CA – Chapter 31
Chapter 31
Once a werewolf got close, no one would be unafraid, except for those vampires and elves who possessed comparable strength and were skilled in combat. Black witches, with their inherently fragile bodies, were especially terrified. Before her doll could return to her side, the short-haired witch had already turned in a panic to flee.
She was petite, and the white robe she wore was loose. It was fine when the skeleton was carrying her, but when she tried to run in a frenzy, the robe became a major hindrance. Before Tang Qiu could even make a move to grab her, she tripped over her own feet and fell to the ground.
“Don’t kill me.” The short-haired witch looked up at Tang Qiu, pleading. She wasn’t very old, and her crying was quite pitiable. But Tang Qiu hadn’t forgotten how arrogant this witch had been just a few minutes ago, nor how cruel her methods were.
The short-haired witch watched as Tang Qiu walked toward her, step by step. In her fear, she had forgotten that this werewolf was, just a short while ago, a gentle priest. “...I-I can take you to Laurel.”
“Take you to Vera.” The short-haired witch looked at Tang Qiu’s gentle face and swallowed nervously, a chill running down her spine. “They were the ones who wanted to summon the Dark God. It has nothing to do with me.”
Listening to the short-haired witch’s pleas, Erin’s expression was a bit strange. She had grown up with Laurel and Vera, but she didn’t know Laurel’s sister very well. She hadn’t expected her personality to be even worse than Laurel’s.
It didn’t take much imagination to guess the short-haired witch’s fate. Erin rubbed her cold hands, her expression complicated. Her eyes darted around, trying to find a way out.
After recovering from the initial shock, Erin’s mind raced. She instantly realized that she now knew the terrifying secret of the golden-haired priest being able to transform into a werewolf. A single misstep could get her silenced.
After all, a werewolf being a priest of the Holy See was not only shocking to her; if word got out, the reactions of the Holy See and the Wolf Race would surely be the same.
Erin tentatively took a step back. Lucille, standing behind Tang Qiu, sharply turned her head. Her dark red eyes stared coldly at her. Erin gave a dry laugh and silently brought her foot back.
The short-haired witch was still begging, trying to shift all of Tang Qiu’s attention onto the other witches. Lucille had already grown tired of listening. She stepped past Tang Qiu, grabbed the witch’s neck with one hand, and with a slight twist, snapped it. The witch’s head lolled to the side, her breathing stopped.
Lucille released her grip. Without looking at Tang Qiu, she took out a handkerchief and carefully wiped the hand that had touched the witch, saying in a low voice, “You always hesitate when it’s time to kill.”
Tang Qiu paused for a moment, then habitually curved her lips into a smile. “Do I?”
“Not when you’re killing monsters.”
Perhaps it was because the monsters were so ugly and abstract that she felt no pressure when she acted. But the witches… without their demonic creatures and dark magic, they were just frail women.
However, the rule of this world was the law of the jungle. Tang Qiu understood and was adapting. She might hesitate before striking, but she would never be soft-hearted enough to let someone go.
After all, if her situation with the short-haired witch were reversed, she would certainly be a corpse by now—the kind that was skinned, at that.
Tang Qiu spread her hands and said casually, “Maybe it’s because those monsters aren’t as pretty as that witch.” She kicked away a monster that was trembling in fear.
As soon as she transformed into a werewolf, these monsters would adopt this fearful and submissive posture.
Lucille’s wiping motion paused, and she glanced up at her.
Tang Qiu met her gaze for a moment, then a teasing smile played on her lips. “Of course, that witch can’t compare to you.”
The memories of the full moon night had resurfaced in Tang Qiu’s mind. Although Lucille had been helping her out of kindness, whenever she recalled how she had been completely lost in lust due to a mere bit of poison, unable to control her reactions, a sense of unease crept into her heart.
Especially since Lucille had been calmly reading a book beside her the whole time.
Her unease was now mixed with a hint of annoyance.
The priest’s eyes curved, and the smile on her face, along with the trace of teasing and vexation in her eyes, were all taken in by Lucille. Her gaze deepened, and she unconsciously licked her lips, feeling a strange sense of thirst. Her mouth even began to recall the wonderful taste of the priest’s blood.
Tang Qiu didn’t know what Lucille was thinking; she just assumed her teasing had displeased her. She shook her head with a light laugh, composed herself, and began to consider how to handle the current situation.
She didn’t know where Monica and the others had been teleported. Although Tang Qiu was worried, she was also somewhat relieved that they hadn’t seen her transform into a werewolf… She pondered for a moment, then suddenly realized something was wrong and subconsciously glanced behind her.
Erin’s eyes were darting about, refusing to meet Tang Qiu’s gaze.
Tang Qiu: “…”
Lucille followed Tang Qiu’s line of sight and said flatly, “Should I kill her?”
Before Tang Qiu could answer, Erin immediately looked up, cleared her throat, and raised her hand with a composed expression. “I won’t say anything.”
She looked utterly sincere. “Really.”
Tang Qiu flashed in front of her and patted her on the shoulder. Erin was still dazed by her speed, but then her hair stood on end at the sight of her sharp claws. The little mice scurrying on the ground sensed their master’s mood and scurried over.
“Don’t be nervous.” Tang Qiu retracted her hand and said with a smile, “I believe you.”
Erin was a bit stunned. Tang Qiu had already moved past the subject and was now asking about Laurel’s location. “We need to find the Black Witches and the people from the Holy See who were teleported away, quickly.”
She didn’t want to be the only one to leave Vandent safely, a mere priest.
