Warden of the Beast World: Everyone is a Hakimi

Almost all three roasted rabbits ended up in the belly of the hunter.

She watched as he crunched the two roasted rabbits, meat and bones alike, and after finishing, he licked the fur around his mouth with his tongue, his grey-blue eyes glancing at her hands.

Ye Tang quickly stuffed the last half-skewer of meat in her hand into her mouth, and mumbled in surrender, raising her hands: "That's all, that's really all. All three rabbits went into your stomach, and I only ate a small bite. How dare you look at me like that?"

Ghost Hunter casually looked away, lowered his head and licked his front paws, pretending not to have heard.

After eating, Ye Tang extinguished the fire, put her suitcase into her spatial storage, and continued on her journey.

With food in her stomach and some strength returning to her legs, the original owner's body was truly incapable of supporting anything, and she began to pant after walking for less than twenty minutes.

Fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and his legs felt as heavy as lead, with his calves trembling with every step.

She gritted her teeth and persevered for a while longer before finally stopping under a large tree. She leaned against the trunk and slowly slid down to the ground, panting heavily.

The light in the forest was beginning to dim. The sky, seen through the gaps in the canopy, had changed from pale blue to a hazy orange-gray. The sun was setting, and the temperature in the forest had dropped several degrees without anyone noticing.

Ye Tang was anxious. She couldn't spend the night in the forest. She didn't want to know what this primeval forest would become after dark.

But her legs just wouldn't cooperate, so she had to lean against a tree trunk, close her eyes, and rest for two minutes, calculating in her mind how long it would take to reach Prison Zero at this pace.

When she opened her eyes, a silver-gray shadow appeared silently in front of her.

Youlie followed behind her from the moment she stopped, his brows furrowed as he watched her pant for breath after taking only a few steps.

Although the wolf's face showed no frown, his gray-blue eyes were filled with confusion and worry.

This female's physical condition was so poor that even he, a soldier who was used to seeing wounded soldiers, found it shocking.

In the northern border where he was stationed, even the female civilian staff in the logistics department could at least march ten kilometers on foot without getting out of breath. This one in front of him collapsed after walking a few steps. She was simply a porcelain doll.

"Dog?" Ye Tang opened her eyes and saw that handsome wolf face standing in front of her, less than half a meter away. His gray-blue eyes were looking down at her, and she didn't know how long he had been staring at her.

She instinctively shrank back, hitting the back of her head on the tree trunk and hissing in pain. "Don't suddenly get so close, you scared me."

She took a breath and looked at Youlie squatting motionless in front of her, a bittersweet sense of helplessness welling up inside her.

She reached out her hand, trying to reason with the intelligent dog: "Doggy, don't follow me anymore. I can't even support myself, let alone you."

The hunter didn't move.

Ye Tang sighed, her voice lowered, as if she were talking to a dog, or perhaps talking to herself:

"Let me tell you the truth, I was just kicked out of my home, I'm penniless, and I don't even know where I'll sleep tonight. You're a good dog, handsome and a good hunter, it's too much of a waste for you to follow me. The forest is fine, you have your own territory, why come and suffer with me?"

She said this in a very calm tone, as if stating a fact that had nothing to do with her.

What did that female just say? Did she say she wanted to raise him?

Youlie almost laughed out of anger. He was the young patriarch of the Canglang clan, a major general in the Third Legion of the Empire, and the deputy commander of the Northern Border Defense Line. He had never encountered a situation where he didn't have enough money to spend since he was a child.

She doesn't even know where she's going to sleep tonight, yet she's worried about not being able to afford a dog? This silly female, just throws it away like that? Fine, they don't want it, but he does.

Not the kind of "want". It's... protection. Yes, protection. Every female is a key protected individual as explicitly stipulated by the Empire, especially females traveling alone without entourages or guards. Any male with a military rank has the responsibility and obligation to look after her.

The major general found a plausible reason for himself and decided not to delve into why this reason came about so smoothly.

