Chapter 66

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Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: An Indecent Proposal
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#66

Even his fangs, glinting in the light, didn’t seem very threatening today. Zen smacked his lips and continued in a slow drawl.

“I’m not sleepy, but I constantly feel like I am. Just being in a daze the whole time is… I don’t think it was this bad when I was a kid.”

“Young Lycans aren’t affected by the full moon, I take it?”

“Well, there’s that, but the place I lived was a little unusual. The full moon didn’t affect us there at all.”

A place unaffected by the full moon?

Whees’s eyes widened at the unbelievable information.

“A place like that exists?”

“Yeah. It’s called Nipompo, near the border. A famous village among Lycans. I tried to find out why, but nobody knew. Maybe the Elder knows something…”

The Elder?

The unexpected word made Whees’s eyes widen slightly.

“So Lycan society has leaders as well.”

Zen looked at Whees as if he’d said something ridiculous.

“Isn’t that obvious? You need a leader to run a village. Just like you have chieftains, we have an Elder for each settlement. Besides, my parents died early, so I was raised by the Elder.”

“…Hah.”

“Do you have any idea how respected the Elders are among Lycans? Thanks to that, well, I may not have lived like a noble like you, you little fluffball, but I was treated like a prince in my own way.”

*Ahem.* Zen puffed out his chest, letting out a cough.

Whees, who had been staring at him with a look of disgust, shook his head in disbelief. Zen paid him no mind, sidling up to Whees and casually slinging an arm over his shoulder.

“I’m not just strong, I’m intelligent, too. When I was a kid, I could recite all the ceremonial scriptures and knew just about everything.”

“Oh, is that so.”

“If I hadn’t been born a Lycan, I would have been far more successful… *Sigh*. You should be glad I was born in this era. If I’d been born a thousand years ago, I would’ve soared through the skies, conquered the continent, and used fluffballs like you for transportation…”

“What’s this about a thousand years?”

“Huh?”

Their questioning gazes met, and Zen slowly tilted his head, a look on his face that said, *You don’t even know this?*

“Because a thousand years ago, there was no full moon curse. Back then, we could just wander around freely, full moon or not, right?”

No full moon curse a thousand years ago?

This was the first he’d ever heard of it. Whees could only express his shock by opening his beak and letting his eyes dart around.

Zen was just as perplexed by this unexpected reaction. He scratched his snout in frustration and stammered.

“You don’t know? Isn’t this, like, really famous?”

“First I’m hearing of it.”

“It’s in the scriptures. It’s written in front of the shrine, too… Ah, right, the Raphi are mostly in the north, and we don’t get along, so you might not know. And most humans don’t care about Lycans anyway…”

Zen’s brow furrowed deeper and deeper as he spoke, his mood souring.

He had experienced it many times before—the realization that what he considered common knowledge was a matter of complete indifference to others—but it stung every single time.

After muttering to himself for a while in a barely audible voice, Zen finally said, “Anyway,” and continued.

“This is just a legend passed down in my village, but they say Lycans used to have a god. You know, kind of like how the humans here believe in a nameless god. The Lycan god was…”

“We do not believe in such things. I fail to comprehend why anyone would believe in something they cannot see.”

“Hey! Who said anything about you guys? We don’t believe in a god either! I’m just saying that’s how the old story goes.”

Instead of playing along, Whees smacked Zen’s black paw off his shoulder and took a step away.

Zen looked momentarily abashed before a mischievous grin returned to his face, and he started walking forward again.

“Anyway, the story goes that Lycans used to be fine back then. Then the god disappeared, and the curse of the full moon began, or something like that.”

“…Hmph.”

“Whenever I asked the Elder to tell me a story, he’d just drone on and on about this one. I heard it so many times I thought my ears would fall off.”

Whees’s expression hardened slightly. It was because he, too, had heard a similar legend in his youth.

*Does every race have a legend like this?* Whees thought to himself as his expression relaxed.

“And you believed that?”

Whees asked with a chuckle. Zen stopped and turned back to him.

“I pretended to believe it when I was a kid. The Elder would get sulky otherwise.”

Zen winked one eye with a low chuckle.

Whees, cringing at his overly familiar demeanor, kicked him in the shin. He had expected Zen to dodge and retort with a sharp, “What the hell’s your problem?” as he usually would. Instead, Zen took the hit full-on, stumbling into a wall with a groan.

*Ah… right.*

The full moon just passed, so he wasn’t himself.

Realizing his mistake a moment too late, Whees quickly offered an apology before Zen could cause a scene.

“Ah, sorry about that.”

“You little…”

Zen clenched his fist as if to punch him, but then sighed. “Ah, forget it. Get lost,” he grumbled, trudging away down the corridor.

His retreating back seemed to carry the weight of a complex and weary life. Whees watched the black dog’s back with hazy eyes, then shrugged off the feeling and opened the door to the office.

“Your Majesty. It is Whees.”

He announced himself as he entered the antechamber. Inside the office, Lucy was half-sprawled on the sofa, while Chancellor Kill sat bolt upright beside her, reviewing some documents.

