I’ve Become a S*ave Bride - Chapter 6

“Anyway, as long as I don’t go over that wall, I’ll be fine, right?”

Nod.

“Then as long as I don’t go upstairs or beyond the wall, I can go anywhere?”

Nod, nod.

Pleased that her message had been understood without a hitch, the old woman smiled with a simple, childlike innocence. Lenette watched the beaming smile for a moment before softening her own expression in response.

“Thank you for telling me.”

However, the thoughts churning in her mind were quite different from the smile on her face.

‘Upstairs is dangerous, so I need to check the wall first.’

Unfortunately, Lenette hadn’t lived an easy enough life to let her guard down over one harmless-looking old country woman’s smile. That’s why she had no intention of listening to that kind warning.

‘While the black panther’s guard is down… I need to grab whatever’s worth money and run.’

That was her first goal.

☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓

The only maid, head cook, and also the watchful overseer of the pond garden, the old woman, gave Lenette some lamb and goat meat. Lenette headed straight back to her room.

“The smell is awful.”

Even though it was wrapped in layers of cloth, the stench still seeped through.

“I didn’t know chicken or pork would be hard to get.”

To become the perfect crown princess, she had studied the Tazetra Empire, which the king of Ecaron so desperately desired.

So she had learned about the climate, clothing, architecture, and general culture in depth—but not the finer details of daily life.

First, Lenette set the smelly meat out on the balcony.

The balcony door wasn’t the kind that could be closed with a window—just an arched entrance with a single curtain—so the smell still lingered.

The stench was so bad, she almost looked forward to that terrifying black beast.

“Is it even coming?”

Just as she was muttering this, a soft landing sound came from outside.

Lenette glanced at the long pole in the corner of the room, hesitating for a moment, then chose to go out barehanded.

“Hoo…”

Just a moment ago, she had been hoping the black panther would show up soon and get rid of that foul-smelling meat—but now that it was actually here, she felt nervous.

‘It’s okay.’

They’d talked just fine last time.

‘I can do it again this time.’

Like someone being dragged to the gallows, she forced her frozen feet to move and headed toward the balcony.

As expected, the black panther was outside.

Maybe because its sense of smell was far sharper than a human’s, its eyes were fixed on the cloth-wrapped meat.

“Do you want it? I brought it for you.”

At her words, a low, hungry growl rumbled from the panther’s chest.

Carefully, as if walking on glass, Lenette approached the meat and unwrapped the cloth. Then she slowly pushed it toward the panther.

“Here… take it.”

Fixing her gaze on the black slits inside its yellow eyes, she moved slowly—very slowly.

“Eat it. I prepared it for you.”

The black panther circled her, moving step by step, as if judging her.

She felt like every joint in her body was locking up. One wrong move and she was sure her throat would be ripped out. That fear clouded her vision, but she struggled even harder to appear calm.

“If you don’t want to eat in front of me… I’ll go back inside.”

Unlike her bold voice, she had to force her trembling legs to stay steady.

She wasn’t even sure if the sentences she was saying were grammatically correct or if the word order made sense, but she tried to breathe and act as naturally as possible.

“Sh-should I go back inside?”

The black panther stared up at her, as if considering its answer.

“If eating in front of someone makes you uncomfortable—”

Before she could even finish her sentence, the panther grabbed the meat and shoved it into its mouth.

“……”

It devoured a chunk of meat as big as her forearm in one go. Its fangs were so sharp that even the tough raw meat was torn cleanly without resistance.

Blood dripped, and the foul stench of raw meat spread all around—but even in the face of this nauseating sight, she didn’t gag.

Every part of her mind was instead busy picturing a future where that torn flesh in its mouth wasn’t lamb—but her.

Her neck stiffened, and her jaw started to tremble. It felt like standing in the cold with nothing but a linen chemise—her neck muscles began to tense up.

‘Get a grip.’

She bit down on her lower lip hard enough to draw blood.

She had read in books about how predators hunt: their instinct targets prey weaker than themselves. And the way they confirm that weakness is through frightened movements.

So she must not, under any circumstances, show fear now.

“Does it taste okay?”

Her voice trembled too much to say anything longer. But maybe her strategy was working—the panther glanced at her once and then returned its attention to the remaining meat.

“You know…”

Lenette clenched and unclenched her fists, trying to calm her breath without making it obvious.

“Is there… some condition for you to become human?”

There was only one reason she was asking.

