The Mad Wolf's Scent
“A drug that keeps you from sleeping?”
“Yes. I’d like something to chase away drowsiness. The stronger, the better. Something potent enough that I wouldn’t need to sleep for a fortnight at all…”
In other words, she was asking for a stimulant. In this world’s tongue, it was called the Call of the Dawn.
I regarded Naikle with a rather skeptical gaze.
More than a year had passed since I began working as a counselor in this other world. By now, I could often tell what symptoms a patient was suffering from just by their appearance.
No matter how I looked at her, Naikle was clearly sleep-deprived.
So naturally, I’d expected her to ask for the sleeping potion, the Embrace of the Night.
Instead, she had requested a stimulant. That went beyond strange—it was suspicious.
To my eyes, she seemed to want the Call of the Dawn for some improper purpose.
“We do have a drug that wards off drowsiness, just as you described. It’s called the Call of the Dawn, though I personally wouldn’t recommend it.”
“Why not?”
“Its effects are far too potent. If taken incorrectly, you might go an entire day—or even two or three—without sleep. In a state of over-stimulation, you could suffer pain and various other side effects.”
I met Naikle’s hollow eyes.
“If you simply wish to shake off fatigue, I’d suggest coffee instead. Or black tea.”
“Coffee, tea… those won’t work. No matter how much I drink, I still end up falling asleep.”
“The Call of the Dawn is only prescribed when drowsiness or lack of focus makes daily life impossible. I’m sorry, but you don’t appear to be in that condition, Naikle.”
“I am exactly like that!”
Naikle suddenly lunged forward and seized my hand. Even I, who rarely lost composure, couldn’t help but be startled.
She stared at me with bloodshot eyes, her gaze desperate.
“I—I’m so sleepy I can’t live normally at all. Please, give me that medicine. The… the Call of the… the Spark of Dawn, was it?”
“Please calm down. Would you sit for a moment?”
At my words, Naikle flushed and hurriedly took her seat.
“I—I’m sorry. I was too hasty…”
“No, it’s all right. So, Naikle, you’re saying that drowsiness is currently making daily life difficult for you?”
“Yes!”
Naikle brightened. Her face showed none of the weary, listless air typical of someone suffering from narcolepsy or chronic fatigue.
I extended my hand toward her.
“Would you hold my hand for a moment?”
“My… my hand?”
“There’s something I must confirm before prescribing the Call of the Dawn.”
Naikle hesitated, then offered her hand. I took it and observed the mana flowing abundantly through her body.
This was the talent I had been born with in this life.
The ability to read the mana flowing through another’s body.
It wasn’t exactly a natural talent. More like one forcibly awakened…
That detail wasn’t important right now.
I calmly examined Naikle’s mana.
In my previous life, emotions were triggered by hormonal secretions. A lack of serotonin could lead to depression, for instance, while excessive cortisol might heighten anxiety.
Here, mana played that role instead of hormones.
Emotions arose according to the shape and flow of mana scattered throughout the body.
In other words, if I could see the shape and flow of someone’s mana, I could also discern what they were feeling. Using that principle, I read Naikle’s mana while simultaneously sensing her emotions.
The shape of the mana particles… jagged and pointed in every direction. The flow is far too rapid.
It was the pattern commonly seen in people experiencing excessive anxiety or telling lies.
Continuing to observe Naikle’s mana, I posed another question.
“Naikle, you’re currently suffering inconvenience in daily life due to excessive drowsiness. Is that correct?”
“Yes, I told you so.”
“You’re lying.”
Naikle’s eyes widened, and she fell silent.
The mana in this young officer’s body was flowing at an excessive speed.
The particles had also shifted into a sharper form—rather like a sea urchin.
That was the distinctive mana flow and shape of someone lying.
Even just now, when she answered, the particles flared sharply.
She was lying right now.
“Naikle, you’re not suffering from drowsiness. You’re actually sleep-deprived. Isn’t that right?”
“……”
Naikle remained silent, but my words had clearly struck home.
I could tell from the shape and flow of her mana.
“Naikle, what did you intend to use the Call of the Dawn for?”
Thud!
