MPNS Ch 41

Chapter 41

 

It was not pride, but something closer to a natural realization.

Humans could never be a threat to Yullan.

It was like the tiger, who, simply by being born, knows instinctively that it rules the earth.

And not only Yullan — the other Heads as well.

Had they truly regarded humans as prey, an entire fiefdom could have vanished from the map overnight.

Those who stood at the peak of the food chain were thus born to a certain kind of loneliness.

Yullan had sensed that loneliness in the other beasts too.

Ennui, boredom, disillusionment at flesh that tore too easily, the futility of thinking I may die never meeting someone who understands me.

Such things accumulated to gnaw at him and the other beasts from time to time.

It wasn’t constant — but, sitting astride the corpse of a monster, breaking his meal with dusty bread; or, facing humans who, though mortal like himself, hoarded wealth as if they could take it into their graves, always greedy, always blind.

At such times, Yullan and the other beasts thought their souls might be eroding away.

And strangely enough, lately, he had felt a similar sensation from Nikiel as well.

Not loneliness, but something closer to cheerless boredom. Or rather — perhaps it could be called the stillness of someone who had glimpsed the vastness of the universe.

Every time those eyes — eyes that seemed to know the reason for life from birth to death — turned upon him, something in Yullan’s gut would stir.

It was an unfamiliar feeling. Yullan had never once in his life felt sexual attraction toward anyone.

Naturally so. How could a tiger couple with a rabbit?

At best it would be crossbreeding across species.

Yet many desired the courtship of the Black Thorn Commander. Noble ladies, daughters awaiting his proposal, even noble sons at times. Many sought to become the other master of Iteren.

When Yullan first became strong enough to wield a sword heavier than his own body, the very first thing he did was kill his grandfather — and father — Dominic Balt.

He assassinated him and pinned the blame on Dominic’s lover, a male courtesan, who was then executed.

From the beginning, perhaps it was that resemblance — for Nikiel bore a strangely similar face to that courtesan.

A man born with the destiny of a savior, yet wearing the face of a hustler and throwing his body about so carelessly — it had disgusted Yullan.

But in the Nikiel he had met recently, that aspect could no longer be seen.

“Rather…”

Yes, rather, he had the clean, devout face of a monk who had devoted his entire life to a temple. His expression carried no excess, his words spilled forth clear and fresh as water from a spring.

Hearing this mutter, Allewynn tilted his head.

“My lord, did you say something?”

“……”

Yullan did not answer.

The deep hollows beneath his prominent browbones shone with a dangerous glint. He was unaware that he looked as though he were a beast eyeing prey.

…The mood was strange indeed.

Yes, it had truly been strange. Careful not to touch, he had kept his distance. But the beast in him knew by instinct.

That one was “real.”

Not the pale child-wraith in a prince’s shell he had seen at the first blessing ceremony in the Prince’s Palace.

Yullan suddenly wondered if the other beasts had sensed it as well.

That “brat bird” — the hatchling — was by far the most sensitive of them. Surely he would have already realized.

The rest? A blind snake, and a rabid reindeer (for Raymon was the reindeer). Better not to expect anything from them.

“He knew of the existence of an intelligent lifeform.”

With a wolf’s hearing, there was no way Yullan had misheard Nikiel’s murmur.

He had clearly been muttering to himself about intelligent beings.

That Nikiel, muttering about the existence of intelligent life —

At the charity ball held for the western folk who had suffered monster attacks, Nikiel’s speech still lingered in society like a bitter aftertaste.

“Monsters don’t attack human settlements. But kings and nobles, aren’t they the true pests? One excuse after another — drought, storm — they’ve emptied the barns. And now they’ll blame monsters? Unbelievable.”

It was a statement that showed not only a lack of understanding about monsters, but also a contemptuous disregard for the very people a royal was meant to protect.

The reason Nikiel thought monsters did not attack settlements was simple:

No monster had ever attacked the palace.

Why would any, when the walls were built stone by consecrated stone, blessed by the Pontiff and cardinals with holy prayers?

Unable to assail the palace, monsters loitered on the edges of Ossinis’ realm, attacking shifting cultivators or commoners who ventured into lonely woods to cut timber.

