Chapter 14 : Chapter 14
༺ 𓆩 Chapter 14 𓆪 ༻
「Translator — Creator」
᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘᠂ ⚘᠃
Sniff—!!! Sniff—!!!
As Kalrak reached the canyon, a familiar scent hit his nose and with it came a wave of unpleasant memories.
“That insidious bastard sniffed me out and followed me here,” he growled lowly.
He remembered that wretched man well — how he always slipped away like a greased eel no matter how close Kalrak came. It had always been a struggle, a chase without end. That man was the one who had once bound a wolf to his human soul, turning him into this monstrous thing.
“...One day, I’ll tear him apart alive with my own teeth.”
Kalrak hadn’t noticed Davitte’s scent when Vincent died.
Somehow, in a brief moment of lapse, they had arrived, spirited the wolf away right from under his nose.
He couldn’t shake the feeling that Davitte had outwitted him yet again.
“…And this smell…”
Their scent trail vanished at the canyon’s dead end. Yet among them lingered something strange, something unfamiliar.
“…A dwarf meddling in others’ affairs?”
If a dwarf had guided them through, then there was no use in chasing further. Kalrak had no means to follow such a secret path.
This time, he had no choice but to give up the pursuit.
“Kyaaaah!”
One of the forestmen approached Kalrak, screeching in their shrill tongue.
“They got away! We found them with great effort — and now they’re gone! Too cold here! Hungry!”
Most of the forestmen had already abandoned the hunt and were lounging around, grooming their fur and waiting out the cold.
“…Didn’t we just capture a good number of livestock?”
“All ran away! The horned ones! The milky ones!”
They had never known how to herd or tend living things. Using stolen human tools was one thing; controlling living creatures was another matter entirely.
Even Kalrak, who had once been human, couldn’t manage them alone.
“You killed the one we sought! Wasted effort! Our sacrifices for nothing! We go back now!”
He couldn’t stop their complaints; these beings were far too wild, too undisciplined.
Kalrak couldn’t help but compare his past, when he had once led humans, to his present, surrounded by these wild creatures.
“The task is not yet finished,” he said firmly.
“We're leaving anyway!” came the shrill reply.
“I won’t allow it.”
Kalrak bared his fangs, exerting his authority, but the forestmen responded by puffing up their bodies and unleashing a cacophony of screeches.
Kyaaaah—!!! Kyeeek—!!! Kyaaah—!!!
One howl led to another, and soon the entire gathering was howling in unison, trying to intimidate Kalrak.
“Who are you to say what we can or can’t do?!”
Kalrak briefly considered silencing a few of them, permanently.
But he knew these creatures too well. Their instincts often overrode their fear of death. Killing a few would only provoke the rest. It would be a bloodbath, and it would only end when they were all dead.
Instead, he opted for another route.
He would remind them why they had come in the first place.
“Didn’t the one you worship, Grelteth, entrust you with a task?”
At the mention of the Demon King Grelteth, who had taken up the cause of leading the forestmen left behind by the goddess, the crowd wavered.
“Grelteth…”
“Yes. If you return empty-handed, surely Grelteth will be... disappointed.”
“But there’s no way forward! The one who knew the path to the Dragon’s Spring is already dead!”
“His familiar still lives. That massive wolf — capture it, and the path is ours.”
Kalrak’s gamble paid off.
The tension that had gripped the mob of foremen began to ebb.
“Then we better find it fast! We won’t last long out here!”
“I’ll find it,” Kalrak growled, with cold certainty.
'There was definitely the scent of a local human mixed in. There must be some clue.'
Leaving the now pacified foremen behind, Kalrak turned his steps toward the human village.
𓇗
Hunbish and his companions emerged from the tangled maze of secret dwarf tunnels, carved like a spider’s web through the canyon cliffs. Finally safe, they breathed easier as the secret path opened onto a mountain trail far from the peril.
“Alright… this looks safe enough now,” the dwarf declared.
They relaxed their pace, riding their horses calmly along the path. Despite the rapid or slow pace, the dwarf kept his stride, eager to stay alongside them and guide the way. His small stature was more than compensated for by his loud, commanding voice, even if his facial expressions were too small to read from behind.
“Thanks to you, we survived.”
The dwarf snorted. “No need to thank me for something like this. There isn’t a place in this mountain I haven’t walked. Scaring off a runt of a wild dog and some trees hardly counts as much of a challenge.”
Turning, the dwarf eyed the sleeping blue wolf stretched across Hunbish’s saddle. “Thank him,” he said, gesturing to the creature. “He’s why I even bothered helping you in the first place.”
"...Ah."
Hunbish nodded, relieved to see the wolf breathing steadily.
“Do you know why that hole-ridden one came here?” the dwarf asked.
“With the priests’ orders, to find the ancient dragon's power buried somewhere in these lands, correct?” Davitte responded in his raspy voice.
“Wrong,” the dwarf replied gravely. “Yes, he thought he was following a priestly command — but his real motive was to resurrect his dead daughter using that power.”
“.................”
Davitte and Hunbish hung on his every word, Davitte leaning forward nearly off his stirrup in curiosity.
“He failed,” the dwarf continued, his voice heavy with regret. “He took a long time preparing everything. But he couldn’t find a vessel to house her soul. Eventually, he got everything he needed… but faltered. Hesitated — and then gave up.”
“What happened?” David leaned forward so intently to catch every word the dwarf said that he nearly fell from his horse.
“When an opportunity came… he needed a living body around the same age as his daughter’s. Luckily, fate provided. The people here have a chilling custom of herding children to the cliff edges during winter.”
"Did he attack children?"
The dwarf shook his head from side to side.
"No, there was no need. While he was hesitating, a perfectly suitable body rolled down from a cliff by itself."
