Chapter 230
Chapter 230: Archie’s Story (1)
Life is simple.
Kill, and you live. Fail to kill, and you die.
If you grow stronger, the range of choices becomes a little wider.
Because the option of not killing is added.
Archie was on the side with many choices.
The problem was that there were almost no cases where he did not want to kill.
-Archie, there’s a hunt near Hyre. If Archie doesn’t go, it’ll get noisy.
Archie, who had been looking down at the rows of tents, slowly rose at Mona’s voice calling him.
The aged leader was a bastard who only felt satisfied when he kept Archie by his side whenever they went hunting.
Mona said it was because Archie threatened the leader’s position, and so he was watching him.
It did not matter either way.
Even if the leader took him along on dangerous outings every time in order to get rid of him, he was confident he would not die.
Of course, he was confident in hunting as well.
If he met humans during the hunt, there was nothing better.
Because human hunts were the most stimulating and most satisfying thing in his boring daily life, and the only path that could put his directionless anger to rest.
-Archie, be careful this time. There are no other werewolves in that area. There must be a reason.
Behind him as he moved his feet, Mona sent him something like a warning, but Archie did not listen all that closely.
Unlike the bastards who lacked intelligence, this side could do something called thinking.
His innate strength rarely placed Archie in dangerous situations.
That day was no different.
-Archie, don’t slack off. Once you catch prey, return here.
Nodding roughly at the leader’s warning and separating from him was no different from usual, and neither was discovering prey not far away.
The only thing that was a little lucky was that what he discovered was a human.
Suppressing his excitement, Archie followed behind the woman with slow steps.
Judging by her shabby cloak and the direction she was headed, she seemed to be a human going to Hyre.
They said that since one could receive the Imperial Family’s protection once inside, many humans risked their lives for it.
Archie flipped past such trivial information in his head and lunged at the woman at once.
Archie briefly met eyes with the woman, who noticed him and hurriedly turned around.
Something was strange.
The woman was crying, her face a mess of tears and snot.
As if she had known in advance that she would die here.
It was strange, but that could not stop a human’s death.
Watching the wet eyes glitter under the moonlight, Archie swung his arm without hesitation.
THWACK!
Along with the sensation of the tips of his claws touching the human’s arm, Archie swallowed his breath at the intense pain he felt in his chest.
Today’s hunt was no different from usual.
If only an arrow had not flown in as if waiting and pierced his chest.
It would have been a hunt no different from usual.
-Haha, stupid bastards! They can’t tell anything apart once it’s human, and just charge in!
Archie turned his head in the direction of the excited laughter.
A bright blond man was laughing at him, holding a huge bow.
He was a member of the Imperial Family.
Archie did not know what he was babbling about, but he could tell just from that ripping laughter.
The woman who had risked her life and thrown herself toward him was bait thrown by that Imperial Family member.
The bow, as thick as the woman’s wrist, had narrowly missed Archie’s heart.
Archie tried to pull out the arrow before the wound healed around it, but a stronger force dragged him first.
Whatever shape the damned arrowhead was, it would not come out even when he pulled with brute force.
Archie writhed in the pain of flesh being torn away.
Perhaps that was extremely entertaining, because the blond man’s laughter grew even louder.
-An unexpected harvest!
The man’s excited voice rang in his ears while Archie was dragged along the ground.
When the force tearing at his raw flesh stopped, Archie barely came to his senses and raised his head.
There stood the man looking down at him with eyes full of enjoyment.
A man with blond hair brighter than the sun and as white as moonlight.
-A Werewolf. This is my first time seeing one this large.
The man, who had been muttering to himself, pushed the arrow that had not yet been pulled out with his foot.
The painful sensation that had briefly dulled tormented Archie.
After looking down at Archie, who could not even breathe as he endured the pain, the man soon straightened as if he had made a decision and grinned.
-This means it has not lost too much blood either....... You are lucky. I will not kill you yet. A pelt only keeps its grain alive when it is skinned while still alive.
When the Imperial Family member jerked his chin, three large men approached his side.
They grabbed and dragged Archie with rather familiar hands.
He saw the surrounding scenery gradually change.
As if used to such situations, they dragged him without a word and soon arrived at the edge of a cliff.
Archie realized why he had been pointed out with the words “this too.”
There were already quite a few monsters layered there.
Monsters piled carelessly onto something that looked like a cart.
Among them, some were alive.
They were probably bastards with “good fur,” similar to him.
He knew he had to leave this place at once, but his body would not move.
With fingertips that could barely twitch, he could do nothing.
Archie had no choice but to helplessly watch as the men lifted him to throw him onto the cart.
Even when, because of the Imperial Family member’s sudden whim, his body plunged back to the ground.
-I will take this one. I like it the most among today’s catch.
While the man loaded him like luggage onto the flank of his horse, Archie rolled his eyes and examined his surroundings.
What entered his eyes was a woman who did not fit in with them.
The human woman who had been used as bait to catch him.
Seeing blood flow from her arm, it seemed his attack had not missed entirely.
But no one cared that blood was flowing from the woman’s arm.
Even the woman herself seemed to think that was not a big deal.
Archie blankly looked into the forest as his consciousness blurred.
It was the moment he thought he seemed to meet someone’s eyes within it.
A large form leaped out of the forest and charged at him.
