Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 63: The Taste of Blood
The dungeon was dim, but Myss’s eyes were frighteningly bright. The Archdemon grabbed Salaar and shook him back and forth, making the words that came out sway just as badly. “Do you want to go out and investigate with me?”
“Yes! I’d love to!”
Myss was thrilled. He happily leaned closer to Salaar, a faint flush appearing on his cheeks.
If there hadn’t been other people present, he would have wanted to pry every last one of Salaar’s little secrets out of his mouth.
Salaar raised a hand and silently covered the lower half of his face. The back of his hand felt a little hot.
…Plans were plans, but before any of that, they first had to experience the “rabbit-style dinner.”
Four white rabbits dragged over little wooden carts, each carrying a large silver bowl.
Myss craned his neck for a look. The bowls were filled with pale green liquid from cup-ferns, with mushrooms of all different colors soaking inside. Some had been torn into strips, some ripped into chunks. At first glance, the concoction resembled some sort of exotic stew.
A silver spoon rested against one side of the bowl, and a huge golden-brown mushroom stood propped against the other. Its cap was plump and full, patterned with pale yellow oval stripes resembling bread.
The rabbits pinched the bowls against their bodies and delivered them with perfect precision in front of everyone.
Tass and the priest each got bowls containing five colors of mushrooms. Salaar’s had three kinds. Myss’s bowl had only tan mushroom shreds, and none of that peculiar “bread-mushroom” thing… or rather, mushroom bread?
After delivering the meal, three of the rabbits hopped away, leaving only one behind. This rabbit looked somewhat familiar, its ears drooping weakly.
“Myss, Myss!” Fork poked its head out of the rabbit’s fur.
“I requested to supervise you,” the rabbit “Jinx” said unwillingly. “Honestly, if not for this damned snake…”
It muttered a few low curses before finally lifting its fluffy head. “Hurry up and eat your mushrooms. A rabbit will come collect the bowls tomorrow.”
“This is our Chef Rabbit’s Magic Mushroom Stew Set. Everyone gets the flavor they like most.”
Myss picked up his bowl and sniffed it, discovering that the soup was actually hot.
And he caught a very subtle fragrance. It smelled like warm amber, sun-dried linen, and a tiny bit of musk, plus the faint scent of the Abnormal Fruit.
It was a hodgepodge of “Salaar” and “Abnormal Fruit” smell. The mushrooms radiated a gentle magical fluctuation, with nothing obviously strange about them.
He really did want to know what Salaar tasted like, but Myss suppressed the urge to start eating. Everyone turned to look at Father Kalen, waiting for him to be the first to try it.
The priest generously picked up the spoon and took a careful sip. His lips parted slightly, and a touched look appeared on his face.
“It tastes like herb-braised lamb,” Father Kalen said softly. “Hermit was very good at making that. Whenever the weather turned cold, he would stew it for me…”
He took another cautious sip of the broth, as if afraid to waste even a drop.
“The liquid has a different flavor, exactly like the herbal tea we created together. Strange. The flavors don’t mix at all.”
Father Kalen sampled every mushroom in the bowl. They were basically all the home-style dishes he had loved in childhood. At the end, he broke off a piece of mushroom bread and tasted hot butter flatbread.
In full view of everyone, he finished off the entire huge bowl of “Magic Mushroom Stew Set.”
“There’s no problem with it, and it’s good for the body. I’ve recovered quite a bit of my strength.”
Father Kalen solemnly set down the bowl and arranged the silver spoon neatly across it. “By the Lord of Shadows above, I give thanks for this miracle hidden behind the veil.”
“This thing has a pretty high magic content.”
Tass eagerly hopped onto the rim of his bowl and grabbed a mushroom. “Wow, I got the vanilla ice cream from Semper. The texture and temperature are exactly the same. Isn’t this stuff supposed to be hot?”
He chewed the mushroom in amazement, his cheeks stuffed round and his voice a little muffled. “Being able to see something this miraculous almost makes the ticket worth it. After that shop closed down, I thought I’d never get to eat it again in this lifetime…”
Salaar only took two simple bites and didn’t touch his spoon again. He pulled out the dry rations he had prepared in advance and quietly ate those.
“Just in case,” he said.
“What did you taste?” Myss asked eagerly.
“Salt-roasted mushrooms, cold sausage and pie, and freshly made fried eggs. The broth tastes like milk, and the bread feels like an oat biscuit.”
Salaar slowly spoke the truth. “Compared to real food, it feels more like a magic supplement to me.”
What a disappointment. They were all things he had seen before.
Myss thought back and realized they were either foods from inside the seal, or things they had eaten during those first few meals after arriving in the human world. They had eaten so many delicious things back in the Red Amber, and he had thought Salaar would have better taste than this.
“You still haven’t gotten sick of salt-roasted mushrooms?” Myss couldn’t help asking.
“Because it was with you…” Crunch. Salaar bit hard on his lower lip, forcing the rest of the sentence back down.
With him?
Myss thought for a few seconds, then came to a sudden realization.
