336. Wild dog, don’t look at the moon (1)
“If you’re good at everything else, why can’t you ride a horse normally?”
Volk, who was sitting in front and holding the reins, grumbled.
“You have to have something to ride.”
After fixing the prosthetic hand, I was heading to the village of Lycanslope, where his sister would be, to keep my promise to Volk.
The destination is the border area between the Empire and the Kingdom of Terrasia, a little far from the Academy. It was the Uldor Mountains there.
Although it is a mountain range, it is famous for its rough terrain, so it is a place that people do not visit often. Volk says he has been living there since he was born, so I think the Lycan Slopes may have been there from an early age.
Wouldn’t the rugged terrain of the Uldor Mountains be nothing more than a child’s playground for the Lycan Slopes?
“It can be treated…?”
“……”
“Sister.”
As Volk took me away, he asked in a voice that sounded like he was about to burst into tears, probably because he was worried.
As I got closer to the mountain range, I guess I got lost in my thoughts about my sister.
“I’m telling you in advance, it will take some time. I think the critical point will be when the next full moon appears after starting treatment.”
“Waiting is no longer a task.”
“How many years have you been living alone?”
“…I don’t know. I guess it’s been about two years now.”
“You must have been younger back then. Who will take care of your sister during this time?”
“There is an older woman. She is someone I met in the village, and when she heard about our situation, she decided to take care of my sister.”
“You climb the Uldor Mountains every time…?”
“You seem to know the way well. I heard you often gather herbs.”
“Ah…”
I trailed off and swallowed the words that were welling up in my throat without bothering to spit them out.
‘Because it’s not certain yet…’
But it is true that I had one question.
As far as I know, there is a fairly large herb farm near the Uldor Mountains. Therefore, unless you are a human living in the mountains, there is no reason to come to the dangerous Uldor Mountains to collect medicinal herbs.
***
Two men were walking deep in the Uldor Mountains.
One is a boy with long, furry silver hair. And another person was a blind man with black hair whose eyes were covered with white bandages.
As the cold got to them due to the higher altitude, the blind man buttoned the black coat he was wearing and moved around.
On the other hand, the boy raised the corners of his mouth as if he was rather familiar with the cold weather of the high mountains.
“It’s here.”
Eventually, their feet stopped and the boy looked at the blind man and held out his palm behind him.
There was a quiet village where he pointed.
The fence at the entrance to the village had skulls of various creatures hanging on it, which seemed to be the ‘medals’ of those living in the village.
“My sister says there were quite a few tribe members when she was young, but during the war, not all of them came back alive.”
“What happened to the young children who didn’t go to war?”
“I heard that everyone split up to find their own way to live. First of all, there isn’t much to eat around here. My sister stayed behind in this empty village to take care of me.”
The silver-haired boy, Volk, slowly explained as he walked into the village.
“Can we find them again?”
Zetto, the blind man who was walking behind him, looked around the village as if he was looking for something, even though his eyes were covered with bandages. To be precise, I listened towards the forest surrounding the village.
“What should I do when I find it?”
“I thought it would be better to gather together rather than spread out. At the tribal level.”
“I don’t think it will be easy to get together since there is no chieftain, let alone survival…”
“Ah, does it depend on whether there is a chief or not?”
Soon, Zeto, who was walking around the village, approaches the huge statue placed in the center of the village, tilts his head and moves around the statue.
“The one you are touching now is the Chief. It is my father, Zargath.”
“Are they putting up a statue of the chieftain? If it’s Zargas…”
“Have you ever heard of it?”
“Just once in passing.”
“I don’t know much, but it seems like it was famous enough to be heard by humans.”
Zargas with the silver mane.
He is a much more famous figure than Volk thought, and is known to have led his tribe and mercenary group to sweep the battlefield.
He was scheduled to be awarded the Imperial Medal as soon as the war ended, but unfortunately the award ceremony was never held. There were many opinions that they would have survived safely even if they had not met the demonic corps commander in the final battlefield.
“How long are you going to fumble with the rock? Let’s move quickly.”
“……”
Zeto removed his hand from the statue and gazed at the quiet forest beyond.
The forest his eyes were focused on was so quiet that not a single sound of wind could be heard, but that may not have been the case for him who had a ‘spirit’.
Zeto, who was staring blankly at a corner of the forest, put a meaningful smile on his lips and moved his legs.
ㅡKwak.
Soon, Volk opened the door to the only house in the village that was not dusty.
There were two women in the house.
“……”
One of them was Volk’s sister, who was lying on the bed making a groaning sound.
“Hey, is Volk here?”
The other person was a middle-aged woman who had been taking care of Volk and his sister for a long time.
“I’m sorry I’m late.”
After briefly greeting her aunt, Volk immediately walked up to her sister and checked her condition.
