Beastmen Union (2)

A sense of helplessness spreads more terrifyingly than any epidemic.

Looking at Grayfang and the wolf beastmen’s empty eyes, I could only let out a hollow laugh. They had lost the will to fight itself.

Whispering hope to these people is deception. I need to restore their anger. And a clear target to unleash that anger on.

“I’m changing the investigation target.”

As soon as I returned to the inn, I declared.

“The ones we need to fight aren’t these listless wolves. We need to find the bastards who made them like this.”

I spread out the city map on the table.

“Bloodmere. You take charge of the upper-class social circles. Dig up dirt on the big shots of the city. Especially that goat bastard called ‘Silverwool,’ the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce. He looks awfully greedy.”

“Oh my, that’s my specialty. I heard he’s especially weak against pretty girls, just leave it to me.”

Bloodmere smiled seductively.

“Elise. You investigate around City Hall. The mayor’s, ‘Goldenhorn’s,’ movements, corruption, weaknesses, anything is fine. Find the truth hidden behind the official records.”

“Understood, Haru-nim.”

Elise nodded silently.

“Then what about me? What should I do?”

Darkness looked up at me with anxious eyes.

“You… just follow me around.”

“Hoe-eh.”

***

The investigation progressed faster than expected. As the experts in each field moved, the stench of the city began to reek.

Darkness and I confirmed another shadow of the city.

“It’s not like… we’re happy either.”

A small rabbit beastman ahjussi complained with tears welling up in his eyes in front of us.

“Not all herbivores are the same. We small, powerless animals… are always pushed around by the big guys like bison and rhinos. We pay more taxes, receive less support… Even if it’s unfair, there’s nowhere to complain.”

“That’s…”

Darkness’s face twisted with sadness.

“It was trash, as expected.”

Bloodmere was the first to bring a report.

“That old goat Silverwool is paying carnivore beastmen less than half the minimum wage while exploiting them. If they complain, he threatens them by saying, ‘I’ll make sure you can never work in this city again.'”

She put down her teacup.

“On the other hand, he’s blatantly providing favors to young and pretty herbivore beastmen merchants. Especially those rabbit beastmen, or so I hear.”

What a disgusting old man.

Soon after, Elise also returned. Her expression was even colder than usual.

“Mayor Goldenhorn. On the surface, he shouts ‘peace and harmony,’ but behind the scenes, he was leading discriminatory policies against carnivore beastmen to solidify his political position. I’ve secured some of the ledgers of bribes he’s been receiving.”

Just as expected. The privileged always sacrifice the weak to fill their own bellies.

All the pieces were in place. The enemy of this city was clear.

“Now, shall we go find the last piece of evidence?”

That night, I took Darkness to City Hall.

“Why are we here? Aren’t we going to get caught?”

“Be quiet. If we get caught, we’ll really get caught.”

I looked up at the high walls of City Hall. The patrol routes of the guards on watch, the location of the magic detection devices.

The optimal route was drawn in my head.

‘Thank you, Niya. I’ll be a righteous thief again today.’

Niya’s face flashed by for a moment. Whenever I do something un-heroic, she’s always the greatest teacher.

I lightly jumped over the wall and hid myself in the shadows. Darkness grabbed the rope I threw down and barely managed to climb up with a whimper.

The inside of City Hall was as complex as a maze, but it wasn’t a problem for me. Picking locks and disarming magical traps was a piece of cake.

“Hoe-eh, wh-what if we really get caught?”

Darkness, who was following behind, grabbed my sleeve tightly, looking uneasy.

Kkaang-!

My heart dropped when she kicked an armor decoration on the floor, making a loud noise.

Fortunately, the patrolling guard didn’t notice anything and passed by.

Finally, we arrived at the mayor’s office. And inside, we opened Pandora’s Box.

Ledgers with excessively inflated budgets for carnivore beastmen surveillance.

Backroom deal contracts with corrupt merchants like Silverwool.

Lists of personal assets acquired by exploiting the labor of carnivore beastmen.

And… even fabricated case files of carnivore beastmen who were unjustly framed and imprisoned.

They even found traces of deleting records of some herbivore beastmen who sided with the Demon race during the past Demon King War, and conversely, erasing the achievements of carnivore beastmen who fought on the side of humans.

All of this was the ugly face of opportunists who seized power in the chaos after the war.

“This can’t be…”

Darkness’s face turned white.

But the real thing was separate.

