3 bar menu

Volume 2 Chapter 2 Part 6

Their age ranged from mid-twenties to mid-teens. The twins are probably the youngest, even younger than Siluca, but they were well-developed in all places that mattered for a woman.

The twins sat on either side of Theo, looking at him with twinkling eyes.

(These are the eyes of a predator eyeing its prey.)

Siluca thought.

「I’m Emma. 」

「I’m Luna. 」

The two girls stated their names before Theo, and then…

「「If you call us twins, we will bite you! 」 」

The two of them said in unison. They must have been called that a lot.

「You… are you all.. Werewolves? 」

Siluca asked Clara. She sensed chaos not only from her, but from her children as well, and she could see Arts that have been carved into their arms.

「Yes, since a few years ago. My father was a Werewolf, and we all inherited his Chaos Core. That being said, the older children have all become Werewolves of their own accord before, but… 」

「Everyone in this settlement is a Werewolf? 」

That cannot be the case, since it’s not like you can become a Werewolf only as a result of being born as a child of one. The same result can be achieved by gathering Chaos into one’s body and infusing the entire body with Arts.

「Not all of them were born Werewolves, no. Some of the people here came from the outside, like the ones who disliked all the fighting that is currently going on in recent years. 」

Clara then proceeded to tells them that the numbers of Werewolves were gradually decreasing.

「Dying in war, dying trying to hunt monsters… Living as a Werewolf is quite difficult, you know? 」

Even though the matters she was talking about were quite serious, Clara still spoke about them in a cheerful tone.

Siluca listened to her intently, and in her heart she admitted that she was right. In order for a human to become a Werewolf, they would have to absorb a lot of Chaos into their bodies, and in order to achieve that, they would have to do one of two things: either inherit somebody’s Chaos Core or fight a large amount of monsters to gradually absorb the residual Chaos that they were storing inside of them.

「That’s why this village is always suffering from a shortage of both brides and grooms. And while we are on the subject, what do you think about my girls? They are pretty good-looking, aren’t they? 」

Clara said so, making her eyes flare up. These were the eyes of a predator eyeing its prey. They were far sharper than the eyes of the twin sisters.

Now that the matter of the arrangement of the seats was finally taken care of, Siluca finally arrived. She even called out to the Lord’s messenger so that they could properly understand the seriousness of the situation.

「I have a contract with this Lord Theo over here… 」

Siluca said that again with an affable smile, and turned to Theo as if asking for help. However, Theo was held by her twin daughters, one arm at a time, so there was not much that he could do.

「I am a Lord, even though I might not look the part… 」

Theo spoke softly to the twins, revealing a Crest on the back of his right hand. However, his current Crest was not as powerful as it used to be.

「If you take the Chaos into yourself, you will be able to strengthen not only Arts, but Crests as well. 」

「It should be fine if your Crest were to be broken. 」

「Oh, that’s right, I heard that if the Crest breaks, it will revert back into its Chaos Core form. 」

From Theo’s both sides, the twins started chanting:「Break it! Break it! 」

(Will the two of you shut up already?!)

Siluca thought so and glared at the twins, but they didn’t even care to look her way, their gazes fixated solely on Theo.

Certainly, the Crests can be broken, and they return to the form of the Chaos Core when that happens to them. The most common time when this occurs is when the Lord carrying the Crest dies and their Crest loses its current host. Other than that, unless there is a very special situation, it will not break naturally. However, it is said that if you have enough willpower to create a Crest out of the Chaos Core, you could theoretically break it of your own volition.

(In other words, I wonder if Lord Theo could be able to do it?)

The thought of it spooked Siluca for a moment, but she quickly made up her mind not to worry about it. After all, Theo’s dream is to go back to the island of Sistina and free the people of his hometown

from the tyranny of the island’s current Lord, Rossini, and the threat of the monster’s nests scattered all over the island, so he cannot allow himself to simply throw all of that away.

「Even some of the Demon Lords were originally Lords. 」

One of the twins, Emma, was still persistent about her point.

(Like Demon Lord Adele…)

That was the name that Siluca heard from Zelma, the elder of the village of the witches, and apparently it has been a pretty hot topic of discussion that was widely talked about around these parts.

Certainly, even though she defeated the Demon Lord, Adele ended up becoming a Demon Lord herself, but that was only because she became its Layer because she was captivated by the power it possessed to the point where she wanted to become a Demon Lord herself.

「Now now girls, stop pressuring the poor Lord or the food is going to get cold. 」

When Clara called out to the servants, beer was poured into the cups and distributed to everyone. Clara then raised raised her cup up first, and everyone else followed her example.

「To Artuk’s prosperity! 」

「To Artuk’s prosperity! 」

Everyone sang the toast in unison with Clara’s voice, and the lively party has kicked off momentarily

All the dishes lined up are rustic, and the meat has a strong smell and still tasted like blood. Plenty of rock salt and spices were also added to it.

Naturally, since everyone was thirsty and hungry, so they were eating and drinking without restraint, and the party soon became incredibly lively. All members of the werewolf family seem to have a cheerful dispositions whenever they drank, because all of them were talking loudly, singing songs, and dancing from their seats. Theo got himself attuned to the atmosphere pretty quickly, and Irvin was on the side of the servants bringing more food and drink before he knew it.

Perhaps Priscilla was also getting drunk, because all of a sudden she started preaching the doctrine of the Order of the Crest to both the men and women sitting at either sides of her, regardless of whether anyone was actually listening to what she had to say or not. However, the longer she talked about it, the more apparent it became that the two Werewolf brothers who wanted to sit next to her no matter what because of how attracted to her looks they were were now gradually retreating back with worried expressions.

According to the doctrine of the Order of the Crest, Shamans were considered the same kind of evil as Dark Mages. However the Order also acknowledged that even though they are evil, their abilities were still necessary, and so it has been ruled that even the evil beings like Shamans could find salvation and go to the Heavenly Kingdom where the Only God presided as long as they choose to donate the Chaos Cores from their bodies to the cause of the Order when they die.

When Siluca heard about that particular doctrine for the first time, she scoffed at it, thinking that such double standards in that all too convenient setting were exactly what she expected from the opportunistic Order of the Crest. As far as Siluca cared, Priscilla could just stay here in this village as a wife of some random Werewolf, but she strongly doubted that something like that would be possible anytime soon.

「It is hard to find a good woman for yourself. 」

The two next to Siluca looked at Priscilla and then they nodded with a sigh.

(What was that all about?)

Siluca wanted to question them thoroughly about what they meant by that, but if anyone were to ask her if she considered herself to be a good woman, then in all honesty, she would have to say that she was the exact opposite of a good woman. She is not tall, and if the ideal of a woman for most men is someone lean and plump in all the right places, then these were also the qualities that she lacked.