How to Raise a Dumb Wolf - Chapter 12

The frail girl was thrown into Aisha’s cage without the slightest chance to resist. The instant the darkfolk soldier released her, she fled into a corner and curled into a ball, trembling like a chick exposed to a violent storm.

Her undisguised fear and timidity seemed to entertain the darkfolk soldiers as much as the other girls’ tears. They chuckled at her for a long while before swaggering away, chatting among themselves.

“What in the world is this ‘right of love’ supposed to be?”

“Who knows? The queen has been on the throne for only half a year, and there has already been more than enough trouble… I heard she flatly refused to sign the bride-raiding proposal unless the ministers approved the right of love.”

“Was she going to sit there and watch the nation die? The beastfolk and humans are joining forces to besiege us! They are so friendly they may as well merge into a single country! Damn it… if only we had enough people…”

“You’ll never understand women as long as you live.”

“That sanctimonious civilization the humans preach does nothing but weaken the will…”

The officers discussed subjects that sounded unbelievable to Aisha and the others with complete ease, leaving the room in groups of two and three. Metal scraped and clattered at the entrance. The door had probably been locked from outside. Their voices disappeared.

The room fell silent for a single instant.

Then the wailing began with even greater frenzy.

With the door shut, the room grew abruptly dim, though one old lamp in the ceiling still cast a little light. Amid cries dreadful enough to make the heart shudder, Aisha narrowed her eyes until they adjusted. Only then did she examine her new “cellmate.”

The girl still trembled. She hugged her knees and tried to make herself as small as possible. Yet compared with the girls screaming around them, she was very quiet, which made her appear all the more pitiful. From the side, Aisha could see her digging her nails hard into her own flesh, probably in an attempt to remain calm. The violent shaking of her body revealed how completely she had failed.

Aisha edged closer.

The girl had extraordinarily soft, beautiful golden hair. It lay meekly over her shoulders, revealing glimpses of pale skin beneath. Unlike Aisha, who had been thrown into the cage wearing only a thin nightgown, the girl wore clothing of visibly exquisite workmanship. The patterns were understated, but the material was clearly costly. Its elegant cut traced her youthful figure with care.

Aisha pressed her lips together and tried gently, “Um… hello?”

The girl recoiled, though she had already retreated to the very edge of the cage and had nowhere else to go. She looked up in alarm. Only when she saw that Aisha was another human girl did she relax.

“…Hello.”

Her voice was very soft. Her eyes were a beautiful blue.

When those eyes met Aisha’s face, the girl seemed to pause.

“You…”

“I’m Aisha.”

The other girl remained plainly tense and wary, but at least they had begun to speak. A little reassured, Aisha tried to soften the girl’s wariness with a smile.

“Aisha—Aisha Byrd. I’m from Philray, a small village near Auni County.”

“…My name is Elizabeth.”

The girl hesitated thoughtfully before offering her own name. It was an ordinary one, but she spoke timidly, a tremor catching in the middle.

“I’m from… Vitas.”

As Elizabeth turned, Aisha realized that she looked so tiny not merely because she was curled into herself. She truly was small and delicately built. Her cheeks held a sickly pallor, though Aisha could not tell whether that was natural or the result of terror.

Apart from her lovely eyes, there was nothing especially striking about her appearance. She was, in truth, rather ordinary-looking. But her clothes suggested a wealthy family. Since she came from the capital, she had probably lived in considerable comfort.

After a moment’s hesitation, Aisha moved closer and placed an arm around her shoulders. Elizabeth flinched but did not resist, so Aisha embraced her properly.

The warmth of another person beside her made Aisha feel much steadier too.

“I heard the darkfolk talking just now…”

Aisha quietly repeated the conversation she had overheard, careful not to speak too loudly and frighten Elizabeth. When she finished, she paused before asking, “Since you live in Vitas… do you know anything that might help us understand?”

Vitas was the capital of the Kingdom of Ryan, and Ryan was the strongest overall of the Helman Federation’s four human kingdoms. In both prosperity and the speed at which information circulated, Aisha’s Philray could not compare with Vitas. She hoped Elizabeth might add something useful.

Elizabeth thought for a while, then could only shake her head in dejection.

“If we’d received any warning, Fa—Father would never have let me leave home today.”

She paused and coughed twice, so hard that tears nearly filled her eyes, before managing to continue.

“My health is poor. I rarely have a chance to go out alone. I was so excited when the opportunity came that I left the city… left home very early. If I’d known this would happen, I never would have…”

Elizabeth lowered her eyes, plainly full of regret. The darkfolk who raided Vitas had returned only a little later than the group that brought Aisha, which meant Elizabeth had been captured remarkably early. Under ordinary circumstances, she should never have been outside at that hour.

Of course, remaining safely at home offered no guarantee. Aisha herself had barely risen from bed before being stuffed into a sack. Still, the defenses of a royal capital ought to have been much stronger.

Aisha pressed her lips together, her expression turning grave.

“So we… have been taken in a bride raid. Is that right?”

At the words *bride raid*, Elizabeth’s already pale face lost what little color remained. She gave a stiff, reluctant nod.

Aisha did not immediately answer. A heavy silence settled between them, filled only by the shaking of cage doors and the cries and pleas of the girls around them.

Before today, no one could have imagined becoming the victim of bride raiding. The custom had been abolished among the darkfolk for many years. Who could have expected it to return without warning? One moment, they had been happy young women in their own homes. The next, they were prisoners facing a black future.

Everyone knew from history books what darkfolk tradition had meant for the women they carried away. Their fates had seldom been kind. Aisha did not want to imagine it in detail.

“…My parents—and my brothers and sisters. They must be frantic with worry.” Elizabeth lowered her lashes. “This is my fault again.”

“I…”

Aisha imagined her father’s face when he learned she was missing. She thought of the mother she had never met, and then…

The giant wolf in the forest.

His wounds should be able to heal naturally now. But she had promised to meet him after school. If he waited and she never appeared, he would surely be disappointed.

Aisha bit her lip and took Elizabeth’s hand.

“Let’s find a way out. Whatever happens, if the darkfolk need women, they won’t kill us. Instead of waiting helplessly, we should—”

Her words stopped.

The door flew open without warning, and two visibly impatient soldiers strode in one behind the other.

“A princess?! He actually says we brought back a princess?! We haven’t even found General Killott’s daughter, and now we’re supposed to search for a princess! They’re locked in cages. They aren’t going anywhere. Can’t this wait until tomorrow? Has this entire generation of the royal family gone soft in the head?!”

“Stop complaining. If we waste any more time, the others will eat the entire victory feast. What did they say the princess looked like?”

“Blond. She’s a princess who never leaves the palace, so blond hair is all anyone knows. Who was lucky enough to capture her in the first place?!”

“Never mind that. Just search!”

The blond girls in the room were swiftly hauled from their cages. Aisha froze and instinctively tried to retreat into the darkness. Her hair color was both safe and dangerous; in shadow, it looked somewhat browner.

But Elizabeth seemed to have reached the brink of panic. Her fingers clamped around Aisha’s hand, and Aisha felt her body, only recently calmed, begin to shake even more violently than before.

Ah. Yes…

If Elizabeth’s hair did not count as blond, then no one else in the room had blond hair.

Aisha bit her lip in worry.

At that moment, one soldier looked Elizabeth over, then frowned at Aisha’s hair. Several seconds later, he shouted, “There are two more in this cage! Take them both to the prince! Give me the key!”