Lucas, who had returned to the county estate, still felt his face flush.

When he told Aman that his family was poor, Aman had laughed until he was out of breath, as if he were about to die.

It was okay to be embarrassed. But the next part was the problem.

"Can't you just take some out of the warehouse and use it?"

"...W-well, I could, but!"

"But? Why do I have to skin the werewolves?"

The thought that flashed through his mind was 'I'm screwed.' He was that flustered.

He was hesitating to answer for a long time.

"Ah, I guess you wouldn't have anything to say even if you brought it..."

"R-right! What would I say I got that precious thing from? Huh? Right?"

"Then why are you getting angry when you could just say that, huh?!"

"W-where are you raising your voice!?"

"Ha! It's not even raising, what's with 'raising'?"

"Enough, enough! I don't want to talk anymore. Anyway, just go and catch the werewolves!!"

"Hmph! It's not like I'm some kind of butcher who catches werewolves... ugh!"

***

He had been so flustered that he had even stumbled over his words. As he recalled what had just happened, his face began to flush again.

'In all the years I've lived, I've never been so ashamed...'

Lucas, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, let out a deep sigh.

-Knock, knock, knock

"Young master, Professor Aman from the academy has come to see you."

His brow furrowed at the servant's voice coming from beyond the door.

'Haa... I told him to go and catch the werewolves, why did he come here?'

Lucas, who roughly ran his hand through his hair, answered beyond the door.

"Okay. I'll be out soon."

***

"Ah, Lucas. Professor Aman has come to see you."

As he went down the stairs, his father, Count Cibie, and the children were the first to be seen.

"Rookie! Come quickly!"

Pola, who was waving her hand enthusiastically at him, was smiling brightly, as if she was so excited about something.

"Lucas, the professor also took care of Nella!"

Come to think of it, Nella, who should have still been lying down, was also standing in front of the entrance, looking quite lively.

"Hello."

A small twitch appeared on Lucas's face as he bowed his head slightly in greeting.

"Haha, Lucas-gun! Are you not happy to see me?"

"..."

"He's just a kid, please understand, professor. He's still childish..."

"Not at all, Count. Lucas-gun is so mature."

Lucas suppressed the urge to twist Aman's smiling mouth.

"Ah, more importantly, Count. I heard on my way here... that there's a problem in the territory."

"Ah... you don't have to worry about it. It's just a small commotion..."

No matter how difficult the situation was, he couldn't be indebted to his son's teacher.

The corner of the Count's mouth, who was stubbornly protecting his last pride and his son's last pride, was unnatural.

"Not at all. I was just in need of it for my research... if the Count could help me a little, would it be okay if I stepped in?"

It was a part he hadn't thought of. He had planned to have Aman deal with the werewolves with a 'ta-da' and then just use their hides.

But it was difficult for those hides or by-products to just appear out of nowhere.

Aman had come here in person to create a plausible excuse.

'You little brat, you're pretty good, aren't you?'

He had just thrown a task at Aman with the intention of solving the problem in front of him.

But Aman had not stopped there and had approached it in the best way possible.

Pretending to stop by on his way back to his home country for the vacation. And while he was at it, he had even added the 'request' to solve the problem and save the Count's face.

"R-really?"

"Yes, why would I say something I don't mean? I also stopped by, thinking I might be indebted to you for a while on my way back to my home country... and to have the ingredients I need for my research appear here, what could be better than this? Hahaha!"

"If you could do that, it would be a great help to me and our territory."

The Count's face began to brighten.

"Wow, then are you going to catch those wolves, professor?"

"Of course! Werewolves are nothing."

Aman, who gently stroked the head of the brightly asking Pola, smiled brightly.

'If I can't find the warehouse... I'm in big trouble...'

***

"Now, then, shall we depart?"

"Yes. I will find the location. So, Count, please watch my back in case of any unforeseen circumstances."

"Don't worry. I may look like this, but I was the second-best graduate of the swordsmanship academy."

The Count's expression was very determined as he held his scabbard once at Aman's request.

"Haha! As expected, if the Count hadn't been here, it would have been difficult alone, but I feel so reassured!"

And so, the Citata werewolf expedition was formed.

It was called an expedition, but the members were few. The expedition, which consisted of only two old knights, Aman, and the Count, was in high spirits with the company of a skilled mage.

The cheerful atmosphere was short-lived. Not long after entering the forest, Aman raised one hand.

Then the Count and his party all held their breath and stopped walking.

"Please... wait here for a moment."

"B-but..."

"It's okay. You can come when I give the signal."

Aman winked slightly. They also knew Aman's skills, so they knew that what Aman was doing was not bravado but leisure.

"Then please give us a signal at any time."

Aman, who nodded briefly, entered the forest alone. Not long after, a pack of werewolves came into view.

"Ha, you've completely lost your fear!"

In the forest where his lair was located, and a pack of werewolves at that, gathered and loitering so close to a private house?

No matter how long he had been on an excursion for nearly a hundred years, this was too much.

He had left his house, but that didn't mean he hadn't periodically spread his energy.

"Hey, are you all crazy?"

Aman approached the pack of werewolves leisurely.

If he just revealed a little of his energy, the pack of werewolves would just tuck their tails and crawl on the ground.

-Grrr...

"Huh? These things?"

But the pack of werewolves that had found Aman began to bare their teeth.

Thinking that the energy he had spread might be insufficient, he spread his energy even more.

