The Wolf's Bite
“Our dog bites well. Sometimes it eats.”
“Wolf.”
[...Sniff.]
“Answer.”
[...Yip.]
But does he have any awareness that he was wrong?
The wolf, who had dropped the man who had passed out and was hanging limply, started to flip onto his back and whine.
“Get up. If you look at it, I also have my fault for saying not to kill you.”
[Kung kung.]
“Nod? You haven't been hit much lately.”
[...Yip.]
“Good.”
By scratching the wolf's belly vigorously, the guy's expression brightened as if he was enjoying it.
That aside.
Well, I did catch him, but how am I supposed to deal with this.
“First, let's tie him up.”
I took out a stake and chains from the spatial pocket and drove them into the ground to pin the man down.
Although it was equipment made to catch vampires, the original tool's purpose varies depending on the user's intention.
Thud. Thud.
By pounding the stake with a gauntleted fist, I felt the man's breathing change as he was being tied up.
Perhaps the shock wasn't too great, and he had woken up by now.
“Hmm.”
Still, I had to finish what I started.
After all, I didn't plan to kill him, so maybe it's okay to toy with him a bit and then let him go.
Since it's near the river, I took out a whetstone and sharpened the blade on the whetstone.
Swish. Swish.
By deliberately rubbing the blade on the whetstone pressed against his ear, the man's facial muscles twitched.
With acting skills like this, who are you trying to fool?
“Eyes open.”
“......”
“Wolf. Bite.”
“I-I opened my eyes!”
As soon as I opened my eyes, the wolf with its jaws wide open in front of me made eye contact, and the man started to thrash wildly.
“Wolf. Close your mouth.”
[Wohu.]
“Don't get your hopes up. Zizi. Zizi.”
[Heung.]
“P-Please spare me! I'll answer anything!”
Anything. There wasn't any question that immediately came to mind.
Let me think for a moment.
I started to carve the concrete on the floor with the dagger in my hand, like slicing tofu.
Habitually carving, it was the Saintess's appearance.
The most familiar person to me.
“T-That's amazing. Who is that?”
“The person who named me.”
“Ah, mother......”
“I have no parents.”
“......I'm sorry. Please spare me.”
“Are you, by any chance, wanting to die?”
“No! There's no way.”
“Then, why do you keep acting like I'm going to kill you?”
Being tied up with a stake is like treating you as a murderer.
Compared to my active duty days, even I have become milder, but I was a bit angry.
Since I needed stress relief, I decided to torture him a bit to extract information.
“Why were you looking at me?”
“Why? What do you mean?”
“Other humans all ran away because the wolf chased them. Why didn't you run?”
“I just fell asleep and couldn't run.”
“......Really?”
“Yes....... Isn't it nothing special compared to what I thought?”
Even though such a commotion happened, he was just sleeping, so he was amazing.
“You. Do you know the hero?”
“If it's the hero, is it Baek Siwoo hunter?”
“I don't know the name. A man with black hair, long body, looks like a gisaeng-orabi with a big nose. The black hair didn't look good on him earlier.”
“Both you and I have black hair, right? Originally, in Korea, no matter how common awakened are now, non-awakened are mostly black-haired. I am too.”
It was correct.
Since there was no choice, I took a large concrete block and shaped it to create the appearance of the hero I saw earlier.
“This is the hero. That is the saintess.”
“I haven't seen the armor he's wearing, but yes. Baek Siwoo hunter. I haven't seen the saintess next to him, but since Baek Siwoo hunter is a celebrity, I know. There are many people who like him.”
“People like him? Why?”
“Why do you ask?”
“There's no reason to like him.”
Anyone who has something is bound to be hated by those who don't.
The weak put a leash on the strong with the names of responsibility and rules, and pull the string to use them as they please.
But the hero party was foolish. Even if the leashes pulled from all sides dug into the flesh of the nape of the neck and blood dripped, they didn't feel pain and just smiled.
Saying that the weak are good is all nonsense.
Those who try to kill the strong who protect them from storms and rain are not monsters or other strong ones, but even weaker than bugs.
Throwing stones at the benefactor who saved their lives, shouting to revive their territory that was burned by demons, swinging at useless farm tools, and running wild.
After all, humans are ugly creatures that can't be liked no matter how hard you try.
“I admit. There are such people everywhere.”
“Yeah.”
“But since there are more people who aren't like that, this society keeps turning, right?”
“That's just idealism.”
“Just go along with it. As a small citizen like me, if I don't think that way, my life will be too hard.”
With a cheerful smile, the man wriggled his head.
It seemed uncomfortable to have his head on the concrete floor.
“That aside, what is your name?”
“Why?”
“Isn't introducing yourself the basic of conversation? I am Bae Dohyun. The surname is Bae, first name Dohyun. If you want, you can call me uncle. You don't look like it, but I'm actually in my fifties.”
Is fifty that special? I must be over a thousand years old.
“......Arte. No surname.”
“So, you're Arte. Nice to meet you. If I could, I would want to shake hands, but in this state, it's not easy.”
“No need.”
Perhaps he stopped pretending to be scared.
The man's mouth started moving non-stop.
Starting from complaining that he was an assistant at the headquarters of the Hunter Management Bureau and that overtime had increased lately because gate reports were frequent.
