This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

Had they seen this nightmare—a scene that looked like something straight out of abyssal corruption itself—there would have been no convincing them to stay calm. No persuading them that Aegis wasn’t dangerous.

Hell, even he was shocked by this scene, and he had complete faith in Aegis’ character.

Kain stared at the grotesque vision before him—the writhing contracts, the pulsating black tendrils, the eerie glow in Aegis’ eyes—and tried, really tried, to find a reasonable explanation.

‘Maybe… maybe this was just some kind of deep-tissue massage?’

Yeah. That could be it. Those groans of pain could technically be groans of enjoyment. Some of the best massages were painful, right? Right?

Kain watched as one of the contracts—a fox-like creature—let out a choked whimper while its limbs spasmed wildly, but still kept a death grip on that tenuous explanation…

Still, Kain wasn’t ready to jump to worst-case scenarios just yet. Aegis had always been a gentle giant—only ever fighting when threatened. Otherwise, his big, lumbering tank of a golem even kept an eye out to avoid crushing ordinary ants when he walked.

He wasn’t some abyssal horror. He wasn’t corrupting these contracts. If anything, knowing Aegis, he was probably trying to help.

Swallowing hard, Kain forced his voice to remain steady as he stepped closer.

“Aegis.”

The writhing tendrils stilled for just a moment.

Kain took another breath, ignoring the unease crawling up his spine and tried to stay as normal as possible.

“Ahem…whatcha doing there buddy?”

Aegis looked at Kain, and tilted his head slightly at an angle in confusion. Kain didn’t receive a response, but still understood his reply through the contract—isn’t it obvious what I am doing?

‘If it was obvious, I wouldn’t be asking you!’ Kain thought in frustration. But he was a lot more calm now. At least in this brief exchange of unspoken words, Kain could confirm that Aegis hadn’t actually become an Abyssal creature.

“I’m… helping …them…” Aegis’ deep gravelly voice range out.

Kain took another cautious step forward, schooling his expression into something resembling calm. “Helping them…?” he repeated slowly. “Okay. And, uh… what exactly does that entail?”

Aegis shifted slightly, his massive form casting an even larger shadow over the twitching contracts beneath him, appearing even more ominous. His deep, rumbling voice echoed through their bond.

“I am… absorbing the contamination.”

Kain blinked. “The what now?”

“The abyssal energy within them.” Aegis sounded completely serene, as if the others weren’t currently wrapped in squirming black horrifying tentacles. “They were clearly suffering. I am fixing them.”

Kain recalled Aegis’ new SS-level ability that did mention absorbing the power of corruption and solidifying it into a ‘stone’ for his own use. However, while the positive impact of that ability was great and undeniable—the appearance of this ability was easy to cause misunderstandings in others…

Kain opened his mouth, closed it, then rubbed his temples. “Okay. Cool. Love the initiative.” He forced a smile. “But… maybe, just maybe, you could have done it in a way that didn’t look like you were eating their souls?”

Aegis tilted his head again, clearly confused. “I am not eating anything.”

“Yeah, buddy, I know that, but anyone looking at this wouldn’t!” Kain gestured wildly at the contracts still twitching on the ground, one of whom let out a particularly pitiful whine. “Seriously, do they look like they’re having a good time?! They are in pain!”

Aegis paused. He turned his head slowly to observe the creatures beneath him. His massive, jagged fingers carefully poked one of them—a trembling bird-like creature—that immediately let out a gurgled squawk of distress.

Kain inhaled sharply, forcing down a laugh that was definitely not appropriate for this situation after seeing the dawning realization on Aegis of how this all looked.

Aegis remained still for a long moment, as if processing this shocking revelation. Then, with the utmost gentleness, he retracted the tendrils, pulling them away like a kid being scolded for drawing on the walls.

Instantly, the contracts collapsed onto the floor, panting and shaking, but noticeably… better. Their spiritual energy, which had been fluctuating wildly, was now stable. Their previously darkened auras now shone with a purity that hadn’t been there before.

Kain stared. “You actually completely cured them?”

Aegis nodded. “Yes.”

Kain looked between the recovering contracts and Aegis’ still-monstrous appearance. “You couldn’t have, I don’t know, said something first? The guards and beast-tamers outside are in a complete uproar right now because they don’t understand the reason for your actions. Maybe you could have given everyone a heads-up before wrapping their contracts in your ‘evil’ doom tendrils?”

Aegis hesitated. “…I did not think it was necessary.”

Kain sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. This had been way too much stress for his still-recovering body. But at least—at least—he could be sure of one thing.

Aegis hadn’t gone rogue. He was still his same, lovable, gentle giant.

And with their contracts now fully cured, there shouldn’t be any difficulty with explaining this to the people outside. If anything, they should be dropping to their knees and kissing Aegis’ feet.

With all the bad things they were saying about Aegis, they were lucky that he wasn’t a vengeful person and would still let Aegis cure their contracts.

He turned to Aegis with a pleased smirk. “Alright, buddy. Let’s drop this thing and let them know the good news.”

Aegis obeyed immediately, the stone dome crumbling away into harmless dust. Sunlight streamed in, illuminating the expectant faces of the gathered beast-tamers and guards—faces that quickly twisted into horror the moment they saw the aftermath.

“My baby!” one of them shrieked, rushing forward to scoop up their trembling contract.

Another gasped, their eyes darting between their collapsed partner and Aegis, who still looked like some terrifying abyssal monster. “What… what did you do to them?!”

Kain raised a hand, prepared to graciously accept their gratitude. “Relax, relax. Your contracts are fine—better than fine, actually.” He gestured grandly at Aegis. “My buddy here just saved their lives! You should be thanking him.”

A brief silence fell over the group.

Then, one of the contracts—a fluffy, deer-like creature—gave a wobbly, traumatized bleat. Kain assumed, he was describing all that Aegis had for them while under the dome.

Similarly, a variety of squawks and buzzing noises rang out as the contracts communicated with their beast-tamers.

However, instead of receiving their gratitude… the entire courtyard exploded into shouts of outrage.

“You tortured our contracts?!”

“What kind of sick freak does something like that?!”

Kain’s confident smirk twitched. “Okay, first of all, cured, not tortured—big difference.”

But it was no use. The beast-tamers were fuming, clutching their ‘babies’ like overprotective parents ready to march into battle. Some of the more rational ones were at least acknowledging that their contracts were healed, throwing out reluctant thank-yous in between their panic, but others were already demanding compensation.

“You need to pay for this!” a man with a massive falcon shouted. “My Softwing has been completely traumatized by you! She said your sadistic contract even poked her for his own sick pleasure in there!”

“Compensation?!” Kain sputtered. “Are you people serious?! Your contracts were turning—if not for Aegis, they’d be corrupted! You should be throwing a damn parade in his honor!

But it was no use, Kain felt a vein in his forehead throb as more ridiculous complaints piled on. One tamer was even blaming them for their contract now having ‘trust issues,’ another now claimed that his contract was now ‘scared of the dark’. Explore hidden tales at My Virtual Library Empire

He dragged a hand down his face, barely containing the absolute fury bubbling inside him.

And as he listened to their continued whining, their refusal to acknowledge how close they had come to total ruin, their sheer stupidity in the face of Aegis’ curing abilities—

Kain thought, ‘It’s no wonder you all and your city-state went extinct. You idiots deserve it!’