A Former Police Officer Who Died And Get A Second Life!-Chapter 46: The Beastmen’s Hideout

With family he needed to protect, there was no way he could hide away in a safe place by himself.

For some reason, as Qiong Xing insisted on this, everyone silently began patting his head and Leander and the others hugged him tightly.

"I’m jealous of you guys. You really found yourselves one hell of a top-tier mate."

"Huh?"

He tilted his head, not understanding what was meant, but Leander and the others, who were clinging to him, looked at Joa with proud expressions.

...

After chatting like that for several minutes, they arrived at a steep cliff where massive rocks were piled up.

He thought it was a dead end, but suddenly Joa scooped him up.

"Eh!? W-what are you doing?!"

Joa’s arms that was holding Qiong Xing who was carrying Cari didn’t waver at all, he truly living up to being a bear beastman.

However, in the next instant, along with a sudden sensation of weightlessness, they plunged downward toward the bottom of the cliff and fear robbed him of his voice.

"～～～!?"

No, no, no, no way!

Qiong Xing who is frozen in terror nevertheless hugged the presence in his arms with all his strength, thinking that at the very least he had to protect Cari.

"You’re fine now. ...I’m sorry, did I scare you?"

Seeing Qiong Xing trembling in his arms, Joa looked a bit awkward, as if realizing he might have gone a little too far.

"Qiong Xing!"

"Qiong Xing, are you okay?!"

Once he was somehow set down, he was immediately embraced by the two who rushed over to him, and he let out a sigh of relief.

After all, being in these two arms was the most reassuring.

A rapid descent like a roller coaster was only possible thanks to the extraordinary physical abilities of beastmen.

For an ordinary human like Qiong Xing, a rope-less bungee jump was nothing but sheer terror.

"S-s-so, um, my knees are kind of shaking, but I’ll be fine."

With his arms and legs still weak and unsteady, Qiong Xing entrusted Cari to Elias and accepted Leander’s help to steady himself.

"I’m sorry. It’s such a normal thing for us that I forgot."

Seeing Qiong Xing wobbling with his knees buckling, the men under Joa also watched him with worried expressions.

He felt bad.

Although he had been startled, Leander and the other beastmen had been completely fine with a rope-less bungee jump, and he felt a little dejected that he alone had ended up holding everyone back.

"Well, anyway. Looks like I startled you pretty badly, so you should go inside and rest for a bit."

After he said that, Joa placed his hand on part of the cliff they had just descended.

With a loud rumbling sound, what had looked like solid rock began to open like a door.

"Don’t tell me... this whole place is your hideout, Joa?"

What Qiong Xing had thought was just a massive, sheer cliff turned out to be a hideout carved out from the inside by Joa and his group.

When he followed them inside as invited, the rock walls remained exposed, but the lights that was placed here and there illuminated the dim interior of the stone cavern.

"...It’s so amazing."

The interior was far more spacious than he had expected, it was large enough that it might even rival a small village.

The people who came out to greet Joa all, as expected, had animal ears atop their heads.

"Right? This place keeps us hidden from human eyes, and with that cliff and door, there’s no way anyone could just wander in."

Indeed, after descending that steep cliff, opening a massive stone door that looked like it weighed several tons would be extremely difficult.

When Qiong Xing praised them enthusiastically, saying how amazing it was, Joa and the others grinned proudly, their expressions indescribably smug.

It seemed each person had their own room, and there were also large shared facilities like a communal bath, dining hall, and armory.

It’s exactly the kind of hideout any boy would have imagined at least once.

He wanted to look around more, but since they had only just arrived and hostile humans were still around, he gave up on the idea.

"Come on, this way. You’re hungry, right? You need to eat more meat. If you don’t eat, you won’t get any bigger."

In the dining hall he was led to, Qiong Xing found himself being fussed over by Joa as if he were a child.

Eat and getting bigger, you’re way too small, it’s probably impossible but don’t give up anyway, he couldn’t tell whether Joa was encouraging him or mocking him.

If anything, he wished Joa would direct that overbearing care toward Cari instead, but for some reason Joa kept doting on Qiong Xing.

"You don’t need to worry about me. Instead of taking care of others all the time, please eat your own meal."

Seeing that Joa had been feeding Qiong Xing without touching his own food, Qiong Xing stuffed a bite straight into Joa’s mouth himself.

"...It’s good."

As Joa ate with obvious delight, Qiong Xing nodded along, agreeing that it was delicious, and fed Cari as well.

He didn’t even notice Leander and the others glaring at Joa from the side.

"So? You said you had something you wanted to ask me?"

They were in the middle of eating, but Qiong Xing had already made a request of Joa.

"If possible, I’d like you to introduce me to a snake beastman, if there is one here."

The opportunities to come to a place where so many beastmen were gathered were rare.

If so, then for the sake of the future, he wanted to gather as much information as he could now.

"That’s fine and all, but why a snake? Don’t tell me you’re thinking of increasing your number of mates again."

There was no way that was the case.

And why were Leander and the others getting so worked up about it anyway?