Volume 2, Intermission: Ancient Hero
Name: Mido
Race: Werewolf
Level: 95
Class: Warrior
Possessed Skills: The Right Hand of Tyranny
Divine Protection: Wind God
Attributes: Wind
Carad was a demihuman born a slave. His father and his mother were both slave demihumans, though their brown fur was greatly praised within the Fang Tribe.
Carad was born a slave and grew up a slave, just like his mother and father who lived a life of slavery and eventually died a slave.
“Our ancestors once ran freely through the vast plains.”
He still remembered the gentle voice of his mother.
“So why are we here? In a place like this?”
Life as a slave was horrible. They were forced to live in small rooms and were even forbidden from going out. They couldn’t even eat their fill.
One day, when the elven children made him cry, he asked his mother that question.
“…Well, once upon a time, we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a war, then before we knew it, we ended up here.”
When Carad saw his mother’s lonely face, he couldn’t find it in him to ask any more.
But he knew that they were slaves without any rights, neither the right to live nor the right to die.
Eventually, his parents died, and some decades later, he suddenly found himself a part of a slave platoon headed to Sinfall.
“Yo, brother,” a voice called out to him.
“You again,” Carad said.
In front of Carad was a Fang Tribe youngster from another village.
“Don’t be so cold,” the youngster said.
“I don’t have any business with you,” Carad said.
“But I do. Brother, won’t you come with us? We’ll happily receive you.”
This man has been pestering him since yesterday, asking him to come to their village.
There they could hunt as they please, fight as they please, and raise a family as they pleased.
“…Retreat is death. Every slave knows that,” Carad said.
His nearby comrades who were like him all had resigned eyes. Slaves were usually killed whenever they ran to set an example.
“I don’t know what happened to you in the past, but this is an opportunity. In order to be like our ancestors we’re going to —Hey! Where are you going?”
“Sorry, but I want to work on my weapon. I want to increase my odds of surviving even a little.”
“Not like you can call your current life ‘living’.”
Carat angrily turned back to the young man. “Even so, I don’t want to die. That’s why we…”
The man frowned. “There’s still tomorrow. I hope you can give me a good answer then.”
“I’m telling you, I—”
“I’ll wait for you, brother.”
The youngster turned around and walked away. On his back could be seen countless wounds, some still fresh.
“He’s a slave too, isn’t he? Why is he so persistent?” Carat muttered.
When he came back to his comrades, he started working on his rusted iron equipment. The leather armor they had were desperately made by the women even though they might never come home. Their armor was far inferior compared to the blue-silver steel the elves wore.
Every day was just another struggle with death.
Despite that he wanted to meet his wife. Though few, he wanted to protect the people he loved. That was the one thing that kept Carad ‘alive’, and he didn’t have the courage to severe it.
“Hey, that guy just now…” A demihuman said.
Aside from doing maintenance on their equipment there wasn’t much to do. The whole Symphoria army had become relaxed since they conquered Sinfall, but the werewolves held their breath and waited in the sidelines for the next battle as they always did.
“He went back,” Carad said, though he seemed to be brooding.
“What? Did something happen?” The demihuman asked.
“I was just wondering… What is it like to be free?” Carad said.
—Freedom.
Carad tried not to think about it, but when there was nothing to do, he couldn’t help but think of it.
“You’ll be able to eat as much meat as you want, I guess?” A demihuman replied.
“Stupid, you think you can hunt with your skills?” Carad bantered.
They talked idly among themselves, but in the end, someone sighed and said, “It probably feels like the hero, Harid, did.”
The hero, Harid.
That was the name of the hero werewolf who stood against the humans when they were being chased through the plains. Carad always enjoyed hearing bedtime stories of his tales from his mother.
He dreamt of becoming like him one day.
He never stopped dreaming even when he was bullied by the elven children, but somewhere someway, he started thinking it was impossible for him to become that hero.
“The hero, Harid, huh?”
