Chapter 29

Translated by boilpoil Edited by boilpoil

Bright is currently taking care of the aftermath of the human-werewolf battle.

Wolfie’s left thigh has a big hole in it. Bright gives him a simple emergency bandaging for stopping the blood, then contributes his own upper body clothing for him to cover his underside for now.

Seeing how Wolfie’s attitude has improved slightly, and the atmosphere slightly more cordial, Bright asks, “why did you try to kill me?”

“The gall of you asking that! If it weren’t for you, my companion wouldn’t have died!” Wolfie angrily accuses Bright in protest, “after I was born, it was always him who cared for me. He even saved me a few times in the show… In the end, just because you liked old flabby JB, he had to die. He could have advanced in episode 3! Why?! You asshole! Why did he die and not you!”

“…” Bright finally understands the killing intention the Wolves have for him. There’s a lot he could say, like who truly made his companion lose his life is the show, or this twisted society. Yet looking at this youngster in front of him who’s complaining and crying at the same time, his ice-blue eyes no longer looks so cold as when he transformed. It is full of the pain and sorrow of losing a dearest one.

Such gentle, such overflowing emotions. It is something he has not seen from people in this world. There isn’t anything Bright can say.

The little werewolf needed his space to vent out his sadness. As one of the accomplices who forced him so, there’s nothing he can criticise him for.

After venting out, the other person’s voice lowers in volume. It seems the transformation has quite the toll on his body and mind. Though he does not let his wariness go away completely, and is doing his best to hold onto his consciousness, even pushing firmly into his wounds every so often.

As far as the current situation goes, their hatred is not unresolvable. Bright wants to try to lessen their disagreements. He has no interest whatsoever in fighting solo against a whole pack of werewolves.

He is lucky that the little werewolf in front of him appears to have been born only rather recently. His personality still a bit simple and reckless. He hasn’t been mentally ravaged by this world yet. He is still inexperienced in dealing with people and tackling enemies. It will be easier to influence and get information from him.

“We’ve destroyed the cameras but there’s still locating devices in our bracelets. I believe new ones will be flying here soon. And still, your pack isn’t here yet; there might have been an accident.” Bright is trying to deceive him a little.

“What?!” Wolfie gets nervous. He’s also noticed how this is unusual. The pack shouldn’t have taken such a long time, “I’ve left marks along the way. We planned to do it together after meeting up…”

So it was. The Alpha of the Wolves isn’t easy to deal with. Using the full might of his pack just for his own self, ensuring no possible accidents. Nor will there be much noise and it will be easy to protect the secret of the werewolves.

If Wolfie completely obeyed his orders he would have died without question. Bright is thankful for that, so he treats Wolfie in a friendly manner without much hostility.

Wolfie has instincts sharp as a beast, so as if knowing he is gloating, “don’t get complacent so early, nothing can happen to them. You should pray the cameras arrive quicker than my pack.”

They wait for a short while and sounds come out from the quiet forest, like wind blowing through leaves but also like beasts through the undergrowth. Wolfie shows an excited expression. It’s the footsteps he’s familiar with.

“You’re here!”

Compared to his joy meeting with his family, Bright has a serious look. He stands behind the wounded Wolfie in an alert posture.

It’s the whole pack of the Wolves that has arrived. The Alpha looks to be 30-odd years old, the best state for an adult male. He looks gargantuan at nearly 2.1 metres . It is clear how strong he will be once he transforms. His look does not have a single shred of human emotion to it, instead it looks full of danger. Even if Bright has experienced many slaughters he still feels cold when staring at him. He’s not like him who has basically started midway. He is born in battle, his purpose is to battle, and each of his nerves, each of his muscles appear to exist solely for battle.

“Wolfie, you disobeyed the order of Alpha.” A werewolf scolds first in what appears to be a strict manner. It’s a kind of protection so that Alpha won’t have to scold him too harshly. This is also a demonstration of the ruthless side of the team so that Bright would be pressured and give up on using Wolfie as a hostage.

Wolfie lowers his head in deference, acknowledging his mistake.

Bright forces himself to stare at Alpha, and asks the most critical question, “how do we resolve this?”

The Wolves had to conceal their werewolf identity, otherwise they wouldn’t have broken the cameras in the first place. Bright also happens to have a secret – he can’t let the show know his true strength, ever. Letting the show see him kill Beast has already alerted them.

Breaking cameras on purpose will be punished by the show. This is still trivial, however, compared to the large scale destruction resulted from the fight between Bright and the werewolf just now. It is clearly not caused by humans.

The Alpha has already had his subordinates investigate the scene, and understands there’s something odd about number 199. Their current plan has failed. As the leader, he works his brains calmly, thinking of a solution. Bright was originally a target for elimination, but now he is someone he had to work with.

“Someone wanted to give you a lesson.”

“Who?”

