Fairy Tale: Little Red Riding Hood's Wolf Mentor

Chapter 226 Devil’s Contract
When they actually walked up to this strange bear-skinned man, Lake and Poro could see his appearance clearly.

The bear skin he was wearing looked like it had not been washed for a long time. It was dirty and greasy, with the hair stuck together and emitting a foul odor.

The same was true of human skin, with dirt covering his human skin, almost obscuring his human features.

His beard had grown so thick that it dragged down in front of him, looking messy and unkempt.

Compared to these, those cloudy human eyes seemed cleaner.

"Sir, you..."

Lake was naturally not deterred by the bear-skinned man's appearance. Under the bear-skinned man's slightly surprised gaze, Lake walked forward, thought for a moment, and finally asked, "Sir, why are you doing this?"

She pointed to the poor people queuing up for porridge nearby.

Every poor person would salute this side before receiving the porridge.

"Because they were hungry and had almost no food to eat, and I wanted to help them - that's all."

The bearskin man was a little confused, but he still replied, "I have the ability and the money, so I will do it."

"Where does all this money of yours come from?"

Lake took out the Sri Lankan-patterned gold coins from the purse at her waist and began to ask.

"Where did you get the money?!"

The bear-skinned man's pupils shrank and his expression instantly became unfriendly. Combined with his strong and strange body shape, he seemed even more oppressive.

"I bought it from those children at the price of one of my two gold coins."

Lake looked into the bear-skinned man's eyes and asked again seriously. She was ready. If the man in front of her was a minion of the devil, then there was no doubt that this question would intensify a battle.
"You can't get so many gold coins just from hunting, right?"

But the bear-skin man was silent for a while, shook his head, and said:
"Little girl, where my money comes from has nothing to do with you."

"Generally speaking, this really has nothing to do with us - after all, we don't have too many demands for money."

At this moment, the Poro next to Lake suddenly said, "But if your money comes from the devil..."

"How do you know?"

If the bear-skinned man looked only slightly surprised when Poro first spoke, his expression instantly turned into one of incredible shock after Poro's second sentence came out.

"We need to know about that devil and this money."

Lake asked sincerely, "This is important."

After hearing what Lake said, the bear-skinned man softened his tone. He was silent for a moment, but only said again: "Sorry, I can't say..."

"The devil's contract prevents you from speaking it out?"

The Poro judged the bear-skinned man's expression and asked tentatively.

The bear-skinned man did not answer, but nodded slightly, acknowledging the Poro's judgment.

"Is there a part of the contract that requires you to wear this bearskin for several years without bathing, and you can get endless money from the bearskin pocket?"

"what?!"

The bear-skinned man was even more shocked. Then, his eyes turned horrified. "How do you know this? Are you on the devil's side?"

"No, to be precise, we are now fighting against the devil."

The Poro answered, thought for a moment, and then said again, "I once heard a fairy tale."

"fairy tale?"

The bear-skinned man and Lake looked at Poro at the same time. There was some doubt in the bear-skinned man's eyes, while Lake showed an expression of "I knew it".

"The name of this fairy tale is Bearskin, an old soldier who made a deal with the devil."

//Grimm's Fairy Tales: The Bearskin Man

"Very similar to me... Are you a prophet?"

"It should be a little different, right? But fairy tales and reality are always different. But in this world, I know one truth."

"Reason? What reason?"

"Never make any deal with the devil, there's a price to pay."

The bearskin man listened and was silent for a while, then he spoke again:
"But this contract is only between me and the devil. How can it affect others?"

Lake and Poro looked at each other, and then told the bear-skinned man about the devil's gold coins.

"Is everything you have really worth countless gold coins? The devil is always greedy. Most of the time, he wants to benefit from the contract."

"Are you saying that what I gave was not what the devil wanted at all?"

Hearing this, the bearskin man reached into the bearskin pocket. The pocket was full of gold coins, which still felt metallic, but this time, he felt a chill. "I gave the gold coins to others, but it was the devil who used me. What I gave away turned out to be disaster?"

"So, how many people did you give these gold coins to?"

"A lot of people."

The bear-skin man stood up when he said this. He looked very tall, like a giant bear standing up. "I have to go somewhere."

