Fenrir

"Hah..."

"Hah...!"

I narrowed my eyes and looked around.

Those glittering gazes were full of some strange, barely restrained anticipation. The owners of those looks were my thralls, Aurell, and Hwanggu.

Only then did I realize just how bizarre my current pose must have looked.

I was straddling a human woman, stripped down to nothing but my underwear, and I’d peeled off her top half in the process.

Of course it was the sort of thing that invited misunderstanding.

But I was perfectly calm. I had no such ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠intentions, and besides, that kind of thing wasn’t my taste anyway.

I shot a quick glance at Daltokki’s generous chest, then got to my feet.

"Sniff... sob..."

Daltokki had turned her face aside, cheeks faintly red, and was quietly crying.

"S-so what are you going to do with her?"

Aurell’s voice quivered with that odd, expectant excitement of hers.

What else was there to do? Drag her outside and kill her, obviously.

Attacks weren’t possible inside the shop, after all.

"I’m going to kill her."

Daltokki’s expression went blank with shock at my matter-of-fact answer.

Aurell and Hwanggu were shocked too.

She’d shown hostility the moment she saw me. Wasn’t killing her the natural response?

If this hadn’t been a shop, but an ordinary place, a bullet might already have been embedded in my head.

"Please don’t kill me!"

Daltokki tried her useless resistance one more time, pleading for her life in a loud voice.

I looked down at her and shook my head.

"Hmm..."

"Please..."

Why should I let a human live?

I folded my arms and tilted my head. Since I wasn’t wearing clothes, the lower half of my body felt a little strangely bare.

"I’ll do anything... anything..."

"She says she’ll do anything!"

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Aurell reacted with even greater intensity to Daltokki’s words.

I ignored Aurell and thought it over.

Anything, huh? Then did that mean she’d become livestock, useful only for offering flesh and blood, while remaining barely alive?

"You really mean anything?"

The vampires gathered at the cathedral came to mind.

Two humans were helping them, but it was still nowhere near enough to feed nearly fifty vampires properly.

What if one more person—no, one more head of livestock—was added?

Like the werewolves did it, I could drain her right to the brink of death.

Just enough breath left to keep her alive by a thread.

Use the minimum amount of potion, extract a huge volume of blood.

The ultimate efficiency.

"A-anything..."

"Good. Anything. As long as you’re still breathing, that’s fine, right?"

"N-no! Not that! Please don’t!"

Something in my words must have struck a terrifying image in her mind, because Daltokki screamed, ashen-faced.

I sighed at the sight and frowned, when Aurell cautiously spoke up beside me.

"Charlotte-nim...!"

"What?"

"Why not make her a thrall instead?"

"A thrall... ah..."

At Aurell’s suggestion, I considered the advantages I’d gain from turning her into one.

If she became my thrall, Daltokki wouldn’t be able to refuse my orders.

That meant I could pull information out of her, just like I had with Yeppi.

I decided then.

I’d add one more thrall.

"W-wait..."

When I stood up and started reaching out, Yeppi muttered blankly to herself.

She must have realized what I was about to do.

I gave a light smile and said, "Eat."

The command slipped out lightly.

My slightly exhilarated, almost amused voice slowly scattered into the air.

"Huh...?"

Daltokki, who had been begging for her life, looked at me in confusion at my sudden change.

But there was no time to answer that confusion.

Crack—

A giant beast’s head surged up from the shadow at my feet.

At the appearance of that grotesque creature, Daltokki could only stare blankly, her face drained of color, her mouth hanging open.

"Aurell, Hwanggu."

I called them over.

The other kids were part of my shadow thralls, so it didn’t matter if they got swallowed along with everything else. But those two were different.

"Yes!"

"Y-yes!"

At my call, Hwanggu and Aurell came running over in a hurry.

Even after the two girls were pulled away, Daltokki still couldn’t move.

Everything was ready.

When I shot the shadow beast a warning look, it immediately shut its mouth.

Crunch.

The shadow swallowed Daltokki whole, then spat out a large egg.

Inside it, Daltokki would already be changing.

I turned away and faced the shop NPC.

"Looking for something?"

"Show me what you’ve got."

"Hmm..."

The shop NPC nodded at my words.

At that moment, the familiar interface from the game floated up before my eyes.

"Haah..."

I sighed as I looked over the merchandise.

I’d hoped for a little more, but as expected, the only things on sale were very basic armor pieces.

And on top of that, the prices were even higher than the weapons.

"You buy items too, right?"

"Of course."

I nodded and gestured toward the shadow.

At once, the skill books I’d looted from the bookstore spilled out in a heap.

"Oh..."

