15 Recollection 1
Why did it come to that—I was still young then, but I remember it vaguely.
At first, our clan lived in harmony with those around us.
We never caused any harm. Rather, there were things only we could do, and we were relied upon quite often.
Certainly, some humans viewed us with suspicion. However, there wasn’t much reason behind it.
“They’re different from us, so they must be dangerous.”
Those people avoided us for such vague reasons.
However, since few humans agreed with such thinking, there were no particular problems.
At that time, anyway.
What was the trigger, I wonder?
I believe it started with bad weather that year, leading to poor harvests. Since we lived primarily by hunting rather than farming, we weren’t affected as much.
Weather is unstable by nature. It can’t possibly be the same every year.
But sometimes, people seek reasons for such things.
One of the humans who viewed us as dangerous said:
“It’s their fault.”
I couldn’t understand it. Why would bad weather be our fault?
In fact, I asked about this once.
The answer that came back was unexpected.
“Because you believe in a heretical god, our god has become angry,” they said.
It was true that we believed in a different god from them.
This stemmed from our different histories.
That said, we weren’t particularly devout followers of our god, and they weren’t exactly fervent believers either.
Both sides had relaxed faith, and when there were festival ceremonies, we would visit each other and enjoy them together.
But they said even that level of faith was important.
“Ridiculous.”
Every one of us thought so.
We considered it a trivial accusation.
However—that year, not a single one of them participated in our festival.
We also sensed the ominous atmosphere and didn’t participate in their festival.
Thus, our exchanges gradually ceased, and various inconveniences arose. But originally, we had lived independently of each other. It wasn’t unbearable. At least not for us.
They felt differently. Bad things tend to continue, and an epidemic began to spread.
They suffered from the disease, but ironically, thanks to our severed relations, our clan was able to escape the epidemic.
But apparently, they didn’t like that.
Those who were hostile toward us said:
“They spread the disease.”
“The proof is that only they haven’t caught it.”
“They’re trying to destroy us.”
It was nothing but fault-finding. If they had thought calmly, they should have realized it was a lie.
However, with continued bad weather causing food shortages and the epidemic bringing unfortunate deaths, they were no longer thinking rationally.
Then an incident occurred.
A murder happened in their town. The victim was killed in a brutal manner, and at the scene, something resembling ominous characters was reportedly written in the victim’s blood.
This crime was immediately blamed on us. Even though we had no such cruel customs.
It was probably a conspiracy orchestrated by those who despised us.
However, we couldn’t make excuses. We weren’t even given a chance to defend ourselves.
Words no longer reached them, and they took up swords, those without swords took up hoes, and those without hoes picked up stones.
It was a bizarre sight. They took no orderly action but simply formed a mob and headed toward our settlement.
We fled. There were opinions to fight back, but there were far too many of them.
Thus began the history of persecution.
Our clan fled to the borderlands to escape them, but they came even there after a long time.
“You are demons,” they said. “We must kill every last one of you.”
Looking back, there are indeed legends that our ancestors were evil. These were old legends that nobody cared about when we were coexisting. Moreover, they were just legends—we didn’t know if they were true.
But suddenly, they believed them. They believed that if they didn’t destroy us, they would be destroyed themselves. It seemed like nothing but madness.
Whenever we were found, we were killed without question.
Of course, we didn’t just take it lying down. Our clan members fought back many times and defeated many pursuers.
But there were too many pursuers. No, they weren’t even something as mild as pursuers. It felt as if the entire world had turned against us.
One by one, our comrades decreased.
Some died fighting bravely, others were captured and killed.
Either way, after death, they were cruelly displayed.
Without distinction of age or gender. Acquaintances died, friends died, grandfather died, father died, mother died, siblings died.
In the end, we had no choice but to become the demons they said we were.
Because we were driven to become so.
We, the werewolf clan.
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My entire body aches. It’s been a while since I felt pain like this. Did I mess up again somehow?
