I want to be a faded person for life

Xiangzi made a rational decision and gave up the idea of ​​the dragon corpse.

Melina made it clear that this matter was non-negotiable.

Xiangzi now only regretted that he had not been able to loot some more valuable things from Stonewell before leaving, but even if he regretted it now, it was too late.

The howling of wolves could be heard in the distance.

The girl put away the map.

The depths of the woods were covered in thick fog, and from here one could barely see the shadows of buildings deep in the woods. The wolf's cry probably came from this direction.

"So why is it the howling of a wolf... Did you summon a wolf spirit using ashes like me?"

Xiangzi walked through the woods and came to the bottom of the ruins, and snapped his fingers crisply.

The howling of wolves above his head suddenly stopped. After a rustling sound, a figure jumped down from the top of the wall.

The girl turned around and saw that it was a well-equipped knight.

The knight was wearing heavy armor and a thick cloak made of wild animal fur. On his back hung a huge sword inlaid with gold and pyroxene that looked too gorgeous, and above his neck was a wolf's head.

"It's a werewolf!"

Chapter 5 Half Wolf

"Shh-"

The werewolf knight suddenly raised his index finger in front of his wet nose, and the tips of his ears twitched a few times. Judging from his lively expression, it was indeed not a wolf-shaped helmet or mask, but a real head.

There was a crackling sound in the forest as trees were pushed down and broken, and the ground began to shake and small stones bounced on the ground.

"Hey, you finally came."

The werewolf took the greatsword from his back and took a defensive stance.

Xiangzi was completely confused, but the hostility shown by the other party was obviously not directed at him, but at some creature that was making a huge noise in the foggy forest.

Xiangzi also drew his swords, turned around and stood alert in the direction where the vibration came from.

A huge monster pushed down the trees and rushed out of the thick fog. It was a giant bear that was more than five meters tall when standing upright.

"...What a huge bear!"

-

"So...that code just now was from Karlie introducing you, right?"

The werewolf and the girl sat around the campfire, the rich fat of the bear meat dripping into the fire, making an enticing sizzling sound.

The giant bear lay motionless near the ruins, and the werewolf had just taken a thick rib from it.

The werewolf turned the branch and turned the bear meat over on the fire. The food had been roasted to a beautiful charred brown color.

"He's still the same, he likes to worry about this, but..."

The wolf handed over the roasted meat.

"Since I was found through Curry, I guess I'm not a suspicious person. My name is Blaze, and some people call me Half-Wolf Blaze."

Xiangzi took over the roasted bear meat.

"My name is Toyokawa Shoko—I'm a magician."

"Haha, what a coincidence, I'm actually a magician too."

The werewolf with the giant sword on his back and the girl who was good at using two swords laughed at each other's words. They raised their fists with mitten gloves and bumped them together.

Since there are mages who are proficient in using greatswords (dual swords), then the slander against me by others is of course groundless.

——The two of them had this thought at the same time, and each felt that the other looked much more pleasing to the eye.

"Why do you howl in the misty forest?"

"Because I can't help myself when I see the moon..."

The half-wolf scratched his head awkwardly, then turned the topic back to the battle just now.

"Friend, don't be so reckless next time. I was squatting on the wall because I didn't want to have a conflict with this bear."

"Ah, sorry, I didn't expect there would be such a beast in the mist forest—"

Xiangzi put the bear in the fog forest into his memory for comparison and found that the opponent was not much weaker than Stonewell's limb-removed noble. If it were in the past, he might have needed to summon multiple ashes and try his best to defeat it.

However, Xiangzi is now much stronger than when he fought against the limb-attached nobles.

On the other hand, Blaze's strength should not be underestimated. It can even be said that he is the strongest knight Xiangzi has ever seen.

Without considering the use of ashes and pyroxene magic, even now she was not sure of defeating Blaze.

Xiangzi was a little jealous of the gorgeous giant sword that contained magical power, and couldn't help but take a few more bites of the bear meat.

By the way, is this really an ordinary bear? Will there be any problem if I eat it?

It tastes pretty good...just leave it alone.

The fresh food was not bad even though it lacked seasoning. It was one of the few normal things she had eaten since she came to the border area.

"Ha, you wouldn't be able to tell from your appearance, but you're really amazing. Even though we're completely different types, I always feel like you look a bit like Ranee-sama."

Strange name.

"Who is that?"

"I'm the master I swore allegiance to, so you don't need to worry about it... Since Kale introduced you here, is it because you got the information about Darriwell?"

Another unfamiliar name.

This time Blaze gave a timely explanation, and it seemed that his purpose in coming here was to hunt down a traitor named Darriwell.

The hound knight Darriwell was originally a servant of the Moon Princess Lani like him, but for some unknown reason he betrayed his master.

"I heard that Darriwell is hiding in this place, but I haven't been able to find his hiding place."

Xiangzi seemed to remember something and took out a map from his body.

"By the way, Kale asked me to give this to you. The Darriwell you mentioned is probably here."

There was a circle drawn in red on the map, and its location was probably on a hill not far from the fog forest.

"Oh, thank you very much. As the saying goes, a traitor deserves a traitor's fate. If you can successfully find Darriwell, I will also pay a reward."

Blaze took the map and looked at it carefully. Xiangzi, who was chewing bear meat, glanced over there in the light of the campfire and couldn't help but remind him.

