“We’re here. Wake up.”

Jina’s eyes snapped open at the secretary’s voice.

Darkness had completely swallowed the world outside. Through the windshield, a magnificent mansion loomed, its sheer grandeur amplified by the spotlights carving it out of the night.

This is the kind of place I only read about in books.

She knew what this was, a quintessential fixture in novels about the beautiful, ruthless English countryside.

It had once been a royal hunting preserve. Though the ownership had changed, it remained a sanctuary where ordinary people were forbidden to tread.

As the car coasted to a halt, a waiting staff member opened the door. Kushi, stiff from its long confinement, was the first to leap out, shaking itself free of the journey.

Jina followed. Her own body creaked in protest from the endless sitting, but she had no time for a leisurely stretch.

As she hurried to find the kitchen, Ian appeared.

“Jina.”

He greeted her from the top of the grand staircase, looking down.

“My apologies for calling you all the way out here so suddenly. But I had no choice. I’ll be staying here for quite some time.”

Maybe it was the distance in time since she’d last seen him. Her mouth felt strangely dry, a sudden knot of tension coiling in her gut as she faced him.

Jina forced the words out.

“It’s fine. I’m just doing my job, as the contract stipulates. There’s nothing to apologize for. More importantly, I need to get to the kitchen first…”

She tried to brush past him, but Ian stopped her just as she was about to enter the main hall.

“Aren’t you going to ask why I called you here?”

To his words, Jina replied, her voice barely a whisper.

“You said you were going fox hunting.”

Fox hunting had been outlawed years ago. To say it out loud—to acknowledge the crime—felt like breaking a physical law.

“Yes. We’ve herded an old, foolish female fox from a distant place here.”

Ian smiled brightly at Jina, a predator’s grin.

“It will be a very interesting hunt.”

Jina was already stressed by the people she was forced to work with again.

“Are you the new person who joined the Aylesford kitchen?”

A strange chef, his tone heavy with undisguised mockery, addressed Jina. This was the eighth time she had heard that same question since she’d arrived.

I thought they only gossiped among friends.

It seemed the notoriously difficult Aylesford hiring exam was industry legend.

Otherwise, why would every person entering the kitchen feel the need to ask this?

If only they asked. Some people openly displayed their contempt and hostility.

“Hey! Watch where the hell you’re going!”

Just like now.

Jina stared at the man who had clearly been the aggressor, then down at the frying pan scattered across the stone floor.

The steak, which she’d been hastily preparing as mealtime rapidly approached, was ruined—streaks of raw meat smeared everywhere.

Damn it.

Jina bit the inside of her lip and looked up at the man who had picked the fight.

He looked familiar. Too familiar. He had the same brutal look as the vice-captain who’d pinned her at the hotel and handed her over to Jeremy.

They say people act like their appearance.

Are people who look alike also similar in their actions?

“If you bump into someone, you should apologize!”

In the past, a yell like that might have made her flinch, but now, she felt nothing. No fear.

I see such terrible things every day, and this is…

She froze, startled by her own internal monologue.

I see terrible things every day?

Jina tried to mentally list what she’d seen. She’d gone out recently, but only twice.

Other than that, she’d been confined to the mansion.

At the mansion, she always saw the same faces: the kitchen staff, the secretaries, the guards.

Very occasionally, the Chairman from afar. And only Ian and Kushi.

At that moment, a chill, like icy water, raced down her spine. The answer had found her.

“Hey, are you listening to me?”

Jina stood there, blank and immobile, as the man barked at her again.

Instead of answering, she reached out and grabbed a water pitcher from the counter. Then, without hesitation, she poured the entire contents into the pot boiling fiercely on the gas stove.

The man’s stew, minutes away from being finished, instantly overflowed with watery slop.

“You—you fucking crazy! What the hell are you doing!”

The man lunged toward his spoiled pot, but it was too late. He stared blankly at the ruined ingredients floating in the liquid, then spun back around.

“This!”

He raised his fist, poised to strike her.

This wasn’t the first time she had been faced with violence in this industry. Sometimes the crazed ones wielded knives.

It has been a while, though.

She used to encounter incidents like this often in her previous job, but never at the Aylesford mansion. It was merely a surprise.

Jina took a single step back and reached for a container on the counter. It was filled with cooking oil.

She glanced pointedly at the heated frying pan next to the man’s pot.

“Hey, want to see what real crazy looks like?”

The man, who had been advancing on Jina, flinched and stepped back.

He figured she might pour the oil next. While cooking oil alone wasn’t a fatal weapon, he didn’t want to think about what she might do after pouring it onto a heated pan.

If she was determined, the kitchen was full of dangerous implements. A knife just happened to be closest to Jina.

Realizing she wasn’t the easy mark he thought, the man could only glare, his jaw locked shut.

Jina chuckled—a low, cynical sound—put down the container, and waved a dismissive hand.

“Your stew looks delicious. Make it well, then.”

With all that water poured in, it would take forever to cook again.

And the taste would be inferior, naturally.

She turned away without a backward glance. She heard his curses trailing behind her, but she didn’t bother to turn.

Another chef in the hallway chuckled and called out to Jina as she walked past.

“That guy griped for a month after failing the Aylesford mansion exam.”

So that was it.

Jina acknowledged him with a quick nod and headed toward the auxiliary kitchen.

The manor attached to the hunting ground was massive—just as large as the Aylesford residence she was used to.

Consequently, there was a kitchen in every structure.

Before leaving, Jina pulled Ian’s VIP ingredients from the refrigerator and made straight for the staff kitchen.

If I had my mobile phone, I could have contacted them.

The staff here had confiscated all their phones the moment they stepped into the mansion last night. They were also subjected to body and luggage searches.

Since she had brought minimal luggage, the search was quick, but the loss of her phone left her with an unnerving sense of emptiness all day.

I should probably tell one of the staff here, right?

She was about to announce that Ian’s meal would be delayed when Kushi, who’d been waiting outside, approached her, tail wagging eagerly.

Normally, seeing Kushi would make her happy, but recently, the dog’s proximity felt strangely unsettling.

Jina looked at the happily wagging dog for a moment, then said in a flat voice.

“Can you tell your master the meal will be a little late?”

As she spoke, she looked toward the main building. She was only permitted access to the underground kitchen of that structure.

The sprawling space from the first to the third floor was reserved as a private area for the guests—inaccessible to anyone but the cleaning staff.

I can’t help it.

Jina recalled the parade of arriving guests.

New cars, all luxury sedans, had been pulling up to the hunting ground non-stop since morning.

In the afternoon, one vehicle stood out.

It was heavily fortified, followed by escort cars front and back. The sedan itself looked exceptionally long and armored.

As expected. The man who stepped out of the car was someone Jina knew well.

The former Prime Minister, wasn’t it?

A face she had seen countless times on the news stepped out, radiating an aura of crude arrogance.

Maybe royalty will come next.

That cynical thought immediately became reality.

Sure enough, the Queen’s second son, a man frequently photographed, appeared with a host of bodyguards.

Seeing the caliber of the glamorous guests, Jina finally understood why the staff here had seized their phones and conducted such thorough checks.

If word got out that they were here for a ‘fox hunt,’ it would cause a huge uproar.

Especially since this fox hunt involved the use of guns. Historically, guns were not part of the tradition.

While they were used at times depending on the era, historically only hunting dogs were supposed to be involved…

It’s a hunt organized because the ‘high-ranking officials’ want to shoot guns.

The secretary had even kindly explained that they would use silenced firearms to avoid reports of gunshots, emphasizing that Jina should keep her mouth shut.

Whine.

Did he understand everything she’d just thought?

Kushi circled Jina, whose hands were still refusing to pet its head. The dog eventually drooped its tail and trotted into the mansion.

Its appearance was pitiable, but the chilling feeling returned, and Jina shivered.

She kept thinking of the earring Kushi had spat out.

It was still so strange. How could such an intelligent dog swallow a human’s belonging?

And stranger still, that it only choked a little.

If it had been any other dog, it would have been a disaster from the moment it swallowed it. But Kushi had been eerily calm. As if it had swallowed much larger things before.

Lost in thought for a moment, Jina hurried toward the kitchen in the annex. She couldn’t allow Ian to eat so much later than everyone else.

He does tend to eat anything, though.

As she stepped into the staff kitchen, contemplating the quickest dish she could prepare, she heard a voice.

“Oh? Jina? Is that really Jina?”

Jina spun around, wondering who on earth would recognize her here, and her eyes widened.

“Jessie!”

It was Jessie, the only staff member who had offered her assistance at the hotel.

Thanks to Jessie’s help, Jina managed to deliver Ian’s meal right on schedule.

After handing over the food, she returned to the kitchen, where Jessie was already cleaning the cooking utensils.

Jessie had been sharp and efficient even when they’d worked together at the hotel, making her easy to work alongside.

Jina also took off her apron and started tidying the counter. With the two of them working in tandem, the kitchen was quickly spotless.

As soon as they finished cleaning and headed up to the staff lounge, Jessie spread her arms wide.

“Jina! I can’t believe we’re meeting again here! I’m so happy!”

As Jessie hugged her enthusiastically and blew air kisses, Jina allowed herself a small, genuine smile.

“I thought you didn’t want to contact me because you never replied to my messages or answered my calls!”

Jessie, momentarily on the verge of tears, lowered her voice.

“I was so surprised when I came back to work and you were completely gone. Later, the general manager vaguely mentioned something about you having a bad experience, so I thought that’s why you weren’t contacting me.”

“It’s not like that. It’s a long story… I lost my mobile phone, and all my contacts were wiped. On top of that, everything was blocked arbitrarily. So I couldn’t contact my friends… To get your contact information, I would have had to contact the hotel again, and I couldn’t do that.”

Jessie nodded, her eyes wide with understanding at Jina’s explanation.

“Right. And with the incident involving the vice-chef and the general manager, it would have been even more awkward to contact me.”

“Huh? Did something happen to them?”

Jessie’s eyes went even wider, as if she couldn’t fathom Jina’s ignorance.

“You didn’t know? The vice-chef who bullied you died a few weeks after you quit. And… the general manager vanished.”

“What?”

“The vice-chef was found dead in his home. A colleague who knew he was absent went to check on him. The door was open, so they went inside to look for him…”

Though the lounge was empty, Jessie lowered her voice further, leaning in to whisper the gruesome details.

“He was found dead on his bed, eyes wide open, foaming at the mouth. The person who reported the body quit immediately and is now seeing a psychiatrist.”

Jessie shivered as if she’d witnessed the scene herself.

“Later, the police said it was a heart attack, and that his expression might have been due to the pain, but… what crime did the person who went to find him commit? The people working in the kitchen at the time checked the online articles, and they said there were bite marks on his fingertips. But the vice-chef didn’t own a dog, so there was speculation that a stray dog that came through the open door might have bitten him. Online, they were talking about it being a legendary black dog or something.”

Black dog.

At the words, Jina immediately thought of Kushi.

Though a dog that only stayed in the mansion couldn’t have gone to someone’s house whose whereabouts were unknown.

“What’s even more puzzling is that the general manager was captured on camera entering his home, but not leaving. He just vanished without a trace. The hotel was in an uproar for a while because of that. Even though he was a cold and unpleasant person, he was good at his job.”

The more Jessie spoke, the more Jina’s stomach clenched.

Disappearance.

Death.

Words she had only ever seen in the news had been circling her for months, from last year to this year.

It started with those who entered the Kno Diarg Mansion.

Two deaths, two disappearances. And perhaps another person who would meet an unfortunate end.

Then came the Carrington family.

Jeremy Carrington became an imbecile, and the Count died with a broken neck.

And hadn’t Ian indirectly said that those who kidnapped Jina would also meet an unfortunate end?

Yet, even the hotel staff met such fates.

Suddenly, she realized the terrifying commonality among those who met such fates.

They were people connected to her.

This is paranoia.

Jina shook her head vigorously. It was a wild, baseless thought. She was just seeing the world through her own warped perspective.

In this vast land, thousands die every day, and a considerable number go missing.

The numbers she had encountered were a tiny fraction of that global tragedy. Because she heard it from acquaintances, it felt close, personal, like a curse.

But no matter how hard she tried, the chilling certainty wouldn’t dissipate.

“Jina?”

“Ah, sorry. I was a bit startled.”

“It’s understandable. Honestly, everyone was relieved. You know what a piece of trash the vice-chef was.”

Jina nodded at the harsh but honest assessment. She still sometimes dreamed of that day. Jeremy dragging her by the hair.

And the vice-chef, who had pinned her down as she ran and taken a handful of cash from Jeremy.

In her imagination, she had killed them countless times. She’d often stopped her own thoughts, startled by the horrific, brutal ways she’d invented to kill them.

And yet, she was surprised by the news of his death by a heart attack.

“Is everyone else alright?”

“Of course. Is the hotel haunted? Are people going to keep dying?”

Jessie, recognizing the sudden, dark shift in Jina’s expression, clapped her shoulder with an exaggerated cheerfulness. Then, she pulled a can from the lounge refrigerator and pressed the cold metal deliberately against Jina’s cheek.

The sharp chill snapped Jina out of her thoughts.

“To celebrate our reunion, for now.”

Jina managed a smile, raising her can to clink against Jessie’s.

They settled in, trading stories about the hell and high water they’d both endured since the hotel.

It wasn’t long, however, before a sound tore through the quiet lounge: the furious barking of dogs. Not just one, but many. The cacophony grew steadily louder.

“What is it?”

They moved to the window. Below, a cluster of hunting dogs were snapping and howling at the twilight air.

“The hunting dogs are here,” Jessie murmured. “They say those things cost a fortune.”

“Hmm.”

Jina watched them, her gaze detached.

Their shaggy faces made them look almost innocent, but their bodies were pure muscle, sleek and devoid of any excess fat. They were coiled wires, menacing and ready to spring. The sight brought Kushi immediately to Jina’s mind.

He said he’d use Kushi as a hunting dog.

Jina had always thought Kushi was lean, but next to these honed machines, the Aylesford dog seemed altogether too well-fed.

Will they be able to hunt like this?

The secretary in the car had looked worried sick, mentioning they were only using a single hunting dog: Kushi.

I know he’s smart, but I don’t think he’ll be good at hunting.

Just then, Kushi was led out by the secretary. Unlike his earlier freedom, he was now restrained by a leash, an unwilling recruit to the hunting pack.

The moment they saw Kushi, the hunting dogs bared their teeth, their growls intensifying. They recognized the dog as an outsider—different color, different build—and they treated him with immediate contempt.

A strange pang hit Jina. Poor thing.

She’d been keeping Kushi at arm’s length lately, unnerved by the chilling feeling he provoked, but seeing him scorned by his peers made her heart ache with sympathy.

Kushi didn’t bark, nor did he back down. He simply stood silent, observing the snarling dogs.

Then, he turned away. The hunting dogs, taking this as an insult, let loose a fierce, unified chorus of howls.

Maybe I should feed him some meat separately later.

She had never once seen Kushi’s food bowl back at the mansion, assuming the staff handled his feeding. She wished now she’d paid closer attention to his preferences.

Jina drained her can, mentally scrolling through the dog-friendly recipes she knew.

If he came back defeated and dejected tomorrow, after the hunt, she would make it for him.

Andy drove slowly, the car crawling along the narrow secondary road. He yawned widely.

