Chapter 200 – Reunion (1)
Confusion covered Adol’s face as he looked over the people surrounding him.
“……”
“I don’t understand. werewolves? The monsters that attacked the village were all……”
“Monsters?”
Rea interrupted Adol.
“Isn’t that just another word for a monster?”
When Adol could not answer immediately, another werewolf responded to Rea.
“Now that you mention it, that’s true.”
“If we’re monsters, then what are the others?”
“Who knows? Why do the others matter? We’re monsters!”
Adol finally exploded at the sight of them leisurely beginning their own pointless conversation.
“That isn’t what matters! I’m asking whether you’re truly the ones who attacked the village!”
Their snickering laughter instantly vanished, and the atmosphere became heavy.
Rea extended her hand toward Adol.
Before he could resist the tremendous force closing around his throat, his body was lifted into the air.
“Ghk……!”
“Brat, I’ll acknowledge that you have courage, but you must not forget that you’re weak. You have neither the right to ask questions here nor the right to become angry with us.”
Facing her ominously glowing eyes, Adol struggled to escape the hand constricting his airway so tightly that he could barely swallow.
The more he struggled, the stronger her grip became.
Just as his throat was completely closed and not even the slightest amount of oxygen could pass through, someone seized Rea’s arm.
“Rea, anyone who passes through must be taken to Archi. Surely you haven’t forgotten the rules.”
It was Mona.
Rea glared at him once before releasing a dismissive breath and loosening her grip.
“Ghk……!”
Before Adol, who had collapsed onto the floor, could even recover his breath, Rea grabbed him by the back of his neck and lifted him.
“Of course I haven’t forgotten. If only so I can report your mistake, I’ll bring him there without harming a single hair on his head.”
Adol, who had been coughing weakly, regained his senses when he heard that they were taking him somewhere.
“Wait. You’re taking only me? What are you going to do with those people?”
Honestly, Adol did not particularly care whether the others lived or died, but Ran had clearly told him to take him along.
Feeling that he should not leave behind the man who had behaved as though he knew everything, Adol urgently grabbed Rea’s arm.
Rea burst into laughter at the child’s desperate movement.
“Is it because you’re young? You truly are a meddlesome brat. Naturally, they’ll become our food. Wouldn’t it be better for them to die quickly than to spend eternity trapped inside painful memories?”
Adol’s face turned white at her answer, but Rea ignored him and attempted to carry him away.
Adol hurriedly escaped her grasp and ran toward Ran.
“Wait! Then take this man with us too!”
Rea watched with interest as Adol slipped from her grasp, then seized his arm again.
“Anyone who cannot escape through their own strength is merely our food. That is the rule.”
This time, she tightly restrained both his arms so he could not escape and began dragging him away.
After confirming that Rea was not harming Adol, Mona offered no further criticism of how she handled him.
“Devour the rest.”
At Rea’s command, everyone except Rea and Mona began moving deeper into the cave.
One werewolf approached Ran, who was closest.
Adol felt his blood turn cold at the sight.
If they left now, that bastard would undoubtedly be devoured.
“Hey! You said you would save me! Wake up, you lunatic bastard!”
The child shouted wildly at Ran.
Laughter erupted around him again, apparently because they found his behavior amusing, but it was better than allowing Ran to die without doing anything.
“My eardrums are going to burst. Should I cover your mouth too?”
Just as Rea irritably reached toward Adol’s mouth, he suppressed the tears threatening to emerge and stared at Ran, who had begun walking slowly toward them.
Smack!
With the sound of an impact, the werewolf who had approached Ran staggered backward.
“What?”
Rea stopped and furrowed her brow.
“That bastard is moving.”
The werewolf who had been knocked backward spoke in confusion.
“That’s impossible. Humans can never escape once they become trapped. How could he possibly—”
“It wasn’t particularly difficult.”
An ordinary voice interrupted Rea.
