Chapter 9: Chapter 9

"The last?" I muttered after him.

"You might be. Are you expecting to meet your similitude? I believe we've already given the demise of your race."

He's mocking me, it's my thoughts on the matter. But I find it reasonable. I already knew the sore brutality of silver wolves like me. "Then... you shall do the same to me? Sir, I have another reason why I need to meet you."

"Freedom for the slaves? Yes. The knights informed me about your petition. But would you mind guessing why we enforce this law?" He leaned his arms on the bars with an overweening stance. "It's because of you. We know you're hiding under that color. And all we've been doing is to pull the rat out of its hiding. And the long wait is over."

"Are you talking about me? I'm a werewolf, not a rat."

"Don't make me laugh."

"Your only interest is me but you involve people who look like me. You've been casting your hostility with uncertainty, making you unworthy of your headship. Perhaps all you do is dictate your will for your conquest, sit still, and shun your eyes for the sufferings of the slaves under your regime!"

He clapped his hands slowly and sonorously. Not a reaction and the satisfying response I was looking for. He's merely mocking me. Mraz can't be the kind of person who can understand my petition because he's an eye-single to the goal: to catch me. Now I know why not even a priestess can discipline him!

"She's right!" he bragged. I furrowed. "You're different. You're not the kind of silver wolves we've known. But that doesn't change the rules."

"Who were you talking about?"

"The Moon Priestess who took you here. You've already met, aye?" he said. I was about to say something when he forestalled me. "That's right! You're baited. And that was easy. For your information, don't make it sound like I am the villain here. I'm doing my quest. And that is to eliminate every single silver wolf to preempt the catastrophe.

"I'm doing this to save the nations from your wicked existence! You are the villain here... and your origin... and always will be. Perhaps you keep your eyes biased from the reality of the past, all you do is hide, and act as if nothing happened."

"I..." I can't remember anything. "Look, I don't think I deserve to be condemned like this! Memories of my origin are vague and not because I'm a silver wolf, doesn't mean I have to live like them!"

"You will never be innocent before my eyes." He gritted with his fangs revealed.

"Then I am likewise against you. Your law slaughtered and persecuted several slaves."

"Alright. Then that's mutual. We're both villains in our own eyes. But the thing is you're the one who's going to die, and I would like to include your hovering fur-parent."

I growled unintentionally. But I shouldn't let myself be mocked. Seems like the wolf within me is taking over little by little.

He grins at me. "Now, now, you're ready to devour some flesh?" he dared. "I'm not trying to force the villain out of you. I'm trying to kill it," he whispered the last words. "I still have a lot of things on my hands. Rest assured, I shall grant your petition. I will enforce freedom for all slaves once the silver wolf is annihilated."

He turned his back on me but before he totally vanished within the dark side of the room, I said "Can I... have nuts, too?"

"Oh, you're not a lucky prisoner. As a matter of fact, you're quite special for having your own cage and mattress."

"Should I be grateful?" I said together with my shrug. He laughed out loud without leaving an answer for me. He's gone in the dark without hearing a slammed door or any possible way out. This ground is like an endless abyss.

I sighed, rubbed my hair, and sighed again. Was I fooled? I knew from the beginning that Dandeline used me. But I still feel betrayed. I lie down on the mattress again, staring cluelessly at the brightness above, whilst waiting for my probable demise. It is for the sake of freedom for the slaves. Hence, I disobeyed Cormelio by letting myself be found.

["Hessuel!"]

I jerk up immediately. "That voice..."

["Hessuel! Can you hear me?"]

"Ms. Dandeline? Where are you?" I look around and all I can see outside this cage is darkness.

["Good dog. I left an enchantment on your neck earlier to connect our mind."]

"Oh, I see. But I prefer ‘good wolf.’"

["Listen. You have to get yourself out of there. They will not spare you, I'm certain that they will kill you!"]

"Yes. I already knew. But how am I supposed to free myself? This place is new to me."

["You just have to get out of your whereabouts and I'll do the rest to help you. You got the power. You can go on berserk to escape."]

I look around again. The silence makes me think that I'm the only one here. I breathed in until my tummy was filled, then outcried everything like a raging beast up to my last breath. "HAAAAA!" Nothing happened afterward. My only hypothesis on using my power is aligned with the stage plays I've seen. And it's just fiction after all.

“I’m sorry, I-I really don’t know how to be a wolf.”

After a few motions, I was startled by the voice of the knight outside the cage. "What are you doing?" he asked. He's the enchanter and a knight in this metropolis. And he smells like cake. I guess that priests and priestesses have the same scent.

"Ahem..." I'm rubbing my throat with my fingers, "there's just something itchy in my throat... ahem..." I pretext. He's inquisitively walking around my cage and I'm avoiding his glance. Of course, they will not let me out of their sight now that I'm found. And they will not let me slip from their clenches again. I need to understand my power, and why it has to be in a situation like this!

I walked closer to the bars casually and when I touched them, I felt an electric shock vibrating through my arms! I removed my arms right away. The enchanter says, "Are you plotting on how to destroy that cage?"

"I want to know what kind of cage this is."

"It was crafted exclusively to silver wolves." There appeared again round lights on his arms then the bars suddenly amplified with electric shock and cast me away from it! My back slammed on the floor. And I can still feel the vibration within my muscles. "It has several skills controlled by the particle of the Moon Goddess's power. Would you like to know it all?" he said.