Naikle roughly shook off my hand. Though her frame was slender, the force with which she flung my hand away was considerable. My wrist ached.
She’s stronger than she looks. Well, she is an officer…
Naikle glared at me, her brow deeply furrowed. Then she spun around and stormed out of the counseling office.
She offered neither greeting nor bow—only angry footsteps as she left.
She looked deeply offended.
Perhaps I had pressed her too hard… I considered that for a moment, then shook my head.
No. I can’t prescribe medicine to someone who might misuse it.
Naikle had lied about suffering from drowsiness just to obtain the Call of the Dawn, and she had refused to reveal what she planned to use it for.
I couldn’t simply hand the drug over to someone like that.
This is the right choice.
Logically, I knew that, yet my heart wasn’t entirely at ease.
Maybe there had been a gentler way to persuade her without cornering her. After all, Justin had asked me to look after her. Perhaps a better approach existed.
With that faint unease lingering, I finished reading the notes I had been going through. Only when the outside world had grown completely dark did I leave for home.
A large moon hung in the night sky, casting a desolate light over the streets. It was nearly full, swollen and bright.
* * *
The next day, I told Eris about Naikle as soon as she arrived early for work. I also mentioned the lingering discomfort I had felt until that morning.
“She sounds suspicious.”
“Doesn’t she?”
“There’s no need to feel uneasy about it. It’s right to firmly refuse unreasonable demands.”
She was correct. I felt some of the pointless unease ease from my chest.
Eris seemed to ponder for a moment before asking,
“So, what do you think Naikle wanted the Call of the Dawn for?”
“I’m not sure…”
I had no clear idea either. Where could she possibly have intended to use the stimulant?
“Maybe she planned to use it on a suspect.”
“A suspect?”
“Yes. Feed the Call of the Dawn to a criminal so they can’t sleep until they finish giving a proper statement. Something like that.”
“That’s horrible.”
“You never know what’s in someone’s heart.”
“No, Teacher, your imagination is what’s horrible.”
Eris spoke in her usual tone, her expression barely changing.
Today wasn’t particularly busy. Few appointments had been scheduled, and no new clients had arrived.
Because of that, I didn’t have much compounding work to assign Eris, so she wandered out of the compounding room and into the counseling room more often than usual. She seemed bored with nothing to do.
She would glance around, look at me briefly, then return to the compounding room.
It looked as though she had something to say, yet she never actually spoke to me.
As the sun began to set and it was nearly time to leave, Eris, who had been lingering near the counseling room, finally approached me cautiously.
“Teacher, are you busy after work?”
“No. Why?”
“I was thinking of going to the auction house tonight to buy some medicinal herbs. I thought it would be good if you came with me.”
So that was why she had been hovering around all this time? It was a little absurd, but I understood. This wasn’t the first time Eris had acted this way.
“I don’t mind going together, but does the auction house operate at night?”
Eris fell silent for a moment.
“It’s a black market.”
“Ah… So the herbs can only be obtained at the black market?”
“Yes.”
“Are they something you absolutely need?”
“Of course.”
Having just met with Justin from the Public Security Bureau the day before, going to the black market felt like a serious crime. Meeting him always made me overly cautious about trivial matters.
Still, sending Eris there alone seems dangerous too.
After a moment’s hesitation, I nodded.
“All right. Let’s go together.”
Eris responded with a faint smile instead of words.
After work, I left the counseling office with Eris.
Though considerable time had passed since sunset, the night streets weren’t dark so much as bright. The full moon was to blame.
Besides the dim streetlamps, the moon’s pale light illuminated every corner.
It was an inorganic scene, yet it possessed its own quiet charm.
Eris, walking beside me, also gazed up at the full moon for a long while.
“Teacher, there’s a rumor going around lately. Have you heard it?”
If it was a rumor worth mentioning while looking at the full moon, only one came to mind.
“The werewolf, right?”
“Yes, the one people call the ‘mad werewolf.’”
“In the newspaper I subscribe to, they call it Gwangrang.”
Recently, unsettling rumors had been circulating through Lumière.
They spoke of a werewolf that appeared in back alleys on nights when the moon was full, killing only villains such as thugs and thieves.
