While recalling the memory of the scent, Hans’ other report came to mind.

What a ridiculous woman. Not only did she imprint on Hugrey Ulpaz, but she’s also being intimate with another man. Is she promiscuous on top of that? Disgusting.

Reina Tilbes pushed aside her thoughts about Chloe Liden for now as she gazed out the window at the royal palace.

From now on, she had to focus on the reason why King Tuscan Stockton of Tigrium had summoned her. Well, it was obvious. He probably wanted to seize the Santal mines.

He intended to either demand cooperation in the war against Elaion, or at the very least, request neutrality. If she had to choose between the two, neutrality was the clear choice. She wouldn’t be crazy enough to get involved in another race’s fight and waste the precious lives of the wolf race.

It had been nearly 3 years since she last met with Tuscan Stockton. The last time was when she went to the palace with her father before he became frail. This was the first time meeting him since she had effectively become the head of the family. She had to be nervous.

Even though he was a detestable tiger beastman, he was still the ruler of Tigrium where the Tilbes family had taken root.

As the carriage finally came to a stop, she released her expression, slightly raising the corners of her mouth. She had to use everything she had to win against Tuscan Stockton in this confrontation, or at least not lose.

Tuscan Stockton was sitting on the throne, spreading his legs as wide as possible in an unrestrained posture as he looked down at Reina Tilbes.

“It’s been a while, Reina.”

Reina slightly bowed her head and stopped, startled.

Reina? It was an address that made her doubt her ears. Not Lady Tilbes, not Ms. Reina, not Reina Tilbes, but Reina? Had this tiger king bastard gone crazy?

Since when were they close enough for him to call her by just her name as soon as he saw her? It was so absurd that she didn’t even feel like getting angry.

“It has been a while, King Tuscan.”

However, she couldn’t let this rudeness slide, so she called the king by his name as well. She still had to add the title of king though.

“Hahaha, that sounds nice. You can just call me Tuscan, Reina.”

Reina felt goosebumps on the back of her neck, feeling like she had encountered a proper madman for the first time in a long while.

It sounded nice, he said. Come to think of it, she recalled that this king was known for being a promiscuous lecher.

As soon as Tuscan ascended to the throne, he abandoned his former wife and welcomed a new queen, having children with her. However, the two children born were not beastmen. As someone who needed to produce a tiger beastman heir, it was a considerably undesirable result for him.

But as if that gave him justification for the extravagant womanizing he would engage in from then on, he began to meet countless women. However, all the children born from the women he met turned out to be human.

While enjoying his dissolute lifestyle was important to him, producing a beastman heir was also crucial, so as the years passed, he began to grow impatient. It was because there were few young and pretty unmarried female beastmen in Tigrium who suited Tuscan’s taste.

Despite being in his fifties, he only met women nearly thirty years younger than him – he was truly a disgusting fellow. Recently, there were rumors that in order to have a beastman child, he was only seeking women from among beastmen, not humans.

To increase the chances of having a beastman child, a beastman would be better than a human after all.

Reina felt as if goosebumps were rising all over her body. The fact that the king addressed her as ‘Reina’ and told her to call him by his name suddenly felt creepy.

She prayed that the king wasn’t seeing her as a woman. No matter how desperate he was, to think he would even try to make a disgusting pass at a female wolf beastman…he must know that tiger and wolf beastmen were in a relationship of hating each other.

Of course, she had intended to express, even by using her feminine charms if needed, that the wolf beastmen of Tigrium would not get involved in his war when answering his summons. But that was only if the king didn’t act like a crazy lecher like this.

If he saw her as a woman, this was a completely different issue. She had no intention of engaging with such an old man. Suddenly, she grew resentful that she hadn’t been able to imprint with Hugrey Ulpaz. If she had imprinted with him, she wouldn’t have had to face this shitty situation.

‘How many years older than me is this tiger old man anyway? No, no! Why am I even thinking such thoughts?’

She didn’t even want to do the math. She just felt her hatred and contempt for tiger beastmen intensifying.

“Your Majesty Stockton, for what reason have you summoned me?”

Reina, immediately changing her stance unlike earlier when she called him by name, asked in the stiffest tone possible.

“Why don’t you come a little closer? Being so far apart like this, don’t you feel too much distance between us? Considering the coexistence of wolf and tiger beastmen, I think it would be good for us to be a little closer. We have a lot to discuss.”

