I'm the Only One With a Different Genre - Chapter 193

Chapter 193

It’s mine!

***

After the commotion passed, Lian and Jess followed behind two beastmen, their faces bruised and blue.

The path, where their feet sank deeply into the snow, led into a dense forest. The conifer trees, covered in pure white snow, occasionally shook off the pile of snow on their branches. Due to a recent snowstorm, the forest looked like an endless maze.

The scenery ahead, behind, to the right, and to the left was so similar that it was hard to distinguish directions. However, the beastmen seemed to know the way, moving forward without hesitation.

‘Why do they keep glancing over?’

Lian frowned slightly as he rolled his eyes, watching the beastman walking ahead at a short distance. The beastman kept turning his head, as if wary of his surroundings, and stealing glances at Jess. The other beastman was doing the same.

Their tails, unable to hide their emotions, swayed subtly, like an irritating hangnail that kept bothering Lian.

‘What kind of relationship do they have with Jess?’

As unanswered questions floated around in his mind, the path gradually became steeper. As they walked along the snow-covered rocky road and the frozen, slippery path, a steep incline unfolded before them.

The beastmen, including Jess, easily leaped up the steep path like mountain goats living in the snowy mountains, but for Lian, an ordinary human, it was impossible.

From their perspective, Lian’s slow and laborious progress must have looked like a worm crawling. Seeing this, Jess quickly approached and lifted Lian effortlessly.

“Huh?” Before Lian could react, the scenery around him whizzed past, and before he knew it, they were on a flat path. When he looked around with wide eyes, he saw the two beastmen staring at them with surprised faces.

It wasn’t long before their expressions subtly shifted into smirks. To the beastmen, strength was law and everything, so Lian’s appearance made him seem like a ‘weakling.’

However, their mocking didn’t stay in Lian’s sight for even a second, as something warm and soft blocked his view.

“Ugh..! W-Wait! Jess… Mmph!?”

Since Jess already had Lian in her arms, she didn’t feel like putting him down. Instead, she hugged him tightly to her chest. Lian flailed his arms and barely managed to escape from her embrace.

“…”

“…”

The two beastmen, who had been smirking, were now looking at them with eyes full of envy and jealousy.

Jess acted as if only she and Lian were left in the world, openly expressing her affection without holding back. Although Lian thought Jess’s behavior was troubling, the strange irritation he had felt earlier melted away, leaving him feeling oddly comfortable.

‘Ah… Is this how a father feels when his daughter says she prefers her friends over him?’

Lian was aware that he had been feeling ‘jealous,’ but he couldn’t quite grasp the exact nature of it and ended up misinterpreting it.

After the brief incident, the group resumed their journey. The path was rough and untamed, hardly deserving to be called a road, but after passing through it, they arrived at a small valley. Once they crossed that, they reached a campsite nestled in the middle of the forest.

It seemed they hadn’t been settled there for long, as only about a third of the campsite had proper huts. The remaining two-thirds were filled with tents.

As the group approached the campsite, two female beastmen holding spears quickly advanced toward them with sharp gazes.

The female beastmen, standing well over 170 cm with sleek and agile bodies, exuded a sense of unease, like predators prowling forward. Lian couldn’t help but glance at Jess.

‘Jess is… cute in comparison.’

Though Jess was slightly smaller than the other female beastmen, she wasn’t exactly ‘cute.’ It was just that Jess always wagged her tail like a harmless puppy in front of Lian, so in his mind, he pictured her as a small figure with large ears perked up, eyes sparkling, and barely reaching his waist.

Of course, that image often shattered when Jess unleashed her fierce side, but that was how Lian generally perceived her.

“Boss?”

“…! Has the boss returned?”

The female beastmen who had approached them widened their eyes and shouted, and soon, other beastmen with keen senses began to emerge one by one.

“Boss?!”

“The boss is back?!”

“Boss!”

All sorts of beastmen appeared, surrounding the group.

***

Inside the tent at the center of the campsite, the spacious area was covered with several layers of thick carpets. The cone-shaped tent kept out the strong winds and snow from the snowy mountains, and the thick carpets helped block some of the cold rising from the ground.

On top of the intricately patterned carpets, Jess and Lian sat on what appeared to be the highest seat, while six beastmen sat around them in a circle.

