Chapter 297 Lycus’ Blood
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
We got word that someone had found a Lycus collapsed out in the wild, and it turned into a bit of a debate over how to deal with it. Normally, anyone would just pretend they hadn’t seen it—Lycus trouble was the kind of trouble you stayed far away from—but everyone knew me too well to even suggest abandoning her. The argument was more about what to do afterward.
Technically, that was what the clinic was for, but there was no way we could carry a Lycus into a clinic run by Theocracy priests without drawing every kind of unwanted attention.
Ms. Niya said it was too risky to drag her all the way to the frontier settlement, so she suggested taking her to the nearest town instead. Diana shot that down, saying dumping a Lycus in someone else’s town would sour our ties with that lord and that it’d be safer to restrain her and keep her sealed away in a pocket dimension.
Sure, that was the safest plan, but locking someone away just for collapsing in the forest didn’t sit right with me. She hadn’t done anything wrong. So I talked Diana down and convinced everyone to trust her, at least for now. We decided to bring her back to the manor.
We couldn’t risk anyone learning she’d been in the frontier settlement at all, so we smuggled her through the secret underground passages woven under the settlement, slipping her quietly into the manor like shadows.
”Hmm… so this is a Lycus,” Lewya murmured, gazing down at the unconscious woman on the bed. Sia-san, who had come when she caught wind of the commotion, folded her arms.
”Gray-haired wolf-type beastkin. I’ve never seen one in person before, but yeah… the features match.”
”Huh? Didn’t you see any back when you went to the kingdom?” I asked.
”Nope. Even in the kingdom, Lycus aren’t exactly welcomed. People there avoid them.”
”Seriously?”
”They say it’s to protect their clan, but their work’s basically infiltration, kidnapping, assassinations… the kind of stuff you don’t brag about.”
I had assumed that while other nations might see Lycus as a threat, the kingdom itself probably saw them as dependable. Knowing they were treated as nuisances even there made something pinch inside me. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the woman lying there.
”Anyway, were her injuries okay?” I asked.
”Yes,” Ms. Niya said softly. “We had someone who could use healing magic, so anything that would’ve gotten worse untreated has been taken care of. But healing magic burns through the patient’s stamina, so pushing it all at once when she’s this weak could’ve killed her.”
”Healing magic drains the body,” Sia said with a nod. “Then she might not wake up for a while.”
”Most likely… though there is one thing that bothers me.”
Ms. Niya gently lifted the edge of the woman’s cloak, and my breath caught. Where her left arm should have been, only a short upper arm remained—the rest was simply gone. Judging from the clean old scar, though, it hadn’t happened recently. She’d lost it long ago.
It felt cold to even think it, but in a world this full of danger, people losing limbs—or their lives—wasn’t unusual. Especially Lycus, who lived dangerous lives. I had almost brushed it off as just that, when Sia suddenly leaned closer, eyes narrowing as she inspected what little was left of the left arm, then switched to check the right one too.
”No way,” she whispered.
”What is it?” I asked.
”This wasn’t lost to injury or an accident. It was cut off—on purpose.”
”What? Why would anyone—”
”My guess… her left arm was underdeveloped. Look—her right arm’s thicker.”
”Underdeveloped? What’s that mean?”
”It’s not a nice word, but think ‘birth defect.’ The body doesn’t grow right, parts end up warped or nonfunctional. In the worst cases, it can be fatal.”
”So they cut it off because there was something wrong with it?”
”…It seems she’s not just some lost stray,” Diana said quietly.
No one replied, but everyone in the room silently agreed.
”I’d love to ask her about it, but I guess we just have to wait for her to wake up,” Sia said. “Would’ve been nice if we had someone who actually knew the inner workings of the kingdom or the Lycus…”
”The inner workings of the kingdom or the Lycus… hey, Neil,” Lewya said, “you thinking what I’m thinking?”
”Yeah. The exact same person.”
* * *
”So… you came to me.”
That night, Lewya and I found Jott-san in the dining hall and pulled him aside to explain. The place was still half-lit from the last of dinner cleanup, and it felt like our voices might carry, so we kept them low.
”I figured if anyone knew about this kind of thing, it’d be you… since you’ve got Lycus blood,” I said.
”Haah… you actually took in a collapsed Lycus?” Jott-san muttered, sounding like he was halfway between exhausted and just done with us. “You know, even in the kingdom, they say ‘if you don’t enter the wolves’ forest, you won’t get bitten.’”
Basically “let sleeping gods lie.” And yeah—trying to help a Lycus was about as smart as sticking my arm in a wolf’s mouth. I couldn’t even argue.
”But alright,” Jott went on, “you just want to know if she’s a stray that got kicked out of her pack, right?”
”Right.”
”Just asking… if she was, what would you do? You’re not seriously thinking about letting her stay in the frontier settlement, are you?”
”If she has nowhere else to go… I want to,” I said honestly.
Jott covered his face with one hand, staring up at the ceiling for a long second like he was begging some unseen spirit for patience, then lowered his hand and leveled a serious look at me.
