[Author’s Note] To celebrate the 100th chapter, I tried a three-part release! Congratulations to everyone who has made it this far @[emailprotected]! And thank you! Chapter 102
34. Wolf and Spice 101 – Wolf and Spice #2
━ You’ve won.
Kublai muttered calmly while looking up at the sky.
I realized that he was talking to me, hidden behind the cave wall.
━ Everything… went according to your plan, huh? The fox, the wolf… even I and those pesky humans are all dead. Yet, here you are, not a scratch on you. Impressive. Such a sneaky scheme, but I gotta admit, it’s kind of amazing.
Kublai was dripping bl**d from his mouth.
He limped away slowly, his body full of impaled spears and arrows, a broken front paw dragging behind him.
━ Everything’s gone according to your plan.
His back looked so small and bitter as if he had made peace with d*ath.
Even though I harbored hostility towards Kublai, his calm demeanor despite the recent events made me feel a flicker of solemnity.
I stepped out from the cave and followed him.
‘This guy is gonna d*e soon.’
Kublai walked like an immortal hero, but judging by his increasingly labored breaths and faltering steps, it was clear that his time was running out.
━ It’s all going according to your plan…
He kept muttering the same phrase. I walked alongside him, sheepishly scratching the back of my head.
━ Actually, it’s not all according to my plan. It just sort of happened. I did what I had to do to survive, so don’t blame me too much.
It felt oddly like confessing a shameful crime.
I really hated Kublai for destroying my home, but after witnessing his performance and spirit just moments ago, I found myself somewhat appreciating him as a fellow male, a fellow male!
Now I was growing more curious about how his final moments would play out.
Kublai seemed to find my confession amusing, letting out a small chuckle.
━ You’re saying this wasn’t a plan but just chance? That sounds more like a lie. Ha! Well, life is often a series of unplanned coincidences. Mine certainly was. I broke free from my cage and wound up in this forest. I became the lord of the woods without a single talent, just through sheer force and will. Honestly, I had no plans whatsoever… none.
━ So where are you heading now? Shouldn’t you just lie down and await your demise with those wounds getting worse?
━ I’ve always lived on my terms. After escaping the cage, I enjoyed freedom for hundreds of years. But now, I have duties I must attend to. As an alpha…, as the lord of the forest, there are things I must do…
Kublai pressed through the pain, refusing to stop his pace. No, in fact, he even picked up speed, almost like he was racing.
Now, even I, with no talent for navigation at night, felt like I could foresee where he was heading.
The silver fur scattered around like stardust on the ground made a path beneath him.
‘This guy is trying to return to the wolf den. Even with arrows stuck in him and his vision fading, he’s stumbling toward his home.’
Was he perhaps seeking to embrace his d*ath in the comfort of his familiar den?
No, that didn’t seem right. He was likely on his way to meet someone. At least, that’s what I thought.
With his dragging hind leg and the broken front paw, there seemed to be a glimmer of excitement, as if he was looking forward to something.
Was he on his way to meet a lover? No, definitely not.
‘He’s going to meet his pups left back in the cave. This guy is heading to Tartarus!’
I couldn’t comprehend why Kublai, who especially hated humans, would raise Tartarus as his own child.
Did Tartarus hold some value worth the sacrifice of his own life?
Yet I found myself with no questions or remarks to offer. I could only wait quietly for the wolf to take his last breath.
Kublai gasped and quietly began to speak.
━ You must think it’s strange. Why a wolf like me, a human-hating scoundrel like Kublai, would raise a human as my child… Everyone’s wondered about it. Those wolves who couldn’t accept the truth fled the pack. That’s where all this chaos started…
Kublai coughed violently.
Watching him spit out bl**d, I wondered if broken ribs were crushing his lungs.
━ Humans should never have been part of the pack. Humans… they throw their babies wrapped in swaddling clothes to me just to save themselves. Is a crown that important? To sacrifice your own child to a starving wolf? Ack… I can’t understand it.
