TBETW Chapter 21

(M) Chapter 21 – The Chauffeur

Main Story 2, Chapter 1, Part 2

Novel Title: 獣はかくして囚われる (The Beasts are Ensnared This Way)

Author：風結子 沙野 (Fuyuko Sano)

Illustrator：小山田 あみ (Oyamada Ami)

Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)

Protagonists: 鹿倉 陣也 (Kagura Jinya -MC) & ゼロ (Zero -ML)

*Please read at freenovels.net, the original site of translation. TQ*

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Kiriyama grabbed him by the nape and pulled him upright from the stool.  

“Put your hands up.”  

Without resistance, Kagura placed his hands on the window through the curtain.  

Kiriyama licked the rim of Kagura’s ear, sliding a thin tongue into the canal. The wet sounds reverberated in Kagura’s head.  

Kiriyama sucked on his neck while lifting the hem of his T-shirt, revealing the mottled discoloration of burns on his back. Kiriyama’s tongue trailed across the marks, gradually descending.  

<Click here to read the rest of the Mature Chapter on my blog in order to adhere to freenovels.net’s rules.>

As Kiriyama finally withdrew from above him, Kagura lay sprawled naked on the bed and asked, “What’s your real goal in pulling me away from Zero?”  

The question had lingered as a vague unease in his mind.  

“I have reasons to work with the Special Investigations Chief, but what benefit do you get from working with a mere detective?”  

His relationship with Zero had been one of give-and-take, their interests perfectly aligned.  

But with Kiriyama, it was a one-sided flow of information.  

Sitting up, his body slick with Kiriyama’s saliva, Kagura pulled a cigarette from the bedside case. He lit it, inhaling deeply, letting Kiriyama’s scent be driven away. While other senses could be blocked, smell seemed to have a direct link to his emotions, leaving him unsettled.  

As Kiriyama’s scent faded, Zero’s fragrance rose unbidden from memory, lingering in Kagura’s nostrils.  

“Because choosing me is the right thing to do,” Kiriyama replied.  

“If I weren’t partnered with Zero, you wouldn’t have pushed me to make that choice, would you?”  

Straightening his loosened tie, Kiriyama glanced at him out of the corner of his eye.  

Only his jet-black, abyss-like eyes, swallowing all, stirred the slightest movement in Kagura’s heart.  

Why is this man so insistent on keeping him by his side? What meaning is there in licking over someone like Kagura Jinya, who no longer struggles or entertains him as he once did?  

That persistent sense of discomfort he had felt about Kiriyama.  

He tried to see through to the reasoning that must be running behind his actions.  

“…Could it be that your true objective is—”  

Just as he tries to verbalize the thought that flashes through his mind, the cigarette in his mouth is snatched away.  

Kiriyama’s lips touch Kagura’s for five seconds before he returns the cigarette and leaves the bedroom.  

Kagura hears the sound of the front door opening and closing, signaling that Kiriyama won’t be coming back.  

Still deep in thought, Kagura heads to the bathroom. Realizing he still had the cigarette in his mouth as he let the shower pour over his head, he dropped it onto the floor.  

The chime of the intercom rings out.  

At this hour, it could only be Sanae—but the faint hope flickers in my chest. Twice in the past three months, the intercom has rung in the dead of night, and Zero’s image appeared on the screen.  

After leaving the keys to the Nakameguro apartment behind, he blocked all contact from Zero. Though it was a unilateral breakup, he knew that what he felt, Zero must have felt the same.  

They couldn’t afford to lose sight of their goals by holding each other ensnared.  

If separation meant moving forward, then it was the only choice to make.  

Lightly toweling off his damp body, he stepped out of the bathroom.  

He steeled himself as he checked the intercom screen embedded in the wall.  

The person displayed isn’t Sanae, nor is it Zero.  

It’s a man with narrow eyes, giving a faint, uncertain smile.  

A man in his thirties who seems the type to slip from people’s memory. Kagura had seen him drive Kiriyama’s car on several occasions. He looks like an ordinary chauffeur, but Kagura recalls noticing a lawyer’s sunflower badge on his suit collar once before.  

Kiriyama refers to this man as ‘Itou’.  

Pressing the intercom button, Kagura tells him, “Wait a moment.” Then he threw on a T-shirt and sweatpants over his still-damp skin.  

When he opens the door, Itou greets him with a hesitant bow.  

“It seems Kiriyama-sama forgot his jacket here,” he says.  

“Ah, right,” Kagura replied.  

Returning to the living room, Kagura finds Kiriyama’s jacket hanging on a hook on the wall. Taking it to the entryway, he hands it to Itou, making a casual comment.  

“Doesn’t seem like him.”  

All he meant was that it was uncharacteristic of Kiriyama to forget something like this.  

“Please don’t misunderstand.”  

Itou speaks with a faint smile, barely moving his lips.  

“Shungo-sama has no interest in you.”  

The door closes silently, leaving Itou nowhere in sight.  

Kagura blinks and lets his gaze wander through the empty space.  

“…Shungo-sama, huh?”  

Calling him by his first name—it must reflect the true nature of Kiriyama and Itou’s relationship.  

Thinking back, whenever they went to the ‘Invincible Castle’, it was always Itou driving Kiriyama’s car.  

Kiriyama’s public face as the head of the Tokyo District Prosecutor’s Office Special Investigations Unit, and his hidden identity as a ‘Non-citizen’.  

Running things behind the scenes must require capable hands and feet.  

…If Itou is one of those working in the shadows, does that mean he knows Zero’s secrets as well?  

If that’s the case, Kagura will have to erase not only Kiriyama but Itou too.  

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*Translator’s Note: I don’t really know if Kiriyama is interested in Kagura or not, but I’m certain he wouldn’t care if he dies. Anyway, I will know once I finish reading the last volume, I guess. -K

Next update: 2025.12.07

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