She figured he needed to be in human form—whether for deception, negotiation, or anything at all. How was she supposed to talk to a wild beast mindlessly chewing raw meat like that?

“Perhaps you can only become human under a full moon?”

Lenette wasn’t the imaginative type by nature.

But her life had been anything but ordinary. She was betrayed by the one she trusted most. A supposedly unbreakable alliance had collapsed. Her once-glorious family was destroyed in an instant, and the proud flower of the kingdom was reduced to a slave. All of it had happened in less than a year—too much for the phrase ‘ups and downs’ to cover.

After living through that, what she considered the “worst-case scenario” had… expanded. Perhaps to a degree others might find excessive. Just like now.

“Or… do you have to eat human flesh to become one?”

☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓

The abdominal wound Kazen had gotten from the assassin earlier wasn’t deep.

But maybe because he’d moved too roughly, ignoring his condition, even that shallow wound had reopened. The cloth wrapped around his stomach had turned red.

“—Is there some condition for you to become human?”

At the sound of the unfamiliar but vaguely familiar voice, Kazen paused in the middle of unwrapping his bandage.

“Perhaps you can only become human under a full moon?”

What?

He thought she was just joking… but she was serious?

“Or… do you have to eat human flesh to become one?”

He let out a dry laugh at the absurd question and dropped the bandage. At this point, he started to question the woman’s intelligence.

Without even bothering to press a new cloth to his wound, Kazen stepped out onto the balcony.

He leapt up onto the waist-high flower bed in one swift motion—pain flared in his abdomen. As he looked down at the blood trickling from his stomach, he lazily wrapped the cloth around his waist.

After putting pressure on the wound, Kazen sat on the edge of the balcony railing.

“If it’s not that either… is it that you just don’t want to talk to me?”

This time, she got it right.

Well—strictly speaking, the correct subject of that sentence wasn’t ‘Kus’ but ‘Kazen’ so technically it was still wrong.

Still, Kazen suddenly found himself wondering what expression the woman had as she rambled on to a clueless beast. But from where he sat, all he could see was Kus eagerly munching on the meat.

Come to think of it, how did she know Kus liked lamb and goat so much? It was oddly specific—almost like she had known and prepared those two types on purpose.

‘Well, the act of preparing meat in the first place is unusual.’

Kazen’s lazy gaze stayed fixed on the floor below. Had there ever been a bride who personally brought raw meat for Kus?

‘Not really.’

Most fainted on the spot or broke into hysterics the moment they saw the black panther. A woman who trembled like that yet forced herself to speak calmly—this was a first.

“Interesting.”

Kazen chuckled softly, muttering to himself unintentionally. A sudden pause from below, followed by the abrupt appearance of a silhouette, made him frown.

‘Ah, damn.’

He frowned instinctively—but the next moment, his eyes widened.

“…A Northerner?”

Under the dark night sky, with the first quarter moon faintly shining, the woman stood glowing alone atop the desert sands. The scene appeared surreal, yet it bore a strange familiarity.

Pale, almost translucent skin. Small, delicate features. No doubt about it—she was a Northerner, just like his mother.

Kazen’s eyes widened ever so slightly at the unexpected sight.

Northerner slaves were rare to begin with, and for one to speak the Tazetra language so fluently was even rarer.

Even his own mother, who had lived in this kingdom for nearly thirty years, still hadn’t shed the northern accent. So it made sense now—why he had so easily assumed that woman was a native of the Tazetra Empire.

‘…She really is rare.’

No wonder the old man sent her as his bride.

And finally, the situation started to make sense. Why she kept mistaking ‘Kus’ for him, why she rambled on about turning into a human—it was clear now.

The doomed heir, master of the black panther, cursed prince of the Abandoned Palace—’Kazen Tazetra.’ That woman had no idea about any of those titles. That’s why she must’ve truly believed the ‘black panther’ was her husband.

The confusion that had filled him until now faded, and in its place, a hint of curiosity crept in.

‘How did a Northerner end up here?’

Was she captured and sold as a slave?

She looked just as shocked as he was. Frozen in place, the woman stared up at him like she’d turned to stone.

Equally astonished, the woman who had discovered him remained frozen, her face revealing shock as she tilted her head to stare at him. Yes, at this point, she should realize that Kus wasn’t her husband—

“…Don’t tell me… because of me…”

The unfamiliar words pierced Kazen’s ears—words a citizen of the Tazetra Empire would never understand.

But Kazen, with a foreign mother, was different.

“Because of me?”