His face was haggard as he muttered, “God, I need coffee…”

He’d spent the last several days at the local library, entrenched from dawn until dusk.

The materials he sought were a bizarre mix: local legends, folklore, ancient tax records, and archived incident reports. He’d piled them so high that the bewildered librarian had eventually asked if he was from a university research lab.

When the librarian refused him copies, citing damage from light, he simply said he’d take photographs and flashed his Metropolitan Police ID.

The librarian, initially helpful, had become curt and standoffish the moment she realized he was a cop from London.

But after painstakingly copying or photographing everything he needed, he’d spent the entire day in a cafe, sifting through the results.

The mansion is older than I thought.

Buried in a restored local history book, he found the name Kno Diag.

The record dated back to the fifteenth century.

When he’d taken the case, Kno Diag was just listed as an old Scottish manor. He’d expected it to be a couple of centuries old at most. This place had been here for far, far longer.

The content of the record was astonishing.

[Behold, that pit of darkness. No matter how grand the house deceives the eye, it is a prison. Cast the red hair into the pit! That which struck fear into Casar swallowed the last warrior of the Milesians, and the last warrior of the Tuatha Dé Danann!]

Even five hundred years ago, Kno Diag had been a magnificent house. And the Milesians and Tuatha Dé Danann?

It even mentions the ‘Book of the Invasion of Ériu’—that’s an eleventh-century Gaelic text… which means this might be over a thousand years old.

Different peoples had lived on this land, but most had been brief, leaving little behind in the way of civilization. Yet, even then, there was a magnificent house.

And it mentioned a pit of darkness.

The official report had described the pit where Ian Aylesford and his companions fell as deep, dark, and utterly inescapable.

A house built over a pit from which there was no way out.

His gut told him the ‘pit of darkness’ in the ancient text was the same damned place.

After driving a while longer, he spotted a roadside sign. The name painted on it made Andy’s expression lift.

It was a tiny village, only seven miles from Kno Diag.

They said a pub and a shop would be open late.

A local officer, hearing he was heading to Kno Diag, had recommended this village, saying he should eat here first.

“I need to get some coffee first.”

Andy pressed the accelerator. But as he coasted into the village, his face quickly clouded with disappointment.

“…There’s nothing here?”

Not a single window was lit. Forget a pub or a shop—there wasn’t even a single house with life. If not for the streetlights, he would have driven right past without realizing a village stood here at all.

“My coffee…”

He pulled over, sighed, and slumped, burying his face in the steering wheel.

He’d planned to eat at the supposed late-night pub, rest, and then take a room in the lodging upstairs before tackling Kno Diag.

Should I turn back?

He calculated the nearest lodging. It would take just as long to get back to the library as it would to reach Edinburgh.

“I’m so sleepy, damn it.”

He rubbed his face, but the bone-deep fatigue was immune to the gesture.

As he hesitated, a flicker of movement caught his eye in the window of a dark house.

Andy killed the engine, got out, and flattened himself against the cold stone of a nearby building, his eyes locked on the window.

In the glow of the lone streetlight, the village was unnervingly silent.

After a long wait, the movement came again. A human face, distinct this time. It peeked out, quickly scanning his car.

The inside was too dark to make out features, but it was definitely a man.

It’s not the homeowner.

If it were the homeowner, they wouldn’t be watching so furtively.

Andy slipped away, moving behind the building he was pressed against. He rounded a few corners, came out onto a parallel street, and approached the rear of the house.

Moving along the wall to the back door, he saw a mailbox practically bursting with letters.

Andy pulled out the most faded piece of mail and checked the postmark with his phone’s light.

About three months ago?

The homeowner hadn’t checked his mail in three months.

He studied the house. Dry grass littered the yard, yet the window frames and walls showed signs of recent, expensive maintenance.

Someone who cared for their property wouldn’t let the mail pile up. The owner must have been gone for a long, long time.

Click.

Andy pulled a telescopic baton from his pocket and snapped it open.

Damn it. I should have borrowed a taser.

He’d left his own gear at home due to airline regulations. He’d tried to borrow a taser from the local police, but they’d refused, demanding permits.

This baton was all he had for protection.

He gave his arm a practice swing. If I had known, I should have exercised more regularly. He was a bit out of practice, but too late for regrets now.

Baton in hand, he flattened himself against the wall next to the door. He was curious about the intruder; the intruder would be just as curious about the unfamiliar car.

The second peek at his car convinced him. They wouldn’t stay hidden.

His guess wasn’t wrong.

He sensed a presence just beyond the wood.

A pause, then the faint click of a lock being turned. Andy yanked the door open with brutal force and lunged inside.

Crash!

He immediately tackled the body to the floor, twisting their wrists behind their back, his weight pinning them down.

“Aaaah! Help me! I—I didn’t do anything! I just got scared and came in!”

No violent resistance. The intruder was subdued too easily and immediately confessed to sneaking in.

And the voice… it was one Andy knew.

“…Mr. Rob Fisher?”

“Huh? Wh-who are you? Do you know me?”

“Oh, damn it. My God.”

Rob Fisher. Andy quickly folded the telescopic baton and slid it into his inner pocket in the dark. As if he had never drawn a weapon against a civilian in the first place.

He released Rob’s hands, stood, and helped the man to his feet.

Rob coughed, rubbing his throat. Andy patted his back, feigning concern.

“Let’s get a light on first.”

Andy fumbled for a switch. A click, and a decorative wall lamp illuminated the room.

Rob, still wheezing, immediately rushed to the window and yanked the curtains shut.

In the dim, enclosed space, the two men stared.

“Uh, Inspector Haywood? Why are you here…”

“That’s what I should be asking. Your parents are worried sick, what the hell are you doing breaking into houses? And are you hurt? You need to stop landing yourself in dangerous situations.”

Andy ran a rough hand through his hair, his eyes falling on the kitchen. He took a deep breath. “Let’s have a cup of coffee and talk.”

“So… you came all the way out here to find Kno Diag, got scared, and decided to break into someone’s abandoned house instead?”

Rob just lowered his head, a timid, trembling young man.

“I was hoping to find a saw or a large hammer here.”

His statement was only a few degrees short of a terrorist threat.

Andy shook his head and took a large sip of his coffee. The homeowner, it turned out, was a coffee connoisseur. The kitchen was stocked with specialty beans and equipment.

Fortunately, the sealed beans hadn’t lost their flavor.

Andy silently approved of the homeowner’s taste, making a mental note to leave plenty of cash for the beans when he left.

He’d brewed three cups and already downed two, then looked pointedly at Rob’s untouched mug.

Rob suddenly lifted his head, his eyes burning. “But you can see it now too, right? That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? Ian, that monster!”

Rob, excitement surging into hysteria, launched out of his seat. The cheap table shook violently. Andy quickly snatched his own mug, and then, subtly, Rob’s as well.

Finishing the last dregs, Andy stood up, his expression deliberately gentle, and patted Rob’s shoulder.

“There, there. Let’s calm down. As it happens, I have quite a bit to talk to you about regarding that.”

He downed the lukewarm coffee, went outside, and returned shortly with a banker’s box overflowing with documents.

“That’s…”

“It’s the information your parents gave me. Right. Now, let’s contact them first. They’ve been worried sick…”

The moment Andy pulled out his phone, Rob slapped his hand away, a rough, desperate strike.

“No! My parents must not know!”

“Ah, of course, they’d be upset if they knew their adult son was trying to commit a felony. But even so, I need to notify them of your whereabouts—”

“It’s not like that! My parents must not know! That way, Ian won’t bother them!”

Rob couldn’t control his emotions. He started sobbing, his words coming out in hysterical, tear-choked stammers. “It crawled out. What we mistakenly locked up has been released into the world. Inspector, do you know why this village is a ghost town? These people knew before anyone else and they ran. Maybe some of them even took their own lives. In their homes, or out there in the wilderness, right next door…”

Rob turned his head.

“You think I’m crazy, don’t you? You think I’m just some lunatic obsessed with occult nonsense?”

Andy slowly set down the coffee cup.

“No.”

He ran a hand over his face.

His frantic searches for folklore and ancient records in that small-town library hadn’t been born out of mere intellectual curiosity.

“Do you happen to know Detective Dicastker?”

“I remember him. He was the one who initially took the case, I think.”

“That’s right. He hanged himself a few days ago. But before he did that, he gouged out his own eyes. His family said he kept screaming that he could see the monster. This happened right after I sent him the photos you sent me, and the photo of Ian Aylesford.”

Rob’s eyes went wide, then filled with raw terror.

“The problem is, he’s not the only one who died.”

Andy had requested a personnel inquiry from the Scottish Police. He needed to know if the officers deployed to Kno Diag were all currently working and safe.

At first, the officer-in-charge had been annoyed by the troublesome request, but a few days later, he’d called back, his voice trembling.

“What is it? Why so many…”

A total of sixty-seven personnel had been deployed to the Kno Diag case—officers drafted from all surrounding areas, as it was too large a force for one region to handle. After the rescue, everyone returned to their own districts.

And the incidents occurred at different times, making it difficult to connect them.

“The confirmation showed that the first person to start saying strange things was an officer named Mark. He was the first to arrive at Kno Diag after the initial report.”

He quit his job within weeks. It took time to realize what was happening to him.

According to the local police findings, out of the sixty-seven people, twenty-one showed signs of mental instability or delirium, and six had died in the intervening months, including Detective Dicastker.

Six deaths in just a few months was far too high a number for this type of incident.

“And… they said the others aren’t in good condition, either.”

They were easily fatigued, their tempers frayed. Reports of depression, unexplainable anxiety, and mysterious body aches were all increasing.

The bewildered investigating officer had muttered, “What on earth is going on? Is there radiation at Kno Diag or something?”

“That’s why I intend to thoroughly investigate the cause. To do that, I need to be able to see the monster, just like you.”

“But you can’t see it, can you, Inspector?”

“I probably will, starting tomorrow.”

“What?”

“If my theory is correct, the phenomenon of Ian Aylesford appearing as a monster is only visible to those who entered Kno Diag.”

Andy was swamped by a sudden wave of responsibility and guilt.

He’d taken the phrase ‘seeing the monster’ too lightly, dismissing it as a mild mental delusion. But his actions had killed Detective Dicastker.

Another officer had reported frequent sleep paralysis and increased mental sensitivity after the incident. But the extreme choice Dicastker made was undoubtedly triggered by the photos Andy had sent.

If that was the case, he couldn’t possibly back down.

“We’ll rest today, get prepared, and then we’ll go to Kno Diag together. But before that.”

Andy stood up and placed the banker’s box, full of Rob’s documents, on the table.

“Tell me everything you know.”

The following day, the fox hunt began.

Though it was called a fox hunt, the vast private estate was also home to deer and roe deer.

“We have the rifles for tomorrow,” one man laughed. “Let’s enjoy tradition today.”

While everyone was laughing about the thrill of the hunt, Chairman Aylesford’s expression was dark.

Another chairman, a man of staggering wealth, had asked where he’d brought such a black dog, calling it unlucky and demanding it be removed.

He had certainly not expected such an open display of superstition from a man with such considerable wealth.

The acquaintance of Count Carrington, whose own lead hound guided the pack, jeered at Chairman Aylesford with a sneer.

But his laughter didn’t last.

The chorus of the dogs, which had erupted and plunged into the forest, cut out abruptly. A moment later, they backed out, their tails tucked tight between their legs.

“What in God’s name? Why are these brutes acting like this?”

Flustered by the unprecedented silence, the people reined in their mounts. The dog handlers, equally surprised, rushed to check the condition of their animals.

All the dogs were a trembling, shivering mass. Some limped, pissing themselves in terror; others stumbled and simply collapsed.

The keepers’ expressions turned grim as they registered the sheer panic of the pack.

The usual paranoia—anti-hunt radicals and poison—flickered through their minds. But they knew instantly this was not that kind of sickness.

“Blood?”

The dogs were mostly white, speckled with brown; the drops of fresh blood on their coats stood out like rust.

A kill? Already?

They’d released a fox earlier to excite the esteemed guests. Had one been caught and killed so quickly, leaving no place to hide?

But the dogs of a successful kill didn’t tremble; they trotted back with tails high, demanding praise, a ripped carcass offered like a trophy. Not this.

What hell had they seen inside that terrified them more than the kill itself?

A chill, inexplicable and profound, settled over the keepers. They dismounted, cautiously approaching the treeline.

“Should’ve brought the twelve-gauge.”

As one of them drew the stun gun he carried for emergencies, the others braced themselves to enter the woods.

Just then, a dry, rustling sound reached them from within.

“……!”

Every muscle tensed as they stared into the thicket. They knew this land. It wasn’t a deep wood, held no beasts capable of threatening a man in England.

Yet, despite that knowledge, their breath hitched with tension, and cold sweat traced paths down their spines.

Rustle.

Along with the sound of leaves crunching, whatever was inside revealed itself.

A single, collective sigh of relief broke the tension.

“What is it? Isn’t that Chairman Aylesford’s dog?”

What emerged from the forest was a single black dog.

The keepers looked back into the dense trees. The strange, sickening dread they had felt moments before was already fading.

One of them ventured in. No other beasts were found.

“Anything?”

“No. Signs of a struggle, and blood splattered everywhere, but not a scrap of fur. Impossible to swallow a fox whole. What the hell was this…”

The lead keeper, a hunter for decades, was baffled by the evidence of a hunt he’d never seen before.

He searched further, but no other tracks were visible.

When they returned, unable to keep the others waiting, they noticed something had shifted.

The black dog, its coat slick with something dark that looked like wet fur, now stood at the head of the trembling pack.

The black dog started running in another direction, and the frightened dogs, tails tucked, slowly followed the new leader.

Only then did the keepers realize what was missing.

The original lead dog—Carrington’s prized brute—was gone.

And so, the first day of the hunt ended in a contented hush, save for the Count’s acquaintance who had lost an outrageously expensive dog.

The most satisfied person was Chairman Aylesford.

The man who had openly ridiculed him for bringing a common black cur, a dog not even of a proper hunting breed, had been silenced. Aylesford’s dog now commanded the pack.

Not only that, but the tally of the day’s foxes exceeded any previous gathering.

“Good God, Aylesford. Where did you get that thing?” A noble acquaintance, unable to mask his awe, approached.

Hunting dogs were trained instruments of brutality, meant to find and tear the fox apart. The keepers’ sole duty was to intervene, yanking the carcass from the frenzied jaws before the sport devolved into complete butchery.

It was a near-impossible task to fight through a pack in the throes of a kill.

But the new lead dog—the black one—knew the timing better than any man.

It would let the pack descend, the tearing commence, and then, at the precise, chilling moment, it would issue a single, low growl. The frenzied dogs, impossible for the keepers to control, would instantly drop the kill and back away, tails low. The black dog would then retrieve the mangled fox, delivering it untouched to the noblemen.

Every eye was fixed on the creature, a beast that seemed to possess an instinctive understanding of the hunt’s grim enjoyment, even its aesthetics.

“I’d pay a fortune just to know where it was trained.”

“Could I know, too?”

The same men who had distanced themselves from the ‘common’ black dog now clustered around Aylesford, showering him with praise, their gazes subtle yet hopeful.

