Chapter 06 - This Old Man Goes up Against The Wolf King
Chapter 06 – This Old Man Goes up Against The Wolf King
Translator: Ranzan
Late night. The distant howling of the wolves continued and grew.
You could tell that the group of wolves was getting closer.
Since they were going to come this close, might as well kick their asses, I thought.
If they told me they were going hunting in the mountain tomorrow, it would suck. If they did, I’d have to walk a long way just to fight this pack of wolves.
I could hear them howling again, and this time, even closer.
If the wolves ate a village cow or something, or hurt a villager, that would be horrible.
I would be seen as useless on my first day of employment. I didn’t want that to happen.
「Time to go.」
I crept out of my little bungalow and towards the howls of the wolves.
After walking a while, I saw a conspicuously large wolf walk out towards me.
The wolf was the size of a horse. However, I could see the outlines of its bones and could tell it was starving.
The most terrifying type of wolf.
「That’s a big one.」
I’m a veteran. I’ve killed countless amounts of magic beasts.
But I’ve never seen a wolf this big.
A wolf, and a magical beast. Not just any beast.
Magical beasts have magic imbued in them, that strengthen their body’s abilities.
Some of the older magical beasts can even use the magic.
When the giant wolf saw me, it let out a fearsome howl.
A terrifying howl that echoed in my gut. The howl of a beast filled with magic. One type of magic.
A magic that could paralyze a regular adventurer in fear.
Almost as if prompted by the howl, another wolf jumped at me from my flank.
「Whoa!」
I quickly grabbed the beast and tossed it.
As I did, another wolf came at me from the other side. I kicked it away.
I quickly grabbed the wolf I kicked and tossed it at the wolf behind me.
「Kweeen!」
The two wolves collided and rolled.
I defended myself from the group of wolves while analyzing the pack around me.
It seemed that the group consisted of 20 wolves. They all seemed to be magical beasts, but only the biggest one, the boss, could use magic.
I used magic to drop a huge ball of air onto the ground to blow back a ring of space between me and my attackers.
The huge wolf howled again.
As I made space between me and the wolves, I chose my next magical attack.
A fire conflagration. Or lightning.
Water’s a little hard unless you have a lake or river nearby.
「Or maybe this…」
A magical wall. It’s simple, but it’s a convenient magic that serves as either offense or defense.
I accelerated the wall at my enemy.
And though I thought it was invisible, the great wolf dodged it right before it hit.
「Whoa! Good dodge!」
I said in admiration, without thinking. Even some old hands in magic and war wouldn’t have dodged that wall.
This was starting to get interesting.
I started thinking about using all my force to end this fight in an instant.
Because of the magic wall, there were several large logs and branches that had fallen onto the ground after the wall cut through them.
I used magic to toss these logs and some exposed rocks at the great wolf.
The great beast carefully dodged this. As it did, it gathered its strength and flew at me in attack.
I covered my right arm in magical defense, and grabbed its fang.
As the same time, using my left hand I shot magical missiles at the beast.
「Gyaaww!」
The beast cried out and rolled away.
I then spoke to the beast.
「It’s easy for me to kill all of you. But since I won’t allow you to threaten Mulg Village, I’ll let this one time slide.」
A magical beast. A magical beast that can use magic. If that’s the case, it can also understand human language.
「Grrrrrr.」
The great wolf responded with a threatening growl.
「I am a wizard. You also can use magic, but you know that none of the other smaller wolves can, right? If I had came at you all with full force, all of your little wolves would be dead.」
「…」
「I could have destroyed all of them. But then the wild boars increase and the fields all get torn up. That’s why I’ll overlook this fight.」
「Grrr….」
「But after killing all of you, then I would have to kill all the boars…and that just takes too much time.」
Killing the boss and scaring the hell out of the little wolves was my first strategy.
However, it was much stronger than I expected, so I didn’t want to just kill it.
『Understood – strong human child.』
「Whoa!」
I heard its words in my mind and it startled me.
「So you can SPEAK magically as well!」
It was spirit speech – a type of magic.
It wasn’t a very difficult magic. It was a magic used for missions that required a lot of sneaking around.
But it was very rare for a beast to use it.
『You didn’t give your all in your fight with me.』
It found out.
It sucks when someone flies into a rage because of hurt pride. I had prepared for this beast to do that. But the beast silently accepted the fact.
『I concede defeat.』
It’s also annoying for someone to want another fight.
This beast saw what happened to the group that attacked me, so there’s no doubt I would win.
Still, tomorrow’s chores as a guardsman would still suck because of this damn knee.
「My name is Alfred. Alfred Lint.」
『I have no name. Give me one.』
「Okay, how about Gell-Gell.」
『…』
The wolf’s snout wrinkled.
「Okay, not that, then how about Puffy?」
『Grrrr…』
In addition to the wrinkles, now it was growling.
Best not to piss it off any more. It was making that clear.
This time I thought seriously.
「Okay…then how about Femm?」
Its tail wagged…seems to like that one.
『My name will be Femm. As I am the chief of my pack, I hereby promise not to attack Mulg Village.』
「That helps.」
Femm put out its front right paw. I grabbed it. It was something like shaking hands.
Looking at the situation, it was impossible to not see it like a hand.
「Oh, yeah, I think your howling is also scaring the villagers. Could you give me something so they can relax?」
『Give you what for why?』
「Well, give me a second…um…」
Being asked that by the wolf made me think. I had expected to bring back a bunch of wolf heads and skins, but now I couldn’t.
And asking for a wolf’s paw or tail to be cut off was also kind of sad.
I was lost in thought, and,
『You must have been thinking about taking home the heads of some of my pack.』
「Yeah, but that’s kind of cruel.」
『Heh heh.』
「Why did you laugh?」
『Why? Because I don’t care. Well, then, you may have this.』
Femm handed over a large fang. It was as long as my forearm.
「What’s this?」
『They’ll know if they see it.』
「Hm? Well, then I’ll thankfully receive it.」
『Yes.』
「It seems that I’ll be in Mulg Village for a while. If you have any problems, let me know. I’ll do what I can to help you.」
『Yes.』
Femm wagged its tail back and forth.
Then Femm turned with its pack back into the deep forest and left.