I’m the Future Crazy Male Lead’s Mother Chapter 28

When I pretended not to hear him, he clicked his tongue with an annoyed expression.

“Don’t you remember the barrier I placed on that little brat last time?”

“Uh… Oh, that?”

“Yeah. I placed that barrier directly on the kid’s heart, so demonic energy won’t be able to leak out anymore. And it can’t be nullified, either.”

At his confident words, I blinked a couple of times.

“I even tested it, so I’m certain.”

When did he even test it on Axion?

Seeing that I still looked doubtful, Dazar let out a small sigh and continued.

“The barrier surrounding this place is designed so that monsters can’t even perceive ordinary humans.”

“Hmm.”

“Besides, the moment those things come out of the ‘Rift,’ they all head straight for me.”

Huh? They head for Dazar? I tilted my head in confusion, and he sighed as if I were being troublesome before continuing.

“So there’s no way any monster would go toward the annex where you are. And even if you did encounter one, it wouldn’t be able to perceive you. Do I need to explain any further?”

“No. I understand. But you never know.”

Dazar messed up his hair and casually tossed out his next words.

“If anything dangerous happens to you or that little brat, I’ll be a dog.”

I already thought he was one, but that was something I couldn’t exactly say out loud.

‘Hmm.’

He was being so adamant about it that insisting on leaving would have been rather difficult. It would practically mean denying his abilities.

Besides, he was a Transcendent, after all.

“All right, then.”

After thinking for a while, I shrugged and nodded.

The ‘Day of the Rift’ from the original novel, huh? Would I wake up the next morning to find him slaying monsters?

I even felt a little excited, like I had when I was a child on Christmas Eve, eagerly waiting for Santa to arrive.

It was a feeling born from the belief that I was safe.

 

***

 

“You son of a bitch! No, dog! Where’s the dog?!”

And on the day of the ‘Day of the Rift,’ I decided that from then on, I would call Dazar a dog.

“Eek!”

The moment I rounded a corner after sprinting down the corridor, I came face-to-face with a grotesque-looking monster and screeched to a halt.

Aaaah! What’s wrong with its eyes?!

I gasped in horror at the monster’s enormous eyeballs, which bulged as if they were about to burst.

The monster looked at me and let out a bizarre breathing sound.

—Kiiiieeek……

I immediately turned around and started running again.

I’d only ever seen monsters in cartoons! Even Cilia had never seen a monster before!

“Huff… huff…”

I had run so much that my mouth was dry and my breath was ragged, but I dug my toes into the ground and kept running like a madwoman.

I had decided to call Dazar a dog about thirty minutes ago.

It had been when I woke up from my sleep after sensing something strange and realized there was something bizarre right in front of me.

The scene before my eyes was so unreal that I wondered if I was still dreaming or trapped in a nightmare.

Its enormous, vicious teeth were packed tightly together like a shark’s, and its wide-open mouth looked as though it could swallow me whole at any moment.

The monster was perched on top of my bed with its mouth agape.

“Gasp!”

My body froze for a moment at the unreal sight. The thing that brought me back to my senses as I stared blankly at the approaching mouth was Axion, who had been sleeping in his crib.

“Waaah… Waaah…”

Axion had started crying. I instantly came to my senses, rolled to the side, and fell onto the floor.

‘Axion!’

I crawled toward where Axion was.

Instead of wondering why there was a monster in the annex or why it was targeting me, the only thought filling my head was that I had to protect Axion from it.

‘I have to protect Axion!’

Just as I was about to rush toward him, I noticed a white energy flickering around Axion’s heart.

It was the same white color as the barrier Dazar had placed on him before.

“Ah…?”

The energy moved back and forth as though it were struggling against something.

Axion’s half-open eyes repeatedly turned purple before returning to their original color.

“Ma… Mama…”

Huh? Did Axion just…

Just as I thought he might have called for me, Axion suddenly went completely quiet.

He slowly closed his eyes and fell asleep.

A few minutes later, I realized.

“Huff, huff… The monsters only…”

The monster that had lunged at me showed absolutely no interest in Axion. It acted as though he didn’t exist, as though the space where he was standing was blocked off.

As I maneuvered around to escape the monsters, I reached a conclusion.

Just as Dazar had said, Axion had a barrier that prevented the monsters from perceiving him.

‘The problem is me.’

I instinctively knew it.

