Chapter 483: Shed as Much as You've Eaten
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 483: Shed as Much as You've Eaten
Trust is also a resource that can be depleted. The Regressor watched Azzy and me with a sliver of faith. From morning to night, she observed what we did and how we spent our days, with the patience of a mother watching over her child.
“How can you not do a single thing right!”
As a result, my capital of her trust went bankrupt. Unable to contain her anger, the Regressor grabbed me by the collar and shouted.
“You're spending money left and right! The yard is littered with empty food containers! The only people who come to this mansion are deliverymen!”
“The housekeepers will be here soon. They're scheduled to clean the whole mansion.”
“Like that's something to be proud of!”
The Regressor shoved me away and clutched her head. After a few heaving breaths, she muttered with a grave expression.
“Hoo…! It's fine. I haven't wasted any time. Finishing the trading company business in a month was actually fast. We just need to get serious now!”
“That's right. You can do it, Shei.”
“I'm telling you to do it! You're the King of Humans! You're supposed to defeat the wolves! But you don't seem to have any intention of doing so!”
“But the political situation here is so difficult.”
I wanted to work hard. But what can an ordinary person do when dropped into a strange city? No matter how much money you have, a drifter with no connections or information has clear limitations. It was inevitable that I wouldn't get any results.
…Let's go with that narrative. If I just said I was lazy, I'd lose face. I grumbled, making my excuse.
“The races are so different that there's constant turmoil and intense conflict. They say beastkin are discriminated against, and as soon as I tried to join a clan, they started whispering, 'He's a human, a human.' They're wary of my 'unfamiliar scent.' How am I supposed to do anything?”
Since it was true that the situation in Ende was chaotic, the Regressor didn't seem to doubt me.
“I know that. But the easiest way to resolve the conflict between beastkin and humans is to use the Beast King. I thought you'd be able to do it.”
“I told you, I lost my power.”
“But you have Azzy. The Dog King.”
The Regressor pointed at Azzy, who was happily gnawing on a bone. Ah, right. Even if she's gotten all chubby now, she was a king, wasn't she?
“Many of the city's influential figures are dog beastkin, and the mayor of Ende, Triver, is a dog beastkin with imperial lineage. As someone who knows the threat of the wolves better than anyone, he would have cooperated with you.”
“You knew all that and still left it to me?”
“I'm regretting it now. I should have told you everything, even the information you could get by grabbing any random person on the street!”
Ugh. Did I think things would be too easy just because I'm a Regressor? No. If he can't even handle this much, there's no reason to entrust him with the job. I might as well do it myself.
Oh really? If you do it for me, that's great.
Well, I'd read the minds of passersby when I was bored, so I knew the general situation in Ende. I just hadn't thought of using Azzy to pull strings like the Regressor did.
“Haaah. I need to get moving right away.”
“You should eat something and take it easy. Here, have some meat.”
“I don't need it. I'll handle my own meals. Just come up with some kind of plan by the time I get back!”
Tch. And I was trying to be nice. The Regressor left as if she were being chased by something. She was going to meet the mayor through the trading company she'd established connections with.
“Busy, busy~.”
“Woof~.”
Azzy and I watched the Regressor's departing back as we slowly chewed on our meat.
It's not like the plan is anything special. We'll have to dig traps and set snares to wear down their forces, then fight the Wolf King. I'll leave that to the Regressor.
My job is to find people to help and to bond with Azzy. There was still meat on the rib I was eating, but a full beast is a merciful one. I gladly tossed her the bone with meat still on it. Azzy, who had been waiting in anticipation, leaped up and snatched the bone before it hit the ground.
“Woof woof woof~.”
“Living the good life~.”
Life in a big house with a yard, raising a dog. It's nice and pastoral. If there were just a woman by my side, it would be a perfect, ordinary life.
…Well, there is the Regressor. But a Regressor who still believes she's disguised as a man doesn't really do it for me. Besides, she's never even home.
Ah, Tyr was really pretty, though. Now that we're apart, I miss her. I wonder if I'll meet anyone new here.
“Hello~. Anyone home?”
Oh. Is that the housekeeper I called? I asked them to bring some snacks, they're here early. I leisurely walked to the main gate.
Having to walk all the way over just to receive something. This is the inconvenient part of having a house with a yard. Not that I can just leave the gate open.
Muttering the complaints of a well-fed man, I opened the gate to find a hooded pig beastkin waiting outside. He was hiding something in his arms.
Did they send a pig beastkin as a housekeeper? Pig beastkin are good workers for tough jobs, but I called for sheep beastkin. What's this?
“What can I do for you?”
The pig beastkin ignored me, even though I was right in front of him, and peered into the yard.
