[V9C10] The Night the Wolf Howled, Wren’s Theory
Translated by Jodas 9: Battle for the TowerAt an inn in a village almost exactly halfway between the Lange Hamlet and the Wedge Tower, Wren stealthily stepped through the halls with his sneaky pretty boy feet.
His target was the girl’s room: where Tia, Sevil, and Rukiye were sleeping.
The day after the Arachne and giant centipede Monsters attacked the Lange Village, the three students of Hütter’s class and Rukiye left the Lange Village with Hütter and Otto to accompany them.
While they had managed to repel the attack by the spider and centipede Monsters, there was a possibility that a second wave could come at any moment.
Either way, considering the reality that Monsters were encroaching ever further all over the area, they needed to inform the Wedge Tower as soon as possible.
And Hütter’s class would perform the role of messengers for that purpose. There was also probably the adults’ consideration that the Apprentices should escape to safety in the Wedge Tower.
At the same time, Helena and Rikard from the Extermination Office were also headed to the Wedge Tower on horseback, traveling via the Oks Hamlet.
It seemed like the people of the Lange Hamlet were expecting Oliver to take over the role of acting Master for the time being.
Wren wanted to shout at them ‘Stop it, that’s way too much for him!’
(The Lange Family really is overestimating Oliver, huh… Well, he is the kind of guy that can make things work out as soon as he shuts up, so…)
Eventually, he reached the room he was looking for. Hesitantly, Wren knocked and spoke in a whisper.
“It’s me, can I come in?”
“Piyopp!” “By all means.” “Sure.” The voices of Tia, Sevil, and Rukiye responded from inside.
It was nighttime, not quite midnight yet, but an hour when the majority of people were already asleep.
Wren let Tia and the others know that he had something important to discuss beforehand and that, come nightfall, he would try to sneak into their room.
Since Hütter and Otto were there all day long, it would be hard to have any secret, in-depth conversations between the Apprentices with them around.
Tia, Sevil, and Rukiye were all wearing simple sleepwear, just like Wren was. Knowing that the two members of the ‘Sleeping Naked Party’ were present, Wren quietly breathed a sigh of relief. It was a good thing someone with common sense like Rukiye was in the same room as them.
Sevil set a lantern, lit as dimly as possible, on the table. The four of them surrounded that table, sitting on rickety old chairs.
‘A pretty boy sneaks into the girls’ room in the middle of the night’ — It sounded like something scandalous was about to happen, but of course nothing like that would happen with this group.
“I think I’ve realized something, and I thought I should share it with you all.”
“In-for-ma-tion sharing! Important!”
Tia nodded vigorously with a confident expression.
Wren decided to cut right to the chase.
“Right, It’s important, so listen up. You remember how we ran into that black wolf Monster during the entrance exam? Rukiye, you didn’t encounter it, but you’ve heard of it, right?”
“Yes, the one Ella and Finn saw.”
Rukiye nodded.
During the entrance exam, Library Office Director Linke had tested the applicants by controlling a Monster sealed in a book — A snake that flew through the air. Yet, aside from that, a separate black wolf Monster had snuck in somehow.
But the only ones whom the black wolf Monster attacked directly were Wren and co. That fact struck Wren as particularly odd.
“…I’ve been thinking. It’s weird that the casualties were so low considering a Monster appeared, right? No fatalities. And we were practically the only ones even injured, right?”
“Pirororo… Now that you say that, you might be right.”
Tia must have agreed immediately because Tia knew full well just how violent and dangerous Monsters could be.
Sevil and Rukiye looked like they had their doubts. Since they didn’t jump to provide a counterargument yet, Wren continued to speak.
“So I wondered: maybe that Monster had some kind of objective… Then it hit me. Could that black Werewolf have been aiming for one of the passing medals?”
Rukiye made a face that said she knew where this was going.
“If it needed a passing medal, then you’re saying…”
“Wren, is this what you want to say: there’s a chance that Monster has infiltrated as one of the Apprentices?”
Sevil completed the thought that Rukiye had started.
Wren nodded.
“I’m only saying there’s a chance, okay? It’s not like I have any proof or confirmation for this. It’s just, given the circumstances, I think I want everyone to keep that possibility in mind or something…”
Until just recently, Wren had been convinced that, without extenuating circumstances, Monsters could not leave the Crystal Territory. If they did, then they had to have made severe sacrifices like Tia had, so such things were extremely rare exceptions.
Tia and the Wedge Tower mages probably thought the same way.
Monsters couldn’t leave the Crystal Territory for long. Therefore, it would be impossible for one to sneak into the Wedge Tower… But if they perfected the technique of embedding crystal shards in their skin, then it’s a different story.
“So, Wren. Who do you suspect?”
Sevil did not hesitate to cut right to the heart of the matter.
(Thank goodness it’s just these guys here…)
Tia the Monster, Sevil the Princess, and anti-social Rukiye. All of them were quite different, but they all shared the ability to calmly accept the cold reality.
If someone more emotional like Sophie or Roswitha were here, honestly, he wasn’t sure if he would have the heart to bring this up at all.
