“Stop——!”
Just as Xiu’s claws were about to touch Ye Tang’s neck, Lang, who had originally been flung aside by Xiu, suddenly flashed in front of his brother.
It was a speed that human dynamic vision could hardly track, a speed where even if one’s dynamic vision barely kept up, the body could not react in time.
His pupils contracted, and the gray-blue eyes that usually held a layer of softness sharpened like a cold blade under the moonlight. Lang blocked his brother with one claw, then yanked his wrists with immense force.
For the first time in front of humans, he revealed his wolf nature without any disguise. Lang no longer seemed like that consistently amiable social expert whose words always carried a hint of playful frivolity.
“…You’re actually standing on the human side?! Lang, are you betraying your own kind?! Betraying your family, who are fellow werewolves?!”
Unlike Lang, who held back, Xiu showed no mercy toward his brother. He clawed at his brother, and as Lang drew in a sharp breath and loosened his grip, Xiu lunged toward Ye Tang again.
Blood flowed long from his arm, soaking the silver-gray fur into a patch of reddish-brown.
His sturdy, muscular body blocked in front of Ye Tang time and again. Lang was scratched until blood began flowing from his face, arms, hands, and even legs.
“Get out of the way, Lang! I want to kill her!! I want to kill this human woman who bewitched you, dominated our family, and harbors ill intentions toward us!! I want revenge! Revenge for our village! Revenge for the grandparents in the village!!”
“And then what?”
A voice drifted lightly over Lang’s shoulder into Xiu’s ears.
Ye Tang’s voice sounded like pure provocation in Xiu’s ears; her flat, emotionless tone only fueled his ferocity. Like a madman, he tore at his brother’s flesh around the waist with his claws, growling grrr from his throat as his eyes turned bloodshot.
“Then I’ll kill those humans below!! All the humans!!! We werewolves will make humans know whose world this really is! We werewolves will return the world to the hands of us beastmen…!!”
Ye Tang sighed.
With one hand behind her back under the cloak, gripping the sharp dagger tucked in her belt, she had known that chuunibyou knew no bounds between humans and beastmen.
—In that instant earlier, if Lang hadn’t blocked Xiu, Ye Tang would have counterattacked the moment Xiu touched her.
She was not Xiu’s kin or friend; from the start, she had resolved to eliminate the Big Gray Wolf to protect Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother. If Xiu might harm Angeline or Eva, then even if it meant destroying her cooperative and trusting relationship with Lang, Ye Tang would inevitably draw some blood from this hot-blooded chuunibyou little wolf cub to sober him up.
“Every grudge has its target, every debt its debtor. You say you want revenge for the village, revenge for the elders who died—then tell me, was I the one who destroyed your village? Are all those miners below the ones who killed your village elders?”
She released the dagger. For the sake of Lang protecting her, Ye Tang was willing to offer one free lesson.
But only this once. If Xiu kept courting death after today, Ye Tang would not forgive or spare him again just because he was still a bratty kid.
—Those who did wrong should be punished; that was only natural. One could cherish children, but adults who failed to raise them properly should set an example, personally showing their inadequately raised children the “consequences of wrongdoing.”
Being young should never be an excuse for absolution.
“I don’t care about you!! All you humans are equally evil! Even if you didn’t burn down our village, you’re as guilty as those who killed our grandparents!!”
Xiu howled, but Ye Tang had no interest in listening to his grief-stricken wails.
“Is that so? Then what’s the difference between you and the humans who burned your village and killed your elders without a second thought?”
“…!!”
At that moment, Xiu faltered: “There is a difference, of course there is…! We werewolves abided by the peace treaty! Humans broke the peace treaty and invaded us! We just want to take back our village, our home! We just—”
“Just act as indiscriminate executioners, slaughtering humans guilty or not?”
Ye Tang gazed at Xiu impassively; her voice was colder than the mountain wind.
“Killing me won’t help. Killing the miners below won’t help. Your village won’t come back.”
“Killing me would only make the villagers of Abe Village swarm out and besiege your whole family. Killing the miners might halt the coal mine for a few days due to lack of manpower, but more likely, the mine won’t even stop; the mine boss, the mayor of Lem Town thriving because of the coal mine, and the nobles who brought geological researchers and survey experts would lead a massive manhunt, carpet-searching to capture every werewolf and killing them on sight to root out the threat forever.”
“Maybe you have companions left, maybe quite a few. But humans outnumber you werewolves. Even if you kill ten, a hundred, a thousand humans, ten thousand human soldiers will come to exterminate you.”
“Admit it: werewolves can’t exterminate humanity.”
