in a neutral ending or a doomsday ending.

Because my favorite character died in the middle of it.

Oh, I thought about that Lakis Avalon again. I was trying to be a little bit more cheerful.

But shouldn’t I just try to save him?

“Here, the money for the coffee!”

Then, Snow who had drank his coffee quietly as usual, called out to me.

“I had a good drink today. I have to water Lagi now, so I’m leaving!”

Lagi? I think it’s Lagi because it’s short for sunflowers. I can’t believe he’s naming his sunflowers. He did it sloppily as well. (T/N: the romanization of sunflower in korean is ‘haebalagi’ so i guess that’s why but don’t quote me on that haha)

Anyway, Snow, who had drank all of his coffee, got up from his seat with a smile on his face. He still held the yellow sunflowers in his arms as though they were the most precious things in the world.

Caw!

Flap!

“Ahhhhh….”

And when I heard the screams of Snow leaving the store, I thought, ‘As always.’

“Well, that customer always gets pooped on in front of our store.”

Mr. Gilbert, clicking his tongue as if used to it, took out a towel and headed for Snow. Snow had a unique talent. It was getting pooped on by birds. Like a lightning rod, he was a man who attracted bird poop to him. But in fact, I knew why Snow only got pooped on in front of the coffee house.

As I lifted my head, I saw a black bird flapping its wings and flying majestically near the store. It was a crow. I shook my head, thinking that things worse than Snow were to come.

***

The sun went down, and the night began. By late evening, there were things moving around in the dark.

Those who were more accustomed to the night than to the day. It could be some human, animal, anything, or an unknown creature. She couldn’t define their existence. She saw one of them, and set foot into the cemetery on the outskirts of the city in pursuit of the familiar figure.

Hwii.

There was a groaning breeze blowing through the quiet space.

Yuri pulled a black hood over her head that she had prepared in advance, and moved silently through the trees to avoid the gazes of people. She lowered herself quietly using a web and was soon in front of a tombstone. At the tombstone with the black hood over her head, Yuri had a purpose of coming here today,

“Leo.”

She whispered the name through her mouth.

At that moment, there was a ‘grr’ sound and a beast crept out of the darkness. Although it was a harsh sound that could have threatened her, Yuri found it hard to understand the emotion called “anxiety.”

“I’m not mad, come here.”

Once again a dry voice rang through the cemetery.

Only then did the dark figure lurking in the shadows begin to falter. It lifted it’s head from behind the tombstone and stared at Yuri. Soon it jumped out with it’s four feet and leaped at Yuri.

“Yu, Yuri…”

King, Kiing!

A young boy with bushy brown hair quickly hugged Yuri’s waist with big round eyes.

His actions and sounds were like a downright beast, but his appearance was close to a human’s. If it wasn’t for his animal ears, tail, and yellow eyes giving off a bright look that could be seen in the dark.

“Keulog!”

“Yes, I told you. I’m not mad.’

“Kkiiing, Keueung!”

“No, that doesn’t mean you did a good job. I told you not to eat all that dirty stuff before or you’ll get a stomachache.”

The boy who was scolded quickly turned sour and his eyes were bathed in a bright gold. The boy Yuri called Leo was together with her in the laboratory experiment. He also suffered a metamorphosis due to the fragments he had absorbed, which led to him having the characteristics of an animal.

The reason why Yuri is having a conversation with Leo right now is because it was the boy in front of her that killed the man who was following her not long ago. (T/N: the dude at the garbage site that was k’oed)

I could see right away that it was Leo’s work when I saw that the liver had just disappeared as if someone had intentionally pulled it out of the man’s body.

“And I had to get information out of him, so I would have left him alive on purpose. But you killed him and made things complicated.”

Leo had stopped growing since he was 13 years old, where he was first tested at the institute.

(PG23) Furthermore, his animal instincts towards the opposite sex were stronger than average because of the failed experiment. As a result, he often made mistakes. Again, it was clear that he had secretly followed Yuri’s tracks, tried to harm her, and attacked her on impulse because he could not recognize the existence of a person and overcome his instincts. But in the meantime, if he looked at a liver, a fox was a fox.

“So reflect on yourself. Maybe I’ll get really upset next time.”

Leo sunk down at Yuri’s words with a ‘kiing’. His ears that were revealed through his thick brown hair and the tail that was attached to the buttocks were also shrunk.