A small child collapsed on the dirt path.

He was barely conscious, lips cracked, skin dry, his breathing shallow. Anyone could see he was badly dehydrated. The boy’s knees gave out, and he fell face-first into the dust.

"Papa... water..." he whispered.

Kristina Millian gasped.

Without thinking, she grabbed the jug of her mother’s milk and rushed forward. She carefully tilted the jug and brought it close to the child’s mouth.

"Please drink—moe," she said urgently. "You’ll feel better."

Before a single drop could touch the child’s lips—

SMACK.

The jug was slapped out of her hands.

Milk spilled onto the ground, soaking into the dry soil.

"What the hell are you doing?!" the child’s father shouted. "Who needs milk from a demi-human?! What if it carries disease? What if it’s cursed?!"

Kristina froze.

The child whimpered weakly on the ground, clearly getting worse by the second. But his father pulled him closer, glaring at Chole and Kristina as if they were monsters.

"I’d rather let my son die than feed him that," the man spat.

Chole clenched her fists. This wasn’t new. It had always been like this.

The discrimination against cow-type demi-humans ran deeper than most races. Even among demi-humans, they were looked down upon, Hated and Feared.

The reason was ancient.

The First Demon King , Tartus, the being who nearly destroyed the world itself.

It was rumored that cow, bull, buffalo, and bison-type demons were descendants of Tartus. Because of that, all similar demi-humans were branded as dangerous, regardless of truth.

Even the current Demon King feared Tartus’s return.

And so, the hatred spread.

Kristina lowered her head, fingers trembling.

She remembered how people bought their milk, not to drink, but to use it as fertilizer, or feed it to animals. Never as food for humans.

---

Now at present,

Kristina looked at Tyler, She gave him a milk without thinking anything.

’He saved us...’ she thought. ’But what if he’s the same? What if he hates us too?’

The moment Tyler stared at the bowl of milk, her hands began to tremble. Her chest felt tight, and her breath grew shallow.

Then—

GULP.

GULP.

GULP.

He drank it all in one go.

Tyler wiped his mouth slowly, then looked completely serious as he said, "Seconds, please."

"...Moo?"

"...Moe?"

Mother and daughter stared at him in shock.

Tyler turned to the man holding his child.

Serena finished her bowl beside Tyler and licked her lips, letting out a satisfied meow.

Tyler continued, "This milk is clean. Nutritious. And better than any water you’ll find in this broken village."

Chole’s face slowly turned red.

"Y-you... really drank it?" she asked softly.

"Drank it?" Tyler replied. "I loved it. Honestly, I’ve never tasted milk like this before."

Kristina’s eyes filled with tears.

"Momma... he likes it! Moe." she said, voice trembling with joy.

For a long moment, Chole hesitated. Years of fear, rejection, and quiet suffering weighed heavily on her.

Then,

She smiled.

A soft, genuine smile that hadn’t appeared in a long time. "...Then I’ll make more," she said gently.

---

"You can only make four jugs a day?" Tyler asked, leaning back as he finished the last cup of milk. He wiped his mouth slowly, clearly satisfied.

"Yes," Chole replied with a nod. "It’s our innate skill, "Lactation". Cow-type demi-humans awaken it naturally once we come of age." She paused, then glanced at Kristina. "Kristina is still young only at her twenties. She hasn’t awakened hers yet."

Kristina lowered her head slightly, her ears drooping.

"She’s in her twenties?" Tyler asked, surprised. "She looks way younger."

She’s older than me in this body, he added silently.

Chole laughed softly. "For cow demi-humans, twenty is still considered a young. Even I’m only seventy years old." She scratched her cheek shyly. "We can live for almost five hundred years."

"Oh." Tyler nodded seriously, as if this made perfect sense.

Inside, his thoughts went completely off-track.

Seventy is young... five hundred years lifespan... Wait. If I count properly, my real age should be over sixty by now.

And Serena... She’s definitely over a hundred—

SMACK.

Pain exploded across his cheek.

Tyler yelped as he stumbled sideways. "What the hell was that for?!"

Serena landed neatly in front of him, tail flicking angrily. Her eyes were sharp, dangerous.

"How did you even know what I was thinking?!" Tyler demanded.

Serena crossed her paws and let out a proud hmph.

Tyler rubbed his face, glaring. "I didn’t even say anything out loud!"

