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The sound of heavy breathing reached Alice Kuonji's ears, followed by the soft dripping of liquid onto the snow.
Alice knew it was the sound of the wolf-like Phantasmal Beast, Beo, drooling.
The giant golden wolf had pinned her slender arms with its powerful forelimbs, its emerald green eyes sizing her up, as if deciding where to begin its meal.
In Beo's eyes, Alice was simply the food it had defeated. Since it had won, it was now time to eat.
The iron tang of blood wafted from Alice's right abdomen, staining the pristine white snow a vivid crimson.
Though she had been too weak to completely dodge, she had managed to avoid a direct hit. But her abdomen had still been torn, a bowl-sized chunk of flesh ripped away.
Sharp pain shot from her abdomen to her brain. Alice, who was used to pain, still maintained her impassive expression, but her breathing was growing shallow. The reason, of course, was the blood pouring from the gaping wound in her stomach.
'If this continues, I'll die of blood loss. No, I'll probably be eaten first.' Hearing the golden wolf's heavy breathing, Alice thought with a detached calm.
When she had chosen the path of a magus, she had been prepared to die. So, to meet her end at the age of sixteen, she had no complaints.
"...Doesn't it hurt?" Alice's calm, placid expression caught Beo's attention. A boyish, puzzled voice came from the wolf's fearsome jaws.
The food before it was strange. Every time it tore a piece of flesh from its prey, it would hear a heart-wrenching scream. Though it had never been injured and didn't understand the feeling, the screams sounded very painful.
But the prey before it hadn't let out a single cry. Beo was exceptionally curious.
Alice met Beo's emerald green wolf eyes with a calm gaze, her own eyes devoid of any hatred or fear. Instead, they held the look of a scientist examining a lab rat.
As a magus, she really wanted to dissect this wolf. It was a rare, exceptionally rare, Phantasmal Species!
Stared at by Alice's soul-stirring gaze, the annoyance in Beo's heart quickly overshadowed its curiosity. "Since you're not in pain, then I'll begin!"
Alice calmly accepted her fate and slowly closed her eyes.
"Be...o..." Touko, beside them, immediately tried to stop Beo. The reprimand had just left her throat when it turned into a gasp of astonishment.
Silently, Haru's figure appeared beside Beo, his expression impassive as he looked at the golden giant wolf.
Startled by Touko's sudden shout, Beo slowly turned its head and, with an innocent expression, said, "...Miss Touko."
To be startled during mealtime made Beo very upset.
Touko looked at Haru with surprise. "How did you get here?"
The puzzled voice jolted Alice awake. She opened her eyes and looked at Haru, who was standing beside her, with a bewildered expression.
"Eh?" Beo turned its head, this time to the left. It finally saw the figure of Haru beside it.
"Who are you?" Beo's voice was filled with confusion.
"Get your paws off her, husky," Haru said, his brow furrowed slightly as he looked at Beo's paws, which were still holding Alice's arms, his face cold.
Hearing the reprimand, and seeing the scowl on his face for the first time, Touko looked at Haru with suspicion, then at the helpless Alice on the ground, and her lip twitched.
"Husky? Are you talking to me? You're calling me a husky? Have you seen my kind before?" Beo immediately released Alice's forelimbs, wagged its tail, and looked at Haru with a curious expression.
Though it possessed a wisdom far beyond that of a normal person, Beo, who was born in the deep mountains and old forests, still had the mind of a child.
Hearing Haru call it a husky, it was naturally very curious.
"..."
Touko and Alice were silent. They knew what a husky was, of course. They wanted to refute him, but looking at the wagging-tailed, curious Beo, for some reason, they felt that it was exceptionally similar to a husky.
"Why didn't you ask for help?" Haru ignored Beo's question, his face ashen as he looked at the extremely weak Alice on the ground. Seeing her mangled abdomen, his face darkened.
"..." Faced with his question, the guilty Alice turned her head away, unable to meet his gaze, and remained silent.
"Touko cheated and brought out a Phantasmal Species, and you didn't even think to ask me for help?" Haru's brow twitched with anger, and he looked at the silent Alice with displeasure.
"...Touko?!" Alice immediately turned her head, her gaze sharpening, her dark eyes filled with a sharp glare as she stared at him.
All guilt, all weakness, was dispelled by that single, intimate address. Alice's current expression was like that of a wife who had just caught her husband cheating, filled with anger and accusation.
"Oh my, Haru is here. It seems this little mistress won't be able to kill the main wife and take her place," Touko said with a deep, wicked amusement, her voice a thousand shades of alluring.
"Shut up!" X2
Haru and Alice both snapped at Touko.
Alice narrowed her eyes, glared at Haru beside her, and petulantly turned her head away.
"Hey, did you hear what I said!" Beo, who had been ignored, growled, looking at Haru with displeasure, as if it were ready to tear someone apart at any moment, its four limbs slightly bent.
Haru's gaze slowly shifted from Alice's face and, with a cold expression, he looked at Beo and slowly lifted his right hand.
The atmosphere seemed to freeze. Beo felt as if the entire atmosphere was sealing its body. The air it normally tore through with ease now felt like a wall of sighs, pinning it to the ground, unable to even move a single hair.
An indescribable fear filled its heart. It was the fear of an intelligent life form for the unknown.
"...Haru!" A pleading call came from Touko. Before she achieved her goal, she still needed Beo's help. She wouldn't let it die here. So, she immediately submitted.
As for whether Haru could kill Beo or not, the secret archives of the Clock Tower were filled with records of True Magic Users using Phantasmal Species and even Divine Beasts as research materials.
Touko's plea did not succeed in stopping Haru's actions. A lover who was just an exchange of interests was ultimately no match for the position Alice held in his heart. Haru impassively lifted his hand and slowly reached out.
In Beo's eyes, it was the arm of a grim reaper. Terror filled its emerald green wolf eyes. It struggled with all its might, the veins on its four limbs bulging, but it couldn't move an inch.
"That's... my opponent," a weak voice came from Alice. The dark witch looked at Haru with displeasure, expressing her dissatisfaction with him interfering in her battle.
"...I really want to open your head and see if it's full of shit!" Haru's lip twitched as he looked at Alice's pale, yet stubborn, face, and sighed helplessly.
There was a limit to being stubborn. She was clearly no match, yet she insisted on handling it herself, even refusing the help of Haru, who could be called her boyfriend. Though this was a country where the idea of 'not troubling your boyfriend' was rampant, the witch's stubbornness still left him speechless.
With Alice's protest and Touko's endorsement, Haru couldn't very well just kill Beo. But that didn't mean he would let this husky, who had injured Alice, off the hook.
Haru squinted at Beo, considering how to inflict the greatest damage without killing it. After a long moment of thought, an idea came to him. "You wanted to see your kin, didn't you? I'll grant your wish," he said, his tone strange.
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