“This distance is sufficient.”

Reina Tilbes answered, suppressing the urge to shift into her wolf form right then and tear into that tiger old man.

“Then I’ll come closer.”

Shockingly, Tuscan rose from his seat and began approaching her. Reina almost backed away. He was clearly an old man crazy for young women. And in a situation where they found each other’s scent revolting.

“Seeing you up close, you’re even more beautiful than the rumors.”

Tuscan came right up to her face and smiled, revealing his disgusting teeth.

Reina didn’t want to smell the revolting tiger scent, but the smell was so strong that her excellent sense of smell had already picked it up.

Promiscuous and filthy tiger bastard!

“……!”

Just as she wanted to pinch her nose, Reina’s eyes widened.

That woman, Chloe Liden!

She finally remembered. The identity of the faint, unpleasant scent wafting from Chloe Liden was the same kind as the scent coming from the tiger beastman, Tuscan Stockton.

A tiger beastman…? Ha! A tiger? That kind of woman?

“I heard your marriage with Duke Ulpaz fell through.”

Reina, who had been in a panic, finally came to her senses at Tuscan’s words.

“Pardon?”

“I heard your marriage with Duke Ulpaz of Elaion is over. Rumor has it the duke imprinted on some human woman.”

Of course, you already know.

Tuscan, who had pushed aside his older aunt and seized the throne, had a dissolute and greedy nature, but he was not a king lacking in ability. He had enough intelligence to already be aware of the news that Ulpaz of Elaion had imprinted on a human woman.

Come to think of it, there were rampant rumors that he had recently found his aunt, Princess Charlotte Lionel, who had disappeared about twenty years ago after he had pushed her out, and even disposed of her beastman son. He sure was persistent. To track her for twenty years.

Even though he hasn’t been able to have a beastman child himself, he should have at least let that woman’s beastman son live to prepare for any contingencies in the current situation where he has no heir. But he killed him instead.

Well, this line of thinking was only possible for a wolf beastman. The wolf beastman race does not necessarily continue the alpha’s lineage with the bloodline of the previous alpha.

The wolf race considers not only bloodline but also ability, deciding the next alpha by unanimous agreement. Of course, due to their excellent bloodline, the next alpha has been produced for generations from the Ulpaz family, the clan head of the wolf beastman race.

On the other hand, for tiger beastmen, their own bloodline takes precedence over the race. They kill all blood relatives who pose a threat to the royal authority. Just as this old Tuscan has done all along.

So their seed runs dry.

Reina clicked her tongue inwardly.

Tiger beastmen were currently on the verge of extinction. For generations, the kings would secure only one heir of their bloodline, kill all relatives who could threaten the royal authority, and leave only the collateral relatives with diluted blood, so now they really had to worry about the fate of the entire tiger beastman race.

But they still couldn’t abandon that habit, so in the thinking of Reina Tilbes, a wolf beastman, they were a truly ignorant race beyond compare.

But…isn’t it strange?

If that woman Chloe was a tiger beastman, she would be a distant collateral relative of the royal family. Even as Tuscan is making passes at her, a wolf beastman who is nearly a natural enemy, in order to produce a tiger beastman heir, there’s no way he wouldn’t know of a young tiger beastman like that woman if she was a collateral relative beyond the scope of incest.

If he knew, he would have long since captured her. Well, even if she was lacking, she had a fairly pretty face.

So that means that woman is a tiger beastman Tuscan doesn’t know about… and on top of that, a tiger beastman living in Elaion and even working as a lady’s maid or something…it’s definitely strange.

She looked to be twenty-one or twenty-two years old at most.

Just who is that woman really? Wait a minute, Elaion?

“Your Majesty. There is one thing I’m curious about.”

Reina couldn’t even remember what Tuscan Stockton had said to her a little while ago. Now she had to confirm something more important.

“Say whatever it is.”

“Is there anyone from the Stockton royal family living in Elaion by any chance?”

“…Why are you asking such a thing? It’s probably something the Tilbes family doesn’t need to know.”

The king’s expression, which had been smiling greasily, stiffened.

“Didn’t Princess Charlotte return to Tigrium some time ago? I heard that she had settled down and was living in Elaion.”

“Aunt Charlotte came to see me, her nephew. I don’t know whether she lives in Elaion or not. You’re curious about all sorts of things.”

Stockton, not hiding his displeasure at all, glared at Reina as he spoke.