3 – Yeongju System

I heard about the Grand Wolf.

The Grand Wolf who rules this area has a family.

Wolves operate in family units, so wolves are positioned under the Grand Wolf, a kind of ancestral figure.

Those wolves each managed, cared for, and protected the villages.

“So, only the Village Chiefs get to see the Guardian Deity in person. When you become a Village Chief, you go to meet the Guardian Deity.”

“So you don’t know what it looks like?”

“I heard what it looks like, but…”

“But?”

“It felt like they were lying. What I heard is this.”

The Grand Wolf was a very large wolf.

When it raises its head, its head goes above the trees.

It was covered in silver fur.

Its golden eyes can see through lies.

“That sounded like a lie?”

“The Village Chief isn’t very good at lying.”

“Hmm.”

I wanted to meet it.

After Amel ate the meal Leki made, she went to the village square.

People were tied up with their hands and feet behind their backs, and red bloodstains were on the ground. It looked like their Achilles tendons were cut.

It was easily healed, but,

“….”

“We couldn’t decide their fate without Amel’s decision. So we took measures to prevent even one of them from escaping.”

Leki said calmly.

The bandits who killed her brother.

Leki had no mercy for them.

“Where’s Leila?”

“She said she didn’t have the face to see Amel, so she went out to hunt wild boars. All we have to offer is what the bandits left behind, and I couldn’t possibly give that to Amel.”

Come to think of it, the breakfast I just ate was also brought from the previous village.

“Amel, how should we punish these rude people?”

“….”

Amel stood in front of the bandits.

Deciding their fate.

The bandits, hearing those words, looked at Amel with surprised and uneasy eyes.

Amel scanned them one by one.

She said softly.

“…There are people who don’t seem like bandits…”

“…They’re collaborators who hid the bandits…”

“….”

Even though there are children among them.

“Exclude the children and collaborators.”

“Yes? Understood.”

Leki, looking bewildered, gave instructions to the members.

When only the real bandits were left and everyone else was taken out, the number was halved from before.

The Village Chief was at the very front.

“What about me? I’m the Village Chief.”

“I heard you’re from the bandit group?”

“No, no! It’s not me! Someone’s lying to trap me!!”

“I wish that were the case. Leki.”

Leki answered, “Yes.”

“Get rid of all the bandits.”

“Understood.”

Leki gave the order.

The bandits tried to run away while tied up, but they couldn’t move while bound.

The Self-defense force members were surprisingly skilled at preparing for the execution. Not just killing them, but as an example.

“….”

It wasn’t a very pleasant sight.

The Self-defense force members came to drag the Village Chief away.

“Leave him. I have personal business with this guy.”

The Self-defense force members turned around,

And looked down at the Village Chief.

“You.”

“C-can’t you spare me?”

The Village Chief trembled as each bandit’s head was chopped off.

“Please spare m—… Keuk!”

“Where do you think you’re grabbing?!”

When the Village Chief tried to cling to Amel’s leg, Leki kicked him away.

When Amel didn’t allow it, he grabbed Leki’s leg and begged.

“I don’t want to die.”

“…Amel, what should we do?”

“….”

A grown adult is grabbing the leg of a girl who’s the same age as his daughter? His late-born youngest daughter?

It didn’t look good.

“Just one question.”

“Wh-whatever you want, I’ll tell you.”

“Where’s the Guardian Deity now?”

“I don’t know.”

“….”

“It’s true!”

Well, they said it ran away.

There’s no way the Guardian Deity would have specially told only him where it went.

“Then what does it look like?”

“What it looks like… you mean?”

“Yeah.”

Amel said the characteristics she heard from Leki.

A very large wolf.

Head above the trees.

Silver fur.

Golden eyes.

Lie detector.

“Is that right?”

“Wr-wrong.”

“Then what’s it really like?”

“….”

The Village Chief’s eyes rolled around.

You could hear his brain working.

