I Picked Up an Abandoned Villain in the Polar Region

Episode 77

 

As they entered the forest, the surroundings quickly grew dim after the afternoon.

Kyle and Brody walked through the woods until late, stopping only when nightfall turned everything pitch black. The place they chose to rest on was the top of the trees.

While traversing Asgar or the wilderness, they had often dug burrows or slept on the ground without much trouble. Most of the areas they passed were barren, with little to no wildlife, which meant fewer threats during their rest. But this land was different.

This rich, fertile land was teeming with life, and among the creatures lurking here were predators that wouldn’t hesitate to attack those sleeping defenseless on the ground. Thus, they picked a tree tall enough to offer a safe resting spot.

Lying on a sturdy branch, they tried to sleep, listening to the chirping of insects and the croaking of frogs from a nearby pond.

Unlike the silent nights they had grown used to, this place buzzed with life.

“How does it feel to be back home?”

It was Brody who broke the silence, curled up like a shrimp in front of Kyle. She glanced at him and added, “Do you like it?”

Kyle didn’t answer.

He rested his chin lazily on the branch, looking at her, not ignoring the question but seeming deep in thought.

Sensing his complicated emotions, Brody tried to change the mood with a new question.

“Is the land you lived in hotter than here?”

Kyle yawned as if shaking off his thoughts before answering.

“…Yeah. It’s farther south, and this is a highland, so it’s cooler compared to our valley.”

“Is it very hot? I’m not a fan of the heat.”

“Then you’d better prepare yourself,” he replied nonchalantly.

Brody, who had been grooming herself by licking her front paws, drooped her ears in disappointment at his response.

The normally perky ears flopped to the sides, a sight that made Kyle stifle a laugh.

At that moment, a flicker of yellow light floated between them.

“What’s that?”

Brody perked up, tilting her head at the light.

Kyle, who recognized it immediately, replied with little interest.

“A firefly.”

“A firefly?”

The tiny glowing light darting between them was indeed a firefly.

Unlike Kyle, Brody was seeing one for the first time, so her ears perked up again as she stood to get a closer look.

“I’ve never seen a firefly before!”

“You’ve never seen one?”

“Yeah. There are no fireflies in Asgar.”

Brody’s head moved back and forth as she tracked the glowing light with wide eyes.

Watching her move dangerously on the branch, Kyle warned, “If you come to my valley, you’ll see hundreds of these at night. So sit down before you fall.”

“Hundreds?”

Her round eyes turned toward him in astonishment.

And at that moment, as expected, Brody slipped.

“Ahhh!”

But she didn’t fall to the ground as she expected.

Kyle, who had been keeping an eye on her antics, lunged forward and caught her by the scruff of her neck before she could continue to fall down.

He then placed her back on the branch with a clenched jaw and issued a warning.

“Didn’t I tell you to sit still? Don’t make me say it twice.”

“…Sorry,” she mumbled, her enthusiasm dampened.

Brody sat quietly after that, content to watch the firefly from a safer position.

Kyle, meanwhile, found himself watching her instead.

Seeing her so fascinated by a single firefly, he suddenly wanted to take her to his valley and show her the countless fireflies that lit up the night there.

He could already picture how excited she would be, hopping around in delight.

Just imagining it made him feel good.

And the fruits that grew in Roden’s valley were sweet and delicious. Since Brody loved fruits, he could gather a variety for her, and she would probably be thrilled.

He could picture from now how she would stuff her tiny mouth with fruit until she was completely full.

The thought made him smile faintly.

The warmth that filled him wasn’t just from the summer air. The winter in his heart was slowly melting, replaced by the warmth of summer.

 

***

 

That night, Kyle fell asleep early with Brody, but it wasn’t long before he woke up again.

Heat began to build in his body, much like the night before.

He’d felt fine before falling asleep, but now, the same symptoms as the previous night were back.

And it wasn’t just the symptoms.

Kyle’s nose caught the same scent of scented candles he had smelled in the inn.

This was a forest—there was no way such candles were here, yet the smell was unmistakable.

“**** it…” he muttered.

Alongside the candle scent came another—the alluring scent of a female.

The moment he registered it, his senses began to blur.

The mixed aromas overwhelmed him, stimulating not just his sense of smell but every nerve in his body. His body’s reaction to the stimulus was even stronger than the night before.