Hunbish stared wide-eyed at the dwarf when realization hit.
“That was you. But around the same time, that child who was taken in by Vincent protected and cared for you."
“So… he meant to use me as a vessel?” Hunbish whispered, voice tight with shock.
“Originally, yes,” the dwarf admitted. “But he didn’t go through with it. Instead, he brought you back—barely living. In a way, you were returned as something close to a living mummy. We were lucky… all things considered.”
Hunbish felt as if his world had been struck by a hammer. Dazed and speechless, he struggled to process the truth.
He felt a cold chill as he grasped what had really happened. He had received help — but it came at the cost of having his life’s very value subject to another’s momentary grief. The thought sent gooseflesh rippling across his skin.
“...I don’t even know how I’m supposed to accept this,” Hunbish whispered.
“That part is up to you,” the dwarf replied quietly. “But Vincent wasn’t a heartless man. Afterward, he kept a watch on your soul, hoping one day to undo the binding. You only met like this later — after everything had grown so wrong.”
The dwarf, gazing at the hollow-chested Vincent, murmured a reproach under his breath.
“You say you were looking for me?”
“Right! You locked yourself inside the village and never came out, so I had no choice.”
“Then why didn’t you come to the village? Even if Olus folk are closed off, they’d have listened to you… if you’d explained.”
“That couldn’t happen.” Davitte interrupted.
“Soul art is originally a blessing bestowed upon humans by the goddess Lua. Had word of your soul-binding leaked… you wouldn’t have stayed unharmed.”
“What? Why are you telling me this now?” Hunbish snapped, reeling. The unease about soul magic he had felt all along suddenly had a reason.
“You follow that goddess, don’t you? And these forestmen… what’s your connection to them?”
Things had gotten properly tangled.
By the time he realized it, he already felt like he had fallen into a quagmire beyond recovery.
Already, when explaining Hunbish's situation, it was impossible to separate the goddess and soul magic.
The goddess who had abandoned humans and sought to destroy them.
At that moment, Norman stepped between them.
“Calm down,” he urged gently. But Hunbish's head still throbbed with confusion.
A soft chuckle broke the silence: “Heh heh heh! Family quarrel? How entertaining. But if you don't head down soon, you'll get lost again."
“But… but—”
“They say both goddesses were once loved by humans, before they were driven away… still are, in some ways.”
“................”
Hunbish fell silent, lost in his own thoughts.
“Alright… fine. It’s all tangled up now. But really… using someone’s body without their consent? Just as a vessel?”
He closed his eyes, struggling to breathe.
Hunbish squeezed out a ragged breath, grappling to suppress the turmoil racing through his head.
“...Fine. I’ll try to understand. After all, Vincent ultimately saved me and thanks to you, Davitte, I’ve learned so much. I’ll accept it.”
“...Thank you for understanding,” Davitte replied softly.
“But,” Hunbish continued, gaze lowering to the wolf resting across his saddle, “once you’ve undone the soul-binding, I’ll need to leave Olus territory.”
“Of course. And what will you do with the wolf?” Davitte asked, concern laced in his tone.
Hunbish stared at the wolf, his mind jumbled beyond clear thought.
"This wolf..."
If the dwarf's words were true, this wolf alone had consistently looked out for Hunbish.
With Hunbish's mind already on the verge of exploding, proper thoughts wouldn't connect.
"Did that wolf gain power through Vincent's experiments?"
The dwarf shook his head. “No. Even I don’t fully understand that creature. My guess is it’s descended from some ancient being.”
"Aren't you the same, elder?"
“In a sense. But even then, one cannot fully understand another.”
“Hm.”
Davitte leaned in, intrigued.
“So the wolf’s strength, and its interference with my soul arts, was its own innate power.”
“More than that, it once swallowed an entire human soul.”
“A wolf that eats souls?”
“Yes,” the dwarf explained. “When Vincent attempted to release his daughter’s soul from its prison, the wolf devoured it entirely.”
Davitte’s eyes widened. A soul-consuming wolf? He had never heard of such a thing.
“...What happened then?”
“Well... I’m not sure.”
“Not sure?”
The dwarf paused, gathering his memory. “Vincent began to treat the wolf like his own daughter after that. The wolf… didn’t change much. Just stayed the same.”
He chuckled softly. “Around that time, Vincent tried teaching the wolf human language. At first I thought he’d lost his mind. When the wolf actually spoke… I honestly thought I’d gone mad.”
After a brief silence, the dwarf turned to Hunbish.
“Young man of Olus. If there's one thing I can say for certain, it’s that the child is not an evil being. I stake the honor of the dwarves who’ve lived in these mountains for generations on that.”
“...I understand. Thank you,” Hunbish replied quietly.
He, too, was sure the wolf wasn’t evil.
If anything, the creature seemed more good than anything else.
And yet, the notion of it having consumed a human soul left him deeply unsettled.
Today had brought him far too many revelations for one mind to process.
He decided to postpone his judgment on the wolf, at least until it awoke.
“Now then,” the dwarf said, clapping his hands, “this is where I leave you. Just follow this trail, and you’ll eventually find a path you recognize.”
“Ah! Thank you. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay this favor.”
Even amid his confusion, Hunbish remembered to express his gratitude.
The dwarf beamed at him.
"Thanks aren't necessary. Actually, do you have any dried meat left?"
“Yes, I do. Here, you can have all of it.”
“Perfect. This stuff suits my taste just fine. But take my advice: once in a while, eat some berries or vegetables, will you? You people in Olus eat far too much meat.”
“...Ah?!”
As he handed over the last of his dried lamb, Hunbish suddenly recognized the dwarf’s voice. He was the one who had rescued Hunbish long ago when he was lost in the mountains.
The dwarf accepted the meat with a grin, then turned and disappeared into the forest.
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