Chapter 6
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 006
Chapter Title: Wolf. (2)
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The dawning morning.
Woojin awoke from sleep and headed to Hector's cabin as usual. He knocked on the door a couple of times.
"Anyone home?"
There was no reply.
Woojin cautiously opened the door. Hector wasn't inside. It seemed he'd gone hunting earlier than usual today.
With nothing else to do, he sat at the desk and opened the chronicle. After days of nothing but reading, he was starting to get bored, but fortunately, the end of this tedious task was finally in sight.
Roughly two hours later.
'......I've finally finished reading it all.'
Woojin closed the book after finishing. A clear smile spread across his lips. Completing this long-overdue chore left him feeling refreshed.
It had taken longer than expected. Woojin had always been a slow reader, and on top of that, he'd spent considerable time helping Hector with his chores in between.
'I should leave once Hector gets back.'
With his business finished, there was no longer any reason to stay here...
Still, after freeloading off him for the past ten days, it felt right to at least say goodbye before departing.
'Maybe I should take a look around the area.'
Sitting at the desk all day had made him restless. Stepping outside for a stroll, Woojin walked leisurely along.
Weaving through the Black Forest like it was his own bedroom. His footsteps came to a halt in front of a tree laden with bluish fruits.
'Demonic plums.'
The name from the chronicle. One of the few fruits in the Demonic Realm that was somewhat edible.
His stomach happened to be growling at just the right moment.
Woojin nimbly climbed the tree and picked seven or eight plums. Once back on the ground, he bit into one of the large fruits.
Demonic plums tasted bitter and astringent. But if you endured it and chewed thoroughly, a tantalizing sweetness lingered in the mouth.
'I wonder if red wine tastes like this.'
He'd heard that red wine, made by crushing grapes with their skins on, had a high tannin content that gave it an astringent flavor.
He'd never actually tried it, so he couldn't say for sure if that was accurate. He could only imagine the taste of wine while chewing the astringent plum.
'......Why have I never tasted wine?'
Woojin suddenly fell into thought. Looking back, there were so many foods he'd never tried before dying.
Lamb, blowfish, wine...
They weren't particularly expensive. Foods he could have bought and eaten anytime if he'd just wanted to. Yet he'd never even thought to indulge in such small luxuries.
'This time, I need to live a bit more colorfully.'
A life of eating and enjoying without envy of others. To grasp that, he had to cross beyond the barrier.
How could he reach his destination smoothly? Woojin pondered deeply while chewing a plum. To achieve something, you needed a plan, and to make a plan, you needed information.
The book he'd read over the past ten days, and the conversations with Hector in between. As he sifted through that information to flesh out his plan...
'......Something feels off.'
Woojin suddenly perked up his ears to the surroundings.
A commotion had been growing louder, disrupting his focus. It sounded like a fight had broken out somewhere.
'Is Hector out hunting?'
He couldn't tell just from the sounds. Woojin headed toward the noise. He had nothing better to do, and it didn't seem too far away.
Woojin hurried along. He advanced toward the center of the commotion.
......At the same time, the commotion approached him.
'It's coming.'
Sensing the presence, Woojin hid behind a nearby tree. Soon, heavy footsteps echoed from the front, and Hector burst through the thorny bushes, sprinting for all he was worth.
Three wolves followed, crashing through the bushes. Their fangs were aimed at Hector's throat.
The hunter and hunted had swapped roles. Something had clearly gone wrong.
'Guess I should lend a hand.'
Woojin drew the two daggers from his belt. He watched the wolves' movements closely, predicted their paths, and hurled the daggers one after another.
Two streaks of silver light shot from his fingertips.
Thud!
The two lead wolves collapsed to the ground. Daggers embedded in their napes, they writhed in convulsions.
Just one left now.
I'll handle that one myself. With that thought, Woojin drew his machete and stepped forward.
"Run!!"
Hector bellowed. In an instant, he closed the distance, grabbed Woojin's wrist, and yanked him along.
A forceful grip. Caught off guard, Woojin found himself running alongside, clutched in that iron hold.
'Wait... I didn't even recover my daggers.'
They were well-worn tools he wanted to retrieve, but Hector was so urgent he couldn't even suggest going back.
Why the rush?
......That question was answered soon enough.
Awooooo—!
Wolf howls echoed from all directions. An ominous feeling. Glancing back, he saw dozens of wolves charging toward them like a tidal wave.
"Whoa."
What the hell had happened to cause this mess? Woojin whistled at the pursuing wolves. Seeing it, Hector urged him on.
"Don't gawk—run faster! One wrong move and you could get caught up in it."
"There's still plenty of distance, isn't there?"
"I'm not talking about the wolves."
Then what was he talking about?
As Woojin opened his mouth to ask again, a roar shook the air, and the ground behind them began to crumble.
Wolves tumbled into the suddenly formed pit. Sharp wooden spikes buried underground impaled their bodies.
A trap designed to collapse under a certain weight. It was massive—at least ten meters wide.
But not very deep compared to its width. Soon, wolves began climbing out one by one.