Stories about almost causing riots in the political world by touching the hunter world, international situations, and stock stories.
Because his eloquence was good, there was some enjoyment in listening.
“My acquaintance lost 180 million in one day. Even if it was [Green Wings], it was a decent mid-tier guild. ‘Ah, so that's why it's not worth living as a hunter’ I thought.”
“The invested ship sank.”
“Exactly! You understand quickly for someone who hasn't tried stocks. This is my personal opinion, but I think it's better to diversify investments in large guilds.”
Considering that I accidentally caught a person who was napping, the harvest was good.
I had roughly grasped the ecosystem of these hunters, and it was fun to hear stories about gates and towers from an industry person's perspective.
While listening to the stories, I was braiding the tail of the sleeping wolf, and before I knew it, the sun started to set.
The signal that the sun is setting means I have to find a place to avoid the night.
It was time to finish the conversation.
“Now, I'm leaving.”
“Ah, are you leaving? Then, this......”
“Hmph.”
I didn't like liars.
Especially since I could have escaped earlier.
“I'm tired, I can't do it. Bye.”
“Eh? No, where is such a law......”
If there's no reason why the police and hunters didn't come despite the commotion, it's obvious.
There was no way I had decided to leave my existence alone, so of course.
They were already here.
“If it's hard, call someone. Wolf, let's go.”
[Wohu.]
The wolf, who had a bored expression, swallowed me, and in that spot, only the middle-aged man tied with chains was wriggling pathetically.
***
The place where Arte and the wolf left.
Soon, the woman in a suit appeared and was looking down at Bae Dohyun, who was groaning in pain from the tightly bound muscles.
“What are you doing?”
“Hwarin, this....... Actually, until now, I was pretending not to care because I was holding my pride, but it's too tight. This, please loosen it quickly.”
“If you can loosen it and come out on your own, it's fine. What if the branch chief can't do that?”
Bae Dohyun, the chief of the Korea branch of the Awakened Management Bureau, frowned with a displeased expression while talking nonsense to the cold gaze of the secretary looking down at him.
“No, Hwarin, you should age too. If you keep standing like this, how much does your back hurt.”
“I will contact your wife that I have to stay late today.”
“Ehehe, that's not it! Last time I was scolded a lot after the dinner party.”
“Then come out.”
“Oh, come on. It's always like this. Jokes don't work.”
Crack.
With the sound of the concrete floor breaking, the stake and chain that Arte had carefully driven in came out.
“As expected, it's mithril.”
“Arte seems to have a lot of money. Gold, mithril...... Is it okay to just throw it around like this?”
“Probably because she's not from Earth.”
I had a bit of a complacent feeling after seeing the AI secretary chatting, but the fact that an S-class hunter couldn't resist and was subdued didn't change.
“Thank goodness Arte is kind. Thinking about it, I almost died, right?”
“It's fortunate that you know.”
“I wonder if it's possible to bring someone like that as a comrade. It seems Victor's words weren't lies.”
“Hero Party”. A group of returnees who were in the top tier of the world.
Even though they claim their power has significantly decreased compared to before, they have the power to be followed by no one, a gathering of monsters who are said to be able to match one country with one person.
“What do you plan to do?”
“What can I do? I can't catch him. Hwarin, have you seen Arte and the hero fighting? Once they start rampaging, casualties will happen in an instant.”
“This is a story from the community, but Merlin has declared her intention to come to Korea to meet Arte. Moreover, Kwon Wang seems to be interested in this matter, so if we get their cooperation......”
“Hey. That's not possible. The hero didn't even have the will to fight properly, so how could others do it? I don't think so.”
“Even so, it's too dangerous to just leave it like this.”
“That's right. Leaving a bomb that could explode at any time or for any reason roaming the city is a burden even for me.”
Bae Dohyun's gaze, which was loosening his stiff muscles with stretching, reached the concrete fragments on the floor.
“But our Arte has it, right?”
“......You mean the phone?”
“Even though the signal is cut when it's inside the wolf, it's better than not having it, right?”
Thanks to the cooperation of the streamer, the owner of the phone, and the telecom company, the management bureau was able to locate her.
Although she doesn't seem particularly interested in anything other than the “hero” for now, if she gets angry at meeting a human who isn't worth it...... It was difficult. Very.
Especially since the appearance shown on the internet broadcast was handing over gold bars, it was too painful even for a headache.
“For now, it seems that Arte's mind is focused on the “hero”, but it's a bomb whose explosion time and cause are unknown. Before the moths fan the flames of Arte's temper, we have to find the “saintess”.”
“But, the existence of the “saintess” is only a hypothesis.”
“Arte has it. So, we have to find it. I know that the hero party guys are trying to hide it, but Arte is someone who trusts more than her own parents. Just hiding is not good. Since we got a statue like this, we should look for it, right?”
According to what I heard from the hero, Arte seemed to have grown compared to when she was with us.
I don't know the exact time difference, but since she's treating the hero as fake, their separation probably wasn't good.
But, since the hero himself declared that Arte is not a boss monster but their comrade.
Even if Arte herself doesn't want it, we have to make it that way.
“Then.”
“Find the saintess before Arte causes an incident. Let's move quickly.”
The Korea branch of the Awakened Management Bureau, all staff overtime declaration.
