Chapter 258 The Hound-Kin Pack ①
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
The Zil Meina Subjugation Force ¹ was currently being mauled by a localized stampede ². Just as a towering Chimera reared its heads, forcing the soldiers into a desperate defensive, a savage symphony of howls tore through the chaos.
”What is that…?”
”Beastmen… maybe?” someone asked.
Satsuki and Kushe, the Court Mages of the Canaria Coalmine ³, paused their preparations for the Ddo-Buddy Cannon ⁴ as the pack blurred into view. They were a sea of orange – varying shades of amber and rust, but unified by shock-bright hair and thick, fluffy tails that wagged with predatory excitement.
Satsuki felt a jolt of recognition. They looked exactly like the warriors she had stood shoulder-to-shoulder with on the northern front during the war. And those cries – distinct in pitch but identical in soul.
”Woof! Woof-woof!!”
”Grrrr-raugh!!”
The pack fell upon the Chimera like a landslide. It wasn’t just a fight; it was a rhythmic dismantling. They weren’t enemies – they were the cavalry. They danced through the carnage, slipping past the lion’s snapping jaws to land bruising facial blows, rolling under the goat’s horns to hammer its ribs, and leaping over the snake’s coils to shatter its legs.
Some wielded steel, but the most terrifying among them fought with nothing but calloused knuckles and bare feet. Men and women alike moved with the strength of a hundred, their coordination marking them as veteran hunters who treated high-rank monsters like common prey.
”A-wooooooo!” the lead man howled.
”””A-wooooooo!””” the pack responded.
The man facing the lion’s head let out a soul-piercing howl. His pack surged in response, their movements sharpening. Swords and axes became blurs of silver; spears bit deep, and fists landed with the weight of falling boulders.
It wasn’t just the Chimera they targeted. The pack swept through the periphery, ambushing the Giant Bears and Shadow Wolves from behind, trapping the monsters in a lethal pincer against the army’s lines.
”ROAR!”
”BLEAAAT!”
”HISSS!”
The Chimera’s three heads shrieked in a discordant, bone-shaking harmony, but the end was written. The leader of the pack – no, the alpha male – stepped into the lion’s guard and uncorked a monstrous uppercut.
”Stay down!” he roared.
The Chimera reeled, its footing lost. The goat and snake heads flailed in a blind panic. Sensing the kill, a woman – no, a prime female – sprinted through the chaos and buried a full-body straight punch directly into the Chimera’s groin.
Thud-crack!
For a split second, the onlookers hallucinated the clear, triumphant ring of a bell. In reality, the sound was far more visceral – a wet, muffled crunching squelch that made every man in the vicinity want to vanish.
Apparently, the Chimera had been a male. As the soldiers and half the beastman pack instinctively crossed their legs in sympathetic agony, the Chimera let out a silent, bulging-eyed scream, foamed at the mouth, and collapsed into the dirt.
The earth groaned under its weight. The beast didn’t so much as twitch. Looking around, the soldiers realized the rest of the monsters had been similarly silenced.
”Is… is it over?” Satsuki asked.
”I guess? Looks like the Ddo-Buddy Cannon wasn’t needed after all,” Kushe replied.
While the mages stood there, blinking in the sudden silence, the pack had already moved on to the grim business of the aftermath.
”Don’t just stand there with your mouths open!” the leader barked at his own. “Get them moved and bled out! Don’t you dare ruin those pelts!”
”Woof!” a subordinate barked back.
”Hey! You lot! Help out!” the leader yelled to the army. “You leave these carcasses here, and every scavenger in the forest will be on us by sundown!”
Despite a thousand questions, the leader’s logic was irrefutable. After a brief parley, General Oromanso judged them safe. Leaving a skeleton crew to guard the carriages, the rest of the army set to work.
Even in a rush, leaving a trail of corpses was a death sentence. The smell would draw predators for miles, endangering both the subjugation force and anyone following their path. You didn’t underestimate a monster’s nose – not if you wanted to keep your own.
It was hours before the work was finished. By the time the last hide was prepped and the blood washed away, the sun had long since dipped below the horizon, surrendering the world to a heavy, indigo dark.
”I… I’m exhausted…” Satsuki groaned.
”That was the most work I’ve done in years,” Kushe said.
”Sorry, you two. In the end, I was the only one who got to take it easy,” Marsetta-senpai said.
”It’s fine. I suppose this is just a junior’s duty,” Satsuki replied.
”Well, I couldn’t exactly let Satsuki-kun do all the work alone,” Kushe added.
Marsetta-senpai, the senior mage who had been guarding the carriage carrying the Ddo-Buddy Cannon, looked at them with genuine pity. In this world, mages were the ultimate utility. No matter how strong a soldier was, two arms couldn’t compete with magic when it came to hauling tons of meat or incinerating gore-slicked roads. Satsuki and Kushe had been the last ones working, cleaning equipment and burning blood-trails to mask their scent.
Marsetta-senpai had helped with the washing toward the end, but neither Satsuki nor Kushe complained. They had seen the butchering madness the others dealt with; washing tunics was a mercy compared to being elbow-deep in bear guts.
”As an apology, I’ve prepared dinner. Look, it’s a fresh bear soup with plenty of meat,” Marsetta-senpai offered.
”That is… that’s the Giant Bear, isn’t it? After watching them butcher those things, I don’t really have an appetite,” Satsuki said.
”Hmm, it smells pretty good to me. I was getting sick of dried meat anyway, so I’m grateful,” Kushe said.
