Becoming a Monster

Chapter 524: Chapter 523: Why Are You Looking at Me

Two faint glows appeared in the cave’s depths, growing so bright that the darkness felt even darker than it was.

Those pupils carried a dangerous presence. Even the strongest of creatures would hesitate before approaching.

That didn’t stop Noah. He stepped forward without caution. His disregard for that glare should have been taken as disrespect, and that’s exactly how Bolas took it. Noah could tell from the way his breathing deepened.

"You’re not fooling anyone. Did you forget that we are now connected by more than just blood? There’s no use in trying to intimidate me when you don’t mean it."

The glow in the darkness narrowed slightly. Bolas had nearly forgotten about their connection.

He could only think about how much of a fool he appeared right now, and the silence that followed was now being used to think about what to say.

"... You talk too much," was all he could come up with. His voice maintained a low grumble, but this time the annoyance in his tone was his true feelings.

"Why are you here? Someone like me doesn’t deserve the presence of your lordship, do they?"

Noah took Bolas’ sarcasm in stride. He wasn’t quick to retort with another joke, not this time. He couldn’t forget his behavior back then. The way he treated Bolas back then was something he wasn’t proud of.

Bolas’ expression had changed as he sensed the shift in Noah’s demeanor. For such a serious talk, the drake instinctively sat up with better posture.

"We both know why I’m here. I’m here to apologize. But I also know that apologizing won’t fix anything."

Noah didn’t try to argue. He had learned that although Bolas enjoyed trying to win word games, when you approached him with blunt honesty, he usually returned it in kind.

Bolas shifted uneasily. Shock was written entirely on his face. Of course, he knew why Noah was there. He knew that sooner or later they would have to address. It was for this reason that he waited in his cave all this time.

However, he didn’t expect to have to wait so long. So much happened while he waited for Noah. The commotion outside continued to tug on his curiosity. The explosion of mana due to the dungeon core nearly had him exploding with impatience.

If Noah had him waiting any longer, he probably would’ve lost out to his impatience and left to find Noah himself.

Bolas held his gaze on Noah. His shock didn’t stem from the apology itself, but from the lack of deflection or attempt to downplay what had happened.

It only made it harder to respond.

"...Tch! Then why bother saying it?" he asked. He lightly snorted, the sarcasm was still there, but his conflicted eyes betrayed him.

The slight swing of his tail made it even more obvious that, inwardly, he was pleased, even if only a little.

Noah noticed it; his gaze stayed true to the drake’s face to not show that he noticed it. His breath deepened, giving the impression that what he was going to say next was hard to express, when in reality, he was trying not to ruin the moment.

"When you care about someone, there’s never a reason not to apologize when you screw up." His reply wasn’t something that Bolas was expecting. The drake had fully risen now, his head nearly clashing into the ceiling.

His movements interrupted Noah, but he wasn’t in the state of mind to worry about that.

Bolas’ mouth was slightly open; it took a while before he fully processed what Noah had said before he recovered.

"S-say that again, I didn’t catch that."

Noah didn’t repeat himself. He just stared silently into the drake’s eyes, not amused at all.

"... You’re really trying to make this worse for me, aren’t you?"

Bolas’ expression tightened before he looked away with slight embarrassment.

Noah observed the drake a little bit longer. He didn’t realize until now just how much Bolas’ mana fluctuated along with his emotions.

Under Noah’s stare, Bolas’ tail flicked harder this time; his earlier composure slipped completely.

"Who told you to say something like that?"

Noah’s head tilted slightly, puzzled by what exactly was wrong with what he said.

"Did you forget? When I accepted you, I told you that you are now one of us. Our bond no longer needs time. Hours? Months? Years? It doesn’t matter to me. You are my family, regardless of our past."

This time, when Bolas froze, his tail stopped moving as well. His pupils dilated as the word lingered in his ears.

Family.

For a moment, he didn’t know how to respond. The irritation and displeasure he had been holding onto disappeared completely.

