The Werewolf Hwanggu
"It’s finished!"
"Waaah!"
A castle, built from books.
The moment I saw the grand silhouette of it, Aurell, Hwanggu, and I all let out cheers without even meaning to. Looking at the completed castle filled me with a quiet sense of satisfaction.
"Charlotte-nim, you’re amazing!"
"It’s so cool!"
At the two girls’ praise, I just nodded.
The embarrassment I’d felt when I first started building the castle was long gone by now. Why shouldn’t it be? Even adults sometimes wanted to play like children.
That was all this had been for me, too.
The finished book castle had become Hwanggu and Aurell’s playground. It seemed they’d grown close while building it together.
The Aurell who had originally opposed Hwanggu joining in was gone without a trace.
How much time was left before sunset?
Leaving the two girls at play behind me, I stepped out of the bookstore and headed toward the stairs.
The closer I got, the more the darkness thinned, until bright light began pouring down. At the midpoint of the staircase, where light and shadow met, I stood at the edge of the dark and looked up at the sky.
My eyes narrowed on instinct. The revulsion welling up from somewhere deep inside me was the nature of a vampire.
The sun still hadn’t set.
I’d spent what felt like quite a while making the book castle, and yet it was still up. If only there’d been a clock, so I could tell how much time had passed.
I brushed my empty wrist and turned around.
That was when I was about to head back into the bookstore.
...
My slowly moving body came to a stop.
Above the stairs.
A breeze drifting down from there.
And in that wind, a strikingly alluring scent.
A smell that stirred my appetite while also making my body tense for reasons I couldn’t quite explain.
Then I realized, almost absentmindedly, that I’d stuck out my tongue and licked my lips.
There was only one thing that could provoke a vampire’s instincts like this.
Blood.
Human blood, no doubt about it.
"Mm..."
I let out a faint groan and touched the sharp fangs that had risen in my mouth.
For now, I hardly had any real urge to feed.
I had licked my lips at the smell of blood, sure, but that was only the vampire instinct, and I couldn’t help that.
"Sniff sniff!"
Just then, Hwanggu’s head popped up from the bookstore entrance a short distance away, and she began sniffing at the air.
She was a werewolf, with a sense of smell keener than a vampire’s. It seemed she’d caught the blood scent while she was romping around inside the book castle.
"Smells yummy!"
So she really was a monster, not a human.
She was already describing the scent of human blood as something delicious.
"Did you come out because you smelled this too, Charlotte-nim?"
"No."
I’d only been trying to check the state of the sun.
Hwanggu tilted her head at my answer, then broke into a bright grin.
"Then can I go eat it?"
Eat it?
Go to the place where human blood was smelling from?
I stared at the tiny girl with a dubious expression.
Of course, if she really wanted to go, there was no reason I couldn’t let her. If this were the Hwanggu who hadn’t lost her memories, at least.
But in a world like this, how could I possibly send a child that small and cute out alone?
I shook my head and answered.
"No."
"Okay..."
Hwanggu accepted the refusal far too easily.
Her drooping brown ears, suddenly looking so dejected, were strangely memorable.
At that moment, a memory flashed through my mind.
Before she’d lost her memories, Hwanggu had come to find Aurell and me and said:
'A strange scent I’ve never smelled before... and human blood on top of that... I’ve finally found them...!'
Maybe, just maybe, that blood scent belonged to the very target Hwanggu had been chasing.
"Hwanggu."
"Yes?"
"Did anything come back to you when you smelled this?"
"Come back to me?"
I watched her carefully, just in case.
However it had happened, wasn’t Hwanggu’s memory loss my fault to begin with?
If there was any chance she could recover her memories, I wanted to help her.
If she remembered everything and still came charging at me again, I’d give her an even harder flick on the forehead, though.
"Hmm..."
Hwanggu folded her arms and sank into thought.
As she did, the soft flesh of her underarms shifted beneath the white tank top she wore.
"Well... nothing in particular comes to mind. I just came out because it smelled tasty."
"I see..."
I swallowed the saliva pooling at the corner of my mouth and nodded.
I’d been smelling blood for so long that my mouth had kept watering.
"Then how about this—we wait until the sun goes down, and then go check out where that smell’s coming from?"
Assuming the scent was still there by then, of course.
"Huh? Really? But why do we have to wait until sundown?"
Hwanggu looked up at me with her head tilted in confusion.
Her big brown ears, which had been drooping in disappointment, perked right up.
"Because..."
I trailed off and met her eyes.
Was Hwanggu really telling the truth when she said she’d lost her memories?
She looked at me with such innocent eyes.
Her gaze was clear enough to make anyone believe her.
So this was the final test.
I gave a light smile and spread both arms wide.
"I turn to ash if I’m touched by sunlight."
"Gasp...!"
Hwanggu jumped at my answer.
I watched her reaction in silence.
Her ears twitching madly, Hwanggu suddenly dashed forward and shoved my back—not toward the sunlight spilling across the stairs, but toward the bookstore entrance, where the darkness ran deep.
