Chapter 288
Chapter 288
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 288
Chapter Title: Dog and Wolf (13)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Ugh... Let... go!"
Leoru, his throat caught in Horus’s grip, writhed in pain.
He looked back at Riak and choked out.
"You... must not... kneel!"
Riak's shoulders flinched at Leoru's desperate cry.
"I told you to be quiet."
CRACK!
Horus slapped Leoru across the face once more.
Leoru, who had been struggling, spat blood and his head dropped.
"Now, kneel, Riak."
Horus glared at Riak with blazing eyes.
"If you kneel here and now, I promise I will release all the captured members of the Silver Mane Tribe."
"...Horus."
"I said, make your choice!"
The choice he himself had made.
The choice he had to make.
He was forcing it upon him.
"......"
Riak bit his lip and ground his teeth.
Watching him torn by conflict, Horus let out a short laugh.
"In the end... aren't you the same, Riak?"
To protect someone precious.
What does a flimsy bit of pride matter?
No matter how miserable, how wretched.
Even if you become a dog, not a wolf.
As long as you can protect those you hold dear.
Kneeling is nothing.
"Sometimes... you need to become a dog."
Horus said to the downcast Riak.
No.
Perhaps he was saying it to himself.
"...Sometimes you need to become a dog, you say."
A hollow laugh escaped Riak's lips.
Horus frowned, looking at him.
"Then you have nothing to worry about, Horus."
Because.
He already was.
"Because I've already lived for so long... as a dog."
Riak looked up at the sky with a bitter expression, as if recalling the past.
"...What do you mean by that?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. For the past hundred years, I lived not as a wolf, but as a dog."
He had been denying it.
He had been looking away, telling himself it was unavoidable.
But now he knew.
What he had been doing for the last hundred years.
"Did you ask what I was doing for a hundred years?"
"...Yes."
"Nothing."
"What?"
"I did nothing."
It was an excuse that he couldn't leave the Sanctuary due to the restrictions of its laws.
While the Constellation herself couldn't, a spirit could operate outside the Sanctuary to some extent.
But.
He never left.
After becoming Vega's spirit, he had locked himself in the Sanctuary, only repeating his mad training to become stronger.
All so he wouldn't have regrets this time.
All under the pretext of needing the power to protect those he cherished.
He swore before Vega that once he broke through 'the wall' and surpassed his former limits, he would leave to atone for his past mistakes.
"It was all nonsense."
He never broke through the wall.
Despite his frantic training, he never grew stronger, not even once.
It was only natural.
Because.
He never intended to break through the wall in the first place.
"I was afraid of repeating my failures."
When he was given another chance.
The thought of repeating the same failure was unbearably terrifying.
"I was afraid my people would die again because of my choice."
So he gave up on trying again.
He curled up, surrounded by the 'wall' he had built himself.
Just repeating the empty vow that someday, once he crossed that wall.
Once he became a little stronger.
Then.
He would go outside.
"I... chose to become a dog, not a wolf."
Just like Horus.
Wrapping himself in all sorts of excuses.
Justifying his actions with pathetic reasons.
That's how he had lived.
For the long hundred years.
"...Riak."
"Then, I met some crazy kid."
He remembered it vividly even now.
Oh-jin, staggering to his feet, his entire body drenched in blood.
The madman who would grin brightly as if nothing was wrong, even after suffering wounds that brought him to the brink of death countless times.
*Problems you can solve by enduring them are no problems at all?*
Where in the world did such insane sophistry come from?
No matter how hard you tried to ignore it.
Pain is real.
Fear is real.
It's not something that can be resolved just by enduring it.
However.
"That kid managed to do it."
"...What are you trying to say?"
"After meeting that kid, I couldn't help but see."
"See what?"
"What I didn't want to see."
"......"
He had known for a long time, really.
No.
Perhaps he had known from the very beginning.
That he was nothing more than a coward spouting pathetic excuses.
He knew, yet he looked away.
He had kept his eyes down, his head turned.
Because he was scared of failing again.
Because he was terrified of taking responsibility for those who would have to die because of his failure.
But after meeting Oh-jin.
After facing the Star of Rebellion, shining brilliantly in the dark, cloud-covered sky.
He could no longer look away.
He could no longer live with his head turned from the things he didn't want to see.
*-Are you a dog right now, or a wolf?*
A question he couldn't bring himself to answer.
Now, it was time to answer it.
"This is my answer, Horus."
Blue lightning coiled around Riak's body.
The black-dyed fur burned away in the blue lightning, and new fur covered his body.
Fur that shone with a brilliant silver light.
Crack, creak!
With a gruesome sound of breaking bones, Riak's body transformed into that of a werewolf.
"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!"
BOOOOOM!
As he stomped his foot violently, a massive crater tore through the earth as if a hammer had shattered a pane of glass.
