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Luisen closed the carriage door and hid inside. At times like this, it was better for someone weak like him to be holed up somewhere instead of getting in the way of those more talented than him–staying still would help the knights.
“Protect the lord!”
“Form a defensive line around the carriage!”
It was a sudden ambush that no one had expected; furthermore, the fog was so thick that they could not even see an inch ahead of their noses. Still, the knights moved as they were trained, in perfect synchronization, to protect Luisen.
But the fog was too thick to cope with the monsters’ attacks. On the other hand, the direwolves attacked the knights as if the fog weren’t an issue.
Their formation collapsed in an instant. A direwolf broke through the line of knights and hit the carriage; the carriage fell on its side.
“Argh!” Luisen slipped to the side alongside the carriage. Simultaneously, he hit his head on the seats; his head felt dizzy–the hit ringing through his brain. Meanwhile, the direwolf ripped off the carriage door.
“This mongrel bastard, how dare it!” A knight staked the direwolf with a spear, but three other direwolves rushed into the carriage. One bit at the knight’s arm, and another grabbed onto Luisen with its maw. Somehow, they seemed to be aiming to capture the young lord.
Luisen swung his book wildly. “Get away!”
Luisen was resisting in his own way, but the monster would not retreat. Gripping onto Luisen’s leg, they crawled out of the carriage; the direwolves’ sharp teeth dug into his calf.
“Ahhh!!”
“My lord!”
After being dragged out, he could see that the situation outside was, to put it nicely, in shambles. Through the thick fog, he could see direwolves unilaterally attacking his escorts. One person collapsed with a scream, red blood splattering everywhere.
‘Where did all these direwolves come from?’
Even the thick fog surrounding his party seemed unusual.
The fog.
This fog continued to be a problem, throughout the Vinard envoys’ and the first prince’s messenger.
The direwolves gave Luisen no time to think calmly. One of them bit Luisen’s cape and began to run away. Luisen struggled, but he was not good enough to escape from the monsters; he was dragged along. The areas where the direwolf bit were swept along the ground, chafing and bringing great pain.
The cape strangled the lord, suffocating him and making him dizzy. The direwolf dragged Luisen up the hillside; though it nimbly avoided all obstacles, Luisen was not nearly so lucky. He was hit by various branches and stones. It felt as if his bones had broken, and his flesh was torn, bleeding profusely.
“Nnngh” Luisen was flung and hit his head on the ground and had to swallow rising nausea. He tried to curl up and cough.
The direwolves didn’t approach the lord. Instead, they stayed at a certain distance, circling around him; they growled a warning as soon as Luisen raised his head.
‘What do they want me to do?’ Luisen’s mouth felt parched. A wolf the size of the carriage was horrifyingly glaring at him. Its big fangs seemed ready to bite him at any moment. He was completely suppressed by the monster’s bloodlust and couldn’t move.
But, even in the midst of fear, he noticed something strange. There were only two reasons for monsters to attack humans: their territory had been invaded, or they were trying to grab a meal.
Direwolves were quite clever for a monster, but they were still monsters in the end. There was no reason to capture a human alive and throw him in some empty clearing to…appreciate him? Luisen had heard that direwolves would intentionally save weak prey to teach their young to hunt, but he couldn’t see the pups anywhere.
‘What’s going on?’ Luisen was incredibly puzzled. What was with the fog, and what was with these monsters’ strange behavior?
At that moment, he could hear the sound of footsteps. A human’s footsteps.
A familiar face quietly emerged from amongst the thick bushes.
‘Ruger!’ Elated to see him, Luisen almost called out to him. But he managed to shut his mouth, unwilling to bring attention to his attendant’s approach. ‘He’s come to rescue me!’
Luisen was so happy to see Ruger–he was driven to tears. He had been wondering where his attendant had vanished!
But Luisen’s pleased feelings did not last long: Ruger was alone.
No matter how talented Ruger was with swordsmanship for a servant, Luisen knew he wasn’t capable enough to deal with ten direwolves alone. If he had that kind of ability, he would have become a knight and not an attendant.
In other words, the situation had not changed much even if Ruger had arrived.
