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Volume 3 Prologue Part 2

Last year, Ion, who became the new king of the Werewolves after the death of his mother, queen Clara, gathered the Werewolves of the Werewolf village in front of the mansion he was now occupying and clearly declared that he would follow along with the pact that the Werewolves of old have made with the members of the Constance family.

「Our role right now is to be like the 「gentleman」wolves. We will follow them and never take our eyes off of them, but even if you find a perfect opportunity to attack them, do not engage them under any circumstances. It is not worth it, since they all stink or metal and their armor is too hard to eat to go through the trouble of chewing it. 」

At Ion’s words, the gathered Werewolves all erupted with heartful laughter.

「But most importantly, we must not forget about the legacy and sacrifice made by the previous queen, Clara! Her blood debt is the one that can only be paid by Dimitri, the Vampire King! 」

And with those words, Ion ordered the Werewolves to move out. The Werewolves all turned into their wolf forms and scattered while howling, but when they disappeared, Ion called his two younger brothers to his side.

「I have other things planned for you guys. 」

「A different job? 」

The two looked at each other.

「Yes, enter the castle of the Constance family as a mercenaries, and find yourselves some good wives. 」

「Understood! 」

The two younger brothers Gide and Flint each nodded at each other.

「Is it okay for us to find wives before you though? 」

The older brother Gide said it in a mocking manner.

「If one of you gets a wife, I will make you the next king, while I will set out on a journey to find Dimitri. 」

「Brother… 」

「Is that what you were thinking about?「
Brothers looked at each other.

「But that Vampire is a monster that has lived since the time of Extreme Chaos. He’s not an opponent you can beat alone. 」

Said the younger brother Flint.
「When you put it like that… 」

Ion nodded while showing his long canine teeth.

「That’s why I hunt Chaos. I hunt it down and eat it to become the ultimate Werewolf like my grandfather. He may have eternal life, but he uses a lot of Chaos for it. Werewolves can channel all of their Chaos into their strength, so as long as you do not fall under his spell, even the Vampire King is an opponent that can be beaten. 」

「Even so, if you find him, you have to call us. Or rather, assuming that we can find ourselves brides in the first place… 」

Gide reached out his long tongue and licked the tip of his nose.

「I was actually joking about you getting wives. But I am serious about going after Dimitri. 」

Ion stared into the distance.

「But first, there is the battle in front of us. We have to make sure that we return the debt of gratitude we have with the Costance family.」

「We know. 」

「Leave it to us. We will do the work for about 100 people. 」

Gite and Flint smiled confidently, turned into wolves, and ran at full speed.

* * *

Around the same time, Waldrind’s movements were also reported to Theo and Siluca, who owned the Forest of Eternal Darkness now.

「The Heavy Knights of Waldrind seem to be aiming straight for Lord Vilar’s castle. 」

Siluca reported to Theo after being contacted by the new Head Mage, Laura Hadley, via a magic wand.

「Is Marine Kraische really planning to attack Lord Vilar’s castle directly? 」

Theo asked.

「I’m well aware that the Heavy Knights of Valdrind are strong, but I don’t think that such a huge and strong castle will fall so easily. 」

「If the conditions are met, any castle will fall. 」

Siluca says reproachfully.

「Well… 」
Theo let out a wry smile.

「But the conditions for the fall of Castle Unicorn are not met, right? 」

「For now at least. 」

Siluca affirmed.

「I am relieved to hear that. 」

「But don’t let your guard down. There is no way that they crossed the border without having any sort of plan in mind. 」

「That’s right, the Head Mage of Waldrind is your adoptive father… 」

Theo frowned.

「Yes, he is. 」

Aubest Meletes, the leader of Marine’s Magic Division, is Siluca’s adoptive father. It is because of him that Siluca grew up to be such a wary Mage.

「Who is attacking us and why? 」

At that moment, with a big yawn, Aishela appeared in her sleepwear. Her clothes were so disheveled that her bountiful breasts were about to spill out from beneath it, so Priscilla, the Priestess of the Order of the Crest hurriedly wanted to take her back to her room to fix her appearance, but when she didn’t let her, with an uneasy expression, she muttered words of prayer.

「It’s Waldrind. Lady Marine leads almost her entire army and crossed the border. 」

Siluca answered while adjusting Aishela’s clothes.

「Then that means he’s here too. Shall we take ambush them and take his head? 」

「Stop it! 」

Siluca says hastily. Aishela was of course talking about her adoptive father Aubest. Aishela had mixed feelings for her adoptive father since childhood.

「If you assassinate a contracted magician, the Magician Association will be onto you. 」

For the Magician Association, it would be a great loss if the members of the Magician Association killed each other. In the first place, the one who wants to fight is the monarch, and the magician is only contractually helping. Therefore, even if it turns out to be a battle, it is secretly instructed not to kill magicians as much as possible.

「I know. 」

Aishela said defiantly.

Although she never became a Mage, she works as an Agent for the Mages Association and she has some knowledge behind the scenes of the Association itself.

「In the first place, it’s impossible for me to decide that on my own. 」

For Marine, Aubest is now an aide in her entourage. It seems that he is always standing next to her, so naturally, the security around them is extremely strict at all times.

「It’s going to be a big battle… 」

Priscilla sighed sadly.