“Awooooo…!!!”
In ultimate grief and rage, Xiu howled, tears rolling from his eyes. He had long known Ye Tang spoke the truth, unable to defeat his brother or make him yield.
Humans were arrogant, selfish, vengeful, faithless, and fickle.
Humans could easily wipe out any animal species or plant type for their own kind. If he really killed someone, from then on, he would have only one fate: hunted endlessly by humans until they killed him.
“…Then what should I do!? As a werewolf, should I just ignore my kin’s deaths and turn a deaf ear?! Are you telling me to forget my hatred, to set it aside just to survive?!”
Ye Tang shook her head.
“Advising magnanimity deserves divine punishment; I would never presume upon others’ generosity. If hatred gives you the will to live, the drive to strive, then what’s wrong with hating?”
“What I want you to understand is: do you really grasp what price revenge demands?”
Xiu was momentarily stunned.
In the instant he blinked, Lang spotted his brother’s opening. He seized Xiu’s claws, twisted his foot to wrench them behind his back, then kneed his back, successfully pinning him face-down on the ground unharmed.
Ye Tang walked over.
“Xiu, maybe you’re not afraid of death. Dying honorably is indeed a form of happiness. But have you considered that before you die, you’ll witness Lang, Ben, Mimi, and Kiqi dying?”
Xiu, who could only see Ye Tang’s feet, shuddered all over. Lang, suppressing him from behind, also dimmed his gaze.
“Your revenge won’t be seen by humans as ‘Xiu’s revenge’; it’ll be ‘werewolf revenge.’ Lang, Ben, Mimi, and Kiqi will all pay the price for your revenge. So will your remaining kin.”
“And humans… whether me or those coal miners, we’re all cogs on humanity’s war machine. Kill a miner, another will come. Kill the mine boss, another will come. Even if you kill the mayor, kill the noble lord, another mayor and another noble will be appointed here. Even this country’s Queen… she’s not irreplaceable.”
“Burn one village, and you’re enemies of countless villages. Slaughter multiple villages, and you’re enemies of countless city-states. Destroy one city-state, and one nation declares war on you. Extinguish one nation, and all humanity vows to eradicate you otherkin.”
Ye Tang squatted down.
Xiu glared at her, ears drooping, face full of tears, snot streaming too.
The chuunibyou little wolf cub felt despair and powerlessness, forced to confront the reality that he was so impotent—any resistance against humans would bring endless calamity to his blood kin.
She signaled Lang to release Xiu. When Lang hesitated, Ye Tang simply patted his knee off Xiu’s back herself.
Lang instinctively pulled back his leg upon Ye Tang’s touch. He had just thought, “Oh no!” when he realized his brother didn’t leap up to bite through Ye Tang’s throat as imagined.
Ye Tang pulled Xiu toward the mountain path edge; Lang hurried over in two strides instead of three, darting to his brother’s side with a whoosh to prevent any outburst. At the path’s edge, one human and two wolves overlooked the bustling, noisy coal mine below.
“See those black rocks being hauled out? That’s coal. Coal is one of humanity’s most vital resources right now; humans are advancing and developing on it. …Humans won’t stop. Anything blocking human progress will ultimately be crushed to dust under the wheels of history.”
“…”
Xiu clamped his mouth shut tight.
Fully suppressed by his brother, he had realized: if his brother hadn’t held back to avoid hurting him, the moment he bared fangs and claws, his brother would have broken several of his bones with brute force. His fangs and claws were as fragile as a splinter of rotten wood before his brother.
But even if he could beat his brother, what then? Things were exactly as this human woman said—he could do nothing without making his whole family a target.
Glancing at the chuunibyou little wolf cub whose eyes showed deep despair tinged even with nihilism, Ye Tang softened her voice slightly.
“You know, your parents already thought of a countermeasure long ago.”
Turning a chuunibyou into an asocial shut-in wasn’t her goal.
“…Eh?”
“Ah…?”
This time, not only Xiu—even Lang looked at Ye Tang like he’d seen a ghost.
How long had she known them? How could she know their parents? Even if she did, how could she know their parents’ thoughts?
“Lang, you said you dressed like this because of your parents’ influence, right?”
Ye Tang pointed at Lang’s human attire.
“Y-Yeah… sort of…”
Eyes round as saucers, Lang couldn’t help glancing down at his white shirt, blue vest, and long pants.
It wasn’t exactly formal, but it was indeed the attire of a human gentleman.
Ye Tang smiled, her expression carrying that sly human cunning: “Isn’t this the answer your parents gave you?”
“If you can’t beat humans, join them! Become one of them!”