The Crazy Killer Whale’s Favourite Penguin

Episode 36: Be Careful of What You Wish For (IX)

The vision was blurry, as if it was foggy.

Theodore could barely identify the shape of the one who was touching him.

“A passerby.”

The way the person spoke and the atmosphere didn’t seem to be on par with the assassins. But it’s already too late to ask for help.

He was going to die here.

“…Go away.”

After a moment of silence, the person opened his mouth as if he found the reply troubling.
(TL/N: we know ‘the person’ is Lia, but Theodore doesn’t, so using ‘he’ till he’s at least aware it’s a female.)

“Huh, but I already treated your shoulder, so you can’t tell me to leave now.”

Theodore then realized that the pain in his shoulder had subsided considerably.

He didn’t know how he did it, but it couldn’t have worked.

In the first place, the problem was not the excessive bleeding, but the poison infiltrating the body.

“Ha… ugh… To you, help, seek… No, enemies…”

“Then, do you intend to end here?”

The unknown opponent tried to make him drink something. It seemed like a potion.

However, it was impossible to detox the extreme poison used by the assassins with the potion possessed by a mere passerby.

He didn’t want to cling to a thread of hope by drinking the potion.

Theodore refused, turning his head away, tightly pressing his lips together.

The opponent, who had been muttering about something for a while, perhaps angry at the continued rejection, finally began to forcefully open his mouth.

“What is this…! Urk!”

“Drink!”

He even said something like ‘That’s right, drink well’ while spilling liquid into his mouth.

But amazingly, no…

Strangely enough, within a few minutes of being forced to take the medicine, strength began to return to his body.

His vision also slightly improved, and things up close could be seen almost like normal.

For example, the appearance of a ring worn by a person who still covered his mouth tightly…

As soon as Theodore had hope that he could survive, his spirit returned properly and the will to live sprang up.

Yes, even if there were no regrets in life, death was not pleasant.

It was even more so if he died in vain in an ambush, even if it was because his pride was hurt.

There wasn’t really anything to bring about a personal grudge, so it must have been the work of a family that wasn’t on good terms with the Wulf family.

If he survived, it would be the worst news for the family that planned the raid.

Theodore hardened his heart and stared at the blurry benefactor.

Seeing that it worked so instantly, it wouldn’t be an ordinary expensive potion.

He wanted to repay the benefactor who saved his life.

“Re-reward… thanks…”

“I don’t need it, so let it go.”

However, the benefactor kept refusing the reward, and finally twisted his arm and slipped out of his grip.

Theodore, having not yet recovered enough to control his body, grabbed his benefactor’s sleeve, pulling it in haste.

And… his benefactor was dragged more easily than he thought and fell onto his body.

“Ugh.”

His shoulder, which had not fully healed, hurt, but compared to when it was first injured, it was tolerable.

Surprised by his own groan, the benefactor immediately raised his body and head.

The second he met the eyes of his benefactor up close.

Theodore’s world turned upside down.

His spirits surged and a foreign feeling began to rise like crazy.

He instinctively knew that he was imprinting on this person.

He never thought that the imprint he hated so much would happen so suddenly.

To a person whose skin he couldn’t touch and whose face he didn’t know at all.

But ironically, at that moment, Theodore thought that he had been living for this day.

It seemed that if he could keep feeling this way, he could even sell his soul to the devil.

An ecstatic and sacred feeling that could not be described in words.

But before he could even come out of the swamp of ecstasy.

“Iprus!”

Theodore was struck in the head by something and blacked out.

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

It was after Theodore had been moved to the central Wulf mansion that he woke up. 

“Sir Theodore is awake!”

After confirming that his eyelids trembled and went up, the attendant ran out to announce the news.

Theodore watched the servant’s back as he ran out of his room and grabbed his throbbing head.

“…When did I faint?”

Was it an aftereffect of imprinting?

Seeing that he wasn’t a wolf and it didn’t look like it was the evening, it seemed that he had passed out for a day or a few days.

He got up and staggered to the mirror.

Then he pulled back his shirt and checked under his collarbone. However, he had no choice but to doubt his eyes. Due to his clean skin.

“Ah…?”

He didn’t know why the crescent moon didn’t appear.

Did this mean that what he imprinted on was a dream?

The sight of his clean collarbone made his throbbing headache worse.

A fever was slowly rising, and most of all, the feeling of tightness in his chest drove him mad.

