The Beast Tamer Awakens
Aidan screamed until his throat tore. The distance was far too close. Even if luck carried them through blocking the first attack, there were no fewer than five wolves. Someone was bound to get hurt.
Please, don't let them hurt anyone!
Aidan sprinted toward his friends, crying out with every fiber of his being.
"...Huh?"
Had his desperate wish somehow reached the heavens? The situation unfolded in a way utterly different from what the boss had expected.
He had clearly ordered them to tear the intruders limb from limb — and yet instead of biting and shredding, the wolves were lowering their tails and slinking backward, step by furtive step.
Not once had these beasts ever disobeyed an order, and he could not for the life of him make sense of what was happening.
"What are you idiots doing?! I told you to kill every last one of them!"
The boss bellowed, issuing the command again.
"Gaaahng!"
"Kyarrung!"
But the wolves only whined piteously, unable to move. They still bared their fangs with savage aggression, yet for some reason they couldn't bring themselves to lunge.
How should one put it? They simply seemed at a loss for what to do. When they heard their master's voice, they writhed and whimpered as though trying to obey and failing — as if someone else had seized control of their minds.
To Bayul and his friends, it was a truly bizarre sight.
"Go back to wherever you came from!"
It was then that Aidan's stern voice rang out. The wolves, who had been shaking their heads this way and that as if in protest at the boy's severe command, finally seemed to submit — and fled, scattering from the spot as if running for their lives.
"C-come back!"
The flustered boss shouted after them, but it was no use. The wolves were already tearing away, tails between their legs, vanishing into the distance.
"Bayul, now! Bind him!"
"...Huh? Ah — right, got it!"
Bayul had been dazed by the sudden turn of events. Quinn's words snapped him back to his senses, and he immediately asked Shame to restrain the man.
With a groaning, creaking sound, tree roots burst up from beneath the earth. They coiled around the masked men — the boss included — wrapping them tight as serpents, binding them where they stood.
"Wh-what the—! What is this?!"
Bewildered, the boss could only spew half-finished words. Before he'd even recovered from the shock of the wolves he'd raised like his own children abandoning him and fleeing, the strange growths had bound his body — and for a moment, raw fear seized him.
One impossible thing after another, all in the space of moments — it was as if his very soul had fled his body.
"Aidan... you...?"
It hadn't quite reached that point, but his friends' feelings weren't so different. Even watching it with their own eyes, they couldn't understand what Aidan had just done.
The boy was an empath — gifted with the ability to commune with animals. He had used that power to tame them, to befriend them.
But just now, he had given a command. With a single sentence, he had controlled wild beasts he was meeting for the very first time. That they would refuse their master's order and instead obey the words of a total stranger — it was truly strange.
"...How on earth did you do that?"
At Eli's question, Aidan looked up in a daze.
"That's the thing... what did I just do?"
"What?"
Eli gave him an exasperated look at the retort. If you don't know what you did yourself, who would?
"Aidan, are you okay?"
Bayul approached and took Aidan's hand. Only after the desperate situation had passed did he truly register the boy's state.
His face wore an expression of utter shock. Bayul had been the same when he first faced a spirit. He could guess, at least a little, what Aidan must be feeling right now.
"You didn't know either, did you?"
"...You didn't know either, did you?"
"It's probably because nothing's ever been as dangerous as today. Wolves like those usually live deep in the mountains. You'd never have had the chance to meet one."
Aidan nodded dumbly, as if Bayul's guess was right.
"It's the first time an animal ever scared me. They've always been creatures I was happy to see, wanted to be friends with... nothing but pretty and adorable. But this time I didn't know what to do, and I was just terrified. So I thought — stop, don't hurt my friends... in my head, I mean..."
"...And then this happened?"
"So he's not just an ordinary empath. He's a Tamer."
"A Tamer? You mean a beast trainer?"
Quinn looked down at the bewildered Aidan and explained.
"Someone who dominates and controls an animal's will through sheer force of mental conviction. They say the most powerful Tamers can even command the demonic beasts of the Demon Realm. The fact that Ingrid came to you, Aidan — maybe it wasn't a coincidence at all."
"Wh-what could I possibly be capable of?"
There was that word again — Demon Realm. The truth about Ingrid's identity, which he'd briefly managed to forget, came rushing back, and Aidan froze.
"That desperate longing of yours to protect us — that's what seized the wolves' minds. You saw how they were whimpering just now, right? They'd received an order, so they should have carried it out, but your interference left them unable to do anything at all."
And in the end, driven to that point, they had chosen to flee, following Aidan's final command.
"A Tamer is nothing like an ordinary trainer. Even among the beastfolk, it's an exceedingly rare calling."
"D-don't be ridiculous! Tamer, my foot! Those things just lost their minds for a moment because of the bliss grass, that's all!"
The boss suddenly shrieked. Perhaps he'd finally collected himself, because he squirmed against the tree trunk binding him and cried out indignantly.
"I raised those beasts from cubs, like my own children! You think they'd listen to you? Absolutely not!"
