The Weight of a Name

Shinbi-nim finally completed the antidote and went to rest only after confirming that it was delivered to each tribe.

“Valta calls, everyone to the conference hall!”

Soon after, all the Varg gathered at the summons.

Their pale faces had cleared up in just a few hours.
This was all thanks to the antidote that the Valtael had risked her life to bring and personally made.

“Did you hear the rumor? They say she’s a Destroyer.”

Even though the lowly ones were whispering without knowing their place, she had busily moved her tired body to feed them.

“How can you trust and drink an antidote made by a Destroyer?”

Those who had kept their lives and seized victory thanks to the Valtael’s plan, how dare they.
As he was about to twist their limbs in anger, she stopped him, saying it was fine.
She even smiled at him, telling him not to worry.

“Then I’ll drink it first.”
“It’s better for a healthy person to do the clinical trial anyway.”

The Valtael is like a lotus flower.
A pink flower that blooms unbefittingly in the mud.
It looks fragile, but its firmly grasped roots are not swept away by the dirty water and hold their ground.

“To think the Valtael is a Destroyer.”

‘Shinbi-nim is a Destroyer.’

‘…No.’
He had faintly expected that she was an Awakener.
But he didn’t say it out loud.
At first, he thought, ‘No way,’ and now it was, ‘So what?’

“Tegen. This is called a ghillie suit. If you wear it, you can camouflage yourself like a bush.”

Even as she was leaving for the much more dangerous Igra nest, she had given him a handful of precious holy relics, telling him not to get hurt.

“…It’s a Destroyer’s item, but will you accept it? It will be helpful.”

And yet, seeing her worry that he might be offended by the item she was giving him, he had burst into tears, and she was the one who didn’t know what to do and soothed him.

“You’re using a lot of antidote, right? Eat this at least.”

So what if a person like that is a Destroyer.
To him, she was just the one and only Valtael.
Tegen wiped his tears with his hand, which was sticky from holding the honey candy so tightly.

“Valta, have you been well.”

As soon as he arrived, Valta, who had broken the neck of the hyena bastard in the prison and come, sat on the main seat, and the surroundings became quiet.

“…You seem to have a lot of questions.”

On their faces, which were all itching to speak, when he said, ‘If you have something to say, say it,’ they spoke, watching his expression.

“Is it true that the Valtael is a Destroyer?”

“Yes. It is true.”

As he revealed it so confidently, there were no words.

Normally, they would have chattered on and on, but the great heroic epic that the Valtael had achieved in a single day was holding them back.

With an eccentric plan, she had defended the city with less than half the personnel, overturned the Igra’s nest, brought back the antidote, and quickly manufactured it, saving the clan.

A triumphant return.
That expression said it all.

“Inar.”

“Yes, Valta!”

Inar, who always played the role of a moderator in meetings because of his booming voice, came forward and bowed his head.

“What do you call an Awakener?”

“A Destroyer.”

“From today on, an Awakener is an Awakener.”

A stunned murmur finally arose.
They exchanged glances and had looks of astonishment.

As if to say, ‘Say something,’ they turned to the Maha sitting in the main seats one after another.

The black mane Radugan, the red fang Shaman, the gray claw Merhen.

Among the high-ranking Varg called the ‘Maha,’ they were the ones who had the largest support base, had survived for a long time, and had even once coveted the position of Valta.

“It’s about time we put aside the old hatred.”

The first to speak was the black mane Radugan.
The Varg, whose eyes were sparkling, thinking he would be the first to oppose, had a stunned look.

Radugan had been subjected to the ‘eternal hunt’ by the Awakeners before the Ruin.
Radugan, who had barely escaped that punishment by pulling out one of his own eyes, hated the Awakeners more than anyone.

But his mind had changed.

Radugan had instinctively recognized the woman called ‘Valtael’ at first sight.

‘Destroyer.’

Just as his fur would stand on end when he saw something disgusting, a sense of revulsion had welled up the moment he saw her.

The woman whose voice he had never even heard, as the number one Sura were always stepping forward as if they were the tongue in her mouth.
The female who would just blink her large, gentle eyes like a grass-eating beast.

‘A demon must be sitting inside that innocent-looking shell.’
‘He thought she would reveal her destructive nature at any moment.’

“I’ll go alone. I’ll get the antidote even if I have to risk my life.”
“None of you can die without my permission, absolutely not!”

At her angry shout, he had decided to take a chance.

‘A life that would be slowly gnawed away without an antidote.’
‘He thought he would try to grab even a rotten rope.’

‘If I’m betrayed this time, I’ll never trust that cunning subordinate again.’
‘He had vowed to cut the throat of the Destroyer wench even if it meant his eternal death at the hands of Valta.’
‘But the female had returned as if to show him.’

“This is the antidote. When you’re done, eat this too.”