“Why are you thinking so hard?”

“I-I don’t know if you’ll believe me.”

“I’ll believe you, so tell me.”

“….”

The Village Chief said hesitantly.

The Grand Wolf.

Was a girl with Wolf ears and a tail.

“…What?”

“I-it’s true! What it looks like…”

The Village Chief pointed at Leki with his hands tied behind his back.

“She was a younger girl than that one. It’s hard to believe, but she looked like… like… a Kobold’s bastard.”

Kobold?

Bastard?

“It’s only natural that that guy, the Village Chief, sugarcoated it with lies. It has no dignity. Those in charge should be solemn, but who would believe and follow it if it looked like a girl?”

“….”

The Village Chief wanted sympathy.

I don’t sympathize.

What’s wrong with a Wolf Girl?

“Then what about me? I’m just a girl, so I have no dignity or solemnity?”

“H-huk…!”

Amel called a nearby member and sent the Village Chief to the execution ground.

The Village Chief shouted that she would spare him! But Amel never made a promise or said she would spare him even once. What’s he talking about on his own?

From the Village Chief, she also heard the characteristics of the Wolf Girl called Grand Wolf.

‘Silver hair. Golden eyes.’

Silver fur.

I wondered where that description came from.

And there was one more wolf that matched the description of silver.

The Demon beast that Polia, Leila, and Molly worked together to defeat in Jemili Village. The Blade Wolf that had the Magic Fragment.

It was a Blade, but it was a wolf covered in silver fur and as big as a house.

So I asked.

“Are you talking about the wolf Demon beast we caught last time?”

“It’s silver, so I was just wondering.”

“Now that I hear it… it looked like the wolf that often visited our village. I don’t know because I only saw it from afar.”

“If it’s a wolf, it’s here.”

I took the Blade Wolf’s corpse out of the Inventory and placed it on the ground.

Leki stepped back in surprise, but then examined its face. He circled around the Blade Wolf and then looked at its face again.

“Yes. That’s right. It doesn’t seem like the Avatar of our village. Maybe it was the Avatar of Jemili Village? What do you think about having Polia examine it?”

Polia was from Jemili Village.

“Leave it alone.”

“I will.”

I put the Blade Wolf’s corpse back into the Inventory.

“But.”

“…?”

“What should we do with the people who collaborated with the bandits?”

“Collaborators.”

Is there really a need to kill them?

Amel thought of the Lord System.

Glance. Glance. Glance.

Glancing, she opened and closed the window and found ‘a certain list’ in the Lord System.

Resident List

The residents’ conditions were visible.

State of mind.

Emotional state.

State of happiness.

It was a fragmentary but good reference for dealing with the residents.

Leki was also there.

<Leki>

[Affiliation] Outsider, under Americano.

[Thought] How will you dispose of them?

[Emotion] Wants to kill the bandit collaborators.

[Happiness] 86

[Unhappiness] 58

There was other detailed information included, but it seemed like it would get complicated.

Anyway, looking at the state of the village residents, it seemed like they didn’t really want to help. It wasn’t good to waste the village’s manpower, so there was no need to kill them.

Still,

[Thought] Anxious and scared because I don’t know what punishment I’ll receive.

“What are the specialties of this village?”

“Specialties here? I’ll find out. This is a village I didn’t even know existed, so I don’t know what it’s famous for. I’ll find out and tell you.”

Mountain villages were closed off, and exchanges between villages were rare unless they were right next to each other.

“But why are you asking about specialties?”

“That’s…”

An explanation might be needed.

Because it’s a sensitive issue.

“Even if they’re collaborators, most of them were forced to help. So this is a problem that the entire village is responsible for.”

“That means…”

“Tell them to offer specialties. Take everything except what’s needed to make a living.”

“Understood.”

Leki leaves for a moment to deliver the instructions.

And Leila returned with Molly after hunting wild boars.