"Excuse me, boss man. Are you an idiot? Those precious 'children' of yours just ran off and abandoned you. You watched it happen and still you're spouting that nonsense?"
Eli's words struck home, and the boss's face flushed crimson.
"...It's a temporary effect! A side effect of them overdosing on bliss grass!"
"You call them your children, and you feed them bliss grass? Are you out of your mind?"
"It's the only way to bring out their aggression. It's lethal to small, weak animals, but when big, fierce beasts like wolves eat it, it works like a stimulant. Still — you should never feed them bliss grass."
Aidan's tone sharpened.
"It won't kill them right away, but it shaves years off their lives. If you truly cared about them like your own children, you should never have given them that grass!"
"Th-that's my business! What right do you have to lecture me?"
"More right than you do."
Aidan, who could read and feel the thoughts of animals, despised people like the boss more than anyone. No one had the right to abuse animals, and yet such people committed their cruelties as though it were only natural. One day, they would accept their punishment gladly.
"Ah, my ears! Wow, it's awfully loud in here. Hey, boss man. I think you've forgotten something — you're the one who's been caught, remember? This isn't exactly the time to be shouting and carrying on! Shall I kill you right now?"
Eli's red eyes — more beautiful than any gemstone — gleamed viciously. He was clearly nothing more than a young boy, but when the boss met that gaze, a chill ran down his spine.
"Well, boys, since we're on the subject, let's decide. What should we do? Kill them all and bury them right here? If we ask Shame, I doubt anyone would ever find them."
Eli turned to his friends with a bright, sunny smile. The words 'Is that really something you can say while smiling?' rose to everyone's throats — but no one could bring themselves to say it.
'I guess the Chairman's been stressing him out that much.'
'Keeping his sanity can't be easy.'
They exchanged glances and quietly agreed to let it go.
"Why isn't anyone answering me? Don't tell me you want to spare them?"
"However we deal with them, first we need to find out who put them up to this."
Logan strode forward until he stood before the boss. His long black hair rippled in the wind. Perhaps it was his towering height, well over six feet, but the sheer presence of him was crushing.
"I will ask once more. Who hired you?"
"...You think I'd tell you that?"
"Cooperating would be in your best interest."
"Ha! You actually intend to kill us?"
The man sneered, as if daring him to try. But at Logan's next words, the boss's complexion darkened rapidly.
"Why would we need to do it ourselves? You may not have been afraid while you were still confident you could take us down — but I imagine things look rather different now."
"...!"
"Wouldn't it be better for you if this ended at our level of discretion?"
The boss understood exactly what Logan's words meant. His wavering gaze traveled past Logan, past Aidan, and came to rest on Bayul.
'Damn it all!'
It was far too late for regret, but if only he could turn back time, he would return to that day, days ago.
'I never should have accepted a contract so recklessly!'
Only now did the boss truly grasp whom he had provoked. The others' backgrounds were formidable enough — but Duke Randert, of all people. The strongest man in the empire, a living legend — and Bayul was his only remaining kin. He had tried to kill him. No sane man would have taken on such a job.
'Did I honestly believe I could evade his pursuit?'
Even if the contract had succeeded, the good fortune would have been fleeting — every day that followed would have been another day of blood running thin. Failure, ironically, was the better outcome. How foolish, how blind he had been, thinking that if he killed the target and made a clean escape, he'd be safe.
'Curse that money!'
The staggering payment dangled before his eyes had blinded him, muddying his judgment in an instant. Truthfully, ever since then he had tried desperately not to think about it. Willful denial would be the more accurate description. It was the fruit of his own greed and arrogance.
"Look at that face, regretting it so hard now. What I don't understand is that no reputable outfit would ever have taken a contract like this. What exactly were you counting on, boss man? A powerful backer, perhaps?"
Even though he'd already guessed there was none, Eli refused to let up on the mockery.
"I will ask one final time. Who hired you?"
"...And if I talk, what happens to us?"
"That's something my friends and I will discuss at our leisure."
Logan made no promises. Right now, uncovering the identity of the client mattered more than anything else.
"......"
But the boss's mouth would not open easily. Fearful of something, he simply pressed his lips together and parted them, over and over.
"Fine, then. Boys — bury them."
"Getting a wound or two more before they're buried alive shouldn't be a problem, right?"
Quinn chimed in at Eli's threat, conjuring arrows of water. Five arrows trained precisely on the men's chests.
"I might just burn them instead. I hear that's the most painful way to go."
Eli, as if suddenly changing his mind, straightened his stance. As he linked his fingers, a ball of flame bloomed to life. It was Fireball — a third-circle spell.
It was magic that pushed far beyond what a mere first-year academy student should have been able to cast, but the group had no time to be astonished. Apparently unwilling to be roasted alive, the boss finally opened his mouth.
"H-his name was Nathan!"
"...Nathan?"
It was an utterly unexpected name.
If it was that Nathan — even now, on a weekend, he hadn't been able to go home, still recovering at the temple. Still reeling from the shock, he was in no condition to move, to say nothing of the fact that he had no money whatsoever to hire men like these.
Above all, Nathan had no motive to harm them.
"Lord Jared, then."