A Poisoned Protector

“The mucous membrane of the esophagus is not just swollen, it’s ulcerated. It seems you tried to force down something large, and the meat you ate must have been quite big.”

‘Well. If you call it meat, it’s meat.’
‘It’s the same, bright red and thick.’

I, still with my mouth open, just rolled my eyes and glared at him.
Karvan seemed to be lost in thought as he looked at the dining table where the piece of meat the size of my thigh was placed.
Then, he suddenly opened his mouth.

“…Tegen. Are you outside.”

“Yes! Valta!”

The large figure that was waiting outside the door rushed in.
Tegen, who had greeted me with his eyes, disappeared like the wind when he was told to bring soft food.

A moment later, a pumpkin porridge with steam rising from it, a soup with thinly sliced meat, and something like bellflower root juice were placed in front of me in order.

My throat hurt, but I was hungry from the delicious smell.
As I was cautiously looking around and about to take a bite of the pumpkin porridge, my wrist was grabbed.

“You’re trying to burn your ulcerated throat with something hot.”

Karvan took my spoon, blew on it lightly, and then brought it to my mouth.
Perhaps because he was a man who was cold to the bone.
When his breath touched it, it cooled down just right and was warm and delicious.

I was too hungry to be concerned about my image, so as I gulped down what he offered, his expression, which had been stiff since I had started coughing, softened a little.

“I can’t eat anymore.”

When I was somewhat full and shook my head to say I couldn’t eat anymore, he just stared at me with the spoon in his hand.

“Really. I’m full to the brim…”

“Tell me. Don’t hide it.”

Thinking he was giving me a look to eat more, I was about to explain how full I was, when the words he spat out were meaningful.

“If you’re uncomfortable or in pain, tell me in time. Don’t be foolish and endure it.”

“……”

“You talk so well about other things, why do you only hide it when you’re in pain?”

‘Because it’s a weakness.’
‘Because I don’t want to show you my weakness.’

‘Beasts instinctively hide their pain.’
‘Because in the law of the jungle, they know better than anyone that the moment they show their weakness, they are not comforted, but bitten.’

‘It must be the same for this man.’
‘He promised not to kill me, but if he confirms that my body is not in good condition, I don’t know when he might change his mind again.’

“Nothing changes even if I say I’m in pain.”

‘I don’t want to be eaten by you.’
As I answered, swallowing the rest of my words, the sound of him putting down his spoon was sharp.

“Nothing has changed?”

‘…It has changed.’
‘First of all, the dining table has completely changed.’
‘The piece of meat the size of my thigh, the root vegetables grilled with their skins on, and the coarse rye bread have all been instantly replaced with soft porridge and soup.’

“I don’t want to complain for no reason. I’m not a child…”

“Complain.”

“……”

“I’ll listen to whatever I can.”

Karvan’s always expressionless face made it difficult to read his inner thoughts.

‘Is he being generous to a part?’
‘Or is he in a good mood?’
‘I can’t figure out this man’s whims.’

“So don’t hide it and tell me. Anything.”

The man’s golden eyes were as cool as they had always been.

It looks like it’s frozen solid without a single tremor, but in reality, it’s like thin ice.
I already know that if I step on it without a doubt, I will fall right through and be swept away in the cold water.

“……”

So, I avoided the cool gaze that landed on me.

Because if I were to face it, I might try to walk on that thin ice again like a fool.
Because I didn’t want to step on it again and fall in.

After that day, Karvan became noticeably gentler.

He treated me much more gently in bed, and although it was just a slight raise of the corner of his mouth, he would occasionally laugh.

“Are you not going out today?”

“You used to ask me to stay by your side. Now that I am, do you not like it?”

“No! It’s not that I don’t like it. It’s just a bit, unfamiliar…”

“Get used to it.”

“……”

“It will be like this from now on.”

The time the man spent by my side also grew considerably longer.

When I opened my eyes in the morning, he was always by my side, and he would only leave after we had finished our meal and he had watched me take my decoction.
He would even tell me to wait for him without falling asleep because he would be back by a certain time, or to go to bed first because he wouldn’t be able to return.

“You should eat a little less of that cold stuff.”

As I was tasting the dessert Tegen had brought, the man, who was propping his chin on one hand on the other side, said bluntly.

“You must be the only one in the snowy mountains who eats ice chips. Are you torturing your already cold body or something.”

“It’s not ice chips, it’s frozen and ground blueberries. The Sura made it so diligently! And Mashak said eating cold things helps with the swelling in my throat.”

“I doubt he told you to eat the whole bowl.”

In the end, I was deprived of my favorite dessert, frozen blueberries, and my face fell.

Besides that, ‘don’t leave the window open,’ ‘take your medicine on time.’
He would nag with an expressionless face, but on closer inspection, he was worse than Tegen.

“Your throat.”

“It’s much better. Now the decoction…”

“Take it until today. Still.”

I reluctantly accepted the decoction bowl the man held out.

Ugh.
After emptying the black decoction, as I stuck out my tongue, he put a honey candy in my mouth.
Like the man’s steady gaze, the bright yellow, round candy took away the bitter taste in my mouth.

