The white curtains were made somewhat transparent by the sunlight, and the warm room carried a familiar faint fragrance. That was the scent he always smelled on Ye Tang.
He woke from his coma and, after three seconds of bewilderment, incredulously realized that he was still alive.
“Awake?”
Ye Tang’s voice was soft and lingering as she rubbed her eyes. She had been asleep by the bedside but woke upon sensing Lang’s awakening.
“I…”
Lang raised his paw and saw that bandages covered his body everywhere. At a glance, he spotted the basin of water by Ye Tang’s feet and the towel draped over its edge.
“Do the wounds still hurt? Tell me if they do. The residual poison might not have been completely cleared.”
As soon as Ye Tang woke, she went to the bedside and touched Lang’s forehead.
A werewolf’s body temperature was higher than a human’s. In a poisoned state, it was frighteningly high. Now, Lang’s temperature was no longer as scorching as it had been the previous night, so Ye Tang set her mind at ease and showed a slight smile.
“It looks like the fever has broken. But just in case, take another dose of antidote. I’ll go pour you some warm water.”
“Wait, Mary—”
As Ye Tang spoke and moved to pick up the basin to leave, Lang unconsciously gripped her slender wrist.
Even without Ye Tang saying it, Lang knew she must have taken care of him all night; the dark circles under her eyes were proof. And last night, in his hazy consciousness, he had indeed felt someone gently, as if afraid of hurting him, cleaning off those things that burned his flesh.
She was the object of his secret crush. After discovering that Ye Tang had cared for him so diligently, the heat in Lang’s heart nearly overwhelmed his rationality.
“Hm?”
The words of confession surged to his lips, but when he met Ye Tang’s eyes, Lang couldn’t utter a single one—her glass bead-like eyes reflected an ugly, wounded beast.
Thinking that Ye Tang had been attacked because she was falsely accused of “adultery” with him, this beast, even if Lang had a thousand or ten thousand words of love in his heart, he lost the courage to confess.
“…Sorry, Mary. It’s all because of me.”
Lang released Ye Tang.
The tall man hunched his back and hung his head, looking both sorrowful and pitiable.
Ye Tang smiled. She turned sideways and gently stroked Lang’s muzzle twice.
“It’s not your fault. The fault lies with this world that treats werewolves as monsters and beastmen as aliens. The fault lies with the narrow-minded humans who cannot accept beastmen.”
Ye Tang picked up the basin and left the room.
Lang’s heart ached with bitterness. After hearing Ye Tang go downstairs, he soon heard Mimi and Kiqi clamoring outside the door to see him. Xiu and Ben stopped Mimi and Kiqi: “Lang needs rest most right now. Don’t go making trouble!” “Mm, mm—”
After Xiu and Ben carried Mimi and Kiqi away, the corridor on the second floor of Ye Tang’s house quickly quieted. But soon, Angeline downstairs opened the door for someone, and that person headed straight up to the second floor.
“Pardon the intrusion.”
It was Ulysses.
The young earl knocked but entered the room without waiting for Lang’s response. He stationed his subordinates at the door and the downstairs stairs while closing the door behind himself.
“Earl…? You—”
“Ah, we’ll talk about what you have to say later.”
Ulysses raised his hand and mercilessly cut Lang off. On his leather glove, he wore a ring engraved with the Grant family crest.
Today’s Ulysses was not visiting as the individual “Ulysses”; his current identity was the Queen’s “Earl Grant.”
Ulysses got straight to the point: “Do you want to become human?”
Without waiting for Lang’s answer, Ulysses produced a small glass vial.
Purple like smoke, black like mist, with red, green, yellow, and blue mixed in—the liquid gave off eerie purple-black fumes with every shake.
Lang’s werewolf instincts told him that the thing in Ulysses’s hand was extremely dangerous.
“This can turn you into a human. It’s said to be a transformation potion made by the Sea Witch at the request of beastmen. …Whether the Sea Witch made it or not is another matter, but the effect is real. As far as I know, this drug has been circulating in the capital’s black market for several years.”
Circulating for years meant the Queen turned a blind eye to it. It also implied that beastmen transformed into human form by this drug might have integrated into human society, even infiltrating the court.
As long as they served her, the Queen didn’t care if those serving her were greedy human nobles or beastmen with deer or rabbit heads in their true forms. In fact, beastmen made her more at ease—when it was time to discard them, revealing their beastmen identities allowed her to pin all sorts of spy or treason charges on them.
Beastmen, of course, knew the risks of serving the Queen. But only by standing with those in power could beastmen have a greater chance to fight for benefits for their kin.
After Ulysses reported Ye Tang and Lang’s family situation to the Queen, she had someone deliver this transformation potion with a message: Use it however you like, as long as you bring me that unusual village girl you mentioned.
Ulysses hadn’t thought of how to use the transformation potion before. Last night’s events gave him an idea.
—It was a bit despicable to use Lang, but in his view, having Ye Tang meet the Queen was not a bad thing.
