Ye Tang paused for a moment, then asked Lang, “Do you want to know that name?”
Lang swallowed hard.
Getting that name from Mary’s mouth meant he would have a clear target for revenge from then on. He could no longer use the excuse of “not knowing exactly who the enemy was, so he shouldn’t harm innocent humans” to avoid the issue of revenge.
But did he really want revenge? No, as a pro-human faction werewolf, he neither wanted to kill humans nor hoped for war between werewolves and humans.
Yet if he didn’t seek revenge, how could he face the village that had been burned down, the elders who had been killed? For him, were the lives of those elders worth less than his family’s peaceful daily life?
This was truly a difficult choice for Lang.
“I—”
Ye Tang had no intention of forcing Lang to decide whether to stain his claws with human blood. When she saw his two hands at his sides unconsciously clench into fists, with his nails digging deep into the pads, she changed the subject. “Forget it. I’ll tell you both that name when Xiu is here too. I think Xiu has the right to know it as well.”
The pressure weighing on his heart suddenly eased, and Lang was reminded by Ye Tang’s words—indeed, whether to seek revenge and how to do it wasn’t for him alone to decide. He should hear Xiu’s opinion too.
…Although he knew full well that he was just finding another excuse to delay the moment of decision.
“By the way, Lang, where did Xiu go today?”
Ever since Ye Tang had started working with Lang’s family, Xiu had never missed a day. It was rare to see Xiu not by his big brother’s side, so Ye Tang was genuinely curious about where he had gone.
“Oh, he went to see one of our old friends.”
The mere thought of who Xiu had gone to see made Lang’s temples throb faintly.
The one who had incited Xiu to distrust humans was none other than his childhood friend Gray.
Gray was about the same age as him, and since their families lived close by, he had often come over to play at their house as a child. With their parents frequently out hunting, Xiu had been raised by big brother Lang and the neighbor brother Gray. To Xiu, Gray was also like a brother.
The children got along well, and the adults in their families were close too. Gray’s little sister had been playing chase with butterflies in the forest when she accidentally stepped into a human poison trap meant for weasels, and her life hung by a thread. The werewolf village had no antidotes or doctors skilled in medicine, so to save Gray’s sister, they had to take her down the mountain.
When Lang’s parents heard about it, they immediately grabbed dry rations and animal pelts that could be traded with humans, and went down the mountain with Gray’s parents to seek medical help for Gray’s sister.
However, the parents from both families and Gray’s sister never returned after that trip. Gray suspected they had been killed by humans and from then on hated humans deeply, becoming a staunch anti-human faction member.
In the werewolf village, pro-human werewolves were few, but the neutral faction—who believed they should abide by the peace treaty they had signed with humans and live peacefully—made up the vast majority. No matter how much Gray stirred up the young werewolves in the village, it was useless, since the only young werewolves who had lost family were Gray and Lang’s family.
Most young werewolves followed the elders’ decisions, and they truly had no need or intention to go to war with humans head-on.
Rather than pursuing his parents’ whereabouts or assuming their deaths were all the humans’ fault and hating humans for it, Lang chose to do his utmost to raise his little brother and sisters in his parents’ stead. Gray called Lang a coward and parted ways with him from then on.
Lang sighed. Perhaps Gray was right; he really was a coward.
But not being a coward didn’t mean he had to be a hothead. Lang hoped Xiu could make Gray understand that.
“…Xiu, say that again. I didn’t catch what you just said.”
Golden pupils flashed with murderous light as Gray leaped down from a thick tree branch, staring down imposingly at Xiu, who was two heads shorter than him.
He couldn’t believe this little wolf cub, who had always obeyed him unquestioningly, dared to oppose him.
“Gray, I can repeat it as many times as you want. Your plan is just a reckless, brainless stunt. Capturing powerful humans isn’t that easy. Do you think they’d be dumb enough to walk into the forest without guards?”
“You—fucking—brat! That’s why I said we’d grab some lone humans in the forest first! Use them as hostages to force the powerful ones to negotiate with us, then kill them when they’re off guard!!”
Gray roared “Grrr—” in fury. He grabbed Xiu’s collar and choked his neck, lifting him so his feet left the ground.
With his neck gripped so tightly, Xiu could barely speak, let alone breathe. He clawed desperately at Gray’s paws, showing no sign of begging for mercy but instead continued to argue back.
“Gray…you’re…truly…stupid.”
Having seen how Ye Tang meticulously peeled away the layers to analyze things, Xiu now looked at Gray and felt that his past self—who had blindly followed and idolized Gray—was an utter idiot.
