How to Raise a Dumb Wolf - Chapter 11

“Bride raiding! It is a bride raid! The darkfolk have come out to steal women again!”

By the time Carter III’s urgent voice sounded in his ear, Les had already returned to beast form and was racing through the forest, straight toward the human town of Philray.

“I cannot believe they still preserve such a barbaric custom!” Carter III sounded shocked beyond belief. “The report seems to have come from near your coordinates. Les, were you caught up in it?!”

Les was already frantic enough to explode, especially after hearing the emperor’s words. He scarcely knew how he answered. His only thought was to run faster.

In an instant, details he had never noticed before locked into place.

No wonder the darkfolk reinforcements had arrived so swiftly several months ago—why they had seemed in such a hurry. They wanted to end one part of the war as quickly as possible and free themselves for another undertaking.

They had been planning the bride raids even then.

Les roared at the empty air.

Bride raiding was a custom that had flourished among the darkfolk in ancient times. Their natural birth ratio was badly skewed, with nearly three males born for every female. Their birthrate was consequently extremely low, and their population had remained in decline for years. If the trend continued, the darkfolk would inevitably dwindle into extinction.

In primitive society, their solution had been bride raiding.

For a long period, women among humans, beastfolk, elves, and dwarves all suffered under this brutal practice. Darkfolk raiders did not linger to fight, and their power of flight made the great raids they launched every few years exceedingly difficult to prevent.

With the dawn of the modern era, civilization had finally persuaded the darkfolk to abandon the custom. Of course, developments in magic and dwarven machinery had played no small role in that enlightenment. Improved technology dramatically increased the cost and danger of crossing borders to steal women.

Nearly a thousand years had now passed without a raid along the darkfolk frontier. Over the same period, their population continued to fall. As people often said, the race once most beloved by the gods had been forsaken by its guardians.

Les lengthened his stride and ran faster still. His wounds were seventy to eighty percent healed, but the gravely injured shoulder still required rest. His desperate pace pulled at it. Les felt the pain, but he had no thought of stopping.

And yet…

He was already too late.

When the enemy had no desire to fight, creatures bound to the earth could scarcely catch those with wings. By the time Les reached the town, he saw only savagely ruined houses, belongings scattered across the streets, and townspeople bearing wounds of varying severity.

Every one of them was male…

Or an elderly woman.

Les’s heart sank. He wheeled and raced toward Aisha’s home.

He had never left the forest, but their long acquaintance had made Aisha’s scent intimately familiar. Instinct drew him toward the place where that warm scent gathered most strongly. He flew through the almost-demolished market and row after row of wrecked houses. Even without looking closely, he could sense the darkfolk’s astonishing violence. They must have dragged every young woman from every hiding place and attacked any man who tried to stop them—

Just as Les neared the house saturated with Aisha’s scent, a frightened shriek sounded nearby.

He looked over by instinct. An elderly woman sat sprawled on the ground, terror carved into her face. The finger she pointed at him shook violently beyond her control.

“Mother!” A young human man rushed from Aisha’s house. “What hap—”

The rest lodged in his throat the moment he saw Les’s enormous, ferocious body. Fred instinctively dashed forward and spread his arms before Mrs. Wesson. Then he stared tensely at the wolf.

Only now did Les notice that Fred’s arm was drenched in blood, apparently slashed by a sharp weapon.

“You… could you be…”

Fred could barely control his tongue. His mouth hung open, but words refused to emerge. His gaze traveled down the giant wolf, then back up to his face, as though unable to believe what he saw.

At last, Fred accepted that this was real.

“Are you… the wolf Aisha told me about?”

There was no time left to worry about exposing his identity. Les hesitated for an instant, then nodded.

Fred gaped even wider. He opened his mouth several times before finally managing, “You really do understand people. And you’re… even bigger than I imagined.”

Hearing what Aisha had said about him at such a moment made Les frown sharply.

He did not know the relationship between Aisha and the young man who had emerged from her home. But was this truly what he cared about now?!

Every muscle in Les’s body was poised to erupt. He had no patience for such nonsense. A wolf’s nose could not follow a trail through the sky. He wanted only to know what had happened to Aisha and where she was.

Where was she?

A dangerous flame burned hotter in Les’s chest. Driven by an agitation he could not shake, he opened his jaws, ready to abandon all caution and demand the answer aloud—

Before he could speak, Fred seemed to understand. He lunged forward, seized Les by the shoulders, and stared at him with wide, frantic eyes.