“Wait.” Erin trotted over to the short-haired witch’s corpse, crouched down, and stripped off her white robe. She then searched the body, collected all the useful items, and finally took a lock of her hair. Only after doing all this did she return to Tang Qiu’s side and say with satisfaction, “Let’s go.”
The werewolf state, when triggered outside of a full moon, couldn’t be maintained for very long, so Tang Qiu wasn’t too worried about being seen by the people from the Holy See. However, just to be safe, she put on a large cloak to temporarily conceal herself.
Erin watched as Tang Qiu carefully tucked her hair into the hood and was suddenly reminded of Eva and Jillian, the two werewolves who had transformed and run off. She frowned. “...I forgot to tell you, your people are here.”
The expression on Tang Qiu’s face tightened slightly. “What?”
“Eva and Jillian are werewolves too.”
Werewolves were extremely sensitive to the scent of their own kind. Jillian caught up to the fleeing white wolf, pounced on her, and bit her neck, forcing her to stop struggling and cower on the ground, trembling.
It wasn’t until Eva followed the scent and arrived that Jillian slowly released her bite. The white wolf tried to escape but was kicked away by Eva, crashing into a wall with a mournful cry.
Jillian, in her gray wolf form, walked to Eva’s side, her eyes never leaving the white wolf.
“An impure werewolf.” Eva saw the white wolf curled up and whimpering, yet still not transforming into a human. She frowned and spoke with a face full of anger.
This white wolf was similar to the little girl with an equally impure bloodline they had found in Edry. The only difference was that this one’s bloodline was even more impure, as she lacked the ability to even take human form.
Both the white wolf and the little girl were “accidental” byproducts of creating those defective goods. Or perhaps, they were the very reason those defective goods were being created in the first place?
A traitor was trying to use other races to breed werewolves.
This was an insult to their bloodline.
Eva furiously lunged forward and tore the white wolf to shreds. Jillian watched silently from behind, making no move to stop her.
After the two had calmed down, they remembered the thirty bottles of Holy Water of Light and headed back the way they came to find Erin. However, there wasn’t a single person in the square, only the corpses of monsters littering the ground.
Eva looked around in confusion. “Where did the thirty bottles of Holy Water go?”
The gray wolf walked to her side, nudged her shoulder, and corrected her in a low voice, “Her name is Erin.”
Eva shrugged. “The person is gone.”
The gray wolf paced around the area, sniffing heavily. Her tone turned cold. “The scent of our kind was here.”
Eva was taken aback. In her human form, her sense of smell wasn’t as keen as the gray wolf’s. “Oh?” The werewolf creating the defective goods was here?
She cracked her knuckles, suddenly growing excited, and said coldly, “Don’t let me catch this traitor.”
Unaware that she had been branded a traitor, Tang Qiu was walking away from the square, staring down at the two dry twigs in her hand with a peculiar expression.
Erin had mysteriously shoved them into her hand, claiming they could help conceal her scent.
Seeing Tang Qiu scrutinizing the twigs she had given her, Erin cleared her throat and explained, “I was in a hurry, so I didn’t have time to process them.”
“Don’t underestimate a witch’s witchcraft. It’s even more powerful than dark magic.”
It was just that modern witches all revered dark magic, and not many were genuinely interested in studying witchcraft.
This was because dark magic had strong offensive capabilities, whereas witchcraft leaned more towards rituals and spiritualism.
Lucille placed a hand on Tang Qiu’s shoulder, leaned in to sniff, and said flatly, “The scent is masked.”
Erin looked at her, puzzled, wondering how she could possibly know.
Tang Qiu, however, wasn’t surprised. Her arm had several bite marks left by Lucille. Given the vampire tendency to mark their prey, she was sure she had plenty of them on her.
It seemed the twigs were indeed useful. Tang Qiu toyed with them, a slight smile on her lips.
With no one from the Holy See around, Erin didn’t have to hide her use of witchcraft. At first, she had been worried that with Tang Qiu in werewolf form, her use of witchcraft would be detected by Laurel or Vera without a priest to provide cover. But knowing that Tang Qiu could still cast light magic as a werewolf, her worries vanished.
The short-haired witch’s hair proved very useful. The blood connection between her and Laurel guided Tang Qiu and the others along a very clear path.
Following the guidance of the witchcraft, they arrived at the entrance to Rose Manor, where two skeletons stood guard.
The skeletons slowly lowered their heads to look at the three of them. Two green flames suddenly ignited in their eye sockets. Their jaws clacked open and shut, and a familiar voice emerged, “Oh? So it’s you, the vampire from Edry.”
The voice coming from the skeleton was Laurel’s.
Erin blinked, stealing a glance at Lucille from the corner of her eye, and felt surprisingly calm.
She had already seen a priest suddenly turn into a werewolf, so what was so strange about an exceptionally skilled swordswoman being a vampire?
She was used to it, Erin silently comforted herself.
The skeleton looked from side to side and chuckled sinisterly. “Where’s that priest? Did you drain her dry?”
“Sorry to disappoint you.” Tang Qiu lifted her head slightly, revealing the features hidden by her hood. A faint smile played on her lips as she said softly, “Lady Laurel, the Black Witch.”
As her words fell, the flames in the skeleton’s eye sockets flickered, and then with a clatter, it collapsed into a pile of bones on the ground.
The perpetrator, Lucille, slowly sheathed her sword and said coldly, “I’ll take care of her.”
Tang Qiu was happy to not have to act, nodding with a smile. “Alright.”
Listening to their exchange, Erin weakly interjected, “Remember to leave me a complete corpse.” The things she needed were still on Laurel.
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