Chapter 72
Union University.
Alongside Taepyeong University, it was one of the most prominent universities in Taepyeong City.
If you asked high school students which university they wanted to attend, it was always one of the names that came up.
A symbol of inclusiveness that accepted as students not only all kinds of beastfolk, but even former members of the Demon King's Army such as the undead and ghosts.
There were so many races at Union University that people said there wasn't a race it didn't have.
And, naturally, a considerable number of the people considered successful in Taepyeong City were Union University graduates.
The same was true of the successful hunters from Hunter Tower.
A rumor began to spread throughout Union University.
-The part-timer at the convenience store near Union University is pretty handsome.
The rumor started on the school's internal community.
A small community accessible only to students.
It all began with one student's post there.
[Free Board] Anyone seen the convenience-store part-timer at the Hunter Tower branch?
Poster: Anonymous
This is crazy. Seriously, isn't this crazy?
I just went to buy cup noodles and nearly had a heart attack.
He's the kind of handsome guy who looks strangely melancholic yet utterly mesmerizing ㅠㅠ
At first I thought he might be fox beastfolk? They say all fox beastfolk are gorgeous. I even wondered whether he had a tail, but he doesn't.
He looks a little delicate, but there's something powerful in his eyes……. Ah, how am I supposed to explain this?
Anyway, you have to go see him. I'm getting my attendance stamp again tomorrow morning.
[Comments]
Anonymous1 : OMG, I just saw him too lol. His voice was nice when I paid, too. So gentle.
Anonymous2 : Here we go again. No, no, don't make a fuss over our little idol.
Anonymous3 : No, no, it's true. I'm deer beastfolk, and that part-timer smelled unbelievably sweet. I almost got entranced.
Anonymous4 : I heard he's human?
Anonymous5 : Anonymous4, is that true? Now I'm interested.
Anonymous6 : They say humans can do anything—is that really true?
Aris, a silver fox beastfolk, snorted as she scrolled through the comments from Union University's community.
“What a fuss.”
Posts that had been appearing on the school community from time to time.
-The part-timer is so handsome.
-There's a guy who's incredibly cool.
-I saw a woman who was unbelievably beautiful.
They were the sort of posts that appeared fairly often.
It wasn't just a one- or two-time occurrence.
“Last time, everyone went crazy saying there was a freshman near the engineering school who could rival an elf, so I went to look, and he was just a bookworm with slightly pale skin who'd taken off his glasses.”
Rutting season.
The time when beastfolk became particularly interested in the opposite sex.
It was obvious what men and women starved for the opposite sex would talk about.
Maybe it was because it was a school with many beastfolk.
A lot of posts like this appeared especially during rutting season.
This post was probably just another one of those trivial issues.
Anonymous-board posts praising someone's appearance were supposed to be taken with a grain of salt.
Some girls whose emotions had gotten the better of them had clearly exaggerated after seeing a fairly handsome, kind man.
‘What's so special about a human?’
Humans were rare in Taepyeong City.
They were a difficult race to find.
Hadn't people said their bloodline had almost died out after the war long ago?
Most pure humans had died in the long war, and after pure humans had become conspicuously scarce among the population,
people said it had become increasingly difficult to find one.
Now that there were many different races, including beastfolk,
pure humans were so rare they were genuinely hard to find.
Wasn't it true that only descendants of heroes remained now?
What was the chance of beastfolk and humans having a human child again?
Ten percent?
No, probably even less than that.
That must be why only descendants of heroes remained now.
I think they'd said the hero's DNA was so powerful that it drove out the traits of other beastfolk.
Anyway, plenty of people longed for something rare and special.
Especially young adults who had just entered university and society for the first time.
“I really need to quit the community already.”
But whenever she thought of the useful information that occasionally appeared there, she couldn't quit altogether.
And even if she did quit.
“Aris~ Let’s go there today!”
Her friends certainly wouldn't.
Sujin, a siren, and Maya, a cat beastwoman, clung tightly to her.
“Where?”
“Where do you think? You know perfectly well.”
“It was posted on the community. They say there's an incredibly handsome part-timer.”
Of course.
I knew you two would want to go right away.
“He’s not my type.”
“Aww, Aris, your standards are way too high.”
“Right. You said the freshman from the architecture department last time wasn't anything special, either.”
“He was handsome, though.”
“Men who look weak aren't my type.”
From the outset, someone who looked delicate wasn't Aris's type. A man ought to have a solid, rugged edge to him.
