Chapter 216
Chapter: 216
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>Translator: penny
>Chapter: 216
>Chapter Title: Flower Garden (2)
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>“Are you serious, Your Highness?”
Seongjin took in Louise’s bewildered expression and tilted his head.
Why? If there was a familiar subjugation ability, wouldn’t that be the first thing to consider? Best case, turn the Lord into a familiar. It seemed like the perfect way to figure out what those things were up to. Even better if he could block them outright.
“It doesn’t seem like that simple of an issue.”
Realizing Seongjin was dead serious, Louise peered down the cliff with a troubled look.
“For one, those lycanthropes down there probably don’t even know what they’re doing. No sane creature would senselessly hurl itself off a cliff like that. Just from the vibe I’m getting up here, I can tell they’ve barely got any reason left. Even if I subjugated them as familiars, I doubt there’d be much useful intel to squeeze out. And besides…”
Her gaze shifted to the lycanthrope Lord.
It was a ferocious beast far larger than the others, covered in red fur, with a thick collar dangling around its neck.
“There’s something off about that ‘Lord’ too. On the surface, it looks like it’s controlling all the lycanthropes, but my senses tell me otherwise. Feels like there’s more to it.”
“More to it?”
“Yes. I can’t sense any proper reason from that one either. It’s bizarre. When it was hunting me and threatening the spirits, I definitely felt a fierce will directed at me. Is that really the lycanthrope Lord?”
Ah, I think I can answer that.
Father told me all about it.
“That ‘Lord’ is probably someone else’s familiar too. It’s likely the strongest among the pureblood lycanthropes. And the real lycanthrope Lord controlling it is Berseus Dasyano, master of Berseus Dasyano Ridge.”
Louise’s eyes widened at his words.
She looked utterly baffled at how Seongjin knew such a thing.
“It’s true. Straight from the most reliable source.”
Seongjin declared confidently. It came from the Proxy of the Gods himself, after all.
Louise pondered for a moment before nodding.
“Yes. It’s not ironclad proof, but it sounds plausible enough. If we assume there’s someone else puppeteering that Lord, it explains all the unease I felt. The difference between direct control and just following orders.”
Like when she directly controlled Max.
“If that’s the case, then we have another problem, Your Highness. We still don’t know the full extent of this Marquis Dasyano’s abilities.”
Lycanthropes could share their power with familiars based on their own strength. Like how Max, a wolfkin who couldn’t use aura at all, had bulked up and wielded snowshoes freely.
So that fake Lord down there might be far stronger than it appeared.
Pureblood lycanthropes already had superior physical traits to even Louise.
“Plus, trying to subjugate it directly as a familiar would be risky. If it’s already someone else’s familiar, it could spark a mental tug-of-war over dominance. Worst case, I might end up under his control instead.”
Hm. Hadn’t considered that angle.
Seongjin fiddled with the hilt of his Nutcracker sword, lost in thought for a moment.
‘But no matter how I look at it, snatching that thing the fake Lord’s holding feels like the key…’
He just wanted to grab the bastard quick, wrap this up, and head home.
He didn’t agonize long.
“Louise, just two questions.”
The prince’s gray eyes, gazing down at the lycanthropes, rarely looked so grave. Louise nodded without thinking.
“Yes, Your Highness. Ask away.”
“First: Can you point your sword at those lycanthropes?”
That had bugged him from the start.
From a human perspective, they were just magical beasts threatening the spirits. But Louise was human and lycanthrope. Would she see it as slaughtering poor, mindless kin?
The girl gave a wry smile before her expression hardened with resolve.
“I’ve killed them before. I know they’re beyond saving, and that I have to live as a human from now on. It’s not something I relish, but it won’t hold you back when it counts.”
“Good. Second question.”
Seongjin turned to her, one corner of his mouth quirking up.
“Suppose Marquis Dasyano puppets that fake Lord and pours everything he’s got into it. Think it could take on Vincent Sigsmundt?”
“…”
Louise’s lips twitched. She couldn’t answer right away.
If the lycanthrope Lord unleashed its full potential, could it surpass old man Vincent, a Decaron Knight?
That implied anything short of Decaron Knight level might be manageable?
“I don’t know much about Marquis Dasyano, but he’s definitely no Decaron Knight. So no matter how strong the vessel…”
“Exactly.”
Seongjin nodded with a relaxed smile.
That settled it.
Louise watched his face intently, then sighed and carefully removed her shoes.
Where did that confidence come from? Yet looking at the prince, it didn’t feel like empty bravado. Strange.
“Why the shoes again?”
“Who knows when I’ll need to shift? These are expensive new ones.”
“Ah, got it.”
Seongjin casually scooped up the grumbling Max from beside him.
“Then, shall we head down?”
* * *
Swoosh.
The two descended the cliff far more easily than expected. Seongjin’s snowshoes had improved noticeably in the meantime.
Even with a big dog tucked under each arm, throwing off his balance, he mimicked Louise and slid down without much trouble.
“How are you handling aura so deftly now, when you were shivering from the cold back then?”
Seongjin just shrugged at Louise’s puzzled mutter.
What can you do about boring, annoying stuff?
They stashed Max and their packs behind a large boulder.
Whine!
Seongjin cooed and soothed the desperately trying-to-follow Max, then looped a rope around the dog’s neck from Louise’s pack.
