CH 78

Borka said that it was already too late, but Professor thought otherwise.

‘He’s acting too meek for someone who’s completely given up. At first, he didn’t even transform before I got a hit, and it was clear he was planning to escape after knocking me out. It’s definitely an action that was keeping the church people in mind.’

Just because he wanted to live? Then he would have lashed out when the paladins got their hands on him. Because according to the rumors, you’re dead the moment they get their hands on you. But seeing that he was alive and well inside the church’s outbuilding meant that he was captured without any resistance. What would a werewolf that came out to the city to find their family think when they saw the church people capture werewolves?

“You wanted to check the church’s underground prisons, didn’t you? Since you were captured like this, you wanted to know if the church took your family that was brought to this place. But to think that you risked your life to get into the church… you must have been in a rush. Or—”

“Three years. It’s been three years. Three years since I left my home and came to this city full of hate!”

Borka cut off Professor and spit out words embedded with dark, bubbling fury.

“I believed they were kind merchants. They were merchants with kind smiles who gave crafted glassworks to the women of our village and snacks to the children!”

Psh-k!

Even as he spoke, Borka did not stop attacking. The claws he barely managed to dodge were sharp enough to cut clean marks into the hard granite walls.

“It was all a misunderstanding. There are some kind humans too! We believed so! So we welcomed them! And invited them to stay in the village, unaware that the feast they provided as thanks was poisoned!”

Shhhk!

“Tch! Why are you so damn fast? So, you mean they killed your people and kidnapped the children, right?”

“You have no idea! ‘That’ was not something that could be described with such a simple word as death!”

Bam!

The attacks were becoming increasingly faster. With a thick pillar in the room standing between them, he used a slight drop in speed when Borka hit the pillar to grab his arm and throw. The resistance he felt from Borka’s arm prevented him from pinning him down like before. His fur, which had been gray, was now a glossy silver that was emitting a clearly dangerous glow.

‘Is this mana, no, aura? This guy, he’s completely different now that he transformed.’

Borka, flying through the air like a cannon, twisted his body and landed on his feet as light as a feather, then crouched down on all four limbs like a real wolf and kicked back on the wall, and shot towards Professor. An attack like a wolf rushing toward its prey, but its power was dozens of times stronger and quicker. He could instinctively feel it. If he tried to grab that, then both of his arms would not be attached to his body anymore.

Letting out a sigh, Professor concentrated all of his power into his right arm.

“Dammit. People are watching, so I wanted to win in a cooler way.”

[I don’t think he’s at a level where you can be picky. He’s getting even stronger as time passes. You might lose at this rate. Just beat him up already.]

“You don’t think I want to do that? But there isn’t any mute blood here… Huuuuup!”

Crkrkkkg—!

He wound up his right arm, which had easily become three times larger in that instant, and Borka, who had flown towards him like a bullet, had closed in swiftly and aimed for Professor’s throat.

“Human! I hate your kind!!!”

“F*** it! Don’t die from this, Borka!”

Shwooooo!

Just before the silver-haired werewolf sank his teeth into Professor’s nape, his right arm, which had been loaded like a massive gun, swung forward, and the sound similar to a leather sack exploding rang out into the air.

Bammm!

A split second of silence.

Then…

Bannnnnnnnngggg!!!!!

Borka had taken a direct hit from the right hook Professor sent his way and flew straight through the building’s stone wall.

Boooom!

Boom!

Rumblee—

Rumble—

Listening to the continuous sounds of something breaking out afar, Professor scratched his head with his left hand instead of his mangled right hand.

“Welp. He’s probably dead.”

[Foul. You should have hit him upwards.]

“I hit him to the side on purpose, you idiot. He would have gone out of church property if I hit a home run.”

Professor squinted and peered at the side of the church building that had been completely blown away.

“Wait, is he alive? I see something moving over there in the distance…”

- Numb3rtree : That’s rigor mortis, my guy.

- Speedwagon : Even freshly butchered beef squirms around when you cut into it.

- Soygaybar : Don’t die! *hits with full power*

- Jokasss : Did you see his eyes when he punched that guy? That must be the ‘killer’s eyes’ they talk about in books.

- takealook : dig out the opponent’s entire backstory, then beat them to death. Is this some sort of enlightenment ceremony? I mean, if this is your way of respecting them as a soldier of the church…

“No, I really didn’t want to kill him. It’s a waste to kill him when he’s strong enough to fight on par with me. It’s just… I’m a lot stronger than I expected. I didn’t use to be this strong.”

[Our body is still developing. If you hadn’t had this scuffle with Borka, you would’ve needed to work out until all of the muscles in your body tore apart. There is a definite risk, but the reward is that much better. More importantly, it looks like you broke into a few nearby church buildings. Did anyone get caught in the attack?]

“….They should be fine. All of the church people probably left for morning prayer already since times are grave right now. They’ll be fine… Probably?”

