[Slight mentions of suicide near the end]
"Really should have brought the wine," she mentioned again after two hours. The children hadn't taken their eyes off of the battle in that two hours.
By now, Lock was exhausted. He was staggering and huffing in the same way he had before he fully completed his transformation. Adara perked up, had he regained his consciousness?
Between huffs, he said, "Hyung."
That made Choi Han rush towards him immediately, even though the other was not completely out of his berserk state. "Lock!"
"Noo— Noona—," he said between more huffs.
This made Rosalyn rush over to hug Lock as well. Adara and Cale stood up. Slowly making their way to the trio. Lock was still covered in the dark blue fur of the Blue Wolves, but his eyes were much more focused. He was not hurt at all, but Rosalyn and Choi Han had small injuries that would heal quickly.
Lock leaned his head on Rosalyn— who was around half his height— before starting to cry. Adara kept her feelings out of her face, but she couldn't stop the familiar pang in her ribcage at the sight of the child crying. He was apologising, muttering the words like a chant.
Adara was glad for one thing, though. It was obvious his rationality returned. He had the textbook example of a perfect Berserk Mode Transformation, where he was able to overcome it and use his Berserk Mode as a weapon the next time he would need it. Of course, she had no intention of sending him into a battle anytime soon, anything a 13-year-old is able to do, she would be able to do just fine. In 2 years, when the war will start, he will be 15. Even then, he will not come back from the war with any trauma. Physical or mental, she decided firmly.
She watched as Lock turned into his human form, before starting to fall. It was over, he was back into the gangly kid he was before. Adara would've rushed over to catch him, but at that speed, it would be difficult for her to convince everyone that she was human. But she didn't need to worry since Choi Han caught him instead, preventing him from falling over. Lock's eyes were fluttering again, he was trying hard not to faint, still worried that he was in his berserk state.
As he was struggling, two humans came into his view. The shorter one of them, with long and curly black hair that flowed down like silk, was holding a red kitten with a silver one on her shoulder. The slightly taller one, with bright red hair, a colour that reminded him greatly of blood, was standing close to the other. Both of them were staring down at him with expressions not unkindly.
He recognised them as the two who had spoken the words of his uncle. These two unnamed people started to speak. Their words were said at the same time, their voices as one. It sounds nice, he remembered thinking. "You can rest now. It's all over now."
Processing their words, Lock finally relaxed. His eyes closed and he fainted. Choi Han wordlessly picked him up and carefully laid him back onto the stretcher.
Cale took a potion out of the magic bag he brought and threw it towards Roslayn. She caught it, but her head tilted as she observed the potion. It is of a high grade, she observed. But she didn't mention it. "Potions don't work on Lock?" she asked.
Adara and Cale looked at her as if she had said the most obvious thing in the world. "Why would we give a potion to someone from the Wolf Tribe? It's for you. You struggled quite a bit."
Rosalyn stared at them. She had seen too many things and had too many things to ask the two, but she ignored all of them. "Thank you very much," she said instead.
"No need for a thanks," Cale said, as Adara began searching for another potion in the bag. She pulled one out and threw it at Choi Han.
Choi Han caught it with ease. He looked at it, in the same way Rosalyn had. "What is this for?"
Adara looked at him, confused at the fact he was asking. "For you? Aren't you tired?"
He shook his head. "Not at all."
She smiled, mocking without the negative undertones, more teasing. "But you were panting when we sparred."
Rosalyn's attention was taken the second she said that. They sparred? And Choi Han was panting? He was panting when he manically killed every bad guy in that village, but that was more out of anger. She then remembered something Choi Han had told her about Adara. He said she had the potential to be a Swordmaster. He said she was average in strength though she had the muscles to prove she trained. He said she mainly relied on speed and momentum to deal blows. He remarked how fast she was. He also said he did not get why she hasn't gotten stronger if she has such nice muscles. Rosalyn let her eyes go over Adara. Under her clothes, it was hard to see any trace of muscles but the way her pants hung to her legs gave Rosalyn the impression of well-defined thigh muscles.
Adara was focusing more on Choi Han than Rosalyn but she still noticed the way the Crown Princess's eyes went up and down her body. I doubt she is checking me out, but shouldn't a Crown Princess know how to be more discreet?
Choi Han had a small smile on his lips. "Yes, I was. We should spar again, when you have time, Adara-nim."
Adara couldn't react to his words because Choi Han was pushing the potion back to her. She refused it. "No. You have injuries on you. Drink it. We want the Swordmaster unharmed once he leaves the Arena."
