Chapter 17 : Chapter 17
Chapter 17
SPLIT, SPLIT!
The fight began with Draksan’s axe.
Holding an axe in each hand, he buried them into the monster’s leg twice, one after the other.
SCREEEAM!
A scream erupted immediately after. Perhaps because the creature’s face resembled that of a human, its scream sounded disturbingly human as well.
The monster’s massive body tilted.
Draksan tried to swing his axe once more at the monster’s leg. He must have intended to sever it completely. If he cut off the leg, the battle would begin with an overwhelming advantage.
However, the bear monster did not simply accept the blow.
A thick paw, similar to that of an ordinary bear yet twice as large, flew toward Draksan.
Feral Wolf’s enormous body stepped in front of him. With the claws she drew out, she blocked the monster’s paw.
THUD—!
A sound rang out as if massive shields had collided. No, it was heavier and more imposing than that.
The monster’s red eyes wavered for a moment. Then it poured its strength into its paw, as if trying to crush Feral Wolf’s body. Feral Wolf bared her teeth and grinned savagely.
“A contest of strength? I am strong too, you bastard!”
The monster tried to crush Feral Wolf, while Feral Wolf tried to lift the monster’s paw.
She was gradually being pushed back, yet even that was absurd. No matter that she was a werewolf, trading strength with a monster like this was unbelievable.
There was no time to be startled.
While Feral Wolf bought time, someone had to move. And before I could, Draksan did.
SPLIT—!
The crisp sound of chopping firewood rang out.
With a heavy THUMP, the bear monster’s body tilted completely to one side.
I did not need to see it to know that its right leg had finally been severed.
At that moment, Feral Wolf, still locked in a contest of strength with the monster, shouted in an androgynous voice.
“Doctor, the eyes!”
“I know!”
The only weapon I had was a scalpel I had brought just in case.
Even that was not as sharp as in my previous life, making it little more than a dagger.
‘The only viable target with this is the eyes.’
I adjusted my grip on the scalpel and kicked off the ground, leaping toward the bear monster’s face—more precisely, its eyes. But I fell slightly short. The monster was simply too tall.
Even wounded and off balance, it was still enormous.
I grabbed onto the monster’s fur and climbed up its body.
Climbing… yes, like climbing.
A memory flashed through my mind of the climbing I had tried briefly in my previous life, partly for social reasons.
As always when memories of that life surfaced, a strange feeling followed.
A sense of unreality. The violent reality of this other world felt oddly distant.
‘A counselor not counseling… damn it.’
But what choice did I have? In this world, no matter what profession one had, there were moments when fighting was necessary.
I had a reason to fight, and I had the strength to do so. I could not just stand still.
STAB!
Swallowing my surge of resentment, I drove the scalpel into the monster’s eye.
SCREEEEEAM—!
The monster’s horrific scream echoed. But once was not enough.
STAB, STAB, STAB, STAB!
I plunged the scalpel into its eye again and again.
With my enhanced strength and accelerated nerves, I gouged it faster and harder than anyone else could.
SCREEEEEAM—!
The agonized screams continued. Even if they belonged to a monster, they were not pleasant to hear.
“Doctor!”
As I stabbed its eye several more times, Feral Wolf shouted to me.
When I turned my head, I saw the bear monster’s paw flying toward me. It was trying to crush me, who clung to it like a mosquito, with a single blow.
Even with the accelerated perception granted by Dawn’s Call, that paw was not slow. Still, it was not impossible to evade.
I sprang down from the monster’s head, and then.
“Heh.”
Draksan stepped in.
Having lost his reason, Draksan was smiling as he watched the bear monster thrash in pain.
The madness in his eyes was unmistakable even from a distance. Alongside it, there was unmistakable delight.
He raised his axe and brought it down on the monster’s neck.
SPLIT!
The axe strike did not stop at one.
SPLIT, SPLIT, SPLIT, SPLIT…!
“Ugh, aaahhh, ahahahaha! Hahaha, ha!”
SCREEEEEAM! SCREEEAM…!
Like a woodcutter felling a tree, Draksan hacked and carved at the monster’s neck, spewing crazed laughter.
