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Translator: penny
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: Making a Black-Haired Beast Person (2)
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From then on, time flew by like a ferocious blizzard.
Time in the snow mountains is honest.
You grow as much as you eat, and you get stronger as much as you fight.
But human growth can sometimes be unfair.
"Get up, you mutt. Tired already?"
Kara's mocking voice poured down on the crown of my head buried in the snow.
Ten years old.
Girls grow fast at this age, like little tyrants.
Kara was a head taller than me, overwhelming me in both strength and skill.
She toyed with me like a little brother—or rather, like a punching bag.
"Urk... I haven't lost...!"
I staggered to my feet, using my axe as a crutch.
But Kara casually folded her arms behind her back and flicked my forehead with her finger.
"Call me sis, and I'll go easy on you."
"In your dreams!"
"Then you get more beatings, I guess."
Thwack!
That day, too, my face met the snow.
Back then, there was no pink haze between us.
Just her cheerful mischief, especially her urge to put me in my place—and mine to beat her.
But barbarian genes awaken late.
The year I turned fourteen, a storm hit my body.
I'd wake up with aching joints every morning, and my clothes would rip because they'd gotten too small.
It was one such sparring match.
"Hah!"
Out of habit, Kara swung her wooden sword at my head.
An attack I would've had to roll away from normally.
Thud.
But I didn't dodge. I caught Kara's wooden sword with one hand.
"...Huh?"
Kara's eyes went wide.
Her gaze shifted upward.
Before I knew it, I was looking down at her.
My shadow engulfed her entire body; I'd grown that massive.
"That trick doesn't work anymore."
I grinned and was about to push her back with raw strength when—
Whoosh.
"Idiot."
Kara's body slipped into my guard like a ghost.
"Wha?"
She used my momentum against me—the force I'd meant to crush her with—and launched my huge frame into the air.
Thud—!
"Rely on your size alone and you'll die, little bro."
I hit the snow even harder than before.
Once our physiques flipped, Kara got even fiercer.
Brute force wasn't enough anymore, so she honed her technique to the limit.
Her movements grew more precise, her swordplay so sharp I couldn't follow it with my eyes.
In the end, even after I grew a head taller, I never beat her once.
She was an insurmountable wall.
And then sixteen.
The stormy age of adolescence, when hormones rule the brain.
"Hah... hah...!"
Ragged breaths scattered across the snowy plain.
Two shadows tangled and rolled in the snow.
A fight?
No, this was sparring.
But to an outsider, it might've looked like beasts in mating season—the positions were that suggestive.
"Le... let go already?"
Kara growled from underneath me.
Her silver hair splayed across the snow, cheeks flushed from the intense struggle.
I smacked my lips awkwardly.
Our feet had tangled while I brute-forced through her fancy techniques, sending us both tumbling.
Somehow, I'd ended up on top.
My thick, muscled thighs pinned her hips; my hands bound her slender wrists.
A pinning hold we'd done carelessly as kids.
But now...
'...Soft.'
The springy curves beneath me, the scent of her sweat-mingled skin—it numbed my reason.
We're not blood-related.
On paper, adoptive siblings.
I knew we shouldn't, but every wild thump of my heart brought a shiver of forbidden thrill down my spine.
Kara seemed to feel it too.
She, who'd been sharpening her skills to beat me since fourteen, now lay still, gazing up at me with trembling eyes.
A moment of silence.
So close I could hear each other's heartbeats.
Kara bit her lip, then whispered in a quivering voice.
"...Get off. You're heavy."
Those words snapped me back.
I jolted up in panic.
"S-sorry."
"...Hmph."
Kara dusted off her dirtied clothes and turned away sharply.
Her ear tips were bright red.
This fresh, delicate tension between us.
But the snow plains had rude interlopers with no sense of timing.
Off in the distance, behind a thick fir tree.
"Yes! That's it! Pin her down! Awaken your instincts!"
The chieftain—my adoptive father Gorgon—clenched his fist, cheering lewdly.
"Grandkids this year! Go for it, Barg!"
"Shh, quiet. You're ruining the mood."
Beside him, Elder Baba crouched, gnawing on dried meat like it was popcorn.
"Always so shameless. Save your energy for night, not day. What's the point otherwise?"
"No, Elder, beasts don't distinguish day from night. That's my philosophy."
Under the adults' shameless voyeurism, our pink tension grew awkwardly tainted.
A bit later.
The resumed spar ended in my defeat.
Thud!
"Ugh...!"
This time, roles reversed.
I lay spread-eagled in the snow, Kara straddling my chest with her wooden sword at my throat.
Victory and defeat were clear.
But Kara's face wasn't that of a winner.
She pressed the axe blade to my neck and asked in a low voice.
"You held back again, didn't you?"
"..."
"Why won't you go all out?"
I gave an innocent smile.
"Hey, that's unfair. I'm always serious. You're just too fast."
"Liar."
Kara's eyes sharpened.
"You don't open those eyes unless it's a 'real crisis.' Those creepy red ones."
"..."
"You saying you'll never have killing intent toward me? That I'm not even a threat worth your full power anymore?"
Bitter undertones laced Kara's voice.
She withdrew the axe and got off my chest.
