I Became a Tentacle Monster Blooming in the Academy Garden 122

## Chapter 122 – Between Monster and Human (2)

When it came to observing Enic, my advantage was clear.

I had memories from experience, a solid point of comparison.

As I watched Enic’s wriggling tentacles through the crack in the wall, my eyes took on the seriousness of a researcher.

‘Did it… do that back then…?’

As someone who had been directly harmed by the Enic in Chaonan, the memories etched in my mind were painful, but they provided an excellent point of comparison for the subtle sense of unease I felt from Enic’s current behavior.

‘Back then…’

What happened in Chaonan was pure agony.

Unspeakable acts, akin to sexual torture, were inflicted upon me.

Needles injecting some kind of drug were stabbed into the body of a young girl whose breasts hadn’t even begun to swell, and from the thick, pulsating ovipositor lodged in my already bleeding vagina, various colonies and seeds flowed into my womb in a horrifying spectacle.

And considering how terribly my sister’s mental state had deteriorated after a slender tentacle wriggled into her ear, Enic’s current behavior felt almost bland in comparison.

‘Is it because it’s a young specimen…?
Or is it…?’

It simply didn’t make sense.

I had seen people melting and screaming, turning into fertilizer.

‘Is it… considerate of people…?’

But this Enic treated them carefully, as if it knew what humans were and what their limits were.

When the females, slick with Enic’s fluids and obscene spittle, grew tired and slumped, Enic gently lowered them to the ground and moved its tentacles to the next woman.

And if there were no females left standing, it would stop, as if that moment was a break.

It was completely different from how it had been in Chaonan, where it showed no mercy to its prey, sometimes even violating women until their hearts seized up from excessive pleasure.

‘No way… that’s impossible…’

In effect, that was how my sister had died.

My sister, violated countless times by Enic’s tentacles.

She had been violated for a long time, spawned upon by Enic, her belly swollen almost to the point of bursting with countless monsters inside, all while her exhausted body was being violated while tied to a corner pillar.

At that point, my sister wouldn’t have been able to lift a finger. She wouldn’t have been able to call for help amidst the constant violation, which was why she couldn’t be rescued.

But what about this Enic?

‘Instinct…? Or… reason…?’

Some of the beastkin females had bulging bellies, it was true.

But it was only similar to that of a pregnant woman within reasonable limits.

When I looked at the females giving birth to those colonies, I could see that each one was different.

It was different from the sight of them being stuffed with a mishmash of things all at once, which had been painful to even watch back then.

‘Is it controlling itself…?
Is it intentional? Or…?’

The Enic of Chaonan and this Enic.

There was a clear difference between the two.

Enic was called the ‘monster with a thousand faces’ because of its many variations, but its basic physiology shouldn’t be different even within the same species.

Even animal cunning had its limits.

It only trusted the judgment of its instincts, and unlike humans, it didn’t have a clear way of thinking.

‘It’s… like a human…’

From that moment on, I began to form several hypotheses.

One was that this Enic had definite intelligence.

‘It doesn’t seem to bring people here…
Considering this is the academy flower garden…
It even has the patience to resist the prey in front of it…
And those beastkins… could the reason beastkins didn’t appear in this special evaluation be…
Perhaps it even has the intelligence to save the prey it painstakingly diverted…’

In a way, it was frightening.

A monster that understood the situation it was in, clearly located in the middle of enemy territory, that grasped the difference in power between itself and the external enemies who could burn and freeze it at any moment, and that could decide whether or not it was the moment to act based on that.

A monster like that, beyond cunning, was a terrifying being that defied human common sense.

Moreover, as far as I remembered, there were only three humans here, including myself.

The rest were all beastkin females, and the monster Arachnela, who I thought had died.

The beastkins and Arachnela were one thing, but having humans here raised more than a few questions.

‘They… seem to be here of their own volition…
If this is a symbiotic relationship… or…?’

Vivian and Lani seemed to know what was going on the moment they first saw me, which gave me one certainty.