And so, Professor headed towards the crumbling walls to find Borka while massaging a nonexistent shoulder with his left hand.

S-s-s-shiver!

“H-He’s a monster… The church sold us to a monster…”

And looking at Professor, who was walking away while laughing and talking to himself with one arm completely blown away, the rest of the death squad members shivered in fear at the unbelievable sight.

Chck! Chck!

“Halt! Identify yourself! This place is currently under the control of the Light’s Holy Paladin….”

“Aw s***. Well, I guess you paladins would be fired if you didn’t come after that ruckus.”

Following the path of destruction that trailed from the large hole in the death squad’s base, Professor was finally able to find Borka. Several Paladins surrounded his body, which was emitting a hostile aura from them and was stuck in the wall in the position he had flown through the walls in.

[Ooo, he isn’t dead.]

“Yeah, and it looks like he’s still conscious too.”

Sliiip— Thump!

Just then, Borka’s transformation deactivated, and his shrunken body fell out of the dent in the wall.

Professor pushed through the paladins blocking him and skillfully caught Borka with one arm.

“Hup!”

Clang!

“Stop right there! That beast has caused a commotion inside the holy grounds of the church and must be punished—”

Whooosh—!

The paladin was not able to finish his sentence. That was because the necklace that Professor took out of his shirt brightened their dark faces with holy light.

“I’m the church’s warrior.”

“W-Wait, what is the church’s relic…why, that…”

“I was in the middle of training because of a small dispute within the death squad. Is there a problem with that?”

The paladin looked like he had many things to say but eventually closed his mouth because of the glowing relic swinging back and forth in front of his eyes.

“…This is the home of Ro Haram’s servants. I ask you to… refrain a little. If you need help training those heretics, please let us know. We know many effective methods.”

“Alright. Good work.”

Professor casually ignored the paladin’s requests and turned to leave with Borka slung over his shoulder, the paladins’ efforts becoming futile.

Search tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w for the original.

Thump, thump, thump, thump

“…Cough! Urghhhh…”

“Wow. You really were awake. I think you might be even stronger than me.”

They were walking back towards the death squad base when Borka groaned with a shiver and opened his mouth.

“…Kill me.”

“I don’t want to. You’re going to come with me to kill the Queen. You have to survive.”

“Twu!”

Borka groaned one more time at Professor’s reply, then spit the blood in his mouth at Professor’s face.

“Do not get…full of yourself. You may have control over my body, but my soul…”

“Tch, you’re stubborn, dumb, and dirty. Minus one point.”

Professor’s comment made Borka lash out in response.

“Grrrr—you bastard, if you’re thinking of insulting me…!”

“Hey, it’s a fact, not an insult. You didn’t find any of the kids for the last three years, right? Seeing that you’re still looking for them, you probably didn’t even find their corpses. So didn’t you get captured by the church in hopes that you could find them here?”

He became more certain after trading blows. Just normal paladins that work outside of the church cannot beat Borka at full strength. If he was captured, then he was captured on purpose, well aware that he was going to die with his last hopes of finding them.

Borka’s silence confirmed his assumptions.

“It’s clear as day. A werewolf outside the forest, and Rodrick, where anything other than humans is treated as a mindless beast. You have probably whittled away from the disgusting treatment for the three years you were here. Hope is consumable, so you use it all at some point.”

Three years in a cold, discriminatory city without any trace of the children. It is more than enough time for hope to disappear without a trace and for despair to fill its space.

“You idiot. Those guys deal with long-distance trafficking, from Rodrick all the way to the Great Forest. You think you can track them with normal methods?”

“Then what… was I supposed to do? I used every single method I knew to track them. If I wasn’t able to find them doing that, was I just supposed to return to the forest?”

“Every method you ‘know’…. that’s what’s wrong with you.”

Thump, thump.

Just the sound of footsteps passed between the two of them for a moment.

Professor turned his head and looked up at the sky for a moment. Unlike the empty and dark night skies of the Wastelands, this sky was powdered with small sparkling jewels. A view that made a person emotional. That must have been why more unnecessary words left his mouth.

“If you knew just a little bit more about the human world, then you might have had a chance to find them in those three years. In some cases, ignorance can be a crime.”

“Nonsense. Light words like—”

“That’s how I lost my mom.”

Thump, thump, thump.

After walking far enough that the death squad base was now in sight, Professor opened his mouth and broke the heavy silence.

“I’ve talked with the bishop here today. I thought I was sneaking around pretty well, but the Light’s Order knew everything and everywhere that I had been.”

“…..”

“They said they have an information network using the church’s believers. It’s not just in Rodrick but wherever Ro Haram believers exist, which is basically the entire world. If you aren’t treated as a beast like right now but become a hero by achieving as part of the church’s death squad…don’t you think you’ll be able to find information about the merchants that brought a bunch of hybrids from the Great Forest through that information network? They might even already have that information.”

