Level up with swords (144)
The Fenrir tribe, the tribe that reigned as the leader of the steppes, had two successors.
Skoll and Hathi.
Coincidentally, the two twins who were born as twins cried for the first time at the same time on the same day, and like their genders, their hair colors were opposite. Hati, with fur as black as the night sky, and Skoll, with fur as white as a snow-covered field, even their personalities were polar opposites.
While Hathi was honest and pure, Skoll was cunning and cunning.
Unlike Hati, who trained quick and sharp martial arts, Skoll trained heavy and destructive martial arts.
From head to toe, we had nothing in common.
So the two have been enemies since childhood.
Growling over the same prey was so frequent that it was not even worth mentioning, and the number of times we ended up lying on a hospital bed while fighting under the pretext of sparring was so intense that it was impossible to count.
Favorite colors are also different.
Favorite foods are also different.
Above all, the two siblings’ perspectives on the grassland as single beastmen were as different as heaven and earth.
“Master Skoll, although it is a feeble request, please accept my sincerity.”
In a barracks so luxurious that it was one of the few among the Fenrir tribe, a man knelt before Squall.
And he politely took out the gift he had prepared.
Jewelry made of gold and several bottles of high-quality liquor.
Squall, who caught the scent with a wolf’s unique sense of smell, smiled with a sharp, well-groomed face. Thanks to the alcohol I drink this way, I don’t even think about getting drunk on horse oil.
“It’s a good thing. Like it.”
“Well, then… !”
The man who was pleased by those words, the merchant who came to pioneer the trade route in the grasslands, raised his eyes with anticipation.
Squall spoke to him with a patronizing expression.
“I’ll show you a way to pass through the Fenrir territory. “You just have to pay half of the toll tax by coming to me.”
“yes! “I will not disappoint you in the future!”
“There is no need for fancy words. Show it with action.”
When Squall said that and waved his hand, the merchant bowed several times and disappeared out of the barracks.
He left behind a large pile of bribes.
“… Huh.”
The squall only moved after he was completely gone.
Hands heavily trained in martial arts pick out shiny accessories and apply them to various parts of one’s body, examining their decoration. Even though they were beastmen, the Fenrir tribe normally only had wolf legs from the knees down, but other than that, they were no different from humans.
“Heh, it’s okay.”
Squall looked at himself in the mirror hanging inside the barracks and was satisfied as he tried out various poses. The meticulous way she wore her golden necklace, bracelets, and belt was truly a sight to behold.
It was a shame because Squall had the looks that could be called handsome, otherwise he would have looked more than just out-of-place and like a wealthy rich man.
After pacing in front of the mirror for dozens of minutes, he soon took off all his jewelry and picked up a glass bottle with wine flowing.
Kang!
With a single touch of the blade, the bottleneck flies away.
It wasn’t that I became impatient due to my greed for alcohol.
There was no way anyone else would enjoy wine in the middle of the meadow, so I couldn’t even dream of a glass for wine.
However, I didn’t want to drink it from the gourd used for horse oil wine.
gulp.
Squall poured a few sips of wine down his throat and laughed out loud, satisfied with the flavor.
“Yes, this is what it tastes like! “Wine is a delicacy from the outside world that cannot be tasted in the old plains!”
The prairie was not an environment in which grapevines could be grown.
Moreover, trade with humans was also passive, with almost no exchange of goods other than daily necessities.
That position was also an order from the current Beast King, Barg.
“My father worries too much! If he is corrupted by eating and drinking delicious food, does that mean it is okay if he lives by eating only tasteless things?”
The environment of the steppe was rich enough for the entire beastman tribe to be self-sufficient, but people usually looked for stimulation once food, clothing, and shelter were sufficient.
The squall was like that too.
The reason I tasted wine for the first time and the reason I coveted accessories from the outside world was because I craved that stimulation.
Born as an orthodox blood relative of the Fenrir tribe, Squall found everything boring as he was looked up to by all the beastmen. On the prairie, what other entertainment is there other than hunting, and what entertainment is there other than women and fighting?
―Master Skoll, please accept my sincerity.
It was one day.
While visiting the Fenrir tribe, a merchant secretly visited him and gave him all kinds of luxury goods in the name of ‘gifts.’
Squall accepted the gift with a faint sense of guilt.
It was a moment when the thirst I had been feeling for a long time was satisfied.
“Protecting this grassland until you die, that’s nonsense.”
He sneered at the words that had been drilled into his ears since childhood, and clenched his hand tightly.
want.
Things that aren’t in the grassland, things he doesn’t have.