“……”
Zeto then came in after Volk and made eye contact with the ‘aunt’ who was standing in one corner of the kitchen. If I had to ask, it would be more accurate to say that her heads were touching.
Unfortunately, Volk, who was preoccupied with her sister, did not see the sight of her being shocked and surprised when she saw Zeto in her eyes.
“Volk, who is this…?”
“I’m the person who came to treat your sister.”
“Treatment… Are you done? For as much as 50,000 gold, you could bring in a more qualified high-ranking cleric…”
“No, he will treat you.”
The middle-aged woman, whose eyes were covered with bandages, seemed to be feeling unwell, but Volk shook her head and flatly rejected her offer.
“What’s the condition?”
Soon, Volk asked Zeto, who approached his sister who was lying on the bed.
“I’ll have to look into it now. Come to think of it, I didn’t hear your name.”
“Misty. Call me Misty.”
After hearing her name, Zeto nodded slightly and immediately went to check on Misty’s condition.
Noticeably heavy breathing.
The body became a ball of fire as the fever rose.
Misty, who was lying on her bed sweating profusely, looked like she was not in a good condition.
Zetto, who was tracing the area around her neck with his finger, opens his mouth.
“The condition is worse than I thought. It seems to have worsened rapidly recently.”
“Is there a cause?”
“The cause is…”
After her words trailed off, Zeto slightly tilted her head and caught her eye on the bowl of herbs that was placed on the table next to her bed.
“……”
Zeto immediately picks up the herb bowl, smells the herb, dabs it with his finger, and tastes it.
“What is the cause…! Are you saying it can be saved or not?!”
Volk, feeling frustrated with Zeto’s strangely relaxed attitude, grabbed him by the collar and shouted.
“…We can save him. It may take a little longer than planned.”
Zeto’s expression did not change even in response to Volk’s mournful cries, and he carefully shook off his hand and stood up.
“Where are you going?”
Volk questioned Zeto, who was suddenly about to leave the house.
“Volk, let me give you some advice.”
With the corners of her mouth slightly raised, Zeto turned around and looked at the boy who looked like he was about to cry.
“You need to be suspicious of unreasonable favors at least once.”
“Favor without reason…?”
“And ignorance is not a sin, but sometimes it can be a poison that takes a person’s life.”
“What do you want to say?”
Volk, who could not understand Zeto’s meaningful words, muttered quietly.
“For example, even if there is a mysterious woman who climbs the rugged Uldor Mountains to obtain medicinal herbs directly from an intact farm, that is possible. There are all kinds of people in the world.”
“Well, what do you mean…”
At his words, the ‘old lady’ looks offended.
“But the story could get strange if the mysterious woman was feeding your sister poisonous herbs rather than medicinal herbs.”
“Poisonous plant…?”
Volk, who was staring blankly at Zeto, turns his head towards his aunt.
“Look, Volk… What does that blind man know about herbs…? Are you going to trust that quack over me, who took care of you?”
“Volk, this isn’t a question of whether you believe it or not. It’s just a simple matter of finding a lie cleverly hidden in the truth. Then, I’ll catch some rats nearby for a moment. It’s probably going to interfere with the treatment. “I think so.”
Zetto left the house with those words.
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“……”
Volk slumped down in his seat and looked down at the floor blankly.
Not long after, the sad sound of human flesh being cut into pieces reaches his ears.
When Volk heard the sound, he asked a question to the ‘lady’ who hardly moved.
“…Ma’am, now that I think about it, there’s something a little strange…”
“Huh…?”
“Did I ever mention that 50,000 gold is at stake in this…? That was just a loose comment…? Well, she doesn’t even know what I’m doing…”
“……”
“No…? Say no… Please…”
“……”
Despite Volk’s sorrowful voice, the middle-aged woman who was called ‘aunt’ quietly took out her dagger from her arms without saying a word.
“……”
The wild dog that saw this shed tears quietly and eventually showed its fangs.
***
When Zeto returned to Volk’s house, the ‘aunt’ was nowhere to be found.
In one corner of the kitchen where she should have been, there was only one body, smashed against the wall, torn to pieces and unrecognizable.
“……”
Volk was sitting on the bed where Misty was lying, his hands covered in blood.
“Do you recognize any faces?”
Zeto asked, laying out several human heads in his hands on the floor.
“A few times in passing. These are all faces I saw around Shanova.”
“It looks like he used a special perfume to avoid the smell. It looks like he was trying to avoid the olfactory scent of the lycan slope.”
From the friendly ‘aunt’ to the assassins hiding in the forest.
All of them were people assigned by his broker ‘Shanova’, who was using Volk by deceiving him, to monitor him.
Volk had been tied up in her web that she had spread a long time ago.
“……”
Volk looked at the distorted necks in fascination and then wiped his face.
“Let’s get out of the way for now. I think the academy will be the safest.”