278 Hypocrisy
“All right, all right.” The man tried to appease the moods of the half-wolf. “What do you want to know?”
The first thing Luke thought to ask was also his biggest doubt at the moment. “You are human, have a daughter and yet you fight alongside monsters? I don’t understand that.”
“You don’t understand why the Broteforge Empire is strong, influential and has many powerful warriors. The Melki Empire, although it had part of the continent, became weak over time, it became complacent. When an elder mage from Orkenby discovered how to manipulate the instincts of monsters, and control their wills and bodies, the Emperor believed it was time to proclaim our place on top of the world, preventing the true monsters of Broteforge from one day succeeding in ending the world.”
“Broteforge end the world? What are you talking about?” Luke couldn’t even comprehend if Wanney was serious or making fun of his face.
“You guys eat the cores of the monsters you kill, right? You trade them like bread, or rather, swords. With each core you ingest, you become more like the monsters you kill than the humans you were. It’s not hard to predict that one day this power will implode, and turn you into monsters as irrational as any other. When that day comes, you will sweep the face of the earth in destruction.”
Since the half-wolf was past the stage of questioning the origin of the Genes Abilities, he was not even tempted to believe Wanney’s claims.
“Anyway, the hypocrisy… You claim with complete certainty that one day we will end the world, but that is your goal, the goal of the demons.”
“Demons? What are you talking about?”
At that moment, Luke smiled wryly at how foolish the man was. “Demons are nefarious creatures that possess the bodies of people, like a snail enters a shell. From the moment of possession, you can hardly tell the difference between the original person and the demon. Also, when the receptacle is killed, that is, when the shell is broken, it just gets released into the world and searches for a new person to possess.”
Wanney denied with his head, swinging it sideways. “That’s a bogus bluff. Demons are just old, lying legends, a myth to keep children away from the vicinity of Dungeons.”
“Monsters walking on the surface were just legends in the old days, as was the power to control them. Do you really wish to cover your eyes so as not to see the truth?”
There was no reason for the man to believe Luke’s words, after all he didn’t even know him. However, the serious look on the half-wolf’s face and his confident posture made him question whether what Luke was saying was really true. The whole situation made him think about how devastated his nation had become after the monsters had started walking on Earth, and made him realize that maybe not everything the Emperor propagated was an absolute truth.
After swallowing the lump that was in his throat, Wanney asked, “What is your name?”
“Luke Lange.” The half-wolf answered smoothly. If the First Servant had put a bounty on his head, Luke could kill this man in front of him with no problem.
“Mr. Lange, I trust you.” Wanney lied.
The half-wolf heard the white-haired man’s heartbeat change for a second as he said it, indicating that he was lying, but did not question him about it. Luke would just watch out for Wanney’s actions as if he were still his enemy.
*
The next morning, Luke and Meredith entered into agreeing that the best possible resolution to the problem with the hostage was to keep him alive, yet at the same time use his knowledge.
Relying on information passed on by a stranger was certainly something risky and something the half-wolf would not want to do. Still, the information they had about the locations of some things in the Melki Empire was quite outdated, so keeping Wanney alive and by their side was the best choice.
Wanney just seemed grateful, and obviously didn’t fight the half-wolf’s decision, after all, he was also interested in what he could learn from these strange half-wolves.
It took them two whole days to go down the mountain ranges, because Luke would take Wanney on his lap to go down some of the riskier regions, since the mobility of the man with scaly skin was not very good.
At one point, Meredith was so curious about the fact that Wanney had scales on some parts of his body.
She looked at him closely as they walked beside a canyon, and asked:
“Wanney, you have scales. Are you a half-beast like us?” That was the only theory the half-beast could think of.
“Half-beast? No, no… I wish I could… Let’s just say those scales are the price you pay for learning some things, maybe even a punishment from the gods.” He replied with a thoughtful look.
“Pay attention on the way, if any of you fall, I won’t be jumping in to pick you up.” Luke stated, looking down into the canyon hundreds of feet deep beside them.
A day later, they finally reached the end of the ridges and came upon a flat field that went as far as the eye could not reach.
They looked at the ridges behind them and shivered at the thought of going up again. All three had the feeling that everything in the cold and the height was even worse than normal, and the one who had this feeling the most was Wanney, who had lost a human companion and also several Orc’s that were very difficult to tame. Now, all that didn’t matter anymore.
In front of the vision of that weird trio were miles of plain, which had an uncomfortable appearance. The trees were dry, the grass was dead and brittle, the soil was practically exhausted, and the sky was covered with gray clouds.
They thought they had just been through hell, but they weren’t sure if the mile-long mountain ranges that divided the continent were really the worst part.
As Luke had his ears tuned, he was the first to hear a sharp noise coming from above the clouds, and this sound he had never heard before. Immediately upon hearing this and realizing that it was indeed approaching, Luke shouted:
“Scatter!”
There wasn’t even time for Meredith and Wanney to react, because something in the same second landed in front of the trio.