I'm the Only One With a Different Genre - Chapter 195

Chapter 195
Covered in Jess’ Scent

***

As Jess glared at them with genuine killing intent, the female beastmen, who had been sending Lian subtle, seductive glances, shrank back in fear.

“Hiiik..?!”

“Gasp..!”

Jess continued to shoot murderous glares at the retreating female beastmen one by one.

“Lian, I think it’s over now…”

At Lian’s cautious call, Jess smiled brightly, like a blossoming flower, and ran over to him.

Though the duel had been initiated by the beastmen themselves, Lian felt a bit guilty for leaving them in such a mess. However, seeing Jess approach with a cheerful expression, he let out a sigh of relief.

“Hey, Jess…?”

But that relief lasted less than a minute before turning into awkwardness. Jess had ignored the beastmen sprawled on the ground and instead wrapped her arms around Lian’s waist, growling softly.

Although the sparring match hadn’t caused any serious injuries, there were still some minor wounds.

‘Is it okay to leave them like this? They are beastmen, so I guess they won’t freeze to death, right?’

While their natural healing abilities would likely take care of the injuries, Lian wasn’t sure if they could withstand the biting cold. Considering the beastmen’s light clothing, he wondered if they were more resistant to the cold, but his concerns didn’t fade. He glanced toward the female beastmen who had distanced themselves.

He sent them a look that said, ‘Since you’re comrades, can’t someone move them into a tent?’ But no one responded. In fact, they only returned his gaze with expressions of disgust.

‘Did I do something wrong? Did my pants fall down… or did my hair fly off?!’

The female beastmen, who had been shyly smiling at him just moments ago, now looked at him with furrowed brows, as if they were seeing something unpleasant. Horrible thoughts began to float in Lian’s mind.

He hurriedly felt his hair and checked his waistband. Thankfully, his pants hadn’t fallen down, and his hair was still intact.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Lian watched as the beastmen—both male and female—retreated, frowning.

“Hey, Jess… Did I make some kind of mistake?”

“Hmm? No!”

“Right…?”

Lian thought to himself, tears welling up inside.

‘Even if they’re battle-crazed beastmen… it’s only natural they’d feel uncomfortable seeing their comrades get wiped out by a stranger.’

As if to confirm Lian’s thoughts, the beastmen began avoiding him from that moment on.

Whether during meals, while walking around the camp with Jess, or even when he was casually swinging his sword to stretch, the beastmen glared at him with furrowed brows.

‘Weren’t beastmen supposed to respect the strong? Teacher, you lied to me…’

Lian thought of his teacher from the Nest, who had taught him so much about beastmen, and felt utterly dejected. His misery peaked when even the beastmen who had been lying around on the ground began avoiding him.

It was as if an invisible barrier had formed around Lian, pushing the beastmen away.

The next day, Lian, feeling downcast, wondered, ‘Is it because I’m human? Are they discriminating against me?’ He sulked in his cabin, not wanting to go outside.

Knock, knock.

Someone knocked on the door of the cabin where only Lian was staying. Given the current camp situation, the only person who would visit him was Jess, so he opened the door without much thought.

“Huh?”

Standing at the door was a cat beastman with black cat ears. She was one of the female beastmen he had seen in the tent earlier. For some reason, her face was scrunched up, her ears and tail drooping, and the tips of her tail trembled slightly.

“I have a message to deliver… Ugh…”

“…!”

Before she could finish her sentence, she hastily covered her mouth with her hand and took a step back. Her reaction was so severe, as if she had just smelled something rotten, that Lian, bewildered, brought his wrist to his nose.

‘Do I smell bad?’

He sniffed himself, but aside from Jess’ scent, which had clung to him after spending the whole day together, there was no unpleasant smell.

“Do I smell bad or something?!”

Panicking, Lian asked the cat beastman, who was retreating once more. If he let her go, he wouldn’t be able to get an answer from anyone else. He took a step toward her in desperation, but she shook her head vigorously and stepped back two more paces.

Her firm rejection felt like an invisible blow had just grazed past him. If his “gag filter” had been working, he might have coughed up blood. Her expression was that cold.

‘Tell me… at least tell me the reason!’

