I'm the Only One With a Different Genre - Chapter 191

Chapter 191
Two People in the Snowy Mountain Cave

Rustle.

Jess, crouching like a puppy, placed her hands on the ground and shook her body vigorously to rid herself of the snow that had piled up on her.

Thanks to her consideration for Lian, she shook off the snow as close to the entrance as possible, preventing it from entering the cave.

‘Is it because she’s a beastkin that she’s fine?’

Lian felt a small sense of relief at Jess’s seemingly unbothered appearance, though a tiny question floated in his mind. His gaze naturally drifted to her red hair, which had grown even fluffier since they had arrived in the cold region.

‘Even if her hair helps keep her warm… she’s still too exposed.’

The old, tattered clothes that slaves wore had long since ceased to serve their purpose during their escape from the castle. If even a shred of the gag filter’s power hadn’t remained, he might have been faced with a rather scandalous sight.

Lian quickly shook his head to dispel the inappropriate thoughts that had crept into his mind. White snowflakes fell from his head as he did so.

It was only then that he realized snow had piled up on him too. Perhaps because of the cold, his thoughts were sluggish. His fingers, red and trembling, were the only part of him that felt the warmth, likely due to the fact that they had found shelter.

He raised his trembling hands, brushing the snow off his head. His body creaked like the rusty joints of an old robot, but there was no major issue with his movements. Thanks to the gag filter still functioning, the pain was minimal.

His mind was hazy, and his thoughts bounced around like scattered snowflakes in the wind. His wandering thoughts eventually returned to the question that had been lingering since parting with the Demon King.

‘Come to think of it, what was that power back then?’

The ability that had allowed him to embrace the Demon King and peer deep into her inner self.

It was completely different from the power he had received from the God of the Gag World.

‘It felt like a power, but…’

Having used the ‘gag filter’ power for so long, he instinctively knew that the power he had used back then was also a form of ‘power.’

‘Could it be a power the god forgot to mention?’

If it were the God of the Gag World, that wouldn’t be surprising… Lian shook his head slightly and continued his thoughts.

‘No, no. This power has been with me for much longer.’

It was a power he had possessed long before receiving the ‘gag filter’ from the God of the Gag World—a power from a distant past. He just hadn’t known what it was or how to define it.

‘It wasn’t like this before… Has it grown?’

As far as Lian could remember, the ability had only allowed him to ‘understand’ the other person. It didn’t involve delving deep into their inner thoughts.

The power had only given him a vague sense of the other person’s emotions or thoughts, earning him a reputation as someone ‘perceptive’ or ’empathetic,’ but nothing more extraordinary than that.

Without the grandiose term ‘power,’ he would have just been considered someone with good intuition.

Honestly, if not for the recent incident, Lian wouldn’t have even considered it a power. He would have thought that he was just a bit more perceptive in his previous life—nothing special.

That’s how little Lian had been aware of the power’s strength. The power had been so weak that it couldn’t have grown stronger unless it had been ‘enhanced’ or ‘developed’ in some way, just like how a god looks down on its creations.

‘Considering my fragile body and the absence of the cursed sword… I should just be grateful.’

Even if it had only been a weak power that vaguely sensed others’ emotions, it was better than nothing. Now that it had been enhanced, there was no need to say more.

‘I wonder if I can actually… use this… for something…’

Blink. Blink.

His eyelids felt as heavy as if they were weighed down with iron. He knew that he couldn’t afford to close his eyes, but forcing himself to stay alert was becoming increasingly difficult.

“Haa…”

A small breath escaped his lips, but it quickly dissipated. His body temperature had dropped so much that the difference between the cold cave and his breath was not significant enough to produce a visible puff of air.

‘This… is bad.’

His thoughts were moving slowly, likely due to the cold. Lian gingerly touched his side.

‘Ugh… It’s already healed.’

During their escape from the castle, they had been ambushed by Outsiders who had taken over the bodies of the castle’s officers. The wound on his side was not from the Outsiders, though.

One of the Outsiders had been kicked away by Jess, smashing into a pillar, and a shard from the broken pillar had grazed his side, leaving a wound. Most of the scars on Lian’s body were from similar incidents.

‘Should I be thankful that the gag filter worked properly… or not?’

The gag filter had allowed him to avoid all the Outsiders’ attacks, but it had also caused him to accumulate ridiculous injuries.

