Chapter 32: Abel’s Own Mount Wolf
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
As though having found its mother, the mount wolf pup kept on rubbing its head against Abel while it was in his arms. For Abel, it felt kind of itchy for him, in a good way—sort of. He started patting the pup on its head which had responded by rubbing its head against Abel even more.
Abel carried the pup towards his horses. Now that he’s found himself a new partner, he was even less keen on spending the night in the forest. There was nothing he could feed it here. For that reason, he had to go back to Harry Castle now.
Just when Abel was about to approach his horses, they started panicking at the scent of the baby mount wolf. Understandably enough, wolves were a natural predator for beasts such as them. While this particular wolf was just a puppy, their instincts were telling them very much otherwise.
After patting the horses on their backs, Abel was able to calm them down enough to proceed his way back home. He held the reins in one of his hands and used another to hold onto the baby mount wolf. He wasn’t riding the horses, though. It wasn’t safe to ride horses in the middle of a forest. Besides, the sky was starting to turn dark, so the only way he could go home was on foot.
As he held onto the baby mount wolf, it started raising its head to lick his face. Its crystal eyes were looking straight at him, as though it had already decided to follow him for the rest of its life. And it did, indeed. Mount wolves were loyal beasts. While such a tendency was uncommon for other animals, they decide their masters from the moment they were born.
With one of his hands holding onto the mount wolf, Abel placed another on top of its head. His rank wasn’t high enough for him to transfuse his combat qi into it, but he did remember the spells for mount enhancement. By uttering the same enchantments as the orcs would praise their beastly gods, he could forge a spiritual pact with it.
It’s good that no one else was around. If they heard Abel speaking the language of the orcs, he would’ve been sent to a temple to be executed. Well, that’s if they understood it in the first place. Actually, who cares? Abel was in a forest. No one was going to see him breaking any taboos.
On a side note, most of the abilities that the orcs possessed had something to do with their faith. They had great admiration and respect for the gods that they worshipped, and would often include words of praise in the spells that they used.
As Abel enchanted the magical words, a green light began to flash on the hand that was placed on top of the mount wold’s head. It started flashing bigger, and eventually surrounded everything that was around them. While the light was too bright for Abel to see, he could hear a weak cry that was calling out to him.
It was a cry of happiness, of a love that was so pure that even the strongest forces couldn’t break it apart. Abel felt it. He felt it from the bottom of his heart and was moved to allow it into his soul.
Eventually, the green light became so thin that it vanished in the air, but the bond that was built only grew stronger by the minutes. Just by being around the mount wolf, Abel could know what it was feeling.
Come to think of it, Abel hadn’t named the mount wolf yet. Since it was covered in black furs, the first thing he’s thought of was “Black Wind.” When the pup reached its adulthood, he wanted it to run as fast as the wind.
“Your name is now Black Wind. Is that okay with you, Black Wind?”
Abel wanted to tell explain his thoughts behind this name, but the pup was too young to understand something so complex as symbolism. Anyways, “Black Wind,” it shall be.
“You’re not against it, are you? I don’t sense that you have anything against it. Alright, I’ll call you Black Wind from now on, then.”
Having named the mount wolf, Abel walked back the battleground and saw the dead worgen lying on the ground. If he was just going to leave it right there, no one was going to believe that he had killed worgen by himself. Not wanting to let his achievements go to waste, Abel carried the dead worgen and put it on top of his horse. He then continued his way back to Harry Castle.
It was getting kind of dark in the forest. After stopping for a bit, Abel made a torch from a branch he picked up from the ground. Luckily for him, apart from a few snakes that he encountered, there weren’t a lot of large beasts on his path back. Things were kind of going well for him.
After walking for a few more hours, Abel came out of the forest and went back to Harry Castle. Oddly enough, the front gate was looking different from what it used to be. There were torches hung on the wall and a lot more guards who were patrolling around.
“Who’s that?” one of the guards called out as Abel approached the front gate. In just a few seconds, more guards came and had their arrows pointed towards him.
“It’s Abel,” Abel raised his torch so that it was closer to his face, “Open the door so I can go in.”
“The young master’s back!”
“Master Abel!”
As the guards began cheering for Abel, they lifted the castle gate and allowed him to enter. To Abel’s surprise, he saw a lot of tents when he had just come in. Every time he was about to pass by one of them, people would come out and say hello to him.
“Good night to you, Sir!”
“Sir Abel!”
“Master Abel!”
From what Abel could see, these were all farmers who lived in the Harry Knight’s domain. They came inside Harry Castle because of the orcs’ invasion. The Knight of Marshall must’ve sent them in during the daytime.
Speaking of the Knight of Marshall, he didn’t have any sleep at all. He was getting so worried that Abel hadn’t come back, so he just stayed in his office whilst having his armor on. He did hear that Abel was out to test his new weapons, but because of how late it was, he’s already sent a few men to search in the forest.
For the Knight of Marshall, it was a difficult thing for him to not know where Abel was. Besides helping out his good friend, the Knight of Bennett, he took Abel in because he wanted a heir to take on his family name. In that sense, Abel didn’t need to do anything to be helpful to him. However, what this child did over the past few months was simply far beyond all expectations.
Because of Abel’s achievements during the invasion outside Harvest City, the Knight of Marshall was rewarded with his weapon store. Because of Abel’s ability to make magic weapons, Harry Castle was now one of the most fortified castles around Harvest City. Because of Abel’s status as a master blacksmith, the Knight of Marshall was a celebrity figure whenever he went. Abel was a phenomenon kid, and he was bound to be so much more than that.
Whilst thinking about everything that Abel had done for him, the Knight of Marshall became even more worried about his disappearance. If the butler Lindsay didn’t come in on time, he would’ve gone to the forest himself to look for Abel.
“Master, Sir Abel is back!” the butler Lindsay said with a rushed tone. It was rare for him to be this intrusive, but understandably so.
“He came back!” the Knight of Marshall exclaimed and ran to the Harry Castle’s front gate. As happy as he was to see that Abel was alive, he found it strange that there was a corpse on one of the horses.
The Knight of Marshall widened his eyes, “Why did you bring a dead worgen back?”
Just after he said that the Knight of Marshall began to notice something even stranger. Abel was holding a mount wolf pup in his arms. It wasn’t supposed to be here, but somehow, it was right here and it was looking straight at him.
The Knight of Marshall said with a shaky voice, “Is-is that a mount wolf you’re holding, Abel? Wait, wait a second. Oh my, it is a mount wolf! Where did you found it, Abel? Has it found a master yet?”
As a knight who survived the war against the orcs, the Knight of Marshall was very much in awareness of how precious a mount wolf was. That being said, it was a miracle for Abel to bring back one that was just yet born, and an even greater myth for it to be collected with a dead worgen.
The worgen must’ve been at least rank six for it to appear next to a pup, but who could’ve had killed it? There was no way that Abel could’ve killed anything that was at rank six, but who or what else could’ve done it?
Whilst facing the mountain of questions that were thrown at him, Abel was at a loss for words. He didn’t expect such a strong reaction from the Knight of Marshall, so it was hard for him to start explaining the things that he saw. For now, though, Black Wind was hungry, so the first thing he did was to ask for some sheep milk from the butler Lindsay.
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