"This cage," I crawled to stand while panting, "is more skilled than me. It's challenging me. Well, that's exciting." Going berserk means unleashing uncontrolled power. That's what I expelled within me when I dashed towards bars and aimed to turn them into shreds with my claws, but the bars tangled on my body—my arms, waist, and legs instead like a rubber. When I tried to cut them, it only stretched!

"Right, try everything you can," the enchanter said. "It's entertaining." The round lights remained on his arms where the power to take over comes from.

I growled at him. I touched the floor with my left foot, and when I felt even slightly loose, I slipped through it and hit the mage's neck with my leg at full speed. I got out of the cage! When the enchanter who's groveling on the floor pushes himself up, I tread on his back and pull his right arm upward. "Are you entertained? There's more..."

I was about to howl at his ear when his voice changed into something familiar. "Wait, Hessuel!" A woman! "Come on, it's me. I was just playing with you." She chuckles and that tickles my ears. I moved away swiftly and cleared my throat. "I'm sorry to overwhelm you." It's clearly Dandeline who is standing in front of me. But she's wearing the clothes of the enchanter.

"You're a fraud!" I pointed a claw at her. "You're just disguising to be Ms. Dandeline—!"

"Hessuel, I thought you could recognize me by my smell?"

My lips pursed. That tamed me. She's full of twists! "H-How about Mraz? Did you disguise as him as well?"

"He's the real one. And I managed to escape his sense of smell." She looked at me then at my body thoroughly. "Are you alright? Did they harm you?"

"So far, you're the first one who did."

"That's not counted. Anyway, I found the underground dungeon where they're casting the slaves. We can break their prison," she said confidently. The way she acts is contrary to his connection with Mraz. Or should I be thinking about whom shall I trust?

"I can't leave," I said. "Mraz confirmed his words. He'll dismiss the law about slavery and proclaim their rights once I'm dead. 'Twas all because of me."

Her furrowing eyebrows are fiercer than a werewolf. "Do you seriously want to die!?" she growled and I stuttered. "I'm aware of that pretext of his. And I am one of those who oppose it. Think twice about it." She grasps my arms like a raging mother.

"He will kill you publicly, announcing that you are the reason why slavery takes place, so the people will hold grudges on you to die alone. And that is clearly burying the wicked acts of Mraz through your innocent life! Do you want that? He'll use you in the end to purify the stigma he put on his reputation! If you want it, then I don't!

“I will not tolerate bad dogs like him because that's not my sworn duty. My conscience tells me to correct the wrong, not to hide it. I want to make sure that everything I do is pleasing to the eyes of the Moon Goddess even if it means saving a silver wolf!"

“Whoa… You’re amazing. I haven’t thought of that.” I'm raising my hand in front to calm her. "I understand. And that was shrewd." It doesn't matter whom I should trust. As long as the objective I originally have is in favor of helping the slaves and keeping Cormelio safe.

"Good wolf. Now, let's get out of here. I know a way out that has poor surveillance." She raises her hand above her head, the glowing round light with triple layers, then a pillar of light shined from her hand upward. The darkness around us shattered like broken glass before it vanished on the floor. And we're unharmed.

The cage is gone as well. The location we're in is on the ground floor of a tower, there's a spiral stair upward attached to the wall. There are entrance doors along the stairs. And this place seems everlasting. "It's an illusion cage meant to imprison powerful beasts like you," she said. And then she pulled my hand shortly before leading the way upstairs.

"This way!"

That sudden contact made my chest nervous. She was skipping steps at first until her endurance hit its limit. I'm running alongside her to match her speed. But little by little, she's slowing down. I asked her, "Which way?" She pointed to a door after the first two which is still a long run. Before she could speak, I lifted her to my shoulder like cloth and ran towards that door for only a few seconds.

And then I put her down. She fixed her hair and placed her hands on her waist. "Clever. But next time, don't lift me that way," she suggested, and then she opened the huge door with her enchantment; a light appeared in her hand and the built-in lock moved on its own to let us in.

"So, there's next time. How shall I lift you?"

"Something that is more favorable to ladies."

"Through my arms?" I chuckled. "You're quite demanding."

When we got in, she locked the door again with enchantment. I look around this wide and messy room. The side corners are filled with bookshelves and countless books, in the middle of the room is a dusty table with a heap of books, tools for experiments, and blueprints of something I cannot imagine.

"They have this big study room here? What kind of education do they have?" I asked.

"This is a mage's research lab. This is where we moon priests and priestesses started."

"You're an enchantress?"

"Of course, we were trained to hold enchantments before we become real holders of it, and it varies on which power we will choose to hold. I chose the Moon Goddess."

"Because you're a dog lover?"

"Absolutely wrong."

I sniff. "Hm, smells of denial."

"Shut up and follow me— Ah!" She stumbled, then I sat beside her on the floor.

“Okay, where shall we go, Ms. Dandeline?”

“Really!? Instead of helping me up?”

“So in case you were chased by zombies, I’ll mutate with you.”

“You’re corny.”

She marches in front of another door beside a small side table in the corner. I came after her and caught her smirk when she shook her head. The next place we're in is another wide room with countless full bookshelves on the second floor.

The ceiling is high, and there's a huge planet chandelier hanging up there. Long wooden benches are queued, making a path in the middle of the room. This kind of place demands silence, which may be the reason why it's poor in surveillance... not until I sensed something behind a bookshelf.

I paused in the meantime to observe that location, yet I shouldn't keep a distance from Dandeline. I whisper to her ear, "I think we're being watched."

"Yes, we are. I hope you’re aware that you are not the only werewolf here." She glaring in front of her, and I smell someone there... until the smell of fur doubles. We are surrounded by extraordinarily big wolves.

This is going to be tiresome.