Living with the Dangerous Beast-Chapter 15: It Was Better Than Being Alone

“Ugh! What’s this smell?”

“...Huh?”

Miho backed away with a painful expression, waving her hand as if to fan away an awful odor.

“What’s wrong? Are you saying that I smell bad?”

As Sohwa sniffed herself and moved closer, Miho spat curses as she extended her claws.

“Get away from me!”

In an instant, Miho’s sharp claws slashed in front of her eyes.

“Ow!”

Her forearm stung. The delicate silk jacket was torn, and blood dripped from the scratch Miho had made.

Sohwa, a timid fox who had never successfully hunted, was utterly shocked by the sudden attack.

Her heart raced, and she couldn’t even muster the courage to scold Miho for her rude behavior.

“Why are you carrying Ranunculus?”

“Ranunculus?”

‘What is that?’

Sohwa’s eyes darted around as she wondered.

Then, as if on instinct, she touched the small sachet hanging from her waist.

It was a sachet given by Dohwi, made with a carefully selected bunch of herbs just for her.

“Don’t you know that’s a poison that dulls the sense of smell?!”

“What? That’s not true!”

“Whatever, get lost! Leave this mountain right now!”

Miho’s continued assault with her claws forced Sohwa to hide behind a tree.

She knew territory battles were fierce, but Miho’s aggressiveness was terrifying.

“You reek of something awful!”

“W-what...? What do you mea-”

Miho shouted at the trembling Sohwa with a venomous glare, as if looking at a sworn enemy.

“You smell like a male tiger in heat!”

With a threatening snarl, baring her fangs, Miho sent Sohwa running.

Without even realizing her tail was out, Sohwa fled, with Miho yelling after her.

“If I see you again, I swear I’m going to kill you!”

Chapter 4. It Was Better Than Being Alone

“Hah, hah....”

Panting heavily, Sohwa barely managed to calm herself down only after crossing the gates of her house.

The unfamiliar female fox, Miho, was even more terrifying than any tiger, even though Sohwa had never encountered one.

‘She wouldn’t follow me here, would she?’

Glancing back, Sohwa suddenly realized she had lost one of her precious flower shoes.

However, she had no energy to retrace her steps and retrieve it.

‘I can’t smell, can’t hunt, and can’t protect my own territory!’

Leaving her home on Mount Yeehwang meant she had no idea where or how she would live. ƒгeewёbnovel.com

As she trudged back into the house, completely disheartened under the bright noon sun, she suddenly noticed something.

“...Huh?”

Wiping away her tears, her gaze landed on the cherry tree planted in front of the guest room.

The ground beneath it looked oddly dark. Was it because of the fallen leaves? No, in fact, it seemed kinda reddish.

‘Come to think of it, Dohwi buried something there, didn’t he?’

Drawn as if by some mysterious force, Sohwa slowly approached the cherry tree.

The ground, usually flat and clean, was now bulging for some reason. It didn’t look like this when she had covered it before.

The soil was darkly stained. It looked like ink, or perhaps dried blood. And there was familiar animal fur.

With a stern expression, Sohwa examined the fur.

It was a well-groomed, reddish-orange fur, like the color of ripe straw or a beautiful sunset.

The texture of the mystery fur was familiar to Sohwa, as it matched her own in her true fox form.

Hastily, Sohwa began digging. Luckily for her, It wasn’t buried deeply.

The soft fur was the first thing she touched, followed by hardened muscles underneath.

It was a dead fox. A red fox, brutally mauled, was buried in her yard.

The fox’s eyes were wide open in terror, unable to close in death. Its tongue hung out, and its fur was matted with blood.

Sohwa stumbled in shock, landing hard on the ground.

Dirt smeared the beautiful skirt that Dohwi had bought for her, but she was too stunned by the sight of the dead fox to even care about her precious skirt.

It was clear the fox had been savaged by a large predator, its body mutilated without being eaten.

Her hands trembled. As she turned the body to bury it again, something dangled from its sleek fur.

Horrifyingly, it was its half-torn genitals.

Even in her shock, Sohwa could see that it was a male fox.

Her heart pounded. Why is a dead fox buried here? And why is it buried under the cherry tree she had just dug up the other day?

The loosely covered soil, the scattered blood, the plucked fur.

It seemed whoever did this had no intention of hiding it.

Sohwa’s elegant eyebrows furrowed. The dead fox was shocking enough, but an even more startling realization hit her.

‘But why... Why couldn’t I smell anything?’

The soil was literally soaked with blood. And with her mating season approaching, there was no way she couldn’t detect the scent of a male fox in heat.

Just as she had instinctively recognized the scent of the unfamiliar female fox, her nose should have easily picked up the scent of the male fox.

When she sniffed her hands, which had touched the dead body, she caught a faint but sharp scent.