Perhaps it was because his form was closer to that of a beast than a human, driven more by instinct than reason.

Gritting his teeth against the heat and the rising instincts, Kyle looked up, only to see Brody curled up right in front of him.

Her small, sleeping form filled his vision, and his eyes glowed faintly blue.

The instincts of a male recognizing a female awakened in him, making his rationality wavered violently.

Unconsciously following the provocative scent emanating from the rabbit, Kyle suddenly realized that this situation mirrored the dream he had the night before.

The realization sent a chill down his spine.

Just as he recoiled in confusion, his foot slipped off the branch, and he plummeted to the ground.

The shock jolted him awake, and he finally grasped the truth—this wasn’t a dream. 

The heat in his body, the instincts surging within him, and his actions toward Brody were all happening in reality, not in a dream.

But even after regaining his senses, his body continued to follow its primal instincts, craving more stimulation. His mind grew increasingly hazy, as if his rationality was being pushed aside.

Desperate to escape the pull of Brody’s scent, Kyle forced himself to stand, but his knees buckled under him, a sudden dizziness spell overwhelmed his senses.

Panting heavily, his vision blurred, and he ultimately lost consciousness.

 

***

 

When Kyle finally came to, it was early morning, and the forest was still wet with dew.

“Was it a dream?” he wondered.

He wanted to believe it was.

As he gradually came to, the events of the previous night flashed through his mind like a vivid reel, making him yearn to escape reality.

His body now felt completely normal—there were no fever, no intense scents of candles or a female, and none of the heightened sensations that had overwhelmed him the night before.

His body, which had been burning with heat, was now calm and perfectly stable. Everything was so normal that he could almost convince himself that last night’s events had been nothing but a dream.

“But it wasn’t a dream,” he muttered.

If it wasn’t a dream, then…

“…No way.”

Kyle’s face hardened as he recalled the incident at the inn a few days prior.

Could that have also been real?

As the thought struck him, the world seemed to spin, and he shut his eyes tightly.

In that ‘dream’, he had done something unthinkable to Brody. And now, faced with the possibility that it had been reality, Kyle felt like dying from shame.

He lifted his head to glance at the small rabbit sleeping soundly on a branch above him, sprawled out like a piece of laundry.

His memories of that night resurfaced, filling him with unease.

In his recollection, Brody had woken up during the incident and called his name, even grabbing his arm.

That meant she had likely been roused from sleep because of him.

“Then why didn’t she say anything about it in the morning?”

If it had been the usual mischievous Brody, she wouldn’t have let it slide. She was never one to ignore such things.

“Maybe I imagined her waking up. Or perhaps she thought it was just a dream and didn’t take it seriously.”

Kyle fervently hoped Brody knew nothing about the incident.

The idea that he, who had always resisted her, might have lost control in such a way was unbearable even for him.

If Brody ever found out, the shame and self-loathing would be enough to make him want to disappear.

Kyle buried his head in his hands and groaned quietly. It was hard to accept what had happened.

Why had this started happening to him? He’d never experienced anything like it before.

Why was he suddenly burning with fever every night, detecting scents he never noticed before, and becoming so aroused that he lost control? 

It was strange and deeply troubling.

Consumed by guilt for what he might have done, Kyle began watching Brody’s reactions closely.

The moment he laid eyes on her, however, a strange heat of shame—or perhaps something else—spread through his body, startling him.

His pulse quickened, as though his heart had malfunctioned.

Feeling too self-conscious to approach her, Kyle opted to wake her by shaking the branch she was resting on.

“Hey, wake up.”

“Ugh… ah…”

But even after Kyle’s attempt to rouse her, Brody remained draped over the branch like a sluggish rice cake.

Eventually, she lost her balance and fell to the ground with a dull thud.

Fortunately, the forest floor was soft with moss, and she merely rolled around lazily before looking up at Kyle with a sleepy grin.

“Kyle…”

Her cheerful face as she woke, paired with her playful smile, made her appear cuter than ever to him.

Brody crawled toward Kyle, who was clearly flustered and unable to hide his nervousness.

“What are you doing?”

Kyle, desperate to avoid getting closer to her, stumbled backward in alarm.

Each time Brody took a step forward, Kyle instinctively moved a step back.

When this back-and-forth repeated several more times, Brody finally frowned, sensing something was off.

“What’s wrong with you? Why are you running away?”