Ende was the city of free beastn. And like any city of freedom, it also had a high cri rate. People cried out that freedom didn’t an the right to commit cris, but strictly speaking, that was wrong. Everyone had the freedom to commit cris. The real question was whether anyone could catch and punish them.
Ende was a city where beastn of different species gathered. Conflicts were frequent, and the thods of resolving them were primitive. The city guards only stepped in after blood was spilled, and if they couldn’t handle it, the Obelisk Soldiers would suppress the situation under the authority of the nobility.
After enduring several upheavals, Ende had settled into a fragile balance, with species and interest groups forming their own clans for self-preservation.
But cri never disappeared. It was only smoothed over, resolved internally within clans, or diated by the city guards. As long as people lived together, problems were bound to arise.
A healthy city wasn’t one where problems never occurred—it was one where those problems didn’t spiral out of control. Just like the human body.
“Thief! Thief!”
So, if Ende was now in chaos, it ant the city was no longer healthy.
“Catch that guy! City guards!”
“Hinnng. What city guards? The Obelisk isn’t coming either.”
Horse beastn were faster than other beastn. So might have used that advantage to get a job, work hard, and earn money the honest way. But if one thought simply, the easiest way to make money was to steal from others and run away.
Especially now, when law enforcent had collapsed.
“The sluggish pigs are just sitting there, aren’t they? With no Watchdogs and no Obelisk Soldiers, there’s no way to stop us! Freedom!”
The cow beastman who had been robbed chased after the thief but eventually tripped and fell. Seeing that, the horse beastman who had been fleeing suddenly stopped in his tracks, grinning mockingly.
“You bastard! Do you know who I am? I’m from the One-Horn Clan! Do you really think you can live in Ende after pulling sothing like this?!”
Even as the One-Horn Clan’s na was thrown at him, the horse beastman rely flicked his tail dismissively.
“Nah. I don’t plan to stay.”
“What?”
“Haven’t you heard the news? The King of Wolves is attacking this place! If you stay in Ende, you’re just going to end up as wolf food! The only answer is to score big and get out! Hahaha!”
With those parting words, the horse beastman vanished into the alleys, leaving behind news of the King of Wolves.
The Obelisk Soldiers and the Watchdogs of Obeli had disappeared, and the city guards had lost their authority. The noble class, whose presence had once deterred cri, was now powerless. In fact, after the revolution, the remaining humans in Ende pulled their hoods over their heads to hide the fact that they had no ears or tails.
With the walls between Obeli and Ende broken, many things spilled out—wealth, power, secrets. The forces that had once held sway over the city no longer had any influence.
“Urukfang! Beastn are looting the marketplace in groups!”
“No kidding? Stop them!”
“We... can’t! There are too many!”
“Damn it! They’re looting at a ti like this? Which beastn?”
“The horse beastn are leading it...”
“Knew it! We should’ve broken their legs from the start!”
“...But many orcs are also joining in. When the horse beastn raid a store, nearby orcs gather and snatch up whatever they can. More orcs are getting arrested than horse beastn.”
“Agh!”
The orc rcenaries tried to work with the city guards, but they were never going to be on the sa page. The city guards had no intention of taking orders from the disorganized orcs, nor did they have any reason to. The two groups deployed to the sa locations, abandoned the sa areas, and when things spiraled out of control, they both simply gave up.
With the breakdown of law and order, Ende’s citizens were left to fend for themselves.
“The sheep and cow clans, unable to endure the thefts any longer, have started raising private militias and erecting fences!”
Ende was fracturing along clan lines. Each group was fencing off their territory, restricting passage, and prioritizing the safety of their own mbers.
From a clan’s perspective, it made sense. But for the city as a whole, it was like watching countless small autonomous states rise within Ende. It was a disaster.
When Poyna heard the news, she was horrified.
“Clans are forming militias? That’s illegal! Ende strictly limits private militias outside of Obeli!”
“...Um, what about us?”
“We are a legitimate part of Obeli!”
Now that their feet were to the fire, Orcma belatedly reinstated the Obelisk Watchdogs—but in hindsight, it was the worst move at the worst possible ti.
The Watchdogs were pro-human. They had genuinely colluded with the nobility, and now, having briefly lost their positions, they were plotting to drive Orcma out.
anwhile, reports trickled in from the ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) outskirts that people were being dragged away by wolves. But those warnings were drowned out by the chaos within the city.
They kept saying they were preparing.
But the battle with the wolves was right at their doorstep.
“Awooooo....”
From outside, a commotion could be heard. Mostly human screams, cries, and groans. The high walls blocked the view, but Azzy’s ears and nose picked up everything.
She howled mournfully at the sky, and I waved her over.
“Azzy. Stop whining at the sky and co inside to sleep.”
“Woof. Again. Humans, fighting again.”
“It happens all the ti. So what?”
“Woof! But the wolves are coming! And humans are fighting!”
“You an it’s ridiculous that humans are wasting their strength fighting each other instead of preparing for the wolves?”
Since I couldn’t read a dog’s mind, I tried my best to interpret. But Azzy shook her head and barked.
“Similar, but different!”
“Similar but different? What’s different?”
“Wolves bad. They kill sheep. Attack humans. Really bad!”
“Yeah, they’re bad.”
“Wolves, bad! Humans, good! But humans, fighting!”
“Ah.”
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
Mind-reading didn’t work, but Azzy’s way of speaking was the pure, honest language of a dog. If I interpreted it as it was, I could get the general idea.
“You’re saying, why are the good humans fighting each other when there’s a bad wolf right in front of them?”
“Woof!”
Azzy nodded enthusiastically.
Well, what a question. That was the oldest one in the book. I stretched out again and answered.
“What an obvious issue.”
“Woof?”
“It’s because the humans nearby are worse for each other than the distant wolf.”
