At Sciocidad.Galen sang songs and played a long-necked guitar at the same time, in front of more than fifty children aged below ten.“A world whereCubs playGrasses swaySeekers prayFools frayDonkeys brayWolves preyAnd lions sayIn their own wayIs the oneWe all live in.”Once a song finished, she explained its meaning to them in just as soothing a voice.“The drift of this song is this, little flowers…” Galen expounded on her song. “Cubs are children like yourselves. Grasses are the people who do their job and move according to the way the world pushes them. Seekers are the religious ones with faith. Fools are the ones who rub themselves and fight and quarrel with others. Donkeys are those who work extra hard for everything. Wolves are those who prey upon the rest be it in groups or alone. And last but not least, the lions are the ones that speak through their actions. All these beings breathe the same air, but they all live and act in their own ways, every soul unique in its
Rebecca woke up to find herself feeling a bit rejuvenated. She had no idea how long she slept, but it was morning at the time. Selena was sleeping on the only other bed in the dormitory.Though Selena and Veronica had taken away all the clues that might let Rebecca know they injected her with saline solution, they still completely forgot about the band-aid the doctor had stuck at the jabbed spot.Because of this, Rebecca was able to tell that they injected something into her body while she was sleeping. And it infuriated her.Not wanting to stay around her family, she walked out of the villa and hit the road. It was so cold outside with snow everywhere, but she didn’t even have a sweater on.Ryan was observing this from his room. “Where is she going this early in the morning? Mina and Shadow have left. I guess I have to follow her now.”While keeping his distance, Ryan followed her.Rebecca went to what Ryan thought were random places, but he had no clue that she was actually visiting
More than sixteen years ago.Rye and her friends were skipping in the backyard of her house. Rye reached the thousand mark faster than her friends, and so she won the bet and took the tamarind candy from everyone.The concept of a monetary system didn’t exist in the wolf clan. People just shared things with each other out of goodwill, as overseen by the elders and the city council.So, there was a limit to how much candy the kids could get their hands on. Naturally, the girls didn’t feel good after losing out so much candy to Rye. They drooled as she sucked on the candy.Seeing their pitiful expressions, she shared some of the candy with them. And they all happily sucked on the sour-and-sweet tamarind candy.“Rye has the qualities to become a good lord,” Ryan said. He was drinking grape juice with Rye’s father, Erwin, who was a tall man with a long face. “She’s strong and kind.”“Well, your son is there for that role.”“He’ll be the next sovereign, and your daughter can be the next lo
“Beat his ass to the ground!”“Break his front teeth! Make him cry!”“No. Tear his loincloth and humiliate him!”Rye’s friends yelled as Rye leaped at Benjamin. Before she could reach him, Neel flashed in her path and slashed his claws at her. But he missed.Neel was startled. (Ducked so fast in midair?)The moment Rye’s left foot landed on the ground, she swiveled and kicked at Neel’s waist. He was too close to dodge in time, but someone else caught her foot and stopped it.To Rye’s surprise, it was Benjamin who effortlessly stopped her kick. (He completely canceled my momentum? Not by blocking but by grabbing?) That explained why there was barely any sound when he stopped her foot.“So soft…” Benjamin kept staring at her foot. “I see no cracks.”Neel also stepped back and took a look. “You’re right. How rare.” Neel went a step further and poked the sole of her feet. “It won’t bleed if we poke it too hard, right?”Rye’s face turned into a ripe tomato at this point because one of her
“You should enter the med bed and get your knee treated, Rye,” Erwin told his daughter from outside the room. “I’m going out, so take care of yourself.”The sound of Erwin’s footsteps soon faded away.“I’ve been doing that for a very long time,” Rye mumbled and then got up from the bed. “I don’t need the med bed. I slept a few hours, so I’m already fully healed.” She cracked her knuckles. “Now, I just have to find that brat and defeat him, so that I’ll become the Sovereign! As long as I don’t beat him senseless, I think Uncle Ryan wouldn’t get mad at me.”She heard cries from her backyard.“What’s going on?” she swiftly opened the door and rushed out. To her utter bafflement, all of her friends were swooning over Benjamin who looked extremely cute now that his hair was neatly cut. Even Dahlia was pinching his cheeks.Rye’s stomach twisted.“Dahlia!” Rye cried out.But nobody cared.“Dahlia!” she cried out again.This time, Dahlia heard her and hurriedly made her way to Rye who was cle
After Benjamin and Neel let their scents be taken in through the noses of the two girls, they went into hiding.Rye and Dahlia then covered their eyes with three layers of a black cloth. They told their friends to leave, and then they hit the streets and employed their sense of smell.“Those idiots think they can hide from us,” Dahlia snickered. “I can clearly track them by their scent. It makes me wonder what they did in the sacred forest. Maybe they slept most of the time?”“Stop talking and focus,” Rye said.When the clansmen saw Rye and Dahlia, they stopped doing their work so that silence took over the surroundings. It was their way of making things a little easier for the seekers to find those that were in hiding.A few minutes passed.Rye and Dahlia were still roaming in the streets. “Strange… Why isn’t the strength of their scent increasing? It’s as if they’re keeping a constant distance from us.”“Let’s increase speed,” Rye started jogging. Dahlia followed the sound of her fo
Benjamin and Neel were scooping poop from the farms. Cleaning every farm in the city with just the two of them was not practical, so Rye allotted them ten each. Ten was still a back-breaking number. To make things worse for them, Dahlia was taking pictures of them with her dad’s camera, to humiliate them even more.“I wanted to spend some time with my parents. I can’t believe we’re doing this all day. How did you get caught?” Neel felt utterly frustrated.Benjamin didn’t yet tell how he got caught, so it only added to Neel’s frustration.Just after Neel collected poop from a buffalo, it excreted again. Neel got angry and kicked it in the rear.Dahlia captured that on camera and showed it to the owner, making sure Neel received plenty of scoldings.Day after day, Benjamin and Neel visited the same farms again and again and repeated the same work like it was a ritual.Meanwhile, Rye challenged the boys that had come out of the sacred forest and defeated them one by one.However, one of
One day, Erwin came to the farms to check if his daughter was really doing the cleaning or not. To nobody’s surprise, she wasn’t even there. Only Benjamin and Neel were there.“Where’s Rye?” Erwin asked.“How would I know?” Neel shrugged his shoulders. “She hasn’t come to work even a single day.”“I told her I will work in her place,” Benjamin quickly said.“Oh…” Erwin was surprised. “So you’re doing twenty instead of ten, then?”“Yeah, we both handle the thirty farms,” Benjamin replied.Erwin didn’t look too happy. “I gave the punishment to discipline her, so what makes you think you can take her punishment on yourself?”“She was struggling to even breathe,” Benjamin explained. “She didn’t like this place.”“So? If she works here a few days, she’ll automatically get used to it,” Erwin said. “Did she at least thank you for your help, and take care of your meals?”Benjamin pursed his lips, whereas Neel quickly shook his head.Rye had been listening to their whole conversation from a n