Fostering the Male Lead

‘The woman they’re talking about must be the empress.’

I seriously had enough of it.
It had been a month and a half.
After being attacked three times in the meantime, I felt like smacking the empress once when I’d meet her.

“I want to eat first.”

“There are three women.
Let’s eat one by one.”

“I think this one will taste the best.”

The ‘one’ they pointed to was none other than me.
When I saw the snakes looking at me with drooling mouths, I got goosebumps on my arm.

“My lady, please step back.”

Marina quickly hid me behind her when the monster’s focus narrowed to me.

With me were Nanabi, who dominated the battlefields alongside Sihael, and Marina, a former elite assassin.

‘Since I have two great fighters beside me, I don’t have to step out.’

Heeding to Marina’s words, I stayed behind her.

*  *  *

This is not good!

I groaned in agony as I watched the ebullient monster.
Maybe it was because he was a high-level monster, but he was much faster and stronger than the others I’d faced so far.
Marina’s fighting abilities were not lacking.
She responded effectively by matching the monster’s speed.

The problem was…

“It doesn’t get hurt at all.”

“Look out…!”

The monster negated all of Nanabi’s magic and squealed as if it was immmune to Nanabi’s spells.
As its three heads flicked its tongues at the same time, the enraged Nanabi clenched her teeth and exerted all her magic.

“I guess the Empress has prepared this monster exclusively for Nanabi.”

“It seems so.”

Under such circumstances, it was practically just Marina fighting alone.
She appeared to be struggling as she faced three opponents rather than one, and her strength appeared to dwindle gradually.

Above all, the monster’s crazy regeneration ability was the main problem.
No matter how many times we cut off its neck, it would keep reattaching.
So it was like pouring water into a bottomless jar.

‘Its weak point is not its neck.’

All three of the snakes revived without dying even after cutting off their head.

‘Where do we need to cut it?’

As I was watching the battle between the two to find the monster’s weaknesses, I noticed a subtle movement.
The monster appeared to protect its human shell, which it threw into a corner while attacking Marina.

“No way!”

When the thought occurred to me, I grabbed the dagger Marina had given me and threw it at its shell with all my might.
The monster, who had been fighting Marina, then dashed forward and struck the dagger.

The appearance of the monster that protected its shell even by giving away one of its necks to Marina validated my theory.

“That’s it.”

That shell lying on the floor was the weak point of the monster.

No, it was not its outer shell but one of the main bodies of the monster.

I thought wrongly because I generalised its ugliness based on what I saw.

“My Lady, I just saw something interesting.”

“Really? What a coincidence! I saw something interesting too.
You know what to do now, right?”

Nanabi gave me a smirk and raised her staff.
The monster attacked us as soon as he noticed the change in the atmosphere, and the flames soared.
The dark red flames that engulfed the area made my cheeks flush.
When the burning fire was extinguished, a cloud of black smoke rose.

Now, what’s going on this time?

When I was watching the silent smoke, an unknown creeper-like thing flew towards me and like a whip wrapped around my wrist.

No, it wasn’t a creeper at all; it was the snake! Maybe it was trying to get back at me for revealing its secret weakness, so it clung to my wrist and wouldn’t let go easily.

‘I really hate snakes!’

With disgust, I shook my hands off, but it didn’t come off easily because it was tightly entangled around my wrist.
The more I tried to get rid of it, the harder it pressed against my wrist.
Then the snake hissed and bit the back of my hand.

“Ugh.”

“My lady!”

But the sensation of something wrapping around my wrist was more terrifying than the pain of a snake bite.

“Disgusting! So gross!”

My wrists felt clammy as if wetted with spit.

“Get away from me! I told you to get away from me!”

When I waved my hands up and down in genuine disgust, the monster’s head, no, its entire body, shook.

“Keuk.
Sss.
Keuk.”

The force that had been pressing on my wrist was released when the monster’s shell, which had been shaking up and down, sank its teeth into my skin.

It’s running away…!