Aylesford puffed out his chest, enjoying the subtle shift in power. He answered, a casual dismissal in his voice,

“My grandson brought the dog, so I wouldn’t know much about it. I’ll have to ask him when we get back.”

When those who had gone hunting returned, Ian came out from the mansion to greet them.

“Welcome back. Did you catch anything?”

The Chairman dismounted, clapping Ian on the shoulder.

“Of course. A great pleasure. I wish your health had permitted you to join us.”

Ian had excused himself with poor health, but Aylesford’s primary objective—Ian’s successful mingling—had been met, so he hadn’t pressed the issue.

“And everyone was asking where the dog came from.” As he said this, the Chairman glanced at Kushi.

“Tell them whatever you think is appropriate.”

Ian simply nodded, understanding the instruction: maintain the mystery. Be vague.

“I need to rest. You’re going out again tomorrow, aren’t you?”

“Yes. I wanted to try shooting a rifle.”

The Chairman paused, a flicker of confusion crossing his face. Ian loved shooting. He’d traveled abroad from a young age just for the sport. Why did he speak of it as a novelty? Before Aylesford could question it, other guests descended on Ian.

Jina headed to the annex, carrying a bowl full of boiled meat.

The staff member posted at the annex door eyed her with immediate suspicion. “What is it you want?”

“I brought some food for our dog to eat…”

“I have no notification for that. Which staff are you?” The man’s tone was sharp, his suspicious gaze unwavering.

“Uh, the dog is called Kushi. The black one. He belongs to the Aylesford party…”

“Ah,” he said, the name striking him with sudden clarity.

He nodded, but the security protocol was clear. “Wait here. Don’t go in.”

He made a call, and after a moment, asked Jina, “What is your name?”

“Jina. Jina Troll.”

“Yes, she says her name is Jina Troll. An Asian woman with black hair. Yes. Ah, yes! Understood.”

He hung up the phone and turned back to Jina. “Try eating that.”

“What?”

“Just in case. We have to ensure you didn’t put anything in it.”

Jina sighed. She picked up a piece of the boiled chicken and tuna—bland, unseasoned leftovers, but clean—and put it in her mouth.

“Satisfied?”

The man simply shrugged, then led her inside.

The air inside the annex was thick with the musk of a dozen dogs. They lay in their kennels, not barking, their eyes—low, rolling—watching Jina with unnerving silence.

“Wow, they’re all so quiet. Are they that well-trained?”

“That’s not it…” The staff member started to say more, then stopped himself.

They went to the innermost kennel, where Kushi was sitting placidly.

“Kushi.”

At the sound of his name, the dog sprang up and wagged his tail. The staff member opened the kennel, and Kushi trotted out, licking her face, clearly overjoyed to see her.

“Then give it to him and come out.”

The staff member returned to the entrance, and Jina set down the bowl.

“I brought this for you. Eat.”

Kushi glanced at the plate, then let out a low whine and backed away. He wanted nothing to do with the food.

“Why? Aren’t you hungry? I heard they starve the dogs before a hunt.”

Jina’s worry ratcheted up. She’d gone out of her way to bring him food, and he wouldn’t even look at it.

Kushi kept its gaze away, whining softly. Jina ignored the refusal and caught the dog, pressing her hand to its flank.

“Huh? Why is your stomach like this?”

It wasn’t gaunt with hunger. Its belly was distended—full, heavy.

“What did you eat?” she mumbled.

Kushi turned its head at her mumble. And at that exact moment, the dogs in the adjacent kennels pressed themselves flatter against the wire, trembling with renewed, gut-deep terror.

As if they absolutely did not want to be in Kushi’s line of sight.

The hunt continued.

The next day, the dogs were absent; the people hunted with guns.

A deer, unsuspecting, grazed at the edge of the forest, looking around.

The hunt master gave the signal. The organizer raised his rifle, sighting the deer.

A quiet thwip, the distinctive sound of a suppressed rifle. The deer, standing moments before, collapsed, its legs flailing in a brief, desperate dance that quickly faded into stillness.

The first kill had been made. Now, the rules were relaxed: any spot was fair game.

Guides, assigned to prevent accidents, led the guests in small groups.

Ian, impeccably dressed in the mandatory hunting gear, moved among the groups.

His expression, however, was strained. Each gunshot, each scent of burnt gunpowder that drifted on the air, seemed to draw his brow into a deeper scowl.

The Chairman saw the look, another flash of confusion, but soon moved off to another part of the grounds with his associates.

After walking for a while, Ian looked toward the trees and raised his rifle. The guide beside him quickly stopped him, lifting his binoculars to sight the target.

Through the scope, the guide saw a fawn, peering out from the dense bushes, clearly searching for its mother.

Ian lowered his gun, silently asking why he’d been stopped. The manager spoke cautiously.

“Fawns are not allowed, sir.”

“Why? It would be tastier.”

The manager managed a wry smile at Ian’s unnerving reply.

“We must let the young ones live to maintain the population. And if you shoot with regular bullets, you can’t eat the meat. It’s contaminated.”

The guide gave Ian a slow, appraising look. A man of his standing should have known these fundamental rules—conservation, and the basic contamination of meat by regular lead. Yet, here he was.

Then Ian spoke again.

“So, if I shoot with different bullets, I can still eat it after it’s dead.”

“Of course. They have special, non-toxic rounds for that—expensive, designed not to spoil the meat. But you’re not seriously planning to—?”

“Do you have them with you now?” Ian cut him off.

The guide hesitated, then capitulated. “…I happen to have a handful with me. What is it you intend to shoot?”

Ian didn’t answer. He only offered a faint, unsettling smile.

“Boring…”

Jina stretched out on the bed.

Four days. The first hunt in a very long time, she’d heard. It was a grand affair, the esteemed guests gathering to make up for all the missed sport.

It’s supposed to end in two more days.

Recalling the schedule her secretary had detailed, Jina turned onto her side.

Just then, she heard the smooth sound of cars leaving outside. She sat up, opened the window, and looked out.

A convoy of black sedans was departing the manor under the veil of darkness. It belonged to the Queen’s son. A longer stay, a larger profile, meant more gossip and more reports—especially given the scent of his recent sex scandal. He was departing quietly.

The chairman left this morning too.

The Chairman’s meals had been outsourced, not to the manor’s chef, but to the chef from the exclusive restaurant Ian and Jina had visited. He was a chef of a different status, mingling with the entrepreneurs and nobles, not the kitchen staff.

Ian’s meals were also made by him.

The secretary had arranged for this chef to cover Ian’s meals until the Chairman’s return, officially granting Jina a reprieve. The unexpected free schedule had been a blessing for the first few hours, but now, it was simply tedious.

The prepared guests brought books or consoles. Jina, brought in hastily, hadn’t even packed enough clothes, let alone a distraction. She’d have been miserable if not for the few things the secretary had procured for her.

Fortunately, she’d connected with Jessie here. They’d clicked at the hotel, but their frantic schedules had rarely allowed for long conversations.

She said she’s going back to her hometown after this is over.

Jessie, a contract chef from South Africa, was responsible for the attendant staff’s meals, a far busier role than Jina’s usual duties. Bored, Jina offered her help, and they spent hours together in the kitchen.

In thanks, Jessie brought a bottle of her own stash and settled into Jina’s room. They’d been there until just now, sharing wine and conversation.

“Did you know? My mother’s tribe has a shaman. But now she does tarot readings in Cape Town.” Jessie rolled up her sleeve, showing Jina a tattoo. “My mom drew it to keep me from being possessed by evil spirits. Cool, right?”

Jina, not to be outdone by the wine, leaned in. “My mother is a shaman too. A… a Mudang, I think they call it in Korea.”

A strange, unexpected bond forged, they clinked glasses, downing the last of the wine. Eventually, Jessie unearthed two more hidden bottles, and they moved past pleasantly drunk.

Jina finally cut off the supply, stopping Jessie before she could fetch another bottle, and sent her stumbling back to her room. Any more, and tomorrow would be a brutal search for an antidote.

As she closed her eyes, all sorts of thoughts—unsettled, fueled by the wine—flooded her mind. The first thing that filled her thoughts was Ian.

‘Is his ‘psychological issue’ truly resolved? Or was it a lie from the start?’ Yet, she couldn’t dismiss it entirely—not when she thought of his unsettling, uncanny ability to select only the dishes she’d prepared.

Worse, she felt a strange, growing reluctance toward returning to the London mansion. Toward encountering him.

‘I still have years of work ahead of me to properly repay the debt, but…’

The urge to leave was a persistent, nagging itch. Or maybe, when she returned, Ian would simply dismiss her.

She let the fantasy consume her: what would she do if she wasn’t bound to him, if she wasn’t trapped in the mansion all day? See a friend? Find a new job? The memory of Jessie, smiling as she talked about visiting her mother, brought a fresh idea.

“I should call her…”

It wasn’t sudden. The thought had been briefly entertained in the quiet solitude of the past few days.

‘She asked for my address.’

At that, Jina suddenly realized she didn’t know her mother’s address at all.

She’d never asked. She’d never tried to find out. The realization hit her with a sudden, sharp wave of regret and guilt.

‘I’ll contact her once I get my phone back. I’ll ask for the address.’

She wanted to ask if she could visit. Her mother’s letters always held the same invitation: visit anytime.

The debt was still an anchor, but the large, one-time sum she’d received meant a short trip to Korea wouldn’t be financially impossible.

‘If I see her… what do I even say?’ Not ‘sorry.’ Maybe… she would just say she missed her.

A sharp sniffle. Jina, lost in the alcohol and the grief, wiped the tears that were suddenly, inexplicably, streaming down her cheeks.

“God, why am I doing this?”

Was it the wine? Her tears felt heavy, unstoppable.

Still sniffling, she scrubbed her eyes with her sleeve and shut them tight.

‘She asked for my address. She must want to send something.’ That would be the excuse. A natural, easy way to contact her: a simple ‘thank you.’

The fantasies of her return to London, and her freedom, finally lulled Jina to sleep.

The manor surroundings were unnaturally quiet today. So quiet, in fact, that the sounds of the distant staff, audible just moments ago, had vanished completely.

Though she found the silence strange, Jina’s consciousness was sinking, deep and absolute.

A moment later, Ian slipped into the room. He didn’t hesitate, climbing straight onto the bed, bracing himself over her. He cupped Jina’s face in both hands as she lay on her side, and kissed her.

Slurp. Smack. A low, wet noise.

The sounds of collision, of rough, sucking hunger, were utterly lewd, echoing in the too-still room.

As he consumed her, tangling their tongues like he meant to pull hers clean out of her throat, Jina tried to push him away, her lungs burning for air. But he locked a hand around the back of her head, pulling her face in tighter, closer.

She struggled, gasping, but his grip was a vise.

Only when Jina’s body finally went slack did he reluctantly break the kiss. As his tongue withdrew, a sudden, gaping sense of emptiness made Jina instinctively reach out to hold him.

“I love this,” he murmured, his voice thick. “I’m sorry I left you alone for so long. But I couldn’t help it.”

He used a finger to catch the tears on her cheek, hastily licking away any that dared to fall. After that, he slipped his hand naturally inside her clothes.

“Why were you crying?”

The words were tender, but his hand was anything but, digging in, firmly grasping the soft curve of her breast.

“Hng…”

Jina, eyes still squeezed shut, flinched violently. It was a reaction she knew well—a reflexive shudder that came just before the terrible pleasure, a response born from this kind of pain.

“What were you thinking?”

Even as he whispered, Ian’s hand didn’t stop. With one hand, he pinched and twisted the peak of her breast, while the other began pulling her clothes free.

In an instant, Jina was bare on the mattress. Ian quickly shed his own clothes, and their garments became a tangled, scattered pile beside the bed.

Ian sighed, covering Jina’s body with his own. The soft, immediate warmth of skin-on-skin made her entire body prickle with awareness.

“Haa…”

Perhaps it was because she typically kept herself so covered, but Jina’s skin was exceptionally pale. Especially the intimate parts, now exposed to his gaze.

His hand, which had been tracing the smooth line of her throat, returned to cover the breast he had just gripped.

Jina let out a soft moan, and he gently stroked the area that was already flushed crimson from his hasty, rough arousal.

Then, he squeezed again, hard, his long fingers sinking into the flesh.

“Hng, ugh…”

After long moments of relentless, possessive touch, her body was completely alight. He opened his mouth and swallowed her breast whole.

A sweet scent, a familiar taste, rushed into him.

He licked and chewed with a frantic, animal hunger. Where the pale skin had just begun to return to normal, fresh red marks were immediately etched. His sharp teeth scraped against her already hardened nipple, then worried it.

“Haa, ugh, ugh!”

Jina, pinned beneath him, shook her head, squirming on the sheets.

Her breasts, lifted high, swayed and fell. He loved that sight. Each time he saw it, he was reminded of the sheer abundance of what he possessed.

When he finally released her breast, Jina curled into a ball, trying to cover herself with her arms. Ian immediately caught both her wrists with one hand and pulled them above her head.

“It will hurt, but I can’t help it. I’m just so hungry.”

He said this and buried his face in her chest, right on the spot that gave off the sweetest, most intoxicating scent.

His tongue traced her delicate skin, eliciting low, suppressed whimpers. As if releasing all the restraint he had suffered, his rough tongue quickly made her soft skin turn a furious red.

With the Chairman, he’d been forced to eat human food, to swallow tasteless things and compliment them. How many times had he fought the urge to simply throw it all away?

He wanted to tear everything in sight, to go straight to Jina. To suck her breasts swollen, to thrust into her slick, tight core, and then—

—bite her pale nape.

Just the thought made his lower body ache. But for the sake of his plan, he couldn’t simply take her.

He had to return things to how they were.

At the London mansion, he’d kept her constantly held. He would push inside her wet, welcoming core and force their tongues together, feeding her his own essence. Each time, her eyes would cloud over, she’d whisper his name, and spread herself wider to receive him.

To be dyed, perhaps. In human language, that was the closest expression.

Those around him bent to his influence.

In the past, when he roamed the wilderness, humans had attacked him in groups. Many of them. He’d considered swallowing them all, but found their screams amusing. He’d simply torn off one leg from each and tossed them into a deep ravine.

One of them had been particularly delicious. As he’d savored the meat, the humans in the pit had gone quiet. He’d thought they died, or lost their strength. But even the whole ones had lost the will to escape, sitting blankly, waiting for him to swallow them.

He’d wondered if they were mad, but they still feared him. After this happened a few times, he understood. Those around him would eventually obey him.

But he hadn’t cared then. They were all going to be swallowed eventually.

Now, things were different. He wanted Jina dyed by him, but her complete surrender wasn’t satisfying.

He didn’t want her to succumb to his power and kneel. He wanted her to come to him of her own accord. Not because he wanted it, but because she did.

Look at me.

Come to me of your own will.

The ultimate pleasure. The mere idea made his body tremble.

For that moment, Ian had deliberately kept his distance.

As expected, Jina had slowly started to regain her sanity. She began to avoid him and Kushi. She tried to leave the mansion.

Her speed in recovering had been faster than other humans, and he didn’t know how much he had worried.

Furthermore, his scent was fading quickly. Every time he felt that withdrawal, his only desire was to drag Jina away, regardless of the surrounding humans, and thrust into her.

Especially when she tried to distance herself.

Still, Ian endured. He waited.

