My only complaint

SPOILERS (and I didn’t expect to write this much). To answer your question: animal testing. Unlike regular humans, he (and other “dogs”) have the ability to flush out drugs fast and not have any resistance or tolerance to them. That’s why the sleeping pills were so potent on him and why he had a bunch of needle punctures as a child (a reusable “human-like” model for experimenting new drugs). Maybe even the sleeping pills Shavonne took were brought to the market due to testing on “dogs”. In addition, these mutated humans tend to have abnormal strength and beauty, so they are useful assassins if trained right (strength to kill and beauty to wear down defenses, as Llewelyn says (paraphrasing) “people often let their guards down in front of pretty faces” - which is why he is able to come up with ridiculous titles (lord, police, investigator) without anyone batting an eye even though they never met him before in any social setting. (Why yes, you are definitely a “insert high status title” and obviously a nice person because of pretty privilege and halo effect. Even though my husband and I never met you before, there’s no need for a background check to chat with my husband alone. Oh my husband is dead, but it must have been an accident. It couldn’t have been that kind and handsome gentleman who offered him wine)). —> seamlessly killing people who oppose the royal family w/o creating suspicion and maintaining the facade of a peaceful country. By training right, it means making sure they remain dogs (w/ the inhumane treatment), never getting close to any human so they don’t have a will to rise up against their owner or want to change themselves to become more human. Llewelyn’s only exposure to the outside world as a “dog” (besides the stories he heard from Shavonne) were limited to the places he killed (the irony being that most of these places were probably indoors (cause rich people) so he was metaphorically still locked up… ;-;). All other times, he was isolated in his cell. (Maybe that’s why his scene of escaping in the open snow field is emphasized?). You see time and time again, Llewelyn brings up the difference between butcher and hunter, reminding himself that he is a hunter and not a butcher (as butchers have one of the lowest status in society (alike his previous occupation as a dog) and hunting is a sport in high society (his will to be seen by society as human)). In fact, since reigniting his will to become a human, the first thing he did that he considered human-like was robbing (another profession unlike a dog; though not glamorous, it meant having worldly desires like wanting money - something innately human). Despite Llewelyn possessing human features (cause he is human, duh), all those who knew Llewelyn at that place (except Shavonne) only saw him as a dog because they came from a higher class (a bunch of middle class/rich people), so anyone beneath them in status aren’t treated as humans (you can see how quickly they turned their backs on Shavonne and how easily they were convinced that Llewelyn is a dog). This is also why Shavonne develops pity towards Llewelyn - he initially thought they were the same (both discarded by society). And also why that higher up who trained Llewelyn felt disgust and almost threw up at just the thought of him doing human things with Shavonne (the higher ups and his “owner” truly cannot see him as human; it feels like beastiality to even consider his intimate relationship with Shavonne). I do have a theory that the royal family also contain mutated humans (due to similar features) but they are treated as humans rather than dogs because of social status (which is a theme emphasized throughout the story, and the root of how fate is determined regardless of morality, being a good or bad person - such as how the police won’t help Shavonne because he is poor, and later not help that greasy editor because his reputation plummeted). And to maintain that social status, they make sure that all other mutated humans are shun from society (imprisonment) in disgust that they share the same features as royalty or for showing the common folks that the royal family isn’t all that unique and powerful (idk, maybe that’s a stretch). I can’t believe I wrote this much, and I don’t expect anyone to read all this, but I do hope someone does and finds my analysis interesting (=・ω・=)

Thank you for your time haha
Did you get the drug thing just from reading or is there a novel where it was more detailed ?
Because if not, I'm very impressed (⊙…⊙ )
I also think it's too bad that they didn't develop on the golden eye link with the royalty.

Thanks!! There is a novel (same name, completed English translation; create an account on novel update to read the chapters), but I didn’t read it yet. The drug thing was my assumption based on the clues: needles (drug testing?), sleeping pills (doctor says Llewelyn shows no tolerance for the drug), the convo he overheard in the penitentiary before he escaped (“medicine…something something”), constant talk about onions being used for detoxification (seems to be a symbolism for healing from abuse - like how the onions were one of the first things that made Llewelyn fall for Shavonne and for Shavonne to meet Llewelyn again. So acting as parallels, Llewelyn having undergone years of abuse is symbolized by the toxins he accumulated from drug testing (after each needle injection, he sleeps longer and longer) and is now healing with Shavonne’s help (represented by the peeling and eating of onions: detoxifying the toxins/trauma)). Also to correct my previous assumption, he probably can’t clear the drugs as fast as a normal person (since he slept longer than Shavonne on meds), but the animal testing theory still holds as he clearly has a unique body composition that proves useful in testing out the max potential potency and adverse effects of certain drugs. And “dogs” are probably the closest animal models with similar genetic composition to humans (cause reminder, they are humans). Someone in the pharmaceutical field can probably weigh in on this. And regarding the royal family, even if my theory is wrong, their appearance is definitely meant to show that even with the same looks, status is what separates how you are treated (and ig, also to add mystery to Llewelyn in the beginning and to use as a red herring to mislead some readers into believing that maybe he’s royalty so that he can be saved (or absolved of his crimes) - highlighting how important social status is. And subverting such expectations, Llewelyn is rescued not by having a higher status but by someone of a low social standing: Shavonne (both physically and symbolically)).

- (cause reminder, they are humans) -
You know at some points I was really like : "is he a dog? Then it would be a really fucked up story". They were so sure he was, that I started doubting Shavonne as a narrator haha
┗( T﹏T )┛

- to mislead some readers into believing that maybe he’s royalty so that he can be saved -
I didn't fall for that one, but definitely wondered if it was a trap on purpose

Thank you very much for this.