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Chapter 115

It wasn’t too difficult to get the wolf king to do what I wanted him to do. After dragging him outside, I simply jumped on his back and kicked his side like a horse. He gave me a single resentful look, but when I glared back, he quickly began running. His clan grew confused seeing him running with a person on his back and tried to join him, but after giving them a low growl they quickly made scarce. He seemed to be a bit embarrassed being seen as a mount for someone else, but I hadn’t developed a faster means of motion for myself yet.

No matter how high my status was, I was still limited by this human body. Perhaps, I could mimic the shape of a wolf, but that would take some time to figure out, both the changing shape, and getting used to the new form. Thankfully, the wolf king was actually incredibly fast and nimble, and even though he had such a massive size, he seemed to always find a way through the trees no matter how dense they grew. We were out of the valley in less than an hour and were heading down the path that we had taken to reach Stormberg in the first place.

I didn’t have a spy tracer on the cart since I hadn’t finished perfecting it yet, but I did place a less effective version with the cart which acted as a tracker at this distance. As I grew closer, my ability to localize the cart grew more precise. We weren’t bothered by any sage beasts either. Given the wolf king’s high level, he seemed to cause any sage beasts who detected him approaching to flee in the opposite direction or hide. It must have been the high mana. It gave off a sense of danger to weaker species. I wanted to learn how to do that. It might be useful to passively intimidate sage beasts in the future.

After another two hours, we finally reached the location of the cart. Considering this had been a nearly two-day journey for Tyler and company on horseback, it went to show just how fast the wolf king could move. When I uncovered the cart, I found that I had done very well in hiding it, as the things packed within hadn’t been disturbed at all. I only gave it a quick visual before I touched it and threw the entire cart into my luminal space. I was beginning to realize that if there was a limit to that space, I hadn’t even come close to reaching it, and the cart fit without issue, as well as other things larger than myself.

Once storing the cart and the contents away, I turned back to the wolf king. He didn’t hesitate to allow me to jump back onto him for the return journey. He moved a bit slower this time, possibly coming to the limit of his stamina getting me there in the first place, but I kept my mouth shut and allowed him to set the pace. Given how much time I had already saved recovering the cart, I didn’t want to act too demanding.

The two of us began to journey back considerably slower. The sun was starting to set by the time we returned to the valley. We didn’t travel very far before the wolf king stopped. I could feel its hair stand on end as it let out a low growl. I immediately spread out my mana sense which I hadn’t been using on the return trip. That’s how I detected a couple of powerful mana signatures moving toward us. Before I could do anything else, the wolf king leaped back just in time for a spike made out of darkness to spike out of the ground just where the wolf king’s head had been. That spike immediately disappeared like smoke.

“Who’s there!” I shouted, hoping that a human voice would prevent them from continuing their attacks.

There was a moment of silence, but then a sultry voice came from the woods. “A person?”

A person slowly emerged from the shadows of a nearby tree. She was shockingly beautiful, with pale white skin and black straight hair that ran down her back and passed her buttocks. She was wearing a black robe that showed the cleavage of her rather large breasts.

“My lady!” Another voice spoke in warning, “Be careful, that beast is high level!”

“I’ll be alright. This animal seems quite tame.” She spoke while keeping her eyes locked on me. “Are you this beast’s master?”

“He listens to me if that is what you’re asking,” I responded, noticing the wolf king was still extremely wary.

“Is that so?” She pursed her lips. “I was sent out here to deal with a potential public safety threat. Supposedly, a wild infernal wolf king is running loose in these parts. I’m following a request to confirm its presence and take it down.”

Although it was hard to say if the wolf king knew what she was saying, it let out a low growl as if it could understand her threatening nature. She only smiled as four others seemed to emerge from the forest, although they all had their faces and bodies covered except for her.

“I haven’t heard anything about that,” I responded. “Would a wolf king be dangerous?”

“Normally? Perhaps not. However, this wolf king led to the death of a mortal human. The Lou family has personally called for its head.”

I blinked. “A mortal?”

I looked down at the wolf king, who looked just as confused as me.

“I can’t help but notice that your mount is an infernal wolf king, and you give off the mana of a mortal human.”

She was watching my face closely, likely looking for any hints of my identity. Thankfully, I had near-perfect control of my expressions. Even so, it took me a moment to connect the dots.  I was the mortal the wolf king was supposed to have killed. Since I hadn’t returned after a week, they must have assumed I was dead and sent someone else.

“Why would the Lou family care about the death of a mortal?” I decided to ignore her probing questions.

Her smile flickered slightly. “That also confused me. The request came from the youngest lady. She was upset over the death of her vassal, and her suitor Head Guard Shui ended up putting out the money for the request to appease her.”

I just managed to resist snickering. After abandoning me and leaving me for dead, he likely had to pay quite the price to remain in her good graces. I was curious how much the wolf king’s head would net. I couldn’t help looking at his neck. The wolf king seemed to sense this as well, and he whined while giving me a helpless look.

I cleared my throat. “I’m sorry I can’t be of more help, Lady…?”

“You may call me Lady Stride.” Her smile returned. “It seems like the situation here is under control. As long as it remains under control, we’ll not need to return.”

“Then, we can only hope things remain quiet.” I agreed.

With a nod, I ushed the wolf king on into the valley. I kept an eye on her, thinking she might follow us, but I was relieved to see her letting us leave. Of course, I left a tracer on the ground, so after we were out of earshot, I could still hear and see what was going on.

“We are ending the hunt?” One of the men demanded.

“It is getting dark. Entering the valley at this time would be dangerous anyway.”

“That man… he controls the wolf king. Why not force him to give it over? We’ll be forfeiting the rewards of the request. “

“How did he seem to you?”

“Hmm? He was a mortal, but there is no way a mortal could be seated on top of a sage beast that powerful.”

“Exactly, I also felt he was only mortal, and yet there is no way a mortal could tame a wolf king. Isn’t that reason enough not to create an enemy?’

“Hmph, with the power for House Stride, do we even need to worry about that?”

“Perhaps, perhaps not. I only came out here as a favor to Lady Lou anyway. For whatever reason, I don’t feel that is necessary anymore.” She looked in the direction I went with some curiosity, but after a moment, she shook her head. “Come on, let’s go before the sun sets.”

I kicked the wolf king into motion and we returned to the heat vent. The appearance of that woman revealed to me how precarious this place was. I decided to add a few more things to make the vent that much harder to find. Once I was done with that, I placed the egg into the heat vent encapsulation. I then left a tracer and gave the wolf king strict orders to protect the egg. The wolf seemed to understand my words, even puffing out its chest as if to confirm it would do as I asked.

After checking on the egg and making sure it was doing fine in the increasing heat of the capsule, I bid farewell and began my trip back to Stormberg. I wanted to check on Mara, but I also had some other plans too.