‘Damn. If it were Carlton who appeared instead…’
The first prince’s messenger had set out first to contact Carlton, but there was still no news on that front. If he had known this would happen, he would have insisted on travelling with Carlton–how regretful.
“My duke.”
Luisen panicked when Ruger called out to him. ‘I thought you were sneaking up to stab the monsters in the back; what’s the use if you call out to me?’
Ruger did not even try to hide his approach; he stalked closer to Luisen with great dignity.
His poise was so strange.
‘That punk, why is he so calm?’ The master he was in charge of was surrounded by monsters, at the brink of having his limbs torn apart. It would be normal for Ruger’s face to express anxiety, tension, or urgency…but the attendant looked nonchalant.
It felt as if he viewed this situation as nothing unusual. He didn’t even look at the direwolves. How could he be so indifferent when he didn’t know when they would jump on him, tearing at his neck? He looked as if he was sure he wouldn’t be attacked.
At least, that’s not how the Ruger Luisen knew would have acted. He would have been alarmed to see his master in danger and rushed in to save him. Though he may have been arrogant to others, he was still Luisen’s devoted servant.
Come to think of it, he looked different from usual. Ruger’s pale face was stiff as a corpse. His unique, silly aura gave way to something more sleek–well defined and sharp, like a sword. His red-colored armor matched well with his red hair–for those who did not recognize him, he may have seemed like a famous knight who had lived his life without knowing setbacks. At first glance, anyone could see that it was far too good an armor for a servant.
It was possible for Ruger to have owned good armor. After all, the salary Luisen had paid him was quite considerable. But, the issue was he was far too well-dressed. This monster attack was something no one had expected; however, wearing the armor caused a sense of disharmony, as if he had predicted conflict.
‘Don’t tell me, he knew the monsters were going to attack?’ His mouth was dry as a desert. An ominous, foreboding sensation passed chillingly through Luisen’s spine.
‘No, that’s not possible.’ Luisen vehemently denied it. With all his might, he hoped that his hunch was wrong. It was Ruger. Before regression, he’d protected Luisen until his final moments, blocking Carlton from capturing him. Such a devoted servant couldn’t possibly attack him.
The reality at hand was brutal. Ominous hunches were never wrong.
As Ruger approached, the direwolves retreated, wagging their tails like a dog. They laid their heads on the ground and opened a path for the attendant, avoiding his path as if they were dealing with a very frightening and difficult being.
‘Nothing is…making any sense?’
Luisen had never heard of monsters obeying people. However, it was clearly not the time to debate the plausibility of such submission. Luisen witnessed everything clearly: the direwolves were following Ruger. If so, it would be prudent to assume that the direwolves dragging the lord to this empty clearing was actually Ruger’s idea.
“…Bastard, what are you doing?” Luisen glared at him.
Ruger whistled in admiration. “I thought you’d be bawling and sobbing, but you’re actually quite calm? You don’t seem surprised either.”
“…How can I cry when I’m so dumbfounded. What are you going to do now that you’ve kidnapped me; who bought you out?” Luisen guessed that Ruger wasn’t acting alone. No matter how pathetic, there were only four great lords in this country. For fear of consequences, he must not be acting alone.
“That’s strange. How can you say such smart things?”
“Did you think I was an idiot?”
“No, you truly are an idiot; I know the duke better than anyone else. The duke is not the kind of person who can keep calm under these circumstances.” Surprisingly, Ruger spoke like usual–a mixture of cheek and politeness.
Luisen was rather horrified to see him act no different from before.
“Thoughtlessness and complacency were the duke’s greatest strengths…Why did you change so suddenly?” Ruger pressed a scratch on Luisen’s face with his gloved hand. Then, very gently, he rubbed at it. The touch of cold leather, brushing over the wound, felt so foreign. “You’ve hurt yourself. I didn’t want to be this extreme; I wanted to remain your faithful servant until the very end.  If you had just run away with me that night, you wouldn’t have been hurt like this.”
“What?” Luisen had no choice but to interject. Just what was he saying right now? All of his memories of Ruger were shattered and slowly pieced together to reassemble that night, pre-regression.
Back then, Luisen fled the estate. Everything needed to escape–the escape path, the method, the supplies–were all prepared by Ruger.
‘Did I ever order him to prepare to flee?’