Surrounded by Five Beast Lords novel Chapter 12

Chapter 12

A notification chimed from ye’s Optical Brain. He frowned and opened it with obvious impatience.

In the next second, his eyes widened, and the gloomy pressure around him faded a little.

On the screen, several lines were displayed clearly.

[Matched female: Dora Southwell has submitted a formal request to confirm your marriage bond.]

[Matched female: Dora Southwell has applied for and successfully received a basic government–issued homestead based on her marriage/match status with you. Homestead ID: y–7 Zone–89757.]

[Notice: This request requires final online approval or rejection from the matched male, Clive Blackthorne, within 72 hours]

[If no action is taken, the temporary match will enter a 30–day mandatory observation period. Homestead access will be temporarily retained but restricted.]

Clive thought in confusion, ‘A marriage request? A homestead? What the hell?‘

He stared hard at those lines, as if he wanted to burn through the screen with his eyes.

He mused, ‘She hasn’t applied to dissolve the match. Instead, she applied to confirm the marriage? For the homestead? Of course, that’s the only reason. I can’t think of any other reason.

The realization brought him no pleasure. Instead, the weight in his chest grew even heavier.

He thought bitterly, ‘Dora would rather have a home on a barren piece of land than stay by my side? Why? Does she stay there alone?

‘That spoiled girl, whose eyes would turn red from even a splash of rustvine sap, has run off by herself to a dangerous, deserted edge of the city?

Questions and a fiercer anger crashed through him all at once.

He wanted to reject the damn application right away and make her understand that even shelter on a patch of wasteland was not something she could easily take from him.

His finger hovered over the reject button, but it didn’t come down.

On the map, the coordinate, y–7, Zone–89757, glowed like a weak but stubborn star. It stung his eyes.

In the end, he closed the confirmation screen without approving or rejecting it.

He turned, his black combat suit jacket cutting a sharp arc through the air, and strode out of the room that still held traces of

her scent.

The black hovercar shot across the city skyline at the highest legal speed, racing toward y zone.

The closer he got, the more desolate the scenery became. It stood in harsh contrast to the bright luxury of the central district.

Clive’s expression darkened along with the sky outside the window.

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Chapter 12

Chollowing the coordinates, Clive stopped his hovercar above a newly divided land.

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Below him, in the center of a plot enclosed by a faint blue shield, stood a small, gray, dusty tent. It looked like a pebble tossed carelessly onto the ground, standing there all alone.

In the middle of that barren land, it seemed so small, so fragile, and so easy to destroy

Clive landed without a sound and pulled in every trace of his presence. Like a true shadow, he blended into the night.

He stood outside the shield and watched the tent through that thin layer of light.

The night wind howled, whipping up dust and sand that slapped softly against the tent.

The tent was a little old, and it hadn’t been set up all that firmly. It swayed slightly in the wind.

There was no light inside, only darkness. But he could feel her scent was in there, clearer and more real than the faint trace she had left behind in the hotel room.

Clive thought, ‘She’s really here. All alone.

The realization pierced some hidden part of his heart like a cold needle.

Last night, she had trembled in his arms, whimpering and burning hot against him.

Now, she was curled up in a cheap tent in the cold wind of the wasteland.

The sharp contrast twisted his burning anger into something more complicated, something that felt dangerously close to pain.

Clive thought, “This place is too dangerous.

“This is a newly divided residential zone. So far, aside from her and her neighbor, who just moved in, this place is completely empty.

“The government–issued energy shield is pathetically weak, and that tent has no defense at all.

Any starving low–level stray beastfolk, or even one contaminated alien beast that wanders in by mistake, could tear through everything here.

‘What gives her the courage? Dora, are you really that clueless, or have you been pushed so far that this is you only choice?

Clive’s fingertips turned cold, and he clenched his hands into fists.

Γ

He wanted to rush in, drag Dora out of that lousy tent, question her, scare her, or simply take her back to his place and lock her down with chains. But in the end, he did nothing.

He only stood quietly in the shadows, like a silent guardian statue. His dark eyes looked bottomless in the night as he stared without blinking at the outline of the tent swaying gently in the wind.

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