Excluding the woman, the remaining two beasts were covered in wounds. By the time they discovered the entangled beast and woman, the preceding situation had already ended, so no one knew what had transpired in the Moon Garden.

However, on the opposite side, in the Sun Garden, a man’s corpse and a severely injured couple were found. Thus, it became the prevailing theory that a fight had broken out between the groups in the Sun Garden and those in the Moon Garden.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the beast-folk races were in the midst of discussing how to handle the aftermath of the emergency situation involving key figures from the Elaion Empire and the Tigrium Kingdom.

Those who had been hiding the very existence of beast-folk now faced a decision on whether to reveal themselves, given the exposed lion and wolf beast-folk, and the vaguely suspected existence of tiger beast-folk.

As the individuals involved in this incident happened to be from the strongest races among the beast-folk, and the implicated figures were even the leaders of their races, it was difficult to assign blame and punish them.

Whether to acknowledge the existence of beast-folk or only recognize the three races that had been revealed, it was a chaotic situation with no conclusion in sight.

Moreover, the attitude of the lion emperor, who held the most influential voice in the beast-folk council, made this situation even more of a mess.

Calcus Tacan showed an attitude of indifference to the lion beast-folk being exposed to the world, and left the other beast-folk to decide for themselves, either through the council or individually.

The emperor seemed unconcerned about the fate of the beast-folk, and had even been in seclusion since that incident.

Duke Ulpaz also returned to his duchy without presenting any stance, taking the Tigrium princess with him, whom he had been detaining under the pretext of protection by the emperor.

With the involved parties neither showing remorse nor taking responsibility, and them being the most powerful, the beast-folk were unable to reach any conclusion as time passed aimlessly.

However, their neglect actually had the effect of calming the chaos and disorder.

This was because there was no official or collective announcement or action from the beast-folk, and both the emperor and the duke showed no deficiency in their administrative rule as they had been doing. As a result, ordinary people came to accept that beast-folk might exist only in the Elaion imperial family and the Ulpaz ducal family, or that beast-folk might exist elsewhere too, but that fact did not significantly impact their lives, and naturally, the rumors died down.

The beast-folk were relieved that people’s interest had naturally dissipated and realized that not taking any stance had ultimately been the best response.

However, contrary to this atmosphere, there was one person, a behind-the-scenes figure in this incident, who couldn’t contain his dissatisfaction. It was Tuscan Staxton.

Chloe Liden was alive and well, and the woman he had intended to make his next queen had only recently recovered after hovering between life and death from critical injuries.

He had been willing to accept her as his wife despite her being a smelly wolf beast-folk, with the purpose of having a beast-folk child, but now that she was so badly injured, the situation had become quite unappealing.

He hadn’t even gotten a beast-folk child yet, there was no suitable woman, and his cousin was still alive and well.

Although he hadn’t particularly invested much in this incident, Tuscan, consumed by an almost instinctive desire to pass the throne only to his own bloodline, found this situation utterly displeasing.

Moreover, as if the lucky ones find gold even where they fall, the young emperor Calcus Tacan, who was said to have been badly injured, had gained undeserved fortune because of that very damaged body.

It was reported that the imperial palace had run out of immediately usable marrow treatment due to using almost all of it on Chloe Liden, whose life had been hanging by a thread because of the assassination team that Tuscan Staxton had difficultly infiltrated into the Elaion imperial palace.

Before they could replenish the marrow treatment stock, Calcus Tacan fell ill, so they had no choice but to use the Santal treatment liquid, which turned out to be far more effective than previously known.

The marrow treatment was something to be drunk and while it healed very quickly, the patient had to endure extreme pain during the recovery period. However, the Santal treatment liquid was not for drinking, but for applying. When applied to the wounded area, it penetrated the skin and only healed the injured parts. Although it took longer to recover than the marrow treatment, it healed without any particular pain.

Moreover, while the marrow treatment completely healed internal injuries, it couldn’t remove scars left on the skin. But since the treatment liquid from the Santal mine was applied to the skin, even scars became clean.

As the emperor used it himself, rumors about its effectiveness spread throughout the empire, and soon the demand exploded incomparably more than ever before across the entire continent.