Seeing that he remained firmly squatting in front of her, showing no intention of leaving, Ye Tang helplessly took out the map leading to Prison Zero from her pocket and unfolded it for him to see.

She pointed to the destination marked with a red circle on the map, her tone extremely serious: "See that? Prison Zero, it's very far, we have to cross that mountain over there. I can barely walk there myself now, let alone take you with me."

Ghost Hunter glanced at the map.

Prison Zero. These four words made his wolf ears twitch slightly. His original target was Prison Zero—to be precise, he originally intended to rush into Prison Zero tonight and voluntarily be imprisoned like the marshal back then.

His mental strength was nearing its breaking point. He would rather lock himself in the prison that held the empire's most dangerous criminals than accept the scheming and ambitious appeasement of those noblewomen.

Fate brought him to this forest, where he smelled the aroma of roasted meat and met her.

Since she's going to Prison Zero anyway, that's perfect.

The Ghost Hunter rose from its crouching position, its four legs gracefully settling into a stand, its silver-gray fur gleaming with a cool sheen in the evening light.

He took a step forward, turned slightly to the side, facing Ye Tang with his back, and then looked back at her. The meaning in those gray-blue eyes was clear—come up.

Ye Tang blinked, not quite understanding at first: "...A dog?"

Youlie tilted his head again, glancing at his back before looking at her again, repeating, "Come up."

This time, Ye Tang understood.

A large, silver-gray dog, even bigger than an Alaskan Malamute, lay quietly in front of her, gesturing for her to climb onto its back. Ye Tang stood there, stunned.

She didn't move, not because she didn't want to, but because some sudden emotion choked her. Today, her family had thrown her out the door like trash, leaving her on the gravel ground with her suitcase scattered everywhere. Not a single person gave her a second glance.

And now, a complete stranger, a stray dog, caught rabbits for her, followed her, and even offered to carry her on its back in the less than half a day she had been walking.

Even a dog knows to feel sorry for her. A person from a wild family is less than a dog.

Ye Tang blinked hard, forcing back the uncontrollable stinging in her eyes, took a deep breath, and then smiled.

She used the tree trunk to stand up, patted the dirt off her bottom, and walked towards Youlie.

"Are you sure? I may be thin, but I'm still an adult. Don't be stubborn." She said this while her hand was already on Youlie's back.

The hunter's response was a very light, almost inaudible breath, the tone of which roughly translates to "Who are you looking down on?"

No longer being coy, Ye Tang grabbed You Lie's thick neck fur with both hands and carefully rolled over to straddle him.

The silver-gray fur was thick and soft, and sitting on it felt like sinking into a warm, velvety blanket. Her body heat was transmitted through the fur, making her feel cozy and comfortable, so much so that she almost groaned out loud.

"Alright," she said, gripping the fur on either side of his neck, leaning down to his ear, her voice brimming with barely suppressed excitement, "Let's go, big dog!"

The hunter's ears twitched involuntarily as her warm breath brushed against them. He silently repeated "She thinks I'm a dog" three times in his mind, then took off running towards Prison Zero.

The silver-gray figure moved swiftly and steadily through the forest. Youlie deliberately slowed his pace, afraid that the small body on his back wouldn't withstand the bumps.

Even though she was only using two or three tenths of her speed, the surrounding trees were still rushing past her, and the evening wind whistled past her ears, making Ye Tang's hair fly backward.

Wild Tang lay on his back, her arms tightly wrapped around his neck, burying her face in the softest downy hair on the back of his neck. The sounds of the wind, the chirping of insects, and the rustling of leaves blended together, creating a nocturne unique to the forest.

She squinted, feeling a sense of unreality as if she had fallen from the sky. This morning she had fallen flat on her face at the gate of the Ye family's house, but now she was riding on the back of a giant silver-gray wolf through a primeval forest, on her way to apply for a job at a prison with a monthly salary of 30,000.

This life is just too damn surreal.

She chuckled softly and muttered to herself, "Thank you, doggy."

Ghost Hunter's ears twitched again, but he didn't stop walking.