Chapter 82

Gulp. 

Terrified by the phrase ‘worst-case scenario,’ Lino swallowed so hard his Adam’s apple bobbed visibly. It was entirely a moot point now since the worst hadn’t come to pass and both he and the babies were fine, but he was so intensely focused on Erin’s explanation that his body locked up in rigid tension.

“Ugh…”

As a sharp, pulling pain radiated through his lower abdomen, drawing a weak moan from his lips, Grondil immediately checked his stomach. The massive beast paw gingerly stroked the pitifully sunken abdomen. As the searing body heat transferred through his skin, Lino’s rigid muscles slowly began to uncoil.

“Cut the useless dramatic drivel and get straight to the point.”

Slashed by Grondil’s icy reprimand, Erin shrugged indifferently and opted to summarize only the most critical details, just as he demanded.

“Lord Castillion personally provided the blood transfusions. You were hemorrhaging profusely, but Lord Castillion absolutely refused to tolerate anyone else’s filthy blood flowing through your veins, throwing the most ridiculous, stubborn fit— Ack!”

Ultimately, Erin received a brutal smack to the back from Grondil, forcing her to pivot to a strictly professional medical report.

Fortunately, Lino’s current physical condition was surprisingly stable. He had been in critical condition for roughly two weeks following the surgery, but thanks to Isberg’s cutting-edge medicine, advanced magic, and the grace of the gods, his abdomen had healed flawlessly, leaving not even a trace of an incision scar.

The alarmingly hollow stomach and absolute lack of energy were simply the result of him being unable to consume proper nutrients during his month-long coma. He was given strict homework: he needed to consistently consume restorative meals and undergo physical therapy to rebuild his stamina.

Dropping the final note that Enoch was currently tending to the cubs back at the mansion, Erin excused herself to draft a nutritional recovery plan and left the room. The moment the door clicked shut, a suffocating silence descended upon the spacious hospital suite. Grondil stared relentlessly at Lino, while Lino, utterly unable to meet that gaze, kept his eyes glued to his flattened stomach, refusing to speak.

“Haha… It really sounds like it was touch-and-go there for a bit.”

Unable to endure the oppressive silence any longer, Lino was the first to speak. Knowing he was the sole cause of this heavy atmosphere, he forced a sheepish, awkward laugh, desperately trying to play it off as if he were completely fine now.

“I was half a second away from smashing the Grand Temple of Aquila to rubble.”

“…”

His forced smile proved entirely useless against Grondil’s bloodcurdling statement. The beast had delivered the threat of tearing down a holy temple with the same casual indifference one might use to describe eating crab soup for breakfast.

“Lino, thanks to you, I offered a prayer of gratitude to the gods for the very first time in my existence… But how long did that last? This time, I found myself hurling threats and curses, swearing I would obliterate every single temple on this continent if they didn’t bring you back to life this instant.”

Pulling Lino’s hand to rest upon his own, Grondil continued in a hollow, eerily calm tone.

“You haven’t even lived that long, yet as I sat here pondering why your life had to be so exceptionally brutal, I realized it was entirely the gods’ fault… which only made my fury burn hotter.”

Resting against the beast’s massive paw, Lino’s hand looked impossibly pale, small, and terrifyingly more withered than before. His horrific medical condition was undeniable; even his fingernails were entirely drained of color, tinted a sickly, bloodless white.

“The Letia is an entity who incurred the wrath of the gods, only to eventually receive their forgiveness and blessing. While forgiveness and blessings are something to be welcomed, the sheer magnitude of divine wrath experienced prior to that would undoubtedly be impossible for an ordinary human to withstand. You are the Letia… so perhaps every vicious twist and turn of your life was the divine punishment you were forced to endure.”

Lino remained completely silent, not even offering a nod as he listened intently to Grondil’s words. Grondil seemed to be addressing Lino, yet simultaneously murmuring to himself. It sounded like a raw confession—a desperate unloading of every torturous thought that had consumed him during Lino’s month-long coma. So, Lino merely intended to listen patiently. However…

“If only you had never been born the Letia.”

He simply couldn’t sit still and silently absorb what came next.

“Grondil. That’s taking it a bit too—”

“If you hadn’t been the Letia, you never would have caught Baron Haklan’s eye.”

“Well, true, but—”

“You wouldn’t have been imprisoned. You wouldn’t have had to roll in the filth of the slums, nor would you have become a fugitive running for your life, ultimately forced to rot in some remote mountain Holy Knight Order.”

“No, hold on a second. Grondil. If I hadn’t gone there, I never would have met you.”

“And if you hadn’t been picked as my escort knight, you never would have had to endure Yuneria’s filthy, degrading harassment.”

“That was… bearable enough.”

“And if you hadn’t met me, you never would have been knocked up with my fucking brats.”

“…”

Lino, who had been desperately offering positive refutations to everything Grondil said, instantly snapped his mouth shut the second Grondil degraded their children as ‘fucking brats’.

“And your body never would have been irreparably destroyed like this.”

In heavy silence, Lino slowly slipped his hand out from Grondil’s grasp. Shifting his aching body, he turned his back on the beast, pulling the blankets firmly over his head.

“…Lino? What are you doing?”

From behind him, Grondil called out in bewildered panic, but Lino curled into a tight ball, pretending not to hear. Because the bed was still angled for sitting, lying on his side caused a sharp cramp in his ribs, but he ruthlessly swallowed the pain and ignored Grondil entirely.

I’m allowed to be angry right now, right?