“So the price has increased by how many times?”

Tuscan, grinding his teeth, asked the attendant standing beside him.

“It seems to have increased about 20 times so far. It’s unknown how much more it will rise.”

Bam! At the attendant’s answer, Tuscan struck the armrest of his chair with all his might. The wooden armrest crumbled under the strength of the tiger beast-folk emperor, who still boasted formidable power despite his age.

The attendant standing nearby flinched and stepped back.

‘The tiger does the work, but the lion reaps the gold.’

In Tuscan Staxton’s way of thinking, the fact that the marrow treatment had run out at that particular time was thanks to his efforts.

For an emperor who couldn’t even kill a wolf in heat who could barely control his body, and even damaged his own body after fighting, the Santal mine was too much of a windfall. No one but the emperor knew that the wolf had fought to the end, exerting unimaginable brute force.

“That barely weaned cub!”

As he cursed thinking of Calcus Tacan, the attendant beside him flinched and stood up straight.

“Immediately review and report the number of soldiers and knights that can be recruited.”

He ordered, frowning at the attendant. At this point, he too had to gain something. Since Chloe Liden’s neck had become difficult, at least the Santal mine.

“Yes, understood. And will you continue to hold off on sending the marriage proposal to the Tilbet family?”

At the attendant’s follow-up question, Tuscan frowned once again.

What to do about the marriage with Reina Tilbet…

“Hold off for now. Prepare some medicine and visit that woman’s house, see what condition she’s in, whether her ability to produce an heir is still viable, and report back!”

He decided to wait and see if Reina Tilbet would recover. Since Chloe Liden had survived intact, he needed to produce a beast-folk heir of his own blood as soon as possible.

It was already nearly a month since Chloe had left Calcus’s imperial palace and returned to Roizen. Having been attacked during her heat cycle, it was fortunate enough that she didn’t die, but Hugrey had been in low spirits for the past month.

It’s not like he was some superhuman. Everyone said it was a miracle that a wolf beast-folk in heat had endured to that extent. Anyway, it seemed his useless pride was as strong as his jealousy.

Moreover, Hugrey intensely disliked that Calcus had helped cover Chloe’s body when she suddenly lost her tiger form and became naked.

Yet at that time, I heard they had cooperated to prevent anyone from approaching her.

Until the head servant who knew the emperor was a beast-folk brought clothes for her and the two beasts, Calcus and Hugrey had not changed back to their human forms and remained as they were. In fact, by then, neither of them was in a condition to move their bodies.

He had once said that if only they could have hidden her somewhere out of people’s sight before they both collapsed, either by carrying her in their mouths or dragging her along, it wouldn’t have caused such an uproar in the empire and stirred up the entire beast-folk race.

But when he expressed that thought, seeing the horror on Hugrey’s face, he immediately fled the scene.

His voice, as he asked back, even carried a suspicion that seemed to doubt Chloe’s mental state.

Chloe was about to retort something but closed her mouth at his muttered words at the end, ‘Stupid wolf bastard.’

That wasn’t meant for her to hear. It was his self-loathing that had burst out unknowingly.

At that moment, she realized. His low spirits weren’t because he was losing to Calcus to the point where she had to save him, but because of his regret that she had once again been in mortal danger due to Reina Tilbet.

After that day, she never saw Calcus’s face again until she left the imperial palace. It was because Calcus refused to see her. He only sent a message through the head servant telling her to leave with Hugrey, and that he would not hold her back anymore.

In fact, Chloe had to bite him to save Hugrey’s life, but she wanted to apologize for inflicting such a severe wound that could have killed him. She couldn’t love him, but she didn’t hate him enough to want to kill him.

Moreover, Calcus had given all the remaining marrow treatment in the imperial palace to Hugrey instead of using it himself.

Telling them to recover quickly with the marrow treatment, which unlike the Santal treatment liquid had a rapid healing effect, and leave the imperial palace soon.

However, despite what he said outwardly, in reality, he had saved Hugrey who was on the brink of death.

It was thanks to the marrow treatment provided by Calcus that his internal injuries could heal completely in just a few days.