The moment he imprinted on his benefactor was played over and over again in his mind.

‘That intense memory cannot be a dream. Isn’t the heart also telling me that it’s not a lie?’

But…

“That… It isn’t an imprint?”

It was confusing.

He swore, he never once wanted to imprint.

But what did this sense of loss mean?

“Theodore.”

At the voice calling his name, Theodore finally came to his senses and looked at the place where the voice came from.

“…Mother.”

Standing there were the lord and madam of the Wulf family, both looking anxiously at Theodore, dressed in disorganized clothes; probably because they ran in a hurry.

Ruben glanced at his son, perhaps feeling deeply upset that Theodore only called Isabel.

Isabel pretended not to notice such a Ruben and went into the room.

“Theo, are you feeling better? The examination results showed that, fortunately, there was no major problem with your body, but I’m worried because you did not wake up even after a day.”

Theodore blinked slowly. Was he okay now?

The answer was, of course, ‘no’.

“Okay… I don’t think it’s okay.”

The blunt Theodore, who would normally have said that it was okay even if he was sick, said it wasn’t.

At this strange sight, Isabel’s and Ruben’s faces hardened, realizing that the situation was unusual.

Come to think of it, drops of cold sweat were forming on Theodore’s forehead.

After checking his son’s condition, Ruben hurriedly tried to leave the room.

“I’ll call the doctor.”

“No. Rather, I think you should listen to me and judge the situation.”

“…What is it?”

As Isabelle and Ruben looked at their son with urging eyes, as if asking what he was talking about, Theodore didn’t waste time and started with the conclusion.

“Mother, Father. It seems that I failed to imprint.”

“…What, what?”

After a long period of astonishment passed.

Isabel, who heard Theodore explain what happened during the hunting competition and his current physical condition, slowly parted her lips and said,

“It’s an incomplete imprint.”

“…What is imperfect imprinting?”

“It’s said that the imprinting of a wolf demibeast requires skin-to-skin contact with the other person, but in fact, there is one more condition.”

Theodore narrowed his brows like he was hearing these words for the first time.

“I passed out during the imprinting, isn’t that because of that?”

“No. It’s just that you can’t feel the flow of time because you’re intoxicated in your senses, but the imprint is made in an instant. If it’s a normal imprint, you would have finished it before passing out.”

Isabelle shrugged her shoulders lightly.

“The reason it became an incomplete imprint is simply because it didn’t meet both conditions.”

“…It’s the first time I’ve heard there’s two conditions.”

“It has to be. Usually, both conditions are met at the same time as the imprinting process, so incomplete imprinting is not common.”

“What are the conditions?”

“The condition for imprinting is, first, that the skin is in contact with each other.”

It was a condition Theodore failed to meet. Isabel, who paused, blinked.

“And secondly, they should be in a state of eye contact.”

“Make eye contact… ah.”

Theodore vividly remembered that the imprinting began the moment he properly met the person’s eyes.

“Imprinting can begin at any time as long as any one of the conditions are met.” 

“Then what is hurting me…”

“Fever caused by incomplete imprinting. The rest of the conditions must be met to complete the imprint, then the body will be stable. The pattern under the collarbone will also appear then.”

After her explanation, Isabelle put her hands together and she smiled expectantly.

“I am thrilled that my son finally has an imprint partner. How did you feel? Do you think you can understand our feelings now?”

“…Yes.”

Theodore hated to admit it, but he couldn’t bear to deny it.

A terrifying sensation of ecstasy. He had never felt such intense emotions in his entire life.

“You shouldn’t be like this. You should hurry up and find the child who is your benefactor and my daughter-in-law and finish the imprinting.”

Theodore bruised his throbbing head.

“What do you mean by ‘daughter-in-law’… Mother.”

“What’s your impression of her? Does she give off a calm feeling? Or does she feel cute?”

The corners of Isabel’s mouth were raised. It was as if she was enjoying even imagining it.

“Personally, I wish for a bright and cheerful child. Everyone in this family is so blunt.”

Ame: I’m sorry Theodore, for my comment in an earlier episode that I wished for the imprinting to succeed cause I want love triangle drama TT_TT after reading your pov, it’s really cruel… so cruel… I’m sorry

And… from the last bit, I guess they’re assuming the benefactor is female?? Or does this worldview not have same gender imprinting?