Only those who lived lowest had their lives stolen by monsters.

Even nobles in general, ignorant as they were, did not reach Nikiel’s level of blindness. For one whose holy power rivaled the Pontiff’s to say such a thing —

It became fashionable for polite society to mock him with parody greetings:

“I, Count such‑and‑such, His Majesty’s pest, pay my respects.”

And so on. They mocked Nikiel’s stupidity while simultaneously using his words to take easy shots at the king — who greedily snatched grain from their storehouses after every disaster, under the guise of opening the royal barns to the people.

Nikiel himself never realized those greetings were barbs at him.

And while all of high society would seek him out in bed as the capital’s most infamous courtesan, in serious affairs they excluded him completely.

Courtiers, Yullan scowled, thick black brows knitting.

That man, who until then knew nothing, like a child who cannot even speak his own tongue — suddenly mentioning intelligent life…

It was as if a toddler who barely knew Ossinis speech had suddenly stood up one day and recited scripture in the ancient Sansbri tongue.

No one would blame Yullan for being suspicious — especially since ever since the rumor spread that Nikiel had lost his memory, his behavior had become ever more suspicious.

What Yullan failed to realize was that his own interest in Nikiel was also growing.

Before, he would have simply told one of his lieutenants — left or right wing of the Black Thorn Knights, no matter which — to investigate the “empty‑headed royal slut,” and then forgotten entirely about it, riding out on a monster hunt.

But now? He was thinking, turning hypotheses over in his mind. He had never done such a thing before. He didn’t even notice that curiosity about Nikiel was sprouting unconsciously inside him.

Nikiel, meanwhile, was feeling faintly depressed.

It seemed his body was steadily inclining toward liking men.

That his body liked men.

Men who growled at him — no self‑respecting body would do that.

Ever since his strange encounter with Yullan, as he returned to the Prince’s Palace, Nikiel had been struggling to put into words the changes he’d experienced.

Because this… was the first time in his life.

“Me, turned on by a man? That’s absurd. And not just one — any man with a decent face, all of them?!”

Nikiel wanted to deny it. Beneath the beauty of a child god fresh fallen from the moon, the self of an army sergeant cried out:

“No tolerance for homosexuality when it comes to me. What others do — half a dozen men in their bed — fine, whatever, none of my business!”

Yes, Nikiel was the sort of natural sciences doctoral student who seemed both biased and not biased.

For he had learned, studying animal ecology, that nothing in nature could be understood by human social norms.

The world did not need Nikiel’s understanding. The earth spun, the moon pulled with weak gravity, water fell downward — whether he understood it or not.

So too the life histories of animals. Homosexuality, even. As someone who had studied the breadth of animal life, Nikiel accepted that freely.

The condition was only: “so long as it isn’t me.”

It wasn’t that Nikiel particularly despised homosexuality. If anything, he truly didn’t care.

The problem was simply that he had never been aroused by a man. Until he came here.

Back in his original world, his preference was women. Specifically mature, stylish women — those capable of keeping him in line.

But ever since falling into this world, every time his heart pounded or his body stirred — it had been only around men.

Even the dreams that had him lifting his pajama hem in the morning.

“How is this possible?! I even had girlfriends!”

True, he had been too busy to date recently. But when he first entered university, Nikiel had dated non‑stop. Because that was natural for a healthy young man.

Yet since coming here, not once had he dreamed of, thought of, or been stirred by a woman.

Looking back, he realized: every time his body grew faintly aroused, there had always been at least one man close by.

He was distraught. His nature had undeniably changed.

With his head aching, Nikiel finally returned to the Prince’s Palace — and kept to his chambers for the next three days.

He passed the time before the exercise equipment, the kind that instantly provoked the question “how much do you bench, bro?” just by looking at them.

Even working out with the equipment the palace gardeners had hauled in at great cost to the landscaping brought him no joy.

Footnote

¹ Anona nillang — fictional flower in this setting, its oil described as a potent aphrodisiac.

² Sitata — an Ossinis sport loosely resembling wrestling/judo, extremely popular as a cultural arena sport.