Since when did he…
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The next day, that man came again. His proposition hadn’t changed, but Carad suddenly thought of asking him something.
“Hey, do you know the story of the hero, Harid?” Carad asked.
“Hah? Well, yeah, I’m pretty sure,” the youngster demihuman replied.
As the story goes…
The Fang Tribe was living peacefully in the plains, but then the humans suddenly attacked.
Merchants they once traded with.
Hunters who helped them before.
Villages they’d never seen before.
All sorts of humans suddenly pointed their blades at them and hunted their kind. The werewolves had their hands full just running away.
In the end, they were driven to a corner, but just when they thought it was over, a hero appeared.
A young man by the name of Harid, who ran through the woods with his giant gray wolf friends.
With the strength to tear through even armor of iron and a fur impervious even to fire, Harid led his tribe and fought against the humans for the sake of his brethren.
But Harid wasn’t just brawns, he was smart too.
He had friends among the humans and knew their strength. He knew full well that if he fought them he would surely die.
Yet despite knowing that he fought against them.
After seven days and seven nights of fighting, Harid managed to drive the humans to the other side of the plains. He had successfully brought peace to the Fang Tribe, but the fierce battle left him critically wounded. In his last moments, he told his brethren to run to the forest, then he passed on to paradise.
There he lies, recovering from his wounds, and one day, when his brethren are in danger, he will rise from his sleep and save them.
After that the Fang Tribe ran to the forest and sought refuge from the elves.
“He sacrificed himself to save others. In the end, he was named a hero, to be praised for all time,” Carat said to the youngster demihuman after telling Harid’s story. “What do you think Harid would think if he saw us today?”
“…I’m sure not even he would believe that the elves could become so rotten.”
Carad’s eyes opened wide when he heard the demihuman’s response. “Became rotten? But they were always like this.”
The demihuman shook his head. “Where we live, they mostly leave us alone except for a visit once every few years.”
“No way…”
Carad couldn’t believe his ears. If this demihuman’s words were to be believed, the elves weren’t particularly bad, it was just the Jirad.
Carad drooped his ears, while the man before him narrowed his eyes. An odd seemingly apologetic atmosphere appeared between them.
What’s going on? Carad wondered.
The demihuman didn’t speak. He just quietly stood there.
“…Why did Harid fight, I wonder. Even though he knew he could die… Didn’t he fear death?”
When Carad finally spoke, those were the words that came out.
“Who knows?” The demihuman said. “He was a chieftain, so he must’ve had a strong sense of duty. That’s probably it.”
Then as if he was talking about an old friend, Carad said, “It was as if—”
But then a voice yelled.
“Hey, what are you doing!?” An elf yelled, cutting their conversation short.
“Not good, I have to go!” Carad said.
But when he tried to go back, the youngster demihuman with him pulled his arm.
“Brother, come here this evening. Let’s continue this talk.”
“Now’s not the time for—”
“Come! You must definitely come!”
Then the man turned, and he vanished like the wind.
◆◆◇
Tonight would be the fifth night since they’ve occupied Sinfall.
Strong winds blew from the south to the north, making a groaning sound that shook one’s ears.
During the night the slaves were chained and gathered in one spot. Carad’s eyes darted to and fro, but he couldn’t search for the man he met this afternoon.
The elves had been partying again, but now, it was so quiet only the winds made noise.
Carad’s ears stood as he focused his hearing.
For some reason, he felt uneasy.
He kept thinking back to that man’s expression.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t move. If he were to move even a little, the chains attached to his neck would rustle.
From the start, he knew he wouldn’t be able to meet him.
Carad closed his eyes and forced himself to sleep. It would be foolish to tire himself before the war began.
When sleep took him, he saw the hero, Harid.
Of course, he’d never actually seen the man before, but he had come up with his own image within his mind.
When he saw his face, he suddenly found himself unhappy.
“Why?”
In his dream, he struggled to speak, but when he finally managed to, what came out was a question.
“Why are we in a place like this?”