People referred to it as the “mad werewolf,” or Gwangrang.
Public opinion about Gwangrang was divided.
Some claimed it was a hero rather than a criminal, since it only killed evildoers.
Others insisted it was nothing more than a criminal, not a hero at all.
No matter how many thugs or thieves it punished, violence remained a crime.
Furthermore, Gwangrang’s brutality might one day turn against ordinary people, so it had to be captured quickly.
A hero who judged the wicked, or merely a criminal satisfying a violent urge by killing other criminals…
Being such a sensational topic, the existence of Gwangrang had set all of Lumière abuzz.
“What do you think, Teacher?”
“If it truly only judges the wicked, then it would be a hero.”
“Is that so?”
Eris sounded surprised by my answer.
“It’s difficult to only select the truly wicked for judgment.”
“That’s true as well.”
“Some of those killed may have deserved death, but others probably didn’t. Thinking about that, it’s hard to simply call it a hero. What about you, Eris?”
“I think similarly to you, Teacher. People say Gwangrang only punishes evildoers, but I doubt that’s entirely true.”
Honestly, I had little interest in whether Gwangrang was a hero or a criminal.
I simply hoped it wouldn’t appear before me claiming to pass judgment. After all, I wasn’t committing any deeds worthy of such judgment.
After discussing the rumors surrounding Gwangrang, we fell into silence. These sudden silences were familiar to us.
Neither Eris nor I were particularly talkative by nature.
There was no awkwardness in it. We walked quietly beneath the moonlight-drenched streets.
“Is this the place…?”
And at last, we arrived at the black market.
“It’s not as grand as I expected.”
“Even if it’s called a black market, it’s really just a somewhat discreet marketplace.”
Indeed, it was. The atmosphere wasn’t much different from an ordinary daytime market. The only real distinction was that all the merchants had their faces covered.
“What should I do?”
“I’ll handle purchasing the herbs myself, so please just keep watch. Make sure no suspicious people are following us.”
Following her instructions, I stayed alert for anyone approaching Eris while trailing after her.
Fortunately, no one came near, and the transaction concluded without incident.
“I obtained them more smoothly than expected.”
Yet Eris’s tone carried a hint of disappointment.
She seemed to find it rather dull that acquiring the herbs had been too easy.
“What, were you expecting an ambush during the deal?”
“I was prepared for one.”
“Prepared? It sounded more like you were hoping for it.”
Eris didn’t reply to my joke. She merely shot me a brief glare.
The walk back to the counseling office was quiet. Only the occasional rustling of rats moving about broke the stillness.
In that eerie, desolate street, I found myself thinking about the relationship between mana and emotion.
Emotions were triggered by mana. And mana shifted according to circumstance.
Suppose, for example, one was being chased by a wild beast.
Then the mana particles and their flow within the body would take on a form advantageous for combat or escape.
As a result of that change in shape and flow, emotions such as anger, anxiety, or fear would be triggered.
Moreover, certain intense emotions could cause mana to erupt outward.
Especially in those experiencing bloodlust or hostility, large quantities of mana would be released.
The mana expelled at such times carried a distinctive scent.
Ordinary people couldn’t detect it, but someone trained like me could.
Just like now.
“Eris.”
“Yes?”
“The ambush you were hoping for is here.”
As I spoke, I stopped Eris and took a step back.
The rustling sound that had been circling us like a rat had vanished.
With the sudden silence, five large men emerged from the darkness. Each held a threatening weapon—daggers or clubs.
Their eyes, fixed on Eris and me, burned with intense killing intent.
“……You’ve got good instincts. How did you know we were hiding?”
The man at the front of the group spoke while spinning a dagger between his fingers.
They were thieves.
Particularly vicious ones who preyed on people returning from the black market with their purchases.
I drew a deep breath. Along with the night’s chill came the scent of bloodlust and hostility. It was repulsive, unpleasant, and in a way, menacing.
Then I felt puzzled. The scent wasn’t coming from the thieves.
I raised my head toward the source and swallowed a startled breath.
Atop the tall spire of the Noctia Church stood something, looking down at us.
A large scar marked the area around its eyes.
……A wolf. The wolf had come.