"Where are you going?"

"I previously spent money to support an orphanage. If what you said is true..."

The bearskin man was silent for a moment, then continued, "I may have made some irreparable mistakes."

"Orphanage...?"

Following the bear-skinned man, Lake and Poro walked through half of the city. A small courtyard appeared in the city, but the courtyard was half collapsed and covered with dust. Except for some homeless people, it was obvious that no one lived here.

"When I was in the army, wars were quite frequent in the Kingdom of Hunte. Many soldiers died, leaving behind their children who became orphans."

The bear-skinned man looked at the somewhat empty house in front of him, his strong body trembling slightly, not knowing whether it was out of anger, excitement or self-blame.

"So, I gave them a large sum of money and asked them to give those children a better life."

The bearskin man muttered, walked towards a man sitting next to a collapsed house, put his hand into his pocket, and wanted to take out the gold coins, but he was stunned for a moment, exhaled slowly, and gave up the idea that might have become a habit.

"Let me ask."

Lake saw the bear-skinned man's dilemma, so he stepped forward, handed a silver coin to the passerby, and asked, "Sir, I heard that this was originally an orphanage. Do you know where it went?"

"Orphanage? Then you're late."

The passerby took the silver coin with surprise and replied, "The orphanage is long gone. I heard that they had received funding and were planning to expand, but suddenly a disaster struck and it was gone."

"disaster?"

When the bear-skinned man heard this, his face darkened, and combined with his oppressive appearance, he looked even more terrifying.

The passerby looked at the bear-skin man and even shuddered with fear:
"I heard, just heard... that a noble hired a gang to go to the orphanage and rob something - what could there be in the orphanage? Right?"

The bearskin man listened without saying anything, but asked calmly and slowly which nobleman it was.

After learning the location of the nobles, they headed back into the city. However, this time, their destination was just a mansion with a closed gate.

The steps are covered with dust, the prosperity is gone, and only a dead silence remains.

"noble?"

A passerby looked at the gate and thought for a while, "None of the nobles in this family are good people. I heard that they robbed an orphanage of its money? After they robbed it on the first day, His Majesty the King confiscated their property and killed them all the next day." "All dead?" The bear-skinned man frowned.

"I heard there's still one alive, the second son of a noble family, but his family is gone. I heard he's begging on the streets!"

The passerby said this with a gloating expression on his face.

After giving the passerby some silver coins, he happily led the others to another busier street and pointed to a ragged man on the side of the road.

"That's the one."

The man had messy hair that covered most of his face. He huddled in a dark corner and didn't look aristocratic at all.

Seeing Lake and the others approaching, he raised his head and said in a weak voice:

"Sir, Miss, can you give me some food? I haven't eaten for a long time..."

"food?"

Lake looked at the beggar's skinny body in front of her and took out a few more silver coins.

Unexpectedly, when this beggar, who was once a noble, saw Lake taking out money, a trace of imperceptible fear seemed to flash in his eyes:

"No, miss, don't give me money, just a little food, just a little food..."

"Money can also be used to buy food?" Lake was a little puzzled.

"No, I don't want any money, just food."

The man shrank back again and spoke in a trembling voice.

Seeing this scene, several people made some judgments and guesses. The next second, the bear-skin man stretched out his hand from his pocket, and between his fingertips, there was a devil gold coin!
"Have you ever seen a gold coin like this?"

The beggar was stunned when he heard this. When he saw the appearance of the golden coin clearly, he let out a scream and was instantly filled with fear!

His face was as pale as paper, his pupils shrank, his hands kept waving in front of him, and he desperately backed away, trying to get away from the gold coin.

"No, it's not me, it's really not me, it has nothing to do with me!"

His voice was sharp and trembling, like a chicken being strangled by the neck. "I didn't take the money. My brother did everything. It was him—he was the one who wanted to steal the money!"

Seeing the man about to lose his mind due to fear, the bearskin man took back the gold coins in his hand and put them back in his pocket:
"So, what happened in your family? What makes you so afraid of these coins?"

