Ch. 154 Heroine – Chapter 154
by AfuhfuihgsChapter 154
Carlos, The Hunting Dog.
He was a hunting dog.
Not as a metaphor, but literally raised as one.
If his master told him to bark, he barked. If told to bite, he tore into flesh.
If commanded to crawl, he crawled. If ordered to chase, he pursued.
A predator bred for the hunt.
A dagger aimed at the Celestial Corps.
A hound trained to tear into the throat of a captain.
The Family had long recognized Carlos’s potential.
A born monster. A prodigy of talent. The embodiment of combat sense.
If raised correctly, he could become the strongest hunting dog, capable of even taking down a captain.
Thus, the Family carefully nurtured him.
Harsh training. Supernaturals monitored his mind, pushing him to his limits.
They killed his emotions, ensuring he remained calm in any situation.
They instilled ideology, brainwashing him to sincerely follow the Family’s beliefs.
Carlos, who had been abducted by the Family at the age of 8, was raised by them for 8 years.
The time he had lived as an ordinary orphan was now equal to the time he had spent as the Family’s hunting dog.
He was still a child, his identity not yet fully formed.
It was no difficult task for adults to reshape him as they pleased.
And so, Carlos became a hunting dog.
A sharpened tool of the hunt, honed by the Family.
But the Family made one critical mistake.
Carlos was not a dog.
He was a wolf.
A predator with wild instincts.
Wolves are different from dogs.
A wolf that loses its wildness becomes a dog.
But Carlos had never once lost the wildness he was born with.
He had never been tamed.
He had always bided his time, waiting for the right moment.
From beginning to end, he had always been a wolf.
“I heard the Hunting Dogs was the foremost assassination squad of the Supernatural Liberation Front…”
The year Carlos turned 16, a branch of the Family was attacked by the Celestial Corps.
The stationed Hunting Dogs were annihilated, unable to withstand a single woman.
“For hunting dogs, you’re far too weak. Your fangs have been pulled, and your claws have been clipped. Calling a bunch of obedient mutts ‘hunting dogs’… The Family has truly fallen. I had high expectations, hearing that the Hunting Dogs of the past were so powerful that even captains were wary of them. But seeing this, I just feel like a fool for expecting anything.”
With a tone of disbelief or perhaps mockery, the towering woman looked down at the hunting dogs sprawled on the ground.
They had been torn apart, shredded, and crushed.
Flesh and blood were scattered chaotically.
The captain of the 6th Division.
Her epithet: the King of Beasts.
“But…”
Her eyes gleamed with interest.
Amid the hunting dogs writhing on the ground, one boy stood tall.
His condition was far from intact.
His right arm was grotesquely twisted, and his left leg was crushed as if run through a press.
Yet, even in such a state, the boy refused to fall.
“There’s one, huh. A real hunting dog.”
Among the flock of sheep wearing the guise of hunting dogs, there was one true predator.
His left hand, covered in gray fur, gripped someone’s throat.
A member of the Hunting Dogs who had once been his comrade but was now merely an enemy.
Once the man choked and passed out, the boy tossed him aside like trash.
The boy spoke.
“Only you’re left.”
Now, there was only one prey left.
The monster of the Celestial Corps.
Carlos had always bided his time, waiting.
Waiting for the moment to escape the Family.
Even if it meant twisting his own mind.
Even if it meant feigning madness to deceive the psychics.
He had waited and waited for 8 years.
And then, the opportunity came.
The attack by the Celestial Corps.
A once-in-a-lifetime chance.
Carlos bared the fangs he had kept hidden.
He chased, bit, and tore into the Family.
The wolf, freed from its leash, shed its dog’s skin.
He began to hunt the fools who had called themselves his masters.
All that remained was the captain of the Celestial Corps before him.
There was no way she would let him go, a member of the Family.
If caught, he would undoubtedly be locked in a cold cage again.
Only the master would change.
If he could just take down this woman, he would be free.
“No, you’re not a hunting dog.”
She let out a soft chuckle.
Look at the boy’s blue-gray eyes.
How could those be the eyes of a tamed dog?
“You’re a wolf.”
Those were the eyes of a wolf.
The eyes of a predator, gleam with wildness.
The gaze of a beast yearning for freedom.
The young beast glared at the captain of the 6th Division.
The King of Beasts stared back at the gray wolf.
The difference in strength was incomparable.
His injuries were severe.
The battle was already decided.
Yet, he showed no fear.
The wolf bared its fangs at the far larger predator.
“…Hmph.”
She let out a short snort.
That laugh was the signal. Without hesitation, Carlos charged.
Thud.
With a pain as if his skull had been shattered, he was slammed into the ground.
A single blow was enough to make his consciousness fade.
The strength left Carlos’s blue-gray eyes.
Yet, with the last of his strength, he bit down hard on the captain’s ankle.
“An untamed wolf…”
Before his consciousness flickered out, he heard her mutter.
When Carlos opened his eyes again, he was in a military hospital under the Celestial Corps.
What followed was rather unexpected.
He had expected to be interrogated and put on trial.
He had assumed they would extract all the information he had and throw him in prison.
But instead, Carlos was placed under protective supervision, his freedom not entirely restricted.
“I’m Elijah, captain of the 6th Division of the Celestial Corps.”