Relief mixed with disappointment.
Faith that I wouldn't harm her, resentment that I wouldn't go all out—complex emotions in her eyes.
But her gaze soon turned to her own body.
No matter how much she swung her sword or trained, some changes were inevitable.
This 'annoying lump'—a nuisance for a warrior—that had just been pressed against my firm chest irked her.
Irritation at her budding breasts, frustration at our widening physical gap.
"This is boring."
Kara turned and stalked off.
I scratched my head, still lying in the snow.
"I mean it, though..."
If I went all out, you'd get hurt.
I swallowed those words unspoken.
Gorgon, watching from afar, wore a strange expression.
His pleased smile faded, replaced by the chieftain's heavy sense of duty.
"Hm... Did I make Barg too human? He held back there."
He muttered nonsense with a grave face.
Then, smiling again, he added,
"Back in my day, I'd have pounced in that mood."
Gorgon paused, deep in thought.
"...Wait. Was I the one pounced on?"
"..."
"Right, Kara's mom couldn't hold back and jumped me. Uhahaha!"
Elder Baba clicked her tongue at the chieftain's shameless lament.
"By the way, Gorgon."
She asked softly.
Her playfulness gone, only the prophet's deep voice remained.
"You really taking the grand duke's title? That means leaving our homeland."
Baba spat out her chewed meat roughly and grumbled on.
"And the 'castle' he's granting is Wintersword? Wintersword... Tch. He plans to use us as tools for the empire."
Gorgon stared silently at the snow plain.
"Elder. It's been a hundred years since the sealing."
The biting wind whipped his bear-fur cloak.
"You know, Elder. Before the Croatina Empire... humans fought each other tooth and nail."
Gorgon gazed at the sky and murmured softly.
"Until the day 'Gates' opened across the continent and monsters poured out."
"...I know. My father died then."
"The empire formed to stop it, sealing all the Gates. It's been over a century since the empire endured."
Gorgon's eyes turned south, toward the empire's border.
"But nothing lasts forever. Seals weaken, and the empire will fracture someday. Before that chaos..."
He clenched his fist tight.
"If we don't enter the fold first, the tribe can't survive."
The chieftain's gaze was resolute.
A vow to bend barbarian pride for survival, entering the empire's order.
Elder Baba spat her meat and grumbled.
"Tch. You, the reckless Gorgon, acting all grown-up in front of an old woman."
She stood and snapped,
"If you're leaving, go after I'm gone. I can't stomach imperial food anyway."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Rustle.
The quiet snow plain.
Father Gorgon and I were out hunting alone.
A peaceful afternoon.
Winter sunlight shattered on the snow as we hid in the bushes, eyeing a massive elk.
"Barg."
Gorgon asked casually while drawing his bowstring.
"So, any progress with our Kara lately?"
"Pardon?"
My startled hand slipped on the string.
Twing!
The arrow shot uselessly skyward, and the spooked elk bolted.
"Ah..."
Ruined.
I looked at Father in panic.
He grinned mischievously, ignoring the fleeing elk.
"Wh-what do you mean... We're siblings and..."
"Uhahaha! Siblings? I saw you two sneaking off to Moonlight Lake at dawn. Was that my reflection?"
He stroked his beard, chuckling heartily.
"Fair enough, you do take after me. No blood, but my son all the same. Makes you cautious, huh."
"..."
No words came.
My face burned like a ripe tomato.
Busted.
I hung my head in embarrassment, and Gorgon patted my shoulder with a snicker.
"No need to blush. So cute when you're shy."
Behind the teasing glint in his eyes lay deep affection.
The chieftain's—no, a father's—warm gaze toward his prospective son-in-law.
"So, how far'd you get? Don't play coy, kid. As a life senior, here's some advice..."
He leaned in, whispering conspiratorially.
"Kara's got half of her mom's assets, you know? You haven't seen 'em, but."
"Pardon?"
"Anyway, that half—keep teasing, and Kara won't hold back..."
Swish—
A chilling whistle tore the peaceful air.
Thunk!
"...Guh?"
Gorgon's laughter cut off.
A black-feathered arrow was lodged in his right shoulder.
"Father!"
I reflexively supported him.
But his massive frame crumpled weakly.
Dark red blood oozed from the wound.
Poison.
Frost viper venom, paralyzing nerves—a deadly toxin.
Instantly, a horrific vision flashed in my mind.
Clear as if I'd seen the future—a vivid nightmare.
Gorgon, pierced by hundreds of arrows like a porcupine, throat slit and abandoned in the cold snow.
And before him, Kara sobbing blood-tears, yanking arrows from his body one by one.
'Dad... Dad...!'
Her sky-blue eyes dulled forever.
Grief turned to madness; she led the tribe to war for his head.
All dead, all burning—a future of ruin.
"Urk... Ambush...!"
Gorgon's groan shattered the vision.
Snow-covered bushes rustled everywhere.
Figures wearing upside-down red wolf skulls.
The Blood Fang Tribe.
They sneered, nocking arrows.
"Traitor Gorgon, who abandoned Lady Sandra!"
In that instant, the awful vision drowned in red rage.
My vision turned crimson.
I heard my sanity snap.