Even as an innate wave of anxiety questioned if he was overstepping, he absolutely refused to suppress the sudden surge of furious resentment. Shouldn’t I be allowed to be honest about this much at least? It wasn’t like they were strangers; they had publicly declared themselves mates, and he had literally just birthed three of his children. Sure, all three came out in one go, but still.

“Does something hurt? Should I call Erin back in?”

“…Nothing hurts.”

Lino merely shot back a sullen response, keeping his back firmly turned. Thrown into a panic by Lino’s icy reaction, Grondil immediately aborted his reach for the nurse call button. Instead, he gingerly peeled back the blanket Lino was hiding under.

“…Are you actually angry with me?”

“And if I am?”

“But why?”

Genuinely unable to comprehend the source of Lino’s fury, Grondil asked in utter confusion. Judging by the fact that he was staring at Lino’s back, it was obvious the anger was directed at him. But he genuinely couldn’t fathom which part of what he’d said warranted such a reaction.

Lino had a fairly accurate read on Grondil’s inner thoughts. This was a man born to be an absolute ruler. His words and actions were naturally ruthless, blunt, and domineering, which honestly hadn’t bothered Lino much. In fact, having spent his entire life suffering alone, Lino actively welcomed those domineering traits. In the past, he’d had to rack his brain to the point of exploding over every trivial decision just to ensure his own survival; with Grondil, he no longer had to agonize over any of it. He had even developed the unshakeable conviction that Grondil’s side was the safest place in the entire world. The beast even ruthlessly eradicated anything that dared threaten him.

Grondil was the first savior he had ever encountered in his life. He knew he would never meet another savior like him again. And while part of his brain screamed that it was wrong to direct his anger at the man who saved him… Lino simply couldn’t turn back around and face Grondil as if nothing was wrong. He knew that if he looked at that face right now, he would completely lose his composure, demanding to know why the hell Grondil was spewing such regretful bullshit with a twisted expression.

However, absolutely refusing to show Grondil his own twisted, furious expression, Lino buried his face in his hands. His eyes were already swollen shut. Having lived as an unconscious patient for an entire month, he probably looked like absolute death. Add a furious scowl to that horrific visage? He’d look so grotesque that ‘ugly’ wouldn’t even begin to cover it.

Entirely oblivious to Lino’s internal crisis, Grondil reached out. With a touch that was astonishingly gentle yet unyieldingly firm, he slowly pried Lino’s fingers away from his face.

“D-Don’t do that.”

“Lino. When having a conversation, you look the other person in the eye.”

“I’m not… having a conversation. So—”

He was about to tell Grondil to stop touching him, but Grondil completely bypassed the objection, effortlessly scooping Lino up and hauling him directly into his lap.

“What are…!”

“Isn’t my lap far more comfortable than some hospital bed?”

“…”

Snapping his mouth shut, Lino used his somewhat restored vision to survey the room. The only hospital rooms Lino knew were crowded emergency wards partitioned by flimsy curtains or multi-patient rooms. This place, however, looked far more like an ultra-luxury hotel suite than a hospital. From the crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling to the wallpaper, the window frames, the ornate furniture, and the delicate accent pieces—every single item was screamingly expensive. The sole object reminding him that this was indeed a hospital was the medical bed he had just been plucked from.

Holding Lino tightly against his chest, Grondil climbed onto the bed. Creak. The sturdy springs of the mattress screamed in protest. Given the absurd extravagance of the room, it had to be a ridiculously expensive, high-end mattress, but even it struggled to support the sheer, crushing mass of Grondil in his beast form.

Still, Lino rested quietly in his embrace. Grondil was right; no matter how obscenely expensive the mattress was, it couldn’t even begin to compete with the sheer comfort of the beast’s lap. The mattress had no searing body heat, and it certainly didn’t have plush, silken fur.

“Now, tell me why you’re angry.”

“…”

Comfort was comfort, but Lino buried his face in his hands again, this time pressing it firmly into Grondil’s furred chest. As the thick fur tickled his fingers, the sudden urge to grab handfuls of it and knead it like dough flared up, but he barely managed to suppress it.

Waking up from a bizarre dream to be told a month had passed felt entirely surreal, but his immediate reaction to being held by the beast proved it had indeed been that long. The very fact that his mouth was going dry from ‘beast withdrawal’ was evidence enough.

Grondil lightly nudged the back of Lino’s neck with his elongated snout. It was a silent demand to lift his face from the fur. When Lino stubbornly stayed put, Grondil extruded his thick tongue and ran it slowly up Lino’s nape.

“Hiiik!”

Caught completely off guard by the wet swipe, Lino let out a reedy squeak, his shoulders violently hiking up to his ears. It was only one pass, but his entire nape was instantly soaked. The searing heat and rough texture of that tongue caused every fine hair on his body to stand on end. It had been far too long since he’d experienced the touch of the beast. Vivid memories of his entire body being licked and coated in that saliva instantly crashed over him.

“If you don’t speak, I’ll strip you bare right now and lick you from top to bottom.”

Starting from the damp nape, Grondil’s hand slowly trailed down his spine. Reaching the loose hospital pants, he forcefully grabbed a handful of Lino’s ass. He might have lost weight, but Lino’s ass was still perfectly plump and exceedingly satisfying to knead.

“G-Grondil. This is a hospital…”

“This hospital is mine anyway. Absolutely no one will dare say a word regardless of what I do to you here.”

“Wow… You really are… rich.”