Aftermath

‘…What, there’s no fun in fighting like this.’

I left the terrified guards behind, casually rotating my lightened shoulders as I exited the prison.

The head guard, who was tilting a bottle of rum at a desk in the next room, lunged at me, but I easily slammed him into a corner.

“You bastard! I’m sure I put control cuffs…!”

Of course, those control cuffs worked just fine.
Thanks to them, my status window and inventory were still inaccessible.

However, ‘Berserk,’ which transforms me into a beast-kin, is a basic passive skill that can be used without weapons or mana.

Moreover, among the beast-kin races, the Varg have the highest stats.
Although pink fur had sprouted here and there on my body, and the sound coming from above my head felt very unfamiliar, it was undeniable that it was a broken skill.
After all, a high-level monster was knocked down with a single punch.

I snatched a bunch of keys from the waist of the head guard, who had fainted after being hit in the solar plexus.
Jingle, jangle.
I shook the keys cheerfully, then turned my head back into the prison.

“…You guys.”

“Hic!”

Their eyes were wide and red.
The Nemean guards, sensing their future, trembled their manes.

“Stay against the wall. If you don’t want to die.”

A short while later, I returned to the prison with a cheerful gait.
The air in the basement, which felt much colder than when I left, was unfamiliar.

“Karvan!”

I saw a white ponytail sitting askew in a chair.
I didn’t notice it from the front, but the man’s hair was quite long in the back.

“Get up.”

Tap, tap.
As I tapped the desk, he, who was sitting with his arms crossed in the head guard’s chair, opened one eye.

‘How relaxing.’
Someone had a hard time going through all that trouble.
I looked at Karvan with a reluctant expression, then checked his wrists.

“The handcuffs? Did you get them off?”

He silently gestured with his chin towards his feet.

I saw the Nemean guards sprawled out like laundry.
No wonder there was no one on the way here; it seemed he had taken care of them in the meantime.

I thought he would be useless, so I went alone, but he’s surprisingly good at fighting?
I looked at him with an unexpected expression, then threw what I had brought.
It was a bunch of keys I had obtained after clearing out all the guards on the other floors.

“They said it’s a master key, so it should open most of the cells.”

I was feeling generous after having taken off the control cuffs, taken out new clothes from my equipment window, made a recovery potion and chugged it down, and beaten up the Nemea to my heart’s content.

“Your subordinates seem to be upstairs. Go on.”

Even so, out of the camaraderie of being cellmates, I didn’t run off alone and even got the key to where his subordinates were locked up.

But he didn’t readily accept it and just stared at my face.

“……”

The same inscrutable gaze I had been seeing all along.

I didn’t expect a ‘thank you,’ but I was about to snap at his expressionless face, then decided against it.

‘Whatever.’
We’re not going to see each other again anyway, so let’s end on good terms.
I offered a word of blessing.

“I hope you rescue your subordinates well.”

“I still have something to take care of.”

So what.
Is he asking for help?
I looked at him with a sour face, but he took off his outer garment, draped it over my shoulders, and said.

“It’s dangerous, so go out first. Let’s meet in front of the Nemea fortress in an hour.”

“What? Why would I…”

I looked at Karvan with a look that said I had heard nonsense, but he picked up the bunch of keys and disappeared in a mist in an instant.

‘…What.’
Selfish until the very end.
I looked reluctantly at the frost-covered chair the man had been sitting on.

Tegen, the number one warrior of Bahalgras, looked down at the lit Nemea fortress with an anxious expression.

“Still no news from Valta?”

“None, sir.”

Valta, who was supposed to have executed the plan half a day ago, was still silent.

Valta himself had gone in to negotiate to find out the location of the city that the bastards wouldn’t reveal even if they died.
Did something happen?
If I had known this would happen, I should have insisted that the underlings do it, even if it meant my death.

Valta, who didn’t even flinch when poked with a pure silver skewer, couldn’t possibly be powerless because of a single pair of silver handcuffs, but there was no news no matter how long I waited.

“Chief, what should we do?”

“What do you mean, what should we do. We have to strike, you idiot. Let’s go!”

Tegen finally led the warriors and overturned the Nemea’s strategic point.

He wasn’t one to be this late.
Something must have happened.
Even if he was punished later for moving without permission, he had to confirm that Valta was safe.

If they lost Valta, who was barely holding the reins of the precarious situation in Bahalgras, the clan would face a second destruction.

The Nemea garrison instantly became a beehive.

They were no match for us in the first place, and we were even going easy on them, yet they didn’t know their place.
It only took a few minutes for the Varg to take control of the Nemea.