'A trap focused on buying time.'
This was the moment to create distance.
Woojin chased after the leading Hector, running diligently. But whether they'd looped around via a shortcut, two wolves suddenly leaped out ahead, blocking the path.
Time to clear the way.
As Woojin drew his machete again, Hector halted, nocked an arrow to his bowstring.
Twang, whoosh!
Arrows flew in rapid succession. They didn't even seem properly aimed. Hector loosed them like a mad barrage without taking a breath.
Yet those arrows struck the wolves' vital points with ghostly precision. The wolves crumpled into bloody messes.
The situation cleared in an instant.
"Let's go!"
Hector urged again and bolted.
With no role left, Woojin sheathed his machete. After repeating this a couple more times, the two finally returned to the cabin.
"Gah, hack!"
Hector collapsed to the ground, coughing dryly in succession. He'd run nonstop, leaving him breathless. Woojin waited until the old hunter's breathing steadied before asking.
"What now? They'll be here soon."
"......We'll fight."
Hector replied calmly, picking up the book on the desk—the Demonic Realm Chronicles—and handing it to Woojin.
"I'll buy time here, so take the book and go. With your skills, you should be able to break through their encirclement."
"Didn't you say it couldn't be handed over?"
"No choice now that things have come to this."
Hector waved him off, as if to say goodbye.
"Take care out there. It was good meeting you."
"......"
Instead of answering, Woojin quietly examined the man before him.
Claw and bite marks scarred his body. Wounds that hadn't been there yesterday. Blood trickled down, staining his clothes red.
His face was pale. The old man already suffered from chronic illness, and now he'd taken serious injuries battling the wolves.
'He'll die at this rate.'
What to do?
Woojin's deliberation didn't last long.
"Hold on. I'll be right back."
"......What are you planning?"
Without answering, he stepped outside.
A pack of wolves surrounded the cabin. Their numbers had visibly dwindled. The path here clearly hadn't been easy.
The old hunter's handmade traps were insidious and cunning. Arrayed around the cabin like a formation. Even Woojin had to focus to spot them.
He roughly counted the wolves with his eyes.
'Around thirty, give or take.'
Still a lot left. Fangs bared, they seemed ready to pounce any second. Undaunted, Woojin strode boldly toward them.
Hector's words suddenly flashed through his mind.
'We call wild dogs that haven't been tamed by human hands—big, fierce ones—wolves.'
The people here called these beasts wolves. Woojin still couldn't quite agree.
He glanced around. Wolves that met his eyes recoiled as if burned, backing away. Even as he kept walking, the distance didn't close.
Wolves with keen senses of smell caught the ominous stench from the human before them. The smell of blood and death. It was the aura reflecting the fate of all the beasts Kim Woojin had slaughtered so far.
Instinctual fear gripped the wolves; they eyed him warily like frightened pups. From Woojin's ignorant perspective, it was nothing but baffling.
'Why do they call these things wolves?'
Woojin grabbed the scruff of a nearby wolf's neck. The brute force dragged the fleeing beast back helplessly.
'No matter how you look at it, it's just a Jindo dog...'
Woojin pinned the wolf's neck underfoot and examined its appearance. Did it see an opening? Another wolf lunged from the side.
There were always a couple of reckless idiots in every group. Without even turning his head, Woojin swung his machete. The wolf's upper jaw flew off, its corpse tumbling across the dirt.
'First things first—I need to finish the job.'
With that resolve, Woojin stomped hard. The neck of the wolf underfoot snapped with a crack, and his body shot forward.
A charge with his arm as a shield.
Like a blind bull, he barreled in. The wolves' reactions varied—stunned ones, terrified ones, aggressive ones...
He swung wildly without regard for front or back. Crude but ferocious strokes packed with power. Wolves caught in them were hacked and torn apart.
In a dogfight like this, momentum decided half the battle. Though outnumbered, the wolves were already psychologically broken and cowed.
Soon, the wolves began to flee.
Grrrrraaawr—!!
Suddenly, a ferocious roar erupted from the forest. The wolves froze in place.
'It's here.'
Woojin stared into the shadows of the trees. A bizarre creature emerged.
A hairy monster standing on two legs like a man. Its upper body hunched like an old scholar, head protruding forward. The head resembled a wolf's.
'Werewolf.'
The name from the Demonic Realm Chronicles. A wolf that walked on two legs. It commanded packs of wolves like underlings.
A broken arrow was lodged in its left eye. Hector's handiwork, no doubt.
'It's pissed.'
Having lost an eye, the werewolf was in a towering rage. It had no intention of forgiving its fleeing minions.
The werewolf seized one wolf and hoisted it overhead. The wolf thrashed wildly to escape the grip.
Crunch!
The werewolf tore the wolf apart with brute strength. Blood and entrails spilled from the bisected flesh. Seeing the gruesome example, the wolves turned back toward Woojin.
Woojin grinned and tightened his grip on his blade.
'That's why I hate calling those guys wolves.'
We call tamed wolves dogs.