Salaar probably liked the warning effect of salt-roasted mushrooms, to remind himself at all times of the suffering he had endured in the seal.
Myss let out a cold chuckle and scooped up a spoonful of the plain mushrooms from his own bowl. He had thought he would taste sweet cream raspberries, but instead he got only a warm, faintly salty flavor.
What was this supposed to be?
Frowning, Myss took another two bites before he finally figured it out. It was the taste of Salaar’s skin from when he had kissed Salaar’s forehead.
So in the end, this thing smelled like an Abnormal Fruit stewed with Salaar and tasted like Salaar too. It was ridiculous… no, wait, not exactly. That one time he had kissed Salaar, he had won so thoroughly that it made perfect sense for him to like the taste.
Myss finished the mushrooms in his own bowl, then picked up Salaar’s serving as well. He tasted Salaar, raspberry candy, and the faint flavor of Salaar’s snake.
What was interesting, though, was that every one of those flavors was mixed with the scent of the Abnormal Fruit. Myss had originally assumed it was simply one of his “favorite flavors.” Now it looked very likely that it genuinely existed.
Rabbit foot, pocket watch, moss-flower potion, Magic Mushroom Stew.
The list of Abnormal Fruit-related items in this Divine Realm gained another entry; he would have to tell Salaar all about it later.
……
Before sneaking out of the dungeon, Salaar stuffed the howling Jinx into the priest’s arms. The moment the rabbit saw Salaar lift the heavy iron door one-handed, it screamed and went limp on the spot.
Salaar turned to Father Kalen. “You understand animals better than we do, and the rabbits don’t dislike Tass either. You two must talk to it properly.”
“Leave it to me. I’ll get along peacefully with it.”
The priest’s tone was unusually firm, filled with determination to redeem himself.
“If we discover anything here, I’ll contact you immediately.” Tass pointed to Father Kalen’s gold badge. “For all I look like this, I’m very good at… questioning.”
Even though Fork had returned to Myss’s hand, the rabbit trembled even harder.
“Bad humans, bad humans…” it muttered nonstop, its red eyes a little damp.
The priest cradled it like a baby and gently stroked its back.
Jinx’s nose twitched. It half-closed its eyes, seeming to enjoy it. “Bad human… Bad…? Mm…”
It looked as if it had been bonked over the head, mumbling groggily.
Whether because the rabbits were too stupid, or too confident in the traps here, there were no rabbit guards outside the dungeon; only the flickering lights swayed.
The oil in the lamps looked a little strange. Their colors were just as vivid as the mushrooms, and mushroom-like speckles floated on the surface. Myss leaned in and sniffed, catching the scent of fresh mushrooms. Since moss-flowers existed, perhaps mushroom oil did too… presumably.
The bright flames lit up the corridor, casting their blow on the rust-covered iron bars, and the skeletal hands jutting from between them.
Salaar held his serpent staff in one hand and Myss’s hand tightly in the other. The two of them deftly skirted one trap after another as they headed toward the end of the passage.
“We’re on the bottom level of the dungeon.”
As they rounded a corner, Salaar carefully studied a collapsed stone wall for a while, his knuckles tapping against the dust-covered brick.
“Stay close to me, Myss. The traps in a place like this are the most lethal.”
This guy is really acting as if nothing had happened. Myss wrinkled his nose. “Speaking of which, that Magic Mushroom Stew had the scent of an Abnormal Fruit in it too, and it was that especially faint kind.”
“Even the stew?” Sure enough, Salaar slowed a little and fell into thought.
Myss seized the chance and launched a sudden attack. “What do you hate the most?”
“You leaving my line of sight.” Salaar answered almost by instinct. Then he snapped back to himself and looked at Myss in helplessness. “…We’re doing something serious. Must you really do this now?”
“This is my serious business,” Myss declared.
Unfortunately, the answer wasn’t worth much. Leaving Salaar’s line of sight? With the contract in place, he couldn’t abandon Salaar anyway.
“You really care that much about me?” Salaar raised a brow.
“Of course. You are the only thing in this world I care about.” Myss answered without thinking. “Who else could I care about besides you? …I’ll ask a different question. Tell me your weakness.”
Salaar didn’t answer.
He covered the lower half of his face with the hand holding the serpent staff, and a faint redness crept up his ears. He looked as if he wanted to sigh again.
Sure enough, Salaar wouldn’t make the same slip twice.
Myss’s eyes shifted. Not far away, a “wall noose” on the collapsed stone wall gave off a faint glimmer.
Before Salaar could raise a defensive posture, Myss wrapped both arms around Salaar’s waist and slammed them both hard toward the wall. He twisted Salaar’s right wrist on the way, and with a sharp click locked it into the chain.
Salaar’s mouth was no longer covered, and he instinctively opened it—
“My weakness is a human weakness.”
He helplessly shook the wrist bound in place and was forced to speak the truth. “I’m not that special. In your eyes, is the difference between me and other humans really that great?”
“Of course it is. You’re the strongest, the most stubborn, the most special of them.”