“Aisha used her power to help you, didn’t she? You came to save her, didn’t you?! You’re so big—you can fight those disgusting darkfolk! Go after her! Hurry! You owe Aisha a debt! I heard them say they were going back to Dimska—but I couldn’t save her! I couldn’t save her!”

Dimska!

Les’s heart lurched at the crucial word.

Dimska was the capital of Duke, in the kingdom’s eastern region. It was not a place one could enter or leave at will. This bride raid was very likely an official operation.

The girls from one small town could never meet the darkfolk’s needs. They might raid other places as well…

No. They had probably struck many places at the same time.

There was no time to think. Les spun and raced in the direction of Dimska. The force of his turn flung Fred to the ground. Once Fred recovered, he hurried to help his shaken mother and tried to guide her back into their own house.

Before passing beneath the eaves, Fred slowly raised his head and stared blankly at the empty sky.

He had a strange premonition.

Aisha might never return.

…

After several hours of flight stuffed inside a sack, Aisha felt dizzy and desperately nauseated. Perhaps she was airsick—wingsick, rather. She was so dizzy that she did not even feel especially frightened.

The darkfolk had burst into town before dawn. Aisha was still asleep beneath her quilt when piercing screams outside woke her without warning. She opened her eyes and vaguely saw light beyond the window. Before she could make out anything more, darkfolk invaders smashed into the room, stuffed her into a sack, and carried her away like a parcel.

Then came swaying. Violent swaying. Swaying while suspended in the sky.

Countless times, Aisha felt sure the motion would shake her loose and send her falling from the sky. Shut in darkness with no one offering an explanation, she still did not understand what was happening. The distant terror of her future seemed less urgent than the fear that the darkfolk carrying her might lose his grip and drop her.

She did not know how long they flew. Just as she became certain she could no longer hold back her nausea, the darkfolk finally landed.

Before Aisha could breathe in relief, they dumped her roughly from the sack, twisted her arms, and shoved her into an enormous cage.

“Be more courteous to them,” an officer reminded the soldiers without looking up from the ledger in which he was writing. “Some of them may choose to stay willingly when the time comes.”

“What does that have to do with us?” The soldier who shoved Aisha into the cage had plainly been nursing his anger for some time. “We’re the ones doing all the work!”

“The state pays you. Why do you imagine our wages are so high this month?”

The officer answered the challenge without a ripple of emotion. Then the tip of his pen jabbed suddenly against the page.

He looked up, lowering his voice.

“Besides… do not forget that the right of love takes precedence over a noble’s right of selection. If you can make her love you, she is yours.”

The complaining soldier paused and tugged uncomfortably at the brim of his cap.

“…What is Her Majesty thinking? Why make it so complicated?”

He continued muttering, but his tone had improved considerably.

The officer lowered his head and resumed writing. “The realm is ruled by a queen now. Complications are inevitable. Endure it.”

“Sir, I have to ask…” The soldier still looked unconvinced. “Could Tina Killott’s daughter really be among these girls? No… does that woman actually have a child?!”

The officer gave an absent “Mm.”

“…In a tiny village like that?!”

The soldier frowned, still incredulous.

“Not necessarily. That is why we sent people to Vita—”

Before the officer could finish, another group of darkfolk burst through the door. Each carried a writhing sack over one shoulder. The soldier leading them looked openly excited.

“We brought back the women from Vitas! Where do we put them?”

The officer glanced up. “…Any empty cage. You took your time.”

The male darkfolk curled his lip, unbothered by the mockery.

“Do you think Vitas is as close as the Helman border?! You won’t believe how many we brought back. Just wait until you see what the humans report tomorrow!”

The officer gave him a cold glance, snorted, and said nothing more.

Aisha committed every word of their exchange to memory. But as the soldiers approached, she edged backward and tried to hide in a corner.

The room held many cages, each filled with trembling girls. Many were crying in terror. Their tears seemed to entertain the soldiers.

Only now did the reality of being torn from home and carried to an unknown place close around Aisha. She clasped her trembling hands tightly and bit her lip.

The newly arrived soldiers filed through the door. They emptied the girls from their sacks like objects, then seized them like chicks and tossed them into cages like Aisha’s. Metal clanged. Sobs, wails, and screams filled the room, yet the atmosphere held a hollow helplessness close to despair.

“Sir! There are no cages left!”

Several minutes later, a tall darkfolk soldier called out while gripping a trembling girl by the arm.

The officer looked up from his records once again. His cold black eyes swept the room. Then he kicked the cage nearest him—Aisha’s.

“Put her in there. They can make room.”