Chapter 351

“Dude, you’re such a waste. With a little luck, you would have made it. Vesper, how did you get that thorn in your side?”
Blantha asked, but Varen didn’t answer.
I wasn’t in the mood and had no reason to answer.
Lethe said.
“He’s probably using a handsome meter. Vesper lights up.”
“Wow, does Letheny think you’re handsome? I really don’t know.”
Blanta smirked.
Human aesthetic standards were unknown.
Varen gritted his teeth as he listened to their chatter.
“Gulp—!”
No matter how hard I tried, it wasn’t enough.
The soles of my feet weighed down on my back like rocks.
He lay at Blantha’s feet, chained from head to foot.
Even as a human, he stood nearly two meters tall, but he couldn’t win a hand-to-hand fight with a water man without using an auror.
It wasn’t even a situation that could be solved by shaking off the leopard.
“I heard the commotion outside again, so I did something. The fly got tangled.”
“Still, it’s not the first fly to come this far, is it?”
In addition to Blanta, there were two other men in the room.
A werewolf and a werebear were sitting on the guest couch smoking a cigarette.
They were dressed to impress, as was Blanta.
The gown draped over her body was made of the finest silk.
The wearbear exhaled smoke and opened its mouth.
“Whoa–I’ll be on my way. I’ve used the excuse of being dragged off and beaten up for being a sissy so many times, don’t you have a decent excuse?”
“It’s been a while since I’ve given you a carrot, so I’ll give you a bundle of dried cod to share with the workers. You’ve been given a treat for your hard work.”
“I don’t like fish because it’s fishy, but…well, I’ll do it. It’ll be good for my dignity.”
Wearbear pushed himself to his feet.
He slips out of his robe and into a pair of dirty coveralls.
Judging by the dirt and grime, it looked like something you’d wear in a mine.
Sure enough, the wearbear picked up a larger-than-life pickaxe and left the room.
“See you then. Lethe boss.”
“Okay. Come by anytime you need a break.”
“I’ve had a long break, too, so I’ll be back, but rest assured, I’ll make up the quota somehow.”
“Thank you, I can always count on you.”
The werewolf followed and left.
His fur smelled like the sea, so he was probably working on a fishing boat or in a salt pond.
He exited through a different door than Wearbear, which seemed to serve as a plaza of sorts, judging by the five immediate entrances.
Seeing the world’s cooperative demeanor, Varen’s face fell.
“Why?
I couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on.
The Zaifa’s men are not the only ones who have been captured.
Lethe was stunned.
“You look surprised and confused. For your information, they report recoil molecules and problems to me without being asked. They’ll even take matters into their own hands if there’s any discontent in the pack.”
“Why would you do such a thing—.”
“Don’t think too hard about it, they’re just cooperating because they’ve been good to you, and once you show them the sweetness of heaven, they’ll never forget. They’ll do anything to keep getting the same treatment.”
In short, it was a way of having a front man to handle the slaves efficiently.
Lethe said, glancing at the door through which the men had exited.
“It’s a little disgusting, but it doesn’t matter. You use both carrots and sticks to tame the beast, and it’s easier to manage an organization when you have some of those slaves on your side.”
“Man is not a–beast.”
“I know,” he said, “but it was better in many ways to think of them as animals, and it made them feel less guilty. If they were not animals, how could they do such things to people?”
Lethe stroked his beard and smiled.
Funnily enough, his appearance was stoic and gentlemanly.
His middle-aged face, with hair slicked back, looked more like the head of a bank or a diplomat than the leader of a nefarious organization.
Varen felt the hairs on the nape of his neck stand up, exactly where his mane used to be.
‘Evil. How can a human being be so evil?’
A visceral sense of malaise surged through me.
It’s similar to when I confronted the poachers in Caribolo, who would have blown my head off before I could scream in my original body.
‘We need to gather more strength. It’s not enough.’
Varen suppressed the killing with superhuman patience.
We were able to use Aurors, but it wasn’t enough to turn the tide.
Killing Lethe was pointless if we couldn’t rescue Sekrit and escape unharmed.
“Kool-aid, kool-aid!”
“Professor…!”
Even worse, the condition of the secrets was much worse than Varen had expected.
It looked like I’d been beaten up pretty good, with bruises everywhere and a few teeth knocked out.
Lethe snorted as she watched.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself, curse mage. Your beasts don’t die like that.”
“Grrr… Ughhh…”
“”Cursesmith, you’ll have to rebuild the stake. Something much stronger than the one Varka Turgun used. I warn you, you’d better cooperate.”
Rathe warned.
The arrogant tone of his voice conveyed a strong sense of confidence that no matter how hard your people tried, they could not escape his grasp.
He stroked Sekrit’s head, then stood up.
“Come with me first. I have something to show you.”
****
The sky was white.
The carpeted clouds were scooping up thick snowflakes.
Varen and Sekrit were chained side by side and being taken somewhere.
We’d already been out of the fort for about half an hour, and I wondered how much longer we could go.
Blanta, who was leading the two, said nervously.
“Oh, ma’am, you’re not coming fast enough. You’re awfully slow.”
“Blanta, why are you doing this, you glorious SS—!”
Varen said in a whisper.
The distance between them and Lethe was considerable and the wind was blowing hard.
In fact, it’s Blanta, not Lethe, that Varen doesn’t really understand.
He couldn’t understand why a warrior of his caliber, a warrior who had been recognized by the Zaifa, would join such a ragtag organization.
“Ha, the honor–that’s what I thought at one point, too. It was a fucking pain in the ass, but the form was definitely better back then.”
