Everyone turned to look at Ian.
Ian was standing where he was, pulling out several alchemical tools and using a rubber tube to draw a few drops of potion from the reagent for analysis. When he looked up, he saw the Elder and the werewolves staring fixedly at him.
"Ah?"
Before the Young Wizard could voice his opinion, Lupin shoved him backward, stepping in front of him while raising his wand.
"Can your real body get away?"
Lupin pinched his throat and asked in a low voice.
"This is my real body."
Ian raised what he was holding, proving to Lupin that he was solid. However, Lupin did not quite believe him. It was not as if he had never seen similar situations before.
"If you can run, I really advise you to run now. They might not hurt me, but they'd definitely be more than happy to hurt you." Lupin's self-sacrificing spirit touched the Young Wizard quite deeply.
Before the Young Wizard could offer the highest promise of all—If you die someday, I definitely won't dig up your grave—Lupin had already turned his attention back to the pack of werewolves eyeing them hungrily.
"He's just a child. Are you really going to refuse to spare even a child?" Lupin's expression was exceptionally grave, his eyes filled with intertwined tension and vigilance.
"We haven't fallen so far as to kill people indiscriminately..." the old Elder said helplessly. After a brief pause, however, he changed his tone and continued in an incomparably serious voice. "But he isn't a werewolf, so he cannot be allowed to know this secret. Either make him forget what he saw today, or turn him into one of us."
For this group of werewolves who did not want the Awakening Potion exposed, that might indeed have been