Like any other city, Ende had a garbage dump.
And like any other city populated by beastkin, Ende had a district primarily inhabited by pig beastn.
And in Ende, the two were one and the sa.
Cities built by humans resemble the bodies of their creators—consuming greedily, digesting what they can, and expelling the waste. Before that waste is discarded entirely, it is searched one last ti, just in case sothing valuable remains. That final scavenging ground is the garbage dump.
For pig beastn, it was their ho. Their workplace. Their world.
“Snort... snort snort.”
The stench was overwhelming, mucus dripping from their noses. Even pig beastn, who had stronger resistance than other beastkin, couldn't escape the foul odor entirely. Their clogged nostrils made them sound no different from the pigs they resembled.
Snorting and sniffing, they dug through the trash.
“Oink?”
One young pig beastman, rummaging through the filth, suddenly paused. His keen nose had caught onto sothing. Focusing on a single spot, he began to dig with renewed vigor.
Then, his face lit up with joy.
“Oink! Found it!”
A large sack—filled to the brim with bones.
They had been boiled for so long that they were stark white, stripped of all blood and at. Not even a sliver of flesh remained.
And yet, they were still precious food.
When split in half, the marrow could be sucked for its rich taste. If the thin mbranes on the ends were scraped off with a knife, they could be eaten as though they were slices of raw at.
A rare treasure in the garbage dump.
“Oink. Who the hell wrapped this up so tightly? Trying to hide it or sothing?”
Anyone could see that it was pork.
But for those who had no ti to question their survival, the type of at didn’t matter.
To the pig beastman boy, it was a prize. A jackpot.
He wasn’t alone.
There were dozens, no, hundreds like him—beastn who lived by digging through the city’s refuse.
Pigs rolling in the filth of civilization.
“Still living like this, are you?”
A voice, deep and grave, approached from behind.
The pig beastman boy flinched and quickly hid the bones beneath his body.
“Wh-who...?”
He turned his head.
Before him stood an enormous pig beastman.
A body packed with muscle, marred by countless scars.
Most of them were wounds from battles with beasts. But rather than marks of defeat, the scars spoke of resilience—of survival.
Two curved blades, shaped like tusks, hung from his waist. His eyes, filled with both scorn and pity, looked down upon the boy.
He was a pig beastman.
And at the sight of his folded-back ears, the boy clutched the sack of bones even tighter, his voice rising.
“This is mine! Stay back, or I’ll—”
“Relax. I don’t want it. I don’t even care.”
“Then why are you here?”
“My na is Grull. I co from the Endless Plains.”
Grull.
A na well-known among pig beastn.
A warrior who had reached enlightennt.
A living legend who protected the wilderness beyond Ende.
The presence he exuded made it clear—this was no imposter.
The pig beastman boy’s eyes widened.
“You’re really... Grull?”
“I’ll show you.”
Grull raised his hand and thrust it into the garbage heap.
Then, with a single motion, he # Nоvеlight # lifted his arm.
Dozens, no, hundreds of pieces of trash floated into the air.
They neither scattered nor fell.
It was a feat only possible through Qi mastery—one that required not only imnse strength but also precise control to channel Qi into each individual object.
No ordinary beastman could hope to mimic it.
The one before him was truly Grull.
“Why... why would soone like you co here...?”
The boy had looked upon the pride of their people, and yet, sothing felt wrong.
For soone of such strength, such glory, to be standing here, in a filthy garbage dump, before a boy rejoicing over discarded bones—it was like a cruel joke.
Monts ago, those bones had been his treasure.
Now, they felt like the deepest sha.
He wanted to throw them away.
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
But before he could, Grull knelt before him and asked,
“How long will you live like this?”
“...What?”
“This life. Scavenging through trash, enduring the stench, treating scraps of discarded food as if they were treasure.”
It was neither an insult nor a mockery.
It was simply the truth.
The boy clenched his mouth shut.
If he spoke, he felt as though the sha would consu him.
Grull continued, his voice steady.
“Rather than live like this, co with . You’re not too late. If you learn under , you can take control of your own life.”
A master of Qi, a warrior who had reached enlightennt, was offering to personally teach him.
This was a once-in-a-lifeti opportunity.
A chance that would never co again.
The boy gave his answer.
“No.”
A blunt refusal.
But it was the truth.
Instead of throwing the sack of bones away, he clutched them even tighter.
Grull’s brow twitched.
“Snort. You really intend to stay here?”
“What’s wrong with that? This is how we all live! , my parents, my friends—everyone!”
The boy spat onto the ground.
Once he started speaking, the resentnt, long buried within him, spilled out all at once.
“What else am I supposed to do? Work as a courier? That’s the sheep beastn’s job. Tailoring clothes? The goats do that! Should I serve humans? That’s the dogs' work! The only thing we can do is dig through the trash!”
“There are other ways.”
“Oh, like you? Risking your life fighting in the wilderness? Suffering wounds, struggling to survive, dying the mont luck turns against you?”
He was young, but he was still a pig beastman.
He knew what it had taken for Grull to reach enlightennt.
And he knew what lay beyond Ende’s borders.
A savage land.
A place where predators with razor-sharp fangs hunted the weak.
Where status was dictated by strength.
Where the weak beca prey.
No matter how ashad he was of his life, he had no intention of dying out there.
Better to live in filth than perish in the wilderness.
“No. I refuse. I want to live.”
“...Even if it ans living in such misery?”
The boy, hugging the sack of bones, looked up at Grull with resentnt.
“It’s not this place that makes miserable.”
His voice was quiet.
“It’s you.”
The two stared at each other for a long ti.
A powerless pig beastman boy.
And the enlightened warrior, Grull.
The first to break the silence was Grull.