* * *
Perhaps because I had been in the past until moments ago, Adol’s face looked unusually young.
Then again, the way he stared sullenly ahead made him look somewhat sulky as well.
I considered ignoring him, but my recent experiences made me want to behave more like an adult, so I spoke.
“You look fine.”
However, there must have been something wrong with my approach because he sharply turned his head and glared at me.
“Fine? Fine? Does this look fine to you?”
I carefully examined Adol from head to toe.
His arms and legs were still attached. There was some dirt on his face, but he wasn’t bleeding. No matter which way I looked at him, he appeared fine.
Of course, his arms were tied, and he was dangling from a rope.
We were descending a steep cliff.
The werewolves were carrying us downward in the most efficient manner possible.
But wasn’t this something one might experience at least once while living in a world like this?
“You’re surrounded by werewolves, yet all four limbs are intact and you don’t have a single cut. Doesn’t that mean you’re fine? Did you come to hunt monsters without preparing yourself for even this much?”
Convinced by my words, Adol opened his mouth as though feeling wronged, but eventually nodded.
“That’s…… I suppose you’re right……”
Although he answered weakly, he seemed to acknowledge that traveling with an adult was still more reassuring than being alone.
“You said you would save me, so I thought you possessed some kind of special power. If I had known you would be captured this helplessly, I wouldn’t have struggled so hard to drag you here……”
He continued muttering, apparently still dissatisfied.
“What would be the point of resisting that many opponents?”
He apparently believed that was also reasonable because he stopped grumbling.
“……But are you really all right now? Your face was so white earlier that it looked as though not a single drop of blood was flowing through it.”
“I’m fine.”
Adol had asked as though speaking casually, but he narrowed his eyes at my answer.
“Your standards are broken. You clearly don’t know what being truly fine means.”
“If you’re worried, simply say that you’re worried.”
His expression grew even fiercer.
“……I’ve been thinking this for a while, but why do you always speak as though you know me so well?”
“How can one person truly know another? I was merely guessing.”
“Are you saying everything was a coincidence?”
Not everything. There had been a little intention involved as well.
But he did not need to know that.
When I gave a vague nod, his eyes narrowed.
“Was it also a coincidence that you were the only one to regain consciousness inside the cave?”
In my experience, questions like that and a gaze like his expressed suspicion and anxiety toward me.
“That was the result of planning and misfortune.”
Even after hearing my answer, the child continued looking at me suspiciously.
“They said people who have killed someone become trapped inside those memories forever. They also said no one has ever escaped. How did you do it?”
These damned werewolves had told the child all sorts of things.
Frowning, I blamed the monsters for being far more talkative than expected.
Nothing good would come from saying too much here.
Their hearing was several times sharper than ours.
“The future hasn’t arrived yet. People who escape from it will continue appearing in the future.”
“How can you be certain?”
Perhaps because of his age, he was brimming with curiosity. I was about to tell him that I had learned it by coincidence when—
“These humans certainly talk a lot. Aren’t you frightened? Most people would be trembling uncontrollably by this point.”
Apparently finding our conversation entertaining, one of the werewolves slowed his descent down the wall and joined us.
Since we were hanging like bagworms, it was understandable that he found it strange for us to be this talkative.
“Where are you taking us?”
Adol glared at him as he asked.
“Can’t you tell by looking? We’re taking you to where we live. Once you enter, you’ll never come out again, so enjoy the outside scenery while you still can.”
“What exactly are we supposed to enjoy? There’s nothing around us except rocks.”
The child’s crooked question was entirely reasonable.
The monsters were descending the cliff rapidly while carrying us, and nothing was visible except the sheer rock wall.
“A day will come when you miss even this desolate scenery.”
“Are you going to make us slaves? Will you kill us if we refuse to obey?”
The werewolf laughed loudly at the tension in Adol’s voice.
“I told you, we won’t kill you. We’re taking you to Archi.”
