Werewolves and the Blood Clan (vampires) were both creatures of darkness but were sworn enemies.
The enmity between the two races went all the way back to the era of the Blood Clan’s first ancestor, Cain.
Bloodkin weren’t able to act during the day as they were afraid of the sun. Thus, the easiest way to kill them was to find their nests during the day and finish them off. Because of their sensitivity to sunlight, the Bloodkin were basically comatose during the day. Even being staked in the heart or burnt wasn’t enough to wake them up; they would simply pass away in their dreams. In order to prevent the humans from using such despicable methods on them, Cain came up with a plan and that was to use the werewolves.
During the day, werewolves basically spent their time as humans. Only during the night were they able to transform. However, there were exceptions to this rule, a select few werewolves were able to control their bloodlines to the extent where they were able to transform at will through some sort of medium. These elites could be said to be the pinnacle of the werewolf species and were worshipped by others.
The pursuit of strength was a basic instinct of the werewolves, in fact, this was something they were more than willing to risk their lives for. To them, this was a pursuit they were more than happy to toil tirelessly for. Noticing this point, Cain promised these power hungry werewolves what they desired in exchange for loyalty towards him and his childes.
Those who were willing to swear fealty to the Blood Clan underwent a mysterious ritual.
It was an extremely secretive ritual that had been kept under wraps even till this day. All we know so far is that werewolves who underwent this ritual could transform into their wolf form at will and even maintain their lucidity.
With the addition of more and more werewolves into the Blood Clan, the bloodkin gained the protection they wanted during the day. As for these bodyguards, they craved power and for that power, they paid the price of freedom by becoming the servants of the bloodkin. From the moment they joined the Blood Clan, they lost the pride of a werewolf and thus discarded their identity in the process. They were no longer werewolves but were instead a new lifeform—Lycans.
—-From<<Werewolf>>
Since this was the first illusion I had ever casted, I couldn’t even be sure when he would wake up so time was of the essence here.
It was then that the Grimoire of the Dead came flying back to my side; it had probably noticed that the bandit was now under my illusion. With it, came Shadowfang which was still attached to the floating grimoire by a bone chain. I swiftly caught the dangling blade flying towards me and activated my Shadow Guardian.
In order to prevent any unforeseen problems, I maintained a distance of five meters while I summoned the shadowy minion. Same as always, the shadowy tendrils snaked towards the hysterical bandit and coiled itself around him. Feeling the bindings around him, Dawson struggled to break free but compared to his previous attempts, it was clearly lacking in power and naturally failed.
That eastern dragon was probably still working its magic on him and suppressing his power.
In his mind, the shadow guardian was probably the claw of the eastern dragon. Faced against such an overpowering opponent, all resistance was futile so he simply gave into despair and waited to be torn into shreds.
In that case, now’s the time to strike while he’s still occupied in that illusory world. Yet just as I moved to slice him apart, I accidentally activated a skill which I had never used before.
As the murderous intent flashed across my mind, the shadow guardian stirred. With a sickening pierce, spikes grew out of the shadowy tendril wrapped around the wolfman, perforating the bandit before I could even react and turning him into a strange looking sea urchin.
That’s my new skill? Seems pretty strong…I guess that means he’s dead?
*shiver* Chills my spine just imagining those spikes penetrating his entire body.
Ah…what’s with this slight sensation of weakness? Was it that restraining spell I used just now? I must’ve used too much mana…I need to replenish it…then…so dark…
Thus, I fainted without even realizing it.
Right now, I was lying in a not so soft wooden bed. Looking around, I was probably in some female human’s room.
What happened to the grimoire and Shadowfang?
Eyes wide open, I jerked my head around and searched the surroundings frantically. Fortunately, it didn’t take long for me to notice the grimoire silently lying on top of a counter beside my bed. As for Shadowfang, it was leaning against the wall in the corner of the room.
“Yo, seems like you’re awake.”
That rude greeting and sudden appearance in my head…it’s “This One” isn’t it…so that wasn’t all a dream…
“Hey, this one has a proper name, stop calling this one this one all the time. Don’t think that I can’t hear you just because you didn’t say a word. This one isn’t rude, this one was just too bored.”
Ah, fine fine fine, by the way, can you keep it down for a second, all that ruckus right when I wake up is causing me a headache.
“Hey, what’s with that impatient attitude! A beautiful, noble, elegant, charming, (insert a million more adjectives here) female like this one doesn’t deserve such impudence! The nerve, how rude!”
Heavens, putting aside whether any of that nonsense about being noble, elegant or charming was true, shouldn’t you show me a picture before you spout all that nonsense!
“…this one’s body has already died don’cha know, all this one can do is talk to you in this manner, don’t you understand how difficult that is…”
Seems like I stepped on a landmine there…sigh, not having a body does seem rather pitiful, I guess I’ll comfort “This One” a little.
“Hehe, this one doesn’t need you to comfort her, but aren’t you just precious. You’re actually concerned about me, this one is so happy!”
Ah…I forgot…this fellow can hear everything I think. Wait, doesn’t that mean I have no privacy whatsoever!?
“Hahaha, that’s right, that’s right. No matter what you’re thinking of, this one can see it. Which reminds me, Little Brother, you’d better not lust after this one or else…*sinister laughter*”
Hey, cut it out with the teasing, are you trying to start something here! Also, there’s no way I’ll lust after a woman whose appearance I don’t even know of! If I’m going to fantasize about anyone, that will be Nicole, who needs some shady character like you!
