Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: Message (3)
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Come to think of it, the wolf was nothing special at first.
Even giving her the benefit of the doubt, she was just another common wolfkin you could find anywhere.
If anything, looking back coldly at the reality of that time, she was merely a young wolf who had been captured by slave traders and barely managed to escape—a pup not even treated as proper wolfkin.
And that was just the start.
Even after breaking free from the slave traders, the young wolf had nowhere to go.
The reason she'd been caught in the first place was because her parents, uncharacteristically for beastkin, had abandoned her for lacking any instincts and being nothing but timid.
So, the only path left for the girl was to wander, starving.
Naturally, for a young wolf who hadn't been taught even the basics of hunting by her parents, wandering was grueling.
There were days she went without food, and sometimes she had to flee from slave hunters who targeted her, turning it into a desperate chase.
In that way, the young wolf gradually wore down.
The longer time passed, the more days she had to endure hunger, and the relentless pursuit of the slave hunters wore at her mentally.
At one point, she even contemplated death.
The endless starvation and mental strain from the slave hunters were burdens far too heavy for her to bear.
But just as those thoughts began to solidify, she met a man.
The man introduced himself as the lord of this territory and expressed his desire to recruit the young wolf.
Of course, she was wary of him.
She'd encountered too many slave hunters for words alone to earn her trust.
Yet, astonishingly, the man's words were true.
He really was the lord of this small territory where she now stood, and he paid her an upfront contract fee that felt almost too generous for someone like her.
Desperate for a place to return to, she accepted his offer—but even then, she couldn't shake her suspicions when looking at the man, now her lord.
No matter how she thought about it, the young wolf couldn't fathom why he'd recruited her.
He'd said he planned to use her as a combatant, but she knew the money he'd given her could've hired far stronger beastkin or soldiers.
However, the distrust and suspicion filling the young wolf began to fade bit by bit from some point onward.
The lord taught her how to fight.
He brought in beastkin to instruct her on beastkin combat techniques.
And he tasked her with subjugating a single goblin.
Of course, the young wolf knew this was the lord's consideration.
Goblins were a headache in groups, but just one? Even a commoner could take it down with a weapon.
In short, from the lord's perspective, having her hunt a few goblins brought no real benefit.
Yet he made her subjugate goblins for an incredibly long time.
He didn't scold her when she returned scratched up from mere goblins.
He simply healed her with expensive potions and encouraged her: "You'll do better next time."
It continued like that afterward.
She built her skills by subjugating goblins that offered little help to the lord.
Each time, he lavished her with praise far beyond what she deserved for tasks even a commoner could handle, caring for her tenderly.
Taking it slow, step by step, increasing the numbers gradually, the young wolf—thanks to the lord's nurturing—eventually grew strong enough to single-handedly wipe out a goblin village that posed a real threat to the territory.
That day, as the man joyfully praised her for conquering the goblin village, the young wolf couldn't hold back and blurted out her question.
"Lord, why have you done so much for me?"
It was the curiosity she'd harbored since first serving him as her lord—the puzzle of his irrational choice.
"Because I wanted you by my side."
With those words, the young wolf felt it.
That she truly had a place to return to.
A tiny spark of happiness had been born.
From that point on, the young wolf grew even more.
Before long, she'd outgrown the "young" label, becoming one of the territory's top warriors.
The territory, small when she was recruited, had swelled over time into something that could be called a kingdom.
The wolf felt proud of it all.
She believed this territory was something she and the lord had built together, and the more it developed, the happier he seemed.
So she welcomed every change in the territory.
Except for one thing: the other heroes gathering around the lord.
Of course, she knew it was inevitable as the territory grew.
No lord could cover such a vast land alone, and even she couldn't defend its bloated size by herself.
Still, the heroes multiplying around the lord as the territory expanded didn't sit well with the wolf.
That was probably why.
Why she'd acted so out of character, throwing a tantrum.
But from that single outburst, she received a gift.
Objectively speaking, the gift from the lord wasn't anything remarkable.
It was just a small earring, after all.
Yet she was thrilled.
The very fact that the lord had given her a gift filled her with joy, and it felt like a sign that she was different from the other heroes clinging to him.
The wolf wanted to be special to the lord.
But that joy was short-lived; her expectations shattered soon after.
The reason? The lord began giving the same kinds of gifts to the other heroes.
The wolf felt jealousy.
She'd thought she was special to him, but now it felt like she was being pulled down to their level.
Her head understood it wasn't the case, but from some point on, she started showing her resentment toward the lord more often.
To get even a little more gifts than the others.