He looked at the potion for a second, before taking the cap off and drinking a sip. He looked back to Adara, and when she only looked at him expectantly, he dejectedly took another sip. This went on until he finished the potion and his wounds were completely healed. Adara smiled at him, a sort of smile that seemed to say that if he had only drank it in one go they wouldn't have had to do this. He only handed her the empty potion back.
Cale had watched the interaction and tried not to laugh, though Rosalyn was more puzzled about their relationship.
But as soon as Choi Han looked at Cale and Adara, and felt the sudden change in the air, he knew he would have to report to them. He nodded at the unspoken question and followed the two Nobles out of the Arena.
Once outside, she saw Hans and Ron waiting outside. She assumed that they would have gone away, but it seemed they overtook the guard duties of the Knights who were supposed to be standing guard since they were nowhere to be seen. Cale immediately gave them an order. "Hans, Ron. Guide the two people still in the Arena to a room."
Hans and Ron nodded, disappearing inside the Arena. Together, Adara and Cale in the front, Choi Han behind them, they made their way to their room. Adara was getting déjà vu from the first time they met Choi Han, except this time he was not digging his eyes into the back of her head nor was he standing directly behind Cale as if he were going to take him hostage any second. He was standing comfortably in the middle of the two, his eyes digging instead into the backs of every servant who walked past.
They now stood at the table, the cold food from their dinner in between them. Adara wordlessly poured another glass of wine. The one she had been drinking from's taste had faded in the two hours they were gone. It is already dark, she thought with a faint look outside the window. I told Sadie I'd call her once I reached the Capital. I told myself I'd call her after dinner. The plans keep getting set back, I need to call her tonight.
"Tell us," Cale said when Choi Han didn't immediately start talking.
Choi Han straightened his back, he was sitting in the chair the Black Dragon had been in 2 hours ago. "Everything was fine until I met Rosalyn." He took a pause.
Adara made a motion of impatience patiently. Choi Han wasn't sure how she did that. "Yes?"
"I arrived at the city Cale-nim and Adara-nim mentioned. Once I got there, I found the Merchant Guild heading for the Capital as you described." Choi Han thought a bit. "Well, it was just a small brigade of five people rather than a Guild. They happened to be looking for two mercenaries to guard them since their usual guard was injured."
In the original story, Choi Han and Rosalyn became those two mercenaries.
"That was where I met Rosalyn who looked exactly like you described."
The Breck Kingdom was across the North-West Border of the Roan Kingdom and under the Roan Kingdom was the Whipper Kingdom. Rosalyn was planning on going through the Roan Kingdom to the Magic Tower located in the Whipper Kingdom. But someone tried to assassinate her as she crossed across the Roan Kingdom.
Of course, Adara and Cale knew exactly who tried to assassinate her. But they had no plans of telling Rosalyn that since she would find out anyway. But, having hidden about half of her magic skills until the point she was almost assassinated she needed to escape using all of her skills. So she found it would be wiser to go to the Capital of the Roan Kingdom to get some information from an Information Guild rather than going back to the Breck Kingdom with no knowledge of who attacked her. Which was wiser, since the person who tried to assassinate her was a Grand Duke of the Breck Kingdom. Adara felt herself smiling on the inside. She causes quite the scene when she gets back to the Breck Kingdom. It was something she could never dream of doing as a Count's Daughter.
Choi Han continued on. "She was also heading to the Capital. Since we were heading to the same place, we were quite friendly with each other."
Adara blinked. They were friendly?
"Hmm? Friendly?" Cale asked, surprised.
"Yes," Choi Han said, looking away as if he was embarrassed. "I'm generally not one to talk to people if they don't talk to me, but I thought we might as well be friendly."
"You didn't really have to do that," she told him. "You just had to act like your usual self." You're messing with the plot even without our direct interference. Roslayn and Choi Han did not get friendly until they met Lock. Rosalyn, super wary of everyone around her after the assassination attempt, did not openly reach other to anybody. Choi Han, still scarred by what happened in Harris Village, did not approach people to become friends either. So to hear that they were friendly with each other was certainly messing up the plot.
Choi Han only nodded at her words, before adding, "It definitely was not something I would normally do, but I wanted to do things properly since this was my way to pay you two back."
She heard Cale sigh beside her and she expected it. She also agreed with it.