A certain relationship had formed between those two women and this Enic.

‘But… it’s still strange, isn’t it?
There’s no reason for Enic to let them roam free…’

In this den, and even in the flower garden outside.

Vivian and Lani roamed around as freely as if they were in their own homes, which couldn’t happen without Enic’s tacit approval.

There was no way a monster would let its prey come and go as it pleased, when it could just kill them.

What monster would leave a human unattended, a human who might escape its grasp and ask other humans for help?

That was utter nonsense.

‘It’s not like we have bad intentions…
It’s better to think positively if possible…’

‘Vivian is right…!!
If you can’t avoid it, enjoy it…!!
We’re family now… I’ll be good to you, okay?
I’m sure you’ll like it too!’

Also, judging from their reactions, it was undeniable that they wanted to protect Enic’s existence and hide it from others.

‘The Enic back then was said to have messed with people’s brains…
Is it possible for this young Enic to brainwash people to that extent…?
If so, there’s no reason for it not to do that to me right now…
I can only assume that there’s a mutual understanding, and that Enic knows that too…’

The more I thought about it, the less sense it made.

Nevertheless, regardless of whether I could understand it or not, the truth was becoming clearer and clearer.

Was this really that ferocious Enic?

Or was I mistaking it for another monster because of my shocking memories from the past?

But as someone from Chaoxing, where biology was indispensable, I had never heard of such a monster.

My head began to get more and more complicated, and my gaze began to drift towards the floor.

‘What… am I caught up in…?’

No matter how much I looked, I couldn’t see the bottom.

With my abilities, I couldn’t see even a glimmer of possibility of escaping this place.

My opponent was a monster as cunning and flawless as a human.

Could I even ask for help?

More than anything, was there anyone who could help, was there a way?

‘I… don’t want to stay like this…’

But I had precious things that I had left behind.

The will to follow in the footsteps of my sister, who was my beloved family, and my friend, who was still worried about my disappearance.

“I can’t… just stay like this…”

From my slowly raised head, my beautiful brown eyes trembled slightly.

Those eyes that resembled my beloved sister.

Unlike almost all Chaoxing humans, who had black eyes, my clear brown eyes, which were a rare genetic defect, widened, and I bit my lip tightly and stood up.

And without hesitation, I approached the door that opened when it sensed movement.

“Open it…”

I suppressed the foul, fleshy scent that stung my nose from the crack in the door that opened with a small whisper, and walked forward steadily, stopping in front of a bundle of tentacles.

“Excuse me…”

At those words from me, all the tentacles around me turned to look at me at the same time.

“You… understand what I’m saying, right… right…?
Please… please let me out of here…
I won’t… I won’t tell anyone else about you…!!
There’s someone waiting for me… so…”

My trembling voice echoed emptily through the den.

But in the moment when that echo resounded several times and disappeared, I realized what I had said, frowned, and bit my lower lip slightly.

But I had decided not to give up.

I thought I could do it.

Just before blood started to flow from my lip, I opened my mouth again and began to loosen the clothes that were my only defense.

“I’ll do whatever you want…
I can promise everything I just said…!!
You understand what I’m saying, right…!!
I’ll obey you…!! So please…!!”

Tears welled up, unable to control my emotions in this moment.

Was it self-reproach for saying that I would voluntarily give everything to a monster?

Or was it a sense of helplessness about the situation where I couldn’t do anything without doing this?

Before I knew it, I was starting to reveal my naked body, which was still as smooth as silk, though slightly dusty.

Then, feeling the tentacles wriggling and slowly approaching, I unconsciously squeezed my eyes shut and flinched backward, and at the same time, a single tear trickled down my cheek.

The sound of the clothes that had already fallen to the floor being swept away by the tentacles and the floor was so clear that it seemed to be caught in my senses as if it were ringing in my ears.

So, perhaps this was the last moment I could speak with the clearest mind.

My last wish was honestly bursting out of my lips without any filtering.

“I… sniff… I miss Carla…
She’s my only friend…”