The sunlight falling across his perfectly balanced features made the scene feel almost painfully unreal.
‘This is a dream, right?’
But no matter how hard Mona rubbed her eyes, the man sleeping like a painting in front of her remained there, breathing quietly.
Oh my God…….
“Mm.”
While she sat there in a daze, the man shifted.
At the same time, the blanket slid down toward the sunken side of the mattress, revealing his defined abdomen.
“Ghk.”
The sight of his trained body made Mona panic and tumble off the bed.
For a moment, memories from the night before flashed through her mind all at once.
Even the moment one of the bed legs snapped amid the night’s chaos came rushing back.
“……!”
And that was not all.
The darkness that had glided out from the shadows and wrapped around her……
Cold and solid……
“……!”
Barely swallowing the sound trying to escape her lips, Mona hurriedly gathered the clothes scattered across the floor and put them on.
Her entire body ached as though she had been beaten, but the shock flooding her mind left no room to hesitate.
Every memory drifting through her head from the night before was more than she could bear while sober.
Things she would never have done if she had not been intoxicated by the perfume.
‘Damn it. What in the world did I make……?’
Instead of creating a perfume that helped monsters become friendly, she had apparently created one that turned its victims into beasts ruled by instinct.
‘I should just die.’
She hurried toward the exit, only to stop when she caught sight of herself in a wall mirror.
“!?”
Her dyed gray hair was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, her white hair stuck out in every direction.
She had dyed it only yesterday. How had this happened……?
After fumbling in panic, Mona finally tore a layer of fabric from her skirt and wrapped it over her head.
Without looking back, she fled the unfamiliar place.
Then she ran and ran as if trying to escape a nightmare.
***
For the first time in a long while, Richard fell into a deep sleep that felt like true rest.
It was a lethal dose of peace given to him by a woman whose identity he did not even know.
But when he finally opened his eyes after sleeping deeply, the sheets beneath his fingertips were already cold.
His blue eyes cooled like shards of ice as he looked around the empty space.
Not even a piece of clothing had been left behind.
The sweet-smelling presence was gone.
……Why had she disappeared?
All through the night, she had clung to him through the perfume-induced haze.
So why?
As though waiting for the vanished woman to return, Richard buried his face in the sheets where her sweet scent still faintly lingered, then slowly sat up.
He had marked his territory so thoroughly.
And yet she had disappeared.
A raw fury, something only a monster might feel, boiled deep in his gut.
It was not only anger toward the woman who had taken what she wanted from him and run.
There was also anger at himself for letting his guard down and falling asleep while intoxicated by sweetness.
To lose something that had been within his own territory.
Before he had become half monster because of that accident, he had never felt an emotion this primitive.
Caught in a storm of unfamiliar feelings, he slowly bent down and picked up the white mask lying on the floor.
“……I have to find her.”
The moment he reached that decision, the sharp sensation clawing at his insides eased slightly.
At the same time, the noise beginning to boil in his head quieted again.
Yes.
If he had lost her, then he only had to catch her again.
***
“Why has Mona not been coming to the laboratory lately?”
Jake, the senior researcher who had shown up late as usual, said it while looking around the laboratory.
“Right? This is already her third day absent without notice…….”
“She is a poor researcher. What makes her think she can just disappear like that?”
“Maybe because she’s capable? Mona isn’t sociable, but she’s good with her hands and excellent at controlling variables…….”
“Hey! She’s been absent for three days without permission and you’re defending her? Are you out of your mind?”
“W-well…….”
Then Benny, the researcher who knew every piece of high-society gossip, shrugged.
“She may look shabby, but she is still from a count’s family. I heard the Bellose Family has been making quite a lot of this lately.”
Benny pressed his thumb and index finger together in a circle like a gold coin.
“Then why does Mona always look like that?”
“What parent would want to support a gloomy daughter who researches monsters?”
“Since she’s not showing up now, maybe she’s getting married.”
“But is there even a young nobleman who would want someone that unfashionable?”
“Who knows? Maybe there is some old man with unusual tastes.”
“Well, the world is full of all kinds of preferences.”
With no professor around, the researchers were wasting time laughing and using Mona as their entertainment.
Creeeak—
Speak of an ogre and one appears.
