Chapter 456: Night of the hungry wolves (2)

"..."

All the fallen werewolves were starting to stand back up, shaking their heads in confusion...

Yes, all of them.

But around one-fourth was also reaching under their armor after exchanging serious looks.

Those ones ignored their leader talking to the pure-blooded Pride clansman and each one pulled out a big vile and uncorked it with their teeth.

"Eh...? Brother, what do you have there? Boss told us to let him talk with the Pride guy, don't do anything stupid."

Another werewolf looked at the vile in the hand of the one next to him in confusion and said furrowing her brows.

"Who's your brother, you dumb beast?"

The other werewolf scoffed and spilled the vile's content around, wildly swinging his arm.

"Urgh! You got in in my...!"

The werewolf next to him flinched and stepped away covering her face all but too late – and suddenly flinching and cutting her words mid-sentence.

"A little gift from lord Rambuta... urgh...! Wh-what the...?!|

The werewolf with a vile smirked – but then he also got some of the liquid splashed onto his fur and his body trembled uncontrollably, making him stop talking.

"...?"

Lord Blackberry and Sapotle both frowned at each other and then looked at the group of werewolves behind Sapotle's back, splashing each other with something as if this was a kid's party.

For a second or two nothing happened, besides every werewolf clenching their hands to their faces and trembling.

"Everyone...?"

The situation was weird enough for even the skill-enlarged jet-black leader of the raiding party to turn his back on his opponent and ask in a worried voice.

"...?"

Similarly, Lord Blackberry glanced back at the guards and all the combat-ready servants that would never run away from the duty of serving the Pride family – not everyone showed up, but with the numbers they had on them, they were outnumbering the werewolves almost three times over.

..Without the element of an ambush, the outcome of a clash between them was obvious...

...or rather...

...it should be obvious...

"AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

With the exception of Sapotle, every werewolf raised its head and began howling towards the night sky.

---

Mary, Roan, Cranberry, and Arion were sneaking back towards the mansion when they heard the unison howl of tens of werewolves that almost instantly turned into a bloodthirsty roar followed by a sound of battle.

"We are still too late..!"

Cranberry gritted her teeth and clenched her hand a bit harder on her reverse baseball bat scepter.

"Someone must have tricked the people from the Gluttony family into following this idiotic plan – we need to stop them from fighting!"

She whispered to the others.

"But how...?"

Roan whispered back, furrowing his brows.

"...that's... I'm still working on that part..."

The red-haired girl bit her lips, looking away with a cloudy expression.

"..."

While the two of them were talking, Mary was glaring at her wolf – who stubbornly refused to look back at her.

"...!"

Cranberry reached her hand to the side, stopping her friends from moving past the storage shed.

They all only peeked out from behind the corner, witnessing the bloody battlefield – the werewolves seemed to go completely crazy, attacking anything and everything around them – biting and tearing apart both the servants of the Pride family and other werewolves alike.

"Wha-what are they doing?! Wasn't the Gluttony family supposed to be responsible for training the kingdom's military?! What in the system's name is this madness?!"

Roan gasped, taken aback by the utter chaos while both Mary and Cranberry were left speechless as the fountains of blood were spilling from the bodies ripped apart by skills or pure strength stat of the berserk monsters.

"...this... we should...!"

"Young miss...!"

Cranberry opened her mouth and said, when suddenly a voice called out to her from behind, making everyone from their group flinch and turn away battle-ready.

But the one beckoning the red-haired girl was a...

"Fig...! Thank the system, you're safe!"

Cranberry breathed out with relief and hurried towards the maid who already helped her multiple times in the past – both before and after the red-haired girl's few years at the elven village.

"Did the non-combat staff evacuate safely? How about you? You've seen that mess?! The werewolves must have lost their minds from bloodlust! You need to get away from here too, it's not safe!"

Cranberry grabbed Fig's hands and shook them slightly, making a worried expression and motioning at the scene of the carnage unfolding just behind the safety of the rather feeble storage shed.

"I know, young miss. But first things first... could you come with me for a second? I have something important to tell you."

The tall maid nodded to the red-haired girl but didn't look too keen on listening to the evacuation suggestion, instead, she already began pulling Cranberry behind the other corner of the shed – out of Mary and Roan's sight.

"Hey – I don't think that splitting up is a good idea, if you want to tell her something, say it here."

Roan stepped closer to the two girls and said in a hushed but very serious voice, staring at the maid with suspicion.

"That's right! Cranberry, why is she even here? Can you really trust her?!"

Mary joined in and clenched her fists just as distrustful towards the maid as the blond prince.

"Raor!"

...even Arion joined in, glaring at fig and hurriedly sniffing around as if trying to find anything amiss about her smell.

"I..."

Fig bit her lip in concern, clearly not sure how she should defend herself – but the thing was, she didn't even have to do that.

"Everything's fine, I trust her, she is a good person."

The red-haired girl smiled back at the two humans and a wolf and nodded at them to relax.

"If she wants to take me somewhere it is surely about something important. Just wait a bit – I'll be right back."

She added, before turning back to the shocked, and slightly more pale maid, and squeezed her hands – which she did not let go even for a moment.

"..."

Fig closed her eyes and breathed out to calm down.

When she opened them, she looked as if she got rid of all the doubts she had before.

"It will only take a moment, Please, do not disturb us."

She said, looking at the brow-haired girl and the blond prince, and walked away, pulling the trustful Cranberry with her.

"...I don't like this... not a bit..."

Roan gritted his teeth but didn't try to go and eavesdrop on whatever conversation the two were having – though, it was doubtful whether it would be even possible with the sound of the battle growing more chaotic and desperate.

"...!"

Suddenly, after less than a minute, an odd greenish glow shone past the corner, causing them all to flinch.

"Screw this, I'm going to check on them."

Roan scoffed and stepped forward, with full intention on peeking on the private conversation that he was convinced couldn't be anything good – and probably wasn't a conversation at all, when...

"...ugh...! Eh...? My prince?!"

The red-haired girl walked by the corner at the same time as he and the two bumped into each other.

"Ah...! Cranberry?! Are you okay?"

Roan gasped, looking at her in shock.

"Of course – now then, we should take care of this mess, right? My prince, miss Mary."

Cranberry shook her head dismissively and glanced between her two friends with a very serious expression.