The beggar gradually calmed down after hearing this. He looked at the bear-skin man with a dazed look in his eyes and finally said in a low voice:

"Those are the gold coins. The director of the orphanage wanted to take the investors' money for himself, but the exchange he found was ours. My brother saw one of those coins..."

But even though my brother is greedy for money, he shouldn't be so greedy for the orphanage—"

The beggar's voice became even more trembling, and he continued, "He asked the thief to steal the money, but the thief killed someone..."

"It's not our fault, it's the gold coins!"

The beggar suddenly raised his voice and shouted, "That night, I had a dream, no, it wasn't a dream—I really saw that there was a devil hidden in every gold coin!"

"Devil? What does it look like?"

"I don't know, but I know they must be demons!"

The beggar then shouted, "My brother led the soldiers to kill the thieves and take back the gold coins. I asked them to throw away the gold coins, but my parents and brother were like possessed by demons, bewitched by the gold coins!"

"After that, they all died, except for me. I escaped and was not affected..."

Hearing these words, Poro was stunned for a moment. A hint of magic light flashed in his eyes, and he saw some magical patterns in the body of this noble man whose family was destroyed, but they were extremely dim.

A person with some magical talent.

Inadvertently saw the devil's power in these gold coins?
After hearing these things, Lake handed several plates of pastries to the beggar. Perhaps these pastries were from highly skilled chefs, so after eating them, the beggar's emotions, which were close to collapse, finally stabilized a lot.

He looked at Lake and the others, and finally asked hesitantly:

"Are you also searching for those gold coins? Stop! It's dangerous. No amount of gold can compare to life."

But Lake and the others did not respond. The beggar's words undoubtedly confirmed the threat of these gold coins again.

By this time, the bear-skin man had clenched his fists and gritted his teeth.

Even through his thick beard, the Poro could sense the bear-skinned man's emotions at the moment.

"Your family, the orphanage, or that gang of thieves, everyone who got the gold coins—are they all dead?"

asked the bearskin man tremblingly.

But the beggar was silent for a moment, then replied:
"Besides me, there are several other children who survived in the orphanage. Perhaps it is because of God's blessing that they will not be harmed by those gold coins."

"Are there any children still alive?"

When the bearskin man heard this, his eyes suddenly widened.

"After the orphanage was destroyed by thieves and the director and his people were killed, the surviving children were sent to another orphanage—

I used some of the remaining family money to settle the relationship. After all, although it was the devil's temptation, it was still our family's greed that led to this result."

Following the beggar's instructions, they arrived at the second orphanage.

When the bear-skin man approached the room, the children were stunned for a moment. Instead of being frightened by the bear-skin man's appearance, they ran over.

"Sir, I'm sorry, the money you gave us was taken away by bad guys."

One of the boys lowered his head and said this, but then another child took out a small bag from his arms and opened it. There were five gold coins stored inside. Judging from the pattern on the bag,

It’s those Sri-style devilish gold coins!
The boy showed the gold coins in his hand to the bearskin man with a sly smile:

"However, we also secretly took a few gold coins with us."

Seeing these gold coins, the bear-skinned man left with a look of astonishment and was about to take the gold coins back.

"These gold coins seem different."

At this moment, Poro discovered something different. These gold coins did not have the power of the devil. At the same time, these children did not die because of the curse of the gold coins.

"What did you do with these gold coins?"

After hearing what Lake said, the bear-skinned man was stunned for a moment and then asked the boy.

"What have you done?"

The boy was stunned for a moment, then laughed again. "Sir, you're asking that? We pray in front of the statue of God in the basement every day, just as you said!"

At this point, another child next to him suddenly added in a low voice:
"And that day, we were the only ones praying in the basement, so... we survived."

Pray to God...?
When Lake and the others heard this answer, they were stunned.

After a brief thought, Poro looked at the bear-skin man and asked:
"In your pact with the devil, you are not allowed to pray to God?"

"Ah."

The bear-skinned man turned around and suddenly realized, "So that's the reason, that's why..."

"It seems that the devil's curse can still be blocked by this kind of belief."

The Poro looked at the bear-skinned man and said, "Perhaps, you asked the people you helped to pray to God on your behalf, and this unexpectedly saved many people from the cursed fate."

(End of this chapter)