chapter 230

Chapter 230

“It really is nice to see you like this!”

At Fox Tribe Chieftain Rami’s words, Wolf Tribe Chieftain Gargal wrinkled the bridge of his nose.

“Why are you still in human form?”

“Because it’s to suit the evil god’s tastes. Our fox tribe is always ready to cling to the strong, you know? If we can secure even a little mercy, staying transformed is no problem at all!”

“Calculating brat...”

“Or maybe the wolves are just stupid.”

At the sight of the two young chieftains baring their teeth and growling, Crow Chieftain Balf let out a sigh.

“Enough, you two. We didn’t gather here to trade pointless words among ourselves. How can chieftains who must bear responsibility for their tribes behave in such a manner?”

“...I’m sorry, Elder.”

“I’m sorry...”

At the sight of the two lowering their heads, Crow Balf nodded.

“Then let’s share our opinions.”

They had gathered in one place to discuss how they would deal with the ‘evil god.’

Considering that there had been nothing like this for nearly thirty years because they were busy managing and protecting their own tribes, one could see how great a meaning the existence of the evil god held for them.

The first to speak was Crow Balf.

“I have decided to serve him as our parent god. It is a matter decided after discussing it with the other crows. He is certainly a dangerous being who will bring calamity... but the center of a typhoon is always calm. If we can remain within it, I judged that offering loyalty would not be difficult.”

After the crow tribe stated its stance, the wolf, who had been watching the fox along with him, also spoke.

“We wolves have decided to try trusting him.”

“That would mean the wolves’ ‘trust,’ wouldn’t it? That you intend to treat him as a friend and family?”

“We know his danger.”

When they first saw him, they didn’t know how terrifying he was. A human who should have been extinct stood in the middle of the black forest, like a taxidermied figure. And from him came a complex, strange body-scent.

It didn’t take long to assume he was an evil god, but there were far too many differences between the evil god in the history Gargal knew and the ‘Gio’ before his eyes. He bestowed gentle goodwill.

“I judged that at least the mercy he showed us was not false. The other wolves were wary and afraid at first too, but now trust has been carved into them. Gio treats us wolves as friends and has given gifts beyond that... so we will take the posture befitting him.”

“Foolish.”

Fox Rami narrowed her eyes as if displeased with the wolf’s opinion.

“An evil god is an evil god. To think of that enormous being as a friend—at this point it almost feels irreverent. The wolves’ stubbornness can be a strength, but it can also be a weakness, you know?”

“Krrrk...!! And what choice did you make that’s so great!! At best you’re just imitating humans while swishing your tail...!!”

“Honestly, you really are a hot-tempered one. How lacking in refinement.”

The fox chieftain glanced at him as if scolding him on purpose.

“He is a god—the god who will newly rule this world whose creator is gone, and us who live there. Don’t you think so too, Mr. Balf?”

“I don’t think there is a need to bend yourself excessively... but I agree with that opinion. The minimum reverence and distance toward a god will be essential for us, mere small creatures.”

“Mr. Balf says this too, Gargal. Of course, to wolves who love friendship and trust, our fox tribe’s posture may look excessively servile.”

But they took pride in having chosen a wise posture.

“Do you know what you’re saying? The god who has come to find us now is in a situation where it is difficult to hold affection for this world. That was the history, too.”

They also did not know exactly how the ‘evil god’ had come to be. Someone among those who recorded it said he had been a demon that existed from the beginning, and someone else said he was a calamity born from humans’ selfishness.

But what mattered was that he was a being rejected by all life in this dimension, and even sealed away. They didn’t know why and how that seal had been released, or with what feelings he had come to find them, but if his mood was good, it would rather be a strange situation.

Even if he was now their tribes’ parent god, they had been born merely in the process of him revealing his anger to the world; they had never been his purpose.

“When I learned he had appeared, I thought he would surely reveal his anger. If not that, I thought he would make a wicked proposal, or make this already broken world even more horrific.”

“But he didn’t, did he?”

“Rather, that’s why it’s frightening. Because I don’t understand it.”

Why did he show them mercy and affection?

“It makes no sense.”

Goodwill they could not accept only made them more uneasy.

“I thought there was a high chance that his goodwill was caprice. Didn’t you feel it? His actions and attention were revolving around interest. Which means that if we fail to interest him, we might be abandoned quickly.”

“Hah, so that’s why you swish your tail and rub your forepaws like that? Looks like you have no pride.”

“Because we’re not foolish wolves who live and die by pride, you know? I’m confident it’s better than wagging your tail saying friendship is great without even assuming the worst-case scenario like wolves, and becoming a slaughtered hunting dog.”

“You fox that doesn’t even know honor... the value and weight of the faith we wolves hold is enough to stake our lives. Even if Gio handles us terribly because he’s lost interest, that’s only us taking responsibility for the decision we made.”

“So I’m asking whether honor guarantees the tribe’s safety.”

That was why the fox tribe lay flat and swished their tails.

“If it’s to protect my family and children, I can show my belly as much as I want. Fortunately, he refused for now to eat intelligent creatures that can communicate in language. If we rely on that mercy and rub our forepaws diligently, we can receive a reward for it.”

“A reward? What reward. Becoming a pet fox?”

“If we become pet foxes, that would be a great thing. That is my goal right now, Gargal!”