It was hard to grasp what Kublai was mumbling about.
━ The kids wrapped in swaddling… they must have been twins. The moment I saw them, I was cursed. Cursed… their tiny eyes, their furless skin seemed fragile enough to be hurt by grains of sand. If I had just swallowed them whole without looking, none of this would have happened. But then again, humans…
Maybe he was about to lament the cruel fate that led him to this point. But even in his agony, Kublai grinned, exposing his long fangs.
━ Ha… I had no choice. It didn’t matter if they were human, wolf, crippled, dimwitted, or clueless. On that day, they became my children. That alone was enough reason. Being a father is a curse.
And with that, Kublai fell silent.
His blindness from the arrows meant he couldn’t possibly see, but by now, white flower petals were fluttering in the breeze beneath the moonlight ahead of him.
The lettuce flowers visible in the moonlight meant we were nearing the wolf den.
━ Get lost, you little brats! This isn’t a place for you!
The silver-haired wolf Borjigin was hopping around at the cave entrance, while torch-bearing humans hesitated to approach due to the rampaging wolves.
“What’s the main force doing!? Why are the wolves coming back here?!”
“Ugh, we can’t return empty-handed! If we go back like this, we’ll be demoted, no, we’ll lose our jobs!”
“d*mn, my wife’s due to give birth to twins next month. I can’t lose my job!”
The humans flailed their spears and swords, trying to drive the wolves away. Amidst all this, Kublai slowly stepped forward, parting the crowd.
“W-What is that…?!”
“T-The lord of the forest. Looks like the main force has failed in their operation…?”
The humans trembled in fear at the unexpected appearance of Kublai.
With his body full of spears and arrows, bleeding as he advanced, Kublai appeared like a demon rising from hell.
He approached a small wolf trembling and caught in a net at the cave entrance and freed it with his own jaws.
━ A-Afather…
Tartarus froze, unable to speak upon seeing injured Kublai.
He extended his slender arm under the skin to pull out the spear lodged in Kublai’s mouth.
Kublai slumped down before him, barely lifting his head to speak in a small voice.
━ Tartarus, there’s something I didn’t tell you. You’re not actually a wolf. You’re not even my child.
━ D-Don’t lie. And please, don’t say anything more. You’re going to… your wounds… are going to…! There are herbs that heal wounds if you go to the white fur…
━ Listen carefully, Tartarus. You’re human. You can’t survive in this forest anymore. Cough! Our pack doesn’t need any humans like you anymore. Follow them.
━ Is it because of this spear? The one lodged in your mouth has cursed you into lying, right?
━ I’m not lying! You’re human!
Kublai roughly tore off the wolf skin that draped awkwardly over Tartarus’ body, causing gasps to rise among the watching humans.
“What? That’s a human wearing wolf skin?”
“Is it a boy? It’s hard to tell with his long hair, but he looks sturdy enough to be a boy.”
“That massive wolf seems to be trying to eat that boy!”
Kublai growled, and the sight of Tartarus clinging to the spear before his mouth projected an image of a boy being devoured by a wolf.
In that moment, an arrow flew and lodged itself in Kublai’s face.
“What the hell!? Are you crazy!?”
“We’ve gotta save that kid! He looks so exhausted. That forest lord is weak now. We can definitely take him down!”
“Thinking about it, that makes sense!”
The humans seized the moment and stabbed Kublai’s immobilized body with their arrows and spears.
Borjigin, the silver wolf, struggled valiantly to fend off the oncoming humans, but it seemed utterly insufficient to thwart the frenzy of the crazed humans.
━ Grrr, Father!
Borjigin was pushed away by the thrusting spears, distancing himself from Kublai.
The humans began mercilessly stabbing Kublai, who laid there without resistance.
“d*e, d*e!”
“The final blow is mine! I’ll k*ll him!”
“With this, we’re rich!”
Kublai stood like an old tree, but his head slowly bent and collapsed to the ground like a centuries-old trunk.
