Wolves of the Revolution
The place we arrived at was a small cave. Animal bones were scattered in front of it—clearly a predator’s den. As I’d said before, charging into a place like that without a second thought was the kind of stupidity you only saw from teenagers in slasher movies. So the sensible thing was to blast it with artillery or hammer it with lightning.
“Hah! Die!”
I formed a sphere of lightning in my palm and hurled it into the cave. Moments later, something burst out at high speed. Two massive wolves. They closed the distance in an instant, only to be sent flying by Tirga’s hammer.
But something was off. The wolves were wearing clothes. Military uniforms, no less. On closer inspection, these were the kind of high-end furries rich bastards loved to collect. Not like Lati—humanoid with just ears and a tail. These were full beastmen walking on two legs and speaking.
“Ghh… What the hell is this power? Who are you, human?”
“Relax. I went easy on you. Just wrapped a little lightning around the blow.”
“What’s going on?!”
More wolves in uniform poured out of the cave—on two legs. Judging by the first two, they could probably drop to all fours when they wanted. Regular wolves were already annoying enough; now we had intelligent, fast werewolf beastmen swarming us. Lati’s ears were trembling violently at the sight. From a fragile rabbit’s perspective, wolves must be terrifying. Without Tirga, she’d have ended up as one of those bones littering the ground.
Some of the werewolves helped their fallen comrades to their feet.
“You all right?”
“Yeah. Watch out for that woman. She just batted us around like balls.”
“Strange group. Human man, woman, and a sub-race. What brings you here?”
The wolf who seemed to be the leader stepped forward. That ochre uniform with the red star emblem—there was no mistaking it. A wolfman—no, a furry—wearing what looked like worker-revolutionary gear. More shocking than the Nazi elves, honestly.
“We’re just here to investigate something.”
“Investigate?”
“Word is the moose around here have been wiped out. Looks like that’s your doing.”
“Correct. We’ve been hunting to secure food while we’re stationed here.”
With bodies that size, they’d need to eat a lot. Dozens of moose explained why nothing was left. These guys looked strong—maybe on par with the elf royal guard, or stronger. Tirga could turn them into cute puppies if she went all out, but since we could still talk, I decided to keep trying. These were definitely the communist revolutionary army from the north.
“The local hunters are suffering because of you. Stop hunting.”
“Bold of you, human. Ordering us around like that. Now that you mention it, you’ve got nothing to bargain with. Time to change the subject. I’ll squeeze information about the revolutionary army out of them instead. My charm stat probably isn’t high enough for persuasion, but if charm fails, I can just use intelligence and speechcraft to pick the right dialogue options.”
“What did you just say? You dare speak that way to a great revolutionary warrior?”
“What?”
“I didn’t want to reveal my identity because of my mission, but this insolence—I won’t forget it as a party member. I’ll report it to Comrade Blanov. Look forward to it.”
I switched my speech pattern and pretended to be a communist party member. It seemed to work—the werewolves started to stir. This was actually working! Blanov or whoever must hold serious clout. Even the once-confident leader looked visibly shaken. After a moment’s hesitation, he lowered his head.
“M-my apologies. But why would a comrade be doing this…?”
“Heard some hunter comrades were starving ’cause they couldn’t hunt. Figured I’d come sort it out. You lot been eating like bourgeois scum. Your ideology’s gone rotten.”
“N-no, that’s not true!”
“Not true? Then what the hell are you doing calling this a revolution or a war with that rotten mindset?!”
The furries were completely cowed, not daring to lift their heads. This was more fun than I expected. Time to ease off the scolding and start extracting information.
“Remember this: all revolutionary comrades are equal, but some comrades are more equal than others.”
“Understood.”
“Now I’ll ask the questions. What exactly were you wolf comrades doing here?”
