NOVEL NEXT chapter 46
46 – I will smell you to check if you are a male beastkin! Take off your clothes!
Veronia, the brave warrior from the Lang race, the most courageous among the beastkin.
She was a born fighter from the gigantic city of Lillian, the most prominent place in the south.
There is a saying in the empire.
If you want to meet the strongest in the empire, head to the imperial capital, Croscellia.
If you want to meet the best fighters in the empire, head to the best city in the south, Lillian.
Lillian was a city famous for its arena, held every week.
At the same time, it was also famous for accepting any race without discrimination.
Dwarves, a minority of elves who escaped from the forests, beastmen, and various mixed races.
Although the empire, in general, had little prejudice against races, Lillian had the most diverse population among them.
The reason was the arena.
The arena: the favorite entertainment of the people of the empire, a thrilling competition enjoyed by nobles, commoners, and even slaves.
In the huge circular stadium, gladiators and warriors fought using their weapons.
Hundreds of thousands of tourists flocked every year to watch the arena, where they sometimes fought monsters and other times fought other warriors.
Most of these people were from the southern region.
Lillian, home to the fifth-largest arena in the empire.
However, the enthusiasm for the arena was stronger than in any other region.
The reason was simple.
The south was the most peaceful region.
Ironically, because it was the area farthest from the war, there were many who had a romantic fascination with the battles of the warriors.
The newly appointed mayor of Lillian believed that in order to become the best city in the south, they had to invest their all in the arena, and so, they invested a lot of money in it.
Monster VS Warrior.
Sorcerer VS Warrior.
Golem VS Golem.
In Lillian’s arena, all kinds of fights were held.
It was said that if it looked like fun, the people of Lillian’s arena would go as far as staging dogfights.
Lillian was also the first to start recruiting various mixed races and other races as warriors for the arena.
And so, Lillian became the representative arena city of the south, a city of battles, entertainment, and excitement.
Recently, the city began to establish a clear vision for the future as it was revealed that Golden Wagon had made significant investments in the area.
Participation in the fighting arena was open to all.
Anyone who could fight was welcome to join, regardless of their race.
Veronia was hailed as one of the top warriors in such an arena.
With her navy-blue fur-covered tail, she defeated all her opponents in front of her, gaining an enormous number of fans and becoming a famous and popular figure, or rather, a popular Rangin.
And now, she was suddenly…
“Male scent!”
Unknowingly, she sniffed at the scent coming from the human male in front of her, flaring her nostrils.
Although the Rangin’s nose looked no different from that of a human, their sense of smell was dozens of times better.
She had come all the way from far-off Lillian, following the scent to this place.
It was a faint fragrance that ordinary people could not detect, but as a Rangin, one of the most outstanding warriors of her race, she was able to catch it.
It was the smell of strong male pheromones.
Distracted by the sharp scent, she interrupted the match to follow it, and after a week, she stood before the source of the fragrance.
Of course, she had been lured into this vulnerable state by the sweet smell along the way.
As Veronia moved one step closer to Lucas and sniffed at him, it happened.
Shlick.
The sharp sound of a sword being drawn was heard.
“If you take one more step, Rangin, you should know that your throat will be slit.”
The elf who had been standing next to the strong-smelling man glared coldly and viciously at her.
As if to prove that this wasn’t an empty threat, she bared her teeth with her sword drawn, growling.
‘For someone with such a soft look, she sure has sharp eyes!’
The stance with the sword.
The gaze at her opponent.
And even the mana gathered at the tip of the sword.
Veronia sensed that the elf before her was a rather strong opponent.
“Hm? Why are you getting so angry? Are you perhaps this male’s partner?”
“Wh, what? Wh, what are you talking about! Pa, partner?!”
“If that’s not the case, then why are you angry? I’m just trying to smell to verify something.”
“My bo, boss. Anyone who approaches my boss unnecessarily shall be met with immediate punishment. It is the virtue of an employee.”
“Really? That sounds like tiring work. Don’t worry! I have no ill intentions. I’m just trying to confirm something.”
Noticing her words, Lucas, who had been silently observing the situation, asked.
“What are you trying to confirm?”
“I want to confirm whether or not you are a male beastkin! My nose is telling me. It’s saying that you have an incredibly strong scent of a male beastkin!”
“…Really?”
“Yes! You’re emitting the thick pheromones of a victorious male beastkin from the battlefield! If you were a male beastkin!”
“If I were a male beastkin?”
“I would formally propose to you! A strong male and a strong female must pair up and breed for the good of the species!”
“W, what nonsense! How absurd!”
Andrea pointed her sword at her.
“Andrea, calm down.”
Lucas, who stopped Andrea, scratched his head.
“Sorry, but I’m not a beastkin.”
“…Really? But the scent is definitely there, sniff sniff.”
“Is this scent what you’re talking about?”
Lucas picked up the basket.
A similar fragrance to that of a male’s body was coming from the basket as well.
“Yes! This is the scent! What is this? Why is the scent of a male coming from this basket!”
Lucas sighed, thinking that he knew this would happen.
“That’s the secret of the male scent.”
“……I can’t understand.”
I opened the basket.
It was the packed lunch that I had brought with Andrea to find honey today.
There were three menu items in the packed lunch.
A representative K-fusion food, Bulgogi sandwich.
And kimbap, a must for picnics.
Lastly, the soybean paste soup, which was the most consumed in snack bars along with kimbap.
It was really a gentle taste of spinach soybean paste soup.
Since it’s not common to wrap stew in a lunch box, I added a little tofu and spinach, and made a watery soup by dissolving soybean paste.