A secret vault hidden behind the fireplace. Inside, they found one parchment scroll.

I slowly unfolded the scroll.

[Hybrid City Stabilization Plan Phase 3 – Complete Eradication Plan for Dangerous Elements]

And the content written below made me doubt my eyes.

‘Phased castration of all male carnivore beastmen.’

***

The next day, the central square of Hybrid City was packed with people.

Thanks to Grayfang secretly spreading the word, all the carnivore beastmen from the slums gathered. Everyone was wearing steel muzzles because it was a public place. Their eyes were still full of anxiety and suspicion.

Of course, there were also plenty of curious herbivore beastmen who came out to see what was going on.

I stood on the fountain in the center of the square.

“Everyone, please pay attention.”

My voice was amplified by magic and echoed throughout the square.

“This is the true face of the leaders you believed in and followed.”

I displayed the evidence we found, one by one, on the magic crystal balls prepared by Elise and Bloodmere.

Inflated budget ledgers. Contracts full of corruption.

The miserable wage details of exploited carnivore beastmen.

The fabricated case files of those who were unjustly imprisoned.

The square began to stir.

“This can’t be… Our taxes were being used for this!”

“Chairman Silverwool looked so benevolent!”

A rabbit beastman cried out.

“That’s right! My store was also targeted by those bison bastards and hit with a tax bomb!”

Anger and betrayal erupted even among the herbivore beastmen.

And, I took out the last piece of evidence.

“And this is the end prepared for you by your benevolent Mayor Goldenhorn.”

‘Carnivore Beastmen Castration Plan’

The moment those terrible words appeared on the crystal ball.

A roar of anger that shook the square erupted.

The eyes of all the carnivore beastmen, including Grayfang, were stained crimson.

A suppressed rage, a howl mixed with unbearable humiliation.

Keureureureureureu-!

Now the stage was set.

I quietly whispered to Darkness, who was trembling next to me.

“Now it’s your turn. Just do as I told you.”

Darkness shook her head in fear, but I pushed her forward.

Thousands of eyes were focused on her.

“Hoe-eh… U-um… I read in a book…”

Darkness was on the verge of tears.

“I, I…”

At that moment, a dog beastman child who was hungry and receiving ham from the crowd, and a rabbit beastman who was complaining about injustice, looked at her.

Darkness’s eyes changed a little, just a little.

She cleared her trembling voice and opened her mouth again.

“Everyone! I… I don’t think it’s right to say that carnivore beastmen are bad!”

“The reason wolves hunt isn’t because they’re bad, but because they need to survive! That’s their nature!”

“It’s the same with sheep grazing on grass! That’s their nature too!”

The crowd fell silent. Everyone listened to the young Demon King’s words.

“But! But what is truly evil? It’s using that nature to make each other hate, discriminate, exploit, and fill only their own bellies!”

Darkness’s finger pointed to City Hall.

“Mayor Goldenhorn is an herbivore beastman, but how greedy and cruel is he? Chief Grayfang over there is a carnivore beastman, but he silently endured the pain, sacrificing everything for his people!”

“Let’s no longer judge each other by how we were born! Let’s judge by their actions!”

Darkness spread her arms wide open. From her small body, an unbelievable light seemed to emanate.

“Let’s create a world where all beastmen can live equally! Whether they’re carnivores or herbivores, strong or weak, a world where everyone can laugh together without being discriminated against!”

Silence.

And the next moment.

“Long live the Demon King-!”

Starting with Grayfang’s roar, all the carnivore beastmen roared towards the sky.

“Waaaaaaaah!”

That was just the beginning.

“That’s right! We were deceived too!”

“Let’s drive out those bad guys!”

The virtuous herbivore beastmen began to agree.

The rabbit beastman who had complained to us earlier wiped away tears and shouted.

“Even us small and weak ones! We don’t want to be discriminated against anymore!”

The moment Darkness’s speech ended, the square began to seethe like lava.

Grayfang was the one who took over the first spark.

He roughly tore off the symbol of humiliation that had been filling his mouth, the steel muzzle.

Jjaenggeurang-!

The sound of metal hitting the floor was the signal.

“As of today, our fangs are free!”

At his roar, all the carnivore beastmen gathered in the square began to throw off their muzzles at once.

Ududeuk! Jjaeng! Chwareureuk!

The sound of thousands of shackles being broken was the overture to a revolution against oppression.

“Waaaaaaaah!”

