Chapter 63: Cleaning Up
The Village Chief of Big Black Tree had a restless night.
In the period immediately after Niren was turned into a werewolf, the Chief also struggled to sleep. As soon as he closed his eyes, he felt a chilling draft on the back of his neck. To assuage the Chief's fears, Rience had given him a necklace made of a wolf's fang, claiming it sealed a fragment of Niren's soul and could be used to minimally control the werewolf.
Rience hadn't lied. The necklace could indeed issue commands to Niren, but only simple ones like 'kill XXX.'
Almost every time the Chief slept, he saw the bloody corpses of the tax collectors and the village being reduced to ash in a fiery inferno.
Those were truly tough days…
The Chief shifted his gaze toward the shelf in the bedroom, which was lined with helmets: five made of leather, and five made of dark iron. The leather helmets belonged to the tax collectors, who would never again ride in on their high horses to flaunt their authority. The dark iron helmets belonged to a group of men whose origins were unknown, though the Chief was certain they were mercenaries sent by the contractor. These men were much tougher than the tax collectors; they were armed with pikes and crossbows. However, such anti-human weapons were useless against Niren once he transformed into a werewolf.
After their deaths, no new helmets had been added to the shelf. And it was only from that time that he finally managed to sleep soundly.
Niren, just silently endure the pain of being a werewolf. The village will remember you.
With that thought, the Chief drifted back into a doze.
The Chief didn't know why he woke up. Perhaps something made a slight noise, perhaps a sudden draft blew in, or perhaps his sleep was just too light in his old age.
The Chief opened his eyes and found a blurred figure standing in the room.
"Who are you?!" With a speed rarely seen for a man his age, the Chief snatched the wolf-fang necklace from beneath his pillow. According to Rience, it sealed a fragment of Niren's soul and could make the werewolf suffer worse than death at any moment.
The intruder's figure was much taller than Niren, and the Chief didn't know how to use the necklace to inflict pain on the werewolf, but he gripped it tightly, like a drowning man clutching the only piece of straw.
"Don't be nervous. I'm here to kill you."
Arthur snapped his fingers, and a wisp of flame floated from his fingertip toward a candle. The room immediately brightened. He hadn't lowered his voice, as a sound-dampening barrier had already been established around them.
"It's you! The one who kills monsters for free!" the Chief cried out in surprise.
Arthur stared at the Chief's heavily wrinkled old face, pondering for a moment, and asked curiously: "You've never seen me before. How did you recognize me?"
The Chief spoke ingratiatingly: "The maidens and wives have been spreading the word these past few days, saying a handsome young man was coming to deal with the monster. So I recognized you at first glance."
"You were joking just now when you said you came to kill me, weren't you? I I can help you find out the monster's identity…"
Arthur shook his head: "No need. The werewolf was Niren, and his curse has already been lifted."
"I'm just here to kill you."
"What?!" The Chief's nasal voice instantly cracked: "Rience clearly said the transformation was permanent!"
Arthur didn't move his head but quickly glanced at the ceiling, which was studded with several animal hides. Did he really put stock in the words of an idiot who put a Luminos spell right over his head?
The Chief seemed ready to give up and lash out. His fingers, like dry wood, gripped the wolf-fang necklace fiercely as he roared:
"What right do you have to decide other people's fate!"
"What right do you have to decide this village's fate!"
"Do you know what Niren meant to this village!"
Arthur gently raised his palm, signaling for the man to continue his performance.
The Chief lamented with indignation:
"Our village belongs to the Principality of Maribor. To save effort, His Highness the Prince contracted out the right to collect taxes in all these surrounding villages."
"Those contractors enacted all kinds of taxes! Building a house required a window tax, wearing clothes required a linen tax, and they even taxed us when it rained! It was only thanks to Niren that those greedy tax collectors were driven away, allowing everyone to live like human beings!"
At this point, the elderly Chief seemed to reach the peak of his grief and indignation, tearing open his smooth, silk pajamas:
"You want to kill me, do it! Without the werewolf, the people in this village will die sooner or later anyway!"
"Pfft…"
Faced with the Chief's impassioned speech, Arthur couldn't help but laugh aloud.
He spread his hands and pointed around the bedroom, which was filled with various ornate furniture: "You speak as if it were true, but if this bedroom didn't have so many valuables, I might actually believe you."
"Let me ask you, you claim all this was for the village, but why was it Niren who was turned into the werewolf?"
The Chief stammered in response: "Rience insisted on choosing him! I couldn't help it!"
"Nonsense!"
Arthur angrily tossed a small booklet onto the Chief's forehead. Under the candlelight, the black leather cover of the booklet bore a few crooked words:
[WEREWOLF CATALYZATION MANUAL]
"What is this?" The Chief's face immediately changed color just from glancing at the booklet he had seen it before. After discussing and choosing the appropriate candidate, Rience had written Niren's name in that very booklet, right here in this room!
But he still reacted quickly, denying everything: "I can't read!"
Arthur was almost driven to laughter by the old man's shamelessness.
He stopped wasting words. He picked up a pillow and pressed it down firmly over the Chief's face.
The Chief struggled violently, with strength greater than some younger men. But in the face of Arthur's augmented physique, it was futile.
A few minutes later, Arthur dropped the barrier and bent down to pick up the small booklet from the floor.
This booklet was the experiment log he had recovered from Rience's pouch. The contents could only be described as explosive.
According to the records in the book, Rience had begun conducting experiments to transform ordinary people into werewolves in various parts of Temeria 13 years ago. The most recent entry was from not long ago:
[March 1263, Pontar Valley - Wildlands Village]
[Subject: Village Chief Nip, Young Adult]
[Lycanthropy Method: Wolf Fang Necklace, Blood Curse]
[Subject successfully transformed and exhibited astonishing destructive power. Pre-prepared control methods failed. Emergency evacuation...]
Considering the timeline, this was right around the time Arthur had crossed over. He wondered if there was any connection between the two events.
The patch of pale light in the sky was growing larger; soon, the most industrious villagers would be waking up.
It was time to leave. Arthur didn't bother trying to stage the scene. He decided to leave the villagers some buffer time with the Chief dead and the hunter's family gone, even an idiot would know that relying on the monster was no longer an option.
These people would either desperately conceal the news, living comfortably for as long as they could, or they would pack their belongings and flee before the tax contractors realized what had happened.
Of course, if they were truly stubborn enough to report the incident, Arthur could only give them a thumbs-up.
As for the wolf-fang necklace, the one supposedly sealing a fragment of Niren's soul, Arthur carefully pocketed it despite the fact that it no longer showed any magical fluctuation.
He planned to hand it over to Triss for analysis. What if it did contain a remnant of the hunter's soul?
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