“It’s not too late, you can still—”
“No. I like it the way it is.”
Blantha cut him off like a knife.
His tail, colorfully patterned like a flower, was fluttering as usual.
In other words, it was not false.
“Why?”
“This is where I realized that living by instinct is the true happiness. I eat when I want to eat, sleep when I want to sleep, and of course, pack when I want to pack. I don’t have to hold anything back. If this is not happiness, what is?”
“But that’s the life of a beast, not a man!”
Varen lamented.
It was an incredibly selfish idea.
But Blanta only bared her fangs and smiled.
“What’s wrong with being an animal. I’m having a blast, killing like three fuckers a week in style rather than go back under that crazy tiger…but why the fuck are you creeping up on me?”
Suddenly, Blanta yanked on the chain.
The two men fell to the ground, unable to resist.
Su Yin’s strength was not something that could be sustained by holding on.
“Kaboom!”
“If you start talking down to me again, you’re going to get me.”
“Gyo, professor. Are you okay?”
“Ba—ren.”
Varen stood up first and helped Sechrit to his feet.
Lethe had told her not to be so harsh, but the slender Wearfox’s body was trembling as if she might die at any moment.
Varen’s eyes widened at the sound of his name.
“Why, why is that, Professor?!”
“You——.have lost a lot of weight since then.”
“—Yes?”
“Kuluk, you were right to bring him— I told you— he’d be a hit when he turned human.”
Sekrit smiled with satisfaction.
Varen was stunned.
I’d be less embarrassed if I got hit in the head by a shooting star on a walk than this.
“Oh my God, do you really have to tell me that now?”
“Hmph–hahahahaha—.”
Sekrit responded with an embarrassed laugh.
Apparently, I got hit in the head more than I thought.
Varen was about to say something when Lethe, who was leading the way, stopped.
“Here we go.”
He arrived at the top of a cliff.
The unobstructed view allowed me to see the surrounding landscape at a glance.
A sizable town had been built along the blackened coastline.
“Where is…?”
“This is the home of the North Winds. A place that proves your efforts are futile. Look down there.”
Lethe’s finger pointed to a village by the sea.
He said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
“I heard you were working with Sekrit to rebuild the North, you know, mend fences between races, break curses, that sort of thing.”
“——!”
“It’s all for nothing, nothing will change.”
Varen was speechless.
Or rather, I was so shocked that I didn’t even hear Lethe’s words.
On the shore in front of the village, a line of human children stabbed at the scarecrow with spear swords.
“Let’s all sing! Where’s Suyin?”
“It’s a beast!”
“What about the north?”
“It’s human!!”
At first glance, it was an ordinary drill, but the content was the problem.
The scarecrows were painstakingly crafted, each with a different hide.
Wearwolves, wearbears, and even tiny wearfoxes.
The scarecrows were sized differently to fit each race’s size, which I found to be a bit malicious.
“You think the North can change, and you do what you do because you believe that one day the Sioux and humans can be united again.”
“Ah… Aaaah…”
“But most of the snorting dogs in that village hate Suyin. They treat him as if he were their parent’s enemy, even though they’ve never even seen him, let alone been harmed by him. Perhaps if the Northern Conquest fails in our lifetime, they’ll make it up to us.”
“How could anyone do this!”
Varen yelled, unable to control his emotions.
His previous misdeeds were terrible, but this was something else.
The reaction made Lethe smile like the world was ending.
“Whoa…watch this. Varen. This is the curse.”
“…Professor?”
“This chain of hatred is the true curse. The blood of the ancestors is bathed in the blood of the descendants, and once again the enemies of the descendants call for blood. Man hates man, and this curse of unreasoning hatred is nothing compared to the stakes that Varka left behind.”
The dying Sechrit suddenly spoke up.
I felt like a different person, like I didn’t have the slightest mispronunciation.
He said, keeping his eyes on the village.
“This is a problem we must solve. No matter how cold the north wind may be, it must not freeze the hearts of the people. Children born in blizzards must be taught the warmth of fur before they grow up.”
“—You’re suddenly very talkative, Cursologist. You were right about the trickster, weren’t you?”
“He wasn’t very sneaky. It really hurt when it hit.”
“That’s called being a dick, and you might as well have bought a sympathy ticket for all the trouble you’ve been in, and now you’re coming out here to try to pull some kind of stunt.”
“There’s nothing I can do about it now. I’ve made arrangements, but it’s almost time to get there.”
“Arrival?”
Lethe scowled.
Did this fox get hit too hard and turn around?
Suddenly, Blantha wrinkled her nose.
“Ugh… Lethe. I think we’re going to get fucked.”
“What’s wrong?”
“It smells like our colon.”
“What?”
Lethe frowned.
There was only one person Blanta called her boss.
He was about to say something when he felt an indescribable chill.
-Kaaaaaah!!!
Suddenly, there was a roar like a thousand thunderbolts.
Everyone in the room turned their heads in the direction of the sound.
One of the spires of the North Winds’ fortress was crumbling, its beams cut off.
“What the—!”
Lethe’s eyes widened.
For the first time, his usually easygoing face creased.
A cosmic Saccharan crack ran across the spire’s cross-section.
The traces of the space itself being cut out were something I’d seen time and time again during my wanderings up north on social media.
“Gahhhhhh! What, what?!”
“Ambush! Ambush!”
The fortress was in chaos.
Screams and shouts were being heard sporadically.
Out of nowhere, a heavy shadow landed on the spire.
The shadow that had fixed Unwaldo looked at Sechrit and said.
“Drinking buddy, are you still alive?”