His instincts seemed to sense that the immediate danger had passed, but the affection he had demonstrated until then still held her back. It was a stronger chain than anything else.

Ian needed that chain binding her to become thicker, heavier.

He knew exactly how to forge it: by extending a hand to Jina, who would soon be consumed by a deeper, greater despair than before.

It would be too easy for him.

Ian grabbed her ankles, spread her legs wide, and rested them on his shoulders. The wet space between her legs was splayed open before his eyes, fully revealing itself.

Gulp.

The greatest delicacy in the world was right there. He stared for a long time at the sensitive, slick opening that already dripped with moisture from the slightest stimulation.

At first, he’d been too ravenous to even touch it. But once he was sure she was staying, safe within his domain, he finally suppressed his hunger enough to observe.

He pushed two long fingers deep inside. The already overflowing moisture gushed out the moment his fingers breached her, flowing down along his perineum.

The scent that drove him mad filled the room.

“Haa…”

His lower body burned. His mouth was parched. He wanted to abandon this pathetic finger play and thrust his body into her, shaking her, as he always had.

He pushed his fingers deeper. The moment he thought he reached the end, he gently bent his fingertips.

“Ngh!”

Her body, which had been low and moaning, suddenly arched up.

“N-no… Stop…”

A mumbled protest, like sleeptalk, escaped her lips. At those words, Ian’s face hardened.

Even knowing the words were unintentional, he hated the ‘no.’

“Lies.”

He muttered, withdrawing his fingers, and buried his face in the wet cleft.

His tongue, moving like a snake, slid into the opening his fingers had fought to widen.

“Ah, aagh!”

Her legs, which had been resting on his shoulders, stretched out straight, convulsing at the long-awaited invasion.

The tongue that went inside was pushed back out by the suddenly narrowed opening. Ian gripped her thighs and spread them wider, then rubbed his face into her legs as if thrusting.

“No, no… Ah! Ugh, ugh!”

Her body, which had been refusing, finally let out a desperate shriek. As if hearing a proper sound at last, his face, buried in her lower body, broke into a smile.

He wanted to stay like this until morning, and then until night fell again.

To torment her until she was swollen and bruised, until she begged him to just thrust inside.

Then, when he pushed his cock in, she would burst into tears, just like always.

Ah, what a delectable sight.

He pulled his face away from her and picked up her panties, which had fallen to the floor. He wrapped his engorged cock in them and, burying his face again, moved his hand.

“Hng!”

His body trembled violently after only a few seconds. A dark stain appeared on the small piece of cloth wrapped around his arousal.

After trembling a few more times, he removed it with a low groan. He let go of Jina’s legs and, using a dry part of the cloth, gently patted and wiped her vulva clean.

He buried his face in the soaked underwear. Whenever he acted like this, Jina would look at him with utter disgust and call him a pervert.

I want to see that face.

He liked it when she smiled at him, but he also loved the look of raw disgust.

He considered waking her for a moment, but shook his head.

He had held back this long. Now, only a few days remained until the ultimate despair—the one he wanted—would engulf her.

The prey he had driven into a corner would appear before Jina at the perfect time, shaking her world.

He sat up, found a towel, wet it, and meticulously wiped her body.

His traces were wiped away; as he caressed her firm, erect breasts, the angry red marks disappeared.

He picked up Jina’s clothes, which had been tossed on the floor, and began to help her put them back on, one by one. Except for the underwear stained with his essence.

The fingers that had roughly probed her lower body just moments before were now impossibly careful and tender as they fastened the buttons of her blouse.

As if nothing had happened, he smoothed down her attire, then stroked Jina’s cheek, his voice a chilling lullaby.

“I had intended to bring your mother. I thought if she were torn to shreds by dogs in front of you, you would fall apart completely.”

But he had failed.

How had she found out? When the people he hired went to her home in Korea, Jina’s mother had already disappeared.

“So, I decided to bring your other mother. The woman you dislike, but she can still push you into the abyss.”

He kissed Jina’s hair, whispering in a voice that sounded like the sweetest comfort in the world.

“Let’s go on our last hunt together.”

“Mmm…”

Jina struggled to open her eyes, but immediately closed them again.

“My head hurts…”

She buried her face in the pillow, a dying groan escaping her. Her skull was pounding. As she tried to trace the cause, she remembered the wine, the enthusiastic drinking with Jessie last night.

And then, crying like a fool over her mother.

Jina, lying on her stomach, stamped her foot. The mattress creaked, but her embarrassment didn’t subside.

Still…

Once she got her mobile phone back, she would immediately search for her mother’s contact information. She’d have to email her, asking if she could visit Korea.

Most importantly, she just wanted to hear her voice after all this time.

Should I buy a gift?

Her embarrassment faded quickly, replaced by a frantic energy.

“Ah, meals!”

Then, she remembered her duties and shot upright. Until yesterday, the Chairman’s chef had been covering the cooking, but as of today, she was back on duty.

“Ngh!”

As Jina sat up abruptly, a pain even sharper than her headache shot through her body, and she clutched her stomach.

“Why…”

The profound soreness she felt between her legs was a sensation she knew all too well.

It was the lingering ache she felt the day after relentlessly mixing bodies with Ian at the mansion.

She immediately ripped off her clothes and rushed to the bathroom to inspect herself. But there was no trace of the marks he always left.

“Haa…”

Just as she was about to exhale in relief, Jina realized her lower body felt empty.

“Huh?”

She quickly pulled down her training pants. As expected, her underwear, which she should have been wearing, was nowhere to be seen.

“What the…?”

At the mansion, Ian had stripped her so often she’d fallen into the habit of sleeping bare. But since he’d been gone, she’d started wearing them properly again…

Did I?

Her memory of the previous night was completely hazy due to the enthusiastic drinking with Jessie. She might have been too drunk to bother changing and just fallen asleep.

There was no other possibility.

Jina quickly washed herself. Although there was no foreign sensation like when he had inserted himself all day, her lower body still felt raw.

She changed into her work clothes and reached for the doorknob, only to see the firmly locked latch.

“…”

Jina stared at it for a long time. The staff facilities were old, and the latch was known to be stiff. She always left it halfway, never pushing it all the way home.

“It’s caught at the end.”

Jina muttered, trying to move the latch.

It was still stiff, requiring considerable force to move it from its halfway point.

On the last scheduled day, most of the guests had already departed. Even the host of the hunt had left, leaving only Ian behind.

Because of this, the hunting ground managers cast resentful glances. Some of them even stopped Jina, asking when her employer intended to leave.

Jina also wanted to know, but her secretary only relayed that Ian hadn’t stated any specific departure time.

There’s nothing to do.

Jessie, who always came to the kitchen around the same time, hadn’t been seen since morning.

When she asked a staff member if she had left, they said no, she was just feeling a bit unwell and resting in her room.

Well, she drank even more enthusiastically than I did, so she must have a terrible hangover.

It would only make her feel worse to visit her now. Still, thinking she might make something easy on her stomach, Jina headed toward the kitchen.

On the way, she passed the staff offices and saw that one of the doors was ajar. She was about to walk past when her eyes landed on her mobile phone lying on someone’s desk.

“…”

After a moment’s hesitation, Jina knocked on the door and called out.

“Is anyone there?”

Silence.

The reason her phone had been confiscated was the fear that she might take photos of the guests and sell them to the press. All the other guests had left; only Ian remained.

Then I should be able to get it back.

“Is there no one here?”

She called out loudly again, but there wasn’t even the sound of footsteps. Everyone seemed busy with the cleanup of the main building.

Then…

Jina stealthily approached the desk and picked up her mobile phone. When she pressed the power button, the screen lit up.

She had kept it off for nearly a week, but thankfully, the battery still had quite a bit left.

I just need to check my emails and messages.

And maybe browse the internet a bit.

The carrier logo disappeared, and the familiar wallpaper appeared. First, she intended to contact her mother again. She would also check if the real estate agent had any new listings for a suitable room and reply to her friends’ messages.

But the moment the antenna icon at the top of the screen lit up, her mobile phone began to vibrate furiously.

Zzzzzzz! Zzzzzzz! Zzzzzzz!

Jina, holding the incessantly vibrating phone, was flustered.

What is it? Why is it doing this?

Notification messages for the accumulated texts and emails scrolled endlessly across the screen. The vibration was so violent that the back of the phone soon became too hot to hold.

“What on earth has piled up so much?”

She had kept it off for a long time, but even considering that, the number of messages was overwhelming.

Tired of waiting for the vibration to stop, she looked at the messages appearing on the screen.

At first, they were messages from friends.

But soon, they changed to messages from one person.

📱[Answer the phone]

📱[Now]

📱[I told you to answer]

📱[Damn it, it’s urgent]

📱[Please]

📱[Are you f*ing alive?]

📱[Contact me the moment you see this]

📱[And look at the photo of Mr. Aylesford again after seeing the photo I sent. Are you really okay with it?]

📱[You went into Kno Diag, right?]

📱[Is it a dangerous situation?]

📱[If you’re alive, send a dot or something.]

The stream of messages popping up incessantly was a suffocating pressure, the words from Inspector Andy Haywood so frantic they stole the breath from her lungs just by reading them.

What in God’s name is happening?

Meanwhile, the mobile phone’s furious vibration finally ceased. Touching the device, now hot enough to make her worry it might shut down, Jina quickly checked her message inbox.

“Two hundred and seventy?”

A gasp escaped her. She tapped the inbox and saw that Haywood was responsible for two hundred of the notifications.

“What on earth is going on…”

Then, among the chaos, the words “Kno Diag” and “look at Ian’s photo” snagged her attention.

She remembered their meeting in the park. The strange photo he’d shown her, juxtaposed with Ian’s, asking if she saw anything different. She’d dismissed him as eccentric, but now…

A cold, heavy thudding started in Jina’s chest. She tried to tap the photo attached to the latest message.

Her eyes caught one last text from the Inspector: [Ah, this was sent by mistake. Just delete it].

She was about to obey, but the photo’s thumbnail was too mesmerizing, too familiar. She tapped it, compelled.

The image attached was of Camilla Jenkins.

It was a selfie, likely intended for social media, her face angled to look as attractive as possible.

Jina’s gaze locked onto her ear. More specifically, the earrings.

“This is…”

She had seen them. Large, ethnic-style loops studded with red, rusty-looking imitation gemstones.

They were undoubtedly the exact same earrings that Kushi had coughed up from his maw.

She stared blankly for a moment, then bit down on her lip, a pressure point she needed to ground herself.

What was I thinking?

The horrifying, hallucinatory image from her kidnapping—Kushi’s mouth splitting like a starfish, swallowing his prey whole—flashed behind her eyes.

She forced herself to look at Camilla’s photo again. The clothes, the coat, the blouse, the background.

This photo was taken the day she met me.

She remembered the outfit clearly; it was the one Camilla wore the day they met outside the Aylesford building. The background, though slightly blurred, showed the massive Aylesford logo, confirming it was taken just before their meeting.

As Jina stared, the screen suddenly changed, and Andy Haywood’s name appeared, calling her.

The moment she hit the answer button, a shout erupted.

—What were you doing? Why did it take you so long to answer! This is Troll, right? Where are you now!

Jina flinched at the frantic, breathless volume and pulled the phone away from her face. She cupped the microphone with her hand, whispering.

“Speak quietly. I can hear you fine. What’s going on? And why did you send messages like a madman?”

—Never mind that! Where are you! I’ll come pick you up…

The mobile phone was plucked from her hand. Jina spun around, startled.

When had he approached? Ian was standing directly behind her.

He smiled.

“Who are you talking to?”

“…”

The sound of his voice felt like her heart plummeting through the floor. All her senses vanished, leaving only a distant, terrifying emotional freefall.

As Jina remained frozen, he slowly lowered his head, his gaze meeting hers.

“Hm? I asked who you were talking to?”

He repeated the question.

His lips were smiling, yet the stare fixed on her was sharp and utterly cold.

She felt like she had seen this look from him before. A long time ago, not long after she met him… but when, exactly?

As Jina frantically rummaged through her distant memories, Inspector Haywood’s voice boomed through the phone.

—Are you listening, Troll! Answer me! Damn it, Ian that monster…!

At the sound of the name, Ian broke his stare, turning his attention to the phone.

As the intense pressure receded, Jina finally, quickly inhaled the breath she’d been holding.

“This voice.”

All trace of a smile vanished from his face.

“It’s that police officer.”

“No, it’s not like that!”

“Not like that?”

Meanwhile, Haywood’s voice continued to call out for Jina on the line, the panic escalating with her silence.

Ian frowned slightly and hung up. As the Inspector’s voice vanished, the surroundings became instantly, eerily quiet.

Jina swallowed hard, forcing the words out.

“I wasn’t calling about the kind of problem you’re thinking of…”

“The problem I’m thinking of? What is that?”

“Well, uh, like reporting a hunt…”

At her stumbling lie, Ian threw his head back and laughed. He then placed the mobile phone on the desk and, with both hands, grasped Jina’s shoulders.

“…!”

Jina flinched, her body locking stiff. A profound chill spread from where he touched her, and her body began to tremble.

Pull his hands away, a distant thought commanded. But her body did not obey.

His large hands, which had been gripping her shoulders, slowly began to move, circling her neck.

He stroked her skin up and down as if caressing her. Then, his thumb slowly raised and pressed firmly on her Adam’s apple.

With that deep pressure, her breath was instantly severed.

“Gak…”

A strained, desperate sound escaped her slightly parted lips, but Ian paid no mind, increasing the pressure with his finger.

Her face, starved of air, turned red. Bloodshot veins appeared in her eyes. Just as her vision began to narrow to black, he released the pressure.

“Cough! Gak!”

Jina coughed raggedly, looking up at him. His action was no mistake.

As she struggled for air, the emotion in his eyes was clearly pleasure.

The fingers that had pressed her throat now gently, possessively, caressed her nape.

Ian brought his face closer to hers, his voice low.

“Jina, let’s go hunting together today.”

The nail of his thumb slowly scraped across Jina’s neck.

“I… I don’t really want to…”

“No. It’s because you haven’t tried it. You’ll definitely like it. It’s so much fun.”

Ian lowered his head and buried his face in her neck.

He had often done this at the mansion. The soft brush of his hair on her cheek felt good then, and when his hot breath touched her skin, she would involuntarily let out a languid sigh.

But now, all she felt was raw, freezing terror.

“Herd the prey where you want them,” he whispered, his excited breaths pouring onto her neck.

“Then give them a small, light wound. Those terrified can’t move properly. They’ll look for a way to escape in a panic, but it’ll be too late.”

Ian placed his lips on her nape. Then, he licked the spot he had just scored with his fingernail.

“Then they’ll be unable to move further, and they will meet the gaze of complete despair. And you’ll savor the frustration of those who have reached the absolute end of their lives. Their helpless, pathetic faces.”

His words were muffled by the movement of his tongue, yet she understood every chilling syllable.

“How much fun that is… You’ll definitely enjoy it too.”

“I…”

Jina’s lips moved. She didn’t know how to respond.

Is that what hunting is?

Is that really fun? Can one truly find enjoyment in such things?

Perhaps it was an emotion she would never understand. Searching for an answer, Jina finally replied with difficulty.

“I… don’t want to kill.”

At her answer, Ian pulled his lips away and raised his head. He met her gaze, his expression intensely excited.

“No. You will want to kill.”

