How to Raise a Dumb Wolf - Chapter 18

Once the darkfolk royal castle fell, the war officially ended.

The darkfolk queen was unexpectedly calm. She offered little resistance before signing a series of surrender agreements with the humans and beastfolk. Her two elder brothers, by contrast, were so agitated they rolled up their sleeves and prepared to fight another twenty rounds in person. Unfortunately, with soldiers of the other two races occupying even their own home, continuing the struggle was no longer possible.

Finalizing the agreements took two months in all. Once they had calmed down, the other abducted girls—including Princess Elizabeth—were sent back to their respective homes. Only Aisha remained in Dimska with her parents. But Tina was overwhelmed by treaty work, so mother and daughter had little time to grow closer. That would have to wait until they returned to Ryan.

After decades, the war was finally over.

The darkfolk returned two important ports seized from the Helman Federation thirty years earlier, along with a large residential district and a tract of forest. Every disputed border among the three races was drawn to the darkfolk’s disadvantage. There were substantial reparations as well.

Meanwhile, humans and beastfolk entered something of a honeymoon following their cooperation. Both sides began considering new diplomatic rules, allowing ordinary residents to cross their borders, and relaxing trade restrictions.

After a thousand years of struggle, the darkfolk had reached their lowest point.

The bride raids had initially been kept secret from the public at home. With the defeat, however, the truth came out. Darkfolk women were profoundly shocked. They could not accept that the men of their race could still commit such filthy, contemptible violations of human rights in the modern age, abducting civilian girls with no connection to the war.

Women made up one quarter of the darkfolk population. Nearly half of them joined demonstrations against bride raiding. Their anger focused upon Prince Gilbert Grey and Prince Maxi Grey, who proposed the strategy, and Queen Shali Grey, who ultimately signed the proposal.

Combined with the radical movements that erupted after the defeat and fierce condemnation of the royal family, Duke descended into chaos.

Worse followed.

Almost as soon as the human and beastfolk armies withdrew, the two princes whose younger sister had displaced them in the succession raised banners of rebellion. A darkfolk kingdom stable for more than a thousand years fractured overnight. Each prince declared independence within his own fief. Duke split into three and plunged into a terrible civil war.

None of this had much to do with Aisha once she left Duke. She had many other things on her mind.

Since the day of her rescue, she had never seen the giant gray wolf again. Over two months, she searched nearly every part of the forests around Dimska, but found no trace of him. Her parents worried about her wandering through foreign territory and eventually made her stop.

When they announced plans to take her directly to Vitas, Aisha asked to make a detour through Philray first. She wanted to collect her belongings and settle the matter of her graduation. Tina and Hock naturally agreed to such a reasonable request.

Thus, at the end of December, Aisha returned at last to the familiar home where she had lived with her grandmother for thirteen years.

The house remained exactly as she had left it, except for a thick layer of dust covering everything. Since she was leaving forever, Aisha did not bother cleaning. She simply packed all her possessions.

When she contacted the school, the administrators readily agreed to mail her graduation certificate once they received her final thesis. Even her graduation examinations could be taken by post.

Everything went smoothly. Aisha accompanied her father to bid farewell to those who had cared for her. Everyone was relieved to see her safely returned. They assumed father and daughter were moving because the bride raid had left painful memories and offered understanding and blessings. Every girl Aisha had rescued in Dimska embraced her.

“Is everything taken care of, Aisha? Shall we leave?” Hock asked gently after they had visited the townspeople.

He had also returned to collect his mother’s keepsakes and his own belongings from years past. If nothing unexpected happened, he might never come back.

Though Hock left as a boy, Philray was still where he had been born and spent his childhood. The thought of leaving for good filled him with emotion.

Aisha thought for a moment. “I… I’d like to look around the grove. May I? You can wait for me at the edge of town, Papa.”

“You don’t want me to come?”

“No, it’s all right.”

Hock studied his daughter’s face. She clearly had something on her mind that she did not wish to share. Guessing that she wanted to keep a secret of her own, he did not insist.

Aisha entered the grove alone.

The more remote a town, the more slowly it changed. Two months were nowhere near enough to alter the woods. They looked exactly as they had on Aisha’s last visit. She followed the river inward, growing more nervous with every step toward their meeting place.

In the end, she had never told her parents about the giant wolf. Aisha herself did not know why. Perhaps she feared that after the bride raid, any unusual event would alarm them. Perhaps she thought that by disappearing after saving her, the giant wolf had shown that he did not want anyone to know he existed.

Of course, Aisha had also considered that he might believe he owed her a debt. Once he rescued her, perhaps he considered the debt repaid and left.

The river rushed past. Several times, Aisha imagined she saw the shadow of an enormous creature among the trees. Each time, it proved to be a boulder or a thicket. After disappointment upon disappointment, she finally reached the place where she and the giant wolf had always agreed to meet.

As expected.

It was empty.

