Chapter 24 - Red Wolf
Fwoooooosh─!!
I ripped off the necklace.
Even though the necklace was just made of a thin string, the sound of flesh tearing was chillingly audible.
The jewel, which had now become a demonic object.
It glistened with a green light that was neither bright nor dark.
Its last struggle was, fittingly for a struggle, ugly and tenacious.
The lingering thoughts within it seemed to speak to me.
How. How on earth.
How are you fine even though your heart was ripped out?
Not much explanation was needed.
“Sorcerers are the ones who fear death the most. We know best how to evade it.”
I smoothed my torn garment.
I could feel the skin underneath, cleanly mended.
This was the power of Regression, one of the Path of the Beast sorceries.
It showed a self-regeneration as if time had been turned back.
Its speed was faster than the heart disappearing from the body and the brain realizing that fact.
The brain, only after the heart had regenerated, recognized that it had been ripped out and accepted the fact that it had died once.
The subject of the sorcery was the brain, not the heart.
I had to be careful about my head being completely crushed, but the fact that a fatal wound that didn’t even require a confirmation of death was no longer fatal was a great advantage.
Thus, the person most surprised here was, above all, Remus, who was holding the heart.
“You…. You were clearly dead….”
“The reason your daughter’s blood took a long time to stop.”
The Youngest Son cut him off.
I had no desire to listen to a dog that wouldn’t listen to people first.
“It was a ploy by the evil spirit to make her body an easy vessel for complete possession. It was trying to drain the healthy blood of a werewolf and replace it with its own demonic energy-filled blood.”
The jewel, lightly handled, was passed to the marrow that had grown from my back.
A red, bony hand snatched it in an instant.
Pzzzzzt─
The jewel turned to dust and scattered.
The evil spirit’s end was no different.
Watching it scatter with the wind, Remus gently stroked his daughter, who had fallen asleep as if she had fainted.
“My daughter…. Is she cured now?”
Thank you. Are you okay? What on earth happened? Instead of those words, this was the first thing that came out.
Since those bright yellow eyeballs probably couldn’t contain much, I answered kindly.
“She’s probably healthier than you, who looks like you’re about to die from excessive bleeding.”
“…It must be the price for turning a blind eye even after I defeated you and realized my daughter’s condition. I will die soon.”
“You’ve been spouting ridiculous things for a while now. You can’t die. Even if you want to die, I won’t let you.”
“…?”
“Someone worked while having their heart ripped out, and you’re trying to get away without paying the price? It seems the honor of werewolves died in your place.”
Thud─
I placed a hand on his shoulder.
This was why I hadn’t retracted the marrow yet.
Gurgle─
The artificial body made with the Path of the Beast filled the empty space.
With the blood flow manipulation ability of a blood noble, I also stopped the bleeding.
“With your regeneration, you’ll be walking around just fine if I just put out the urgent fire.”
“…Did you survive just now in a similar way?”
“Something like that.”
Human Transmutation could be used on others, but Regression was limited to the caster only.
Other than that difference, what they did was similar.
Of course, from now on, it was time to do something other than creating a missing heart.
“Are you ready?”
“…For what.”
“Paper and a pen. My demands are going to be quite numerous, and I doubt they’ll fit well in that head of yours that can’t even recognize your own daughter’s face.”
“Khuhuhut….”
Remus laughed self-deprecatingly.
“Do you remember what I said before I took your heart?”
You are not like the Queen.
Because the Queen never does anything that puts her at a disadvantage.
“That statement. I must retract it now.”
“Blood is thicker than water. Don’t you know that saying?”
“Indeed. It’s a very fitting saying.”
He lifted Cailin.
Although she was limp, the vitality in her skin was richer than ever, and her body was warm.
She had always secretly loathed herself for being as pale as a vampire due to a constant lack of blood.
So, from the moment she opens her eyes, she will always love her appearance.
Like a normal werewolf, like kids her age, running here and there.
“Hunter!”
As the situation seemed to be wrapping up, the werewolves who had retreated came running.
But this time too, they were with restrained people.