And the moment that thought occurred to me, I ran out of the room in my pajamas.

If I stayed here, I could actually end up putting Axion in danger.

After running and running for thirty minutes while avoiding the monsters, I finally reached the main building just moments ago.

My mind was in complete chaos.

‘What is this? Axion didn’t even come into contact with me. So why does the barrier only not work on me?’

No matter how hard I thought about it, I couldn’t find an answer.

“Huff, huff. Haah, I’m going to die…”

My white nightgown was torn and filthy from falling on the floor and colliding with obstacles.

I had been certain Dazar would be in the main building fighting the monsters, but where on earth was he?

I was catching my breath with one hand against the wall when suddenly something enormous and black came crashing down in front of me.

“Gasp!”

It was a monster far more terrifying-looking than any I had encountered so far.

‘Damn it.’

I tried to get away immediately, but the moment the monster lashed out with a whoosh, the fleshy appendage it extended left me completely unable to move.

I tried to pull my trapped wrist free, but I couldn’t overpower the monster.

I began getting dragged toward the black monster.

“Ugh. You damn… bastard… Where the hell did you go…!”

As I was dragged right up to it, the monster opened its mouth wide.

“Dazar, you bastard!”

I felt like those vicious teeth were about to sink into me at any moment. That would hurt like hell.

Damn it! I didn’t want to die here!

Just as I struggled desperately with all my might—

A low voice came from behind me.

“Wow, you sure are good at swearing. I was wondering where you’d gone… When did you get all the way here?”

“Gasp. D-Dazar!”

“Now you’re even calling me by my name.”

At the same time, a white circle shot from his hand and flew toward the monster.

The moment it touched the monster, its body exploded with a bang!

I staggered, losing my balance in front of the monster’s corpse as it disintegrated into ash.

A solid body caught me from behind, supporting me as though embracing me.

Unlike the blunt voice he had spoken in moments ago, his heart pounding against my back was beating fiercely.

He must have been running around for quite a while, because his breathing was ragged, and a bead of sweat dripping from his chin fell onto my shoulder.

“…The dog has arrived.”

“Ugh… What the hell is this?! You said I’d be fine!”

“Yeah. You were supposed to be fine… But, haah. I sensed a strange fluctuation and came to check. The barrier isn’t working on you. Only you.”

He held me tightly and let out a long sigh.

As his warmth reached me, all the tension that had been coiled tightly inside my body suddenly drained away.

I let my entire body go limp against him and slowly slid downward.

We ended up sitting on the floor.

The hand I had been clenching tightly began trembling violently.

“I thought I was going to die.”

“Yeah.”

“You said nothing would happen to me.”

“That’s right.”

“You damn dog.”

“Yeah. I’m a dog. So…”

He hesitated for a moment before continuing.

“So, uh… stop crying.”

Only then did I realize that the drops falling onto the floor were my tears.

Once I became aware of them, my emotions surged.

I almost died just now because of this bastard.

“Waaah, waaah! I thought I was going to die… I thought I was going to die! You jerk! I told you I was going to leave because of this! Sob!”

I should have listened to smart Seidreig!

As I began sobbing uncontrollably, Dazar, who was holding me from behind as though trying to calm me down, let out a pained groan and whispered.

“All right. I said I’d take responsibility… So I will. Make me do whatever you want.”

“Hic… Th-that… hic… really?”

Dazar looked quite flustered, as though he hadn’t expected me to cry this much.

I roughly wiped away my tears and grabbed his collar tightly so he couldn’t run away.

“Then bark right now.”

“…What?”

“You said you’d be a dog if anything happened to me! Take responsibility!”

When I shouted at him, Dazar groaned.

“Ugh…”

“That’s a little…”

“A little what?! Didn’t you see that I almost died just now?”

Then, looking as though he truly, truly had no other choice, he finally opened his mouth.

“Woof… Ah, no, damn it.”

He rubbed his face with both hands.

Then he continued in a small voice.

“Later. Later, after I’ve had a little more time to prepare myself mentally…”

In the end, he was cowardly putting it off until later.

But judging from his face—like he was suffering indescribable humiliation as though he had already barked and gone woof woof—and his flushed cheeks, I sniffled smugly.

Only then did some of my anger toward him begin to melt away.

What a jerk.

“Fine. But you absolutely have to do it later. Now explain. What happened?”

I muttered in a voice that still trembled with tears.