He took a step back, opening his mouth again.

“I’m going out for a bit. There’s an Aylesford farm nearby, and my grandfather wants me to visit and check it myself. It’ll be dark by the time I get back… but don’t worry. Night hunts have their own kind of fun.”

Just then, footsteps sounded in the hallway, and an employee entered the office. He looked surprised to see Jina and Ian inside.

“What is it?”

Recognizing Ian as a guest, he spoke politely, but his guard remained firmly up against Jina.

Ian glanced at Jina’s phone on the desk and replied.

“She was on the phone.”

The employee was visibly flustered. His job was to confiscate all outside staff’s communication devices. Not only was the confiscated phone left unguarded, but they were also using it without his knowledge.

The employee reached for the intercom to call the security team remaining in the main building, but Ian stopped him.

“Fortunately, it wasn’t an important call. Right, Jina?”

“Ah, yes. I just came to ask when I’d get my mobile phone back… Then I saw it was up here, so I turned it on.”

“You were clearly warned not to use it until you leave. Who were you calling, and for what purpose?”

“I wasn’t calling anyone! I just received a call! And I wasn’t planning to talk to anyone, I just wanted to use the internet because I hadn’t used it for too long! And check social media too!”

When Jina mentioned internet and social media, the employee’s expression softened slightly. Countless staff members pleaded to get their phones back for precisely those reasons.

“In any case, it’s prohibited. Come back for it when you leave.”

Jina lowered her head at the employee’s words.

“Okay.”

Feeling awkward staying any longer, Jina immediately turned and fled the room.

Then, she felt a gaze and turned her head. Ian was watching her, his smile wide and chilling.

After Jina left, the employee picked up Jina’s mobile phone and glanced at Ian, worried that he might complain to his superiors about this breach.

Ian extended his hand. A gesture asking for it.

“But this…”

“Give it to me.”

The employee flinched at Ian’s changed tone. The genial, smiling guest from moments ago was gone.

“Hurry.”

Power was infused into the single, urgent word.

The employee’s eyes widened as he looked at Ian’s outstretched hand. A flicker of black mist seemed to churn in his palm. Before the employee could register what he saw, his consciousness plunged into darkness.

A moment later, the employee, his eyes vacant, politely handed Ian the mobile phone.

Ian took it and left the room.

He walked down the corridor, clenching his hand.

Crack!

With a sound of splitting and crumbling, the screen fractured, and the frame of the phone twisted impossibly.

He crumpled the ruins in his hand and unceremoniously tossed the remains into a nearby trash can.

‘I won’t need it anymore anyway.’

His steps were light as he exited the annex.

The fox hunt he had been waiting for was about to begin.

Jina collapsed onto the bed.

She had practically run back to her room after leaving the office. Her pace was so desperate, anyone who saw her would have thought she was being chased.

After sitting blankly for a long time, a stinging sensation brought her back to the present. She approached the mirror to examine her neck.

Long, angry red marks, as if scratched by fingernails, were clearly visible along the center of her throat.

Just then, she heard the sound of a car outside. She went to the window and saw a black sedan stopping in front of the main building. He got into the car with Kushi.

He was going to the farm he had mentioned.

‘Let’s go hunting.’

He had been resolute, as if refusal was not an option.

She couldn’t fathom why he insisted on going hunting with her. If he enjoyed it so much, why didn’t he go with the caretakers still at the mansion?

Moreover, she did not want to hunt and kill beasts she wouldn’t even eat.

As she pondered how to politely refuse him when he returned, a loud banging erupted.

Bang! Bang bang!

Someone was banging violently on the door. Startled, Jina quickly opened it and found Jessie stood outside, her face a mask of terror.

“Jessie? Why do you look so…”

“This is no time!” Jessie suddenly grabbed her arm, shouting. “You, you have to get out of here! I can tell! You…”

Her voice, squeezed out in a terrified croak, delivered the final, horrific word.

“…You’re going to be hunted today!”

Hunt.

The word burrowed into Jina’s mind, taking root.

“What are you talking about?”

“Your neck. That. That…” Jessie struggled to lift her hand. Despite her trembling fingers, she accurately pointed to the spot Ian had scratched.

“This? This is Ian…”

As Jina spoke his name, Jessie trembled as if she had named the most terrifying thing in the world.

“Oh my God, Ian Aylesford. How could I not have realized? No, he was pretending to be human. But now he won’t hide it anymore. I saw it. Tonight, he will get what he wants! He was happy! He was laughing like a madman!”

Jessie muttered, her eyes rolling wildly as if she had lost her mind entirely.

“Jessie? Snap out of it! Why are you suddenly acting like this?”

Jina thought she might be suffering from a worse hangover than Jessie had claimed, but this was beyond simple sickness.

“Are you sick? Why are you acting like this?”

Jina raised her hand and touched Jessie’s forehead.

Her skin was damp, as if caught in the rain, but she had no fever.

As Jina worried that Jessie might have a mental issue she hadn’t told her about, Jessie grabbed Jina’s clothes.

“Take it off. You have to take all of this off immediately. I’ll give you my clothes. Wear those. Not just clothes. Your belongings, you can’t take anything. I’ll give you my card and money too. Hurry and change, and get out of here.”

“…Jessie?”

“Hurry! There’s no time to stand around. That monster just left the mansion! But he’ll be back soon. This is your only chance to escape!”

“Jessie? Explain it so I can understand. Ian left, but…”

Then Jessie grabbed Jina’s shoulders, her gaze steady, terrifying.

“Jina, you know. You just can’t accept it.”

At Jessie’s steady gaze, Jina swallowed hard.

The words echoed the profound sense of unease that had settled over her lately.

Sitting in the London mansion, she’d felt an urge to flee immediately. Even though it was the most luxurious, comfortable place she’d ever known, it also felt like the most terrifying, dreadful cage in the world.

At first, she’d attributed it to external fear combined with the stress of confinement.

Thinking back, the feelings exploded with intensity at certain times.

‘When was that?’

The answer was Ian.

When she faced him, she had no thoughts. She would greet him warmly, open her lips, and spread her legs. She would offer her body to him as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

However, after they had mingled intensely like beasts, while catching her breath on his chest, she felt a sense of survival rather than enjoying the afterglow.

It was the same just moments ago. Thinking back, she always held her breath when she was with him.

As the shape of her emotions became clearer, Jina bit her lip. Jessie urgently grabbed and shook her shoulders.

“When I said the monster left, you didn’t ask who the monster was. Instead, you said Ian left.”

“…”

Jina couldn’t say anything.

As Jessie said, when she heard the word ‘monster,’ she had naturally thought of Ian.

“It must have corrupted you. Making you unable to feel fear, unable to question strange things. Oh, God…”

Jessie beat her chest as if blaming herself. Then, seeing Jina staring blankly, she quickly rolled up her sleeves.

From about the middle of her right arm, a tattoo with a very complex and unusual pattern was visible.

The moment she saw it, Jina knew.

This was not a tattoo an ordinary person could get. It was clearly a deeper, religious, and ritualistic ceremony.

“There is one thing I didn’t tell you. My mother is a sorceress, yes? She tells fortunes with cards in the capital now—that much is true. But the reason she lives that way… is because everyone shuns her. She inherited a very old, deep knowledge of traditional sorcery.”

“Is it something like Voodoo?” That was the limit of Jina’s knowledge regarding ancient African customs.

Jessie shook her head firmly. “There’s nothing ‘beautiful’ about it. My mother dances among death. People come to her when they want to curse someone, when they want to see someone ruined.”

Jessie took a deep, rattling breath. Tears welled up, glistening on her dark skin.

“Wherever my mother dances, there are always corpses and blood. Death was her constant companion. She had this carved into me so I could feel that very aura of death. Thanks to it, I’ve been able to avoid so many things. I don’t get small cuts. No burns, either.”

Unlike other chefs whose hands were a map of cuts and scars, Jessie’s hands were unnervingly pristine. Jina had always dismissed it as skill.

“And… the day I was hurt, that was no coincidence. When death drew near, I offered another wound in its place and escaped. But it has never transferred to anyone else. Only you. You…”

Jessie squeezed her eyes shut, a sound of pain escaping her.

“There is no time left to hesitate. You must run. Now!”

Jessie extended her tattooed arm and cupped Jina’s face, completely covering her eyes.

“—Gwevle—!”

Harsh, guttural words poured from Jessie’s mouth. At that moment, the spot on Jina’s neck where Ian had left his mark tingled, a frantic, warning sensation.

As the hands moved away, Jina blinked.

They had covered her eyes for only a moment. Yet, suddenly, everything around her became razor-sharp. Even the inexplicable terror she had been feeling became immediately, chillingly explicable.

Now, Jina understood why Jessie told her to run.

Something sticky was clinging to her throat. Something heavy was holding her down. To shed that anchor, she had to leave immediately.

Jessie grabbed Jina’s hand, her expression one of utter horror.

“It’ll be break time soon. After most of the guests have left, the staff hardly move around.” They usually settled into a quiet, leisurely rest before dinner.

“Get out of here now. You need to go far. Yes, it would be best to go to your mother. Across the sea. It hasn’t left this land yet, so it won’t be able to cross the sea easily.”

Jessie hurried Jina toward her room, muttering incessantly.

“It’s a greed that devours everything. It hates and must consume all living things. But among the living things here, it hasn’t eaten anything. And it’s waiting for you. Why on earth did it change? Why…?”

Upon arriving at the room, Jessie told Jina to strip off everything she was wearing. The scent shouldn’t remain.

Jina, even discarding her stained underwear, hastily pulled on Jessie’s clothes.

Jessie was much taller and broader than Jina. Naturally, the clothes did not fit, but this was no time for vanity.

Wearing Jessie’s shoes as well, Jina fled the mansion with the cards and cash Jessie had pressed into her hands.

“Jessie, what about you?”

“I’m leaving too. In a different direction than you.”

As if her remaining belongings were worthless, Jessie only grabbed her clothes and money, then draped her warmest coat over Jina.

“Let’s go.”

The two quietly slipped out of the room.

As expected, the corridor and the entire annex were silent. With Ian gone, everyone seemed intent on enjoying their rest.

Before leaving the annex, Jina glanced back, hoping to find her mobile phone, but the door to the staff office where she’d encountered Ian was firmly shut.

The phone was a lost cause. They had to leave.

In case anyone was watching from inside the mansion, the two walked slowly, like people taking an afternoon stroll.

Though the season was warming, the wind whipping through the dry branches was still bone-chilling.

Jina raised her head. The clouds, low enough to seem about to graze the ground, were rapidly being swallowed by darkness.

“Huff, huff…”

Jina ran through the forest, gasping for air.

Then, she failed to see a low hollow and pitched forward heavily.

Dry leaves crumbled against her face. She felt a bolt of sharp pain in her ankle, along with the damp, earthy smell of decay.

“Aagh!”

Carefully, she grabbed a nearby tree and tried to stand, but a relentless throbbing persisted even when she was still. It was clearly a bad sprain.

But she couldn’t stop. Jina cautiously took a step. A needle-like pain shot up her leg, but she could drag herself along.

As she struggled to reach the crest of a low hill, she saw lights gathered beyond the path. It was likely the small village she’d passed through in the dark upon arrival.

I just need to get there.

She was sure to find help. Fortunately, there were quite a few cars passing by on the nearby road.

Thinking she had to hurry, she tried to move forward again when she saw someone walking up the hill from below.

She tried to quickly hide by the side of the path, but her injured leg betrayed her. In the end, Jina decided to act as naturally as possible, as if she were simply taking a walk.

The approaching person seemed determined to cross the hill quickly.

It was getting dark, so she couldn’t see clearly, but it was definitely an older woman.

As Jina raised her hand to offer a casual greeting, the approaching person stopped.

“Jina? Is that you?”

Jina was shocked by the voice calling her name. It was Emily.

“Emily?” Jina wondered if she was hallucinating.

“Oh my God! It really is Jina!”

As Jina called her name, Emily strode closer. It felt like a miracle that Emily recognized her so fast, as her appearance had changed drastically since Jina last saw her.

This was a woman who always demanded perfection in her clothes and appearance. If her hair grew even a little, she’d book the salon, and she would panic at the sight of a single white hair.

But not now.

Her hair was a messy knot, her skin dry and rough, and her complexion sallow. A foul odor emanated from her strangely mismatched, unseasonal clothing. Moreover, her gait was uneven, oddly shambling.

“Jina, my daughter. You have no idea how much I’ve been looking for you.” Even in the dark forest, Emily’s eyes gleamed with a strange, unsettling light.

“After returning to England, I looked for you right away. But it wasn’t easy. There wasn’t anyone suitable to ask. I couldn’t contact my old business partners either.”

It made sense. Who would provide information to a woman who had skipped out on every payment?

“Still, I somehow heard news of you. That you entered Aylesford Manor and are doing very well… no, that you’re living very well. Receiving a high salary and good treatment…”

Her voice trembled as she continued. Despite her efforts to conceal it, the burning envy was impossible to hide completely.

“You don’t know how hard I tried to meet you. How many times I circled around that large, magnificent mansion… that mansion where I couldn’t even see beyond the entrance.”

She trembled as if filled with a terrible, consuming resentment.

“And to meet you like this, right here! It was worth coming here as instructed!”

Saying that, she approached Jina and suddenly grabbed her hand.

With an instinctive revulsion, Jina ripped her hand away.

Emily looked momentarily taken aback, as if Jina’s reaction was wholly unexpected. Then, she quickly managed a watery smile.

“Oh, yes. You must hate and resent me. But it was never my intention. You saw it too, didn’t you? That Tom is an incredibly greedy and lazy person! My only sin was not realizing how cunning and wicked his tongue was.”

Emily stepped back and continued speaking with exaggerated gestures and the dramatic pitch of a stage actor.

“I was foolish. Jina, you know this too. People sometimes lose their wisdom and do inexplicable things.”

Now, Emily began to weep, tears streaming down her face.

In the past, Jina might have offered a word of comfort. She might have suggested they talk things through, to calm her down.

But now, Jina felt nothing but a cold, heavy silence.

Unaware of Jina’s detached gaze, Emily continued to speak.

“I remember when we first met. How lovely you were, looking surprised when you saw me. I haven’t forgotten the day you cautiously asked if you could call me Mom.”

Emily choked, unable to continue.

Jina recalled the past. After her biological mother left, a strange, suffocating chill had permeated the house. To try and change the atmosphere, she’d replaced the curtains, the tables, and the sofa with warm colors, filling the house with flowers.

But nothing changed.

Then one day, she returned home and opened the door to be met with warm air and the sweet scent of cookies, unlike usual. Jina froze at the entrance. That was the smell of her mother being home. Before Jina returned, her mother always baked cookies and placed them on the table.

Even after they had cooled completely, they were best eaten after a while, but Jina had loved secretly taking a half-cooled cookie from behind her busy mother.

<…Mom?>

Her voice choked up without her realizing it, and her eyes welled up.

<Mom!>

Jina ran to the kitchen, shouting for her mother like a scream. But.

<Oh, you must be Jina?>

A woman Jina had never seen before looked at her in surprise from the kitchen. In the very spot her mother had stood.

After that, Jina had tried to get closer to Emily. After her mother left, a sense of crushing guilt always lingered in a corner of Jina’s heart.