“You’ve been talking about Archi this entire time. Who exactly is this Archi?”
“He is our leader. He creates the rules and guides us.”
“Hey! Stop telling them unnecessary things!”
Rea, who carried the rope binding Adol over her shoulder, shouted. The werewolf who had been explaining everything to us exclaimed in alarm and hurried farther down.
“He left.”
When I muttered, Adol turned and glared at me again.
“This is why I think you’re strange. How can you not be curious about anything? Those creatures could do something horrible to us when we arrive.”
“They already said they wouldn’t kill us. There’s no need to ask about things we’ll naturally learn once we arrive. You’re being carried by someone fairly tolerant, but the one carrying me doesn’t seem to like me.”
After answering Adol, I raised my head and glanced toward Mona, who had been glaring at me as though he wanted to bore through the top of my skull.
I knew he was not clumsy enough to fall from the cliff, but I wished he would concentrate solely on descending.
If he fell, that bastard would survive, but with my arms and legs tied, I would……
I would survive too.
I could transform and fly away.
Just as I vowed to interfere so Mona could not land properly if that happened, voices began rising from below.
Howls were mixed among them like background noise, but at least there were no screams.
That meant we were approaching the ground.
I prepared myself for Mona to throw me onto the ground, but he lowered me more gently than expected.
The instant Adol’s feet touched the ground, he warily surveyed his surroundings.
I silently waited for the child to become disappointed by the sight, which differed from what he had imagined.
“What……is this?”
Adol muttered blankly, unable to understand the scene before him.
“Why? Did you expect everyone to be tangled together in a blood-splattering fight?”
“Or did you imagine an enclosure filled with beasts?”
The other werewolves arriving behind us walked past the stunned Adol.
Adol watched their backs, each carrying a large sack, before turning his head in every direction.
Then he found me standing there without any particular reaction and frowned.
He opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something, but before his interrogation-like questions could begin, Mona and Rea grabbed us and dragged us away.
“You two are going this way.”
We obediently and diligently moved our feet wherever they led us.
The settlement was too small to be called a village, but the sight of so many people forming a community appeared no different from a human settlement.
Of course, instead of houses, rows of temporary tents used during hunts had been erected.
The werewolves in human form laughed, conversed, and occasionally raised their voices in arguments, just like humans.
They pointed and laughed at us as we were dragged past while restrained, but none attempted anything beyond that.
Occasionally, groups glared at us.
However, they still showed no intention of attacking.
This peculiar treatment finally ended when we reached the largest tent.
Since all the other tents spread outward around it, the person waiting inside was undoubtedly Archi.
Beside me, Adol gulped.
The child turned his head around so frantically that it was distracting, breathing roughly all the while.
“Go inside.”
Apparently displeased that we had stopped to survey our surroundings, Mona pushed us from behind.
The first thing to greet us after we were shoved inside the largest tent was a stuffed bear’s head with its jaws stretched wide open.
I followed the bear hide spread across the floor with my gaze and saw a man standing upon it with his back turned to us.
His size was the first thing that caught my attention.
He appeared at least one and a half times larger than the other werewolves.
After his enormous build, the next most conspicuous feature was his long hair.
His long, braided black hair reached his waist.
As we approached one slow step at a time, Archi turned his head toward us, finally allowing me to see his face.
If gazes possessed physical weight, his eyes seemed capable of crushing someone beneath them.
His face had strong, sharply defined features and displayed no particular expression, but the pressure carried by the eyes examining us was immense.
“Archi, we have returned.”
The moment Mona finished his brief greeting—
“You fucking bastard!!!”
Adol charged forward with a furious scream.
The rope that had bound the child’s hands was already lying on the floor.
I watched Adol rush forward, but I neither stopped him nor prepared to attack alongside him.
I also suppressed the advice that shouting like that was useless during a surprise attack.
However, I did casually step in front of Mona and Rea when they hurriedly tried to seize him.
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