He did not clearly remember what happened after that.
-Aaagh!
-Lord Renin, are you all right?
-As if I would be taken down by something like this! It only grazed my arm. Tear this damned dog bastard apart right now!
The burning wound in his chest, shouts ringing in his ears, and the sensation of his body floating.
-Aaaaaah!
Another scream, and then his body falling.
With that as the last thing, Archie lost consciousness.
***
Archie opened his eyes thanks to a considerable amount of miracles and the human woman’s desperate struggle to live.
The face of the woman looking down at him was a mess.
Archie, who opened his eyes along with terrible pain, looked around to grasp the situation.
A space with only one span left, a sheer cliff stretching to the side, and the human woman.
He soon realized that his location was a cliff ledge.
The reason he had not been thrown out was thanks to a small tree that had rooted firmly into the cliff.
The woman had settled herself on top of it.
The woman whose eyes met his clutched the tree trunk tightly, despite having nowhere else to retreat.
With the smell of blood vibrating through the air, his appetite stirred.
She was a small human, but if he ate her, his body would recover even a little.
Archie slowly raised himself without taking his eyes off the woman.
-Aaaaaah!!!
Unfortunately, the woman was quick to notice.
Perhaps sensing the unusual atmosphere, the woman struggled to climb even a little higher onto the tree.
Unable to withstand the weight, the tree shook greatly.
Archie would not have cared in the slightest if the woman alone fell to her death.
The problem was the cliff ledge trembling precariously along with the tree the human was shaking.
Perhaps because the place where he lay was where the tree’s roots were embedded, the ground shook mercilessly along with the tree’s movements.
Damn it.
Archie withdrew the body he had been trying to raise, pressed himself as close to the wall as possible, and tried to show that he had no intention of attacking.
Perhaps the woman did not want to die together either, because her movements slowly stopped.
After confirming that the ground had regained stability, Archie rolled his eyes and looked down below the cliff.
If his body had been intact, it was not a height to fear, but not now.
Archie felt over his wound.
His heart had not burst.
Seeing that the sun had risen, enough time should have passed for the wound to heal already.
The bleeding had stopped, but the wound was healing far too slowly.
What is the problem?
His head was too dizzy to think any more deeply.
Archie leaned his body against the wall.
In any case, the woman did not seem able to escape.
Just like him, she was injured, and there was no way she could climb the cliff with arms that looked like they had no strength.
I’ll sleep for just a moment, and when I wake, I’ll kill her.
If my body recovers enough to escape this cliff, I’ll keep her as emergency food until then.
But no matter how many times he lost consciousness and woke again, his body never recovered.
As time passed, his wound festered.
Only then did Archie realize that he was too close to death, but it was too late.
The woman occasionally looked down from under the tree and observed Archie.
That gaze bothered him, but as time passed, he became unable to pay attention to even that.
Because survival was more important than such things.
He felt that if he could fill his stomach even a little, his condition might improve, but the only thing to eat around here was that human woman.
-I, I, I, I......
While he furrowed his face in pain, a strange crying sound echoed from above.
Archie realized it was the sound of the human woman speaking.
After briefly retracing whether humans cried with the sound “I,” Archie furrowed his brow even more as he saw her slowly raise her hand.
If she did something foolish, he intended to tear out her throat immediately.
-I, I, I...... cannot move. So......
The woman used both hands to point at her chest, then pointed above the cliff, and then repeatedly pointed at her injured arm.
Archie realized what the woman was doing.
She thinks this side cannot understand words.
-S-so...... up, up there......
-You want me to take you up?
When he finished the words for her as she stammered so frustratingly, the woman jumped.
Thanks to that, Archie nearly fell outside the cliff and glared fiercely at her.
But rather than his murderous gaze, the woman seemed more surprised by the fact that he had spoken.
-Y-you, you can talk? Th-then take me up......
-Do not say something absurd. Do you think I can carry you in this state?
That day, Archie experienced the fact that if one was dumbfounded enough, the strength to get angry disappeared.
No, when he thought about it now, perhaps he was dumbfounded because he had no strength.
The woman seemed like a human half out of her mind.
Forgetting what was in front of her and simply smiling as if she were truly happy that there was someone she could talk to, she made Archie feel unpleasant as he lay back.
In any case, if she did not come down from up there, she was no different from a star in the sky.
There was no meaning in continuing to look at a human he could not eat.
Archie closed his eyes to replenish even a little of his strength.
Hoping that when he opened his eyes again, that woman would die first and become at least a little quieter.
***
Archie reflexively reached out as he felt something a little heavier than a fawn settling beside him.
-Ugh......!
The owner of the thin, pained voice was the human who had not thought to come down from the tree.
The stupid woman must have been unable to endure and come down.
There was no greater luck than prey walking in on its own feet.
It was the moment Archie opened his mouth to eat her in one bite.
Before Archie could even open his mouth fully, the woman pushed her arm into his mouth.
Flustered by the unexpected situation, Archie forgot even to tear into the meat that had entered his mouth and stared at the woman.
Only then did Archie realize that this was his first time being in the same space as a human at such a close distance, for this long.
And that a human’s eyes were this intense.
The woman quietly pushed her arm farther into Archie’s mouth and carefully opened her mouth.
-I-if you eat this...... do you think you can go up?
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