The monster writhed in agony, screaming. When its neck was nearly severed and even the vertebrae were exposed, Draksan raised his axe high.
SPLIT—!
He brought it down hard.
The monster’s neck was completely severed. A fountain of blood erupted like a final gasp.
The massive body of the bear monster twitched a few times, then went limp.
“Ah…”
A murmur escaped the villagers gathered at the ranch, who had witnessed everything.
It was understandable. I was astonished as well.
Draksan was not merely someone who could be called a “skilled hunter.” Calling him “a man born to hunt” would not have been an exaggeration. What he had just shown embodied exactly that.
“Uh, Draksan…?”
However, my admiration soon turned into doubt.
Draksan was approaching Feral Wolf and me, his entire body radiating the scent of killing intent and hostility.
‘No, not me.’
Draksan’s gaze was fixed clearly on Feral Wolf, not on me.
Sensing the hostility, Feral Wolf drew out the claws she had just retracted. She looked at me with startled eyes.
“Hey, what is wrong with that guy? We were fighting together just a moment ago!”
“He has Intermittent Explosive Disorder, that is, a severe anger control issue. To explain—”
“I do not want to hear difficult words!”
Simply put.
“Draksan has lost his reason, and it seems he intends to kill you.”
“But why me? Why not you, Doctor?”
“Perhaps because you look the most like a monster…?”
“A m-monster? It is not that bad!”
She added, sounding hurt. In the meantime, Draksan had already come right up to us.
Feral Wolf raised her claws. Killing intent was clear in her eyes as she aimed them at Draksan.
‘She intends to kill Draksan.’
“Do not kill him!”
“Do you think that makes sense in this situation, Counselor?”
Despite her grumbling, Feral Wolf heeded my words.
CLANG!
Draksan’s axe collided with Feral Wolf’s claws.
Just before his next swing followed, I grabbed Draksan’s wrist with all my strength.
“Draksan, it is me!”
Draksan glared at me with bloodshot eyes. Rage and hatred burned within them. They seemed to say, ‘Who are you?’ At this moment, Draksan did not recognize me at all.
Even after weeks of counseling…
Rather than fear, it filled me with sorrow.
—I am afraid that one day, I will kill someone I know with my own hands.
The words he had shared with me during counseling resurfaced.
—You, Doctor, or… I believe it will not happen, it must not happen, but… even Lena… I might end up killing her with my own hands. That terrifies me more than anything.
That fear had become reality.
Draksan’s axe was flying toward me.
Could I evade it? No, I could not. By the time I hesitated, it was already too late to dodge.
Unsure whether I could even block it, I raised my arm.
“……”
I opened my eyes in the ensuing silence.
The axe had stopped right in front of my nose.
With his shoulders and neck slumped, Draksan stared down at me weakly.
There was no vitality left in his eyes.
Emptiness…A deep depression, difficult even for me to gauge, quietly spread within his gaze.
THUD.
After staring at me for a long while, Draksan collapsed.
Even as he finally lost consciousness, his hand still clutched the axe tightly.
The first thing I did was check Draksan’s condition.
‘He is asleep. No, it is closer to being unconscious.’
In a half-lucid state, Draksan had slaughtered the monster while swinging his axe like a madman.
No matter how resilient someone was, moving like that would exhaust the body before the mind.
‘He may remain unconscious for several days.’
There was no risk of him immediately rising and rampaging again.
There was not even a need to administer medication.
As I finished that assessment and stood up.
“Doctor, it is good to see you again after so long.”
Feral Wolf spoke, having approached me without my noticing. In her hand was a flask.
It was the flask containing Mist’s Lullaby, the potion I had once prescribed to Nyxle.
“That is?”
“I made a promise with Nyxle. We agreed to respect each other’s time. Even if she calls me out like this when necessary, once the work is done, I return. The same goes the other way.”
“It seems you reached a good agreement with Nyxle.”
“Thanks to you. Communication is not difficult with the Recorder. We are like inseparable friends now.”
Feral Wolf grinned, revealing her fangs.
“Let us meet again sometime. Not for something like this, but for something better.”