I hastily followed Valta’s scent, but instead of the Valta I was looking for, I only saw a small female figure.
Her cherry-blossom-colored hair, which stood out even from several meters away, reached her waist.

A color perfect for natural selection.
Only they have such hair color.
The Destroyers who made them like this.

I wondered if she was a Destroyer, but seeing as she was drenched in Valta’s scent, it couldn’t be.
It was even more unlikely that she had killed the current Valta, who was said to be the strongest among the Varg, and taken his clothes.

Most of all, what was she doing in this pandemonium of an underground corridor?
I watched her quietly from behind with suspicious eyes.

Over her hunched shoulders, I heard the sound of something being cut, click, click.
When I peeked over, I saw her clipping and collecting the nails of the fainted Nemea.

‘…Is she not in her right mind?’

I really didn’t want to talk to her, but I was confused because Valta’s scent was wafting from her entire body.

“Excuse me, were you with someone by any chance?”

Unable to bear it any longer, I spoke to her, and the woman flinched and turned around.

“…Me?”

A face without a single scar, as if she had never been in a fight, and a bewildered expression.
No matter how I looked at it, it seemed I had the wrong address.

“Are you talking to me?”

There were only the two of us in this bloody corridor, so was I talking to thin air?
I was about to say something, but I held back after seeing her dazed eyes that looked like she would cry if I poked her.

“Yes. A strong scent of the person I’m looking for is coming from you.”

Even if she wasn’t a Destroyer, she seemed to be human.
Her nails were short, she had no tail, and her ears were on the side, so it was almost certain, but you never know.
She might be a special case like Valta, whose beast-kin features are not outwardly visible.

“Do you happen to know where our Valta is?”

“Valta?”

“…Never mind. Excuse me.”

“Could it be, Karvan Baharga?”

I was about to turn away, thinking it was a lost cause as she asked back blankly, but I jumped at the name she spat out.

“Yes! Yes. That is our Valta’s name!”

She tilted her head, then pointed to the ceiling with a slender, furless finger.

“He’s probably upstairs. He went up to rescue his subordinates.”

“Do you know our Valta? If so, I will do my best to escort you…”

“No. We were just cellmates.”

They were in prison together?
But it’s impossible for the scent to be this strong just by being in the same space.
Unless they had imprinted.

‘…Our Valta needs to imprint soon too.’
He would be stable if he had a Valtael.
Tegen hastily dismissed the irreverent thought that had unconsciously come to mind and bowed his head.

“Ah, by the way. If you know Karvan…”

As I was about to turn away, thinking it was my misunderstanding, the woman said something shocking.

“Please return this to him. That man lent it to me.”

As I was stunned, she snapped her fingers, waved her hand in the air, and summoned a familiar piece of clothing.

It was Valta’s ceremonial robe.

“And tell him not to wait at the Nemea whatever.”

“D-did you have an appointment with Valta? If so, let’s go together!”

“No! Just tell him.”

The woman backed away in fright, then made a pouting face and said clearly.

“It was dirty being together, so let’s never meet again.”

“…is what she asked me to tell you.”

Tegen, the number one warrior of Bahalgras, relayed the words of the woman he had met at the Nemea fortress an hour ago.

Should I relay this verbatim, or not?
Should I have grabbed the woman who spat out the words and turned away and scolded her for being impudent to Valta?
I had agonized over it dozens of times on the way here.

I had been racking my brain all the way here, but seeing Valta, who hadn’t budged from the entrance of the Nemea fortress for several minutes now, I had no choice but to tell the truth.

“W-well, she knew Valta’s name, and she turned away so resolutely, I didn’t know what to do, so I just let her go…”

“……”

“S-should I have detained her?”

I peeked at the chief, who was just fiddling with the returned ceremonial robe, and saw his usually ice-cold lips curve up crookedly.
Tegen doubted his eyes.
Valta only made that expression when he was pulling out the heart of an enemy chief…

“Let’s go.”

Lost in thought, Valta, who had been staring off into the distance, finally began to walk.

If it were really necessary, he would have had a tracking warrior attached to her and brought her to his feet, but seeing him go in person, the warriors just exchanged glances.

“There is no need for Valta to go in person. The underlings…”

“I’ll go myself.”

I meekly accepted the answer that was thrown as if he wouldn’t say it a second time and shut my mouth.

Tegen, who would normally have been the first to discipline the underlings, was fidgeting and hesitating.

“If you have something to say, say it, Tegen.”

“…S-sir, who is she? Who in the world…”

He wanted to ask how she could carelessly call out the name that even the elders dared not speak, and still keep her life after relaying such disrespectful words.

Valta, who would normally have rebuked him for asking something beyond his station, readily answered.

“She imprinted.”