Myss answered smoothly.
Using the wall noose, he pinned the larger Salaar against the wall with his own body as a living restraint. He pressed down hard on Salaar’s right arm to keep him from using the serpent staff. Their chests were tightly pressed together, and Myss could vividly feel Salaar’s heartbeat.
Salaar’s face was illuminated by the warm firelight, those lapis-lazuli eyes looking as if they were burning.
The Great Hero’s heartbeat was a little fast, but not the kind that came from panic or helplessness. Disappointed, Myss tightened his fingers, and the chain clinked softly.
Salaar didn’t struggle. He merely looked down at him, breathing so lightly it was as if he didn’t exist.
Damn it. He had finally found Salaar’s weak point, and it turned out to be useless information again.
Human weaknesses were countless. They were short-lived and fragile, arrogant and foolish, burdened with excessive emotion. Myss knew all that well, yet none of it could be used to attack Salaar.
…No, wait. He could.
If Salaar had no magical vulnerabilities, then, just as before, he could attack Salaar’s emotions.
Emotion was one of humanity’s weaknesses. Therefore, it would also be Salaar’s!
Myss was stunned by his own brilliance. He put a little more force into his body, trying to keep Salaar trapped in place. The iron chains rattled noisily, the clashing echoing through the corridor. Salaar’s brows knit, but Myss didn’t care in the slightest.
Because he had found the fatal question.
“What is your deepest fear?” Myss asked in a tone of triumph.
Salaar possessed human weaknesses, yet he had none of humanity’s fears. He didn’t fear the Chaos Archdemon, nor solitude, illness, pain, or even death itself.
Myss reasonably suspected that this guy didn’t even fear the end of the world.
Salaar had led over a thousand people into darkness and used his own body as the seal. That meant Salaar had absolutely imagined the Night Scourge returning, the true apocalypse descending at last.
Right now, Myss couldn’t erase Salaar’s body, but he could destroy Salaar’s spirit, for example with that kiss that had tasted like absolute victory.
Salaar caught on to Myss’s intent. He bit down hard on his lip, and golden magic wound around the chain, beginning to break the vexing restraint.
Myss smiled. Fork spiraled up along Salaar’s arm, wrapped around his wrist, and black magic smashed the spell before it could fully form.
Then Myss stretched out his left hand and jammed his thumb between Salaar’s lips. “Salaar, what is your deepest fear?”
His fingertip pressed against wet lips and touched hard, warm teeth. He stubbornly pried at Salaar’s jaw, but Salaar only looked at him in silence, continuing calmly to undo the spell.
Myss glanced at Knife in its staff form. With the contract in place, he ultimately couldn’t truly injure Salaar. Salaar was counting on that, refusing to let him control this conversation.
…That’s fine, Myss thought. He had prepared for this.
He moved his hand away and grabbed Salaar’s arm. Then he rose onto his toes and kissed Salaar hard on the lips.
Myss’s tongue replaced his thumb, continuing to fiercely pry open Salaar’s teeth—
Clang!
With a sheer burst of brute force, Salaar ripped the noose from the wall.
The rough iron chain scraped his wrist raw, and streaks of blood ran from his arm down into his sleeve.
Myss discovered that Salaar had one hand around his throat.
A moment later, the world flipped completely, and Myss’s back hit the hard wall behind him—it was warm, still carrying Salaar’s body heat.
It was Myss who was now the one pinned to the wall.
Pressed hard against it, Myss let out a muffled sound, his head blanking out for a moment. Salaar didn’t let go of his lips. The kiss continued. Myss could no longer tell whether he was being kissed or being devoured.
Tongue curling around tongue —was this another warning kiss like last time? Salaar refusing to lose ground? Or was it because Salaar was angry?
Myss tasted blood. The back of his head scraped roughly against the wall, and his enemy ruthlessly stole all the air from his lungs.
Myss had no choice but to clutch at Salaar’s shoulder and back, his head growing dizzier by the moment. That strange numb heat appeared again, burning across his throat, his chest, and his back.
His cheeks were burning too, and his breathing grew scorching hot. All at once, Myss felt a hunger unlike anything he had ever known before.
This had to be some kind of attack.
How was he supposed to fight back? …Fight back… right…
“You…”
Myss shoved Salaar away with force, squeezing out words in the process. “What is your deepest fear…?”
He had asked it, and Salaar hadn’t been quick enough to clamp his mouth shut.
This was the victory that would belong to him. Myss’s gaze captured Salaar’s blood-smeared lips. He nearly forgot the sting in his own mouth, staring fixedly at those lips.
Sure enough, Salaar’s lips moved slowly, and what came out was astonishingly simple—far simpler than any of Myss’s conjectures.
“Falling in love with you.”
Salaar said it lightly.
Unlike that chaotic kiss, his voice was soft and calm.
As if it were a cruel fate he had turned over in his mind time and again, then ultimately decided to shoulder it.
The author has something to say:
I know this chapter is a little short, but this ending felt too good.
A historic moment! The first official kiss between these two!!!
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