The Strongest Daughter-In-Law Of The Black Lion Family [EN]: Chapter 35

#35.

“I don’t know what brings you to his side, but never trust Zavis. I’m saying this for your own good. You’re from the wild, so you might not know, but Zavis caused great chaos!”

“Stop.”

It was just nonsense that I didn’t need to hear.

I cut Bianco off and shook off his hand. I could feel his grip had loosened.

“Hayang…?”

Bianco looked at me with a bewildered expression. It’s infuriating that he’s pretending to worry now.

‘Why does everyone I meet tell me to be careful of Zavis? I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.’

Frankly, no one knows better than I do how dangerous the Zavis family is. I’ve already seen the future in the original story, so how could I not?

Yet, I’m still staying. So Bianco’s advice is unnecessary meddling and bothersome interference.

“I’ll take care of it myself.”

“…….”

“And you need to get your facts straight. It wasn’t Zerachiel who put me in danger; it was you, Bianco.”

“Ah…”

Bianco sighed softly and lowered his gaze. Did he realize that his advice was absurd even to himself?

“At least he’s not two-faced like you.”

It’s a problem that he’s equally crazy on both sides.

But that’s better. Since he’s consistently strange, there’s no chance of being disappointed after trusting him.

I glared coldly at Bianco before turning around. Judging by the fact that he didn’t grab me, he seemed to have given up.

That’s what I thought as things were settling down. Suddenly, a familiar face appeared from around the corner.

* * *

“Did she fall into the toilet?”

Ivan munched on grapes while waiting for Chichi, who wasn’t coming. Zerachiel said,

“If you’re so worried, why don’t you go look for her?”

“She’ll come when she’s ready. If I go, Chichi-nim [term of respect] won’t be able to have a good bowel movement.”

“Then I’ll go, I guess.”

Zerachiel got up from his seat. He was bored without Chichi.

“If you keep hovering around her like that, Chichi-nim might run away.”

“If she runs away, I’ll just catch her.”

Ivan’s mouth dropped open at his expression, as if he was stating something obvious he was worried about.

‘What are you going to do after you catch her?’

Ivan swallowed nervously, seeing Zerachiel’s eyes turn cold at the word ‘run away.’ He already knew that he was excessively obsessed with Chichi.

He had heard that it was more difficult for black lions who had not yet reached adulthood to control their emotions. So they were excessively instinctive and close to primal emotions.

Black lions were known to be obsessed with the person they fell for until they died. The rumors that Zakari couldn’t forget his ex-wife because he didn’t remarry stemmed from their habits.

Therefore, they were trained to suppress their emotions from a young age. If they ran wild according to their instincts, they were likely to become hopeless madmen.

Among them, Zerachiel was the most powerful black lion in history and was skilled at suppressing his emotions on his own.

To be precise, he was called a cruel black lion who had no interest in anything and no emotions. Until Chichi appeared.

‘If he was just a crazy black lion before, you could say that the young master these days is a crazy black lion with a screw loose.’

It was just an added modifier, but Ivan was a little worried because the modifier was a higher version of a madman.

Well, it’ll work out somehow.

It was tiring to worry about the future of someone he couldn’t stop. It was ridiculous to expect normalcy in something involving a black lion in the first place. For now, he was watching as an aide.

“Then I won’t go far, right?”

Meanwhile, Zerachiel chuckled at Ivan’s brazen send-off. Ivan, despite being an aide, just waved his hand, telling him to have a good trip.

He was a heavy-bottomed aide, but it was convenient in times like this. It would be annoying if he followed him for no reason.

It was when Zerachiel was walking, following the traces of the imprint.

“So, did you come to apologize now?”

It was Chichi’s voice. A cold voice he had never heard before. A voice closer to resignation than anger, as if it contained no emotion. No, that’s what he thought, but it wasn’t.

“Who was it that abandoned me?”

The moment she said that, a slight tremor was conveyed. But it was only for a moment. Before the overflowing emotions could spill over, they subsided.

Zerachiel hid his presence and quietly watched the scene.

It was a familiar reaction. Zerachiel was also used to suppressing his own emotions. He could immediately understand the meaning of Chichi’s actions.

‘She’s pretending to be okay, but she’s really not okay at all. But if that’s repeated, she’ll start to delude herself into thinking she’s really okay. That’s how it hardens.’

Zerachiel was wondering if Chichi was familiar with those emotions. It seemed like she had experienced something like that more than once or twice.

‘It’s that guy from back then.’

Zerachiel’s gaze turned to the man standing in front of Chichi. His name was Bianco, wasn’t it?

In fact, he had deliberately let him live. There was something suspicious about him.

The feed that the warehouse burglars stole that day was only a small portion. At the time, he had caught Chichi, so he dismissed it as the act of a hungry beast.

But what if that accomplice was a priest of Hebel [a religious figure]?

Then the story is completely different.

Maybe the warehouse robbery was a smokescreen, and the real purpose was something else.

That’s why he let him live. He wanted to see who he would meet alive. And as expected, the place Bianco headed was Page, as expected.

Of course, it was not yet known whether Page and Hebel were conspiring or whether he was Page’s spy. However, it seemed certain that he had raided the warehouse at Page’s instigation.

‘What is the purpose of trying to buy time by using a ferret beastman who can’t even transform into a human as a hostage? What are they trying to find?’

Only feed was missing at the time. That means they fled without getting what they wanted.

Page, who often wanted to tear Zavis apart, often tried to infiltrate Zavis Castle.

However, most of the servants in the castle were lion beastmen, so infiltration itself was difficult. Even if they managed to infiltrate, Zavis’s direct descendants with good senses would smell them and take care of them.

So he chose a ferret. He even gathered only those with tiny pheromones.

Bianco also had insignificant pheromones. Seeing that Chichi met him in the forest, he must have been an abandoned beastman as well.

Bianco clearly knew that Chichi’s pheromones were very weak and used them. He must have thought that even if he was caught, Zavis would kill him mercilessly, so the cleanup would be clean.

‘Should I kill him?’

Zerachiel unknowingly clenched his fist. He should have just stayed quiet and pretended to be dead if he was let live, but why did he appear in front of Chichi again?

If he knew that he was Page’s spy as expected, he should have just killed him cleanly back then; he had a small regret.

Just in time, Chichi was about to turn away from the man when the man grabbed her and started spouting nonsense.

“I don’t know what brings you to his side, but never trust Zavis. I’m saying this for your own good. You’re from the wild, so you might not know, but Zavis caused great chaos!”

Zerachiel, who was somewhat dumbfounded, was about to step in himself. Unexpectedly, Chichi stepped in.

“I’ll take care of it myself.”

“…….”

“And you need to get your facts straight. It wasn’t Zerachiel who put me in danger; it was you, Bianco.”

She wasn’t just an innocent ferret. Chichi seemed to know that Bianco had used her.

To know that and still let him go, thinking of the past favor. It was a tolerance that Zavis could never understand.

“At least he’s not two-faced like you.”

Zerachiel stopped and pondered for a long time. Chichi’s evaluation of him was quite generous.

He always thought she found him annoying, but was he wrong?

Zerachiel’s lips twitched.

“Chichi hates two-faced guys.”

I see.