A Mother's Wrath
“An enemy?”
“I’m afraid I can’t share the details. It’s a sensitive matter……”
“Ah, I understand.”
Naikle looked disappointed that she couldn’t hear the full story. Still, she probably had a rough idea of what was going on.
Never revealing a client’s story to others was a habit I’d carried over from my previous life, where I’d strictly followed counseling ethics.
Of course, this world was different from the last. Everything from the races that existed to the technology and environment was unlike what I’d known.
So while I couldn’t uphold every counseling ethic, I tried to follow them as much as possible.
“You can’t go any farther in a carriage. You’ll have to walk from here.”
The carriage came to a stop while we were talking, and the driver spoke up. Naikle looked flustered.
“What do you mean, there’s no road?”
“If there was a way in, I’d take it! The path’s too narrow for the carriage.”
“How long does it take to walk? To Sauhin.”
When I asked, the driver thought for a moment before answering.
“Not long. Maybe five minutes at most?”
“Five minutes……”
The units of measurement in this world still felt strange no matter how many times I heard them.
They matched the ones from my previous life so closely it was almost suspicious……
“Mr. Kain? What are you……?”
“Yes, let’s go. Quickly!”
This wasn’t the time to dwell on it.
We got out of the carriage and headed straight for the village, but the driver grabbed us.
“Wait a moment.”
“What is it?”
“Money! You have to pay before you go!”
“Ah……”
I hurriedly searched my robe pockets, then made an awkward face.
“I seem to have forgotten my wallet. Naikle, you’ll have to pay……”
“What? No, S-Sir……?”
“This is part of the investigation, isn’t it? Pay him and bill Chief Justin later.”
“Oh, I suppose that works.”
Naikle brightened up and handed over the money.
The driver had said it would take about five minutes to walk to the village, but it didn’t even take that long. Naikle and I were moving too fast.
“What’s going on……?”
The moment we reached the village entrance, something felt wrong.
People were pouring out of the village as if fleeing a disaster or war.
Every single one of them was terrified. With every breath I took, the thick scent of fear stung my nose.
I grabbed one of the fleeing villagers.
“Sir, what’s happening?”
The man I’d stopped flinched, then violently shook off my arm.
“Let go, damn it! What the hell are you doing?”
“Could you just explain what’s going on?”
“A monster broke through the walls! A huge one. You two should run while you still can!”
“What about the people still inside the village……?”
“I-I don’t know. They’re probably all dead! No one could survive against something like that……”
The man’s eyes shook violently.
“M-My wife is still…… still inside…… ugh, ughhh……!”
He showed symptoms like a panic attack, then bolted.
No one else I grabbed would even answer. They just cursed and shook me off before continuing their escape.
It was clear something terrible had happened.
Draksan’s life was in grave danger as well.
Naikle and I ran into the village.
We didn’t exchange a single word. There was no time for that.
Corpses were scattered throughout the village.
There were far too many.
This world was more barbaric than my previous one.
Though it had technology closer to the modern era than the medieval period, life here was treated with far less value than in my old world.
Living in a place like this meant seeing corpses often…… yet I still couldn’t get used to it.
Especially the bodies of children……
I looked down at a child’s corpse sprawled on the ground. Its side had been torn open, as if something had bitten into it.
Naikle was staring at the same sight.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
Took a deep breath.
My normal sense of smell wasn’t particularly sharp.
I could barely tell if food had pepper or vinegar in it.
But my ability to smell emotions was different. It could pick up even the faintest traces of feeling.
Especially strong, intense emotions—like hatred, rage, or the terror of death—could be detected from dozens of meters away.
Right now, such a powerful scent was wafting toward me from somewhere, stabbing at my nose.
“Let’s go that way. I can smell the emotions.”
“……Yes.”
Naikle nodded and followed me.
Maybe it was because of the child’s body she’d seen—her eyes had turned fierce.
We ran after the scent until we finally stopped.
“Ah……”
Naikle let out a sigh at the sight before us.
I quietly exhaled as well. Or perhaps it was more of a gasp.
The monster that had reduced the village to this state stood right in front of us.
Just as the fleeing man had said, it was enormous. It had the form of a massive bear, but its face was eerily human-like, creating an unsettling appearance.
The monster drooled as it stared at the livestock pen.