Choi Han also seemed to have expected it, since his expression did not change. "That group was planning on staying at the Village that Cale-nim and Adara-nim mentioned I would find Lock residing in for a few days before continuing onward on their journey."
That at least hasn't changed, she thought. The Merchant Group of 5 people was made by someone who had been helped by the Blue Wolf Tribe. The injured guard was actually a warrior from the Blue Wolf Tribe. The merchants deliberately chose the longer route from Puzzle City to the Capital to deliver daily necessities to the Blue Wolf Trobe and receive medicinal herbs in return.
However, since the Blue Wolf Village was deep into the mountains it was difficult and a bit of a waste of time to go all the way there. So they met at a tiny village underneath the mountains. The merchant, who by now was well over 60, had been doing this for the last 30 years.
"But something happened once we arrived at that small village," Choi Han started. Adara immediately perked up. "Around the time when we arrived at the village, I learned that the guard was a Beast Person. I also learned that the village they were planning to meet the Blue Wolf Tribe Member at to trade was the village that Cale-nim and Adara-nim mentioned as well."
She and Cale already knew that he would be able to deduce that much.
"That was why I believed that I just needed to follow the Tribe Member that was going to show up at the village to find Lock."
Adara knew that the Tribe Member never showed up. They couldn't have.
"But nobody showed up to make the trade. When that happened, the Merchant asked us for some extra help." Adara could already guess what the request would be so she was not surprised with his following words. "It was if we could go visit the Blue Wolf Village with the injured guard."
"And you agreed?" Cale asked, rhetorically.
Choi Han nodded. "Yes. I agreed. Rosalyn agreed as well."
This is almost the exact same as the Novel Cale read, except maybe for the fact that they are more friendly with each other but that shouldn't have this big of an impact, she thought, waiting to hear the rest of the story.
In the Novel that Cale read, Choi Han and Rosalyn arrive at the Blue Wolf Village with the Guard Warrior only to find the village ruined and burning while the Secret Organisation's Assassins tried to leave. Recalling what happened at Harris Village, Choi Han immediately starts attacking them. The Guard Warrior also starts to go crazy and attacks the assassins. But, having already been injured, he pushed it too hard and ended up dying.
At this point, Rosalyn, who was acting as if she was a beginner mage, saw Choi Han's real strength and asks him to officially escort her back to the Breck Kingdom. Of course, with a large sum of money added to the request.
This was also when they found Lock. The cowardly wolf boy, Lock. He had been hiding as the Chief told him to, as the rest of his family was being slaughtered. At this point in the story, Lock is essentially a cowardly weakling and a bit slow. According to Kim Rok Soo, most readers found him extremely frustrating. But he rose in the ranks of favourite character after his first Berserk Mode Transformation to the top 5. But why would the transformation happen a year earlier than the original? she wondered.
"Cale-nim, Adara-nim," Choi Han started.
"Yeah?" they asked.
"I saw something I was familiar with there."
"What did you see?"
Adara was looking intensely at Choi Han, her dark cold eyes boring into his soul. Choi Han swallowed and continued. "A white star and five red stars."
Adara felt her face stiffen and she let it. She should be disappointed at her lack of control, but it didn't quite matter. That means instead of the Assassin team who don't matter, the official members of the Secret Organisation came. What changed? The Blue Wolf Tribe was supposed to be assassinated, why are they sending in official members? I am missing so many contributing factors.
Choi Han watched as both Adara and Cale's expressions grew cold. He subconsciously clenched his fist as he remembered the Blue Wolf Village.
The houses had been simple and small, but they were all destroyed. The houses were burning, and the corpses that littered the ground were black as if they had been burnt to a crisp. The black corpses smelled like burnt flesh and blood was still pouring out of their open wounds. Most of the burnt bodies still had their eyes open.
"The Blue Wolf Village was already destroyed when we got there. Many of the Wolf Tribe Members were dead as well."
When Adara had heard from Cale that the Blue Wolf Tribe was assassinated, she hadn't believed him. The Blue Wolf Tribe was renowned for their strength, she couldn't think of a way they would all be able to have been killed. But once he explained how they had done it she understood it.
Wolves put their family, herd and friends before themselves, everyone knew that. Weak members who had not experienced their first Berserk Mode Transformation were protected by the rest of the Tribe. The Secret Organisation used that to their advantage. They took the weak members as hostages and used divine items to weaken the adult wolves. Once the adults were killed, they killed the young hostages. Some of the adults tried to attack them in a frenzy but they were kept back by Holy Water.