They started processing the bandits’ corpses and dismantling the wild boars, and through the Lord System, I could see the approximate situation through text.

[Owner] Territory Owner Grand Wolf

‘Territory Owner.’

I’ve met a Territory Lord before.

Territory Owner Ogre was quite strong.

Even though my condition wasn’t good at the time, he was an opponent I had lost to once. His physique was overwhelmingly superior, and he could even erase Magical Power.

It was a time when I couldn’t use Sword Aura or Sword Aura, so I imitated Sword Aura with Magic, and even if I could use Sword Aura, it would have been erased by Magical Power erasure.

He was a troublesome opponent in many ways.

It had become a memory before I knew it.

‘It hasn’t even been a few months.’

Anyway, if the Territory Owner Grand Wolf’s Strength is similar to the Territory Owner Ogre’s, it will be difficult to win without being careless.

Then someone approached.

Leila knelt down.

“Thank you!”

“…For what?”

She suddenly knelt down.

She knelt and hit her head on the ground.

Her green hair flew forward and spread wide on the ground.

“Thank you for your generous measures. Even though I caused trouble for Amel, you only dealt with the bandits and left the others alone. Amel, thank you very much.”

“…Those people would have been in danger if they hadn’t listened to the bandits.”

Amel raised Leila up.

“The problem is that I wasn’t trustworthy. I should have appeared in an easy-to-understand form from the start. The bandit leader might still be alive, so from those people’s perspective, they made a wise choice.”

“But I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. If you’re that sorry, just try to look good to me in the future.”

She patted the green hair as if dusting it off.

“But you’re not the Village Chief’s daughter, so why are you apologizing?”

“…I’m the Village Chief’s half-sister. I was originally supposed to become the Village Chief, but… it ended up like this.”

“….”

So that’s how it was.

Anyway, in Leila’s village, a celebration of escaping from the bandits continued.

Rocks Village.

Leila’s village was filled with people’s voices all night long.

People who had been tormented by bandits and starved filled their bellies with wild boar meat.

Amel returned home.

I felt it during the competition too, but I’m not the type to enjoy festivals. Leki also returned with me, and,

“Would you like a drink?”

He asked, showing the alcohol.

A drink before bed wouldn’t be bad.

I received the glass and took a sip.

A sip.

I sat blankly at the table and touched the Lord System.

I could still only read information as a Lord Candidate.

I estimated what was possible with this system and guessed that it was about conquering land as my territory.

Conquering land.

Capture the owner and occupy that land.

To do that, what’s needed is the Territory Lord of the land.

I had to capture the Grand Wolf, who was classified as a Territory Lord. They said the Grand Wolf ran away, but according to the Lord System’s explanation, the Grand Wolf couldn’t have gone that far.

It loses Strength if it leaves the territory.

If a certain amount of time passes, the qualification is transferred to the candidate.

But since there’s been no particular reaction from the candidate qualification so far, it means the Grand Wolf is within the territory.

‘Did they say it took the form of a young woman?’

I took a sip of alcohol.

Wolf Girl.

Whether she can be called a girl is another matter,

The Grand Wolf in the form of a Wolf Girl seems to resemble a Kobold’s bastard.

Judging by the nuance, it’s a form with Wolf ears and a tail on a Human body.

If so, then,

‘Does that mean that the things called Kobold’s bastards are also in the form of Wolf Girls?’

I heard something good.

Animal ears are good.

I thought of Gumiho.

She was the only Beast-Human I had seen so far.

I heard there’s also a Beast-Human Hero, but he didn’t participate in the competition.

‘Well, I’ll probably meet him someday.’

“Haa…”

I feel softened.

Should I say moist?

Should I say damp?

Should I say absurd?

I got drunk with just a few sips of alcohol.

Anyway,

“Conquering land, huh…”

Sounds fun.

I don’t know what’s good about doing it, but first, I should capture the Grand Wolf and take ownership of the territory.