It looked like a place where cows, pigs, or sheep might have been raised, but there were no animals inside.
Instead, the villagers were huddled together like livestock.
And standing guard at the entrance to the pen was a single man.
Even from a distance, he was clearly over two meters tall, with an enormous build that made him look like a giant.
His long hair hung loose like a barbarian’s, and he held an axe in each hand.
His face was a mess of blood and sweat, with wet hair plastered to his skin, but I recognized him.
“Draksan.”
Draksan didn’t respond when I called his name. My voice couldn’t reach him from this distance, and even if it had, he wouldn’t have answered.
He had lost all reason, drooling as he stared at the monster with the face of a madman.
Yet even without any explanation, I understood the situation.
And I knew what needed to be done.
“Sir.”
Naikle called out to me.
When I turned, she was holding a flask.
The sloshing purple liquid inside looked familiar.
It was the medicine she’d received from me before.
She’d mentioned her sleep schedule had changed because of night shifts, causing insomnia, so I’d given it to her.
“Please explain the situation to Gwangrang.”
She had accepted it for this very reason.
Naikle opened the flask and drank the potion.
She collapsed on the spot, and her body began to swell.
Muscles filled out, and silver fur sprouted from her skin.
By the time scars appeared around her eyes that hadn’t been there before, the sleeping Naikle stirred and rose again.
Or rather, calling it Naikle waking up was wrong.
“Mmm…… What’s this, Mr. Kain? What’s going on here?”
“Gwangrang.”
Gwangrang had awakened.
She looked far more docile than when I’d first met her.
But the wildness in her eyes and the overwhelming presence radiating from her massive frame remained unchanged. Her fur was still sharp as blades.
I had been about to explain the situation to Gwangrang as Naikle had asked, but there was no need.
After seeing the monster and Draksan, Gwangrang simply nodded in understanding.
“Looks like we need to take down that monster, huh? We can save the greetings for after we deal with it.”
“That’s right.”
“You fighting too?”
“Of course.”
I pulled two pills from my pocket.
They were soft capsules.
Crunch.
I tossed them into my mouth and chewed them all at once.
The soft outer shells broke, releasing the concentrated liquid inside.
It was the undiluted form of Clear Mind Elixir and Call of the Dawn.
I’d used Call of the Dawn before. It accelerated reflexes and thought processing.
That alone would have been enough in most situations, but not this time. We were facing a monster that had even given Draksan trouble.
So I swallowed the undiluted Clear Mind Elixir as well.
When diluted, it worked like an antidepressant, but in its concentrated form, it drastically accelerated the flow of mana in the body……
And enhanced physical abilities, including muscle strength.
My body was already stronger than average, but with these two pills, I could gain power close to that of a superhuman.
Of course, there were limits and side effects.
I couldn’t use them consecutively, and I’d suffer from terrible fatigue and muscle pain for days afterward, but that was fine.
This wasn’t the time to worry about such things.
“I won’t get in your way.”
“I hope not.”
Gwangrang extended her claws. Each one was long and sharp enough to rival a dagger.
Whether treatment or capture came first didn’t matter right now.
We had to eliminate the monster and secure Draksan first.
We charged at the monster with the same goal in mind.
Ian was born in Sauhin.
Under a father who was captain of the Demon Realm Defense Force and a mother who was kind but sometimes strict, he reached the age of thirteen without incident.
Sauhin bordered the Demon Realm, and occasionally monsters crossed over. Because of that, population inflow was low, but Ian didn’t mind.
The monsters that came from the Demon Realm were usually just slightly larger and stronger wolves.
The defense force uncles could handle that much, and even if a troublesome monster appeared, his father would take care of it quickly.
There were monsters even his father couldn’t defeat.
But in those cases, powerful hunters from outside would step in.
The low population inflow wasn’t a problem either. In fact, it was better. With fewer outsiders, the existing villagers grew closer.
As long as he could live well with his father, mother, little sister Eri, the neighbor Mr. Sigmund, and Mr. Sigmund’s daughter Karin, that was enough.
Ian wanted nothing more.
Next year, Ian was supposed to join the Demon Realm Defense Force and become a soldier protecting the village like his father.
Once he became an adult, he planned to marry Karin.
Then, like his parents, have two children……
That was when it appeared.
Crack.