「Since Lady Marine of Waldrind and Lord Vilar of Artuk are cousins, isn’t it something that can be resolved through discussion? 」

「It would be nice if they could do that… 」

Siluca nodded, agreeing with Priscilla’s opinion.

The other day she attended a meeting of the Lords of the Fantasia Union, and Siluca was deeply disappointed. Besides, for Theo, his true enemy is not the Lords of the Factory Alliance, but Pederico Rossini, Viscount of Sistina, who belongs to the Fantasia Union. Pederico and Theo met at a conference and recognize each other as enemies. However, since they belong to the same faction, they cannot go to war with each other. On the other hand, the other side seems like it would have no qualms about using all sorts of dirty tricks and employing assassins.

Originally, Siluca thought that the Alliance would win if the Great War started, and she planned to have Theo join the Alliance. However, this plan didn’t work out, so they decided to join Vilar and Fantasia Union in order resolve the predicament they were in at that time.

There is no doubt that Villar is an excellent Lord, but his isolation from the rest of the Union, both geographically and politically, became clear at the last Lord’s Conference.

「If Lord Vilar and Lady Marine fought together, they would be able to unify the continent, but right now their cooperation is basically impossible. Lord Vilar’s father is an enemy who betrayed Jurgen and sent him to his death while making the daughter of Jurgen, the last generation of the Kraische family, his wife. Ever since then, Waldrind’s earnest wish is to destroy Artuk. Matthias Kraische has been on military expeditions to Artuk several times, but none of them succeeded. 」

「Do not get hung up on past grudges. I have heard that Marine Kraische is a wise woman… 」

「This is not the only reason for this invasion. If she can defeat Lord Volar, Lady Marine’s prestige will be restored, and the unity of the crumbling Factory Alliance will be strengthened again. And since she is leading an entire army this time, then she must be hell-bent on achieving that exact result. 」

After answering Priscilla, Siluca looked back at Theo.

「If that’s the case, we’ll have to prepare ourselves, too. What are the orders from Lord Vilar?」

「For the time being, we will impose military service on the residents of the Forest of Eternal Darkness. There are two hundred of them and they are all Artists, so they will be a strong addition to our forces. 」

Nearly 10,000 people live in various settlements in the Forest of Eternal Darkness. It is a magical place with a high concentration of Chaos and a land of extraterritoriality ruled by the Vampire King Dimitri, but Siluca ignored all pasts of its inhabitants and only imposed taxes and military service onto them. Artuk’s statutes had already been promulgated, but the residents seemed to have their own laws, so they said they should take precedence over them, since i is useless to impose the laws on those who do not seek the protection of the Lord. Knowing that they would not be controlled, the inhabitants of The Forest of Eternal Darkness recognized Theo as their Lord.

Even so, Theo toured the territory on a daily basis and interacted with the residents. Thanks to that good quality of his, even if Siluca did not use any strategy, the people were on his side before he knew it. She did not know if it’s something he was born with or if it’s a special skill he acquired while traveling around the world.
「Excuse me… 」

At that moment, a polite voice was heard, and his Chamberlain Irvin bowed and entered the room.

「I have prepared some tea. 」

Irvin had a tray with a silver pot and porcelain teacups. It was originally in this castle, and it seems to be quite valuable.

「We have also prepared lunch for you. 」

Twin werewolf girls Luna and Emma followed Irvin, each with a plate of food in their hands.

The two had been trained as maids by Irvin personally. However, they have not forgotten that once they go outdoors, they will train to become stronger as Werewolves. Both were told to be useful to Theo, so they were serious about it. The two of them now become Irvin’s hands and feet and were helping this busy Chamberlain in his daily chores.

「A meal? 」

With an arrogant voice, Balgary, the cat-fairy of Tir na Nog emerged from Siluca’s shadow, licking his tongue. Because of Aishela, whom he could not stand, was hanging around Siluca whenever she could, he usually was hiding in Siluca’s shadow most of the time.

It is a fairly large castle, but usually only these seven people and one animal lived there. Theo calmed down the Chaos in the Forest of Eternal Darkness and steadily increased his rank, but he was still short of becoming a Baron again.

The Forest of Eternal Darkness is a demonic realm, but it seemed to be stable because it was connected to the Vampire king Dimitri. That is why they managed to narrow down the targets to calm down to those that have mutated due to the high Chaos density.

To be honest, entrusting this territory to Theo and Siluca right now was not the best idea, because if the Vampire King ever decided to return, they would be easily either kicked out of the castle or straight up killed.

However, the reason Dimitri did not do so yet is probably because he believes that hiding is safer than revealing his whereabouts for now. The Vampire King joins a secret society called Pandora and is determined to bring back an age of Extreme Chaos, so it is very likely that someday he may become their enemy and stand in their way again, and everyone did not have any doubts about that, but Siluca had no intention of getting involved with him if she did not have to. All that mattered now is Theo’s dream.

(But the first thing that needs to be done is to win this battle.)

Siluca murmurs in her mind as she continued eating.

(If we can do that, then the Factory Alliance will definitely fall apart, and once the threat of the Factory Alliance will be no more, then the Fantasia Union is surely going to split as well. And then… )

Siluca’s eyes narrowed slightly.

(The day when Lord Theo will go back to Sistina will come that much sooner…)