She was amazed by how strong the Organisation was since they had divine items and Holy Water like it was nothing. They were also smart since they used the fact that the Wolf Tribe were disowned by the gods to their advantage. But that only made her want to kill them more. They used young children to kill their mothers, fathers, and family members, while the children watched in horror like it was nothing too.
She was annoyed that the Novel hadn't specified which divine item it was, because then she would've been able to have a pretty close guess as to exactly what type of Organisation it was and by who it might've been led if only she knew what divine item they were capable of buying.
"Were they all dead?" she asked, her voice blunt. She had assumed they were, but it was already too different from the original story.
Choi Han shook his head and their expressions stiffened again. Choi Han observed their stiff expressions and their cold eyes, but couldn't get anything from them. "They were trying to capture the young children."
What? The young children? Why the young children? They were killed in the Novel, what changed? What use do they have of wolf children? her mind ran with questions and rejected possibilities.
"The Chief was dying when we arrived at the Entrance of the Blue Wolf Tribe's village. They were trying to take 10 children with them."
This is too different from the Novel, how much did we change?
"And the moment the Chief was about to fall, a young boy got in the way of the people trying to take the children."
She heard Cale hesitate. "Lock?"
"Yes, it was Lock."
Why did he appear? He stayed hidden when his siblings were slaughtered in the Novel, but he protects them now? Did he weigh kidnapping and killing on different levels? What made his natural wolf instincts flare up this time but not the other? She didn't get how it was so different.
"I stopped the assassin," Choi Han said. "No, I tried to kill them." He observed their faces again. He only saw Adara give a small nod of approval and he knew he had done well. He remembered well what Adara had said in the Inn the day after the rescued the Black Dragon, she had told him to go all out.
"Keep going," Cale said once he didn't continue.
He hesitated. "I realised that the people who did not have stars on their clothes used the same black power as the assassins I killed at Harris Village."
Their jaws dropped slightly at this. "It was the same power as the people who destroyed Harris Village?" Adara said, with only slight disbelief in her voice.
Choi Han nodded. "Yes."
Adara rested her head on her hand, sighing. She and Cale were acting as if it was their first time hearing this. Of course, it was all an act.
"Among them, there was just one person who had the white star with five red stairs on their chest. That person was the one who killed the guard." Tears started to come into Choi Han's eyes. "And that trash of a human was drinking the Wolf Tribe's blood. In the end, I could not capture or kill them. The ones I captured committed suicide, while the rest disappeared when the person with the stars used teleportation magic."
Adara almost let her jaw drop at this. The Blood-Drinking Mage? That fucker? The one who leads the Plaza Terror Incident? The Highest-Tier-Mage-and-Crazy-for-Blood fucker? Why is he trying to kidnap the children instead of killing them? None of it makes any sense.
She sent a brief look at Cale, he was also wondering what was happening. Is it because we saved the dragon? Were they going to use the dragon for something? She couldn't think of anything else that would affect the Secret Organisation so drastically. But Choi Han killed the dragon in the original too, that couldn't have been it.
"The Mage said something." Choi Han's voice was filled with barely controlled anger and bitterness. "'How disappointing. They were perfect as seeds. These young ones probably have even tastier blood'."
Seed? she wondered. What seed? What do they mean by seed? There are too many unknown factors for this to make any sense.
"And the children?" she asked. If the Guard, the Chief, and everyone else is dead, the only ones surviving are the 10 children and Lock.
Choi Han looked away at that question. He hadn't looked away from them the whole conversation, so Adara and Cale instantly knew what happened to them.
"They are at the inn," he reported quietly. He opened his mouth and closed it again, before finally adding on, "We came together with Rosalyn's magic."
Adara thought about the consequences of this action. It wasn't much, it just meant that she and Cale might have to start taking care of 10 wolf children. I swear to you, God of Death, I was joking when I talked about having a wolf. She felt a cold hand pat her head. She couldn't tell if it was reassurance or mockery.
"Cale-nim, Adara-nim, the merchant is also at the inn."
Adara and Cale sighed, their sighing synchronised. They leaned back into their chairs, watching Choi Han. He seemed to be done with his report. "You must be curious," they said at the same time, their voices complimenting each other.
Choi Han looked at the cold food that lay in between them, before answering. "Yes. I am curious."
He did not need to say what he was curious about, Adara and Cale knew it well enough.
Who were they?
Why were they doing such terrible things?
And why do Adara and Cale know about them?
~~~