Gray approached everything with an arrogant assumption it would work. This stemmed from overconfidence in his physical abilities and his extremely limited understanding of humans.
“What did you say, you little punk!?”
Xiu enunciated each word: “I said…you—are—stu—pid—”
Burning with rage, Gray raised his paw to claw Xiu’s face to shreds. Yet there was no fear in Xiu’s eyes. His calm, composed demeanor made Gray see the shadow of his big brother Lang in him.
Lang was just like that. A coward who didn’t dare bare his fangs and claws, yet he could remain unmoved and fearless even in the face of claws and fangs.
Gray slammed Xiu to the ground. Glancing at Xiu coughing and gasping, he turned away and ordered his subordinates, “Throw this coward out of the forest. We werewolves don’t need trash who abandons his pride as a werewolf just to stay safe.”
“Cough cough, wait, Gray…I still have something to—”
Thinking of how Ye Tang had broken down and analyzed things for him, Xiu struggled to move forward even as two adult werewolves clamped his arms and dragged him away.
“The powerful humans won’t care about the lives of commoners…! Even if you grab them to lure the powerful ones, those humans will turn the tables!! They’ll kill you all and the commoners indiscriminately—”
Besides, even if they killed some powerful humans, what would that achieve? Mary had said all humans were replaceable pawns. Even this country’s ruler, the Queen, was no exception.
Killing a few powerful humans…what kind of revenge was that for humanity?
It would only enrage them, giving extremists among humans the pretext to exterminate the werewolves—
Xiu’s remaining words never made it out. Punched in the stomach by an adult werewolf, he passed out on the spot and was then tossed out of the forest.
In three or two bounds, Gray climbed back onto the thick tree trunk and gazed into the distance toward the Lem Mine, where his family home once stood.
“…Is that so? The powerful humans don’t care about commoners. That’s actually good news. Xiu may be a waste, but at least he’s a useful one.”
His sharp claws extended one by one from the pads, and Gray made a scooping, crushing motion toward the Lem Mine.
“If commoners can’t be hostages, then grab their wives, children, friends, and relatives as hostages instead.”
……
Lang let out a huge sneeze. This made Ye Tang, who had just lowered the cart’s wheel locks, straighten up and look at him with concern.
“Are you okay? Caught a cold?”
“No, no…”
Lang covered his nose and waved his hand. “We werewolves don’t catch colds easily.”
Rubbing his itchy nose tip, Lang began to worry about Xiu.
He and Xiu had agreed that Xiu would talk to Gray, then come back to Mary’s house to pick up Ben and the twins to return to Walnut Grove. But now, with the three little wolf cubs plus Angeline helping Lang and Ye Tang pack up the cart under Eva’s guidance, it was clear Xiu hadn’t been to Mary’s house yet.
“Good, as long as it’s not a cold. Once sick, whether human or werewolf, you can’t work in food service or hospitality anymore. Otherwise, you’d spread it to the customers.”
Her words sounded a bit cold, but Ye Tang quickly went inside, scraped some fresh ginger into a pot, added three big spoonfuls of brown sugar, and stewed them together.
Smelling the spicy aroma of old ginger in the air, Lang couldn’t help but grin.
Mary was just like that. Just listening to her words, you’d think she was cold. But if you knew her heart, you’d know how soft and warm it was.
“M-Mary…!”
Martina hiked up her skirt and ran to the fence of the little yard. Old Otto followed behind her, also out of breath, clutching his knees and panting for a good while.
Hearing Martina call her name, Ye Tang wiped her hands with a towel and came out the back door.
“Martina? What’s wrong?”
Martina badly wanted to shout “It’s bad,” but she clutched her apron and held it back.
Realizing Martina had reservations, Ye Tang instructed Lang, who had followed her out, “Watch the stove in the kitchen. When the ginger soup is done, pour it out yourself to cool before drinking. And absolutely do not burn a hole in my pot.”
“How could you burn a hole in the pot just stewing ginger soup?”
Lang returned to the kitchen, knowing when to withdraw.
He didn’t blame Martina and Old Otto for keeping their distance from him. Humans and werewolves were different, after all. A human like Mary who trusted him was one in a million. Like the girl the monster met in that song—perhaps the only one in the world.
Martina and Old Otto watched Lang’s retreating back with some guilt. They both knew Lang was a good person…or at least a good werewolf. But they were also genuinely afraid he might snap and kill for Mary’s sake.
“The village chief is looking for you…”
Martina’s voice trembled, tears nearly spilling. “He’s very angry, extremely angry. He says he’s going to drive you out of the village…and call the witch hunter to kill you, this witch, and burn you to death for consorting with werewolves…”