Thump, thump, clomp.

After entering the building through the hole in the wall, Professor spoke to Borka as he put him down in a corner.

“Think it over. Hybrids don’t die easily, thanks to their darn strong health. If you don’t give up, there’s still hope.”

Professor left Borka, who had become quiet at some point, and approached his other companions, who were frozen in their seats at the table from fear.

“Now, there was a little commotion, but I think our buddy’s question was answered. Does anyone else have questions?”

Obviously, nobody was able to do so after looking at Borka, who was leaning against a wall in the corner with his face puffed up like a pastry.

‘Hm, nice! The atmosphere is very nice right now!’

[Vessel, do you really think this is a nice atmosphere? Everyone looks like they are going to pee their pants when you look at them.]

‘Yeah, it’s all fine! Leaders are supposed to be scary to an extent.’

Professor was talking about not just ensuing fear among the people right now.

‘It wasn’t intentional, but I did show them my abilities with this.’

It’s the same with any group, but the people want a strong leader. If a person is going to order them around, the one making the orders at least needs to be better than them. Why, there’s a famous quote about that too. Something along the lines of, ‘I won’t listen to the orders of someone weaker than me!’

‘This should have appealed to them that I’m worthy enough to command them, at least in combat.’

Although everyone flinches and looks away when Professor stares at them, that appeal is a little too much.

‘Well, that can be straightened out later on.’

Well, now that Borka had been dealt with, it was time to persuade the rest of the people.

Thankfully, it wasn’t that difficult to persuade the mages.

“Mr. Ottoman, sir?”

“Eeeeep! W-we will follow you! Of course we will!”

“Uh, thank you, but can you listen to…”

“Ahhhhh! We’ll listen! No matter what! We’ll listen, so please spare…!”

“My goodness! I told you to listen!”

It took more time to calm them down than to persuade them.

“….And so, the Reedflow Academy was already shot down by the Light’s Order, so even if you manage to leave this place, it’s going to be hard to do anything. Not to mention there’s no money to build a new mage tower. Since the church has an even bigger influence on the outskirts, if the priest of that area says even one bad thing about you all, then you’ll be kicked out by a swarm of angry villagers. At most, you’re going to get a job at an alchemy guild and live the rest of your life making purified water, but that’s a disgrace as a mage, don’t you think? Then the esoterics of water is going to be impossible to learn.”

“Mmm… that’s true.”

“So that’s why we must properly complete this mission and prove that the people from the Reedflow Academy aren’t heretics.”

“I see. You… you’re smarter than I thought. Unlike your actions…”

“Pardon?”

“N-nothing! It’s nothing!”

With this, the water mages are on board too.

“Mr. Dark Mage, you already know, right?”

“…I’ll just be executed if I don’t participate.”

“That’s true, but what’s more important is that you can show the church that the dark mages can fight against the mutes under the church’s order. The Light’s Order people unconditionally hate any dark mages. Still, if you show them that there are dark mages that take a different path, then not only you but other dark mages in a similar situation can be helped out of this unfair treatment. So…”

“You can stop it there. I know better than you what state we’re in. My weakness is already in the hands of the church anyway. They took my soul jar.”

“Oh…. you’re that side.”

Since the dark mages were one of the main enemies in World 4, there was a decent amount of information on Community about dark magic. It’s different by the dark magic field, but for any dark mage that has a really large, important-looking necklace, that was their weakness. They said that they die when that breaks, and the soul jar this dark mage was talking about was probably the same thing.

“Then, I assume that means you will try your best on this mission?”

“I don’t really have a choice. But why are you suddenly using formalities again? It’s weird.”

“I’ll only use them when I need to.”

Orders need to be short and concise, which means he will drop formalities, but it was just uncomfortable doing that to elderly people like Ottoman or the dark mage. That mannerism is causing an uproar inside of me.

Anyway, it is confirmed that the dark mage will now actively participate in the mission.

Finally, he successfully achieved his first goal of gathering all these unique individuals to have an identical goal of [clearing the church’s mission].

Clap clap clap!

After clapping again to gain everyone’s attention, Professor looked around at the people with a gleeful smile on his face.

“Now then! Everyone is now a true comrade. Right? I would like a glass for the celebration, but it’s already late, and we’ll be busy starting tomorrow, so let’s sleep for today. See you tomorrow, everyone!

After saying that, Professor quickly walked to the farthest corner and laid down with bedding provided by the church. It felt like everyone would not be able to sleep if he didn’t forcefully organize the situation like this.

But with the fact that they were now standing at the starting line, Professor fell asleep with a decent sense of accomplishment.

“Ugh, ughhhh…”

“Shhh! Be quiet! The monster’s going to wake up!”

Unfortunately, unlike Professor’s efforts, the mages had a sleepless night thanks to his right hand outside the blanket that was slowly growing back.