Mona Bellose shuffled into the laboratory.
The instant Jake saw her hollow face, he snapped.
“Mona, have you lost your mind!? Do you think this laboratory is a playground? You can’t just come whenever you feel like it.”
“……I’m sorry.”
“You think saying sorry fixes everything? Huh!? Get a grip!”
Jake’s nonstop nagging continued.
Gaunt as though she had not even been given a bowl of thin gruel, Mona kept her head lowered.
As soon as the scolding ended, she walked toward the corner.
She picked up the research log that had piled up while she was gone, but one of the researchers tapped her shoulder.
“With the mood right now, you should probably collect the overdue slime cores first.”
“……Yes.”
Mona put down her bag and left the laboratory again.
Benny narrowed his eyes and whispered,
“Do you think Mona got rejected while trying to get married?”
“Maybe even an old man thought she was too much.”
“Hahaha!”
Leaving the loud laughter behind, Mona staggered out of the laboratory and walked toward the slime room with a blank expression.
When she opened the door, the familiar damp smell of culture solution filled the air.
Perhaps because she had not given them their special moss treat for several days, the largest slime in the center tank had sunk deep to the bottom as though sulking.
Looking at the slime that seemed to be protesting, Mona dropped down and let out a long sigh.
“What am I supposed to do……?”
After “that night,” Mona had been bedridden for three full days and nights.
Through severe muscle pain and a high fever, she had wandered through one nightmare after another.
A dream where the war hero’s blade took her head off.
A dream where a red-eyed predator swallowed her whole.
A dream where pitch-black darkness slid toward her like a snake and wrapped around her.
“Hey. What exactly was it that I saw that night……?”
Mona muttered toward the slime releasing bubbles as though she had lost her mind.
At first, she had definitely thought it was a Doppelgänger rather than a human.
But it had not been a monster crudely imitating a person.
Its body had been warm.
Its heart had been beating.
‘And it didn’t disappear when morning came…….’
Mona remembered the man’s beautiful face beneath the morning sunlight.
In truth, he had seemed much closer to human than monster.
Her throat kept going dry, and Mona swallowed.
No way.
That could not really have been Richard Cronel himself, could it?
If it was……
Then what did that mean?
A half-human, half-monster created through monster infection was something found only in ancient forbidden books.
‘Then I found out a deeply guarded secret of someone far above me…….’
It was not an idea she wanted to dwell on.
Mona shook her head hard from side to side and began collecting slime cores.
***
Even small movements made her muscles ache, so the collection work took longer than usual.
‘Haa.’
With a miserable expression, Mona carried the slime core samples slowly toward the laboratory.
The corridor of the Monster Research Institute, usually empty, was unusually noisy.
‘What’s going on?’
The institute’s few staff members and researchers had all gathered in front of the notice board.
Puzzled, Mona approached the crowd and widened her eyes as she read the posted announcement.
[Notice]
It has been confirmed that Professor Thomas Levett was involved in conduct that violated Academy regulations.
He is hereby suspended from duty for the duration of the investigation.
‘Suspended out of nowhere?’
Mona’s lips parted slightly.
‘Then who is going to approve my thesis?’
……What about my early graduation?
She stood there stunned by the sudden disaster when Jake, who had been closest to Professor Thomas, shouted,
“What in the world did the professor do to get suspended?”
A staff member from the Monster Studies Department, who normally skipped work almost as often as he attended, replied indifferently.
“I heard he got caught up in the prohibited-substance crackdown led by Sir Richard Cronel.”
At the sudden mention of “Richard Cronel” at this exact moment, Mona felt as though her heart had leapt into her throat.
“A substance crackdown?”
“Yes. The salon Professor Thomas frequented was apparently one of the biggest distribution points for illegal tobacco. He is under investigation now.”
“Illegal tobacco…….”
Amid the murmuring researchers, Mona bit her lip nervously.
That night, of all places, she had encountered “that thing” near the very salon Professor Thomas had used.
Then—
“Professor Thomas really got unlucky with this one.”
Benny, their resident source of high-society gossip, walked toward the notice board.
“What do you mean?”
“I heard the war hero tore apart the entire Luna District looking for one woman. That is why every salon in the area got raided too.”
……What?
He turned the entire district upside down looking for a woman?