“Recently, I caught a glimpse of Mr. Hütter’s notebook, and it had all kinds of information about us… Things like what career paths we might have and whatnot.”
Wren counted on his fingers as he listed the names written on that notebook.
“Rose, Julius, Gerald, Finn, Oliver, me, Sophie, Rukiye, Roswitha, Ella, Tia, Sevil. Twelve in all.”
Rukiye drew her brows together and asked.
“And you’re saying he wrote down the ones who had the potential to be Monsters?”
“Nope. The only things he wrote were normal things about educational progress or career paths. The issue is not what was written, but the order.”
Tia chirped ‘pefun’ and counted on her fingers. She must have been trying to figure out the order.
“Piyo… It’s not how big they are, or their age, right?”
“Mana reserves…? No, that’s not it either. They aren’t even grouped up by class.”
Tia and Rukiye hadn’t figured it out yet.
Not wanting to make this drag on any longer than it had to, Wren continued.
“I asked Mr. Hütter directly. ‘What order is this in?’”
Sevil, who was there at the time, voiced the answer to Wren’s question.
“They’re ordered by when each person passed the entrance exam, divided by gender.”
“Yeah, that. Apparently the Guidance Office’s records were originally ordered based on when everyone passed the entrance exam, and Mr. Hütter used those documents as a reference when he wrote all those names down.”
“To be more precise…” Wren said as he held up a piece of paper he’d prepared in advance for Tia to see.
Passed on Day One
Sophie, Rukiye, Roswitha.
Passed on Day Two
Rose, Julius, Ella.
This night, the black wolf arrives. Pretty boy in a pinch.
Passed on Day Three
Gerald, Finn, Oliver, Tia, Wren, Sevil.
Tia looked at Wren and asked.
“Do we need the ‘pretty boy in a pinch’ part?”
“Of course we do. It means that if the Werewolf is one of these, it has to be one who passed after this pretty boy pinch.”
It went without saying, but Wren didn’t suspect Tia or Sevil. Both of them were there with him when they encountered the black wolf. He couldn’t possibly suspect them.
That only left three: Gerald, Finn, and Oliver.
“Who do you think the Werewolf is, Wren?”
Tia’s amber eyes glared at Wren.
Seeing Tia’s eyes in the dark like this made them look much prettier than during the day, and a little terrifying.
Wren dipped his head and, unable to hide the discomfort in his voice, spoke his thoughts.
“Well, you know, Gerald is my roommate and all, but I’ve never actually seen Gerald using his sword.”
Gerald always woke up early, taking his sword to go practice, but no one had actually seen him doing that practice with his sword.
Even in their magic battle with the Extermination Office, Gerald refused to use his sword all the way through to the end.
“Monsters don’t use weapons, right?”
Since Rukiye was here, he refrained from adding on ‘Like Tia, you know?’
But even without saying that, everyone here was aware that Monsters disliked tools and weapons.
Tia warbled “Pefufun.”
“There might be some Greater ones out there who like collecting swords and stuff, but I think it would be kinda weird for a Monster to actually use one.”
Rukiye quietly confirmed Tia’s mutterings.
“You’ve got a point there. Since Monsters are so strong, they don’t need to rely on swords and such. Waving around a pointy rock would be plenty threatening enough.”
Monsters, with their superhuman strength, had no need to rely on tools. Nor to hone their talents.
There might be some who hold an obsession with human culture and collect weapons, but actually using weapons in battle was on a completely different level. After all, it would be hard to get a sword in the Crystal Territory in the first place.
With thralls and whatnot, it wouldn’t be impossible, but if such a strange Monster existed, Tia would probably have at least heard about them by now.
Sevil folded her arms and spoke.
“So in essence, what you want to say is this: by using the conception that ‘Monsters don’t use swords’ to his advantage, Gerald might have chosen to pretend to be a human swordsman.”
Instead of responding, Wren exhaled slowly through his nose.
Then, even though he tried to let out all of the nervousness building up in his body, his mind still refused to clear up.
“…Honestly, I don’t want to think it’s him. Gerald is my roommate, after all. We’ve been through so much together…”
Gerald wasn’t much of a talker, but every once in a while he would reveal what was going on in his mind.
He hated pain and fighting, just as he hated being told that a man must always be strong.
Saying he was betraying his family by being here, he was looking for an excuse that allowed him to say ‘I came to the Wedge Tower because I want to perfect this skill. That is why I cannot live up to my family’s expectations.’
He’d spoken about how much he hated that he was like that, and it depressed him.
(Were you talking about life as a Monster this whole time, Gerald…?)
It wouldn’t be weird for a group of Monsters to place a strong emphasis on fighting.
Just as the females were dominant among the Harpies, there were probably species of Monster where the males dominated.
Could it be that he betrayed the rest of his pack and came to the Tower then?
…Of course it’s all only a theory.
“But, right from the beginning, Gerald was always weirdly avoiding me. I definitely thought he was acting suspicious, or like he was hiding something…”
As Wren mumbled, Sevil muttered “Well…”
“There is something I haven’t told you.”
Everyone looked to Sevil at once.
Sevil spoke with the same pompous attitude she always had.
“I know Gerald Anker’s true identity.”