Juna watched Hajin from a few steps behind while they moved through the capital streets, her eyes staying on him almost as much as they stayed on the people around them.
She still did not trust him, not really, but the longer she stayed near him, the harder it got to match what she expected from a human with what he actually did.
'He smells weirdly nice,' she thought, annoyed the second the thought crossed her mind, 'does that mean he isn't bad?' Her ears twitched once before she flattened them a little, glaring at the back of his head.
'No, don't be stupid. I just need to keep watching him. Humans always show what they really are eventually.'
That was the plan she settled on while they headed toward a large building near the center of the capital, one with a crowd moving in and out, armed people laughing too loudly near the entrance and a crest hanging above the doors that made it obvious this was some kind of public guild.
The moment they walked inside, she felt the shift.
Heads turned toward them fast, then slower once people really started looking, and the whispering began almost immediately.
Some man near the front desk leaned toward his friend and said, "Is that a slave?" while another looked her up and down with open disgust and muttered, "Why is she dressed like that?"
A third man's eyes stayed on her a little too long before he gave a crooked grin. "Forget that, look at her face," he said, and someone beside him laughed under his breath and added, "Yeah, she'd be fun in bed."
Juna felt her whole body tense up, her fingers curling under the blanket she had wrapped around herself, and for a moment she felt the same old urge to bare her teeth, claw someone's face open and bolt before any human hands got close.
'I knew it,' she thought, feeling her stomach twist with disgust, 'humans are all the same.'
Before that feeling could turn into movement, Hajin suddenly reached back and grabbed her shoulder, making her freeze up.
He looked at her and spoke in a tone so normal that for a second her brain did not catch up.
"Let's sell these so we can get you a nice outfit," he said, giving the bag at his side a small shake. "Sounds good?"
She just stared at him without answering.
That was not what she expected him to say, not with the way the room was looking at her and not with the way humans usually looked at beastkin girls.
Part of her wanted to pull away from his hand immediately because it was still a human touching her, but another part of her was too confused to even react properly.
'What is wrong with him?' she thought, her pulse unsteady now for a completely different reason, 'why is he acting like this?'
Before she could think too hard about it, the word slipped out on its own.
"Okay," she said softly.
The sound of her own voice caught her off guard almost as much as the way it came out, small, quiet and way too easy after all the suspicion she had been holding onto.
He blinked, then a crooked smile pulled at his mouth.
"You are like a little kid sometimes," he said, giving her shoulder one light pat before letting go.
Her ears twitched hard at that and she looked away immediately, not sure if she wanted to be annoyed, embarrassed or even more suspicious than before.
The stream, unfortunately, had no such uncertainty.
[ CringeSlayer91:] NAH SHE'S TOO CUTE
[ ShadowMage44:] PROTECT WOLF GIRL AT ALL COSTS
[ NewViewer_02:] hajin beat those motherfuckers up
[ LurkerNoMore:] city extras talking wild for people with teeth that can be removed
He almost laughed after reading that last part, but it stayed in his head and came out more as sarcasm than anything else.
'Yeah, great plan,' he thought, picking up the bag while he headed for the counter, 'start a fight in the capital and get put in the ground by someone stronger before lunch.' He knew exactly how people like this looked at beastkin girls, especially one like Juna who was pretty, vulnerable and obviously not from the city, and that alone was enough to sour his mood. 'Humans are trash, I get it, but this is not the place to lose my cool.'
He set the monster shards on the desk and gave the man behind it a short nod.
"Morning," he said. "I want to sell these."
The guild worker looked at the shards first, then at Hajin's clothes, then past him at Juna wrapped in a blanket, and by the time his eyes came back up his expression had already settled into open contempt.
"Adventurer card," he said.
"I don't have one."
"Then you will get the public rate," the man said, picking up the shards and barely glancing at them before he gave his offer. " I can only offer six silver for both."
'Lowballing me already,' he thought, but he did not feel like arguing with a smug guild clerk in a room full of armed idiots, so when the man pushed the pouch across the desk he took it and turned to leave.
He had only taken two steps when Juna suddenly went stiff behind him, the shift in the air enough to make him turn back right away.
Some man had moved in from the side and grabbed her by the arm before she could pull away.
"Why doesn't she come with me instead?" he said, smiling in a way that made Hajin's skin crawl. His fingers stayed tight on her arm while his eyes dragged over her face and the blanket around her shoulders. "What do you say, buddy? Can I buy her off you?"
Hajin looked at him and although his face didn't change, his eyes went cold so fast that the bloodlust in them felt almost physical.
He felt the urge to just reach out and snap the man's wrist, but he forced himself to stop, his fingers curling into a tight fist at his side.
'Calm down,' he told himself, taking a slow breath while his vision pulsed red at the edges, 'you are in the capital, and starting a brawl in a guild hall is the fastest way to get thrown in a cell before you even have a place to sleep.'
He forced his expression to flatten and walked up to the man, keeping his voice steady and polite.
"Excuse me," he said, stopping a few inches away, "but I'd appreciate it if you let go of her now."
The man didn't move, instead looking Hajin up and down with a smug grin that only made the blood in Hajin's veins feel hotter. He didn't let go, his grip tightening on Juna's arm just to show he could.
Juna felt the shift immediately, and a flash of cold disappointment hit her chest. She looked at Hajin's polite face and felt a wave of disgust, because this was exactly what she expected.
'He's just like the rest of them,' she thought, her eyes narrowing as she stopped looking for a way out and just accepted the situation, 'he acts kind when it's easy, but the moment it costs him something, he's just another coward.'
She waited for him to apologize or walk away, and for a second, she actually felt a strange sense of relief that her cynical view of humans was still correct.
Then, the smell changed.
The sweet, clean scent she had been getting off him for the last few days vanished in an instant, replaced by something sharp that made her nose burn. It wasn't a smell she could name, but it felt like the air had suddenly turned into a blade, cutting through everything else in the room.
She stiffened, her ears twitching as she looked up at him.
He was still smiling, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. His gaze had gone completely flat, the warmth gone, replaced by a cold, predatory void that made her heart kick hard in her chest. It was the look of someone who wasn't asking anymore.
The man didn't notice the shift, still thinking he held all the power, and as he was about to open his mouth to say something else, Hajin stepped in closer, his voice dropping to a whisper that felt like a razor against the man's skin.
"I'll ask you one more time," he said, his eyes locking onto the man's with a terrifying stillness, "let go of her, or I'll make sure you never use that hand to touch anything ever again."