“I’ll be right back, so stay put, okay?”
The lycanthropes were steadily thinning their own numbers by leaping off the cliff, but plenty remained. He’d need to stealth in with aura concealment and cull as many as possible first, or it’d be a slog.
“And no howling, no matter what. You’ll get in big trouble. Got it?”
Seongjin warned sternly.
Max shot him a resentful look, stopped whining, and started gnawing at the leash with a crunch crunch.
“Let’s go.”
Convinced Max understood, Seongjin signaled Louise and activated aura concealment.
Louise, who’d been watching curiously, fully masked her presence and stuck close behind him.
“I can’t fathom how Your Highness communicates with Max when he’s not even kin. The familiar bond working in the first place is miraculous. Though I did sense something familiar about your aura.”
Come to think of it, she’d asked if he was kin the first time they met.
“But is that rope really okay? Max’ll chew through it in no time.”
“Of course.”
If it didn’t break, that’d be the problem.
Just needed to hold him for the initial ambushes. God forbid some other beast snuck up on him in the meantime.
Louise’s face fell at Seongjin’s reply. So straightforward, yet subtly thoughtful in odd ways.
Meanwhile, Seongjin nimbly scouted the terrain and lycanthrope positions. The dozens from dawn had dwindled to about ten as they plummeted off the cliff.
He finished his quick calculations and issued simple orders.
“Start from the edges. I’ll take right, you left.”
Before Louise could even nod.
Whoosh.
Seongjin wrapped himself in a gust of wind and lunged at the back of a lycanthrope staring up at the cliff.
Stab.
Nutcracker pierced its left flank, angling past the ribs deep into the chest—right where the heart should be, by his estimates.
Even the smallest lycanthrope stood over 2.5 meters, and slashing straight through thick back muscles to the heart from behind wouldn’t be easy.
Fortunately, the aura-infused blade sliced through the beast’s tough flesh like tofu.
Grarl!
Feeling the beast twitch, Seongjin twisted his body half around, hilt steady, and slashed Nutcracker downward diagonally.
Scrrraaape.
The blade tore deep through the chest, scraping the spine as it withdrew. Vertebrae and some spinal cord severed, the lycanthrope spewed blood and collapsed limply.
Yap!
Growl!
The others finally noticed, whirling toward Seongjin.
Louise darted in from their left, plunging toward the heart of one turning beast.
Swoom! Crunch!
Her heavy bastard sword, wreathed in deep purple aura, sheared through the ribs entirely, splitting the heart in one go.
Hard to believe she’d held back with it until now—so forceful a swing.
Shrieeek!
Hot blood sprayed across the icy ground.
‘Haha!’
Relieved at her unhesitating strike, Seongjin targeted the next.
Bang!
Aura coiling his legs, he leaped and thrust upward into the throat of a still-clueless lycanthrope from below.
Stab!
Gack!
Planting his jaw on the staggering beast’s torso, Seongjin faced its face head-on, Nutcracker buried deep.
In that instant, shock and doubt flashed in the beast’s clouded, bloodshot eyes.
Flail.
Too late, it swung weakly at the intruder on its chest. Seongjin was already yanking free and kicking off.
Gurgle.
Instead of a howl, crimson froth bubbled as it fell.
Bang!
Kicking off the cliff wall mid-turn, Seongjin charged the next, which bared fangs and barked.
Clang!
Claws met his sword. A fist swung for his head, but Seongjin slipped low, reversed his grip, and raked its belly long.
Yelp!
It reeled with a scream. Unfortunately, not fatal.
Crrunch.
Like a living thing of its own, its muscles clenched, stemming the blood. Unmatched regeneration.
‘Gonna heal quick like this?’
Before he could follow up on the faltering beast, others charged him.
Roooar—
Growl! Yap yap!
‘Damn!’
Abandoning the finisher, he dodged slashing claws and fists, then met a frontal swipe blade-first.
Clang! Scraaape!
Growling, the lycanthrope grabbed Nutcracker with its other hand.
Bleeding from the aura edge, it glared murderously with injected red eyes—pure rage.
Mind dimmed, but pack tactics remained; as it grappled, others piled on.
But Seongjin wouldn’t yield the opening.
Humm.
Focusing all his aura into Nutcracker, he wrenched it free from the brute’s grip.
Yanking the blade, he dropped low to evade the incoming punch.
Grah!
The mangled-handed beast retreated wailing. Seongjin slipped away, scanning briefly.
Maybe his flashy moves drew them? Most lycanthropes rushed him, leaving Louise to trade blows leisurely with the rest.
The fake Lord? Still dumbly standing there, oblivious.
‘…?’
A fleeting unease hit, but no time—another lycanthrope lunged savagely.
The fierce skirmish dragged on.
Yet with individual limits, it was only a matter of time. Unable to pin Seongjin, who exploited the canyon terrain for hit-and-runs, the lycanthropes fell one by one, spraying blood.
When Seongjin left just two.
“Your Highness!”
Louise’s urgent call from behind.
“...?”
He turned. Eyes wide, she panted, staring upward.
Following her gaze, Seongjin froze in shock.
“...!”
The red lycanthrope Lord, that had stood stupidly all along.
For some reason, rooted in place, it stared down at Seongjin and Louise—fat tears like a chicken’s plopping from its eyes.