“Young Master!”
“Young Master. Fortunately, it seems things have been resolved well.”
Clank─
The Head Maid and the all-purpose porter, who made the sound of clashing chains whenever they moved.
“Did you come to rescue me?”
The all-purpose porter answered shyly.
“We were also captured.”
“I see. You’ve worked hard.”
“Thank you.”
Remus looked at the humans with a hesitant expression.
The one who was captured earlier. The ones who were just captured.
Anyone could see they were a group.
So he was about to order them to be released.
The Youngest Son spoke faster than him.
“I don’t know these people.”
“…Is that true?”
“Yes. I don’t know those who wander outside without listening to their superior’s orders.”
The Head Maid said quietly.
“Young Master. This was the all-purpose porter Lubosch’s independent decision and has nothing to do with me.”
“H-Head Maid…?”
“Ah. Is that so? Then let’s just kick that one out.”
“Y-Young Master…!”
“Quiet. You go to the warehouse and move the stolen materials. That will be your punishment for disobeying orders.”
“Y-Yes, sir….”
Lubosch turned around with a thoroughly dejected expression.
The Youngest Son said a word to his drooping back.
“Separate from not following orders, it can be said that you completed your important mission perfectly. You may be proud. Isn’t that right, Head Maid?”
“Of course. As expected, it was a position more suited to Lubosch than to me.”
“…W-Well, there’s no need to go that far…. Then I’ll be on my way quickly!”
Four words were enough to make his dejected face break into a grin.
He was a simpler fellow than even the werewolves surrounding them.
Watching Lubosch run off with a single-minded grin, Remus said.
“It seems you threw him a good bone.”
“It’s a good bone only for him.”
“Knowing what is good for each individual is also a quality of a sovereign. Follow me. Didn’t you say you had many demands?”
The Hunter invited the Youngest Son, and a direct descendant of the Vampire Queen at that, into the village.
The Head Maid followed behind him and asked quietly.
“May I ask what happened?”
“I became the benefactor of the werewolf race.”
I said it without hiding anything.
What I said proudly behind Remus’s back was not denied by the one walking in front either.
Looking at the daughter in his arms, he couldn’t shake his head, even if it was a direct descendant of the Queen.
“You have achieved a great feat. A benefactor of the werewolves.”
They were a race that respected and revered honor.
To such beings, a benefactor had to be cherished as dearly as honor itself.
Werewolves were beings who could even throw away their lives for their benefactor.
Since the benefactor had first thrown away his life for them.
In accordance with faith and honor, they too could throw away their lives.
“From now on, I will call you the Red Wolf. Everyone here will do so.”
Even without thick fur, claws, and fangs, he was one of them.
Because only kin would sacrifice their lives for their kin.
The new kin answered briefly.
“Young Master is enough.”
The Red Wolf was more comfortable with the title he had grown accustomed to.
***
A week passed.
Until then, the Balum family had not received any contact from the Black Wolf Brigade.
The request was successful.
The request failed.
Or it was in progress.
One of the three should have come, but there was no news from them.
They had certainly requested a second raid on the Maxman Merchant Troupe, and the Black Wolf Brigade had accepted.
They were scoundrels who had accepted without hesitation at the mention of more money.
They had even demanded an advance payment, gobbling up everything they could get.
But what was this hesitation now?
Didn’t they know that the longer they waited, the more fortified the Maxman Merchant Troupe would become?
Family Head Cardmun Balum couldn’t even sleep.
Every time he closed his eyes, he seemed to hear his dead son’s voice from beyond the darkness.
His heartless son was wishing.
For another heart to replace this empty space.
The Fifth Son’s heart.
“Family Head. News about the Maxman Merchant Troupe has come from the informant dispatched to the Citadel.”
“…What is it?”
The servant paused for a moment before carefully opening his mouth.
“The news is that laborers are once again flocking to the warehouse owned by the Maxman Merchant Troupe, and they have begun mass-producing an unidentified item.”
“Is there no information about that item?”
“The informant said that a strong smell of medicinal herbs emanates from it.”