The hero fought the humans. That’s praiseworthy. But in the end, his decision led to them being enslaved. He couldn’t even use his life the way he wished.
—“Not like you can call your current life ‘living’.”
Whose words were those?
Right. It’s not your fault that we’re here.
But still… Why are you sleeping so peacefully?
If you’re a hero, then save us!
“—, *HUFF.”
Suddenly, Carad opened his eyes.
A bad dream, Carad thought.
A grim reminder for a dream; of course, it was bad.
It was cold. Apparently, his back had drawn cold sweat.
Then a voice called out to him.
“So this is where you were,” it said.
Still half asleep, Carad mistook the figure before him for the hero in his dreams, and the words it spoke were like a saving hand to him from the sorrow he felt in his dream.
Carad blinked his eyes a few times then looked up that figure.
—Alone, dressed in armor, and covered in blood… the hero stands before me.
“Ha…rid?”
After blinking a few times, it finally dawned on him that this was the man that spoke to him this afternoon.
“Oh… It’s you.”
Carad tried to talk as he usually did.
He thought he was hallucinating, but the smell of blood was real.
That ferociously exhaling breath coupled with that sharp gaze that reminded one he was a warrior.
“Are you hurt?” Carad asked as he stood up, causing the chains to rustle.
At that, the sleeping brethren around them began to wake.
“I came to pick you up, brother.”
His low-pitched voice resounded with the wind, making it hard to hear.
Carad saw a light from behind the demihuman. Was that a torch?
The other demihumans quietly watched Carad and this demihuman’s exchange as they woke.
Carad blinked his eyes again as the demihuman folded his arms and spoke in a loud voice. “The hero, Harid, fought the humans until the end of his life! After he fought for seven days and seven nights, he spent every last breath in his children’s arms guiding our kind!”
Carad, who had long stopped thinking, saw the figure of that great hero flash through his mind. The other members of the Fang Tribe
were the same. As he and his brethren started to get noisy, the man before them spoke again.
“The hero, Harid, said he couldn’t peacefully pass unless our tribe fulfilled one wish. He said that if our brothers were to fall later, it would be our responsibility!”
At the man’s words, emotions rose within Carad’s chest. Fearless Fang Tribe members carrying torches gathered around from behind the demihuman.
“Save them, he said! Only then would he able to pass peacefully. Save them! He demanded, tears of blood streaming down his eyes as he desperately tried to reach out with his hands and ground his teeth! Then he died!”
Save them! Save me! How long had Carad said those words?
Whether it was in their hearts, or on the brink of death, or in their daily lives… The demihumans of Jirad never stopped saying those words.
“Descendant of the ferocious crystal, a member of the Fang Tribe (Werewolf), I am the Tyrant, Mido!”
As the light from the torches touched the werewolves, their spirits rose.
In the dark of the night, those plains Carad once dreamt of appeared, and the man before him -No, the hero, Harid, howled out these words: “I’ve come to save you, brothers!”
Mido howled as his emotions flowed out of him.
“Brethren of the south, forgive our delay! But tonight! We shall at long last restore your glory. The hero, Harid’s, dying wish shall today be fulfilled!”
There wasn’t a werewolf who did not shed a tear at those words. “Break free from your chains and stand, brethren!!”
The hero had at long last come to save them. “With these hands, let us take back our freedom!”
That night, the 200 slave demihumans of the elves switched sides to the Forni-Goblin Coalition.
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level has risen.
Gi Do’s level has risen. 81 to 89
Gi Za Zakuend’s level has risen. 56 to 61
Gi Ji Arsil’s level has risen. 14 to 21
Gi Ba’s level has risen. 24 to 53
Gi Jii Yubu’s level has risen. 1 to 5
Gi Ah’s level has risen. 1 to 10
Gi Ii’s level has risen. 1 to 6
Gi Uu’s level has risen. 1 to 13
Hal’s level has risen. 86 to 95.
Mido’s level has risen. 95 to 97
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