It was a precaution in case my throat got stuck while eating kimbap.
The male scent that Veronia mentioned was probably this.
I had suffered a great embarrassment once because of this in the capital city.
In the past, when I was a cook for just a year, there was a time when lupine mercenaries came to the capital to receive the rewards of war.
At that time, I didn’t know Camilla yet, and I was testing freshly made soybean paste by myself.
-Male! Male! Male!
-Grrr! Bring out a fine and tasty male!
-Mating! Mating! Grrrr!
I still vividly remember when lupine mercenaries went crazy and stormed into our kitchen while I was boiling the soybean paste soup.
They tried to attack me, but I subdued all of them.
That was when I found out.
That there are lupines who have the same frequency with this soybean paste.
‘I forgot about it because there hadn’t been any such incident since then…’
After several years, a lupine with the same frequency showed up again.
Although they’re fine, unlike those who had lost their sanity and were left with only instincts, I think it’s okay.
“This is soybean paste. The smell is probably similar to the pheromones that your males produce, so you might feel that way.”
“Is that… so?”
“Yes.”
She looked at me once more, seemingly disappointed, smacking her lips.
After confirming that I had no ears or tail, she said,
“Ahem, I apologize. It was rude of me. It must be because it’s been so long since I’ve smelled that scent, I got excited without realizing.”
Though it seemed more like excitement about something else.
I saw the sticky honey smeared around her mouth.
The honey was dripping, sticking to the broken beeswax.
“Did you eat all that honey?”
“No, I didn’t eat it all! There’s about half left, so you can take some too!”
“We can’t take it.”
“Why?”
“I’m just taking half of the other honey.”
“…I don’t understand!”
“Do you want the bees to starve to death?”
“Ah, I see! I got it!”
Her energy was good.
“Because of you eating it, we’ll have to get honey from somewhere else.”
“Since I increased the work, I’ll help you!”
“I’d appreciate that.”
“But there’s a condition!”
“What?”
“I want to eat the food in that basket together! It looks interesting!”
Instead of answering, I looked at Andrea.
“Why are you looking at me?”
“Will it be all right? Your share is quite a lot.”
“What, do you see me as a pig or something?”
“No, it’s just that you like to eat, right?”
“Eek!”
“Oh! You like eating as well? I like it too! Looks like we have something in common!”
“I don’t like it!”
“Really? That’s too bad! But it’s fine! We can find common ground anytime!”
Hearing Andrea’s squawk, I looked at Veronia.
“She says it’s fine.”
“Great! Then I shall help too!”
As she spoke, Veronia licked the honey that stained the corners of her mouth.
Although I didn’t really trust her, she did find the honey-filled beehive of the Pumpkin-Bees much faster than we did. She must be good at it.
Veronia, who took the lead, wiped the honey smeared on her hips with her tail, then licked her tail clean.
Her mood seemed to be good as she swayed her tail and swept the honey-covered hips once more.
Every time she did this, the swelling caused by the Pumpkin-Bee poison subsided.
Somehow, I get the feeling of a bear tearing and eating honey.
It was a healing ability that made me wonder if she wasn’t a Wolf People rather than a Lang People.
“Boss, are you really gonna keep hanging around with that beast? She seems a bit… off.”
“I’d rather be with her than the elf who accused me of being a racist right from the start.”
“Ah, no… That… That was…”
Her face turned bright red as she bowed her head in embarrassment.
“Sorry, I must have eaten something wrong that day.”
“As long as you don’t do it again. But, are you sure we should continue like this?”
“Huh?”
“As an elf, you should be proud. If you find the honey after the Lang People, your pride might be badly damaged, right?”
“Don’t give that sandwich to that guy if I find it.”
“Alright, I’ll think about it.”
With that, Andrea stepped forward.
Thanks to Andrea and Veronica’s active search for honey,
“Human male! I found it!”
“Oh, I found it first!”
“I’m the one who shouted ‘found it!’ So it’s my victory! Muhahahat!”
“Hey!”
They found honey more quickly than expected.
“Alright, let’s stop fighting.”
I took out the knife for cutting the honeycomb.
Instead of using a big knife to catch a honeycomb, I took out a short dagger that I personally used.
The handle of the knife, which had been used every time I cut a honeycomb since my days as a kitchen knight, was stained with use.
Vooooom!
When a sudden intruder appeared, the bees panicked and attacked, but there was no real harm.
Having perfectly cut off the honeycomb with the knife, I put the honeycomb in a sealed container that I had brought along with the picnic basket.
There was quite an amount.
‘This will last for at least two months.’
As expected, the bees in this world have an incredible production rate.
Even though the grade may be somewhat low, it would taste better than those artificially produced since it grew and fed on the mountain’s energy.
Natural products are always tastier.
The pumpkin bees stung my skin sharply, but their thin stingers failed to penetrate my skin.
Am I not a knight in my own right?
“It’s sweet. Can I eat it when I’m feeling hungry?”
“No way. This is ours.”
“What a shame. All right! So can we now eat that doenjang soup and rice? I didn’t show it earlier, but I’m starving since it’s already been a week!”
I looked back at Andrea.
“Why, why are you looking at me again? I, I said it’s okay, right?”
“But that was a bit too sincere, wasn’t it?”
“…”
We could only open the picnic lunchbox after getting out of the bees’ territory.
Bulgogi sandwiches, bulgogi kimbap, and even doenjang soup with tofu and spinach floating in it.
I had to get up on a holiday morning to make this…
Sizzling.
The hallucination of grilling bulgogi at work on a holiday morning lingered in my ears.