036

“Are you okay!?”

The guards rushed towards me as they saw me fall to the side after removing my knife from the wolf’s head. I quickly sheathe it and hide it in my pocket.

“Yeah… somehow…”

Now that my body suddenly relaxed, I see that my vision has started going dark.

Can’t believe I’m about to pass out again…

“Hey! Someone help me carry him to the union, quick!”

…

Outside the troll’s cave, Rosalie.

“It’s been about an hour since he left, right?”

I asked the girl who was with Grant. I think her name was Silvia.

“Yes.”

I made it out of the Troll king’s room just a few minutes ago, it was clear something happened to the troll king during our fight. It lost focus, making it very easy to defeat him. But what was it focused on? It looked like it wanted to leave the cave.

I found the others when I was making my way back. There was a small change in the group though.

“Where’s Grant?”

Did I overestimate his abilities? I thought he would be able to handle something like this. Don’t tell me he fell to one of the queens? That would be extremely disappointing.

“He left. After defeating the queens, he started behaving somewhat weirdly and quickly left.”

Thankfully, it wasn’t what I was thinking.

The one who answered me was the girl who was with him. Is she his party member?

Whatever.

Grant leaving is not a problem, he did what I asked him to do. There was no problem.

But the way he left… it leaves a bad taste.

“Come, we’ll go to East Green and meet up with the others.”

We followed the trail left behind by Grant himself. Looks like he was in quite a hurry.

Wait. We were going to follow the same path as him when not long after following, we started noticing some things.

This beat up ground, destroyed trees, and the mess of a path that he took,

“He was fighting something here…”

It wasn’t here when we first came, then it means that it was Grant who made this. But I feel magic energy in the atmosphere, quite thick in fact.

Grant doesn’t use magic. It must be his enemy then.

By this time, even the people with me have figured out that something is wrong.

We all hurry to a position and find something very, very worrying.

“Commander, this…”

A pool of blood.

The area around this place had been destroyed, and there was a small pool of blood in the centre.

Despite this much blood, there was no body.

We could see another trail leading out of this area, seeing as it could be no one other than Grant, we followed it.

Although, we followed it, we found nothing more than a few wolves’ bodies.

“Snow wolves? Here?”

Even my men were confused. This isn’t that weird to find a snow wolf here normally, but seeing as the trolls had basically wiped everything out, there isn’t supposed to be anything else here.

Despite not knowing him that well, even I was beginning to worry a little.

Judging by the amount of blood back there, it shouldn’t be long before we find a passed out, or very possibly, a dead Grant not far from here.

Despite that obvious thought, we found nothing. Only a trail showing him running. We saw a few other signs of combat, but all of this was starting to look ridiculous to me now.

It was clear he was fighting something, and seeing as his trail continues, it is safe to assume, he was winning as well. But that shouldn’t be possible.

I kept denying what I was seeing based on the very logical conclusion that he shouldn’t be alive.

Before we knew it, we reached the gates.

…

“You can’t be serious.”

The guard was flustered by my statement.

“I am, commander. He really did chase down a silver wolf and killed it here. It was heavily injured as well.”

It is hard to believe. Not the fact that he chased down a silver wolf. No that is to be expected. He can solo a queen, he is definitely strong enough for it. But doing this in his condition would be… unless!

“How badly was he injured? Did he look like he had lost a lot of blood?”

The guard was stupefied with the sudden question but he still answered.

“He was pretty injured, but I don’t think it was that bad, physically at least. He had a pretty nasty injury on his stomach as his shirt was covered in blood, but since it wasn’t bleeding when he collapsed, it shouldn’t be that deep either. Other than that, there wasn’t anything else. He was mostly only fatigued.”

I knew it!

That pool of blood wasn’t his. It definitely belonged to his enemy. Not a monster either, it was human blood, fresh as well.

Where is the body then?

…

We were led to the Union where the injured were being treated. They had transformed the entire hall into a makeshift hospital. Well, the union was always able to handle this anyway.

During all the swarms this town has faced up until now, this place has served as its support.