Strong, rugged, and a little burly.
Maybe it was because most fox beastfolk had a slender, delicate air.
She had always preferred men with good physiques.
In fact, that was the entire reason she'd enrolled in the physical education department—there were so many men like that there.
But perhaps the students at this university really did seem to like delicate-looking men quite a lot.
“Oh! Isn’t that amazing? A deer beastfolk senior was talking about him, and apparently the human smells incredibly sweet!”
“Who knows. It’s obvious without even looking. He’s probably just a reasonably pale, skinny human. Delicate charm? Isn’t that just dressing up the fact that he’s sickly because he doesn’t eat properly?”
At Aris’s indifferent reply, Sujin and Maya were already sparkling-eyed as they linked their arms tightly through Aris’s.
“Come on~ The worst that can happen is we waste a little time! We happen to have two whole hours free right now! And I need to buy Churu-flavored jelly, too.”
“Right. I’m curious too. Why is everyone making such a fuss?”
“Ugh, why go all the way there? I’ll just do my assignment here.”
“Come on, come on! What if he’s actually unbelievably handsome? You’ll regret missing him! Come with us, okay? Okay?”
Since the two clung to her stubbornly, Aris swallowed a sigh and got to her feet.
“But if he’s nothing special, we’re coming straight back, okay?”
“Yep, yep! Great!”
“You’ll like him too, Aris.”
Led by Maya, Aris and Sujin headed for the famous convenience store in front of Hunter Tower.
The convenience store closest to Hunter Tower.
Jingle—.
Three female beastfolk university students entered the convenience store with the sound of the bell.
“Welcome.”
The part-timer, who had been arranging the shelves, turned and greeted them.
He greeted them with a bright smile.
Aris looked over the part-timer standing behind the counter.
Although she'd said she wasn't interested, she was curious to see what kind of incredible handsome man had caused such a commotion on the community.
And the moment her eyes met the part-timer's.
‘Huh?’
Aris unconsciously swallowed a dazed exclamation.
Then she looked at him once more.
This was a first.
The first time she'd forcibly made up an excuse to turn her head around so she could get another look at a man she'd already passed.
She had no choice but to admit it.
The community's fuss hadn't been mere exaggeration.
A face with fine features and a vaguely melancholic air.
His impression was gentle, like a naive pushover who knew nothing of the world, yet there was an atmosphere that strangely stirred her protective instincts.
The term delicate beauty suited him.
He was absolutely not the strong-featured handsome man who had been her ideal type.
He wasn't muscular or macho, but her eyes kept drifting to him.
She wanted to keep looking.
She had thought slender, thin men weren't her type…….
But she was almost forced to think that her firmly established taste might change a little as of today.
“He’s really handsome. Isn’t he?”
She could barely hear Maya whispering beside her.
As she slipped past the counter to go to a display.
“Huh?”
A strange, intense scent rode up the tip of her nose.
How should she describe it?
A scent like perfume, sweet yet nutty, and somehow enough to make her feel strangely stirred.
Sniff, sniff.
Her keen beastfolk sense of smell followed that sweet scent.
She had heard of it before.
Pure humans were said to have an incredibly sweet smell.
A scent that stimulated a beastperson's instincts like crazy, like the forbidden fruit that made you want to take a bite.
She didn't know why, but that scent supposedly gave beastfolk the urge to be with humans.
-Some beastfolk apparently experience that urge especially strongly.
She remembered her mother saying something like that.
Her tail swayed gently.
‘I wonder if I could touch him just once…….’
As if entranced, Aris took a step toward the counter.
“Aris?”
She felt as though a primal impulse to reach out and touch that white, slender nape was controlling her.
“Are you all right? You don't look well.”
“Your face is getting red, too…….”
She was so dazed she could barely hear her friends.
Her ears felt muffled, as though she had climbed a high mountain.
Then it happened.
At the moment the part-timer's eyes turned toward Aris.
A shudder.
A prickling sensation ran through her, and a chill went down her spine.
From the crown of her head to the tips of her toes.
It felt as though a predator were targeting her in the wild…….
‘Huh?’
Aris sensed a strange aura surrounding the part-timer's body.
Her instincts warned her.
Not to come any closer.
She went cold.
Her heated body went cold in an instant.
“Aris? What’s wrong?”
“Ah, n-nothing…….”
At Maya's question as she picked out jelly beside her, Aris flinched and stepped backward.