The angry crowd surged towards City Hall like a giant tidal wave.

Glass windows shattered, and ornate doors were smashed.

“Raid the warehouses of those greedy pigs!”

“This is the rightful compensation my father never received even after working his whole life!”

The revolution quickly turned into looting and destruction. The anger that had been suppressed all this time erupted.

Of course, the privileged class didn’t just stand by and take it.

“Those lowly things! How dare they start a rebellion?!”

The mayor, the deer beastman Goldenhorn, appeared on the City Hall balcony and shouted in horror.

“Guards! Mobilize the guards and suppress all those rioters!”

Ureureureu-!

The heavily armored guards, consisting of rhino and bison beastmen who were guarding City Hall, formed a shield wall and pushed forward.

“We’ll crush all those who dare to oppose the mayor!”

In the early stages, they had the upper hand. The bare-handed revolutionary forces were blocked by the shields of the professionally trained guards and fell.

But that was only for a moment.

“Oh my, it looks like they’re trying to escape that way.”

On the roof, Bloodmere elegantly fanned herself and whispered.

At her command, the vampires hidden in the darkness silently blocked the back alleys where Goldenhorn’s aides were trying to escape.

And in the middle of the battlefield.

“You’re in the way.”

Along with a cold voice, black magic exploded from Elise’s body.

The camouflage maid outfit scattered, and black armor reminiscent of the dead was added in its place. In her hand, she held a huge black iron greatsword.

The last of the Demon King’s Four Heavenly Kings.

Black Knight Elise.

“Wh-what the hell are you?!”

The rhino guard captain shouted in confusion, but there was no answer.

Seueuk-

Elise swung her sword once.

A black slash tore through the air, and dozens of heavily armored guards in front of it flew away like pieces of paper without even screaming.

Overwhelming power.

At that sight, the guards’ morale collapsed in an instant.

In the midst of the chaos, Chamber of Commerce Chairman Silverwool was desperately running away. He screamed and dashed into the alley, pushing through the crowd.

“S-save me! I’m just a goat!”

But his path was blocked by a shadow.

It was Grayfang.

“Keureureu…”

In front of the growling wolf, Silverwool’s legs began to tremble. The cunning and dignity he had until just now were nowhere to be found.

He was seized by instinctive fear and collapsed on the spot.

“M-meeeh… Meeeh…”

A weak herbivore. That was his true form.

Grayfang only looked down at him with eyes mixed with contempt and pity, without lifting a finger.

It’s almost over.

I took out a magic flare from my pocket and shot it into the sky.

Piyung-!

A red flash soared through the sky.

And a few seconds later.

Dudududu-!

The ground began to rumble.

From the outskirts of the city, a red wave surged with a huge shout.

“Kuhahahaha! The promised battle! It’s time to show the power of the Oni!”

The Akaoni at the head swung a huge iron club and shouted cheerfully.

Hundreds of Oni legions followed behind her. At their imposing appearance, the remaining guards’ will to resist completely crumbled and disappeared.

“U-uaaa! Oni! Demons!”

The Oni avoided killing as per my instructions. They simply stunned them by lightly hitting their heads with the wide side of the iron club, or disarmed them with overwhelming force and threw their weapons far away.

“Their hearts are already on our side. There’s no need to see blood.”

I watched the scene with satisfaction.

***

I quietly left the scene, leaving that behind.

This was because I received a report that Goldenhorn had escaped to the forest on the outskirts of the city, taking advantage of the chaos.

“I’ll catch Goldenhorn myself.”

Rejecting Elise’s dissuasion, I followed him alone.

The forest was dark and damp. Following the traces he left behind, the distance quickly narrowed.

“Huk, huk, huk…”

In front of me, I could see golden horns desperately running.

Goldenhorn was completely exhausted. His foot caught on a branch and he fell.

When he raised his head, there was no longer a path in front of him.

A cliff of dizzying height.

“Kuh, keuek…”

A dead end. He looked back at me with desperate eyes.

I slowly approached him.

But that was then.

I heard a strange sound from somewhere.

Nyang.

Nyangnyang!

Nyangnyangnyang-

A very faint and cunning cat meow.

My body froze for a moment.

No way. This sound is.

A confident smile suddenly appeared on Goldenhorn’s face, who should have been in despair.

“Haha! Now you guys are finished! The leader of the Golden Claw Gang! The strongest beastman! A member of the hero party has come in person!”

His gaze turned to the darkness behind me.