Bloodhound’s Regression Instinct

Chapter 50

Lorena’s room.

It was spotless, but it was so bleak that it was hard to believe that it belonged to a noble lady.

There was only a large bed, a few swords, and a small table by the window.

Lorena was sitting on the bed, pondering something.

“Sigh.”

She shook her head and looked out the window.

The fierce blizzard seemed to reflect her complicated feelings.

“What a useless worry.”

She remembered what Yan had said during the expedition.

“A useless worry, this?”

It was then.

Bang!

Someone opened the door as if to break it and came in.

“Charl?”

It was Charl, who was staying in the room next to Lorena.

She came in with an urgent face, but before she could say anything, Lorena spoke first.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“Huh?”

“Bringing the barbarian children. I still have the words of the Silent Knight Commander and his old appearance in my head.”

At that, Charl hesitated and approached the bed where Lorena was sitting.

She had come to find her for an urgent matter, but seeing Lorena’s state, she seemed more urgent.

“It was your will to save the children, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, that’s right… but why do I feel like I did something wrong?”

Lorena’s words made Charl sigh deeply.

“Lorena.”

It was soft and gentle, but firm.

Charl held Lorena’s hand and looked into her eyes.

“Why do you think that?”

“The Silent Knight Commander lost his fiancée while taking care of the barbarian child, and according to his words, if the children don’t forget this grudge and hurt the people of the domain or ours…”

Lorena rambled on, and Charles spoke again.

“Lorena.”

“…”

“If you knew that, would you have left the children to die?”

Lorena’s pupils trembled slightly.

“If I… knew that.”

She knew herself well.

Even if the children grew up and acted on their past grudge.

Even if that hurt the people of the domain and endangered Beowulf.

“…I would have still saved them.”

She couldn’t leave the ignorant children to die in front of her eyes.

“I see the problem.”

“What’s the problem?”

“Lorena, you lack confidence. I thought you were always confident, but I guess not.”

Lorena spat out a heavy breath.

She didn’t want the people of the domain to get hurt. She didn’t want Beowulf to suffer.

But.

She didn’t want to see the barbarian children die either.

Why? No reason. She just didn’t like it.

Charl quietly caressed Lorena’s hand and said.

“Do you remember what I told you a while ago?”

“What?”

“That I was an orphan.”

Lorena nodded slowly.

She casually mentioned that she was an orphan when they bought fur clothes in Villien City.

“If I were in your position, I would have left the children to die.”

Lorena didn’t say anything to Charl’s harsh words.

Charl continued.

“I had to beg and steal to fill my stomach even in such a prosperous city. A mere ten-year-old kid, and an orphan at that, had no adults to give him a job.”

Charl recalled his past faintly.

“So I had to commit crimes to survive and if I got caught, I had to be beaten mercilessly. That’s not all. There were many bad adults who tried to catch and sell orphans. So sometimes I thought it would be better to die. The label of an orphan kept pushing me into despair.”

Lorena listened quietly to Charl’s words.

“So if I were in your position, I would have killed the barbarian children cleanly. It was hard enough to live in a prosperous city, how could they survive in such a harsh place?”

Charl’s cold eyes stared at Lorena.

She swallowed her saliva at his gaze.

“And above all, we have to go back, don’t we?”

“Yes, you’re right.”

Lorena hesitated for a moment. But that hesitation was very short.

“I can’t bear to see the children die. Why? No reason. I just don’t like it. It’s not the children’s fault, it’s the adults’.”

Once opened, her mouth poured out words without a pause.

“The only reason the children have to die is because they are barbarians, born in the snow. Does that make sense to die for that? I don’t think so.”

Charl tackled Lorena’s words.

“Then what do you want to do? Lorena, you can’t take responsibility for those children. Are you going to give up the Dragon Soldier Project?”

Lorena bit her lips.

She didn’t need to participate in the Dragon Soldier Project if she just wanted to increase her power.

She could learn magic as a direct descendant of Beowulf, and even if she put that aside, there were plenty of excellent knights who could teach her.

But she had a reason to go to a special unit or an agency that dealt with information.

Charl spoke sharply.

“You saved them on your own without any responsibility, Lorena. And you ignored the opinions of other knights.”

Charl’s words were like sharp blades that stabbed Lorena’s chest.

She was not wrong.

She was in no position to take care of the children she had saved.

“I know.”

“Lorena, you used the love you received.”

“I know that too.”

“And when you leave this place, the barbarian children will have to live on scraps again. Who knows. They might be kicked out in the cold again.”

“That might happen.”

Lorena got up from her seat. And then she looked at Charl with a different look.

Not glaring, but looking.

She was not wrong and she respected that.

“Yes. I’m irresponsible and I might be hypocritical, and I might be doing this for my own satisfaction, but I have nothing to say.”

But.

“I still want to do it. I’ll talk to Lord Beowulf, and I’ll persuade my uncles, whatever it takes.”

Charl smiled faintly at Lorena’s firm words.