‘That just now…… it felt like something I absolutely must not touch.’
Gulp.
Swallowing dryly, she quietly picked up a single can of soda.
‘Let’s give up.’
She didn't know whose protection that man was under, but it was clear he belonged to someone she absolutely dared not touch.
‘Ah, he was handsome, though.’
He was the first human handsome enough to make her fall for a slender man.
‘Do all humans smell like that?’
“That’ll be 1,800 won.”
After paying, she stole another glance at the part-timer because she wanted to see him at least one more time.
She figured it was probably fine as long as she didn't get too close.
‘I guess coming here once in a while would be okay?’
Her tail swayed gently.
Kim Mincheol had unknowingly changed the preferences of a beastfolk university student.
***
The three of them took seats at a table by the convenience-store window.
“Hey, there’s your boyfriend over there.”
“D-don’t say that! We’ll be in serious trouble!”
“Come on, Aris, give it a try.”
“You’re seriously going to die!”
From what I could hear, they were pointing at me and talking about whether I was her boyfriend and the like.
The person in question looked utterly disgusted, so why were they teasing her like that?
‘Am I really that awful-looking?’
To be honest, I wasn't an ugly guy.
Even I had to admit I was handsome.
But that kind of reaction was obviously the sort of prank people played while pointing at someone ugly.
Lately, there had been quite a few customers like that.
Customers who occasionally came in, stared at me, and left.
When had it started?
I couldn't recall any particular point.
It just felt as though customers like that had been trickling in, little by little…….
“Should I, kick them out?”
A red golem resembling the manager asked.
Customers had also increased recently, and perhaps the manager had decided it was too much for me alone, because she now kept two golems stationed here even during the day.
-It’s. absolutely. not. because. I. put. them. here. to. keep. other. weird. things. from. gathering!
She had repeatedly stressed that using the golems' strength to drive away troublesome customers would make things easier.
“They’ve been staying, for about an hour. I’ll kick, them out, right now.”
Hmm.
I supposed I should make them leave.
Still, rather than making a golem do it, this was the sort of thing I ought to handle myself.
“I’ll do it.”
“Understood.”
Whew.
Three young female university students.
Had they entered this year?
No, they could be sophomores.
In any case, women around that age were really difficult to deal with.
How should I put it?
They had an aura that made it hard to approach them.
Sometimes talking to them left me feeling drained, so among customers, they were a more difficult case than I would have expected.
One person would have been fine, but with that many…….
“Ahem, excuse me, students?”
All three turned their eyes toward me at once.
As gently as possible.
So nothing troublesome would happen for no reason.
“How about getting ready to leave for today? It’s a problem if you stay too long. There are other customers, too.”
And in response to what I said.
“Eeeeeek!”
“He really came!”
“Oppa, do you use any particular cosmetics?”
“Oppa, did you know you’re incredibly famous at our university?”
The siren and cat beastwoman on either side of her made an enormous fuss.
You shouldn’t bombard someone with questions like that.
Meanwhile, the silver fox beastwoman sitting in the middle had gone deathly pale.
She looked almost terrified.
“Are you all right? Is your stomach upset or something……?”
“Ah! I-I’m sorry!”
She sprang to her feet.
“Aris?”
“Lis.”
Her companions looked at her in confusion.
“We’re all done eating! We’re leaving! C-come on, let’s go…….”
“Wh-what’s wrong?”
“Can’t we stay just a little longer?”
“G-get up, quickly…….”
The silver fox beastwoman stood first, hurriedly cleared the table, and bowed her head.
Then she grabbed the other two by the wrists and fled the convenience store.
“What’s wrong with Aris?”
“It hurts~.”
The other two followed her out.
“Uh…….”
What on earth had just happened?
My confusion lasted only a moment.
“Good instincts.”
The golem approached and spoke.
“She’s a beastperson, with highly developed senses.”
What was it talking about?
“The master, made them. Insect screens.”
“Insect screens?”
I had no idea what it meant.
It was then, while I was still bewildered by the customer who had suddenly run away.
Jingle—.
The bell rang as a new customer entered.
“Welcome.”
After hurriedly clearing the table, I saw a familiar face.
“It’s been a while, traveler blessed with luck in love. I hope you found your way here without trouble.”
It was the fortune-teller whose reading I had gotten on my day off.
And beside her.
“L-long time, no see…….”
Sonya was standing with her.