“Snort, Boss, who’s that human? Emergency rations?”

A bear beastman, nearly 3 meters tall, pointed his thick finger at Lian and asked, while the other beastmen stared intently at Lian with a mixture of emotions.

Feeling their gazes, Lian subtly tapped the back of Jess’s hand.

‘Ugh… Can’t I at least change my posture…?’

Lian was half-reclined on the cushion, sprawled out like a lazy troublemaker. The problem was that the cushion wasn’t a cushion—it was Jess’s soft, ample chest.

Jess, who had pulled Lian into her embrace from behind, grinned mischievously.

“He’s my mate.”

“What?!”

“M-Mate as in… your partner?!”

“Heh…”

Lian, who had been thinking that calling himself ‘Master’ in front of the beastmen wouldn’t cause any misunderstandings, was now sitting there with his mouth agape, wearing a blank expression.

Jess’s sudden declaration made Lian’s brain freeze, and while he was still processing, the conversation among the beastmen devolved into chaos.

The ones who reacted most strongly were the three male beastmen. In the beastmen’s world, where strength was law and everything, Jess, who held the position of leader, was the ideal bride for every male beastman.

The male beastmen, captivated by Jess, had even prayed that she would take multiple concubines.

However, the sudden appearance of ‘Lian’—a being who had dropped into their midst like a bomb—was nothing short of a shock.

‘That weakling is the boss’s mate?’

‘No way! If she mates with that pathetic guy, they’ll only have weak, sickly offspring!’

‘He looks weak… Hmm, is the boss into looks?’

It was clear from Lian’s appearance that he was weak, and the beastmen couldn’t believe that he was Jess’s mate. But Jess, wagging her tail happily, simply pulled Lian deeper into her embrace, ignoring their disbelief.

“Uh, th-thanks?”

Lian, his brain struggling to function, finally managed to blurt out a foolish response.

In his mind, tiny versions of himself were in chaos, yelling, “Thanks? That makes you sound like an idiot!” and “What about Noah!? What are you going to do!? You already have three kids with her (in your imagination)!” The internal turmoil prevented him from saying anything more.

“…”

Seeing Lian’s awkward response, Jess smiled happily, then subtly shifted her gaze to the female beastmen in the tent, narrowing her eyes.

The six beastmen sitting in the tent were the strongest after Jess. Among them were three particularly attractive female beastmen. Outside the tent, there were even more female beastmen gathered.

‘One mate is enough for my master.’

Though Jess knew it was an absurd thought, even the slightest possibility that Lian might end up petting another beastman made her blood boil.

To prevent such a scenario, she had marked her territory by declaring him her ‘mate.’

As Jess’s gaze, filled with a subtle killing intent, swept over the female beastmen, their tails bristled and stood upright before slowly lowering again.

‘She’s serious.’

‘Well, with looks like that, I can see why she’d want to keep him around.’

The two sleek and beautiful female beastmen thought this as they averted their gazes.

‘So… he’s not emergency rations?’

The massive female bear beastman, standing nearly 3 meters tall and capable of lifting an adult man with one hand, tilted her head in confusion, a question mark practically hanging over her head. However, she quickly accepted it under Jess’s deadly glare.

‘If the boss says so, then it must be true.’

While the female beastmen were quick to back down, the male beastmen glared at Lian with burning eyes.

Just as Jess was about to send a similarly deadly glare toward the male beastmen, a male beastman with a hyena tail suddenly stood up, growling.

“Growl…! Boss! I can’t accept that weakling as your mate!”

“Yeah! We can’t recognize someone as weak as him as your partner!”

“…!”

As one beastman voiced his discontent, two more male beastmen stood up, glaring fiercely at Lian.

The murderous aura they emitted, like that of predators, snapped Lian out of his daze. His survival instincts flared up, shaking him awake. But before Lian could react, Jess spoke in a soft voice.

“So what?”

Flinch.

The three beastmen’s tails quickly drooped at Jess’s calm question, and their ears, which had been perked up, slowly lowered as if they were trying to gauge the situation.

“What are you going to do if you don’t accept it?”

Though Jess smiled, her eyes were far from kind. The female beastmen, quick to read the room, quietly retreated to the corners of the tent.

End of Chapter