This was the Lorena who had saved her in the past, and who had scolded the wavering trainees at the training camp.

So she didn’t need to advise her anymore.

And she didn’t have the right to do so.

Lorena stretched out with a refreshed face. And then she suddenly remembered.

“What did you come to my room for? You looked very urgent, didn’t you?”

“Ah!”

Charl’s eyes widened. She had completely forgotten because of the conversation with Lorena.

“Right now, Yan and Mangnani are with the Frost Knights…”

It was then.

Whooosh!

Whooosh! Whooosh!

A horn sounded from outside the window, as if something ominous was happening.

Charl stopped his words and turned his head to the window.

“…What is this?”

Lorena also got up from her seat with a serious face and walked to the window.

There was only one meaning to the horn that was ringing from the wall that entered the Beowulf domain.

Lorena opened her eyes wide and shouted.

“An invasion!”

As soon as her words ended, fire arrows poured into the domain from beyond the wall.

“What, what is this?”

“Get your weapons and come out quickly! It looks like an emergency!”

* * *

At that moment, Yan was lying flat on the training ground, having finished his sparring with the Frost Knights.

The sparring, which was not a duel of life and death, but a way to cultivate martial arts and friendship, ended up being a good thing for both sides.

“What a monster.”

Cruel, who was squatting next to Yan, muttered grumpily.

Unlike him, who had been miserably defeated by the silent knight commander who didn’t even use a sword, Yan had overcome the Frost Knights under the same conditions.

That’s when it happened.

Pwoo-woo-woo!

Pwoo-woo!

Just like Lorena’s room, the horn sounded in the training ground.

And they felt the outside of the training ground getting noisy.

Cruel tilted his head and got up from his seat.

“What’s going on?”

Unlike Cruel, who knew nothing, Yan’s eyes sank low.

He got up from his seat and dusted off his butt.

“There’s only two reasons to blow the horn in this territory: a ceremony or an emergency.”

“A ceremony? I didn’t hear anyone was coming… Oh, did the Duke of Beowulf come back?”

Yan shook his head.

“No, I think it’s an emergency.”

He put his wooden sword back in its place and went out of the training ground with Cruel.

As soon as they went out, they could see how urgent the situation was.

Some of the knights were evacuating the servants who worked for the Beowulf family, and the rest of the knights were arming themselves and lining up in front of the main gate, waiting for orders.

Yan’s eyes caught Lorena and Charl behind the knights.

Then, someone in an ominous armor stood in front of the knights.

“Hans?”

Cruel pointed at Hans, who was armed, with a shocked face.

Where did the refined suit and polite attitude go, the Hans now had the aura of a veteran warrior.

‘It’s annoying. If that guy is armed like that, it’s not a normal situation.’

Yan was going to check on Ascalon as soon as the sparring was over.

He had mostly figured out the Beowulf family’s unique mana technique ‘Snow Soul’ and their representative swordsmanship ‘Cold Wave’ after sparring with twenty or so people using mana.

He had learned the Dragon’s Breath, so he couldn’t create ‘Snow Soul’.

But he was confident that he could create a similar flow using the mana heart.

‘If I have enough mana, I can even create a planet close to Snow Soul.’

But.

It seemed like he had to push back the task of checking on Ascalon in this situation.

Hans, who stood proudly in front, took a deep breath and looked at each of the knights in front of him.

Then his gaze stopped at Lorena and Charl.

“I told you to evacuate the lady and Charl.”

The knight next to him bowed his waist at his low tone.

“She said she wouldn’t go in and got angry, so I couldn’t help it…”

“You stupid bastard!”

Hans glared at the knight with his eyes wide open.

“Do you know what could happen if the lady comes out in this situation?”

‘He’s saying that for Lorena.’

He was talking to the knight, but his meaning was blaming Lorena.

Lorena, who wore armor similar to the Frost Knights, but looked sturdier, opened her mouth.

“Hans, this is not the time to fight over such trivial things.”

She pointed at the castle, where smoke was rising, with her finger.

“The enemy has already reached our necks.”

That was the moment.

A man in light leather armor, unlike the knights, ran towards them.

The man’s worn-out armor, broken teeth, and blood-stained hair looked ominous.

“Ranger?”

Yan realized the current situation when he heard Lorena’s murmuring.

Around the territory. That is, a ranger who explored the snowfield came here in that state…

Before Yan’s thought was over, the ranger shouted in a trembling voice.

“A, a huge army is coming. A barbarian army… There are more than thirty thousand of them!”

The knights, Hans, and the trainees were chilled by the unbelievable report.

But that wasn’t the end of it.

“And…”

The ranger said with his shaking eyes.

“T, the Great Chief has appeared. He’s breaking the gate by himself and letting the barbarians in.”

The Great Chief.

Yan clenched his eyes when he heard the report that Vileye had been spotted.

‘F*ck.’

If he had known this, he would have gone to the warehouse and grabbed Ascalon!

Yan clenched the object in his pocket.

‘This has to work…’