Ye Tang spotted Lang in human form amid the crowd at a glance because Abe Village had never had a villager like him before, and his hair color matched his former fur perfectly. After turning human, Lang’s height had shrunk a bit, but standing among the villagers, he still towered head and shoulders above the others.
The fact that the fluffy fur was gone left Ye Tang a little sad. But she could not possibly deny Lang’s choice just because she liked petting fluffy fur.
This time returning to Abe Village, she had some very important words to say to Lang as soon as possible. She had not found the chance last night, and during the day today, Lang had not been in the village.
Fortunately, the harvest festival was that night. Not only did the villagers of Abe Village gather together, but plenty of miners from the Lem Mine and townsfolk from Lem Town came to join the fun. Lang surely would come too.
Lang stood at the entrance of Abe Village, calming himself for a good long while. He waited until his heartbeat was no longer pounding so fiercely before going to find Ye Tang, but by then night had fallen, and his heart still pounded just as fiercely. The burst of courage he gave himself in his mind had flared up once, then again, but petered out on the third try.
Gray and Xiu exchanged a glance, then each stuck out a foot to kick Lang’s butt.
“Xiu, Gray!?”
“Quit dawdling! If you don’t go, I will.”
Gray waved dismissively at Lang in disgust, while Xiu crossed his arms and nodded. “I’ll count to ten. If you don’t go, then I—”
“I’m going!”
Grabbing the flower crown, Lang bolted off in one go.
Even after turning human, his running speed far exceeded that of ordinary people. Looking around, he soon spotted Ye Tang.
Ye Tang had just taken a wine cup from Old Otto’s hand. She had not yet put on her flower crown, and there were no other eligible men beside her.
This put Lang somewhat at ease.
“Ma—”
As he called out to Ye Tang, Lang noticed another shadow lunging at her from the darkness.
Kevin, who had been forced to divorce by Ginny, had thought he could still rely on Nora. But Nora and her family did not welcome him at all. After getting beaten, Kevin was thrown out of the village by Nora’s father and brothers.
“Get out of our Abe Village! You outsider!”
“You should go to hell with that devil uncle of yours! Bah!”
Only when spat on in the face did Kevin truly realize he had lost everything. He had no home to return to, nowhere to go.
Uncle Tobias’s death had not only left him without a backer but also taken away the Gordonworth Family’s glory and any chance of making a comeback.
He could not go to Lem Town; the townsfolk there, who hated Tobias, would despise him—a close relative of Tobias—even more than the villagers of Abe Village did. He could not return to Abe Village either, for it was now Ginny’s Abe Village. That petty and utterly vile woman would not give him a good life.
So, what could he do? Where could he go? How was he supposed to live from now on?
Reality gave Kevin the answer: he became trash that everyone despised. He was a vagrant worse off than a loafer. He did not know how to work and could not find work. If he did not scrounge food from the dump, he went hungry for long stretches. Even if there was food at the dump, if he did not grab it first, wild dogs would eat it, leaving him hungry again.
And all of this, all of it, was that woman’s fault…!!
If not for that woman Mary, his affair would not have been exposed, his wealth would not have flowed into the pockets of villagers and werewolves, his backer uncle would not have died, the Gordonworth Family’s glory would not have been destroyed, and he would not have been reduced to fighting dogs for scraps—!
It was all Rosemary Jennings’s fault!!
The harvest festival was the biggest event of the year, and plenty of people got blackout drunk and puked rainbows that night. Revelers were everywhere. No one paid attention to little things nearby, so no one noticed Kevin sneaking up close to Ye Tang.
“Die, aaaaaah—!!!”
Thrusting the kitchen knife at Ye Tang, Kevin watched as the blade he had sharpened to a shine sliced through flesh and sank into a palm.
However, the person he wounded was not the one he wanted to kill.
In the nick of time, Lang—who had still been a short distance from Ye Tang—reached out, trying to block the kitchen knife for her.
Flesh met knife blade: first came the chill, then a scorching pain like fire burning.
His human palm split open, flesh torn. Amid the intense agony, Lang realized that with human hands, he could not grip the bloody knife tightly. And Kevin, still clutching the knife, kept pushing—he truly meant to kill Mary at any cost!
“Get off!!”
Kevin yelled, yanking the knife from Lang’s hand and raising it to stab again.
In that instant, everything around Lang turned to slow motion.
