CHAPTER 57: I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT JUST HAPPENED

The monster growled under its breath in front of me, but I couldn’t wait for it to act. Even though I was scared, my wild instincts as a beast told me I could get away alive. How? I don’t know.

But it didn’t scream at me to lunge at this beast, that’s for a fact.

I was no match for it even if I tried in a million years.

It would’ve been a different story if I could transform into a beast but females can’t transform and... Wait... I paused as I recalled this information.

Beastmen, males, can transform into their beast form in this world.

They mostly do it to... Hunt. Since it increases their speed and... I gulped... It’s also a form of impressing their mate.

Is this... What I think it is?

It’s already suspicious enough that a beast this size got so close to me without me realizing it. But it’s not even doing anything.

If it were a beast that could attack me at any moment, and if its goal of approaching me was to include me in its morning snack, then it wouldn’t just be looking at me like that, waiting for me to act.

It’s as if it wants me to see something... It wants me to ’do’ something.

Those red eyes and that white and black fur belong to the snow tigers... Ah, why didn’t I think of this?

It was worth a shot but I think it’ll be fine.

My knees gave way and I dropped to the floor, defeated. I thought I was going to die a second there but there’s a reason why my beast instincts didn’t tell me to attack or friendly warn me to run.

It’s because this beast is not a danger to me.

Slowly, I lifted my head, looking at the beast that had watched me slump down. It was huge... And scary but... When I think about the fact that this might be Fenric... I can’t help but feel warm inside.

"F-" I slowly reached my hand towards him to test his reaction, but it didn’t do anything and instead, pushed its head closer so I could pat its nose. Ah, I was right. "Fenric," I called. "You’re Fenric, right?"

As soon as I asked that, he snuggled his body closer and lunged his body at me.

"Whoa!" It was still a bit scary.

It was a tiger, for crying out loud.

But it wasn’t trying to hurt me. It just... Cuddled me.

And then slowly, a white fog surrounded him, until I saw his head pressed on my chest with a blush on his cheek.

"Fenric?!" I called, shocked at how he had suddenly transformed. It was like magic, I tell you.

But more than that, why did he approach me with his beast form?

"Arinya," he called, holding me tight with his arms wrapped around me. "I’m so happy." He buried his head in my chest, I man my breast and my face flushed.

That’s not something you say while using your face to caress my nipples.

"What... Why... I don’t understand what just happened." I said and he raised his head, pouting.

"Arinya, do you know why I only have interest in strong females?" He asked.

"B-because you don’t like weak females?" I asked. It was the obvious thing to say, if you ask me.

"Yes, weak females can’t handle me. They... They scream and cry when they see me in this form." He said. "They like me when I use two legs but once I turn into a beast, I become an enemy, as if I’m going to eat them or something."

Ah, I... I didn’t know.

He looked really sad as he said this.

It seemed like the females didn’t have the heart to accept his beast side since it was so huge and intimidating.

If he had marked a female who didn’t know about his beast side and then showed it to them later, they would definitely be scared and want to break the bond.

If that happened, he would never be able to get a mate ever.

But then, why didn’t he tell me about this ’before’ he marked me?

What would he have done if I screamed and yelled as soon as he approached me like this?

And he didn’t just say, ’Hey, I’m going to show you my beast form’ he practically approached me as a beast.

In that situation, it’s only normal for a female to freak out. Is this how he approached other females and scared them away?

"I’m sorry for not telling you earlier, Arinya." He said and I felt his arms squeezing tighter. "I really liked you and since you were strong, I knew you would be able to handle it."

Wasn’t that a dangerous gamble? What if the opposite had happened?

"And I figured that if you were able to accept a snake beast man that’s considered very dangerous, you wouldn’t mind having me even if you see my beast form." He smiled sheepishly.

Well, that is a great way to put it. There’s no way I’d run from him when I didn’t run from a snake beastman that’s a common enemy.

That must be where he got his confidence from.

I understand his reasoning and understand his desperation to want to be accepted for who he is, no matter how scary.

But it still doesn’t excuse the fact that he snuck up on me and tried to scare me.

I nearly had a heart attack for crying out loud.

Wait, hold on, aren’t we missing something here?

That was when I noticed Fenric was butt-naked on top of me.

"Where are your clothes?!" I asked, my face reddening by the second.

"Oh, I can’t have my clothes on when I’m in beast form." He said. "So, I left them where I left the squirrels."

Then it hit me. The main thing I was forgetting. Why in the world was he playing a trick like this now when he was in the middle of a competition?

Does he not know how important this is?

"You have to go now, Fenric," I said. "You have to catch even more squirrels. You don’t have time to be messing around like this."

"Oh, right." He said and got up.

I tried not to look, as if I hadn’t already seen all of it the previous night, and scurried for my clothes.

"I’ll get going now." He said and was about to walk away when I called out,

"Fenric," he turned to look at me.

My heart was going ba-dum, ba-dum, and my face was lightly flushed.

"You... Your beast form isn’t all that scary." I said. "It... It looks majestic, if anything."