If the gag filter had been functioning perfectly, the wounds would have healed instantly, and he wouldn’t have had to worry about them. But with the half-functioning gag filter, it had taken quite some time for the wounds to heal, and by the time they had entered the snowy mountains after escaping the Demon King’s castle, they still hadn’t fully closed.

He had even considered reopening the wounds to use the pain to keep himself awake, but they had healed completely during the climb up the snowy mountain.

Whether he should be grateful to the gag filter for healing him slowly or not—these meaningless thoughts floated around in his mind as his eyelids grew heavier.

“Ah… Jess…”

He muttered Jess’s name, intending to ask her to scratch his arm to keep him awake. He barely managed to roll his heavy eyes toward her, but his vision was too blurry to make out more than a vague shape.

“I’m… so sleepy… but…”

His words dragged out, and his mind flickered. If he let his guard down even a little, he felt like he would fall asleep instantly.

“Could you—huh?”

Just as he was about to ask her to scratch him, a strange sensation washed over him.

Jess appeared blurry, like a mosaic. Normally, he would have brushed it off as a sign of exhaustion, but something was off.

“Jess…?”

Her red hair and pale skin, combined with her tattered clothes, should have been visible. But all he could see was a blur of white skin and red. That meant—

Before Lian could come to a conclusion, a familiar scent suddenly filled the air, much closer than before.

“Huh?!”

Compared to Lian’s frozen body, Jess’s nearly naked form, with its high body temperature, felt scorching as she embraced him. His frozen body couldn’t react properly, and he simply surrendered to her warmth.

The shock was so great that the haziness in his mind cleared instantly, as if he had been plunged into icy water. Lian’s eyes widened in surprise as he stared blankly at Jess’s collarbone and shoulder, which were now right in front of him.

“Wa-wait! Jess, what are you…!”

Regaining his senses, Lian hurriedly tried to push Jess away. His stiff hands grabbed her waist, but as he felt the warmth and softness of her skin beneath his palms, his body froze again.

His brain, which had been somewhat trained by Noah, malfunctioned, stuttering like a broken machine. Meanwhile, Jess pulled out a blanket from her bag and wrapped it around both of them.

Their bodies were now hidden under the blanket.

“Je-Jess, this really isn’t right. I’m really…! Really fine, so…!”

Jess had been persistently pursuing Lian, but Lian had never once thought of her advances as genuine.

To maintain some distance, Lian had unconsciously treated Jess as nothing more than a ‘young beastkin.’ Because of that, he had never seen her as a ‘woman.’

The strong impression that she was just a large child made him feel like a bad adult doing something inappropriate to a kid, which naturally made him react in panic.

“Grr…”

“…!”

A low growl, filled with menace, echoed in Lian’s ears. It sounded like the growl of a predator eyeing its prey, and it froze him in place.

After about a minute of standing still like a statue, the growling subsided. By then, his body had warmed up significantly, making him feel as if he were tucked into a heated blanket. The warmth made his eyelids feel twice as heavy as before.

‘I absolutely can’t fall asleep like this.’

Even though no one was watching, it would be no different from social suicide. As his body slowly regained its senses with the warmth, the feel of Jess’s skin, which had only felt hot before, now became distinctly clear. He needed to get away before things became even more awkward.

“Jess, I’m really fine now, so—ow!”

Crunch!

Before he could finish his sentence, his ear was suddenly bitten by sharp teeth.

The unexpected pain surprised him once. The fact that the gag filter didn’t seem to be working properly, making the pain feel twice as strong, surprised him again. And finally, Jess’s action of licking the spot where she had bitten, as if to soothe the area, surprised him for the third time.

‘What is going on? Is there some strange plant growing in this cave? Like catnip or something… Or did I eat something weird while I was dozing off?’

His mind became a tangled mess of confusion as Jess, still holding him tightly, lay down.

At some point, an old blanket had been spread on the ground, and the two of them fell onto it.

His body was lightly turned, and Jess’s upper body pressed against Lian’s back. Her legs coiled around his like a snake, and her arms wrapped around his shoulders. Something hot and soft pressed down on his back, a sensation he could never get used to, no matter how many times it happened.

As he lay stiffly in her embrace, he felt her breath against his ear.

“Jess…”

Just as Lian was about to plead with her in a desperate voice to let him go, Jess whispered in a low voice.

End of Chapter