If I had listened better, if I had helped my mother more, if I hadn’t complained or grumbled and had behaved well.

Would my mother not have left then?

That guilt was why Jina was so vulnerable to Emily.

At first, Emily was overly affectionate. Whenever Jina returned from school, the house always smelled of cookies, and she would speak to her kindly.

Then one day, she asked if Jina would like to visit her parents in Cornwall during the school holidays. The beautiful countryside, the kind grandparents, and the clear sea there.

Jina grew even more attached to Emily, as she was giving her the things Jina had once desperately envied.

Not long after, her father cautiously told Jina that he would remarry Emily if Jina was okay with it.

Jina agreed immediately. She was so happy at the thought of finally filling the void that had been empty for so long that she couldn’t sleep.

But that happiness didn’t last long.

After the marriage registration was complete, Emily’s belongings were brought into the house.

<I’m worried you might be inconvenienced if we share the same floor.>

And with that, she subtly suggested moving Jina’s room to a smaller room on the first floor.

Her father said the room was dark and smaller, not ideal for Jina’s room, but Jina volunteered, saying she disliked her current room because it was too hot anyway, and moved her belongings.

I have to do well.

That thought bound Jina.

So, even when Emily didn’t greet her much, or when she hinted for her to leave the house, or when she leaned on her and did nothing, Jina couldn’t say anything.

Because she thought Emily couldn’t become her second mistake.

But now she knew. How foolish that action had been.

It was like bringing a completely different key to a locked door and arguing it should open because it, too, was a key.

“Jina, you were such a good child. You always thought of me. So…”

“Stop it.”

Jina cut off Emily’s seemingly endless, whining plea.

“I won’t ask how you got here. I’m not curious. I have nothing more to say to you. From now on, please contact me through a lawyer or the police.”

There was no time for this. Before Ian returned, she had to find a car somehow and get back to London.

Jina, dragging her injured ankle, tried to walk past Emily.

“Jina!”

As Jina tried to leave without looking back, Emily urgently grabbed her wrist.

Jina’s body swayed from the rough grip. At the same time, the grinding pain in her ankle intensified.

“Ugh!”

Biting her lip, Jina roughly pushed Emily’s hand away.

“Let go! I said I have nothing more to say to you! If you’re truly sorry, go to the police and admit that you planned this!”

Jina had no more patience left for Emily’s tolerance.

“Jina, please reconsider. We got along so well, didn’t we? This is all Tom’s fault. It won’t happen again. He’s disappeared somewhere.”

“…!”

At the mention of Tom’s disappearance, Jina paused for a moment. Mistaking this for a sign of willingness, Emily spoke, her voice excited.

“If we’re together again, we can earn much more than before, just like we used to. I’ll really do my best.”

Emily grabbed Jina again, pleading.

“I have nowhere to go now. I’ve spent all the money I got from that country, and no one else answers my calls. It was so hard just to get here… So please, don’t abandon me. I’m your mother, aren’t I? Hmm?”

Mother.

At that word, Jina stopped walking.

She found it detestable that the woman who had not only abandoned her but actively trampled on her was now invoking that sacred word.

“How are you my mother? You’re not Troll anymore, are you?”

“That was so Tom could change the name to make it easier to escape…! No, no. I was wrong. So please forgive me. I have nowhere to sleep tonight. I haven’t eaten anything since yesterday. I miss the meals you used to make when you were away so much. So, Jina.”

Her eyes, holding Jina’s wrist, shone even brighter in the encroaching darkness.

“Thinking of our past relationship, can you please give me some money? Even just enough to get by for today. No, let’s go to the village together. You’re too agitated right now. You’ll calm down if you rest and eat. I’ll guide you. Your leg seems injured, I’ll help you.”

Emily tightly grasped Jina’s hand again. It was as if this was the last thing she had left in the world.

“I heard rumors. That you’ve become close with the heir of Aylesford? That he holds you every day?”

Emily sounded sickeningly satisfied, as if it were a matter of pride.

“What did he give you? Clothes? A bag? Or jewelry? If you want to keep him satisfied longer, I can give you advice…”

“What are you talking about! You crazy woman!”

Finally unable to bear the insidious suggestion, Jina screamed and shoved Emily away.

There was no time. Her ankle was screaming, and darkness was rapidly swallowing the world. Once night was complete, he would return. If he realized she had escaped, he would immediately unleash Kushi. The black dog would find her, no matter what clothes she wore.

Just as Jina, sweating cold fear, turned to drag herself toward the distant village lights.

“…?”

A strange instinct made her look back. Emily was swinging a jagged, fist-sized stone at her head.

Her body, sensing mortal danger, quickly recoiled backward. But the agony in her ankle held her fast.

She succeeded in dodging the strike to her head, but that was all. The edge of the stone struck Jina’s shoulder with brutal force.

“Aagh!”

With a powerful impact and a blinding flash of pain, Jina screamed, clutching her shoulder. Even the thick coat couldn’t fully absorb the blow that struck her bone.

“What are you doing!”

Jina staggered back, leaning hard against a tree behind her. She watched Emily readjust her grip on the weapon.

“Tsk.”

Emily’s face was cold, calm. Worse, it held a flicker of disappointment.

If only I hadn’t looked back…

At that thought, a wave of pure terror washed over Jina.

Had she been a moment slower, the stone Emily held would have struck her skull precisely. It wasn’t a simple threat. It was not an impulsive act driven by overwhelming emotion. It was a cold, planned attempt to kill.

Emily hadn’t just tried to kill her. She’d meant it.

“Lucky that foot’s already busted.”

The tearful, pleading voice from moments ago was gone. Emily’s face was still the same, but the smile was a predator’s grin. Step by careful step, she approached Jina.

The pathetic submissiveness vanished, replaced by the loose, confident smirk of a victor assured of her own superiority.

“You won’t be able to run far.”

As the words left her mouth, Emily raised the stone again.

Thwack!

The edge of the stone gouged a deep scar into the tree bark where Jina’s head had been a second before. Had she dodged even a moment later, the blow would have crushed her skull.

The instant Emily raised her arm for another swing, Jina put everything she had into a punch, throwing her full weight into Emily’s face.

“Agh!”

“Ugh!”

Both the hitter and the victim groaned in unison. Emily, struck hard on the side of her face, tumbled backward in a heap.

Jina, too, clenched her throbbing fist and hunched over, the shock of pain radiating from her hand and spreading like an electric current through her body.

“You bitch!”

Emily scrambled on the ground, struggling to stand. Jina moved faster.

She snatched the discarded stone and hurled it at Emily.

Thwack!

With a dull, heavy thud—far more brutal than a fist—Emily clutched her jaw, collapsing back onto the dirt, letting out choked, pained groans.

Turning her body, Jina dragged her injured leg and stumbled down the path. With every step, a searing, throbbing pain climbed her back and stabbed her entire body, but the sheer, blinding terror of death throttled the pain, keeping her moving.

“Ugh, ugh…”

Complete, suffocating darkness had now claimed the forest.

Jina moved her feet, not knowing where she was going, only that she had to keep running.

“Damn you! I’ll fucking kill you!”

Emily’s cursing voice echoed from behind her.

When Jina had first met Emily, the shapes in the forest were clear. Now, except for the few things with bright color, everything was swallowed by the same void.

There was no time to find a path anymore. Wherever her foot landed was the path.

Jina looked back. Emily, clad in her bright clothes, was staggering toward her, one hand outstretched, a spectral hunter.

The hunt had begun in earnest.

Emily continued to curse and swear as she followed. Fortunately, the blow to her head seemed significant; she would pause intermittently, clutching her skull.

But it was only a moment. After a short while, she seemed to regain her senses and zeroed in on the sounds Jina made.

As Emily’s bright clothes resolved from the darkness, catching up to her again after Jina thought she’d found a clean escape, Jina’s mind flashed back to the video games she’d played with her friends.

Back then, the thrill was manufactured. This reality was a horror incomparable to what she had ever seen on a screen.

How far had she run?

At some point, the surroundings became a little brighter. Jina looked up at the sky and realized she had exited the forest.

“Stop right there! Give it back! You always gave it up so easily!”

So now she wanted her life, too?

Even after leaving the trees, Emily’s voice still followed. No, it had grown closer.

Dragging her damaged leg, Jina bounded through the hunting grounds. Then, she tripped over something piled up and tumbled to the ground.

“Jina, stop it now.”

Emily’s voice, now unnervingly soft, came from behind. Her voice was thick with mockery.

“How much longer will you run away looking like that?”

Jina, fumbling on the ground, felt a cold metal rod beside her. Her hand closed around it. She spun, swinging the rod in an arc that screamed, Stay back.

Emily, who had been approaching with a predatory smile, stepped back in surprise. Thanks to that sudden break, Jina finally had a moment to examine what she was holding.

“…A gun.”

She turned her head and looked at what had tripped her. It was a wooden box where the staff kept supplies before going hunting.

Why is this here?

Ian’s words—his suggestion of a night hunt—came to mind.

The items here must have been preparations for that outing.

Only then did Jina look around, no longer staring blindly at the sky.

She thought she had run toward the village, but what Jina saw was the massive, looming mansion at the end of the field.

Foolishly, she had returned the way she came.

Realizing her mistake, she bit her lip and focused forward again. Emily was glaring, her teeth grinding, her eyes locked onto the weapon Jina held.

Then, finally understanding she held a weapon, Jina hastily readjusted her grip and pointed the gun at Emily.

“Don’t come any closer!”

But Emily slowly took a step forward.

“I said don’t come any closer!”

Jina shouted, her finger sliding onto the trigger guard. Emily stopped moving.

But she slowly bent down and picked up an unknown piece of metal that had sprung out of the box Jina had tripped over—something heavy, something that could certainly be used as a weapon if swung.

She swung what she held in her hand.

Whoosh!

The sound of the rod cutting through the air was menacing.

In the darkness, Emily’s bloodshot eyes softened as she bared her teeth and smiled.

“You’ve never hunted before, have you?”

“What does that have to do with…?”

“That’s why you don’t know that a gun needs to be loaded.”

Emily laughed, finding the moment exquisitely amusing. At her words, Jina frantically checked the gun.

Damn it!

She had never been interested in hunting at all.

That’s why she had always passed by indifferently when she saw the staff maintaining the weapons inside the mansion.

The hunt hadn’t started yet.

So, for safety, they wouldn’t have loaded this gun.

Jina, with her injured leg and an unloaded gun, and Emily, looking down on her and swinging a heavy metal rod.

The grim end of this unequal hunt was painted clearly on the dark canvas of the night.

The paralyzing weight of death—a familiar, vile companion—slammed onto her shoulders. The moment Emily grinned and swung that rod toward her head, everything would finally cease.

Emily grinned and kicked Jina’s already-damaged leg.

“Agh!”

When her sprained ankle was kicked, her mind went momentarily blank. Jina curled up, clutching the gun. Gurgling breaths escaped her without her realizing it.

“How dare you threaten me?”

Muttering the words, Emily kicked again.

Pain like being sliced by a razor along the bone shot up Jina’s leg.

A vile, giggling laugh poured down on her.

“Why aren’t you talking? Say more, like you did before. Huh? How dare you lecture me. You stupid bitch!”

Emily put more force into the foot that stepped on her ankle again. Cold sweat poured down her face like rain from the sheer agony.

“Come on, scream more, Jina.”

Her voice, full of sickening joy, indicated that Emily was genuinely savoring this moment.

At the brink of death, Jina ground her teeth.

Furious. The word barely captured the acid boiling in her veins.

She wanted to smash the face of the woman who had ruined her life and mocked her suffering.

She wanted to knock her down with brute force, then cruelly trample and tear her apart.

She wanted to see that disgusting, arrogant face finally contort in agony.

Why.

Why was she always so powerless?

The sorrow and fear of the past ignited within Jina, turning into a singular, savage rage.

I wish they would all fucking die.

At that moment, Emily raised her hand. Simultaneously, Jina’s finger, driven by a final, desperate instinct, wrapped around the hard, seemingly unmovable trigger.

Bang!

A blinding flash and a deafening, chest-shaking Bang! tore the darkness in half.

“Gah!”

With a short, choking gasp, Emily’s body toppled backward.

“Ah, Agh! Aaaaaaagh!”

Lying on the ground, she writhed and screamed.

Jina stared blankly at the scene. The acrid smell of gunpowder stung her nostrils. Then, she fumbled along the barrel of the gun she held.

The long barrel, having just spat light and fire, now held a delicious warmth beneath her touch.

“…”

Jina staggered and got to her feet.

“Hieek! Hikk! Ah, it hurts! Ah! Aaaaaaagh!”

Emily, thrashing on the ground, clutched her shoulder.

Thanks to her bright clothing, Jina could see the blooming, dark stain where the bullet had struck.

Jina stared blankly at the sight, then approached Emily’s side.

“You, wha…?”

As Jina approached, Emily’s eyes widened in terror.

Jina shifted her weight, planted her good foot on Emily’s bleeding shoulder, and slammed down with all her strength.

“Aaaaaaagh!”

Jina’s lips curled up at the primal scream echoing in the darkness.

The hunter had just become the prey.

She remembered all the times she had been chased.

The debts incurred by others had eaten away at her life.

The incessant reminder texts and calls had suffocated her. At that time, even the ringtone of someone else’s phone would make her body stiffen in terror.

That was just the beginning.

At the hotel, she was dragged by her hair. The sous chef pinned her to the floor and laughed as he took her money.

The kidnappers held her captive and chuckled, wondering how to kill her.

She couldn’t understand them.

Why were they laughing? Why were they doing this?

If it were just for money, she might have been able to accept it. She herself had endured all sorts of indignities for that damned money.

But the faces of her tormentors, from the sous chef to the kidnappers, always held the same twisted, ugly joy. They enjoyed it.

At first, she thought it was a mistake.

But now she had found the answer.

“…So this is how it feels.” Jina muttered and put more force into her foot.

“Hiiik! Hwoooook!”

Now Emily let out strange, gurgling moans and trembled. It was strange how each step produced a different, pathetic sound.

Jina lifted her foot, now tacky with blood, and placed it on Emily’s neck. Then, she raised the gun again, the muzzle cold and uncompromising, and jammed it against Emily’s teeth.

Clack! Clack!

Even as the metal struck her teeth as if to break them, Emily held her mouth shut. Jina lifted the gun.

If she won’t open it, I’ll just bring it down.

Did she understand her intention?

“Don’t, don’t! Ugh! Ooooh!”

Emily shook her head frantically and opened her mouth. She screamed through it, making her words unintelligible.

Jina listened to the raw sound for a moment and laughed, a hollow sound.

“You opened it. So I won’t bring it down yet.”

“Ooooh…”

Emily nodded tearfully, a truly pathetic sight.

Jina chuckled and let go of the gun. The muzzle dropped directly toward Emily’s face.

“Ugh!”

Emily let out a pathetic sound, covered her face with her arms, and turned her body away.

Jina caught the gun, stopping the descent an inch from Emily’s face. Emily gasped a pathetic sound of relief. Jina slammed the muzzle down anyway.

CRUNCH!

“Ughhhhhh!”

With a sound of something breaking, Emily’s scream echoed. Blood spurted from her mouth.

As Emily covered her mouth with her hands and twisted her body, Jina applied pressure with the foot on her neck, forcing Emily’s face back toward her.