The leader explained they were a special mobile unit dispatched by the party, on their way to support the war effort. From the information Admi had given me and what the werewolves said, it sounded like a civil war was raging in the north—between the Red Army pushing communism and the noble faction rejecting it. I’d seen this story before. With Nazi elves already in the mix, beastmen supporting communism wasn’t that strange. Don’t get hung up on common sense, Marquelon.
“Fine. My mission’s done, so I’ll join you.”
“You will, comrade?”
“Of course. What kind of party member would abandon comrades in hardship and danger?”
To sell the act, I ordered Tirga to show off her lightning. Dark clouds gathered and bolts crashed down. The wolves looked like country mutts who’d just met a dog butcher—far more terrified than before. In the face of nature’s raw power, even apex predators were just ordinary beasts.
“Lead the way to the front lines, comrade commander.”
And so the three of us rode on the werewolves’ backs toward the battlefield. After getting used to trucks, riding wolves felt incredibly uncomfortable. Oh well. I still needed to collect payment from the hunters, but they clearly had no money, so I’d just call it charity work. Real money came from war and plunder anyway.
***
The place we reached on wolfback was an unnamed fortress. Built of wood, it looked outdated and crude compared to Troopers Castle, but sturdy. Not far from it stood the revolutionary army’s camp. Their forces were a bizarre mix of humans, beastmen (not furries like the wolves—more like Lati), and dark elves. The elf royal guard would foam at the mouth and demand they all be thrown into camps if they saw this.
A dark elf woman approached and greeted us warmly.
“You’ve come a long way, wolf comrades.”
“Are you the commander here?”
“I am. Tamara, commander of the 1st Revolutionary Army Unit.”
“Good to meet you. Name’s Nikolai. How’s the situation?”
Tamara said they were at a stalemate. The attackers hadn’t made progress, and the defenders weren’t launching any offensives either. The attackers’ only option was to besiege the fortress and starve them out, but their own supplies would run out first. At least the furry friends had brought food, so starvation was no longer an immediate threat. That sled they’d been dragging must have been full of rations and supplies. So the moose hunting had been for food after all. I’d thought they were just eating everything themselves, but they actually had some sense of solidarity.
“By the way, who are those three with you?”
“Pleased to meet you, 1st Unit Commander comrade. Name’s Pyotr.”
I made up a fake name on the spot—taken from Peter the Great, of all things—and offered the dark elf a handshake. She didn’t take it, eyeing me suspiciously instead.
“If you’re with the revolutionary army, why don’t you have a red star or any insignia?”
“I’m returning from a mission in imperial territory under Comrade Blanov’s orders. It was a secret operation—only an idiot would go around announcing they’re a Red Party member.”
I said it without a hint of hesitation. Tamara was the one who flinched. Come to think of it, communist regimes in history had run secret police forces. This world probably had something similar. I played the part of a secret agent and secret police member of the communist party. One lie breeds another. And if I wanted to make contact with Blanov, I needed a big, bold lie.
“Ahem. So that’s how it is. Then what brings you here?”
“Heard our revolutionary comrades were in trouble. Couldn’t just stand by. Can’t even take down one wooden castle and this is the mess you’re in?”
“……”
Power really did taste sweet. I could’ve just smashed the walls dramatically and ended it, but that would be no different from the Troopers Castle siege. Time for a new strategy. Since I was cosplaying as a communist, this called for agitation and propaganda.
“You comrades wait in the rear. I’ll go negotiate and be right back.”
I said it coolly, then headed for the fortress with Tirga and Lati. For some reason, both of them were giving me strange looks.
“Tirga, Lati, why are you looking at me like that?”
“I didn’t know Master had such talent for acting. And to deceive them so openly… Where did you learn that strange way of speaking?”
“I saw the same kind of madness in the Captain that the elf royal guard has.”
“Even so, that’s going too far, Lati.”
This was comedy gold. Criticizing Nazis while cosplaying as a communist. Classic hypocrisy. But enduring that contradiction was part of a proper Red cosplay. As I approached the fortress, the soldiers on the walls nocked arrows and told me to stop. Time to start the propaganda.