UR Chapter 136

Chapter 136

Kang Soo-hyun.

Eun Beom-ho tilted his head slightly and looked at him.

“What good do you think can come from deliberately angering a spiritual beast? Does that mean, since there’s a thing called the Conscience Fever, you think it’s fine to mess around in front of one without a care? Or does it mean you’ve realized it’s better not to provoke them in the first place?”

Eun Beom-ho’s pitch-black eyelashes lowered slowly as he looked over Kang Soo-hyun.

“The Conscience Fever is like an emergency brake on an airplane or train. For pureblood beastmen like me, when we get angry, those nearby suffer under the pressure of our energy. It’s there so we can recognize that and suppress it. Do you think… I would be afraid of that?”

Shit.

Kang Soo-hyun’s face went pale. He shot to his feet, staggering, his back turned. Damn it. This bastard… I haven’t even finished chewing over how I’m going to screw over this Lee Du-shik jerk, and my head is spinning like I’ve got anemia.

“Do you understand now?”

Eun Beom-ho spoke in a blank tone.

The idea that acting against one’s conscience would harm the body had been a taboo passed down from his ancestors since ancient times.

Officially, it was a mechanism to keep pureblood beastmen behaving properly, but in truth, it was more like an ideal standard of virtue meant to protect everyone’s safety. Training one’s conscience and values had been ongoing for thousands of years, but modern life was filled with absurdities heavy enough to weigh even on pureblood beastmen. Still, good humans and bad humans alike had to live among beastmen, so they couldn’t just wipe out humans to preserve their own values. That was what they had been taught.

“You, you…”

Kang Soo-hyun’s face was visibly twisting. To Eun Beom-ho, Kang Soo-hyun was nothing, so the fact that his sharp aura was gradually consuming the other with fear wasn’t worth noting. Eun Beom-ho slowly leaned his head forward, still expressionless.

“Ah, did Lee Du-shik never tell you? The Conscience Fever is triggered when a person feels guilt of their own accord.”

Kang Soo-hyun blinked, then shouted as if realizing something was wrong.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean! So if you don’t feel guilt, that’s it? That’s… that’s not even human! That’s just a monster pretending to be human… sir!”

“Monster?”

Monster, was it? Eun Beom-ho raised his eyebrows.

Sure, people had always feared pureblood beastmen. It was only recently that their image had improved. Just like when a cheetah beastman bit someone during a protest, they’d always been standing precariously outside the safety standards of humans.

“Yeah, monster! Does Kang I-bom know about this too?”

Kang Soo-hyun’s pupils trembled violently. Admiration, jealousy, fear… all tangled together, the shabby half-beastman was trembling before Eun Beom-ho. And so, the sight of this wet-dog-smelling creature sharing the same species as the one he loved most grated on Eun Beom-ho in that moment.

“…Shit, come to think of it, you tricked Kang I-bom, didn’t you? Does that even make sense? Ha! I shouldn’t have tipped off the press—I should’ve told Kang I-bom myself!”

It was almost a howl. The frustration and fear of knowing he could never beat the terrifying being before him, the rage—it was all plain as day to Eun Beom-ho. Kang Soo-hyun rambled, not even knowing what he was saying anymore. But to Eun Beom-ho’s ears, the only thing that stuck was the name Kang I-bom.

“What did you just say?”

Clunk, clunk…

Kang I-bom. That word tapped a corner of Eun Beom-ho’s mind he hadn’t realized was there. His irritated energy mingled with anger, and a wind swept through. The floor-to-ceiling windows of the hotel rattled with a loud noise. People flinched, bewildered by the sudden violent change in weather. Eun Beom-ho gazed indifferently at the darkening windows. A dry lightning bolt flashed across the darkened sky.

“I said, I’ll tell Kang I-bom!”

Screeeech—

Kang Soo-hyun shot up from his seat. The shrill noise stabbed unpleasantly into Eun Beom-ho’s sensitive ears.

“Monster! That image of pureblood beastmen being objects of admiration? It’s all bullshit! Purebloods? That’s just a nice way of saying you’re not human at all! Damn it. Half-bloods are better!”

“……”

“Disgusting! People in half-blood villages all hate those beastmen who transform into their animal forms like some monster! Kang I-bom will be scared of you too if he finds out you’re a monster…!”