“I only imagined things like this…”

When she first learned of Emily’s embezzlement, Jina had imagined her being hit by a car while crossing the street.

Being hit by a car, swept away by a flood, or caught in an explosion.

At first, she hoped Emily would be hurt by chance, like a natural disaster. But gradually, her imagined scenarios changed.

While being hounded by banks and loan sharks, she first pictured slapping Emily’s cheek. It was the first punishment she had inflicted with her own hands.

It had a strange, dark addictive quality. With each repetition, the fantasy became more violent.

Now, she didn’t just slap her.

She punched. She kicked. When her stress reached its peak, she even pictured stabbing Emily with a knife.

If she didn’t release her pent-up frustration that way, she felt like she would die.

So Jina killed Emily in her mind, again and again. The secret murders, undetected by anyone, were repeated endlessly.

And now, she realized how different her imagination was from reality.

The moment she returned the fear she had felt to this despicable creature, she felt a fierce catharsis that imagination could not provide.

This fierce, dark pleasure was a drug she hadn’t known she craved.

Jina tapped Emily’s forehead with the gun muzzle. The way she flinched each time the cold metal pricked her was amusing.

She pressed down on her forehead, then tapped her chin.

Moving lower, pressing down on her chest, near her heart, Emily was now on the verge of passing out.

Then she remembered what Ian had said about hunting.

“You give them a small wound.”

Emily’s shoulder was now so soaked with blood it was completely red.

“The ones terrified can’t move properly. They look for a way to escape in a panic, but it’s already too late.”

Emily below her feet was merely trembling.

“You savor the despair of those who’ve reached the end of their short, useless lives. Their pathetic, helpless faces.”

Only now did she understand why Ian had said that.

This was truly… so enjoyable…

Clap! Clap! Clap!

“…”

Suddenly, the sound of applause came from behind, and Jina slowly turned her head.

Ian stepped out of the darkness. In the endless night where all shapes were swallowed whole, he alone was sharp and utterly defined.

Jina lowered her gun and looked at him.

He moved with the slow, predatory grace of a deep-sea fish, emitting a dark light to lure prey into his world.

It felt as if his world had been in this absolute darkness from the very beginning.

“It’s fun, isn’t it?”

He approached Jina, stopped clapping, and smiled faintly.

“I told you you’d enjoy it.”

Shrugging as if proud, he bent down and reached for Emily, who was wriggling at Jina’s feet.

His long fingers didn’t just touch—they dug into the gaping, blood-soaked shoulder wound.

“Ah, ah! Ahhhhhh!”

As his fingers dug into the open flesh, Emily convulsed. The sickening sound of flesh being torn and dug into echoed clearly in the darkness.

After a moment, he straightened up. His hands were covered in blood.

Turning, he brought his blood-stained hand close to Jina’s face.

“Do you know that?”

He raised a finger dripping with blood and touched it below Jina’s eyes.

“You know, there’s a custom in the fox hunt: the face of the one who takes the first kill is smeared with the blood.”

His blood-soaked finger traced the line beneath her eye, then slid down Jina’s jaw, leaving a single, thick drop.

Thump.

A drop of blood that ran down her chin fell to the ground.

It was an act of acknowledging and congratulating the opponent’s hunt. And it was also an act of admitting her into his pack.

His blood-stained hand gently cupped Jina’s face. His thumb caressed her closed lips. Then, it slid inside.

A faint coppery taste of blood spread through her mouth. But Jina didn’t frown or gag.

Her tongue, after a moment of hesitation, carefully licked the finger he had pushed in.

Slurp, slurp.

With the sucking motion of a baby seeking milk, Ian’s expression became raw. He cupped Jina’s face with both hands and kissed her.

Blood and saliva mixed. They shared a prey and devoured each other.

Before long, Ian was embracing Jina.

Jina clung to him desperately.

The moment she fired the gun, Jina knew her world had completely shattered.

Her shattered world wasn’t broken; it was reassembled. All that existed now was the slick taste of blood and the scent of gunpowder.

Jina realized. She could no longer see this world with the same eyes as before.

In Ian’s arms, under his joyful, ecstatic praise, Jina felt the world not just change, but expand.

“Ah…”

Was the world always this abundant with food?

At that thought, realizing what she had just conceived, Jina covered her mouth and sank to her knees.

“Ugh! Ugh!”

Nausea overwhelmed her, and she couldn’t stop retching. She couldn’t believe what she had just thought. Seeing Emily writhing beside her…

“Ughhhh!”

As Jina vomited again, Ian embraced her with a sense of pity.

He hadn’t been able to look away since he first saw her. She was a sweetness he’d never known, a sensation new to his very existence.

Even knowing she carried the hateful Troll bloodline, he hadn’t devoured her immediately.

Unlike others, he cherished her. He had suppressed the desire to tear and swallow her countless times.

The patience he’d been forced to learn was more agonizing than any hunger. But he’d endured it. To savor the ultimate, dark pleasure she would eventually offer him.

“Jina.”
He called out to her, struggling and in pain.

“It’s okay. It’s just unfamiliar. But you’ll definitely come to like it too. You’ve already experienced it once.”

He didn’t just want Jina to feel pleasure; he wanted her to feel it with him, to be fundamentally bound to him.

So he broke her down. And now, he was remaking her.

But no matter how he showed her his new world, their fundamental natures were different. She could never become exactly the same as him.

So…

Just then, Emily, who had been a convulsing mess on the ground, struggled to sit up. She stumbled away from the tangled pair, staggering toward the darkness from which she had come.

“I have to run…”

When Ian appeared, she hadn’t begged for her life.

She knew the moment she saw him. His gaze was filled solely with Jina. As if nothing else in the world held any value.

That man wouldn’t save her; he was a monster who would grab Jina’s hand and load a fresh bullet into the gun.

“Monster…”

Emily walked on, muttering with unfocused eyes.

Pass through the forest. Go back the way I came.

I’ll find people, call the police, and tell them everything. Then, in a place full of humans, I’ll build a castle of bricks and live a safe human life, beyond a door made of sturdy bars, without being devoured.

Meanwhile, Ian slipped his fingers between Jina’s, interlocking them tightly. Then he laid her down gently on the leaf-strewn ground marking the edge of the forest.

She was a fragile thing who had just tasted his world for the first time.

From now on, he had to guide her into his life with great care, slowly, over a long time.

He tore at her clothing as she gasped for breath and called the name of his hungry, loyal dog.

“Kushi.”

From the darkness where he had appeared, two burning red eyes flashed.

The black dog lunged toward the injured prey. The hunting dog had the right to eat its quarry until its master commanded it to stop.

“Ugh, ugh, ah, aagh!”

Her exposed body on the fallen leaves thrashed violently up and down. When Ian thrust with force, Jina’s body was helplessly swept upwards.

Eventually, finding the struggle distracting, he released his tightly clasped hand and grabbed her waist.

“No, no…”

He frowned slightly at Jina’s headshake.

Why was she lying when she was biting down so eagerly?

Despite her lips saying no, her lower half was already slick with a hungry readiness, desperate to take him deeper.

Thanks to that, even though he had plunged in without preamble, he had buried himself fully the first time.

“You like it.”

Ian laughed at her pathetic lie and began to push his cock in slowly.

He had churned inside her countless times and hadn’t pulled out for hours on end, yet this narrow opening hardly widened.

He didn’t dislike that.

It just meant it would take time to acclimate her to him, to tame her. Of course, every second of that time was pure pleasure for Ian.

It was difficult at first, but Jina soon accepted him completely.

When she buried herself in that warm, soft, tight embrace, a raw greed arose in him. He wished this delightful place would never accept another man. So he rarely pulled out, holding her tightly until the pale light of morning.

“Aagh, ugh!”

The cock that had been relentlessly pushing finally reached her cervix. Her body, sensing danger, trembled and tried desperately to pull away.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

As if finding the struggle beneath him pathetic, he tightened his grip on her waist and yanked her strongly toward him.

Thwack!

His cock, which had slightly withdrawn, plunged back in with a deafening thump.

“Hng, ugh…”

Jina trembled uncontrollably, unable to even breathe properly, at Ian’s ferocity as he drove into the very spot she tried to escape.

“Haa…”

A breath of deep satisfaction escaped Ian’s lips. He loved the counter-pressure she gave him. He found it endearing, almost lovely, how the hot, melting softness clung to him, gripping him tightly.

He released his grip on her waist.

Perhaps he’d needed it at first. But now that she had opened wide and gripped him to her absolute limit, her lower half, having tasted him, wouldn’t let go, biting him as if it would break him off inside.

Still, seeing her struggle, he felt a strange pang of pity. In that case, he had to help.

His hands pressed her pale thighs apart, spreading them wide. Ian thrust into her without hesitation.

“Hng, ugh!”

Jina’s eyes rolled back as she exhaled. With pleasure that burned her brain and a faint, searing pain, she couldn’t think of anything properly.

The world was dark.

Here, only Ian was visible. So she had no choice but to cling to him.

Why did it turn out like this?

Why am I doing this? I was definitely trying to escape him…

“Don’t think.”

That is for weak humans.

It is unnecessary for one who seeks to become a beast, a monster.

As her mind tried to recall the beginning of it all, Ian whispered tenderly in her ear.

Of course, only his voice was tender. With one of her legs draped over his shoulder, he moved his body rapidly, ruthlessly.

Her body, spread open vertically and horizontally, swallowed him more easily, more completely.

They had been in this position many times, but this one, where he entered so deeply, was one Jina disliked. How many times had she fainted after they’d collided like this?

As if knowing that, Ian generally avoided this position unless he was driving into her like a madman. It wasn’t exactly for Jina’s sake.

If she fainted, he felt a strange sense of regret, the prize snatched away too soon. But today was different. He had no intention of holding back, and she wouldn’t collapse as easily as before.

“Ugh… too, deep… hng!”

He moved his body busily, pressing against her as if he would push his entire being inside her.

Slap, slap.

Her pelvis and vulva struck the rustling fallen leaves without pause.

Jina, finding it unbearable, turned her head to find somewhere to escape, but Ian, noticing the small movement, bared his teeth and bit her nape.

This was the mating of beasts.

Running away, biting, suppressing, yet still pressing their groins together and thrusting.

Their tangled bodies rolled on the fallen leaves, leaving minor scratches, but neither paid them any mind.

Excitement rose quickly.

Ian roughly rubbed the spot he had been penetrating.

“Hng! Haa, ah! Aagh!”

Jina’s body convulsed with pain and pleasure. Her cries vanished into the dark, indifferent forest.

Ah.

He felt the utmost satisfaction from her cries, which were filled with tears and uncontainable, raw excitement.

By shattering her mind and teaching her the taste of blood, Jina had finally stepped into his world.

To him, born as the first and last of his kind, another who could understand and share this with him was a terrifyingly unfamiliar and utterly beloved existence.

‘My Female.’

Just thinking about it made his body tremble and his mind go blank. How could such a sweet, perfect word exist in the world?

After stirring inside her mindlessly for a long time, he slipped his hand under Jina’s waist and lifted her body up.

“Hng, ugh!”

Jina, now straddling his thighs, hastily reached out and pulled his neck.

She knew this would make him pause, if only for a moment. Ian found that small, futile trick quite cute and allowed himself to be momentarily fooled.

“Ian, Ian…”

She even called his name, begging for mercy. How could every breath she took be so lovely, as if made just for him?

He stroked Jina’s waist as if praising her and patted her buttocks.

Water dripped from their tightly joined bodies.

He considered letting her rest for a moment, but then instantly abandoned this uncharacteristic mercy.

Today was Jina’s first day of being reborn. Inexperienced and lacking, he had to guide her all day, all night.

Only then would she become completely his Female.

It wasn’t an easy task. Born human, her nature couldn’t be completely rewritten.

Still, he decided to do his best.

His hand, which had been stroking her lower back, gently lifted her.

Though small compared to him, she was an adult woman, yet he lifted her as if she were a doll and laid her down on the ground, face down.

“Ian…?”

Instead of answering, he slipped his hand under her belly and lifted her body.

As her rounded buttocks were raised, he stroked them once with his hand, then spread her legs with his knees.

Jina’s body, barely holding on, trembled pathetically. She knew he was rougher, more feral, when they were in this rear-entry position.

“Slowly… please…”

When he entered from behind, his already large cock felt impossibly bigger.

“If you ask like that, I have to oblige.”

Ian lowered his head and kissed her exposed white back. Every time his lips touched her, her body flinched, leaving red marks here and there.

He firmly gripped her waist again. Then, he slowly pushed the head of his cock in.

“Hng!”

Jina threw her head back and shook it. Just because it entered slowly didn’t mean the monstrous mass disappeared.

No, rather, the throbbing pleasure that would have been endured if it entered all at once was prolonged, sending deep tremors through her entire body.

“Ugh… hng…”

As the thickest part slid deep inside, her body, unable to bear it any longer, collapsed.

As if he had expected it, Ian tightened his grip on her waist. Jina, with only her buttocks raised, swayed helplessly on the fallen leaves.

Ian loved this position, like a beast in heat. He reached out and squeezed her bouncing breasts hard.

“Ugh!”

Feeling pain, Jina twisted her body, but he squeezed harder, a silent command to stay still. Her pale breast flesh slipped through his long fingers.

Then, he suddenly recalled the farm he had visited that day—a place that raised dairy cows.

When he visited, the farm owner had boasted that his farm raised the healthiest cows in England and produced the best milk.

Watching the milking process, Ian suddenly thought of Jina.

Humans, like other animals, would produce milk. But why, no matter how much he held and squeezed, did Jina not lactate?

“Why isn’t there any milk?”

It was a casual remark, but the farm owner, thinking he was talking about the cow in another pen, replied.

“It’s because the calf is still young and hasn’t been pregnant. Just like humans, cows only produce milk after carrying offspring, don’t they?”

Hearing that, he was lost in thought all the way back to the mansion.

The milky white liquid that dripped from the cow’s udder glistened.

Even though it wasn’t human, it had a rather sweet scent.

If something made by a beast was like that, then how much sweeter would Jina be if she lactated…

Just the thought made his mouth water, and his jaw ache with greed. At the same time, his cock stirred uncontrollably.

Appetite and lust surged simultaneously.

But…

Jina feared getting pregnant. That’s why she had always insisted he use a condom. But now, things were different.

He turned Jina over to lie on her back.

Her body was spun over while still impaled, and his cock scraped the wet folds inside mercilessly.

“Haaagh!”

Sparks flew before her eyes, and her mind went hazy. Jina, now lying on her back, gasped, looking up at the night sky.

He placed her legs over his shoulders again. Then, he slowly pressed his body against hers, pushing inside.

Her thighs touched her chest, and her body folded as he pressed down, his cock entering even deeper.

Ian stroked the flesh of her breast that had spilled out to the side and whispered.

“Jina, carry my offspring.”

He imagined Jina with a swollen belly, but it was hard to picture. No matter how much she ate, she didn’t seem to gain weight.

She ate well, but he wondered where it all went. In fact, wasn’t she getting thinner?

Then, the day he felt bones in the waist he held, he finally couldn’t help but ask.

“Aren’t you eating? Why are you getting so thin?”

Was it a problem that he asked while thrusting slowly inside her? Jina, gasping for breath, couldn’t answer easily.

She glared at him with resentful eyes.