The chaos of the town had calmed down enough. After the Union leader himself came out to fight, there wasn’t anything else left to do. He quickly defeated the pike lord, and helped take care of the others as well.

Then there was that man, Kyle, him and his party also helped a lot, and although I didn’t expect much from the pretty boy that hangs around with him, he apparently helped a lot as well.

Looks like I’ll have to change my assessment of him.

“Um, are you looking for someone?”

This blue haired girl came and asked seeing me looking around.

“Yes, I’m looking for a man, Grant Steele. I heard he was brought here by the guards.”

“Yes, he did. But he isn’t in a condition to meet anyone. He hasn’t woken up yet and won’t be up for a few more hours as well.”

“Is that so? That’s a shame. Tell him Rosalie has invited him to the outpost, and he should come meet me whenever he gets a chance.”

The blue haired girl just stared at me for a second, before finally continuing,

“Y-yes, I’ll tell him that.”

“Good, I’ll take my leave then. I’ll also be taking my men with me if you don’t mind.”

“Of course, I understand. They’ve already been a lot of help, thank you for that.”

“Hmm.”

I nodded and left. Taking my men with me.

…

Volunteer’s Union building. Night time.

“You really do like getting hurt, don’t you?”

That incredibly rude statement came from right next to me. I looked to the side and see a familiar smiling face looking towards me.

“You’re one to talk. You look worse than I do.”

“Can’t deny that, haha.”

Rachael was covered in wounds and her left hand was wrapped up in bandages. She’s an archer, that can’t be good for her.

I slowly get up and take a good look at where I am.

I look around the room and see that other than the few of us who have pretty serious injuries, no one else was present. I see another familiar face, and now I’m totally confused.

“Grant! Long-time no see!”

That red-hair and face is unforgettable.

“H-hey, Aagon. Nice to see you again, but what the hell is happening?”

“You tell me, I come back from a small trip and here I see it being swarmed from all sides.”

I look over at Rachael and she nods. What the hell happened to the town while I wasn’t here!?

They then gave me the short version of everything that happened up until the point the Union leader came and helped them.

“But seriously, the fact that you chased a Silver Wolf to the town is amazing.”

Aagon said finishing up his explanation.

Before I could answer it, I saw another familiar face come into view. It wasn’t familiar in the way that these people are familiar, but rather, this was the old man I saw floating above formation.

Stroking his beard, he came and looked right at me.

“I have to thank you, young man. Due to your efforts, we saved a huge tragedy from happening.”

Apparently they were using that side of the town to keep people away from the swarm, since we were dealing with it on the east side, they deemed that place safe enough. If that Silver wolf had attacked that part, a lot of civilians would have lost their lives.

It’s good that we stopped that tragedy from happening. Sadly, if they knew that I was the one who first lured it towards the town in the first place, I don’t know what they would do.

More than that, I was more curious about the formation as well as the man who attacked me.

Since this old man helped me, I should be able to ask him some things. But I can’t ask such things directly, I honestly don’t know who I should trust?

Is anyone trustworthy?

I move my vision around the room and see many faces. Some filled with concern, some with curiosity, but there wasn’t any hostility, from what I could tell.

But who knows?

Seeing the look on my face, he must’ve also understood what I was thinking, so he immediately put his hand up and said.

“You should rest, young man. Seeing as no one was as badly injured as you, we didn’t find any casualties on your side. We should take that as a good thing.”

What?

No casualties. I wasn’t entirely sure before, but I have no doubt now that he saw me there.

Seeing the expression on his face, I’m sure he knows what I’m thinking. Since he specified that they didn’t find any casualties on my side, is he saying that he didn’t find that body?

Is he saying he hid it? I honestly can’t tell.

I have a lot more questions than answers now. Great.

Seeing as there is no way to know, I just nod and lay back down.

Seeing me rest, he greeted the others before leaving.

“Looks like you made quite the good impression on the Union Leader.”

“Union Leader!?”

Seeing my surprise both Rachael and Aagon laughed.

I ignored both of them and buried my head in the pillow. Man, I’m tired…

A lot of things happened in just one day. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

End of Book 1