The marketplace froze. Then Nina slammed the spear hard against the ground while yelling at the creature like pure violence in human form.
“ABSOLUTELY NOT.”
Shockingly, the beast actually recoiled seeing a mortal yelling at it.
The younger brother appeared beside her a second later with shadows already curling violently around his hands.
But before he attacked, Nina noticed something. The creature wasn’t enraged.It was injured. Its leg trembled beneath its weight while broken chains dragged behind it across the street.
Her expression changed instantly.
“Oh.”
The younger brother blinked once. “Oh?”
“That’s not an attack animal.”
The entire marketplace stayed frozen while Nina lowered the spear. Then carefully, like she was approaching a frightened dog instead of a nightmare monster, she stepped closer.The guards stood still. The younger brother looked one second away from cardiac arrest.
“Nina.”
“Relax.”
“That statement has never comforted anyone.”
The creature growled weakly again while Nina crouched near the broken chains around its injured leg. Then quietly, soft enough that only nearby people heard , she said:
“…Someone hurt you first, huh.”
Silence spread across the marketplace. The beast stopped growling. And somewhere behind the crowd, one older demon whispered in disbelief:
“The human pitied a shadow beast.”
The marketplace stayed completely silent after that. Nina crouched beside the injured creature while everyone else in the southern district looked seconds away from collective panic. The beast growled weakly again. Its massive body trembled beneath broken chains cutting into dark skin while silver blood stained the stones beneath it.
Nina’s expression hardened instantly.
“Oh I’m going to kill whoever did this.”
“That,” the younger brother muttered while watching her carefully, “is the hottest thing you’ve ever said.”
“Now is not the time.”
“It is always the time.”
The shadow beast flinched slightly when Nina reached toward the chains around its injured leg. Immediately the surrounding guards raised weapons again.
“No,” Nina snapped sharply without even looking back.
Surprisingly,every single guard froze. The younger brother noticed too. Actually, no. He seemed utterly ruined by it. Because Nina didn’t command people through fear. She just acted like protecting others was obvious.
And everyone obeyed anyway. The chains finally snapped apart beneath the younger brother’s shadows while Nina steadied the creature carefully beside her. Then softly like she was speaking to something frightened instead of monstrous, she murmured:
“There. Better.”
The beast stared at her silently for one long second. Then lowered its enormous head against her shoulder gently. The entire marketplace gasped.
One older demon whispered, “The shadow beasts trust almost nobody.”