When I faintly opened my eyes, what came into view was the face of a woman with blue eyes peering down at me.
“It seems you’ve awakened.”
“Laksh?”
That voice stimulated my hazy consciousness, and I remembered that this woman was a greedy merchant.
“What happened to that… the woman with reddish-brown hair and green eyes?”
My memory was still muddled, and I couldn’t recall her name properly.
“If you mean Emma, she was taken away.”
Murakumo answered with an uncomfortable voice.
When I turned my face toward the voice, Murakumo was sitting in a chair. Across the table from him, Yuri was also sitting in a chair. Yuri had his eyes closed, paying no attention to me. As usual, he was probably in the middle of using some kind of magic.
“…Emma… Emma?”
Finally, my consciousness cleared, and I remembered what I had been doing before ending up like this.
“That’s right, Emma! Damn that black knight bastard! He was targeting Emma!”
The moment my memory became clear, anger came rushing in.
I instinctively tried to get up from the bed, and intense pain shot through my entire body.
“Ow! Ow!”
I curled up my body to endure the pain. My back hurt especially.
“Of course it hurts. You were shot full of holes by guns, like a beehive. On top of that, your stomach was pierced through. Even for a werewolf, it’s a miracle you’re alive.”
Murakumo was exasperated.
“I’m sure the healing medicine I brought was good. I’ll be billing you for that, though.”
Laksh winked seductively with one eye.
This woman probably helped me because she was after my hidden gems. Due to my profession, I’m good at hiding things. This woman knows full well how difficult it would be to search for gems in the rubble of that collapsed fortress.
“Tch, a debt is a debt. I’ll pay you back with interest eventually.”
At my words, the female merchant’s blue eyes showed a gleam of desire.
The medicine Laksh brought certainly worked. Her merchandise is expensive, but she stocks items worth their price. Her timely arrival was definitely fortunate.
“So where is this place?”
It was an unfamiliar location, but with old stone walls and various wooden furniture. Neither spacious nor cramped. It looked like just another ordinary private house. Actually, I had other hideouts prepared near that fortress, but they should have been burned down in that fire.
“One of my hideouts. There are various types of merchants, you know. I keep several places like this secured. They serve as warehouses and can be used as trading relay points.”
“I figured as much.”
I’ll probably be charged rent for this house later too. In the current situation, it’ll be almost whatever price she names. Thinking about that gave me a mental headache, and I held my head.
“Oh my, are you alright? Shall I prepare some medicine for headaches too?”
Laksh, who was the cause, kindly called out to me.
She probably didn’t want me to die before she got paid.
“…I’m fine. So how many days has it been? How much time has passed since Emma was taken?”
“Ten days. Claude has been sleeping for ten days. You were having quite the nightmares.”
Yuri, who had kept his eyes closed until now, finally opened them and turned toward me.
“Ten days… Then Emma is…”
“In the imperial capital. Getting her back will be quite difficult. I tried to peek in with magic, but there are multiple layers of protective barriers. I can’t tell what’s happening inside at all.”
It seemed Yuri had been trying to observe the imperial capital with magic.
“Don’t worry about Emma. Cat is with her.”
Murakumo put his fist to his chest and vouched for Emma’s safety.
“Cat, huh… Well, it’s better than nothing, I suppose.”
I thought about the small animal that was probably with Emma.
TLNOTE
While waiting for the next chapter, I encourage you, dear readers, to explore other masterpieces written by Daken-sensei :
- Monster Meat Led Me to the Throne
- Who killed the Hero?
- The Wicked Princess and 12 Eyes – The Strongest Squires and the Legendary Evil Woman, the Second Time in Her Life
- The Suspects of Necromancy
- The Exiled Merchant Saves the World with the Power of Gold (translated by my friend meerkat)
- The Last Magic (translated by my friend narwhal)
Also check out my friend Localizermeerkat for more LN translations!
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