Seeing her bite her lips tightly, it seemed she had no intention of answering willingly.

Growing impatient, he tried asking a different question. Jina’s body was always more honest than her mouth.

He withdrew his cock and roughly flipped her over. Then, pinning her struggling body with his own, he spread her legs with his knees and thrust his penis into her defenseless opening as if spearing it.

“Aagh! Ugh! Ugh! Why, suddenly…!”

Her smooth legs thrashed, hitting the mattress and his body. But Ian didn’t stop.

He knew he had to be rougher for her to become honest.

He pierced and withdrew from the inside, as if crushing her vaginal walls. His thick glans scraped the vaginal folds mercilessly. The sound of their bodies colliding roughly, with a thwack, was so intense it created a slick, audible foam.

“Why, do you keep, getting thinner?”

Ian bit her ear as she struggled beneath him. Jina, barely able to support herself with her arms on the mattress, lifted her head and trembled.

Her ear was her most sensitive spot.

Unlike usual, he set his teeth and gnawed her ear. Jina, overwhelmed by the violent pleasure from the assault above and below, couldn’t help but gasp.

“Hng, hng, ugh, ugh!”

Her moans were mixed with tears.

It was proof she was becoming honest. Ian decided to push harder.

Their breathing gradually synchronized. The climax was approaching. It was a moment he greatly cherished.

Jina, who had been struggling, buried her face in the sheets. At that moment, he also pressed and rubbed the spot where she felt pleasure the most.

“……!”

Her body convulsed, unable to even let out a moan.

Even though her face was buried in the sheets, he knew. He knew she was shedding all the water from her body, crying incessantly.

Otherwise, such intoxicating sweetness couldn’t fill the room. He panted and turned Jina over. As he had expected, her tear-stained eyes were a mess.

He reached out and stroked her increasingly prominent collarbones, then asked again.

“Answer me. Aren’t you eating?”

Tears welled up in Jina’s eyes again. She glared at him as if he were the biggest fool in the world and parted her lips.

“Because of you…….”

“What?”

“It’s because of you!”

Jina weakly reached out and threw a small cushion beside her towards him. Of course, he batted it away before it could touch his face.

Then, as if even more annoyed, Jina yelled at him.

“You come here every day and do this, of course I’m losing weight!”

Then, as if truly wronged, she burst into tears. She even kicked him with her feet when he tried to wipe her tears away and told him to get lost because she couldn’t stand the sight of him.

Of course, he didn’t listen and thrust into her again.

The next day, Ian began selecting high-calorie foods that Jina liked and brought them to her.

Aylesford was a company that built an empire on food. It was easy to find things that even a picky eater like her couldn’t refuse.

After that, he diligently took care of Jina’s meals while mixing their bodies. She looked at him with a bored expression, but he didn’t care. He had to see flesh return to these bones.

Only when some weight returned to her face and waist did he finally feel satisfied.

Her body was so thin that it didn’t gain weight…

‘If she were to carry a child.’

He lifted her body. Naturally, without withdrawing, they were still firmly joined. Ian’s hand fumbled over Jina’s heaving belly.

It was a slender waist, so thin it was a wonder that bones, flesh, and organs could fit inside.

Perhaps it was because he had entered such a place.

He felt a slight contour protruding under his hand. If she were to conceive, it would swell much more than this.

“Hng.”

He traced her belly as if amused, then withdrew. The fleshy pillar, slick with arousal fluid, slid out softly.

The feeling of the moist, soft inner walls clinging to him as he withdrew was vivid.

“Haa……”

Jina, who had been pushing him away as if to say stop, let out a pained sigh filled with regret as he pulled out.

Thinking he would thrust in again, she tensed, but then, thwack, a heavy pillar was placed on top of her vulva.

He had placed his cock on her body without inserting it. The long, thick shaft reached from her vulva to below her navel.

“Is it this much?”

His gaze, measuring, roamed over her belly.

“What…?”

“I’ve always been curious about how far it goes.”

He pressed his cock with his palm. The shaft left a sticky trail from her vulva down to below her navel.

“I want to check it properly.” He marked his spot, took a deep, bolstering breath, gripped his stiffening cock, and pushed it back into the hole that couldn’t possibly close.

“Ugh…!”

After burying himself this deep and then pulling out, she should have been completely used to it by now.

“Tsk.”

Watching her struggle again, even though she had been gripping him moments ago, was far from satisfying.

He couldn’t tell how much more he had to tame her for her to swallow him easily.

He drove in all the way and lightly thrust his hips. Thump, thump. As he lightly tapped her most sensitive spot, Jina trembled again.

“Hng! Ugh!”

Despite struggling, she opened her mouth, and a thread of drool escaped at the slightest stimulation.

Ian bent down and nudged her unfocused eyes with his lips. Then he licked up the saliva she’d shed, swallowed it, and finally swallowed her lips, too.

Her tongue, already numb from him sucking so hard, tangled with his again.

It was too natural now. Just as she salivated when she bit something sour, when he entered her, she had to accept him.

Ian slipped his arms under her waist, pressing her body even closer to his. Her large breasts were crushed and mangled against his hard chest muscles.

He liked pressing his chest against hers like this. It made him feel the beat of their hearts more clearly.

But today, he decided to postpone that particular pleasure. Reluctantly, he pulled away and placed his hand on Jina’s belly again.

“It’s not reaching?”

He felt something protruding a little lower than he had estimated.

He pressed down harder on her belly with his hand.

“Ah, ugh!”

Jina already felt an overwhelming pressure, as if her belly would burst when he entered her.

Now, with his palm pressing down from above, she felt her breath catch.

He slowly moved his hand up and down with force, as if he were holding and hardening what was beneath her skin.

The inner walls, which had been tightly clenched, melted softly under his slow touch. Yet, they continuously writhed, squeezing what had entered.

Ian savored the movement under his hand for a moment. He found this body, which swallowed him so completely without tearing, admirable and precious.

Then, Ian grabbed what was protruding on her belly and tapped it to the side, as if adjusting its direction.

“Hng, ugh!”

Jina’s body quivered.

“Yes, you like it here.”

Here, in the deepest part, he would sow his seed. It would take root in this sweet body. And then it would swell, becoming more and more lovely.

When this flat belly swelled, her breasts would also fill with milk.

He bent down and took her breast into his mouth. It had never failed to be delicious, but today Jina was even sweeter and tastier.

After sucking her breast until it was swollen and tender, he reluctantly pulled away.

There was no time to be leisurely.

I want to see it soon.

So, he had to impregnate Jina as quickly as possible.

He knew exactly how to impregnate her. Without pulling out, he would penetrate the vagina, which had become accustomed to him over months, and continue to ejaculate until it was thoroughly wet and swollen.

Until the seed took root and settled.

He pressed his body even closer between her spread legs. Jina felt a constant, deep pleasure from him entering deeper than usual.

“Ha, ah, ahh…”

She was acting more sensitive and lustful than usual, as if she knew exactly what she had to do today. Ian moved his body. He had to move busily.

They continued their savage, hurried copulation on the fallen leaves, solely for conception. Jina’s legs, with him between them, flailed in the air and swayed to his relentless movements.

Then, the moment he pressed down hard, her toes stretched and trembled. He placed her limp legs back on his shoulders and continued thrusting.

“Ah, hng, hng, ugh!”

Her bare, delicate body swayed back and forth from his relentless pounding. Feeling the urge to ejaculate coming on faster than ever, Ian unhesitatingly climaxed fully into her.

“Haaah, ugh!”

Jina’s eyelids trembled, and tears welled up on her eyelashes.

His stiffened cock, hardened to its limit, finally pushed into her and sowed its seed.

A long time later, cloudy semen oozed out from between their joined bodies. Still, Ian continued to thrust and ejaculate.

As if this wasn’t enough.

Then, thump, something hit Jina’s head. Ian picked it up. It was the gun she had shot Emily with.

Seeing it, she, who had been lying there blankly, turned her head and mumbled.

“Hunt… I don’t like it…”

Ian chuckled at her words, her face smeared with the blood of her prey.

As expected, she hadn’t become entirely like him yet. But it didn’t matter.

He had Jina captive.

He had fed her well in a comfortable place and showered her with affection. Now, his female would become pregnant and gain weight.

He threw the gun away and intertwined his hands with Jina’s.

“Yes, now…”

He whispered, filled with the deepest affection.

“I think I’ll try breeding instead of hunting.”

Ian finally set Jina down from his embrace as the dawn sky began to break.

Green sprouts were starting to emerge in places, but it was still cold enough at night to need thick clothing.

But last night, neither he nor Jina had felt the cold.

All they remembered was their bodies pressed tightly together without a single gap, sweat, violent movements, and each other’s hot, ragged breaths.

Ian picked up his outer garment lying nearby. Then, he carefully dressed the sleeping Jina, holding her in his arms again.

There wasn’t a spot from head to toe that wasn’t smeared with sticky fluid.

But what was on the outside was nothing. He wiped Jina’s mouth with his finger.

White, dried marks were plastered around her lips. He would have to clean her thoroughly when they returned. It would get dirty again soon anyway, but this would damage her skin.

He put on his clothes casually and stood up, holding Jina. Because his clothes were so large, she looked like she was wrapped in a blanket.

Even as he dressed her and lifted her, Jina’s eyes remained tightly shut.

If not for her shallow breaths, he would have brought his ear to her chest countless times; so faint was her breathing as she slept deeply.

She must be exhausted.

Normally, he would have stopped a few times to give her time to rest.

Not necessarily for Jina’s sake. If he ignored that moment and kept pushing, she would eventually pass out.

Of course, that didn’t pose a significant problem for satisfying his desires. But Ian preferred her to be awake.

That way, she would react properly every time he went deep.

Of course, her sensitive body wouldn’t stay still even if she lost consciousness.

When he hit her most sensitive spot, she would struggle and blush. Her breathing would become rough, and she would clench her lower body tightly.

But even so, it couldn’t compare to her calling his name while awake.

That’s why he usually kept her awake…

Now, I don’t really need to hold back.

Even though she had just been reborn, Jina had followed him perfectly.

After he told her to conceive, as if realizing the new reason for her existence, she spread her legs wider and accepted him deeper.

She even refused his consideration to pause and rest, coming up on her own and using her hands to guide his into her.

Ian was overjoyed and acted as he pleased without restraint. The proof remained clearly on Jina’s body.

The cloudy fluid dripping from under her clothes now was one piece of evidence.

Even though she couldn’t swallow it all and spat some out during the first ejaculation, he continued to push his seed into her.

After several more ejaculations, she whined that she felt like she would burst, but he replied, “If it feels like it will burst, I’ll just scrape it out and put more in,” and didn’t stop.

Jina, crying that it was too difficult, still wrapped her legs around his waist.

Those simple actions of her clenching him drove him mad with affection.

How many times had he almost lost the end of his patience because of them? He pulled Jina’s hand out from under his sleeve with one hand.

His bite marks were clearly visible on each knuckle.

If he had revealed a little more of his true nature, he would have surely bitten off and swallowed these slender fingers.

Fortunately, he had the desire to preserve Jina whole. Therefore, she was able to keep her body intact throughout their savage copulation.

Her body was meant to bear and raise his offspring. That alone would be difficult enough, so he couldn’t harm it.

Still, when he reached his climax, he couldn’t control his strength properly and left wounds all over her body.

The bite marks on her neck, shoulders, and chest would not disappear easily. He wished he could leave marks that would last a lifetime. But if he left deep wounds…

She would probably hurt quite a bit.

Jina had several burn marks on her hands and arms. When he touched them, she had asked if he found them unsightly, saying they had faded a lot.

It wasn’t that he found them unsightly; it was that scars that weren’t his remained that annoyed him.

He only wanted his marks to remain on her body. So, when marks appeared and started to fade, he would have to choose a method to leave new marks in their place.

Even with that thought, he was rarely satisfied. Something more definite that everyone could see…

“Ah.”

Suddenly, he thought of human methods. He caressed her ring finger, holding Jina’s hand.

Humans liked to wear jewels and metals. Thanks to that, didn’t they sometimes spit them out because they couldn’t swallow them properly?

In his room at the London mansion, such things were in drawers.

He used to just throw them away long ago, but strangely, after taking on a human guise, he started collecting them. Perhaps this skin was a faint habit left by it.

He raised Jina’s hand to his lips and sucked on her ring finger.

It was sweet, as always.

But he could also taste himself, which she had touched and sometimes held and swayed until morning. So, Ian felt even better.

He always wished to taste himself along with her whenever he tasted her.

He bared his teeth and bit her finger, then gnawed more vigorously on the lower part of her finger.

When he pulled his mouth away, a red mark, like a ring, remained around her finger.

“What would suit you?”

He hummed, filled with anticipation. Humans seemed to put rings on their fingers to announce their chosen mate.

Following human customs wouldn’t be so bad.

He wanted to give her something shiny that anyone could see. Something so precious that human males wouldn’t even dare to covet her.

He readjusted his hold on Jina and headed towards the mansion. As they exited the forest and entered the field, Kushi, who had been lying in wait at the border, lifted its head and wagged its tail.

In front of Kushi lay a human arm- a human’s arm who had tried to spirit Jina away, covered in dense tattoos.

Jessie, was it?

When he returned to the mansion, he had searched everywhere after realizing Jina was gone.

The human workers had said the two had gone for a walk. But neither he nor Kushi could smell Jina.

Moreover, the unfamiliar scents scattered in different directions. It was clear they intended to slow down the pursuit.

“How dare they…”

Recalling that moment, Ian gritted his teeth. The rage he felt the moment he thought he had lost Jina surged again.

They thought they were clever.

But if there was one thing Jina and that human female overlooked, it was that he and Kushi were keenly aware of anything concerning her.

Looking at the split footprints, Ian soon knew which direction Jina had headed. So, he sent Emily, whom he had brought to a nearby village beforehand, to follow her.

And he had sent Kushi in the opposite direction.

Kushi brought the arm to Ian, holding it in its mouth. The wagging of its tail stopped, indicating it didn’t seem to like the arm it was holding.

Indeed, that’s why it didn’t eat it and left it.

Even to his eyes, it was unappealing. It was completely unfamiliar, yet possessed power—clearly the power of a land he had never visited.

He looked at the arm and commanded Kushi.

“Swallow it.”

Grrr. Kushi, always obedient, whined as if reluctant to obey this command. But Ian’s cold gaze did not waver.

“Go back and leave it in the garden.”

Grrr. It whined as if asking if it could just bury it nearby.

That would be fine. But it would be better to leave such things in a place where other humans wouldn’t easily notice them.

Speaking of which, that human. He recalled the name of the one who had summoned Jina with a mobile phone.

Andy Haywood.

He was clearly calling him a monster.

How did he find out?

He regretted not examining the mobile phone further, having destroyed it in his impatience.

Even so, what could that do?

Jina could no longer escape his embrace. No, she wouldn’t want to. Hadn’t she already become one with him in many ways?

I should order them to keep her confined.

As soon as they returned, it would be best to capture and swallow the police.

Watching Kushi force down the arm as if it were the most disgusting thing in the world, Ian resumed walking.

He wanted to return quickly, wash Jina in warm water, and let her sleep soundly. Then, when she opened her eyes, he wanted to dive into her again with a smile.

In this quiet place, she would not be able to escape him until she conceived.