Wolf Riders

Half an hour after leaving Harvest City, Abel and Master Bentham were discussing forging experience. In truth, Master Bentham was doing most of the instructing. Abel had only been studying forging for a short time. Although he learned quickly and had already become a master, he was still far behind Master Bentham in terms of experience.

As they were talking, Abel suddenly felt the carriage stop. He lifted the curtain and asked, "What happened?"

The coachman said in a somewhat astonished voice, "Something seems wrong with the village ahead. It looks like something happened."

Abel said to Master Bentham, "Master, stay in the carriage. I'll go take a look."

Master Bentham smiled. "I'm a level-five warrior too. You don't need to worry about me."

Abel was highly skeptical of Master Bentham's combat ability as a level-five warrior. Even Knight Marshall insisted on Knight training every day to maintain and improve his strength. But Master Bentham? Ever since Abel had met him, he had never once seen the master practice martial skills.

Still, Abel did not insist. He got out of the carriage with Master Bentham and saw columns of black smoke rising from the distant village.

"I'll go take a look up ahead." Abel turned back and took the Magic Greatsword he had forged at the Blacksmith Guild from the carriage. The sword had not yet been decorated, so it looked rather ugly, but that did not affect its ability to protect him.

"Be extremely careful," Master Bentham warned.

Abel waved his hand to show that he understood, then headed toward the village.

The closer he got to the village, the more he felt that something was wrong. This was no ordinary fire—the houses throughout the entire village had been set ablaze.

When he reached the village, the sight before him left Abel stunned. The ground was covered with the bodies of villagers. Some of the corpses appeared to have been torn apart by animals, leaving them mangled and incomplete.

Even more horrifying was the fact that Abel saw many children's corpses as well. The bodies of adults and children were scattered throughout every corner of the village. It was obvious that this had been an unequal massacre—an organized slaughter carried out by one side while possessing an absolute advantage. In the history of the world Abel knew, even invasions by other countries had rarely involved such a massacre of civilians.

Abel walked around the village once but found no survivors. The killers seemed highly experienced, or perhaps they had some special method. Every place where people had hidden showed signs of having been broken into, and the people inside had been killed outright.

Abel had never felt such oppression before. This was not the territory of his family's knightly fief, but as a human being himself, he still felt a deep, shared sorrow.

After coming to this world, all he had seen was an image of peace. Even when he was attacked, he had believed it was just like his original world, where there were always some people who committed crimes. The scene he saw today was the first thing to strike directly at his heart. This world was not as peaceful as he had imagined. A village near his home had been massacred. What if it had been his family? What if it had been the Bennett Family?

"Gods above, what is this?" Master Bentham had grown worried when Abel did not return for so long, so he had come over as well. When he saw the scene before him, he was stunned too.

Master Bentham walked over to a corpse and carefully examined the torn wounds. With a grave expression, he said to Abel as he approached, "Orcs. This was done by orcs."

As he spoke, Master Bentham pointed at the wounds on the corpse. "These are the bite marks of dire wolves. Wolf Riders have been here."

The Wolf Riders were the main military force of the Orc Empire. They consisted of werewolves and dire wolves. Their mobility was extremely strong, and their speed and agile turning made them some of the finest cavalry on the continent. Dire wolves could adapt to harsh environments, and during continuous combat, they could keep fighting by eating the enemies they had killed.

"Quickly, go back and inform Knight Marshall!" Master Bentham realized the danger posed by the Wolf Riders. Given their speed, every village and castle in the vicinity would be at risk.

Abel and Master Bentham hurried back to the carriage. With the coachman driving at full force, it raced toward Hari Castle like a bolt of lightning.

Simon was a werewolf—or, more precisely, a Wolf Rider. His partner was a female dire wolf named Black Wind.

Simon's home was on a barren plain. His family owned two hundred acres of land, and he had nine siblings, making him the second eldest. The food produced by those two hundred acres was not enough to feed the whole family. Simon had the potential to become a Wolf Rider, so his parents gave him a great deal of their resources, finally enabling him to become one. However, his other siblings still went hungry.

To ensure that his family would have enough land, Simon made a decision: he would participate in the Death Trial. Every year, warriors who returned from the Death Trial were rewarded with land, and those who made it back always returned with a rich haul. The gold coins and gems they brought back alone were enough to purchase a great deal of farmland.

Simon did his best not to think about how many people who participated in the Death Trial each year actually returned alive. He only hoped that he would be one of them.

Simon felt extremely unlucky. On the night before they passed through the Budapest Mountains, he had settled his partner, Black Wind, in the military camp's stable. There had been many dire wolves in the stable at the time, and he had no idea which male dire wolf had gone into heat that day.

After flying over the Budapest Mountains on flying beasts, their ten-member squad of Wolf Riders set out together. Everything went smoothly afterward. They avoided towns and attacked only small villages. Although they did not gain much, their successive victories filled Simon with confidence in this trial.

Until one day, Simon discovered that his dire wolf was pregnant. Dire wolves were creatures of unparalleled loyalty. Their loyalty to their masters surpassed that of every other mount. After a dire wolf was born, only the creature it saw first could become its master.

Normally, a pregnant dire wolf would have been a cause for great joy. Whether he gave one of the pups to his siblings to bond with, or sold that right in exchange for a huge amount of resources, either option would have been wonderful.

But this was the human world, where Simon had to fight constantly. His dire wolf's pregnancy greatly affected his combat strength. During an earlier attack on a village, they had encountered no resistance, but the excessive exertion caused Simon's Black Wind to show signs of pregnancy. She could no longer keep up with the squad's movements. The other Wolf Riders were unwilling to put themselves in danger for Simon. After all, the main reason the squad could attack places throughout the human world was their speed. For Wolf Riders, speed was the key to survival.

Simon stayed behind, accompanying his dire wolf, Black Wind, alone. He did not dare enter open ground and could only hide in the forest while waiting for Black Wind to give birth.

Every day, Simon hunted in the forest. Each time, he obtained enough food for him and Black Wind to eat their fill. He often wondered when he would be able to own land like this, where there was more food than anyone could eat. The richness of the human world attracted countless orcs like Simon, who wanted to plunder and seize it.

Every day, Simon carved a line into a tree to keep track of the time. At present, all he wanted was to spend two months safely in the forest, then meet up at the rendezvous point and return to the Orc Empire.