The shop NPC let out an impressed breath at the large pile of skill books.

I took the credits from him, then bought the black leggings and ankle guards.

I would’ve liked to buy some for Hwanggu and Aurell too, if I could, but I didn’t have enough credits on hand.

"Hmm..."

I tried on the very thin leggings.

The size, a little too big for me, shrank in an instant the moment I put them on, clinging tightly to my lower body.

It was a fairly aggressive look, one that left every curve of my body on display.

The hem of the leggings bit into my soft thighs, creating a rather strange line.

After that, I put on the ankle guards too.

My stats and defense had gone up, but I didn’t exactly feel stronger.

Once I’d finished putting on the basic armor, I called up my shadow and created the clothes I usually wore.

"Ah..."

Aurell let out a disappointed sigh at the sight.

Hwanggu didn’t say anything, but judging by the way her ears, which had been pricked up, drooped down, she must have been thinking the same thing as Aurell.

Why was my life surrounded by people like this?

I was just about to scold Aurell and Hwanggu when—

Crack-crack-crack.

A familiar sound suddenly rang out.

Turning, I saw the large egg splitting with fissures.

The new thrall was finally about to be born.

"Charlotte-nim...! A new child is about to be born!"

"I know."

"It’s Charlotte-nim’s child!"

My thrall, my child.

It wasn’t exactly wrong, but for some reason it still felt odd.

My expression tightened slightly.

And then—

Crack-crack-crack.

The black egg broke apart completely.

"Huhwet..."

What spilled out from within, naturally enough, was a girl who looked just like me.

Long silver hair and a flawless, snow-white naked body.

At that moment, my Magic Eye passed over her and her information was revealed.

Seeing that, I nodded.

Daltokki’s thrall conversion had succeeded.

Her level had also dropped quite a bit from before, which seemed to be the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠penalty for becoming a thrall.

"Th-this is..."

Daltokki rose to her feet and examined her own body.

Apparently it was hard for her to accept the change, because her face was already collapsing into a tearful grimace.

Aurell, finding Daltokki’s transformed body fascinating, came up beside her and started poking the soft skin with her finger over and over.

Each time Aurell’s finger touched her, the pliant flesh would nip at the tiny finger as if biting back.

Hwanggu began sniffing at Daltokki.

Crouched low and huffing at her scent, she looked less like a wolf than a puppy.

"Eep...! H-hey!"

"Aurell."

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I called Aurell back.

If I left her alone, it looked like she might poke a hole straight through Daltokki’s skin.

In the end, Aurell retreated with a sulky expression.

"How do you feel?"

"I-it feels... weird..."

Daltokki answered with a sniffle.

Looking up at me, she now seemed oddly cute, in a way she hadn’t before.

Once again, I was reminded of my weakness.

So I really am weak against children.

"For now, go inside."

"Huh? Inside?"

I stuffed Daltokki into my shadow.

I had to get out of here quickly.

A huge explosion would have echoed throughout the entire city by now.

That meant humans were only a matter of time.

I’d spent a considerable amount of time because of Daltokki, but I’d gained a cute new thrall, so it wasn’t a loss.

"Let’s go."

I led Aurell and Hwanggu out of the sewer.

It was a shame I hadn’t been able to buy more armor, but now that I knew the location, all I had to do was gather credits.

Thank goodness, we didn’t run into any human players as we left the sewer.

And then, the moment we slipped out and into an appropriate building, I caught the scent of blood from far away.

Human blood.

Quite a lot of it, too.

"Sniff sniff!"

Hwanggu, whose nose was sensitive to scents, lifted her head and started sniffing too.

I patted Hwanggu’s head and cautiously looked out the window.

At the far end of the darkened road, a group of humans was racing toward us at high speed.

They weren’t running on two legs. They were riding something.

Vrrroooom—!

The clear roar of engines echoed from afar.

The humans were on motorcycles.

There were as many as ten motorcycles, all of them still running perfectly.

I stared, slack-jawed, at the sight of what looked like a gang of delinquent riders tearing down the road in the dead of night, and the humans arrived at the place where the explosion had gone off.

One by one, the riders stopped and got off their bikes.

I checked their information through my Magic Eye.

Two of them were level 20 humans.

The other eight were all fairly high level too.

The humans who dismounted glanced around warily, then began rushing into the collapsed sewer.

That left only two of them on the road.

They were the lookouts, apparently.

I stared blankly at the sleek, well-maintained motorcycles.

They all gleamed as if to brag about how well they’d been cared for.

Of course, I had no idea what models they were.

But still.

I wanted one.

And then, in that very moment, I managed to come up with a good idea.