The entire royal castle shook as if hit by an earthquake.
"I swear on my name, 'Riak Khan'!"
A savage roar echoed thunderously.
"I!"
Even if he were to repeat the same failure.
Even if his precious ones were to lose their lives because of his choice.
"Will be a wolf."
CRACKLE!
A storm of blue lightning swept around Riak's body, spreading wide.
BOOM!
He stomped his foot and charged toward Horus.
"Ugh!"
Riak's fist, moving at a terrifying speed, struck Horus squarely on the bridge of his nose.
CRACK!
Horus's head snapped back violently as his body was sent flying.
The formidable power in the punch sent Horus skipping across the ground like a stone on water.
"Lord Horus!"
Horus's royal guards, horrified, rushed toward Riak.
"Chahat!"
A red-maned warrior from the royal guard swung his fist at Riak.
Slightly tilting his head, Riak easily dodged the punch and roughly grabbed the warrior's arm.
SNAP!
With the sound of bone breaking, the arm was bent at a grotesque angle.
"Out of the way, you brats."
Riak violently swung the arm he held, throwing the warrior at the other guards rushing in from behind.
The body, shot like a cannonball, collided with the charging guards, causing them to tangle and fall.
"St-Stop! If you move, these guys are...!"
A royal guard threatened, pressing his sharp claws to the throat of a captured Silver Mane tribesman.
Without even a word in response, Riak swung his claws at the guard holding the Silver Mane tribesman hostage.
Claws of lightning formed, tracing the path of his swing through the air.
The blue-burning lightning shot toward the royal guard at a blinding speed.
"Hup!"
The eyes of the guard holding the hostage widened in shock.
The lightning claws weren't aimed just at him.
It was an attack that would pierce through all the Silver Mane tribesmen he was holding hostage.
"You... you crazy bastard!"
Seeing Riak launch an attack as if he intended to kill the hostages too, the royal guard spat out a harsh curse and threw himself to the side.
"Kuaaaaaaaah!"
The Silver Mane tribesman held hostage was unable to dodge the attack in time and was struck by the lightning claws.
A terrible scream erupted.
"Don't worry, you won't die."
Riak charged toward the royal guard who had thrown himself aside to dodge the lightning claws.
CRAAACK!
He kicked the guard in the stomach as if kicking a ball.
"Keoheok!"
The royal guard flew several dozen meters, smashed through the castle wall, and was embedded in it.
"Riaaaak!"
Horus wiped the blood from his mouth and charged at Riak.
BOOM! KABOOM! KABOOOOM!
Fists collided.
Though it was just fists meeting fists, a series of explosions that shook the entire castle rang out.
"Are you saying you don't care if your own people die?!"
Horus's fist roughly struck Riak's cheek.
"Even if everyone who believed in and followed you dies! You're just going to protect your own pride as a wolf?!"
"And what was left in your life after you threw that pride away?!"
Riak's fist shot up, striking Horus's chin.
Horus's head snapped back.
Horus grabbed Riak's shoulders and slammed his forehead down like a hammer.
"My life was left!"
"Only your life was left!"
Bleeding from a gash between his brows, this time it was Riak who grabbed Horus's shoulders and slammed his forehead down.
CRACK!
With a dull thud, Horus spat blood and fell backward.
"You became a dog to save your people?"
"Keok!"
He violently stomped on the fallen Horus's stomach.
"Don't give me that nonsense, Horus."
Eyes burning like fire turned to Horus.
"You were simply afraid to fight."
Unable to bear the weight of the lives that would be lost due to your own powerlessness.
You just gave up the fight.
"What, what do you know to be spouting such things!"
"Have you forgotten who I was?"
The silver mane fluttered in the gusting wind.
"I am a 'Khan', Horus."
The weight of the lives he had to carry was heavier than anyone could imagine.
And yet.
No, because of that.
"I had to be a wolf."
If I submit, everyone else will submit.
If I break, everyone else will break.
If I fall, everyone else will fall.
"That."
Riak's fist shot down violently toward Horus's face.
"Is the weight a 'Khan' must bear."
BOOM!
Just before Riak's fist landed.
Horus barely managed to twist his head and avoid the punch.
Riak's fist struck the ground, causing it to cave in and crumble.
Horus rolled on the ground, putting distance between himself and Riak.
"Huff, huff!"
A trickle of blood ran down from the corner of Horus's mouth as he gasped for breath.
Riak slowly walked toward the panting Horus.
"You've been in that position for a hundred years too, you must know."
"I am not..."
"Not a Khan?"
Pfft.
Riak let out a hollow laugh.
He glared at Horus with eyes that had grown cold.
"How long are you going to keep running away?"
"......"
"I've given you my answer, Horus."
Now, it was his turn to answer.
"Are you a dog? Or a wolf?"
Riak looked at his old friend and asked quietly.