Chapter 64: Chapter 64: Ni*ga
Chapter 64: Ni*ga
Pebbles looked at the wolf for a moment longer before shifting his gaze slightly toward Azeth, who was still standing nearby with a faint frown on his face.
"Azeth," Pebbles asked calmly, "you know this one?"
Azeth didn’t answer immediately. His eyes remained fixed on the wolf, and for a brief second, something like irritation flickered across his face before settling into something more neutral.
"...Yes master," he said after a pause.
He crossed his arms, glancing down at the injured wolf as if it was nothing more than a nuisance that had shown up uninvited.
"This bastard caused trouble before," he added. Although his tone was casual, it still carried a faint edge.
Pebbles didn’t interrupt him and simply waited.
"He came with few wolves..."
Azeth recalled the situation that had occurred previously.
"Back when I had just come to the village, this guy came all of a sudden. Thought they could stir things up and pick off a few goblins while no one strong was around."
A few goblins nearby, who had overheard bits and pieces of this story before, shifted slightly as they listened.
"And then they picked a fight with me. They attacked while trying to kill me..."
There was no pride in his voice. Just a statement.
"So I simply killed all of them. Only this guy was a trouble because even after I pierced his heart, he was still alive."
Pebbles’ eyes widened at this info.
"Really!?"
Azeth nodded his head, "Yes master. This guy is apparently a Death Wolf. A Night Wolf who came after this said about it. He said that Death attribute monsters can only be killed by other death attributes."
"Interesting..." Pebblea tapped woth his index of right on his mask as he digested the information.
"After saying all that, the Night wolf pleaded for this guy to be released..."
His eyes dropped to the wolf again.
"And since I couldn’t kill him either, and my primary mission was not linked to him, I thought it would be wise to not stir up more trouble and let him go."
Pebbles nodded again as he added, "You thought good."
Azeth smiled at this compliment.
As for Pebbles...
...he stayed quiet for a second, letting all the stuff he heard sink in.
He hadn’t known this. Back then, he had arrived later, and no one had really bothered explaining every small conflict that had already passed.
His gaze returned to the wolf, studying it a little more carefully this time.
"...Interesting," he muttered under his breath once more.
Then, without wasting time, he turned slightly toward the shaman.
"Heal him."
There was a small pause. Even Azeth raised a brow at that, but he didn’t question it out loud.
The shaman nodded and stepped forward, her hands already lifting the staff as a faint glow began to gather around the crystal.
The wolf’s body was covered in wounds, some shallow and some deep enough to expose torn flesh that had barely begun to close.
She got to work without saying anything.
Of course, in between, Azeth carried the wolf all the way inside a hut.
Time passed slowly as the soft glow moved across the wolf’s body, sealing cuts, easing the damage, and stabilizing its breathing. It wasn’t instant, and it wasn’t perfect, but it was enough to bring it back from the edge it had been teetering on.
After a while, the wolf’s breathing steadied, and its body relaxed slightly.
Then its eyes opened.
For a brief second, there was confusion in them.
Then instinct kicked in.
"Awoooo-"
The howl had barely begun when...
Smack!
Azeth’s hand came down sharply across its face, stopping the sound midway.
"Shut up you bastard, are you going to wake the elite community? It’s night time!!!"
The wolf froze as its head snapped slightly to the side from the impact. Its paw slowly rose and touched the spot where it had been hit, as if trying to process what had just happened.
A low growl began to form in its throat and its muscles tensed as instinct pushed it toward retaliation.
Azeth leaned forward slightly. His eyes narrowed.
"What?"
"You want to try again?"
For a moment, the wolf’s body remained tense, caught between instinct and something else.
Then all of a sudden it calmed down, as if remembering something.
Its eyes flickered, and the tension slowly drained from its body. The growl faded, and it lowered its head, choosing silence instead.
Azeth snorted softly, puffing his chest just a little as if he had expected that outcome.
"Hah."
Not far from them, Pebbles sat on the stone platform near a window while the green lizard knelt beside him.
All this while, the green lizard was pressing and massaging Pebbles’ legs and easing the strain from earlier movements. Pebbles didn’t react much. His gaze was just calm.
Then the wolf turned.
Its eyes landed on him.
Behind Pebbles, the window allowed the moonlight to fall into the space, casting a pale glow across his figure.
The mask had already made him mysterious but his calm demeanour and how someone like the green lizard, who had a powerful aura around him, acted like a servant, made him look even greater.
There was a sense of presence.
But also something slightly off.
The wolf stared a little longer than it should have.
Then it turned its head toward Azeth.
"...Is he your master?" it asked.
Azeth wanted to slap once more, but he decided to answer anyway.
"Yeah, Bongo. He is. What about it?
That was all the confirmation it needed.
The wolf didn’t reply Azeth via words. In fact... it did so with its actions!
The next moment, the wolf moved.
Fast enough to surprise, even in its injured state which had healed only a little after the Shaman’s hour long effort!
Azeth reacted instantly. He shot his hand forward in an attenpt to stop the wolf. He wanted to grab his tail and slam him to the ground. But he missed by a small margin.
At the same time, the green lizard stepped forward, ready to slam the wolf into the ground with a big stomp.
But he stopped midway.
Because the wolf had already dropped.
Flat against the ground, its body fully lowered and its head bowed completely.
The wolf had prostrated itself outrightly.
The sudden shift caused a brief silence in the room.
Then the wolf let out a small, strained sound.
"Lord dragon..."
Its voice trembled.
One reason was because it had been weak, but there was another reason.
It was helplessness.
"This lowly one requests your majesty to help us."
There were only a few present in the room.
Including Pebbles, there were five.
Erst, Azeth, The green lizard, and finally Nightstone were four others in the room.
The shaman had left a while back after the Wolf’s condition had stabilized.
She seriously needed rest.
Pebbles was thinking about her when the wolf made the request.
Pebbles didn’t respond immediately. His gaze rested on the wolf, but his thoughts were elsewhere.
There were too many things already in motion, too many tasks waiting to be handled. The swamp, the villages, the dwarves, the ores... everything demanded time.
Helping someone else right now did not fit into any of it.
There was a possibility he could delay a few things, but there was just too much in his mind.
He was about to speak.
But before he could, Nightstone’s voice cut in.
"What help?"
Everyone’s attention shifted toward her.
She had already stepped forward slightly, and without anyone noticing when, she had taken out her goggles and placed them over her eyes.
Her tone carried a strange kind of seriousness.
"Explain in detail," she bobbed her head front and back "Five marks."
Pebbles closed his mouth again.
For a second, he simply looked at her.
Then he exhaled quietly.
’...here we go again. Looks like I have to help this ni*ga too...’
"..."
’I can’t call him that right? I’m black after all...’
"..."