Not knowing the reason was far worse than knowing something he couldn’t change. Lian looked at the cat beastman with a desperate expression. She hesitated for a moment, rolling her eyes, before letting out a small sigh and speaking.

“It’s because of the pheromones.”

“Phe… Pheromones?”

“Ugh! Don’t come any closer! Your whole body is drenched in the boss’s pheromones, and it’s overwhelming!”

The cat beastman pinched the sides of her nose with her thumb and forefinger, tears welling up in her eyes.

“She’s practically marked you all over as hers.”

Her gaze swept up and down Lian’s body, as if she were looking at a bone completely covered in drool. In a way, her words weren’t wrong—he was drenched in Jess’ pheromones.

“I didn’t think the boss’s pheromones were that strong… I guess I was wrong.”

“Uh… Pheromones…?”

The cat beastman took another step back, shaking her head to clear the scent before continuing.

“Pheromones are like a mark that beastmen leave in their territory. To put it simply, the boss has covered you in her scent to say, ‘This one’s mine.'”

“…!”

Lian’s face flushed bright red, like a ripe tomato.

“So… it’s like I’ve been walking around with ‘Jess’ property’ written all over me this whole time?”

“Exactly. You got it.”

“…!”

The cat beastman casually responded to Lian’s muttered words, causing him to flinch in surprise. His ears and neck grew even hotter with embarrassment, and the cat beastman narrowed her eyes, pouting her lips slightly.

‘He’s cute. Totally my type.’

She licked her lips, but then shuddered as the strong scent of pheromones hit her again. She shook her head, giving up.

‘I can’t go after someone the boss has marked so thoroughly.’

After quickly abandoning what she couldn’t have, she informed Lian that dinner had been delayed. Lian thanked her with a dazed expression, and after watching the beastmen wrinkle their noses in discomfort, he hurried back into the cabin.

‘Pheromones…?’

Sitting at the edge of the wooden bed inside the cabin, Lian flapped his clothes a bit, but he couldn’t detect any strong scent that would make the beastmen recoil in disgust. All he could smell was the faint scent of Jess.

‘Is this Jess’ pheromone?’

The thought that Jess had marked him with her scent, essentially declaring, ‘Lian is mine, so no one else can touch him!’ made his face burn even hotter.

“Ughhh…”

Lian groaned softly, burying his head in his hands as he crouched down. The fact that Jess had declared him her ‘mate’ and marked him with her pheromones made him feel both absurdly happy and confused.

‘But what about Noah…?’

Even though it had been a dream, Noah had practically confessed to him, and Lian had responded by saying he liked her too. Though it had been to save her, his words weren’t without feeling.

The fact that he had regretted not confessing properly as soon as he returned to his original body was proof of that.

To Lian, his growing affection for Jess felt like ‘adultery’ or a ‘sin.’

But at the same time, his relationship with Noah was ambiguous.

Noah’s feelings might have changed in the meantime, and her confession might have been limited to the dream. Humans were complicated beings, and just because two people liked each other didn’t mean they would always end up dating or getting married.

Some people gave up on love to pursue their dreams, while others, who had negative feelings toward ‘family’ or ‘romantic partners,’ stuck to one-sided love.

Even if Noah had dreamed of a happy family with Lian, there was no way to know how she felt in reality.

That’s why it was hard to label Lian’s feelings for Jess as ‘adultery.’

‘Is there really such a thing as pheromones?’

The thoughts that had been swirling in Lian’s mind eventually focused on the word ‘pheromones,’ which had shaken him to his core.

‘What if it’s not really pheromones?’

Recalling how the cat beastman had said, “I didn’t think the boss’s pheromones were that strong,” his doubts grew deeper.

‘If Jess’s pheromones weren’t originally that strong, then maybe the overwhelming scent the beastmen detected wasn’t even hers.’

One suspicion led to another.

‘If that’s the case, then maybe Jess only introduced me as her mate to protect me because I’ve become weaker after losing my original body.’

What if Jess’s declaration of love was just an act of kindness to protect him?

In an attempt to escape from his guilt, Lian began digging a bigger hole for himself. Since he couldn’t confirm the existence of pheromones, his increasingly ridiculous thoughts started to feel like the truth.

End of Chapter