HTWBB Chapter 11

2. Howling

"Will you be all right?"

"With what?"

"You offered far more compensation than initially proposed."

The leisurely moving footsteps stopped. The one walking ahead turned back slowly. A puzzled expression floated onto his handsome face.

"Are you worrying about my wallet situation right now?"

"No."

"Or is the payment insufficient?"

"That couldn't be."

The 2nd Prince, Eltanin, looked at his escort who hadn't changed expression once. A subordinate frustratingly rigid and blindly obedient to his superior's orders, even in unethical matters. Yet occasionally he'd stick out in strange places, and it was impossible to understand the criteria.

"It's the amount I was going to give anyway if it succeeded. No need to worry."

"If His Majesty finds out, it could be disadvantageous in the competition."

"Ah, so that was the problem."

In the end, since it was all out of concern for him, he usually let it pass. Eltanin continued with a slightly mischievous face.

"How would His Majesty find out? Are you planning to blab?"

"No."

More force went into the denial than the first one. His firmly pressed lips also drooped slightly downward. It was something said knowing he naturally wouldn't do such a thing. Eltanin laughed once at the satisfying reaction and moved his feet again. He was a subordinate who was fun to tease.

"But it really is complicated."

"It was deliberately made that way."

Harupheon was divided into a total of 25 districts, with lower numbers meaning closer to the imperial palace—what was called the 'center' within the capital.

Among them, District 22 was a fortress within the city to the extent that one would wonder how such a place was even found. Due to maze-like intertwining alleys and buildings of vastly differing heights, one could easily lose their way if they wandered in carelessly.

The guild building was located in a wide-open space, but the path to reach it was complicated enough to exhaust and make one give up quickly without a guide.

After passing through narrow, dizzying alleyways, the surroundings gradually brightened. They pulled up their hoods around the time a fountain became visible through a narrow gap.

"Why did you go back to the guild?"

"...I left something behind."

"You?"

"Yes."

"Hmm. All right. I'll let it slide this time."

Eltanin shrugged his shoulders and suddenly looked at the sky.

"We're finally going back."

Their steps quickened a bit after emerging into the open area. The merchants around the central square started early in the morning. Since imperial family characteristics were conspicuous, it was better to avoid crowded places.

Eltanin was newly grateful for his escort following silently behind. In fact, his concerns weren't unfounded. At first, Eltanin himself hadn't been keen on making a request to the information guild.

Since the emperor was conducting a massive crackdown on criminals, catching treasure hunters left and right, there was great risk of falling out of favor. However, there was no better option to produce results somehow in a short period.

"Her Imperial Highness the Princess arrived first."

"Empty-handed?"

"Yes."

With her fiery temper, she wouldn't be waiting quietly. Especially not without results. With her lofty pride, she wouldn't have stooped to borrowing the power of some information guild, so it was effectively at least a draw in the competition.

It would have certainly been so if the guild master hadn't actually brought Brynhildr's Necklace. Eltanin was newly impressed. Even though it was a guild so outstanding that you couldn't find a second in this field, he hadn't expected them to find the treasure of the century.

Wasn't it an inheritance that hadn't been discovered for nearly 500 years since the founding emperor's death? He fumbled at his breast with satisfaction.

"Sister will be rather upset."

"Be careful."

"She's not checking me enough to kill me."

"That will change when we return."

It was hard to argue. She wouldn't just feel a little—she'd sense a crisis. He nodded with a tired face.

"She must be displeased that a guy with no interest in politics is making a fuss."

The younger brother she had looked down upon had suddenly emerged and rallied the moderate nobles, rising to a position virtually equal to the 1st Princess, who had been as good as decided as the next Emperor.

Moreover, they were even conducting a competition, so he must be more than just an eyesore. And if he returned having secured one of those tasks...

Eltanin looked at his escort and grinned.

"Sir Hoffen will protect me well."

"..."

"Jerome Hoffen."

"Yes."

"Why aren't you answering?"

Jerome let out a small sigh. Eltanin said he would stop teasing and headed toward the imperial palace while bantering playfully. Dawn was breaking.

"Miss Rietta! How about now?"

"All right, let's go."

"Thank you!"

The security guild member bowed his waist with a beaming face. His well-groomed mustache was impressive.

Only upon seeing it did Rietta barely manage to remember his name. Was it Gale? When she stood facing him in the training grounds and greeted him asking for his guidance, he lifted his sword glumly.

"It's Garen..."

Rietta picked up a practice longsword instead of a dagger. Garen rushed in with a resounding battle cry. Metal clashed violently against metal, sharp noise splitting the space.

He was nimble for his build, but lacked power due to swinging hastily. Rietta deflected and received his sword appropriately, continuing the sparring. This lifestyle had already lasted a month.

"Hup!"

"Don't let your guard down."

Garen leaped back with strange steps like dancing. Several strands of his cut hair fluttered in the wind.

Rietta saw the eyes of Garen burning with competitive spirit. A sigh escaped. The guild members who had initially been timid and cautious began requesting sparring at some point. Garen before her eyes was the fifteenth.

Since this was the first time Rietta had stayed at the guild this long, drifting apart was natural. She also had no particular desire to assimilate with them or feel a sense of belonging.

Ten days of maintaining this strange distance and pretending not to see each other, someone seeing Rietta using the training grounds alone had been the starting point of the chain sparring.