"...You really don’t know when to stop," he muttered.

He didn’t look at Noah when he said it.

"You say things like that so easily. Do you even understand what you’re saying?"

Noah didn’t hesitate.

"I do."

That quick, unhesitant answer made him pause again.

Bolas exhaled through his nose, his gaze shifting away once more.

"...Tch." His claws pressed into the stone for a moment before easing again as he turned to look back at Noah.

"I accept your apology... before you say anything else that makes my scales crawl."

The irritation in his voice didn’t match the rest of him anymore. Noah could sense that their bond had grown just a bit stronger than before.

However, Bolas had forgiven Noah, but his expression suddenly changed.

"But don’t expect me to forget everything either."

Bolas wanted to add more; he wanted to ask what had made Noah behave the way he did back then.

He has been around Noah enough to say he has a basic understanding of him, but the Noah that looked at him with those eyes back then was not the same Noah he had ever seen during all the time he had known him.

Yet the question never came out. Despite what Noah had said, Bolas was incapable of asking Noah something so personal.

Noah wasn’t quick to respond; his gaze lingered on Bolas as if contemplating a hard decision.

"You know..." The moment he began to speak, Bolas’ head snapped back. Noah’s tone was a lot softer compared to before, and his aura was heavier than before, as if he was holding back a heavy weight.

"Despite what you see, I don’t know what it truly means to have a family."

Bolas’ mind stirred again. Not because of what Noah had said, but because of his gaze. His presence had changed again into someone he didn’t know. He was starting to regret bringing it back up.

But Noah wasn’t aware of Bolas’ thoughts. His gaze was looking at the drake, and yet he wasn’t perceiving anything in front of him anymore.

"I used to think of family as a twisted, cruel joke. A family was nothing more than a tool to let someone control you, demean you, to break you... and then use that word to justify it."

"It didn’t matter how much you resisted. The moment you were tied to them, everything you did was expected. Everything you were became something they could take."

The cave felt heavier as he spoke.

It wasn’t just Bolas’ imagination; Noah’s spirit was heavily weighing on him, forcing buried emotions to enter him without being able to resist it.

Bolas wanted so badly to interrupt. He didn’t like the emotions he was forced to feel. To feel hatred without a target, to feel helpless without knowing what was oppressing him, and to feel so broken without knowing what caused it.

He wasn’t sure if Noah finally sensed what he was doing, but the atmosphere finally lifted before he couldn’t take it anymore.

But when Noah’s aura shifted again, Bolas wished Noah would go back to his previous state.

The Noah in front of him now was the same presence that led them to this moment in the first place.

Bolas gulped, admonishing himself for not just letting it go. Back then, he already had the intuition that Noah’s anger wasn’t directed towards him. Why did he have to take it personally?

He knew it wouldn’t happen, but Bolas couldn’t stop himself from circulating his mana in case Noah went on the deep end. The Noah in front of him felt like a ticking time bomb.

"Bolas..." Noah’s lifeless gaze centered on Bolas’ hesitant eyes.

"Wh-what?" Bolas’ voice wavered. If there were any time that he could say he feared Noah, it would be now.

"I can’t lose my family..." The words came out flat, but it didn’t stop Bolas’ body from tensing further.

Noah didn’t say anything else. His gaze remained fixed on Bolas, unblinking, as if waiting for something that Bolas didn’t understand.

That silence pressed down on Bolas heavier than before. The longer it went on, the worse it became.

Bolas’ thoughts went haywire. It went back-to-back, how he felt that Noah was blaming him for what had happened, for not stopping the human fast enough. But this time the feeling was ten times worse.

The silence felt like it wouldn’t end.

"A-Noah!"

But then a voice came from the cave’s entrance.

Both of them froze. And that was when Noah’s gaze finally shifted.

The weight that had filled the cave loosened just enough for Bolas to breathe.

Ailetta stood at the entrance, her eyes moving between them as she tried to understand what she had walked into.