Beastmen Alliance

, Uh, um… Haru-nim. Do you really think this outfit is okay on me? It’s too… flashy.”

Inside the rattling carriage, Darkness fidgeted with the hem of her dress, looking uneasy.

Before departing, we disguised Darkness according to our plan to pose as ordinary merchants.

But along the way, Elize and Bloodmere got carried away with dressing her up, so Darkness ended up looking like a rich young lady trying to imitate a merchant.

“It’s fine. Anyway, just looking at your face, no one will think you’re a dangerous element. Just sit still.”

“Hoe-eh…”

Darkness quickly became dejected at my blunt reply.

Next to me sat I, dressed in mercenary garb, and across from me sat Bloodmere, transformed into an elegant noble lady, with Elize in a maid’s outfit attending to her.

“Oh my, Demon King-nim. Don’t worry. You look absolutely lovely to me, you know? If anything happens, this Bloodmere will take care of everything for you.”

Bloodmere fluttered her fan, flattering Darkness. Of course, her gaze was subtly directed at me. That cunning vampire.

Elize, seemingly displeased with Bloodmere’s actions, stared coldly out the window.

Our first destination was the beastmen alliance city located in the northwest of the continent, ‘Hybrid City.’

During the Demon King War in the past, the beastmen here were divided into carnivorous beastmen who sided with the demons and herbivorous beastmen who sided with the humans. That animosity must still remain. Conquering a divided place is fundamental to conquest.

Before long, the city gates appeared before us.

“Halt! Identify yourselves!”

A hulking rhinoceros beastman, the captain of the guard, shouted in a booming voice.

Bloodmere elegantly leaned out of the carriage window.

“We are merchants from the south. We’ve come to trade some herbs and silk.”

The guard captain checked the pass she presented, his gaze sweeping through the carriage. And then it paused on Darkness.

“You there, miss. Lift your head for a moment.”

“Y-Yes?!”

Darkness startled and raised her head. Through the deeply pressed hood, small, adorable black horns were slightly revealed.

Crap. That idiot Demon King.

The guard’s eyes narrowed.

“Those horns… what are they? I’ve never seen that shape before. Suspicious.”

An ominous atmosphere. I saw Bloodmere moving her hand to cast a spell.

That’s when it happened.

“Meeeeeeh-“

“……?”

A look of bewilderment crossed the guard captain’s face.

Darkness clenched her fists tightly, squeezed her eyes shut, and shouted once more.

“Meeeeeeh-! I, I’m a sheep beastman! Meeeeh! Are you looking down on me because I’m small? This is a racially discriminatory remark, you know!!”

Silence.

The air inside the carriage froze. Bloodmere covered her mouth with her fan to suppress her bursting laughter, and Elize pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Eing, seeing how dumb she looks, she probably isn’t dangerous. Pass!”

The rhinoceros guard captain stared at Darkness for a long time, then waved his hand dismissively as if he had lost interest.

“Hehe… Haru-nim, how was it? I did as I learned from Haru-nim!”

In any case, thanks to the Demon King’s desperate sheep imitation, we were able to enter the city safely.

***

The first impression of Hybrid City was, as its name suggested, a bizarre disharmony itself.

The streets radiating from the central square were neatly organized, and the roadsides were lined with fancy shops. Herbivorous beastmen like rabbits and deer elegantly strolled the streets, enjoying shopping.

On the surface, it was an idyllically peaceful city.

But if you looked a little closer, you could see the shadows hidden behind it.

In every corner of the street, burly bison or hippopotamus beastman guards were watching their surroundings with fierce eyes. Their gazes were invariably directed at the carnivorous beastmen cautiously passing by.

Carnivorous beastmen like wolves, foxes, and leopards all looked around nervously and appeared intimidated. Some were even wearing muzzles, seemingly enforced by law.

Posters like ‘Reward for Reporting Dangerous Beastmen!’ and banners promoting how violent and ferocious carnivorous beastmen were were openly displayed on the walls.

“This is strange…”

Darkness murmured in a small voice.

“Why… why are they treating each other like that, even though they’re the same beastmen?”

“Who knows? If you’re curious, it’d be faster to find out directly.”

As soon as I dropped off our luggage at the inn, I tasked Bloodmere with gathering information. Her vampire network was perfect for this kind of thing.

Sure enough, in less than half a day, Bloodmere had unearthed the city’s ugly truth.

“It’s as expected. After the Demon King War, the carnivorous beastmen who sided with the defeated demons were branded as ‘potential criminals.’ On the other hand, the herbivorous beastmen who sided with the humans seized the vested interests.”

The result was the current discriminatory society.

Carnivorous beastmen couldn’t find decent jobs, were banned from nighttime travel, and were constantly monitored by herbivorous beastmen. They were even immediately detained based on false accusations.

“This is too much! This isn’t right!”

Darkness cried out, teary-eyed.