From the way Lucy was listlessly tapping her dangling fingers while staring at the ceiling, it was clear she was letting the chancellor’s nagging go in one ear and out the other. Kill acknowledged Whees with a nod, then took the documents in Lucy’s stead.

*Flip.* With the sound of rustling paper, the old man’s eyes, nestled in a deep frown, scanned quickly from bottom to top.

An odd expression flickered across Lucy’s face as she snuck glances at Kill. It was as if you could hear the sound of her eyes rolling, and just as she pursed her lips to suppress a smile, Kill spoke.

“The atmosphere near the border seems rather unpleasant. There are reports of frequent pillaging and kidnappings in the nearby villages. We have increased the number of troops, but our inability to protect the No Man’s Land with its ambiguous borders appears to have worsened the situation.”

Kill began in a serious tone, and Lucy cleared her throat, wiping the smile from her face.

“Pillaging? Are Antevasila’s refugees behind this, or is it Dopein?”

“Their shabby appearance suggests refugees, but the fact that they are properly armed with spears and swords… I would say it is the latter disguised as the former. It seems Dopein is testing the waters.”

“Dopein.”

Lucy, who had been lounging, sat up straight.

Half a year had passed since her coronation, so she had expected either Dopein or the Empire to make a move soon. But she had predicted the Empire would move first, making this news unexpected.

*Dopein…*

She hadn’t thought they would be foolish enough to provoke a fight while still recovering from the war, but perhaps she was wrong.

“I thought the Empire would move first, but Dopein beat them to it. Are they that greedy for unification of the three kingdoms?”

As she lifted her head while fidgeting with her knees, her eyes met Kill’s, which were blazing as they stared back at her.

She gestured with her chin for him to speak his mind, and Kill moved closer, lowering his voice.

“Why bring up the Empire when we are discussing Dopein?”

“Well… they’re the only two nations we need to keep in check right now.”

“This is a good opportunity,” Kill said, finally voicing the question that had been nagging him.

“Speaking of which, what exactly did you discuss with the Crown Prince during the coronation? There was talk of a proposal, which Your Majesty flatly refused. Yet the Crown Prince withdrew without another word…”

“……”

“I tried to ask you then, but you dismissed it as nothing. So I could not ask, but… something happened with the Crown Prince, did it not? What was it?”

He leaned in closer, forcing Lucy to shrink back to the edge of the sofa.

Glancing behind her, Lucy realized there was nowhere left to run and swallowed hard.

“Well, it’s nothing much.”

*I thought he’d have forgotten by now. He’s quite the persistent old man.*

After a moment of deliberation, Lucy licked her lips and composed her thoughts.

“He asked me to marry him.”

“Marry him?”

“He said if I didn’t, he would send his army to Parnas.”

“His army…?”

“His plan was for us to join forces, strike Dopein, and then have the Empire swallow all three kingdoms whole.”

“All three kingdoms? Whole?”

“Basically, he was telling me to agree to a merger while he was still asking nicely.”

Kill, who had been frowning, let his eyes droop as he slightly parted his lips in confusion.

A moment later, he let out a disbelieving scoff, which turned into a dry, incredulous laugh. “Ha, haha.” And then, he erupted in fury, slamming his hand on the table.

“What kind of bullshit is that!”

*He’s still got a lot of energy.*

Lucy muttered inwardly, holding up her hands and flapping them as if to calm him down.

“This is why I didn’t tell you. I knew a man with a chronic illness would fly into a rage if he heard this.”

“What sort of useless consideration is that…! To come to a coronation and spout such nonsense instead of offering congratulations? Even if Alejandro is the regent of the Empire, how dare he utter such an insult to the monarch of a nation!”

It was deeply ironic to Lucy that the old man, who was second to none in the kingdom when it came to disrespecting the queen, would throw such a fit over someone else’s insolence.

But she was well aware of how Kill saw her.

He was a chancellor who treated his queen with the mindset of, *Even a troublesome child is still my child.* His logic was likely, *I’m the only one who gets to criticize her. Who the hell are you to do it?*

Suppressing the corner of her mouth that was twitching upwards, Lucy put on a solemn expression and feigned bitterness.

“I know, right? I was so furious I almost struck him down right there at the coronation.”

“At the coronation… ah, yes. You were quite ill-mannered.”

“Why do you call it that? He was the one who was ill-mannered first. I didn’t spit on him or bash him with the throne, so wasn’t I quite mature?”

At her nonchalant retort, Kill twisted his lips into an expression of disbelief.

“Mature… *Haa*… Had you managed to lift the throne with that frail body of yours, that in itself would have been the talk of the town…”

“I did throw champagne in his face, though. That was rather satisfying.”

“You what?”

Ignoring the look he was giving her, as if she were a madwoman, Lucy hugged her knees and rested her chin on them.

“Anyway, I gave his proposal some thought. Crown Prince Alejandro is a more belligerent man than he appears. I knew that refusing his offer would make war unavoidable, so I was pondering what to do and decided to consult the Grand General.”

“What did the Grand General say?”

“What a Grand General would say is simple, is it not? Of course…”

Just then, a *knock, knock* at the door cut Lucy off.