Satsuki was disheartened, while Kushe didn’t seem to care. Of course, Satsuki wasn’t the type to waste food, and her body was screaming for calories. She thanked Marsetta-senpai and began to eat.
Somewhere nearby, the baggage train managing the army’s food supplies was likely overjoyed at the unexpected harvest while simultaneously panicking over how to manage it all. It was a meal eaten while contemplating those hardships.
The taste? It was an aggressive, wild broth. The ingredients weren’t bad, but the flavor was unrefined. Tomorrow, Satsuki vowed to herself, I’m taking over the cooking.
”Wait. Come to think of it, where is Martin-kun?” Kushe asked.
After finishing the meal, Kushe finally noticed that Count Martin Popol was missing. They had fought side-by-side and shared a carriage, but his overbearing obsession with his sister and niece usually made him someone the group preferred to ignore.
”Oh! That’s right. He went to talk to General Oromanso,” Marsetta-senpai remembered. “He said that once Satsuki returned, it didn’t matter if she’d finished eating, I should send her over.”
”Me?” Satsuki asked.
”Yeah. He said those people might have a connection with your friend. I mean, they’re basically that girl’s relatives or something, right?” Marsetta-senpai asked.
”Ah, yes. I think that’s probably it. Well then, I’ll be going,” Satsuki said.
Satsuki tidied her dishes and stood up. She knew the beastman unit accompanying the subjugation force had been friendly with her. It was likely that General Oromanso had judged the pack to be safe precisely because of her existence.
While thinking about such things, she headed toward the camp of the Bear-Beastman General Oromanso. It seemed the people of the pack had gathered there as well.
A feast was in full swing, featuring the same soup Marsetta-senpai had made alongside massive slabs of roasted meat. It seemed Martin Popol had also managed to get his fill without missing out.
”Ahahaha! No way! That girl did that to a dragon? A dragon?!” a boisterous voice laughed.
”Good grief. Like father, like daughter,” another voice sighed.
”What are you saying? She’s your daughter too!” a woman yelled.
”Ow, ow! Stop hitting me!” the man cried out.
Laughter and the smell of alcohol filled the air. They seemed to be having a wonderful time. Some were even howling along, and Satsuki had seen several beastman soldiers on her way over who looked like they were itching to join the party.
”I am the Court Mage Satsuki. I apologize for being late,” she announced.
”Ah, you’ve come. Don’t worry about it; good work today. You two, this is Satsuki, the friend of that girl,” General Oromanso said.
Oromanso welcomed her and immediately introduced her. His bear ears were twitching, a clear sign he wanted to finish his business and join the banquet. Satsuki stepped forward into the light of the fire.
”Nice to meet you, I’m Satsuki. You two are… this pack is indeed her…”
”Ah, nice to meet you. I’m Slop, that child’s… Laika-chan’s father. I’m also the leader of this pack,” the man said.
”And I’m the mother, Rikka. Nice to meet you, human lady,” the woman added.
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Summary:
A mysterious pack of hound-kin beastmen intervenes to assist the Zil Meina Subjugation Force against a stampede, efficiently taking down a giant Chimera with a memorable finishing blow. Following the battle, the group bonds over a grizzly meal of monster meat while Satsuki and Kushe handle the magical cleanup duties. Satsuki is eventually summoned by General Oromanso to meet the newcomers, who are revealed to be the parents of her friend Laika.
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Character Insight:
Satsuki demonstrates her work ethic and reliability as a junior mage, while her connection to Laika serves as the vital diplomatic bridge between the military and the wild beastman pack. The introduction of Slop and Rikka establishes the familial origins of Laika’s strength and personality.
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Behind the Scenes:
The author uses crude, biological terminology (alpha male/prime female) to highlight the beastmen’s nature during combat, contrasting it with their jovial, human-like behavior during the feast.
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TL Notes:
Notes:
• Satsuki – A talented Court Mage who was forced to analyze the shop’s adult magic tools. Miranda’s granddaughter. Now she’s the new worker at Harvest, a development she finds both humiliating and surprisingly fulfilling due to the rapid progress in her research under Kento’s guidance. Has long black hair, palace mage robe, and staff.
• Kushe – The Chief Mage of the Coalmine Kingdom. She has dark green hair grown out haphazardly and wears a mage robe loosely over her shoulders. She has a blunt, informal, and somewhat insensitive personality, focused on her ‘thinking experiments.’
• Ray – A Viscount with flaxen-gold hair in a men’s wolf cut. Possesses a sweet mask and a prince-like aura. It is revealed at the end that Ray is actually a woman. She has started manufacturing and selling adult goods similar to Kento’s products in the Royal Capital’s pleasure district.
• Oromanso – A General serving as the assistant to Duke Roost. Bear beastman.
• Marsetta – A senior court mage and specialist in magical weaponry. She has disheveled hair tied back, wears glasses, and has deep dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep. She hasn’t eaten in two days and is under heavy pressure to find a countermeasure for the enemy’s weapons.
• Martin – Lily’s non-blood-related younger brother. Considered the strongest candidate to succeed the Popol family due to his lineage and manifested ‘power. He has pink hair.
• Laika – The beastwoman dog.
• Slop – Leader of the hound-kin pack; Laika’s father. Has orange hair and fluffy tail.
• Rikka – Member of the hound-kin pack; Laika’s mother. Has orange hair and fluffy tail. Energetic and teasing.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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