“For something peaceful.”
“Yes, something peaceful.”
She chuckled and drank the flask.
The motion was so decisive that the bitter medicine looked almost like cold water or refreshing beer. Even so, it must have tasted awful, because she frowned.
“Doctor, can you make the next one a bit sweeter?”
“I will try.”
“It tastes absolutely—”
THUD!
Feral Wolf collapsed without warning. Her massive body shrank like a deflated balloon, and the thick, blade-sharp fur vanished.
A few seconds later, the familiar face of Nyxle returned.
She opened her eyes, looked around, and then smiled in relief upon seeing the decapitated monster.
“Ah, i-it seems it is over. Doctor, are you injured anywhere…?”
“No. Thanks to Feral Wolf’s excellent work.”
Seeing Nyxle again did not make me particularly happy.
CLICK.
…I had expected this.
The moment Nyxle regained her senses, she pulled out the handcuffs she had prepared and locked them onto Draksan’s hands.
“He will be unconscious for several days anyway.”
“Still, j-just in case.”
Considering that Draksan had knocked out three investigators, her caution was understandable.
Even so, I could not help but feel bitter.
‘This is that, and… what needs to be done still needs to be done.’
While Nyxle handled the situation in her own way, it was time for me to do the same.
I headed to the ranch, where the villagers had taken shelter while Draksan and the monster faced each other.
Some people emerged from the enclosure after confirming the monster’s death.
They seemed accustomed to such scenes, mostly soldiers or grown men.
On the other hand, there were those who could not bring themselves to leave the enclosure even after the monster was dead.
Women and elderly were among them, but most were children.
They crouched and trembled, as if they could not grow accustomed to such sights.
‘Some of them must have lost their families… perhaps even…’
There would be children who had become orphans because of this incident.
There would even be children who had become heads of households.
I took out my business card from my wallet. It read “Kain Mental Health Counseling and Resolution Office.”
Everything was written on it, including the address and the unique number required to send Gipone.
“If you need help, contact me. I can assist you.”
The children accepted the cards with blank expressions.
Nyxle, carrying Draksan on her back, approached me.
She looked at me handing out business cards with a puzzled expression.
There was a hint of strange disappointment in her gaze. It seemed to ask whether this was really the time for business.
“There will be children who lost their parents because of this. Some may even have become heads of households.”
“Ah…”
“Of course, they cannot understand what this card is or why I am giving it to them right now.”
Among these children were those who had lost parents or siblings, or who had become heads of households.
Right now, they would not be able to fully process the shock.
They were desperately postponing that shock and responsibility within themselves.
“But the moment will come when the shock and responsibility they postponed return. I gave them my card to help them then. Financially and mentally.”
“There is something I would like to ask…”
“Yes?”
After hesitating, Nyxle asked in a low, careful voice.
“Did you not say earlier that y-you did not bring your wallet…?”
Ah, so that was the disappointment?
“Is this not a situation where we should overlook small details? Let us move on.”
“Well, that is true, but…”
“Let us go back.”
***
Because of the incident, Draksan was arrested and detained by the Public Security Bureau.
The charges were assault and obstruction of official duties.
The trial had not yet concluded, but a heavy sentence was all but certain.
An article about Draksan slaying the bear monster of Sauhin did occupy a corner of the newspaper…However, that fact was unlikely to have much influence on the verdict.
After all, his crimes were not minor. He had knocked out three Public Security investigators, and one of them had reportedly suffered injuries severe enough to prevent a return to duty.
I, too, was at the Public Security Bureau.
I had not come as a suspect. Chief Justin had summoned me as a key witness in this case.
“A key witness? I do not know anything about the incident.”
“Calling you a key witness is just a pretext. I called you because I have something to say. To be precise, a request.”
A wave of anxiety surged through me. Whenever Chief Justin uttered the word “request,” nothing good ever followed.
“Draksan. He was a client you were treating, was he not?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“Well, since it is you, I will be direct.”
Chief Justin continued as he poured coffee.
“Keep it secret that Draksan was your client.”
“What?”
What was this supposed to be?
“What kind of nonsense is that?”