His father died to a single swing of its claws. His mother too……
Everything was chaos.
At first, his father’s death didn’t feel real.
How could someone as strong as his father die so easily? His mother was the same. It felt like she would pick up her severed head and stand up at any moment, saying in a warm voice, “It’s all right, Ian.”
But no such miracle occurred.
His father had died horribly.
Where had this monster even come from?
Looking closely, it looked familiar. A bear-like body with a human face.
The villagers had called it the “bear monster.”
It was strong and intelligent, so difficult to deal with that they’d posted a hunter recruitment notice.
But a hunter named Draksan had already taken care of the bear monster yesterday.
Wait—the monster in front of him now looked several times larger than the one from before.
So the original monster had been a cub, and this one was the mother.
The mother had appeared in rage after her cub was killed.
Ian looked around frantically.
Was this fortunate? Eri was still alive.
The monster was distracted, eating his father.
Monsters consumed humans to replenish their mana.
It was well known in areas bordering the Demon Realm that monsters preferred strong humans because their bodies contained more mana.
Ian grabbed Eri’s wrist.
“Come on. Let’s go……”
“D-Dad. M-Mom. Mom……”
“Hurry…… hurry!”
He urged his sister in a low voice so as not to attract the monster’s attention, then climbed out the window. Being small made it easy.
He found Karin. She was limping.
“What about Mr. Sigmund?”
She didn’t answer. He must be dead.
“Let’s go.”
“Where……?”
“I don’t know, anywhere…… We have to survive first.”
They had to survive—that was something his father had drilled into him. If they were to escape……
They had to run. Where to? They needed to leave the village. After that……
There was no time to think further.
Grrr.
A low growl echoed.
The hair on his body stood on end. A terrible fear wrapped around him. His muscles stiffened so much his feet wouldn’t leave the ground.
Ian slowly turned his head.
The bear monster was right in front of him.
Drip, drip. Foul-smelling saliva from its sharp teeth fell onto Ian’s head. Its hot breath hit his face.
Ian sensed death and closed his eyes.
Crack!
He opened his eyes at the sound.
It was like the noise of a woodcutter splitting logs.
The monster that had been right in front of him was now far away, and a large man stood blocking its path, protecting Ian.
Ian knew the man’s name.
Draksan.
The hunter who had defeated the bear monster yesterday…… a renowned warrior throughout the kingdom.
Draksan had already fought the bear monster once and was injured—his face was covered in blood, and he was limping.
Yet he showed no sign of fatigue as he looked at Ian and the other children and grinned.
“Head to the livestock pen. I’ll buy you time. Watch for an opening and run.”
“R-Run……”
“……If you want to save Lena and Marien…… you have to make the right decision…… got it?”
Lena…… Marien?
Ian didn’t understand the names. He’d never heard them before.
But right now, both the bear monster and Draksan were terrifying.
“You got that, kid……?”
“Y-Yes!”
Ian nodded frantically and led his sister and Karin toward the livestock pen.
Other villagers were already there.
Among them were adults and even the wise village elder, but everyone was paralyzed with fear.
No one had the composure to look after Ian, and he didn’t feel like relying on them either.
There was only one person he could depend on now. Draksan.
The bear monster and Draksan stared at each other, breathing heavily.
Neither seemed willing to approach the other easily.
During the long standoff, a thread of anxiety rose in Ian’s heart.
What if Draksan dies here……?
What would happen to everyone then?
Would they all just die? So meaninglessly? Like his father and Mr. Sigmund?
Just as his legs were about to give out from fear, he heard the villagers murmuring.
What’s going on? Ian looked up. A gasp escaped his own lips as well.
“A wolf.”
A silver wolf, comparable in size to Draksan and monstrous enough in appearance to be mistaken for one, charged at the monster.
And following behind the wolf was a man.
“……A doctor?”
A man wearing a white robe.
He didn’t look like he’d be much help. Though not small, he was slender compared to the wolf or Draksan.
The doctor looked like he would die if so much as grazed by the bear monster’s claws.
Yet…… the doctor was charging at the monster with surprising bravery.
The moment the monster’s head turned toward the charging wolf and doctor—
The hunter who had been waiting for an opening let out a roar and lunged forward.
Crack!
Draksan brought his axe down on the monster’s leg.
The battle had begun.