"You... seem to be holding the map upside down."

"Oh, I see. Thank you!"

The werewolf turned the map over and began to study it more carefully, but it wasn't long before his pointed ears drooped again.

"Ah—you actually can't read a map at all, right?"

Xiangzi sighed, took the map back from the other person's hand, looked up at the direction of the golden tree to determine the direction.

"Start from here and head north out of the fog forest. Follow the road southwest and you'll see the hills that Kalie circled on the map."

"Thank you, but... which direction is north, and what's southwest... I mean, how far south should it be?"

Blaze's voice got quieter and quieter.

Xiangzi finally understood why Kalie asked him to make this trip.

"Forget it, I'll take you there."

-

The location marked by Kale on the map was just south of Yizhan Street. Heading south along the road, we soon saw the somewhat strange hill.

The reason why it is so strange is that there are stone balls with purple-black light rolling everywhere on the hill. They are connected to each other and wriggle around in the circular square like earthworms.

To be honest, this color of light made Xiangzi a little uneasy.

She looked around, but fortunately she didn't see any lights nearby.

"...No one seems to be here?"

She turned her head and found that Blaze was lying on the ground, sniffing something next to the rolling ball.

"Blazer, you're not going to do something like running around chasing a ball."

Although the scene was quite interesting when I thought about it, now was obviously not the time to do that kind of thing.

"How rude... I'm half wolf, not some house dog."

Blaze looked up.

"I smell Darriwell."

...But it's still a dog.

"This is a sealed prison. Someone used magic to seal Darriwell in the square on the hill."

Blaze got up from the ground and placed his hand on the devil-shaped statue.

The spheres that were originally wriggling on the ground stood up one after another, emitting light from the tops, and a purple-black light curtain suddenly rose around them.

"This color...could it really be made of a lamp?"

Xiangzi muttered something under his breath and became uneasy again.

"Be careful, Darriwell was also a brave knight before he betrayed his master."

Banlang took off his giant sword and prepared for battle, while Xiangzi slowly retreated to the edge of the light curtain.

She tried, but the purple-black barrier covering the entire square was very strong, and even if she wanted to leave by force, it might not be easy.

A knight wearing full armor with only his eyes visible emerged from a circular disc deep in the square.

The face of his helmet was long and pointed, his whole body was crawling on the ground, his left hand wore four curved dog claws, and on his right shoulder was a large curved sword with an undulating arc like a wave.

The knight's posture of preparing to attack does remind people of a hunting dog chasing a wild beast.

Chapter 6: Wolves and Hounds

"I didn't expect someone like you who's not good at finding things to be able to find this place, Blaze."

Darriwell made a dull sound from beneath his armor.

The half-wolf's thick fingers rested on the hilt of the sword. He wrinkled the flesh of his upper and lower jaws, and bared his teeth menacingly like a canine.

"You should be prepared, Darkwell."

"I will ask you one last time... As a knight, why did you betray Lady Ranie?"

Darriwell let out a low laugh.

"Once a Hound Knight recognizes his master, he will never betray him. Even if I don't tell you—you should know this, right?"

"Shameless traitor, even now... you still keep saying such things!"

Blaze was furious, and a battle between the half-wolf and the hound ensued.

The circular plaza within the barrier seemed to have turned into an ancient arena, and the strength of the two knights was almost the same.

Blaze wielded the heavy sword with a single hand, his movements swift and agile, seemingly unbelievable for a man in heavy armor. The trailing blade carved furrows into the ground, and each swing sent sparks flying from the gravel.

Even when hunting the giant bear before, it was he who delivered the final blow. The sword that fell from the sky directly pierced through the bear's hard skull.

Darkwell's strength is weaker than Blaze's, but his movements are incredibly fast.

The curved sword was lighter than Blaze's ornate greatsword, so every head-on collision between the two weapons resulted in Darriwell retreating continuously.

After several attempts, the Hound Knight gave up on winning the duel in a head-on sword fight. He held his curved sword horizontally to block the heavy blow from the giant sword, but this time he simply lowered his body and did not retreat.

He completely gave up on distance and used the curved hook on his left hand to launch a swift attack in close combat.

For a moment, Blaze was forced into a disadvantage.

Although the hooks could not threaten his three layers of heavy armor and could only leave white scratches on it, Darriwell aimed at the neck, head, eyeballs, and weak points of the joints.

The sharp and curved claws have a strong bleeding effect, and the wounds cut by them will be difficult to stop bleeding. Blaze's wolf head, which was not protected by a helmet, immediately had several bleeding knife wounds.

The mad half-wolf lacked the means to fight the enemy in close combat, so it suddenly lowered its head and bit the hound knight's shoulder. Its canine teeth penetrated the metal plate directly and embedded deeply into Darriwell's flesh.

The Hound Knight endured the severe pain and swung the hook on his left hand towards the half-wolf's eyes.

But the imagined scene of cutting the eyeball did not happen. The claws were blocked by a layer of solid pyroxene shield, and the friction between the blade and the smooth pyroxene made a teeth-grinding squeaking sound.

Xiangzi, who was watching the battle from a distance, raised his staff. Although he did not intend to directly intervene in the opponent's battle, it was still possible to provide some assistance like this.