Had it gone on any longer, I might not have been able to stop.
The proof was in the way my lower body still tensed up, the uncomfortable bulge in my pants only fueling my irritation.
‘I didn’t mean for it to go this far.’
***
“Huh? I sent Mather and Beam away! And even the inspector doesn’t matter!”
‘Do you have any idea whose fault it is that I’m in this state?’ I couldn’t stand the way she smirked and played with words right in front of me.
“So… does this mean I’ve proven my usefulness?”
His already foolish face twisted into a grin, making her look even dumber.
And yet, she had an unexpected talent for getting under my skin.
That’s why, at first, I’d half-intended to torment her.
“No, not yet. How do we know this is the perfect solution?”
“Huh…?”
“So let’s test it right here. It’s not like last time was any different.”
The look on her face was priceless.
For just a moment, a mischievous thought flickered in my mind.
But then, I’d wanted to confirm the unresolved question.
“If you don’t like it, why don’t you try crushing me with pheromones like last time? You were good at that.”
Yet at some point, I’d lost control.
Like a madman, I’d buried my face in her defenseless body, licking and sucking to my heart’s content.
The way her soft flesh melted under my touch was intoxicating—so sweet I almost doubted it was human.
If she hadn’t started crying, I would’ve gone all the way.
Disgust welled up inside me at the beast I’d become.
‘So this is what a rabid dog looks like.’
Just as that thought crossed my mind, Samuel opened the door and stepped into the office.
His accusing gaze immediately landed on me.
“What the hell did you do to make Mayhen look like that?”
“Do I really have to report that too?”
“That’s not the point. Would it kill you to treat her decently? You’re stuck with her for life now.”
Samuel’s words made me feel like I’d been thrown into a pit of mud.
My mood soured instantly.
“That’s not certain yet.”
“How can it not be? Lord Argon already marked her.”
The Mark.
Even the thought of it made my stomach churn.
Wolf beastmen could only love the one they’d marked—for life.
And if that person died, their mind would shatter.
That’s why Hamilton had outlawed the act of marking.
Yet despite knowing that better than anyone, I’d gone and marked her.
A weak, foolish sheep of all things.
If there had been a logical reason, it might not have felt so suffocating.
I could’ve sworn I’d held out just fine, even when the drugs had set my body on fire.
“Tell me who’s behind this. Now.”
“My mission was… to deal with you…”
When I tried to use pheromones to uncover the mastermind behind this, something impossible happened.
A herbivore—a mere sheep beastman—suppressed my pheromones.
The pheromones of a carnivorous wolf.
That wasn’t just unheard of; it wasn’t even recorded in historical texts.
And from that moment, everything spiraled out of control.
***
“What about the pheromones?”
“Lord Argon found no records matching this phenomenon. Obviously, the idea of a herbivore overpowering a carnivore’s pheromones is absurd.”
“Any other suspicious findings?”
“We double-checked with the International Beastman Association, but no anomalies were detected in Maehen’s physiology.”
Then, as if remembering something, Samuel added:
“Ah, I did hear she was considered a troublemaker at the academy.”
“Why?”
“She couldn’t achieve mana bloom. But that’s irrelevant to us.”
That left only one plausible suspicion: divine intervention.
If the gods willed it, even the impossible could become reality.
After all, it was their so-called “mercy” that transformed our primal beast forms into what we are now.
But why now?
When I sought their aid before, they ignored me.
The more I thought about it, the more my temper frayed.
Samuel’s voice cut through the silence.
“Why not take advantage of this? Now that you’ve marked her, the suppressants won’t work anymore.”
Since adulthood, I’d suffered periodic heats.
For years, I’d taken brutal suppressants, terrified that a careless night might lead to marking someone.
But the side effects were devastating.
My insomnia, a lifelong curse, worsened.
Then came the heart palpitations—my body, overloaded with unprocessed toxins, began failing.
Even Haphone, my physician, scolded me.
“You’ve overdosed again. This was supposed to last a week, yet you’ve finished it in three days.”
“Did I?”
“If you keep this up, your heart will give out.”
“Better dead than living like a beast in heat.”
“Then just take a consort! Your body is rebelling because you deny its instincts! Why choose suffering when the solution is so simple?!”
“I don’t care. Your only duty is to ensure I don’t succumb to this vile instinct—whether I live or die doesn’t matter.”
Years of discipline, shattered in a single night.
All because of that clueless sheep.
To add insult to injury, she’d left the damn elephant aphrodisiac vial at the scene.
This wasn’t just mockery—it was a challenge to Hamilton itself.
Or so I’d thought then.
I’d planned to drag her to the Labyrinth and devise her torment at leisure.
But the first night in the Labyrinth defied all expectations.
“Your Majesty, there’s a problem. You need to see this…!”
The head jailer burst in, face pale. In his hands was a crystal—
***
Two flies were crawling into the labyrinth inside the crystal.
It was almost laughable.
A prison maze from which there was no escape once entered—a place where the interior shifted several times a day, so even the assigned guards would get lost and die if they strayed outside their designated areas.
“What the hell are the higher-ups doing?”
“Well… they’re asleep.”
“They’re sleeping peacefully at a time like this?”
The administrator wiped sweat from his brow, forcing a stiff smile as he continued explaining.
“After checking, I heard that the upper-level supervisors ate the same snacks earlier this evening, lost consciousness, and collapsed.”
“Don’t tell me they didn’t even check who gave it to them?”
“No! It was brought by Gerald, a fellow upper-level supervisor of the labyrinth. They probably didn’t suspect him—he’s been working here for over ten years, a considerate young man who takes care of his widowed mother…”
“That’s enough.”
When I checked the crystal again, one of the intruding flies had already drawn a blade against Yang Su-in.
Samuel, who was watching alongside me, tilted his head in confusion.
“Huh? Why is he threatening his own ally? Aren’t they on the same side?”
Meanwhile, I was feeling an inexplicable sense of unease.
Like I had missed something crucial.
By the time they had fully exited the prison with Yang Su-in, the administrator turned to me in shock.
“Wh-what do we do? Should we call the relief guards now?”
“By then, it’ll already be too late.”
Just as the flies used a crude bomb to blow open the labyrinth walls, I could no longer just watch and stand up.
“Send soldiers to surround the labyrinth. Not a single one of them should—”
Before I could finish, the unexpected happened.
Yang Su-in, who had been acting meek, suddenly grabbed the other man’s hand—only to shove him forward and kick him hard.
One of the dumbstruck flies was sent flying out.
“Hah—!”
But the surprises didn’t end there.
Suddenly, as if being chased, Yang Su-in dashed back into the labyrinth.
As if he had a death wish.
“Samuel, get ready. We’re going into the labyrinth.”
“Huh? Me too…?”
Only then did I realize what I had been waiting for.
Concrete evidence.
Instinctively, I had been searching for it.
Looking back, there had been too many oddities to label her an assassin.
Her movements were clumsy, clearly untrained, and she had foolishly left behind the elephant aphrodisiac bottle she used at the crime scene.
Not to mention, the seal stamped on the request document she brought was sloppily forged.
All the evidence pointed to one thing—Yang Su-in was not the assassin.
Instead, someone had set her up.
The reason I hadn’t considered that possibility was because I had been blinded by rage.
This entire mess was my fault.
‘It’s not too late to go and judge for myself.’