As I stated it as if it were a given, Azzy tilted her head in confusion.
“Woof? Humans, good! Dogs, good!”
“That’s sothing you’d have to ask humans about. Sure, humans like dogs, and dogs like humans. But humans also hate each other.”
“Woof woof? Why?”
“Because everything humans need is mostly held by other humans. It’s easier to just take it. Those who want to steal are always on the lookout, and those who could be stolen from always hate the ones eyeing their things. So, naturally, they fight.”
“Awooo...”
In theory, Azzy might have been right. But reality was cold.
Azzy’s ears and tail drooped as she howled into the air. A low, mournful cry spread far and wide. I scratched my ear and told her,
“Don’t howl too much. The other dogs will start howling too.”
I wasn’t just saying that. Right now, outside the door, the dog beastn were getting beaten as if it were the hottest sumr day.
“Wait! We only ca to see the King!”
“We are dog beastn! You have no right to block our audience!”
“Are you siding with the pigs even after seeing what this city has beco?”
The Obelisk Watchdogs who had co to et Azzy protested furiously, but their words ant nothing to the regressor.
He raised Tianying and muttered,
“I said, get lost.”
Thud.
The regressor knocked out the dog beastn in an instant, then dragged them off into the distance. When he returned, he rubbed the back of his neck in irritation.
“This place is too well-known now. We’re going to get uninvited guests every day. Maybe we should move soon.”
“You chased them off? You could’ve at least heard them out.”
“This is a fight between people. Azzy is just a shield. They ca to use her for that.”
The regressor spoke indifferently, as if he neither expected anything nor was disappointed anymore.
His emotions had gone beyond frustration.
Annoyance only ca when things got a little tangled. But this wasn’t just tangled—it had been a ss from the start.
Naturally, his perspective on handling Ende’s situation had changed.
‘Discrimination against beastn was always a problem. In the previous tiline, it caused them to side with the wrong people and accelerated destruction. But looking at this ss... I don’t even know how to solve it anymore.’
If it were a problem that could be fixed by taking down a few key figures, he would’ve done so already. But even the regressor knew that right now, the issue couldn’t be solved by a single person.
At this point, it was on the sa scale as the King of Wolves—a full-blown disaster. Instead of snapping in frustration, the regressor let out a sigh.
“...It’s completely ruined.”
“What’s the big deal? It’s not that bad.”
He was being dramatic. Things weren’t that hopeless. I casually responded to his gloom.
“If it cos down to it, Shei, Azzy, Grull, and I can just go out and kill the King of Wolves. No matter how incompetent Ende is, they should at least be able to serve as wolf bait, right?”
The era of gathering armies and charging into battle was over.
With internal energy and magic widespread, the most effective way to mobilize a force was to send a handful of elite martial artists or magicians with proper support.
Ende’s forces were beastn with barely any internal energy training. At best, they had Grull’s support. That ant they were better suited for being distractions than actual combatants.
“If we leave them all to die, the wolves will grow stronger. They’re nurous and powerful. The damage will be catastrophic.”
“Then let them run.”
“If we wanted them to run, we should’ve started evacuating them from the beginning. But it’s too late now. The vast, flat Enger Plains aren’t a place where most can escape wolves. Only the horse beastn will make it. Like it or not, they have no choice but to fight now.”
“Well, there you go. Like it or not, live or die, they’ll fight. That ans they’ll be useful as bait or support.”
I spoke lightly, and the regressor shot a sharp glare.
“Do you think this is a joke?”
“Why? Is it sothing I shouldn’t say? You did the sa thing.”
If saving lives had been the goal, they would have started evacuating people earlier. But they didn’t.
Even the strongest warriors couldn’t fight an army alone. No, they could, but strategically, it was foolish. That’s why neither the revolutionaries nor the regressor revealed the truth about the battle until the last mont—to prevent deserters.
Even before the revolution, Obeli had done the sa. The regressor had too.
“This is all because you helped the pig beastn!”
“You liked it at first too, rember?”
“I didn’t know it would turn out like this!”
“Neither did I.”
Who could have?
I wasn’t a prophet. I didn’t know how the future would unfold.
And that was still true now.
“Everyone did what they wanted. This is just the result. The orcs will have to decide—will they let go of the power they seized, or will they fight and spill blood to keep it?”
“You already know. They won’t do either. They’ll hesitate and get torn apart by wolves.”
“But what matters is that they have the choice. Without this chaos, they wouldn’t have had any choice at all.”
The regressor kept muttering about how everything was ruined, but really, things weren’t that different from before.
He was just overreacting.
I shrugged.
“Obeli would have fought to maintain its power. The beastn of Ende would have gone about their lives, only to be dragged into the battle at the last minute. The slow and tasty pig beastn would have died the most. And then their deaths would have been written off as necessary sacrifices to secure the city’s future, reinforcing the pyramid with their blood.”
In the end, it would be the regressor, Azzy, and Grull who defeated the King of Wolves.
As always, the real work would be done by soone else, while the rewards would go to those who didn’t lift a finger.
The bear danced, and the man took the coins.
And the one dancing was worrying about the ones standing still.
“It would’ve been better if humans still ruled Obeli.”
“Better? You saw it just now. The Watchdogs ca looking for Azzy. Who do you think sent them?”
Whether the King of Wolves attacked or not, humans were already working in the shadows to reclaim their power.
Everyone was the sa.
There was no helping it.
They were all human.
The regressor’s expression darkened, as if he didn’t like my answer. His eyes narrowed, and he called my na in a heavy tone.
“Hughes.”
“Yes? That is my na, but why are you suddenly—”
Hearing my na like that made instinctively straighten my posture.
Why was he calling my na all of a sudden?
Creepy.
Reviews
All reviews (0)