Chapter 287: Dogs And Wolves (12)

A hundred years ago, an army of demonkins invaded the Khan Kingdom. Empowered by Heavenly Demon, the demonkin possessed overwhelming strength. The numerous demonic beasts they led blanketed the vast plains.

The once-peaceful kingdom echoed only with war cries and dying screams. Then, two wolves appeared: Horus of the Black Mane Tribe and Riarc of the Silver Mane Tribe.

The two wolves united the beastkin warriors under one banner and fought against the demonkin. As they fought the demonkin with great valor, the kingdom found a flicker of hope on the brink of collapse.

Young men filled with passion, playful children, and even the elderly who had turned their backs on the world all rose to join the fight. The spark of hope kindled by Horus and Riarc spread across the kingdom like wildfire.

The war seemed endless. The demonkin army, which had once confidently declared that they would conquer the kingdom in a year, failed to do so even after five years because of the two wolves.

However, even they had their limits. Despite their desperate resistance, Horus and Riarc could not overcome the endless might of the demonkin that wielded the Heavenly Demon’s power. Defeat loomed before them.

Unexpectedly, the demonkin, who had also suffered from the two wolves, offered them a deal. The sweet, poisonous offer would spare their tribes if they became the demonkin’s dog.

Riarc declined immediately, but Horus chose differently. He bowed his head beneath the feet of the demonkin and declared his surrender.

Then came the demonkin’s final, cruel demand. To prove his loyalty, Horus had to drive a blade into Riarc’s back. And so, Horus betrayed his dearest comrade, his one and only friend, and killed Riarc in a surprise attack. Or at least he thought he did.

“You were alive, Riarc...”

Riarc nodded faintly. “That’s right.”

They looked at each other with eyes filled with complex emotions. Once comrades, once friends, and once bound by soul... Now, a century later, they stood face to face once more as a dog and a wolf.

“Do you...” Horus asked hesitantly, “Resent me?”

Riarc silently raised his claws. How could he not hate the one who stabbed him in the back? How could he not resent the traitor who sold out their homeland? More than that, he truly resented himself for not being able to stop it and for failing to protect everything.

Horus’s shoulders trembled. “I... had to protect them.”

He had no choice but to kneel and become a loyal dog to protect his family, his children, and his tribe.

“I know,” Riarc said.

“Then why?!” Horus stomped violently.

Thud!

“Why didn’t you give up like I did?!”

If Riarc had surrendered alongside him back then, then he wouldn’t have had to stab his dearest friend.

“You knew! You knew it was a war we couldn’t win!” Horus shouted.

“I did.”

“No matter how hard we fought! We couldn’t save anyone!”

“Perhaps....”

“All you had to do was set aside your damn pride, just once!”

If he had, so many more of their kin would still be alive today.

“Then why... why didn’t you surrender?!” Horus glared at Riarc with burning eyes.

Before he attacked Riarc, he had tried to convince him again and again. If they kept fighting, they would only die meaningless deaths. Surrender was the only way to protect their people.

However, Riarc never gave in and never became a dog. Even as countless kin fell on the battlefield and their corpses grew cold, he never stopped fighting the demonkin.

“Why... didn’t you become a dog, Riarc...?”

Horus’s pride as a wolf had been crushed, but the Khan Kingdom still stood because he became a dog. The beastkin survived because he surrendered.

“Do you think... you’re the only one who didn’t want to become a dog?!”

“Horus...” Riarc looked at him with sorrowful eyes.

Horus bit his lip until it bled. A century’s worth of repressed feelings boiled up from his chest, and the words he could never bring himself to say erupted like a volcano.

“I also!” He pounded his chest.

Thud! Thud!

“Didn’t want to become their dog!”

He also wanted to fight to the bitter end and die with pride as a warrior. However, what would happen to the rest of their kin? What about the children just born? What about his other comrades who were too injured to fight?

“Was it okay to let them all die so that you alone could remain a noble wolf?!”

The grief and rage, festering for a hundred years, burst forth.

Riarc simply watched Horus shouting. The same words Riarc had shouted at himself again and again over the past hundred years were now being spoken aloud. Sharper than any blade, those exact words tore through his chest.

“So...” Riarc looked at the friend who had become a dog to protect them all. “After surviving like that... what do we have left?”