His sister, who was satisfied with this boring life, couldn’t understand it, but Squall wanted to go out into the wide world. He thought that if he could gather all the forces of the steppe and stand at the top, he would be able to change the status quo of living only with a fence.
Susssseu-.
The shadow inside the barracks wriggled strangely for a moment.
Squall noticed this and said.
“Are you here, Felice?”
《―Hehe, you can’t fool the master’s attention.》
The shadow that gave a gloomy voice transformed into the shape of a man.
I guess the age you can tell by appearance is around middle age.
Unlike his height of nearly 2 meters, his physique was rather thin, so he gave the impression of being sharp rather than intimidating.
A presence like an awl.
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Felis, the current tribal chief of the Bastet tribe, was him.
“Is work going well?”
Even the Beast King’s son, Skoll, could not treat him poorly.
The leader of each tribe has the second highest status in the steppe after the beast king.
Although they joined hands for a similar purpose, their relationship was nothing more or less than cooperation.
“of course.”
Felice sat down on the chair across from him and answered.
“I sent as many as twenty-three people to prepare for any unknown variables. “My son is among them.”
“twenty three… “It will be more than enough.”
“Yes, even with Miss Hathi’s leg strength, she won’t be able to beat all those kids and come back.”
The Bastet tribe was already the fastest among beastmen, but once they started using their special abilities, there was no tribe that could catch them in the middle of the night.
Once you are assimilated into the shadow, not only does the presence disappear, but there is no physical resistance, so almost no physical strength is consumed.
Maybe it was during the day when more than half of their special abilities were blocked, but it was nearly impossible to beat them in a chase in the middle of the night.
“You won’t die or be seriously injured, right?”
“Don’t worry. “We made it clear that this was a mission aimed at suppressing and delaying.”
“Thank goodness. “I don’t have a good relationship with my sister, but I also didn’t want her to get into trouble.”
Squall smiled bitterly and put down the empty wine bottle.
There was no longer any intoxication left.
The strong body unique to the Fenrir tribe and the expert-level Auror burned the alcohol poison.
Only the pungent smell of alcohol lingered for a moment and then disappeared.
“-young master! Master Squall!”
It was then.
At the shouting heard from outside the barracks, Felice immediately melted into the shadows and disappeared.
Immediately after that, a Fenrir man ran into the barracks.
“young master! “We’re in big trouble!”
Squall asked back with a calm expression.
“What’s going on?”
“Ah, the lady is back! And now I need to see the master’s face… !”
“… … what?”
Even the shadow shook once as if surprised by the message.
If things had gone as planned, Hati would have been captured by the Bastet elite and not be able to return until the tribal leaders’ meeting was over.
But returning a day early wasn’t enough, so you came to visit him?
An unknown, ominous feeling crept up.
―Scooooooooo! You son of a bitch! Where are you hiding!
While Squall was thinking, he seemed to have gotten closer, and he could hear Hati screaming through the barracks’ curtains.
It was as if he was angry to the very end of his hair.
“… “My sister really never does what I want.”
Squall let out a long sigh and got up from his seat.
Now that Hathi had done it so openly, his silence was tantamount to acknowledging his dirty work.
I leave the barracks with reluctant steps.
At the same time, Hati and Squall, who were looking around in the distance, made eye contact. As siblings who haven’t seen each other in a long time, fierce fighting spirit and bad feelings burned in each other’s eyes.
“Skooooool! You vile bastard! They must have conspired with the Bastet tribe to f*ck me! You don’t have the confidence to compete with me with your skills, so you resort to all sorts of tricks! “Now I feel ashamed that you are my twin brother and sister!”
“The sound of a dog barking is still excellent, my sister! Why are you perpetrating such a slander because you have been exposed to bad news? “Bring at least one piece of evidence, at least one witness, and cry again!”
At the sound of the two siblings growling, the beastmen of the entire neighborhood ran out and watched the scene. He didn’t look surprised or embarrassed. In this village, Skoll and Hathi’s squabbles were nothing more than a disturbance seen every week, month, and year.
They made bets on which of the two would win, or watched flirty, even childish, arguments.
“A witness! “I said it well, you white bastard!”
“If I were white, you would be black! Is this an insult to the mother who gave us fur like this?! “This unfilial woman!”
“What?! “When did you say that I insulted my mother?”
“You did it a little while ago!”
“I didn’t do it!”
“I did it!”
It was a fight that was hard to watch for the next chieftain candidate, but people who were already used to it could only giggle and watch.
To them, Skoll and Hati are symbols of the Fenrir tribe. To the residents who had been watching them since they could not walk on their own two feet, they were like children born and raised with their hearts.