‘Thank you.’
As I conveyed my inaccurate thanks because I was rolling the candy with the tip of my tongue, the man chuckled.

‘The fact that his gaze on me feels sweet must be a delusion because of the sweetness in my mouth.’

They said the Varg had always had many enemies.

They had to be fierce to survive the Ruin, and they could only live by plundering, so even among the beast-kin, they were treated as barbarians.

A few days ago, because of my ‘walk incident,’ a rumor had spread that the Varg chief had taken a mate.

“…Karvan!”

And, I could understand what it meant for a mate to be a weakness.

If he had been alone, he would never have been caught, but he had happened to be on a walk with me outside of Bahalgras.

“You look like you have something to say.”
“Um, can I go for a walk? I’ll go with Tegen! I’ll just stay within the city…”
“If you go with me, not Tegen, I’ll allow you to go outside the city.”

Even though he must have been busy, I was happy and puzzled that he had come out with me himself.

‘Why is he being so obedient all of a sudden, how much is he going to torment me at night.’
As I was thinking this and that while waiting for Karvan, I found a beast-kin cowering and trembling in the bushes.

[Hyena Tribe: Their teeth are strong because they have to gnaw on bones with their sharp canines. A full-grown individual boasts a bite force stronger than a killer whale.]

Judging by the name and appearance, it seemed to be a race based on the hyena.

‘Hyenas usually move in groups of at least two, so was it abandoned because it was injured?’
Its whole body was filthy, and it smelled strongly of blood, so my guess seemed to be correct.

Even when I approached it, it couldn’t meet my eyes and just trembled.
Since it wasn’t marked in red, it wasn’t a hostile monster.
Maybe it was an NPC like Ilai.

‘…Can I help it?’
I glanced at Karvan.

He was talking to a reconnaissance Sura who had come to him with an urgent report a little distance away.

It might be a misunderstanding, but the man had become quite gentle recently.
His always-cold gaze had softened a lot, and we talked more often than before, so I thought he wouldn’t get angry if I asked him carefully.

As I was waiting for Karvan to finish his conversation, I cautiously spoke to the hyena-kin.

“Excuse me. Are you okay?”

The skinny shoulders that had been cowering and trembling flinched.

Shlick.
The hyena-kin, who had lifted his head, looked up at me from between his hairy forearms.
My figure was fully reflected in his unusually black eyes.

“If you’re hurt, shall I help you?”

Suddenly lifting his head as if the light was blinding, the hyena-kin’s eyes widened.

At his surprised expression, Ilai of the Fox tribe suddenly came to mind.

‘Could it be that this beast-kin will also call me an ‘Awakener’?’

As I was looking back at him with a sliver of hope, the hyena-kin grinned.

“……!”

At the same time, Karvan pulled me into a hug from behind.
‘He was so far away, when did he come, why is he suddenly doing this?’
Before I could even ask back, blood splattered over his shoulder.

“Karvan!”

“…Keek! Kyaak!”

The hyena-kin’s neck was broken in one go by the man’s hand, and he died instantly, but his shoulder, which had been bitten by the bastard instead of me, was already a bloody mess.

Suddenly, the hyena-kin’s encyclopedia description came to mind.

‘A full-grown individual boasts a bite force stronger than a killer whale.’

To be bitten by such a hyena-kin, even Karvan’s body would not be left unscathed.
His shoulder bone was completely shattered.

“The shoulder has been set safely, but there is a problem.”

Fortunately, with the help of the escorting Sura who were nearby, we were able to support him and return to Bahalgras safely, but Karvan did not recover easily.

“Can’t I treat him? Since I’m his mate…”

‘Wouldn’t he get better if we exchanged saliva as we always did.’
I readily volunteered, prepared to do it all day if it meant he would recover safely, but Mashak shook his head with a worried face.

“The bastard’s teeth contained a poison gland. It’s not a natural poison but a deadly poison mixed with a chemical compound, so it can’t be healed with imprint healing. Shinbi-nim will be infected too.”

Moreover, it was difficult to make an antidote because they couldn’t figure out the ingredients.

As Mashak said, healing without an antidote is like pouring water into a bottomless pit.
Even if he recovers for a while, the deadly poison that has seeped into every corner of his body will continue to destroy his cells.

[Immunity to All Poisons: Does not take dot damage from ‘poison’ related skills. (Stigma Theory – Skollcat’s passive skill)]

‘Then it would have been better if I had been bitten!’

What hurt my insides more was that, of all things, I had a poison immunity skill that I had plundered with ‘Stigma Theory.’

“Are you really a fool? Why did you block it! I’m a Destroyer with a tenacious life force, so I don’t die that easily!”

My guilt turned into blaming the man.

“I asked you not to let me die, who asked you to die for me?”

‘Since when did he care about me so much, why did he do something I didn’t even ask for?’
I got angry without realizing it.

“It wouldn’t have mattered if my shoulder was bitten! Why, why, did you…!”

“…If that had happened, and you had another bad memory.”

The man, who was lying down with his forearm over his eyes, just moved his mouth and said.

“You’d act like a scared rabbit every time I touched you. I’d rather be bitten than that.”