“Medicinal… herbs.”
After brutally taking away another’s son, he was comfortably handling herbs?
Cardmun Balum said with deathly pale lips.
“Any news from the Black Wolf Brigade?”
“None.”
“Send people to their branch office.”
“I had already given the order, but the only word that came back was that they had already withdrawn from every branch we know of.”
“…Withdrawn?”
They took the money and are backing out now?
“Hahahahaha….”
He let out an empty laugh.
Since when had the prestige of the renowned Balum family become such a mess?
It was truly pathetic and shabby.
He had to wash away this dishonor with the Fifth Son’s blood as soon as possible and comfort his son by tearing out his heart.
To do that.
“It seems nothing will improve by borrowing the hands of underlings anymore.”
“If so….”
“Gather Balum’s Cursed Knights.”
“A-Are you planning to strike the Fifth Son directly? It will be very problematic for us to officially attack a merchant belonging to the family.”
“This can’t be done for this reason. That can’t be done for that reason.”
After a series of mumbles, lifeless eyes looked at him.
“Why were there no reasons why it couldn’t be done when my son died?”
Swish─
A short, cutting sound filled the desolate office and then disappeared.
The scythe that had sprouted from the ceiling had finished its role as a guillotine.
A guillotine that would soon be heading for the Fifth Son.
***
Mass production was proceeding smoothly.
Although it was much later than planned, the laborers moved diligently, motivated by passion (a large salary).
Josephine, who had made various tools in her spare time after creating the security traps, also played a part.
That security trap was Josephine’s first work.
As a Magitech engineer with the blood of the Wisdom family flowing through her, her sense for anything related to mana was incredible.
Without any major test runs, she caught most of the defects and flaws in the circuit just from sketches, completing it in her head.
What was needed next was the dexterity to realize what was in her head, but Josephine was outstanding in that as well.
So when he first saw the completed mechanism, even Jubel, who had seen all sorts of landscapes and new technologies while wandering the world, was impressed.
“Hoh hoh. So the entire mechanism in the form of a fence is a trap. How much firepower is launched the moment you step on it or cross it?”
When he asked the technician.
“Reggie is in charge of firepower, so I don’t know for sure, but he said sonic waves on the level of an ex-girlfriend’s are unleashed. Then the cleanup will be easy too.”
“Indeed.”
Jubel’s eyes turned from Josephine to Kio.
“That young man. He was helping the laborers, and now he’s completely stuck to them. The speed at which he sorts Poison Herbs is so fast, he did the work of ten men alone.”
His speed was so suspicious that he had taken a brief look at his work.
It was so perfect that he felt sorry for having been suspicious.
The sight of him placing two boxes on either side and brilliantly separating the top-quality products from those that weren't was that of a master.
The countermeasures against the Plague Demon made with what Kio had selected showed the highest quality.
His work speed and ability were so excellent that even a prodigy like Jubel acknowledged it.
The reason they were able to meet the schedule somehow was largely due to the help of the young man named Kio.
Jubel stacked the finished products high on the Mariella and looked at them with satisfaction.
Then he looked back at the Youngest Son, who had a similar expression.
“I believe this should cover the first supply shipment.”
“So it seems. Now, let’s buy land.”
“…Land?”
“You’re a man who plays with money, and you don’t know about land?”
“Of course I know about it, but a simple stall is enough to sell a ‘vaccine’.”
“That’s right. A simple stall is enough. But there is always a main branch. Some people will seek out a place even if it’s in a remote location.”
The Youngest Son’s words ended there.
Nevertheless, Jubel was able to nod his head.
He had only now caught up with his vision.
“I understand very well what you mean. We will proceed as planned.”
The two entrepreneurs and money-lovers smiled at each other in understanding.
Until Marvin came with new news.
“Y-Young Master! Merchant Troupe Head! The Cursed Knights of the Balum family have formed a line in front of the factory!”
“…Young Master.”
“What was bound to happen has happened.”
He unclasped his hands from behind his back and put on his sunglasses.
“I will go myself.”