Aisha could not tell whether she felt loss or something else. Her heart seemed to empty with the clearing. Her shoulders drooped. She sat without purpose for a while before rising and starting back alone.

To avoid disturbing the townspeople, her mother had not come with the army. Aisha and Hock needed to take a shortcut by carriage and catch up as quickly as possible, so she could not linger.

She hurried forward. Then, without warning—

“Aisha!”

Fred burst from the woods with delight across his face and caught her arm.

“It really is you! You came back! The other girls said you stayed at the army camp. I thought something had happened…”

Aisha was surprised to see him. When she visited Mrs. Wesson next door to say goodbye, Fred had not been there. His mother said he had gone into the forest alone to practice hunting. Aisha looked at his clothes and saw that he did indeed carry a bow and arrows, though he appeared to have caught nothing.

Since they had missed the chance to say goodbye face-to-face, they could do it here.

Aisha unobtrusively drew her arm from his grip and smiled.

“Nothing happened. I met my mother, that’s all. We’re moving somewhere else and will leave very soon. I came back today to pack and say goodbye to everyone.”

Fred went rigid.

“Y-you’re leaving? You won’t come back?”

“No.”

Aisha nodded frankly.

Fred stared at her in shock. His mouth opened. Something seemed to hover in his throat, something he absolutely had to say. But after gathering and losing his courage again and again, he said nothing.

“Th-then I’ll walk you home,” he offered awkwardly, his gaze darting aside with a guilty air.

“All right. Thank you.”

Aisha noticed his strange expression and thought his behavior a little odd, but paid it no great attention.

They walked toward town side by side. Aisha wanted to return to her father quickly and unconsciously hastened her pace. Fred wished to prolong their time together but could only follow helplessly.

Searching for conversation, he suddenly said, “By the way, Aisha, I saw that giant wolf you told me about.”

“What?”

Aisha stopped and stared at him.

“It was… the day the darkfolk suddenly attacked.” Seeing her interest, Fred explained further. “A few minutes after they took you, that wolf charged out of the forest and ran straight to your front door. He was so huge he frightened a lot of people in town. But you’d told me about him, so I wasn’t scared.”

Naturally, no one could see a wolf that large without panicking. Yet even knowing Aisha was about to leave, Fred could not stop trying to make himself seem reliable in her eyes.

After a pause, he continued, “You were right. He really was smart. He looked as if he was searching for you, so I told him where the darkfolk said they were going. He acted as though he truly understood… Did you ever see him again?”

Aisha could not name the emotion filling her. Her lips trembled.

“…I did.”

More than that.

He truly had saved her.

No one else saw the wolf, and no trace of him remained. Everyone believed a beastfolk soldier rescued Aisha, though that soldier was never identified. Aisha trusted her own memory. Still, as time passed, there had been moments when she wondered whether, in her dazed condition, she had confused another beastfolk soldier’s beast form with her giant wolf—or whether the entire thing had been a strange dream.

Now, at last, someone could confirm what she remembered.

Aisha pressed her lips together as warmth flowed through her heart.

…

Chatting intermittently with Fred, Aisha finally returned home. From a distance, she saw her father waiting silently outside. He had prepared the carriage and loaded their luggage. Knowing he must have waited a long time, Aisha lifted her skirt and hurried toward him—

“Wait!”

She turned by instinct.

Fred had removed his hat and was watching her with obvious reluctance to part. After several seconds of silence, he spoke softly.

“Goodbye, Aisha.”

“Goodbye, Fred.”

Aisha smiled and bade him a friendly farewell, then hurried onto her father’s cart and sat beside the luggage.

Hock said nothing. He handled the reins with practiced ease, and the wheels began to turn as the cart sped away.

A small town like Philray naturally had no fine carriages. This was a simple open cargo cart without a cabin, pulled by Hock’s own warhorse from the army. The noble, courageous animal had plainly never suffered the indignity of hauling a cart in its life, let alone such a decrepit one. It ran in a foul mood, making the ride inevitably rough.

Aisha did not mind. The open cart allowed her to look freely at the sky and watch her familiar hometown recede.

Apart from being abducted to Dimska, she had never left Philray in all her life. Honestly, the new life awaiting her with her parents made her nervous.

“Aisha.” Her father, driving the cart, suddenly looked back. After a long silence, he asked, “That boy just now… is he your sweetheart?”

“Oh, no. No, he isn’t. That’s Fred, our neighbor. He and his mother have always taken good care of me.”

“I see…”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

Hock seemed relieved. Without looking away from the road, he reached back and ruffled Aisha’s hair.

“You are still too young… I hope you understand that neither your mother nor I want you marrying early.”

Aisha laughed. Marriage was so distant that it hardly bore mentioning. She did not even have anyone she might call a romantic interest.

But after the laughter faded, a strange feeling remained.

Like most girls her age, Aisha longed for love somewhere inside. Yet honestly, she did not think she had ever liked anyone. Nor did she believe anyone had ever regarded her that way.

When it came to such things, she…

Did not really understand.