"You’re not pushing me into the sunlight?"
"Huh? Why would I? It’s dangerous, so hurry up and get inside!"
A laugh slipped out at her reaction.
The sight of her carefully pushing my back with those tiny arms was enough to make me laugh all by itself.
Surely, if she used the strength she had, she could have moved my small body with ease, but she didn’t put any force into it at all. Like a cat kneading dough, she only pressed at my back with the little, soft pads of her hands.
That settled it.
Hwanggu had definitely lost her memories.
Otherwise she could never have acted like this.
When I returned to the bookstore with Hwanggu, I found Aurell building a towering spire.
So absorbed in her book construction that she didn’t even react when I approached, she let out a soft, unpleasant little laugh as she worked.
"Heheh... hwehheh..."
What had she been like before she became this way?
Just like me, Aurell had never once told me who she’d been before the world changed. As if she had discarded those memories entirely.
"Aurell."
"Eep!"
She jumped in surprise at my call.
Just how startled had she been? The height she sprang up reached higher than the castle she’d stacked so painstakingly.
"Ah... Charlotte-nim!"
"What are you making now?"
"Ah... well... I thought if there’s a castle, it should probably have a watchtower too..."
It seemed Aurell was taking this book castle project very seriously.
Now that I looked closer, the castle itself seemed a little more elaborate than before, too.
Wondering why, I studied it for a moment and spotted a large flag made by tearing books apart and weaving them together, planted on the castle’s highest point.
"So you like this sort of thing?"
"Ah... yes!"
At my question, Aurell nodded with obvious pride.
It seemed that before the world changed, she’d had some sort of hobby related to building or model kits.
Aurell’s construction kept going.
Finding it entertaining, Hwanggu started helping her from the side.
We were leaving once the sun rose anyway, so why were they putting so much effort into this?
Watching the two girls, I casually swept my gaze through the bookstore interior.
Most of the items we could take from here were skill books that raised passive skill levels.
[The Basics of Farming, Vol. 2]
[Gun Maintenance, Vol. 1]
[Advanced Swordsmanship, Vol. 3]
[Herbology, Vol. 6]
[Vehicle Maintenance, Vol. 2]
....
...
..
In the end, the total number of skill books we could collect came to fifteen.
They weren’t items Charlotte really needed, but they might be useful for Aurell or Hwanggu.
Of course, that wasn’t why I’d gathered them.
My goal was credits.
Skill books were especially valuable items at the equipment shop.
I pressed the stack of skill books I was holding into the mouth of a shadow.
The shadow wriggled as if it didn’t want to swallow them, but there was no going against my will.
And so, time passed.
At last, Aurell, Hwanggu, and I were able to leave the bookstore.
Aurell and Hwanggu both looked back over their shoulders with regret. I smiled as I looked up at the sky, now cool and clear.
Why did the moonlight hanging faintly above feel so welcome?
It was like the refreshing start of a new morning.
Hwanggu came out leading her bicycle, sniffing the air with her nose working nonstop.
It seemed she still remembered what I’d said earlier—that we’d go after the scent once the sun went down.
"So, is that smell still there?"
I’d taken a sniff the moment I stepped outside, but my own nose couldn’t catch any trace of blood.
At my question, Hwanggu closed her eyes and kept sniffing. Then suddenly, her ears shot straight up.
"Yes! It’s still there!"
"Then let’s go that way. Can you lead the way?"
"Yes!"
Hwanggu answered with enthusiasm and started forward, pulling her bike along beside her.
"Charlotte-nim."
"Yeah?"
As I answered Aurell’s question, I walked ahead. Aurell stayed close at my side and continued speaking.
"What are you talking about? The smell?"
"Ah... I meant the smell of blood."
I told Aurell what had happened earlier—that the scent of human blood had drifted in while the sun was still up, and that I’d said we’d follow it with Hwanggu once night fell.
"Human blood!"
Aurell’s interest in human blood was intense too.
The way she licked her lips and smacked them together made it obvious she was already craving a drink.
In the end, the increasingly excited Aurell started walking side by side with Hwanggu.
We followed behind Hwanggu as she took the lead, determined to track down the blood scent, for quite a while.
And then, at last, I could smell it too.
The source of the scent was somewhere inside a large abandoned building.
Hwanggu, whose ears were twitching all the while, turned to look at me with an excited expression.
She looked ready to bolt inside the moment I gave the word.
Just as I was about to nod without thinking, my gaze fell on the entrance of the abandoned building.
Something moved faintly there.
A thin, slender something hung down near the doorway.
More than a wire, it felt like a very fine thread.
I shook my head at Hwanggu and picked up a fallen branch from the ground nearby.
"Charlotte-nim?"
"Just watch for a second."
Saying that, I threw the branch with all my strength.
Whirrrrr—
As the branch spun rapidly through the air and passed the entrance of the abandoned building,
Tick—
BOOOOM!
After a tiny sound, an explosion roared out all at once.
The instant it seemed like a blaze of light would swallow my vision, the entrance to the abandoned building collapsed.