“Drink it, and you can become human. Of course, this drug isn’t without side effects or drawbacks. The drawback is that when you’re emotionally agitated, your ears and tail will pop out, and with intense emotional fluctuations, your head will turn back into a wolf’s head. The side effect is that your body will fully transform into a human one; all werewolf traits will be lost. That means…”
“I won’t be able to jump that high, run that fast, or recover quickly from serious injuries.”
Lang, who chimed in, smiled wryly. He raised his paw toward Abe Village: “If I encounter something like last night again, I’ll definitely die.”
“You understand, then.”
“…Don’t blame me for not warning you beforehand. After drinking this drug, you might no longer be seen as kin by werewolves. If things go wrong, you’ll be rejected by both werewolves and humans, turning from a werewolf in others’ eyes into a monster that’s neither human nor werewolf.”
Ulysses held the vial and confirmed with Lang once more.
“Are you really willing to abandon even your ‘werewolf’ identity?”
Lang took the vial of transformation potion from Ulysses’s hand.
Ulysses sighed. He had anticipated this outcome, but imagination and reality were separated by a layer; he hadn’t expected his conscience to ache a bit.
“…It seems you’ve chosen to become human. Then, once your wounds fully heal, you can take the drug.”
Ulysses flung his cloak back and turned to leave.
He heard Lang ask from behind him: “What’s the price? You can’t be giving me something like this without a price, right?”
“I’ve already received the price.”
“You’ve already received it?”
Lang looked at the terrifying liquid swirling in the vial and scratched his face in confusion.
Innocently murmuring, as he wasn’t one for scheming or assuming the worst of others by nature: “…Does the earl mean that as long as Abe Village is peaceful, that’s enough?”
Because he was a werewolf, he had brought trouble to Abe Village. So as long as he wasn’t a werewolf anymore, Abe Village could be safe and sound—Lang interpreted Ulysses’s actions this way.
As soon as Ulysses stepped out, he saw Ye Tang standing at the bottom of the stairs.
Unlike the naive Lang, Ye Tang had heard from Ulysses’s subordinates about the “mercy” Her Majesty the Queen had shown. She knew she had no choice but to go to the capital.
—The Queen could grant mercy, but she could also take it back. If she didn’t go to see the Queen, the Crusader Knights Order might receive a commission from someone else next time.
……
“Are, are you going to the capital?”
Angeline’s eyes widened. In the little girl’s mind, “the capital” existed only in books, not as a real place.
“Mm. I didn’t have time to say when I got home before. I’ve already promised Earl Grant to go to the capital with him.”
As Ye Tang spoke, she sliced some bread and spread butter on it: “But I won’t be gone long. I’ll definitely be back before the Harvest Festival in two months.”
Angeline’s O-shaped mouth finally closed: “Two months… That’s so long…”
Ginny, who had started dropping by Ye Tang’s house from time to time to eat breakfast with the family, pursed her lips: “You shouldn’t come back so soon. Wouldn’t it be great to hook a rich husband in the capital? You might even marry into nobility and become a lady! In this poor backwater, I’ve searched until my eyes nearly bled and still can’t find a good man.”
“Why do you have to find a man?”
Ye Tang’s question made Ginny choke: “Do I even need to say? If I don’t find a husband, Abe Village won’t have a village head. …Don’t look at me like that. I won’t hand the village head position to a man I don’t approve of.”
Ye Tang sliced some cured ham and sandwiched it in the bread: “Then why don’t you become the village head yourself, Ginny?”
Ginny was stunned: “Abe Village has never had a female village head. …I’ve never heard of a woman being allowed to be village head. The nobles… Her Majesty the Queen wouldn’t allow a woman to be village head either, right?”
“Why do you think Her Majesty the Queen wouldn’t allow it?”
Ye Tang took a big bite of the sandwich. Only after swallowing it completely did she say: “If you don’t try, if you don’t fight for it, power won’t come to you on its own, Ginny.”
Stunned by Ye Tang’s words, Ginny felt as if Ye Tang had opened a door she had never imagined for her.
Yeah, why couldn’t a woman be village head?
She didn’t think her abilities or her love for the village were any less than that bastard Kevin’s.
…Besides, Mary had always been good at judging people, right? Since Mary said this to her, it proved Mary thought she had what it took to be village head too?
Mary… Did she hope Ginny would become Abe Village’s village head?
“S-Since you put it that way…”
To hide her shyness, Ginny grabbed the bread and gnawed on it, even though it had no meat or vegetables inside.
“Ginny, don’t you want to add some veggies and meat before eating?”
“Mind your own business! So what if I like eating plain white bread!?”
“Then next time you come over, I’ll only prepare white bread for you.”
“You—!”
The bickering voices came from Ye Tang’s dining room. Outside, Trislock and his men, waiting to apologize to Ye Tang and Lang, couldn’t help but chuckle. Ye Tang’s two-month departure from Abe Village didn’t bring much sorrow to those around her.
And so, time arrived in October.