Serena’s ears twitched, she is a woman and an animal. Both woman instinct and animal instinct working together is the scariest thing in any world.

Across from them, Chole and Kristina stared in complete confusion.

"...Are they playing?" Chole asked carefully.

Kristina tilted her head. "Moe... is that playing?"

Tyler straightened himself, coughed once, and waved his hand. "Ignore that. Just... normal communication issues."

Tyler glanced at Kristina again. "So is she legal or what?"

"Huh? What does that mean?" Chole asked confused softly.

Tyler shook his head and said, "Never mind... *Cough*"

Serena rolled her eyes.

---

Tyler looked around the broken village again and let out a long sigh.

"Huh... I was hoping to pick up a few things from the village," he said, kicking a small stone aside. "But looks like everyone packed up everything useful and left."

Collapsed huts, empty storage sheds, broken carts , there was nothing worth salvaging. Even tools were gone. Whoever left had taken survival seriously.

Chole exchanged a glance with Kristina, then stepped forward.

"If you need help, we can try," she said carefully. "We don’t have much... but we’ll give what we can —moo."

Tyler turned toward them.

"I don’t need anything fancy. Just whatever you have left. And if possible, seeds. Anything I can farm."

Kristina nodded quickly. "I’ll check inside again, moe!"

She ran toward their half-collapsed hut, stepping carefully over loose wood and stones.

While she was gone, Tyler turned to Chole.

"Is there any safe place in this forest?" he asked. "Somewhere we can stay long-term."

Chole thought for a moment, then nodded slowly.

"We’re forest villagers. We’ve always lived like this. We don’t stay in one place forever." She gestured around lightly. "We build villages, live for a few years, then move when the season changes or danger grows."

"So the forest itself is... home?"

"Yes," Chole replied. "The whole forest is dangerous. But there are safer places, depending on the season." She paused, choosing her words. "We learn where monsters migrate, where rivers flood, where food grows better. It’s knowledge passed down."

"That’s useful," Tyler said honestly, "That’s how you know how to walk around the River lobsters without getting into danger."

She nodded.

"But," Then she added, her voice softening, "living alone is never good. A single family won’t last long. We always survive in groups, build villages together, watch each other’s backs.

Tyler nodded. That much, at least, made sense no matter the world.

"My husband died because he was trying to find a safe place just for us. The villagers also let us in as cannon fodder. And now during the stampede they left us and ran away." Chole said with sad expression.

Just then, Kristina returned.

Her shoulders were slumped, ears drooping.

"I’m sorry..." she said quietly. "Most things are broken. Or already taken. I only found a few things..."

She opened her hands.

Black pepper seeds.

Two potatoes.

A small pouch of unpolished rice. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

"That’s all I could find—moe..." she said, clearly disappointed. "It’s too little..."

For a moment, the clearing was quiet.

Then Tyler’s eyes lit up.

"Too little?" he repeated.

Before either of them could react, he grabbed Kristina under her arms and lifted her up, spinning once in the air.

"You two are amazing!" he said happily.

Kristina let out a surprised squeak as he set her back down. Her face turned bright red.

"M-moe...!"

Chole stared, completely stunned.

Tyler crouched down and carefully looked at what Kristina brought.

Black pepper seeds.

Potatoes.

Rice.

"This is perfect," he said seriously.

"Perfect...?" Chole repeated.

"My skills are related to farming, so these are so useful..." Tyler said.

Kristina blinked. "R-really...?"

"Really."

Tyler straightened up and looked at both of them.

"I’ve decided something," he said. "You two can follow me. Work with me."

Chole stiffened slightly. Kristina’s tail froze mid-swing.

"I’ll provide meals every day," Tyler continued. "No starving. No running around alone."

Both mother and daughter blinked.

"...Moe?"

"...Moo?"

Chole hesitated. "A-Are you sure? We’re demi-humans. And just two people... I can’t even produce more than four jug of milk a day."

Tyler waved his hand dismissively, "I don’t care. I need people I can trust. And you already helped me."

Kristina clutched her dress nervously.

"You mean... we can stay together?"

"Yes," Tyler replied simply. "I will also feed both mother and daughter until both your mouths are full and stuffed. You’ll be begging me to stop as I keep feeding you nonstop."

Chole looked down at her daughter, then back at Tyler.

"...Then we’ll do our best," she said quietly.

Serena, who had been sitting silently, tilted her head. She was pretty sure Tyler had said something with a double meaning.