Azzy, toddling around while gnawing on meat. A considerable pile of delivery containers. And the heap of bones Azzy had chewed, gnawed, savored, enjoyed, and then collected like treasure.
Have I been living too extravagantly? It's a bit embarrassing to show a stranger the state of the house.
…No, wait.
He's not even the housekeeper. Isn't it weirder for a stranger to be inspecting the state of my house?
“…Was it good?”
“Huh? What was? You mean the beef soup from Kitchen Gluta? It was delicious, but…”
“That wasn't beef. It was pork, butchered from the outskirts. Gluta deceived you.”
What? You're saying they lied about the ingredients? And they ripped me off for the huge sum of 40 alke?
I was enjoying it, but now my mood is ruined. Nothing short of ten free meal tickets will appease my anger.
“Thanks, whistleblower. I'll go complain to them right now. They'd better refund my money.”
“Is that all?”
“Is there something else you need?”
The moment I asked. A cold light flashed from within the pig beastkin's arms. Before I could react, a sharp hostility pierced my body.
“Keuk!”
Stabbed, I cried out and collapsed. A wet stain began to spread across my clothes. The pig beastkin looked down at me, his face filled with malicious glee.
“Using dogs as guards, filling your belly with pigs… Oink. It felt good to take, didn't it? How does it feel to be on the receiving end?”
“Ugh… Who the hell are you? Why are you doing this to me?”
“If you don't know, then learn. I'm going easy on you since you were tricked into eating it. Oink!”
The pig beastkin pulled his hood down further and then bolted. For a pig, he was quite fast, being a beastkin. Swallowing a groan, I desperately moved to close the gate. Only after the lock clicked shut did I relax, leaning against the gate and panting for breath.
“Woof?”
I looked up to see Azzy, who had approached at some point, looking at me with concern. This damn mutt, a guard dog? A dog that can't even bite a person isn't a guard dog. She's a freeloader.
Suddenly feeling resentful toward Azzy, I bit my lip and groaned.
“A man's been stabbed, what are you staring at…! Call the police, quickly!”
“Woof? But you weren't stabbed?”
“…Surprise!”
Damn, why is this dog so smart? Did she notice there was no smell of blood?
I slyly pulled out the piece of meat I had hidden inside my clothes. The meat on the bone had a deep knife gash in it.
I had pretended to be stabbed, holding the meat there and squeezing it to make the juices flow. The pig beastkin, mistaking the juices spreading under my clothes for blood, thought he had accomplished his goal and fled.
Good thing I ordered an extra portion. I tossed the knife-slashed meat to Azzy and muttered.
“Who would send such an idiot as a killer? Ah, I guess he wasn't a killer.”
This was just terrorism. A terrorist who follows deliverymen, finds a house that eats meat, remembers it, and then goes around stabbing indiscriminately. He didn't attack me because I'm the King of Humans, or because I'm Hughes. He stabbed me purely for the reason that I 'ate pork'.
“This city is intense. I thought I could live comfortably for a month, splurging money left and right… I never expected to get attacked.”
Ende, a city on the frontier. I thought it would be a paradise if you had money, but it seems life isn't so easy.
As I sat there thinking, Azzy looked at me and tilted her head.
“Why did you get stabbed?”
“What else could I do? If someone's trying to stab you, you have to let them.”
“Woof? Dodge!”
“If I dodge, he'll just try to stab me harder next time. It's better to take the hit once. It doesn't hurt if they stab you gently.”
Even if I get through this, what if another one comes? It's better to trick them into thinking they got me.
Still, the 'stabbing' still hurt, you know. I rubbed my tingling side and spoke.
“But Azzy. Isn't this a little fun?”
“Woof.”
Azzy shook her head. It seemed she wasn't a fan of fights between humans. But that's a dog's perspective.
“A pig beastkin stabs someone for eating pork? Do they think pigs are their ancestors? Not humans?”
Interesting. I feel like reading some more thoughts.
“Baaa~. Baaa~. We're the housekeepers from Team Wool~. Are you Mr. Hughes, who made the reservation~?”
As I was thinking, I sensed a group milling about in front of the gate. They were the real housekeepers, dispatched from a clan formed primarily by sheep beastkin.
I got up lightly and opened the gate. The sheep beastkin, for whom this was already the fourth time cleaning the mansion, bowed politely and got straight to work. Seeing the sheep beastkin bustling about, Azzy began to fidget as if getting an itch, but I couldn't let her bother the housekeepers, so I pulled her back.
“Azzy. Let's go for a walk.”
“Woof!”
Regressor. It's just as you wished. I'm off to face my grand challenge to the world.