“Are you okay, kid? How did you end up here?”
“Is this the child left behind by the advance party? No reports mentioned there was a child.”
The humans reached out their hands toward Tartarus, who wouldn’t let go of Kublai’s corpse.
Tartarus growled ferociously, showing his teeth as if he wanted to bite the humans’ hands.
━ Get away from him, you humans! Stay away from my father!
“Whoa, look at him growl! He’s more of a beast than a human. What the heck is this kid?”
“Hey, I found something inside the cave! Doctor, do you recognize this? What’s it worth?”
The middle-aged man wearing glasses, called ‘Doctor’ by his companions, frowned deeply.
“What? That’s a crown! With eagle wings drawn on it, it must be a royal insignia…”
“Now that you mention it, this boy… looks familiar. Even though his hair is long, hold on, let me see!”
The hunters grabbed Tartarus, whose legs were flailing, and tied his long hair back to make it look short.
“See? It’s hard to tell due to the long hair, but if we make it look short…!”
━ Let go! You punks! Let go of me!
The bespectacled Doctor raised his eyebrows and examined Tartarus’s face more closely, speaking in a careful and low voice to his companions.
“When did Duke Steiner’s disappearance happen? Right before the swearing-in ceremony when he said he was going to purge this forest.”
“That was 14 years ago. But why does that matter?”
“He and his wife disappeared here in the forest. Didn’t it say she was pregnant with a baby?”
“What are you trying to say? I’m not a doctor, so speak clearly!”
In response to the insistence of his companions, the bespectacled doctor pointed to the crown one of the hunters was holding.
“Idiot, look at that crown! It’s a royal symbol! And this boy looks just like the young Duke Steiner in paintings! I don’t know how this wolf got involved, but it seems he raised the boy as his own!”
“That means we’re going to be rich?”
“Rich? That’s an understatement! We’ll get titles! Search everywhere! The Duchess was said to be pregnant with twins! There might be siblings too! Search thoroughly! Now’s not the time to worry about the forest lord or bounties!”
“d*mn, we’re rich! Three thousand gold coins? No, thirty thousand!”
The hunters began to grin, displaying their white and yellow teeth beneath the torchlight. They seemed determined to rummage through everything around the cave to find something more.
I was hiding, watching the humans drift away from Kublai.
Breathing faintly, Kublai exhaled weakly from his nose.
‘Even in this state, he’s holding on. What an incredible will to live.’
━ … Borjigin, I’m always sorry…
━ No, Father.
Kublai lifted his head with the last of his strength.
━ You must survive.
In response to Kublai’s words, Borjigin, still at a distance, let out a haunting howl.
And with that, everything came to an end.
It seemed the tranquilizer that could put down five elephants finally took effect, and Kublai fell into a deep sleep.
A sleep where no one could tell when he would awaken.
‘… Sleep well.’
I took my front claw and gently scraped a bit of Kublai’s wounded skin.
As I put it in my mouth, I felt the toughest and most gritty flesh I had ever tasted.
【You have gained experience.】
【You have gained experience.】
【You have leveled up.】
My experience shot up all at once.
‘So, is my level now 19?’
━ Hah.
I let out a large breath that I had been holding in and sucked in a deep breath.
Humans with poor sense of smell would never be able to find me.
I glanced back and forth between the fallen Kublai and the humans recklessly slashing through the brush and vines with their spears in the cave.
‘Beasts. Humans.’
Where exactly do I fit in?
Tonight, I was caught amidst the turmoil of beasts and humans but had found no place to lay my head.
What I felt briefly was that whether beast or human, there’s a heavy reliance on comrades and packs.
‘It’s normal for beasts to stick with beasts, and humans to stick with humans. So, who am I supposed to be with?’
At this moment, I believed myself to be a strange creature with a beast’s body and a human’s soul.
Just as I was deep in thought, a shout rang out from afar.
“I found another kid here! Come to the lettuce flower field! There really was a girl nearby!”