The reason for this, Carlos would hear directly from her.
The captain of the Celestial Corps had personally become his guardian.
“Why?”
Carlos asked. Though he omitted the context, the doctor’s explanation was clear enough. Why had she become his guardian? Why had she helped him?
Carlos expressed both doubt and wariness. There’s no such thing as a favor without a price. If someone showed him kindness, they would undoubtedly expect something in return.
“Because you’re a wolf.”
“?”
“A wolf tied to a leash is a pitiful sight.”
Though he couldn’t understand her reasoning, Carlos found himself deeply indebted to her. Thanks to her, he was able to find the orphanage he had lived in before his abduction. Despite being labeled a troublemaker, he was able to enroll in the academy.
All of it was possible because of Elijah’s protection.
The past few months since he had escaped the Family’s shackles.
The time he had spent returning to and living in his spiritual home.
These were truly precious days for Carlos.
So valuable and cherished that sometimes he was afraid it might all be a dream.
“…A smell.”
Because of that, Carlos’s expression twisted.
A fierce killing intent surged in his blue-gray eyes.
The veins on his skin, hidden beneath gray fur, bulged.
His muscles tensed, and his tail bristled.
“The smell of the Family.”
It was a scent he hadn’t encountered in a long time.
There was no way he could mistake it.
He might confuse other scents, but he would never mistake the smell of the Family.
Carlos gritted his teeth.
Not long after Lucia entered the exhibition hall, Carlos followed her. He had left Anna with Arin, the class president of Class A.
He would have preferred to take Anna to a safe place himself, but he was worried about Lucia, who had entered the exhibition hall alone, where a spatial rift had opened.
The sensation of severing her limbs still lingered on his fingertips. He remembered the hot tears streaming down her pale cheeks. The sound of her voice, trembling as if it might break, echoed in his mind.
His hesitation was long, but once he made a decision, he acted swiftly.
Carlos ran through the exhibition hall without delay.
A wolf has a keen sense of smell.
He tracked Lucia using the scent he remembered.
However, his relentless sprint soon came to a halt.
Amid the thick scent of blood, there was an unforgettable, intense aroma.
‘The Family.’
Are they here?
Memories from a few months ago resurfaced.
His body remembered the days when he was called a Hunting Dog.
Carlos stood at a crossroads, clenching his fist.
To the left. Lucia’s scent.
To the right. The scent of the Family.
Which way should he go?
Should he go to help Lucia?
Or should he hunt the Family?
They never move without a reason.
If they’re here, they must be plotting something.
Though it’s unclear what it is, he couldn’t just leave them be.
‘…Eugene.’
Carlos recalled that name.
One of the two people who Lucia had gone to find, saying she was worried about them.
He knew of that boy. He was a celebrity, often talked about in the academy.
Even Carlos, who had no interest in such things, had heard the news of Eugene.
A rising star who had fought and even slain high-rank monsters.
Though he wasn’t alone, the fact that a first-year had done it was astonishing.
Carlos could also face a high-rank monster if he risked his life.
But whether he could win was a different matter.
High-rank monsters were creatures even the veterans of the Celestial Corps struggled with.
The fact that Eugene had fought such a being and returned unscathed spoke volumes about his strength.
‘If the rumors are true… he probably doesn’t need my help.’
Carlos made his decision.
He turned to the right.
‘I’m sorry.’
Repeating an apology that would never reach her.
The wolf began his hunt.
◈
A spatial rift had opened in the plaza of District 6.
The entire nation was still abuzz with the recent tragedy in District 4.
Amid this, news of another spatial rift opening in a single-digit district spread like wildfire.
This spatial rift was highly unusual.
It had opened underground.
Normally, spatial rifts open in the sky.
Monsters raining down like a storm.
That was the typical invasion pattern of the otherworldly creatures.
But this time was different.
Not in the sky, but underground.
A spatial rift had opened in the exhibition hall beneath the plaza.
Of course, there were occasional exceptions.
Once, a spatial rift had even opened in the ocean.
But that was possible because it wasn’t a place where spiritual veins flowed.
This had happened in District 6, a high-level spiritual vein zone, and underground where the spiritual veins ran.
It was a crisis that nearly resulted in a tragedy surpassing that of District 4.
Given the nature of the underground environment with limited exits, the damage would have been unimaginable.
Fortunately, the scale of the spatial rift wasn’t too large, and citizens had evacuated beforehand, so the damage was relatively minor compared to the suddenness of the situation.
Students from the academy who happened to be on-site fought the monsters and protected the people, and the Celestial Corps arrived shortly after to bring the situation under control.
Of course, “relatively minor” doesn’t mean there were no casualties.
Dozens of victims were reported in the tragedy.
The number included the dead, injured, and missing.
Those whose bodies weren’t found were classified as missing, but if they had disappeared at the site of the spatial rift, the outcome was obvious.
And among the missing was one girl.
A first-year student from Class A of the academy.
Lucia.
After that day.
She was never seen again.
Author Note
A/N (Author’s note):
If Carlos hadn’t followed the scent of the Family, he would have ended up like Eugene.It was the right decision to follow his desire for revenge.
Translator Note
T/N (Translator’s note):
Oh hey Carlos POV.
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