During the past week in the kingdom, while Kwon Oh-Jin’s group gathered information, Riarc had been wandering around and observing the beastkin still living here.

They lived with unease as shadows of fear darkened their expressions. In some ways, those inside the kingdom seemed more afraid than even the Silver Mane Tribe hiding beyond its borders. Lives lived in silence, trembling each day under the watchful eyes of their masters. Could that truly be called surviving?

“If we died... we would’ve had nothing,” Horus said.

“And if we live, does anything really change?”

Horus bit his lip and hung his head.

“I want to ask you something, Horus.” Riarc stepped closer to him. “Why didn’t you become Khan?”

Horus could only remain silent.

“If you truly believed that the path you chose was right...”

If he truly believed that a life lived in fear was still something to be thankful for, why hadn’t he become Khan?

“Then, why didn’t you take the throne?”

“That’s...” Horus trailed off.

Riarc’s words pierced him like a knife to the heart. Horus looked away, unable to find an answer.

Kalike sharply urged him. “What are you doing?! Kill them now!”

Horus turned to Kalike, who was gasping for breath in a fierce struggle against an unknown human.

“If you don’t kill them now, I’ll activate your collar!”

The collar was an Astral Relic around Horus’s neck that prevented any chance of betrayal. If activated, it would subject him to excruciating pain and turn him unconscious. In the worst case, it could even kill him.

On top of that, Horus wasn’t the only one wearing one. All of his personal guards closest to him also had collars fastened around their necks.

Horus ground his teeth and stiffly nodded.

“Okay...” He shouted to his guards, “Subdue the Silver Mane Tribe!”

“Yes, sir!”

At his command, the guards moved into action. Horus’s personal guards were composed of only the strongest warriors from various tribes. Not just the Black Mane Tribe, but also the Red Mane, Brown Mane, and others.

They surrounded the Silver Mane Tribe after shifting into their half-human, half-beast forms.

“

Grrr!

”

Riarc desperately rushed toward the guards, but their sheer numbers made it impossible to bring them down all at once.

“Damn it!”

“Let go of me! Let go!”

Already exhausted from the fierce battle against hundreds of warriors from the Black Mane Tribe, the Silver Mane Tribe could barely resist as Horus’s personal guards captured them.

“You bastards!” Only Leoru managed to knock down a few of the guards. “Out of the way!”

When Horus joined the guards himself, even Leoru couldn’t last long and was soon caught in his grasp.

“Y-You... Horus...!” Leoru said.

“Quiet.” Horus struck Leoru hard across the face, who had tried to lunge with his teeth.

Leoru collapsed to the ground with a dull thud, his head hanging low. Gripping Leoru by the throat, Horus turned to Riarc.

“Make one move, and I’ll kill them all.”

“Horus...”

Riarc had just finished taking down the guards attacking him, but froze in place. With eyes like cold steel, he glared at Horus, holding the Silver Mane Tribe hostage.

“I have a question for you too, Riarc.” Horus asked spitefully, “You weren't dead... so why didn’t you show yourself for a hundred years?”

“That’s...”

“Where the hell were you? What were you doing? Now you think you can come here and judge us with your damn ideals?!”

For the past century, Horus had protected the kingdom even after it fell to the demonkin.

“I... I... during all that time you were gone...” Horus clenched his fists so tightly that they bled.

The demonkin who took over the kingdom indulged in endless luxury and excess, draining the finances dry. Countless beastkin starved to death, and the demonkin executed anyone who so much as displeased them on the spot.

The children who once smiled brightly, the youths who once brimmed with pride, the elders who once offered wisdom... All of them had just become a source of entertainment and slaughter for the demonkin.

“I could do nothing but watch... How the hell would you know how much despair I felt?!”

He trembled in anguish as he dropped his head with a tormented expression.

“I’ll make you feel the despair and humiliation I felt.” His eyes burned with hatred as he glared at Riarc.

Slowly, he lifted Leoru by the throat.

“

Gugh! Kgh! Khh!

” Leoru gasped and thrashed in agony.

“Kneel, Riarc.” Horus’s eyes blazed as if they would burst into flames. “If you don’t become a dog here and now... I’ll slaughter every last one of your kin before your very eyes.”

Riarc’s expression hardened.