“The world is too complicated to judge right and wrong.”

I stood up from my seat.

“Let’s go see for ourselves. Where they live.”

Our destination was the slum located on the outskirts of the city, the residential area for carnivorous beastmen.

Unlike the glamorous central square, the slum was filled with stench and despair. Between the crumbling buildings, gaunt dog beastman children stared at us with blank eyes.

I handed a basket of ham I was carrying to one of the children. The child’s eyes widened in disbelief, and then they hurriedly stuffed the ham into their mouth.

Seeing this, other children swarmed around.

“Haru-ssi…!”

Darkness looked at me with pitiful eyes.

“We can’t help them all. This is like pouring water into a bottomless pit.”

“But…!”

At that moment, one of the skeletons I had released for scouting appeared from the alley.

Then, the eyes of one of the hungry dog beastman children sparkled.

“Bones!”

The child cheered and ran towards the skeleton’s leg bone.

“Wagjak! Wagjak!”

Golgolgol?!

The skeleton shook its leg in panic, but the child desperately clung on and gnawed at the bone. Other dog beastmen couldn’t resist their instincts and began to rush towards the moving bones.

In an instant, the skeletons were reduced to toys for the dog beastmen. One skeleton had its tailbone bitten and was spun around, while another was thrown like a frisbee.

Everyone was momentarily speechless at the awkward and bizarre sight.

And soon, giggles and laughter erupted from here and there. For a brief moment, vitality returned to the slum that had been filled with despair.

That’s when it happened.

“What are you doing there.”

A low, rough voice.

At the entrance of the alley, a wolf beastman stood.

Shaggy gray fur, sharp eyes. But instead of the radiance of a beast, his eyes held a deep sense of powerlessness and fatigue.

He was pulling a garbage collection cart.

Bloodmere whispered beside me.

“That’s ‘Grayfang.’ The chieftain of the Gray Wolf tribe who once led the Demon King’s elite beastman unit.”

I slowly walked towards him.

“Grayfang.”

His steps stopped. Gray eyes slowly turned to me.

“Human?”

His voice was more weary than wary.

“I’m Haru, the new Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon King’s army. You’re Grayfang, aren’t you?”

His eyes flickered slightly. But soon returned to a blank expression.

“Grayfang… I abandoned that name a long time ago. My name now is just a cleaner.”

“The chieftain of the Gray Wolf tribe abandons his name so easily?”

“Chieftain?”

He let out a scoff. But there was sadness mixed in his laughter.

“Chieftain… what kind of chieftain am I when there’s no tribe to protect, no warriors to lead? Now I’m just an old dog who thinks about nothing but making a living day by day.”

“Even if a new Demon King has come, are you just going to keep your tail between your legs like that?”

“…Demon King?”

Darkness cautiously waved her hand.

“Hello! I’m Darkness, the new Demon King! Nice to meet you!”

Grayfang’s gaze turned to Darkness. A girl with small, adorable horns was smiling awkwardly and waving her hand.

“……This is the Demon King?”

Grayfang’s eyes narrowed.

“Hoe? Is something wrong?”

Darkness tilted her head.

“Ha!”

He shook his head.

“This little kid is the Demon King? Jokes have their limits. The previous Demon King shook the very earth with his presence alone…”

“Ah, I really am the Demon King! Should I prove it? Darkness of… darkness of dark… how do I do it again?”

Darkness waved her hands in the air in a panic, but all that came out was a small purple flame.

Grayfang looked at me with a completely deflated expression.

“Demon King’s army? World domination? Again? It’s laughable. Do you even know what happened to us after the last Demon King died?”

His voice grew increasingly rough.

“Half of my tribe died. The other half scattered. All the survivors are treated like criminals and do this kind of work!”

“Losing isn’t shameful. What’s shameful is giving up.”

“Giving up?”

Anger flashed in his eyes.

“What do you know? Do you even know how many of my people I’ve lost, how many families have been torn apart?!”

I took another step closer.

“Look at the situation now. You’re seeing firsthand how you carnivorous beastmen are being treated. Do you think things will get better if you just stay still like this?”

At my last words, Grayfang barely raised his head. His gray eyes held no emotion. They were simply empty.

He let out a hollow laugh.

“So you’re saying we should start another war? That our children, our families should be dragged to the battlefield again to die?”

His voice wasn’t angry. It was utter resignation.

“We fought. For the Demon King’s army, for our pride. And what’s left? The label of traitors, and this pile of garbage.”

The other beastmen around us were the same. They just shook their heads, looking at us with hopeless eyes.

“That’s right. We’re tired now.”

“Fighting won’t change anything.”

A toothless wolf. No, a wolf who has pulled out his own teeth.

This won’t do. What these people need isn’t pity.

Hope? That’s a luxury too.

What these people, mired in powerlessness, need is a target for their burning rage.

I guess I’ll have to find that target for them.