”Don’t. I’m telling you for your own good—take her back to the forest and pretend you never saw her.”
”She’s not a stray dog,” I shot back. “I can’t just abandon her.”
”There’s an Inquisitor from the Theocracy in the settlement. Do you understand what the Theocracy thinks of Lycus?”
”Yes.”
”…You didn’t even hesitate,” he said, eyebrows twitching. “Fine. Listen up. There’s no way she was cast out. I can guarantee that.”
”How can you be that sure?”
”Because Lycus blood isn’t something they’d throw away that easily. A birth defect wouldn’t change that. Hell, birth defects aren’t even rare among them.”
”Is that… some kind of racial thing?”
”Sort of. Not because they’re naturally prone to it though—it’s because Lycus do a lot of inbreeding. Their blood’s strong physically, but incredibly weak when mixed. If they have kids with other races, nine times out of ten the kid takes after the other race. Even having blood as thin as mine—just a bit of sharp senses and agility—is considered SSR.”
”Ess… ess-what?”
”Sorry. It’s what they call something super rare in the kingdom.”
That threw me. The word was so familiar it felt bizarre hearing it come from Jott of all people.
”So they inbreed to keep their blood from thinning out,” I said.
”Not exactly. Keeping their blood is a means, not the goal. You know what they do for the kingdom, and what they get in return, right?”
”They take on the dirty jobs in exchange for their clan’s protection… oh. If their blood thins and they lose their Lycus strength, they can’t do those jobs anymore, and the kingdom abandons them. That’s what they’re afraid of.”
I hadn’t known any of this. Coming to Jott had been the right call.
”Then someone like you—with even a little Lycus blood—would be… kinda valuable to them, huh?”
”Probably. That’s why I’m here,” he said with a shrug.
”Wait… did you come to the empire to avoid being used as a… uh, breeding stallion?” I asked.
”That’s… blunt. But yeah, exactly. Anyway, this isn’t about me,” he said, waving it off. “Point is, birth defects are normal for them. They’d never exile someone over that. If anything, they get overprotective.”
”Then she wasn’t exiled, and she’s not here on some mission either?” Lewya asked.
”No way. They’d never send someone like that on a mission. They’re obsessively protective of their own.”
”Then why was she collapsed out there?”
Lewya’s question hung between us, and I found myself answering before thinking.
”She probably loves her clan just as much,” I said. “She didn’t want to just be a burden they had to protect. So she left.”
”I’m with Nick,” Jott said, nodding. “She probably made it to the empire hoping to get far enough away from them, but everyone hates Lycus. She couldn’t stay in town, so she slipped into the forest to avoid people… and collapsed.”
”Isn’t the frontier settlement really far from the kingdom though?” Lewya said. “Could she really get this far just on foot?”
”Don’t underestimate Lycus. They could run from the kingdom border to Golstack—the port town at the empire’s far west edge—in a single day.”
I didn’t really grasp how big the empire was, but if nothing else, that told me the frontier settlement wasn’t that far for her. Lycus were… monsters, physically.
”The catch is they burn through food like crazy,” Jott said. “Skip a meal and they get sluggish. Go a day without eating, and they collapse.”
”So she collapsed because she was starving?” I asked.
”Doubt it. With a Lycus’s nose, finding prey’s easy. Going a whole day without catching anything sounds off. Did she have any other problems besides the missing arm?”
”I didn’t hear about anything else,” I admitted.
I couldn’t exactly go over her body myself, so if Ms. Niya hadn’t missed anything, then no.
”There are lots of hunters near the settlement, but it’s not like competition’s that bad… maybe her nose wasn’t working, or maybe…”
”Jott-san?”
”…Nah. No clue,” he said, shaking his head. “If you want more answers, you’ll just have to wait until she wakes up.”
”Guess so.”
”Sorry I wasn’t more help.”
”No, this helped a lot,” I said. “Just knowing she wasn’t exiled and she’s not on a mission… it’s a huge relief.”
It meant she still had somewhere to go back to, and that her showing up here had been an accident. That was something we could talk through. If she’d been here on a mission, that would’ve been a whole other problem.
I decided then: once she woke up, I’d talk to her. And the next morning, word came that the woman had opened her eyes.
Notes:
• Niya – Former soldier with a quick mind, part of the ‘Ihomono’ group. The one who command the group. Her abilities include mutual sharing of vision and hearing and telepathic communication. Focuses on practical needs like a training ground and security. Her military background influences her perspective on settlement safety.
• Jott – A versatile member of Harmon’s group, often handling reconnaissance and communication thanks to his sharp senses from his Lycus blood. He contributes to combat and defense with his decent fighting skills and limited magic abilities. Jott first appears in Chapter 221.
• Nick – A servant who serves Neil and is trusted to protect him. He is strong enough to potentially fight Momoka. He first appears in Chapter 225, where he is introduced as a servant who is worried about Neil’s well-being after a monster attack. He is later revealed to be Neil himself, pretending to be a servant named Nick.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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