“...I see. I’m sorry.”
He forced the words out, then turned away.
Behind him, the sound of sniffing reached his ears.
Perhaps from the stench.
Or perhaps from sothing else.
Grull chose to ignore it.
As he left the garbage dump, his steps slow and heavy, soone approached him.
A buffalo beastman.
He wore a leather cuirass and a bone necklace.
Though there were many buffalo beastn in Ende, this one was wilder—rougher—more dangerous.
Even without the necklace of bones, his presence alone made that clear.
The buffalo snorted and spoke.
“Chieftain. I found you. Where have you been?”
“I stopped by my holand.”
The buffalo beastman hesitated at the word holand but quickly masked his reaction.
“The Obelisk warriors are waiting. Because you vanished, they’ve been stuck in a standoff.”
“I see. Let’s go.”
“...You don’t feel bad about this?”
“? Toward you? Why would I?”
Grull had disappeared without a word while visiting Ende, leaving his warriors in a tense standoff with Obelisk.
A responsible leader would have been concerned.
But Grull was not a normal leader.
“Snort. If they have a problem, they can charge. At , or at Obelisk! They have the strength and the will, don’t they?”
“...That’s a bit extre.”
“Then there’s nothing to feel bad about. I won’t apologize for sothing you failed to do.”
Grull strode past the buffalo beastman.
The absurdity of his words left the buffalo chuckling in disbelief as he followed.
***
That day was noisier than usual.
Even though the mansion was in a secluded area, there were far more people coming and going than normal. And every single one of them seed to be rushing, as if being chased by sothing.
The sound of hooves clattered outside the mansion doors before quickly fading into the distance.
I frowned at the unusual bustle and asked,
“There are a lot of people outside today. Shei, do you know what’s going on?”
“Why are you asking ?”
“Well, you go in and out of Obeli often. I thought you might know sothing.”
Perhaps irritated by the crowd lingering outside, the regressor snapped back.
“There is sothing happening, but it has nothing to do with those people.”
“What is it?”
“It’s nothing big. Grull is coming.”
“Grull? The orc brawler Grull? The one who lives in the plains beyond Ende?”
Grull—the enlightened pig beastman.
I hadn’t been in Ende long, but even I had heard of him. A pig beastman who had mastered Qi cultivation.
That was no small feat.
Qi techniques were an art honed by humans over thousands of years. Beastkin, with their different senses and instincts, struggled to learn them.
Take, for example, a training exercise where one must maintain balance while keeping a plate on their head and knees. A human would have to focus every muscle in their body to maintain stability.
A beastkin, on the other hand, would instinctively use their tail to balance themselves.
One might think they could just not use their tail, but suppressing an instinct created an entirely new handicap. If they used it, they drifted away from Qi’s principles. If they didn’t, they beca unstable.
Their tails and ears—advantages in many ways—beca obstacles when training in Qi cultivation.
That was why Lieutenant General Ebon of the Military State had cut off his own ears and tail. It wasn’t just an act of defiance—it was a deliberate sacrifice. In the past, many beastkin had done the sa in hopes of overcoming discrimination and mastering Qi.
“So this is a big deal.”
“It would be—if Ende actually knew about it. But it’s classified. No way those people outside are reacting to it.”
“Seems like the information leaked.”
“And who would have leaked it? Who in Obeli would go out of their way to bring that kind of intel down to Ende?”
“Was it you, Shei? You are the least careful person I know.”
“I don’t even talk to anyone here except you!”
“That’s... kind of sad.”
Instead of telling to go outside and work, maybe you should go out and make so friends.
Shei spent all her ti working and had zero social life.
But back to the matter at hand.
Curious, I got up and stretched.
“Should we go check it out?”
“Yeah. It’s bothering too.”
“Grull is coming, and you’re not going to go?”
“No need. This is between the city and the Beast Faction. I’m not staying in Ende forever—it’s not my place to interfere.”
‘Politics will be involved. That’s annoying, and it’s out of my control anyway.’
Yeah, I figured.
You do think ahead sotis.
I grabbed my coat, preparing to head out.
Azzy perked her ears up imdiately.
“Woof? Walk?”
“No, you stay here and guard the house.”
“Grrr!”
“Aaargh! Fine, fine!”
She never lets things go.
Sighing, I pulled a raggedy cloak off the coat rack and tossed it to her.
“Here. Wear this.”
“Woof? It’s stuffy!”
“If you don’t wear it, you’re not coming.”
We couldn’t exactly have every dog beastman in the city gawking at her.
Once she was wrapped in the cloak, we left the mansion and stepped onto the streets.
The city was in a frenzy.
Even in a secluded area, the tension was evident. But as we moved toward Ende’s center, the chaos beca more apparent.
People were hastily setting up barriers, as if trying to block sothing.
Beyond those makeshift walls, a roar of voices filled the air.
All around us, emotions surged like waves.
A storm was brewing—not in the sky, but in the hearts of the people.
Hmmm.
So this is how it’s unfolding.
Well... that’s inconvenient.
The regressor, still too short to see past the crowd, hadn’t fully grasped the situation yet.
“What’s going on? Is there so kind of spectacle?”
“No. That’s...”
“Hold on. I’ll fly up and check.”
With a burst of Qi, the regressor shot into the air.
She had barely been up for a second before she froze in shock.
“Ende! Hear our voices!”
“We are all equal beasts!”
“End discrimination!”
“Pigs are not food!”
Ende had a large beastkin population.
But among them, pig beastn were the majority.
Even if only 10% of the 30,000 pig beastn gathered, that was still 3,000.
A number larger than most armies.
And right now—
There were far more than 3,000.
A massive crowd of pig beastn filled the streets, marching forward, their voices shaking the very foundation of the city.
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