“Nicole, who’s Nicole?”
At that, my mind brought up an image of Nicole’s lovely face and her braided twin ponytails.
“Whew, so it’s a little beauty. Little Brother, you have good tastes, to think you managed to find such a beautiful girl.”
That…Nicole’s the cutest of them all!
“Hmph, she’s still lacking compared to this one though.”
Impossible, Nicole’s the cutest!
“This one isn’t going to compete in cuteness, if this one wants to compete, this one will compete somewhere else.”
Is there even a need to compete? It’s not like I can even see you.
“Hmph, then this one will let you have a look at her true appearance. Dun dun dun…”
As that “dun dun dun” resounded in my head, an image of a tall, slender lust demon entered my brain. She wore a fiery red dress that hugged her entirely body and covered every bit of exposed flesh except for her palms. Despite that, she exuded a seductive aura. As for her face, it wouldn’t be an understatement to say that the word beautiful existed just to describe her.
Her red skin didn’t seem at all repulsive to me even though my sense of beauty remained that of a human’s. It was as if that red hue was just the right color for her. Her long purple hair was tied into a bun behind her head revealing a pair of long sharp ears. On her forehead was a pair of devil horns that curved into a semicircle before tapering off to the back and pointing downwards like a queen’s tiara.
Such a ruinous beauty…plus she had even that aura of a queen. If she wore a pair of high heels, I bet there would be a lot of fools who would gladly let her step on them!
That’s what you look like??
Unbelievable, I had to admit, “This One” was really better than…NO, Nicole is the best! LOLI SAIKOU! (TL: Means supreme and this was what the author wrote.)
“Hahahaha, Little Brother has the most amusing expressions…hahahaha…” The image in my head doubled over in laughter, any semblance of a queen gone with the wind as laughed uncontrollably.
Alright, alright, how about telling me your name. Calling you “This One” all the time isn’t a solution either. And, I guess it was pretty rude of me to do so.
“Mhm, listen very carefully, this one’s name is Ferti’nier.”
Ferti’nier huh, nice name but I’ve never heard of it.”
“You’ve never heard of this one? It’s only been over ten thousand years and this one’s existence has already weakened to this extent?”
Ah, were you famous back in the days?
“You could say that, this one almost managed to forge her divinity and become a demon god.”
Demon God! That overpowered?!
“That’s right, that’s right, you may worship me now.”
There’s no way I’m doing that, by the way, do you know why I fainted?
“Mana exhaustion of course, the cost of casting that Piercing Shadow varies depending on the opponent’s strength relative to yours and the distance between you and him. Given the vast difference in strength and that you were even five meters away from him, managing to kill him was already an excellent result.”
Is that so, then isn’t this skill kind of useless then? Won’t I just faint each time I cast it?
“Nah, it’s normal to lose control over the spell’s strength during your first try, cast it a few more times and I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it.”
Oh, got it.
In the midst of our conversation, the door swung after which entered a tiptoeing Ancarin who tried her best to be as silent as possible in order not to disturb my rest. The moment she stepped into the room, she spotted me sitting on top of the bed with a blank look on my face. Her beautiful but worried face immediately broke into a happy and surprised smile: “Master, you’re awake!”
Come to think of it, when did she start calling me Master?
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(IMPORTANT NOTE: TL:
Near the start of the arc, I used the words Your Excellency instead of Master but I changed it to Master later on as I felt it sounded better and the meanings were pretty much the same. Both expressed respect and an elevated position so I didn’t pay much attention to the change of words used by the author.
This change happened in Chapter 121 (Excellency) and Chapter 122 (Master). It’s not strange to address someone as Master XXXX as a form of respect and subservience without necessarily being in a master/servant relationship. This led to a decision which has now come back to bite me in the butt…
Long story short, any use of Master by Ancarin/Regine before chapter 121 means Your Excellency and anything after refers to Master. Sorry about that unexpectedly bad decision. )
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“I just woke up.” I replied blandly and promptly voiced the biggest concern in my head right now: “Hm, is the battle over?”
“It’s over, and was that werewolf…Dawson?” She followed that question up with a brief explanation of what happened after I fainted.
Apparently, not long after I fainted, George and the others rushed to the scene to find me unconscious. Perhaps it was because of Dawson’s death but for some reason, the wolves suddenly lost their will to fight and scattered to the winds. Following the tracks left behind by the bandits, George and the hunters swiftly found my mana exhausted body.
Also, it seemed like Dioh had eagerly volunteered to carry me back to the village but…since they had always thought of me as a female, they ended up getting a female hunter to carry me back…seems like this room belonged to that female hunter.
At the same time, George captured a few bandits who sneaked back to watch the fight and interrogated them. It was from their testimonies that he learnt that Dawson had turned into a werewolf…
All in all, the death of Dawson meant that the biggest problem plaguing the four villages was now gone. With that, I should be able to search for Nicole without any worries.
However, this mana exhaustion had left my entire body feeling a little under the weather and limp. I think I’ll spend another day here and get a good rest instead…the road ahead is sure to be a bumpy one full of unknowns; not being in my peak condition might pose some problems down the road.