The Alpha does not answer, but gives him a glance as a warning instead, and speaks in a commanding tone, “don’t ask if you want to live; the show will not pursue this matter further.”

There’s too much information from what he just said, and Bright falls deep into thought.

Before Bright has figured it all out, the Alpha is already dealing with Wolfie.

“The pack does not need a member that does not obey,” the Alpha expels Wolfie with a single sentence, turning to Bright, “he’s now yours. Feel free to do to him what you want.”

Wolfie widens his ice-blue eyes, looking in utter disbelief at how easily his pack abandons him, handed right into the hands of their mortal enemy by his leader.

“Leader…” A wolf wants to object, but the Alpha forces him to concede with his cold, authoritative eyes. He can already hear the whirring in the air from the flying cameras, and raises his head to signal it. The Wolves stop talking.

Bright has also figured it out, then looks at the Alpha in the eye, managing to read what he wanted from his expression – take care of him.

Bright nods slightly.

Under the camera, Bright pulls Wolfie to his side in one fell swoop. His arms wrapped over his shoulders, in a possessive, protective manner. The latter wants to escape in reflex, but he is held firmly in place, and has to half-lean himself in the man’s embrace.

The Wolves left.

Wolfie, abandoned, looks down. Scared as if having nowhere to go. Though he is confused and at a complete loss, he still listens to the order of the Alpha and follows Bright, limping.

To take care of the wounded member, Bright does not hunt for points anymore. He find a place of rest and gathers some berries for eating. Wolfie is wounded and has just been through a traumatic experience, his mental state is affected. At night, he can’t last anymore and falls into sleep. Bright watches over him for the whole night.

Then episode 4 is now over in this strange manner.

Since he killed Beast, and acquired the points of Beast, he isn’t dead last right now, and is ranked 8th from last.

For Beauty, who has lost the protection of Beast, he has experienced some hardships. Though he managed to ally himself with a somewhat powerful group. It is rumoured he has connections now with multiple men and his points is in the top 10.

To Bright’s complete surprise, however, the show really did not come to ask him. They covered up the fact the camera has been destroyed and he has been pursued and almost killed.

Wolfie moves into Bright’s dormitory. He doesn’t have many personal belongings. Besides the clothes and resources given by the show, there’s only a dog tag in a metallic chain.

“You’ve been in the military?” Bright sees that there’s a special code on it.

“No, it’s someone else’s. It’s what he left for me… Other than me, everyone in the pack has been a Dog Soldier.” Wolfie answers.

Bright remembers that, and sees him occupy where originally his roommate had. That place faces the window and sunlight can shine on the bedsheets as well. It’s quite a nice location.

“What are you looking at,” Wolfie mutters, “humans are all bastards.”

“You’re special. Not like them.”

“Oh, it’s probably because I’ve never been in the military. I can’t accept that whole ‘execute your orders without question’ principle. Your wars, our sacrifices. Why is that? Just because you made us we had to be your dogs obediently? You’re all weaker and dumber than us… Hmph. We will be the new rulers of this world eventually! I might just be an animal but I’ve had enough of being bound by you all.”

It’s fine to be thinking of things like this, but you don’t have to say it out loud…

Bright looks at the youngster afflicted with eighth-grade syndrome , and feels he is tough to handle. From the information he obtained bit by bit these few days, Wolfie is born very recently, and his time in training has been short, maybe he’s even less than a year old. The military makes werewolves or, rather, ‘Dog Soldiers,’ and treat them as weapons. They wanted to save costs by compressing the weapon production cycle as much as they can. Currently, they are likely still in an experimental stage and mass production has not begun yet. So the werewolves’ age, height and personality all differ slightly.

“We’re all failures,” Wolfie says in a sarcastic tone, “our properties not stable enough, so we’re thrown into this colosseum by the military.”

Bright gives it a deep thought and then shakes his head, “I don’t think so. You’re all mature, successful creations.”

When Wolfie looks at him with doubt in his eyes, Bright asks, “have you ever thought about why, since the military does not make female werewolves, they still have to do the operation on you?”

Wolfie is saying with the look in his eyes, “is it not because you’re all deviants?”

“Everyone of you has been through that kind of operation, right?” Not caring about Wolfie’s distorted expression, Bright continues, “it is possible you and humans are not separated by species in terms of reproduction. You could impregnate human females to produce offsprings.”

“Then what?”

“Silly little wolf, have you heard of the phrase ‘ wolf's ambition ‘? Why would your pack be willing to obey the military? It’s not loyalty, of course. It’s because the most important aspect of developing and sustaining a pack is in man’s hands. If you take it back, you’ll get everything.”

Every word the man speaks is tempting him more and more. Wolfie’s heartbeat hastens hearing his words. His breathing quickens, and a hot brightness erupts from his ice-blue eyes, like a burning inferno.

“Including freedom.”

Author’s notes: Bright: * makes a rebel insurgence team *

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