-Grrr... grrr...

"Huh?! T-these things?!"

With this much energy, the energy should have spread for several kilometers, and all the monsters in the neighborhood should have been burying their heads in the ground.

But the pack of werewolves in front of him, as if they had lost their minds, were still baring their hideous teeth and pawing the ground with their hind legs, as if they were about to charge.

"Ha, something's wrong here."

Aman, who was looking at their eyes closely, noticed something. Their eyes had no focus.

Even the eyes of a cat wandering the streets had a soul, but in the eyes of these werewolves, there was no soul, not even anything similar.

This was not a level where someone had just tampered with them.

It required a fairly high level of spell to extract the soul of even a rabbit.

But to have controlled the soul of a werewolf, which was in the upper tier among monsters, meant that someone had made up their mind and played such a prank.

"That old man..."

One person flashed through his mind. The Mage Tower Master, Alberto.

There was a high possibility that this was also the work of the organization Lakmer, which was associated with him.

"You pathetic... and lowly... humans..."

Aman's voice was low and growling, filled with anger.

The anger now was completely different from when the ghouls had appeared in the imperial palace, when the children had been annihilated, and when the innocent immigrants had been framed as criminals and executed.

"How dare... how dare... in my house..."

-KABOOM!!! BANG!!!

A loud roar erupted with his shout.

The entire forest was engulfed in flames, and the werewolves in front of him were crushed without a trace.

"How dare you human bastards..."

Aman's eyes were filled with anger.

"In the lair of this Amarok Teridion... without fear!!"

-Rumble... thump! thump!

The earth trembled at his anger, and the sound of the trembling earth and the burning forest engulfed in flames was like watching the end of the world.

-Rumble! Thump!

"Aman!?"

It was then. Aman turned his head sharply at the young voice he heard from behind him.

"Get a grip! Are you going to kill everyone!?"

It was Lucas. Aman's mind cleared up when he saw his face.

"...Lucas-nim?"

The corner of Aman's eyes, who was panting heavily, trembled.

He shook his head violently to clear his mind, but his eyes, which were shining fiercely with killing intent, did not return to normal.

"Crazy. I told you to skin them... this is like putting a puzzle together... never mind, just get a grip."

He had secretly followed him, thinking he was skinning them neatly, but things had gotten out of hand.

It wasn't that he didn't know Aman's feelings. How angry he must have been that humans had been so rampant in his territory.

"Look at what these things have done. I will annihilate them all."

"Calm down and let's go back first."

Thanks to the energy Aman had emitted and the wildly shaking earth, his father and the knights had fainted and were lying on the ground.

Lucas had rushed over in one go to stop Aman's rampage, without even having time to deal with them.

If he had been even a little late, the Count and the knights would have been roasted or their bodies would not have been found.

To a dragon, humans were the same as the werewolves whose traces were hard to find in front of them.

"I can't calm down. What should I do with these arrogant human bastards?"

His playful expression, which he had seen until now, was nowhere to be found.

"We have to make them all pay."

"That's a given."

"But as you know, if we don't pull them out by the roots, they will raise their heads again at any time."

"Then shouldn't we just annihilate them all?"

"..."

Lucas had also had the same thoughts as Aman during the long time he had lived as a dragon.

He too had had times when he was sick and tired of humans, and there were times when he wished they didn't exist.

There were many races in this world, and there were many races that had the same or higher intelligence as humans.

There were many humanoid races such as elves, dwarves, and sirens, so it seemed that there would be no problem with the world turning even if he exterminated the humans, who were like the evil of the world.

Humans did not compromise with nature, and they did not hesitate to harm other races for their own benefit, as well as to harm humans of the same race.

He hated such humans with a passion. He had wanted to exterminate the race, which was worse than cockroaches, who were unnecessarily numerous and used other races to gain their own benefits, several times.

"No."

"Why not? Didn't Lucas-nim also wipe out an empire once?"

"..."

"I know because I heard it from my father. About that incident that happened three thousand years ago. Then why can't I?"

Lucas's brow narrowed as he recalled the incident from three thousand years ago, which was now in the back of his memory and hard to retrieve.

"I asked why not."

"...because."

"Pardon?"

"Because they are necessary."

"Ha!"

Aman, who let out a sigh at Lucas's answer, gritted his teeth.

"I have also experienced all of it. But humans are also a necessary race."

"Lucas-nim also knows, don't you? That these humans capture all the elves and dwarves living in the forest and use them as slaves! And for their own benefit, even the pixies...! You know all the atrocities they have committed, don't you!"

"...I know too."

-Bang!!

As if his anger had not subsided, Aman's magic exploded in the air once more.

"Then why!!! Why not!!!"

"Go and ask your father again. Why humans are necessary."

Lucas, who had finished speaking, turned away with a bitter expression.

"But I promise. That I will find them to the end and pull them out by the roots."

"..."

"Even if you don't help, even if it means I have to commit suicide and become a god right now."

Lucas had also lived as a dragon for half a millennium, which was longer than the ten or so years he had lived as a human, so it was natural for him to side with the dragons rather than the humans.

"...I understand, Lord."

Aman nodded his head slightly at Lucas's firm expression. Lucas was the Lord he knew.

Therefore, it was meaningless to argue with his words anymore, and he did not doubt that what Lucas said was all true.

"Right, let's go back."

(End of Chapter)