The Strongest Daughter-In-Law Of The Black Lion Family [EN]: Chapter 110

#110.

After witnessing Kainrich clapping like a seal and acting so erratically, I was convinced he was a genuine threat.

At this rate, Zerachiel might actually kill Kainrich.

So, I decided to intervene. I quickly hugged Zerachiel from behind and said,

“You came to save me, right?”

At that moment, Zerachiel’s momentum, which seemed ready to rush at Kainrich, subsided. He turned and grabbed my shoulders.

“I heard everything. Hebel’s knights were terribly weak.”

“It’s also because that guy was stronger than I thought.”

I recalled Kainrich from when he hijacked the carriage and continued,

“For a discarded beastman, his pheromones were quite strong.”

Usually, discarded beastmen have weak pheromones. If their pheromones were strong, they wouldn’t have been abandoned in the first place.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“Nope. As you can see.”

When I smiled brightly, Zerachiel’s lips softened.

I don’t know when he became so easy to handle. I rather liked the situation where Zerachiel became docile because of me, so I grinned.

Then Kainrich said,

“That’s because I was pheromone-manipulated.”

“…What?”

At that moment, everyone’s gaze turned to Kainrich. I never expected him to mention pheromone manipulation. Kainrich, unaware of the chilling atmosphere, muttered as if recalling the past.

“The time I met Zerachiel was when I had just escaped from the lab. I thought I was going to die from a seizure because of the damn drugs they fed me.”

“Drugs? So, the pheromone surge you had back then was because of drugs?”

Zerachiel showed unexpected interest, and Kainrich, eager for his attention, eagerly explained.

“Yes. They tried to eliminate escaped beastmen by giving them drugs. They were extremely reluctant to reveal their organization.”

“So, there was an organization.”

I sighed quietly. In the original story, the survivor Ella was so desperately searching for was right in front of me.

The reason why his pheromones were strong for a discarded beastman must have been because he was manipulated.

‘Maybe my body is also a result of pheromone manipulation,’ I thought.

Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense for me to have two pheromones.

They must have proceeded with the experiment because they thought I didn’t have any pheromones.

Of course, this is just a hypothesis. From the moment I opened my eyes in this world, I was just busy trying to survive.

I didn’t know how I lived before that.

“Those guys took discarded beastmen and conducted pheromone manipulation, as well as drug experiments that caused pheromone surges. It was a cruel experiment where only one out of a hundred survived.”

Kainrich looked horrified just thinking about it.

“If I hadn’t met Zerachiel back then, I would have died too.”

“I see. I’m glad I saved you.”

Zerachiel gave a meaningful smile. He needed to investigate Chersea’s pheromones anyway.

Besides, a drug that causes pheromone surges…

It was fortunate, especially since Victor was dead and I felt helpless. Thanks to an unintentional good deed, I secured a strong witness.

Zerachiel threatened with his sword.

“I would like you to come quietly to Jabishi Castle.”

But even with such a threat, Kainrich was rather delighted.

“Huh! Are you accepting me into Jabishi?”

“We’ll see.”

Despite Zerachiel’s cynical reaction, Kainrich wagged his tail eagerly.

“I’m confident I’ll work hard! I’ll even lick Zerachiel’s shoes if he tells me to!”

“I don’t like that kind of thing.”

Zerachiel hid his shoes behind him, disgusted. He was afraid Kainrich would immediately prostrate himself and lick them as a demonstration.

He seemed willing to do anything in front of Zerachiel.

I squeezed between them and asked Kainrich.

“Do you remember anything that could identify the organization that conducted the experiments?”

The novel said that the organization that experimented on Ella always wore masks with butterfly patterns. I wondered if it was related to the organization Ella was tracking, and it was.

Kainrich shrugged and said calmly.

“They always wore masks with butterfly patterns. They used strange titles like ‘Thirsty Ones’ to refer to each other, and they kept talking about paradise, paradise, while plunging beastmen into hell.”

Of course, he wasn’t completely calm. His clenched fist seemed to remember the cruelty of the time.

He was indeed another survivor of pheromone manipulation that Ella was looking for in the original story.

I sighed quietly, denouncing that damn organization.

“Typical cultists.”

With this, I confirmed that the group that manipulated Ella and Kainrich’s pheromones was the same.

Of course, the Ella I actually met had no pheromones, so I couldn’t say she was manipulated like in the original story.

Nevertheless, I couldn’t simply ignore the group because of the possibility that they might have manufactured the drug that caused Zakari’s rampage.

Kainrich agreed with me and sneered.

“Well, they are cultists. They kept saying strange things about finding a flower.”

“Flower?”

“A flower that leads to paradise, or something. Even that didn’t seem like a real flower. They must have called it a flower because they were butterflies. Anyway, I don’t know the details. My memories were manipulated during the experiment, so I have partial amnesia.”

That was the same with Ella in the original story. Ella also had her memories manipulated and didn’t remember that she was a victim of pheromone manipulation for a while.

It was around the time I was talking to Kainrich about the organization.

I saw Ella and Ivan coming this way from afar. I had been worried about parting without her being able to transform into a human, but fortunately, Ella was in human form.

“Ella! Over here!”

I was waving my hand to greet Ella when Kainrich, who had turned around, widened his eyes. After a moment, he pointed at Ella, pale as a sheet.

“You, you’re alive?”

He acted as if he had known Ella from before. Then Kainrich said in an excited tone.

“It’s me, Number Three. You’re Number Nine, right? You’re alive! I thought you were dead back then!”

Ella frowned as she looked at him, who called her ‘Number Nine.’

I was just as confused.

Number Nine was what Ella was called instead of her name when she was being pheromone-manipulated in the original story.

Even after losing all her memories, she recognized that she was Number Nine.

Thanks to that, the emotional connection between Ella and Heathcliff was gradually built.

It was Heathcliff who gave Ella the name ‘Ella.’

He gave her the name, saying that it was inhumane to call beastmen by numbers instead of names. Because of that, Ella blindly followed Heathcliff.

‘Could it be that Ella was also pheromone-manipulated? But the current Ella doesn’t have pheromones…?’ I wondered.

I looked back and forth between Ella and Kainrich with a confused expression.

The reason Kainrich didn’t recognize Ella right away was probably because he hadn’t seen her in human form.

If he had known her beast form, he would have recognized Ella from the time he kidnapped us.

Then Ella said seriously.

“I’m sorry, but my name is Ella.”

“Huh? But you’re Number Nine. We were definitely together in the lab back then, don’t you remember?”

“I’ve never done that.”

Ella shrugged and shook her head. She looked very uncomfortable. Kainrich spoke quickly, as if frustrated.

“Is it because of this form? Well, I couldn’t transform into a human because I was being punished back then, so it’s understandable that you can’t recognize me right away. Will you remember if I transform into a beast?”

Kainrich was actively explaining himself, even offering to transform into a beast.

But the more he did, the more violently Ella reacted.