Hathi, who lost the argument, eventually pulled out his trump card.
“You said it! “Bring a witness!”
“Oh, I said it! So what are you going to do!”
“Then take a look at this guy!”
Hati lifted the Bastet man, whose arms and legs were tied tightly behind his back, raised it high above his head so that the villagers could see it, and then threw him down.
The prisoner’s foamy face was truly pitiful.
Squall, who recognized who he was, was involuntarily shocked.
“Oh, no?! how!?”
The heir of the Bastet tribe, whom Felice had boasted of just a few minutes ago, was lying around in an unsightly manner.
However, the squall did not just suffer.
In an instant, he returned to his shameless face and quickly lost his cool.
“sister! No matter how much I didn’t like him, how could you beat the heir of a tribe like this!”
“under?”
Hathi, dumbfounded, opened her mouth.
“―Just as Master Skoll said!”
Also, not wanting to miss that opportunity, Felis, the chieftain of the Bastet tribe, who had already burrowed into the crowd, walked out.
As expected of Bastet, who is notoriously cunning, his stoic demeanor was remarkable.
He looked like he was extremely upset and shouted in tears.
“Miss Hathi! How could you put my son in such a miserable state! “Is this your treatment of the Bastet people?”
“No, this guy is the culprit who attacked me.”
“Please don’t make excuses!”
Felice, who changed the situation with his clever words, extended his hand.
As befits the chieftain of Bastet, the speed was incredible.
He planned to take advantage of Hati’s embarrassment at the sudden interrogation and retrieve his son, who could serve as evidence. Once it returns to the water, it cannot be investigated further unless Beast King Varg himself comes forward.
The hand that turned into a shadow moves quickly like that,
“Where?”
I was trampled by the soles of Karen’s shoes.
〈Stepping on the Shadow〉.
Felice’s body stiffened from the unexpected counterattack.
Meanwhile, Hathi, who had come to her senses, hid Felice’s son behind her back, and only then did she remove the foot that Karen had trampled on.
“Who the hell are you guys!”
Felice glared at them with an expression filled with shock and hostility.
I missed it because I was only focusing on Hati, but there were three humans standing behind her.
Of course it was Leon and his group.
Hathi, who blocked Felice’s path, spoke next.
“These are adventurers from the guild.”
“Guild? Adventurers?”
“yes. And these are the people I welcomed as honored guests. “I will not tolerate any further disrespect than this.”
“… Hmm.”
After Hathi warned her so much, Felice did not go any further.
Instead, Squall, who had been observing the situation for a moment, opened his mouth.
“Are you planning to bring in outsiders into the affairs of the grasslands? Do you think your father will accept that?”
“Like you said, it’s up to your father to decide. “It’s not something for a timid albino to growl at.”
“You must have barked, you bitch!”
“Shall we give it a try now?!”
Auras surged from the siblings who took a step forward.
Unlike before, Leon and the others did not intervene.
It is a fight between successors.
If I had added my hand to the game for no reason, it could have been seen as an unfair intervention. All they had to do was prevent the intervention of the main fighters, including Felis.
‘Will Hathi win?’
[well.]
El Cid, who heard Leon muttering to himself, tilted his head.
[The skills of the two are almost equal. The odds of winning are 50%. If there is no chance, we will be fighting each other all day long.]
Since they have mastered the same martial art, Cheonrang, they probably understand most of each other’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as tactics.
If there is no difference in skill, the match is bound to be prolonged.
Onlookers surrounding the two siblings are waiting for the start with excited eyes.
Huh.
A gust of wind blew.
It is large enough to send chills down the spines of those in power, and its natural, majestic presence settles down next to them.
Ellahan reflexively opened his grip.
It was to summon Seongcheolswae if the situation arises.
Karen put her legs into the shadows.
This was because they judged that they would not be able to survive if they were surprised.
‘indeed.’
Leon was just amazed.
Because there was no sense of malice at all from that presence.
No, I even felt a sense of intimacy that I couldn’t figure out why.
“Stop.”
At his one word, Skoll and Hathi freeze, and the crowd all falls silent and lowers their heads.
As if he couldn’t even dare to make eye contact.
The Fenrir people, the pinnacle of the steppes, were such beings.
Even though Leon is just looking at the back, he feels intimidated.
‘Is this man the Beast King, Barg…? !’
It feels similar to when I see Irexana.
An overwhelming power.
It was truly a force that could be said to represent one force.
“Listen.”
The Beast King, Varg, looked at the two siblings in turn and opened his mouth.