She had come to him with tired eyes and handed him a basket containing the antidote.

She had even given him a candy that a child would eat, with her eyes full of fear, and then disappeared as if running away.
He had looked at her receding back for a long time.

“…Radugan! What are you thinking so deeply about?”

“It’s your turn to vote.”

Radugan, who was tightly clutching a lump of hardened honey, picked up the arrow in front of him.

The title for the Valtael.
It was a vote on whether to call the Destroyer an Awakener again or not.

The bowstring, made of black mane fur, was drawn, and… thwack!
The place where his arrow landed was, surprisingly, the ‘yes’ target.
A huge commotion arose in the hall again.

“…Hey, Radugan. You, didn’t you shoot wrong…?”

“I agree to call her an Awakener.”

Whether the murmuring grew louder or not, Radugan looked at the Valta sitting in the main seat with his one remaining eye.
The man, who was lost in thought with one chin propped on his hand, as if made of ice.

“Whether we like it or not, the fact that the Valtael is an Awakener does not change, so how can we continue to call her a Destroyer. It’s not something we should do to Valta either.”

‘Since when did you follow Valta so well?’
Even at the dumbfounded gazes that landed on him from all sides, he returned to his seat.

“Uh, thank you for believing me.”

Radugan fiddled with the honey candy in his hand for a long time.

Karvan turned into mist as soon as he left the conference hall.

He climbed up the cliff like a salmon going against the current and entered the bedroom on the top floor.

There was no need to rush in Bahalgras.
But recently, such things had become frequent.
He would rush in as if his tail were on fire and only be at ease after seeing her sleeping face.

He washed his hands in clean water, took off his cold outer garment, and wandered around the room to warm up his body, and only then did he hold his mate.

“Mmm…”

Even when he carefully pulled her into his arms, she just complained shallowly and didn’t wake up.
She must have been tired from putting up with his stubbornness for several days without sleep.

The Varg had been looked down upon for hundreds of years.

Since when was it?
Was it after they were kicked out of Dowongyeong?
Or maybe it was after the Ruin.

They had plundered whatever they could to survive the Ruin, and they had tenaciously stolen other people’s things, so it was unlikely that even the beasts would look at them kindly.

“I’ll go, I’ll go back. Please, don’t kill Ilai.”

He had caught you when you went for a walk to the fox den and brought you back, but the males of other races who had heard the rumor were jealous.

“They say the attacks have become more frequent because of me…. Is it okay?”

“Did the Maha talk nonsense again.”

If the city had been exposed to the world just because one of you ran away, it would have been ruined long ago.
He repeatedly told you not to listen to the chatter of the lowly ones, but you were still dejected.

He came out for a walk to soothe you, but there was always an obstacle.

The hyena bastards used a shallow trick, but he easily deflected it.
The moment they showed their teeth, he blocked their poison fangs with the ice armor that covered him.

He couldn’t block it completely and was lightly grazed, but it was a tolerable level.
But you seemed to believe that he had fallen for that obvious trick.

“Why did you block it! Since when have you…”

‘You should have just left me alone, why did you block it?’
‘You resent me, but your eyes well up with tears and you worry about me even when you just take a deep breath.’
‘He liked that, so he deliberately pretended not to be well.’

“Hngh, wait, if you move, the poison will spread faster.”

“My body feels at ease when I touch you.”

“R-really?”

You, who do not know my pretense, naively mix your tongues.
You diligently suck and swallow my lips as requested, and when I coax you a little more, you even do a pretty thing.

If I groan a little, your eyes widen, and you even willingly give the tongue-lashing you had so refused, and after hesitating for a long time, you even get on top of me and do your thing.
Your womb bulges, and you gag, but you still shake your hips to relieve my rut, and it’s a paradise.
Even if I look at you all day, my center stands erect.

“Mmm, uh, really, are you getting better, hngh, right…?”

“Yes. Much better.”

Even if I copulate with you until you lose your mind, my greedy body is never satisfied, and no matter how much I try, it won’t go down, but thinking you are not enough, you look at me anxiously.

Pretending not to know that, I made the unreasonable demand that I wanted to suck your passage with my mouth, and that it would be a little better then.

You, who would have refused coldly without a second thought normally, hesitate.
As I make my complexion pale with my primordial energy, you hastily get on top of me.
Seeing you even offer your private parts, which you would never have allowed, I am relieved that you don’t completely lack feelings for me.

“Ah, huh, hngh…. d-don’t move.”

“Come a little closer.”

When I say the pain disappears if I stay inside, you even obediently allow me to sleep with my phallus inside you.
Holding you in my arms with your full lower abdomen, I have no envy in the world.

A desire arises to put down roots inside you, like a tree that grows entwined with another to share nutrients and not be swept away by the wind and rain, and to be forever intertwined as one.

If not for the bad news that the well had been poisoned, I would probably have done this for a long time.