Kang Soo-hyun turned, trembling. Even with the fierce wind whipping outside the window, he didn’t seem to realize what the problem was. He took a step forward.

“……”

Eun Beom-ho let out a deep breath.

The scent of fear was coming off Kang Soo-hyun. Slowly closing his eyes at the sight of him shouting and shaking, he thought it was a relief I-bom wasn’t here. Glancing around, he snapped his fingers. It was a mountain lord’s technique—one that could draw someone into a dream. Kang Soo-hyun, who had been yelling and trembling, collapsed limply, and the hotel where the two had been sitting was suddenly engulfed in darkness.

“Ah, uh… wh-where is this?!”

Soo-hyun looked around frantically, not knowing whether this was a dream or reality. The darkness was so deep it was impossible to tell if it was day or night, or even if the space truly existed.

Thud.

Right in front of trembling Kang Soo-hyun, a heavy sound landed with a thump. Floating above his bewildered gaze, yellow lights drifted in the air. Narrowing his eyes, he leaned in toward the shimmering lights to see what they were. The dazzling lights… were eyes. Soo-hyun screamed as if to shake the space apart.

“Aaah, aaahhh—!”

Thunk.

Through the gap where darkness and light blended into shadow, a thick white paw pushed in. The sharp claws at the front gleamed, even at a glance massive in size.

“A-aah! A t-tiger!”

Kang Soo-hyun’s face went deathly pale as he leaned back.

It was the fear of seeing something that shouldn’t exist, vividly, right before his eyes. His brain stuttered and faltered as if it had broken down. In this suddenly changed space, the presence of a living, breathing tiger appeared, and Soo-hyun couldn’t even stand—he just trembled all over. His head throbbed and his stomach churned; his body ached as if crushed under a weight, his words began to slur, and his vision grew hazy.

“Keuk, kuh… P-please, spare me! Is anyone—anyone there? Th-there’s a tiger here!”

The tiger opened its massive jaws wide.

In the darkness, the blood-red maw and sharp fangs loomed, so vivid they seemed ready to devour Soo-hyun whole at any moment.

I’m going to die.

Soo-hyun threw his arms up to shield himself.

But the gaping red mouth, like another abyss, made no move beyond that.

Eyes squeezed shut, trembling uncontrollably, Soo-hyun cautiously cracked them open.

“Are you scared, Kang Soo-hyun?”

Instead of a beast’s growl, the tiger before him spoke his name in a clear, deep voice.

“Uh… uh… wh-what?”

Soo-hyun collapsed where he was, groaning, his wrists trembling and his eyes blinking rapidly.

At some point, the sweat soaking his back had grown heavy.

Whether he had shamed himself or it was all sweat wasn’t something to question right now.

Only then did Soo-hyun realize who this tiger was.

“Shit…! Y-you… you’re… t-the tiger… E-Eun Beom-ho?”

“That’s right. So, do I seem like a monster to you?”

“U-ugh!”

Soo-hyun clutched himself tightly and screamed.

The darkness seemed to press harder and harder against his body, draining his strength and weighing him down.

He’d thought fear had no physical form, but this was a real, crushing terror unlike anything he’d ever experienced.

“P-please, spare me!”

“But you know, I-bom liked this form. Even if in your eyes I’m a monster, I-bom liked me like this. Isn’t that enough?”

“S-stay away from me!”

In the darkness, the tiger blinked its blazing eyes and tilted its head slightly.

“Ah… hhk.”

Without realizing it, Soo-hyun curled himself into a ball and sank to his knees.

Just hearing the giant tiger breathing before him was overwhelmingly terrifying.

He squeezed his eyes shut and trembled violently.

“Kang Soo-hyun…”

Thud.

“Do you understand now?”

The words were whispered right beside his ear, the gaze calm, as if unaware of what meaning they might hold for Soo-hyun.

“That a lawsuit was me being the most merciful I could be.”

“Uaah—! O-okay, I understand…!”

Soo-hyun sobbed and flailed his hands.

The warm yet chilling presence of the massive predator breathing so close pressed down on him with crushing force.

His ragged, suffocating breaths came with tears streaming uncontrollably.

Like a broken doll, Soo-hyun repeated “I understand, I understand” over and over until he finally lost consciousness and fainted.