He could hear—and hear only—his own heartbeat.
That sound whispered in his ear: Look, this is the consequence of turning human. As a human, you cannot protect Mary. And you gave up protecting Mary just so she would see you as a man.
Your selfishness is the only reason you will lose Mary.
His hand hurt so much, the pain burning like fire from his veins to his heart. Opening his mouth, Lang let out a horrific wolf howl that no human vocal cords could produce. Unable to think, he simply lunged at Kevin.
“Monster! Monster!! You damned monster!!!”
The kitchen knife bent in the werewolf’s hand. What reflected in Kevin’s eyes was no longer some human gentleman but a monster that burst its formal clothes—neither man nor wolf.
Half his head had reverted to wolf shape: below human eyes was a wolf’s muzzle. Beneath the muzzle gaped a huge maw full of razor-sharp fangs. One arm bore wolf claws, the other a human hand. This monstrosity made the surrounding villagers gasp and stumble back, some falling to the ground.
‘…Don’t blame me for not warning you beforehand. After drinking this potion, you might no longer be seen as kin by werewolves. If things go wrong, you could be rejected by both werewolves and humans, turning into something in others’ eyes that is neither man nor wolf.’
Ulysses’s words echoed in Lang’s ears. Finally understanding their meaning, he punched Kevin unconscious, then rushed straight out of the crowd, ignoring the blood still flowing from his hand.
The ornate flower crown adorned with moonflower, roses, and silver lotuses fell to the ground, petals crushed under Lang’s foot.
“What happened!?”
Ginny and Trislock ran over. Seeing Kevin’s scruffy, ugly face, Ginny immediately pieced together what had happened.
Ginny turned back to look after Angeline, while Ye Tang bent down to pick up the fallen flower crown and, hiking up her skirt, followed the blood trail out of the village.
Passing Kevin, Ye Tang stomped on his stomach, waking the unconscious man.
Trislock cracked his knuckles and hauled the dog-like Kevin up from the ground. Ginny said, “I never want to see this thing again.”
……
Away from the village lights, surrounded by bushes and wild grass, Ye Tang could barely make out the path ahead or the blood on the ground. Breathing lightly, she took a deep breath and ran on.
Perhaps the moon goddess took pity on a wild beast, for the silver-disk moon emerged from the clouds, lighting the way forward.
Ye Tang saw that tall, wretched figure.
“Lang!”
The moment he heard Ye Tang’s voice, Lang wanted to bolt again, but Ye Tang cried “Ah!” and fell. This halted Lang’s steps; he turned back and ran toward where she had fallen.
“Mary!”
In the instant he helped Ye Tang up, she grabbed his arm—Ye Tang had not fallen at all; she had only pretended to.
“Stop running!”
Ye Tang’s words halted Lang’s legs just as he tried to move.
“My appearance now will scare you…”
Turning his head away so Ye Tang would not see his face, hot tears spilled from Lang’s eyes, dripping onto the grass.
“Am I that easily scared?!”
Ye Tang still gripped Lang’s arm tightly.
Lang tried to pull his arm free from her grasp.
But his nails were too sharp; with just a slight twitch, they scratched Ye Tang’s tender skin. Tiny beads of blood immediately welled up on the back of her hand.
Lang froze, then gave a bitter smile. “I… am no longer human. Not even a werewolf…”
“I am a complete mon—”
“You are not a monster!”
Ye Tang did not cry out in pain. She cupped Lang’s face and softened her voice. “Lang, you are not a monster. No matter what kind of face you have or body you bear, you are not a monster. You are simply ‘Lang’ the person.”
Covering Lang’s mouth as he tried to retort, Ye Tang said, “From the first time I met you, when I saw how much you valued family bonds, I never saw you as a monster again.”
What was a “person”? Was it just about having a human appearance?
Then what about conscienceless fiends like Tobias, Francis, and Francois, who took pleasure in tormenting others, exploiting and squeezing people dry—did they deserve to be called “people”?
What even was a “person”? If things that did inhuman acts, spoke inhuman words, and lacked conscience counted as “people,” then how terrifying must humanity be?
“But I—”
Even a slight movement, and these monstrous hands would hurt the person before him.
Ye Tang took hold of Lang’s hand—half human, half werewolf.
“Didn’t you use these hands to protect me?”
Devoutly cradling Lang’s hands, Ye Tang offered her thanks. “Thank you for protecting me, Lang.”