To become just a bit more special to him.
That became the root of it all.
What wasn't natural began turning into something expected.
Before long, the heroes—not just her—started demanding more than mere gifts from the lord on a regular basis.
The wolf was the same.
Even when the lord looked troubled, she'd throw a fit instead.
Seeing him still care for her despite his distress made her feel like she really was special to him.
And so time passed.
Until the lord refused to give gifts.
Refused to show favors. Refused to express closeness.
It wasn't just her. It applied to all the heroes.
She and the others expressed displeasure—perhaps even anxiety bubbling up.
But even so.
He stopped saying anything to the heroes altogether, as if there was no longer any need.
Soon after, the lord vanished.
Gone, just like that.
The wolf and the heroes vented their frustrations with all their might at first, even after he left.
But when a week passed with no sign of him, they finally realized something was wrong.
A faint sense of guilt probably crept in around then.
"Maybe we troubled him too much. We should apologize first when he returns," they thought.
The wolf thought so too, but the lord who had vanished once never came back.
Continuously.
Over and over.
A month passed.
Three months.
Up to half a year.
The lord did not return.
Only then did the wolf think perhaps she'd crossed an irreparable river.
Of course, she gritted her teeth and denied it.
Habitually repeating, "No, it can't be," while staring blankly at the lordless territory for another year.
Finally shaking off her warped senses and lowly desires, the wolf realized the irreversible mistake she'd made, plunging into self-loathing and despair as she gazed at the territory.
The territory she and the lord had built together was now on the path to ruin without him.
The walls, breached time and again, had crumbled, and the territory's people were scattering even now.
The wolf did what she could.
She blocked invading enemies.
She eliminated threats spawning around the territory.
...That was all she could do.
The territory continued to decline.
Buildings crumbled, walls vanished.
People left, land turned barren.
To protect the memories built with the lord—
—to preserve a place for him should he ever return, the wolf gave her all.
But in the third year after the lord left.
The territory had lost its original form entirely.
All that remained were faint ruins and the lord's castle on the verge of collapse.
Nothing else was left.
Not even the training ground he'd built to train her.
Not the house he'd made for her.
Everything was gone.
No more memories of the lord lingered here.
No place for him to return to.
When she realized that, no more tears flowed from the wolf's eyes.
She simply stared at the empty territory with hollow eyes.
...Silently screaming at her own stupidity and idiocy, at the fool who'd thrown away something precious.
And so, into the fourth year.
The wolf, who had sat atop the lord's castle roof all along, finally stood and left the territory where nothing remained.
To create a place for the lord to return to.
Of course, she painfully understood he wouldn't come back.
Her water had already been spilled, and she knew spilled water couldn't be gathered.
Yet the wolf moved anyway—a form of self-hypnosis.
If she didn't do this much, something inside her would break.
Leaving the territory, the wolf built a home for her lord in the way she knew best: by fighting, fighting, and fighting some more, cobbling together a crude settlement.
It was laughably rough compared to the territory the lord had created, but that didn't matter to her.
She was just hypnotizing herself, after all.
...Hoping that if she made a place for him to return, maybe he would.
That was six years ago.
The crude settlement had grown into something fairly respectable.
From what she overheard of the Four Heavenly Kings chattering—people she barely cared about—her settlement was now famous enough that everyone in the area knew of it.
But its growth brought her no emotion.
If anything, she felt her feelings dulling more with time.
The fragile flame of hope she'd hastily kindled was fading, leaving only cold ashes.
Lately, she felt increasingly listless, spending much of her time asleep.
Amusingly, when she slept, she sometimes dreamed of him.
Dreams of the lord, whose face had grown blurry, barely remembered.
So today, too, she sought forced sleep.
Until moments ago, when a single letter fell atop her head.
"..."
And then.
"...Ah."
Until she read the unbelievable contents within that letter.
Her mouth opened and closed slightly, repeatedly.
Her hand trembled holding the letter.
Fragments of clear emotion emanated from the wolf, plain for anyone to see.
Her eyes darted left and right ceaselessly, repeatedly reading the single sentence on the small card inside the letter.
"Your lord has returned."
Words that felt utterly unrealistic to her.
However.
"..."
She stood from her seat.
The wolf didn't know where the letter came from.
Nor who wrote it or sent it.
But the words inside stirred her heart just thinking of them.
So she decided to verify it.
Whether the letter was true or not.
And then.
Kwadududuk—!
As the wolf's foot dug into the hard rocky ground.
Kwaaaang!
Shattering the rock face, the wolf leaped forward.