The foxes were driven to the edge of a cliff.

“If we can only be promised our lives and minimum mercy, what big problem is it to become a pet fox? No, it isn’t, it isn’t. To say he will keep us as pets means he will give us basic affection. I have to receive even that affection.”

“Disgusting bastards...”

When the wolf twisted his face as if thoroughly repulsed, Crow Balf stopped the two, heated up.

“Both of you would do well to calm down.”

“...”

“...”

“Yes, like that.”

They understood that everyone had been greatly shaken by the hope or calamity that had suddenly come upon them while they were only waiting to meet death. But in the current situation, if they were swept along only by emotion, they would not be able to reach a proper conclusion.

“I think all our opinions have value.”

Everyone was doing their best.

“But there is one thing in common.”

“What is it, Elder?”

“That we must serve him.”

Crow Balf looked at the wolf.

“I take it you, too, acknowledge this.”

“...Yes.”

At the wolf’s affirmation, the fox snorted.

“Hmph, see? In the end even the wolves will tuck their tails while talking big about friendship and whatnot.”

“From the beginning, the expression of a ‘friend’ relationship was something Gio spat out first. In the end, what we want is a reliable ruler and the vassals who follow him—just as wolves have been from the very beginning.”

“Anyway, wolves are so rigid.”

“You know this is what they’re like.”

Unlike the fox tribe, which had belatedly banded together for survival, the wolf tribe had enjoyed pack life by nature. Following a strong leader, protecting and leading weak family—this was a tradition engraved into wolves’ souls.

So even now, the wolves were ready to serve a new head. It was completely different from the feudal relationship humans spoke of; it was a form of family and army. That was why they spoke of trust.

“Even if we serve him, we can still be family, and if we are family, we can also be friends.”

Gargal didn’t know it, but it was similar to something Gio had once said. With a firm face, he continued.

“That is, unless you’re foxes who can sell even your family if it’s dangerous.”

“It’s not selling them, it’s strategy. Our fox tribe has never pulled a massive con on our own kind. Most of it was schemes to deceive humans.”

“Ugh, disgusting.”

“What did you say?”

When it looked like they would fight again, Balf said to Fox Rami.

“Even so, I do not think there is a need to grovel excessively, Rami. If he truly becomes this world’s new main god, there will be gifts and mercy that naturally follow.”

“But how do you guarantee that? He is a cruel beast. Small creatures like us can be swept away at any time by a single caprice of his. The foxes are desperate because we can’t even protect our pups right now.”

They had to be desperate.

“It’s hard to even see foxes who have succeeded in reproducing now. Even if they’re born, they die so easily. Do you know... do you know with what feelings foxes dug deeper into dens still reeking with poison, and buried the bodies of their pups?”

Of the three tribes, the one closest to extinction was the fox tribe. The wolves and crows were at the stage of preparing for the coming death, but even that—the fox tribe was in a position of waiting for death right now.

“We aren’t as strong as wolves, so our ability to digest poison is lacking, and we don’t have the technique to detoxify directly like the crows. Among foxes, the only magic we know is transformation—it’s a dime a dozen.”

“...Rami...”

“I’m asking if you know what feelings we have, watching frail fox pups suffer as we feed them poison and build their resistance. I have to do my best. For that, I can truly do anything.”

“...”

Balf and Gargal fell silent. As an elder who had once cared for the two young chieftains, Balf could not speak, and Gargal, as a rival who always fought baring teeth, could only shut his mouth as well.

The end of the world was so paltry and miserable for the life that survived.

“...What we’re best at is pleasing the strong. Wolves can become the evil god’s fangs, and crows can become his eyes, but foxes...”

“...I understand what you mean.”

In the end, her decision could not be called wrong either.

“I only said it because I was worried. If you only flatter the evil god too much, you will be discarded that much more easily. But if it is a decision made with all of that considered, I will respect it as well.”

“...Thank you.”

“I only hope that the coming new era can make us good vassals.”

The wolf let out a short laugh.

“It’ll be better than now.”

“Yes, of course.”

And so the animals gathered their will.

* * *

“Looks like...”

As he looked around the house, Gio blinked a couple of times.

“Someone seems to have used my house as they pleased.”

“Kurrururur...”

“Don’t be angry.”

In a vicious world, it was only natural for thieves to break into an empty house.

“Still, I don’t know who did this.”

Even before, it hadn’t exactly been a peaceful household, but hadn’t it become too ominous?

The ruins he remembered had been a place where beasts and nature lived together, even if there were many inconveniences while he was alive, and when he had become an evil god, it had been a haunted house with poison and ill-omened energy seeping into every corner.

‘But this is not the way I remember you.’

A scene strewn with blood and chunks of flesh. Research materials abandoned all over. And a horrific site as if something had been mashed into pulp. Suddenly, Gio thought this sight looked like the last end of the most dreadful fanatical cult he could imagine.

‘There are even traces of them fighting each other and destroying themselves.’

Only belatedly could he define this sight.

“...Looks like it was humans’ final struggle.”

“Kurrurk...”

“It makes me feel bitter.”

You always walk only the path that hurts one another.

* * *

The man suddenly thought he heard a human voice.

“...”

...A human?

Is there... someone still left?

(To be continued in the next part)