"Urgh!"

Rietta blocked the sword striking down from above and applied force as is. Blood vessels bulged in the groaning Garen's forearms. He trembled as he desperately tried to block the sword gradually tilting toward him, but was finally thrown to the ground.

The sword that had been airborne spun and stabbed into the nearby ground. Rough breathing filled the air. After a brief moment, having caught his breath somewhat, he raised one finger and shouted.

"One more time!"

"Still going on about 'one more time.' Even if you were reborn, you couldn't win."

"Ah, Guild Master!"

Garen groaned and finally sprawled out. Grace, who had been leaning against a nearby tree, clicked her tongue and gestured to Rietta.

Rietta glanced at Garen cooling down his flushed face with sweat, then approached her. Since she was alone without her ever-present secretary, she must have business.

"I even prepared a towel, but it became unnecessary."

"What is it?"

"Me? I came to see you."

"No. I mean what's the request this time?"

Grace clicked her tongue with a deflated expression. She muttered about whether she could only come when there was work, but no rebuttal was heard.

Grace, who under the pretext of not disturbing her rest had never shown her face once during this time, seemed very busy moving here and there doing something with the money received from the prince. There was no reason for her to climb all the way to the training grounds during sparring amidst all that.

Grace looked over the spotlessly clean Rietta without a drop of sweat and led the way with a tired face.

"Nothing happened while I was gone?"

"Right. Except for things like right now."

"If you say it like that, they'll really get hurt, honey."

Grace, who had continued the trivial conversation until arriving at the office, naturally guided Rietta to the sofa.

Luscious seasonal fruit prepared in advance occupied the table generously. Rietta silently sat as led and received the peach that was speared and offered on a fork.

"A variety from the southern region."

"That's right. You know it well, as expected?"

Grace bit her lips tightly to hold back laughter as she rummaged through her desk drawer.

Meanwhile, Rietta savored the appropriately soft ripened peach. Sweet juice fragantly moistened her mouth.

"Why is this stuck in a place like this? Here, take a look at this?"

Rietta, in a good mood, obediently turned her gaze to the table. After what seemed like a long search for something, a worn piece of paper was spread out plainly on the table.

It was a map far more detailed than what ordinary people used. It even marked monsters and vegetation that appeared nearby, as well as villages too small to have place names noted, and was typically used by knight orders.

When Rietta raised her eyebrows, Grace tapped somewhere in the west with her finger.

"If you're free, go here for me."

"Mabia?"

It was a village not far from a western port city. It must be a small place, unfamiliar enough that even its name was obscure.

Rietta finished the last piece of peach and pointed at that location with her fork.

"What should I find?"

"You'll really go? You can rest more."

The way she smiled evasively was clearly perfunctory courtesy.

Rietta nodded. Her rest was gradually reaching its limit anyway. She'd been taking a break because there'd been no enticing information or rumors during this time, but it was time to move again.

The long preamble suggested it wasn't something related to Rietta, but it wouldn't be bad to move at Grace's request. Grace, who soon broke into a beaming smile, pointed at the map again.

"Although there are forests around Mabia, rifts have opened there, so monsters occasionally emerge. While small animals like squirrels might be around, the population inevitably has to be small."

Though the contamination from magi had been purified long ago, there were many dangers for it to become a habitat for beasts. Grace, emphasizing this point, slid her finger smoothly to somewhere south of the map.

"But footprints that are only very rarely spotted around here were discovered near Mabia."

"What is it?"

"Not certain, but there's a high probability it's a werewolf."

Footprints much larger than ordinary canine beasts showed traces of bipedal movement. Above all, the fact that they were discovered only at specific times was important. Times like, say, the 'full moon.'

If it were merely traces of something presumed to be a werewolf, Grace wouldn't have paid attention. Her guild had no interest in the vulgar business of selling off other races, nor in the crazy endeavor of researching their mystique.

However, the range of the footprints was the problem. Though it seemed to wander aimlessly without purpose, they were stamped throughout the wide area without exception, making it impossible to ignore.

Grace asserted with a confident expression.

"There's something to hide. Didn't they deliberately prevent the location from being specified?"

"What do you think they're hiding?"

"Something like an object that shouldn't fall into just anyone's hands."

"You seem to have something in mind."

Grace grinned and set down a thin book next to the map. It was a fairy tale book with cute drawings on the cover and various colors painted as background.

"As you know, werewolves are almost the only race preserving pure bloodlines. They lose their reason every full moon and become beasts—how on earth did they manage to pass down their bloodline?"

Like a storyteller, she rambled on and opened the fairy tale book. The tale began with a story of a small girl coincidentally meeting an injured werewolf in the forest and helping it.

Around the middle, a bearded hunter appeared, and under the full moon, the werewolf, transformed into wolf form, was threatened with several arrows stuck in him.

Grace turned a few more pages. It was the last part of the fairy tale book. While the girl blocking the hunter's way bought time, the werewolf swallowed the moon in the sky. Then it regained its reason and punished the wicked hunter—that was the ending. Rietta tilted her head.

"What's the connection? They surely didn't actually swallow the moon."

"Of course. That couldn't be. But this isn't a completely absurd story."

In the illustration, the wolf that had devoured the moon was looking at the girl, its entire body holding bright light.