Chapter 1
The Trilli District Slave Market.
“I'm looking for a vanguard.”
“Combat slaves are either cheap or expensive. What are you looking for?”
A wizard in shabby clothes came to see a slave trader. His weary face and rough, untrimmed beard spoke of the hardships of his long journey.
At the slave trader's sly words, the wizard replied with sunken eyes.
“The stronger, the better. The strongest vanguard here.”
“What will you use it for? A dungeon? An escort? Bait? We have plenty of candidates perfect for experiments.”
I clearly said I wanted the strongest one. He must be planning to raise the price by adding options.
“A strong one. The strongest vanguard.”
“I see. But being strong doesn't make one good in every respect.”
Saying that, the slave trader led the wizard along.
“This one is the strongest vanguard.”
Inside the cage was a single wolf-beast bound in chains. Her eyes were covered with a blindfold, and all four limbs were restrained. He had definitely said she was the strongest, but she didn't look it.
“She's female. She's thin and doesn't look strong.”
“Ah, you don't know what you're talking about. Have you heard of the annihilation of the Donetia Mercenary Corps?”
“Donetia. They had trouble with a certain mercenary and were all slaughtered by a single person….”
The slave trader smiled faintly and pointed into the cage.
“She…was the culprit behind that incident?”
“Well, it is true that wolf-beasts are formidable vanguards, but she's special. She's far too strong.”
The wizard peered into the cage.
“Her name is Aris. She is an adult and, as you can see, female. She is 155 centimeters tall. Her primary weapon is a greatsword.”
The incident was said to have been caused by people not knowing the ecology of wolf-beasts at the time.
She had hidden herself during her heat to suppress her instincts, but the Donetia mercenaries had gone and found her anyway. And then the incident happened.
Her circumstances might be viewed more leniently now, but her slave mark had already been applied.
She was bound with chains far thicker than those used on ordinary slaves. On top of that, a band constricted her neck, and electricity ran through her arms and legs.
“She'll die like that.”
“Well, if she dies, it can't be helped. She's a slave. If we release her, we won't be able to control her.”
The wizard was aghast that the trader had shown him someone he couldn't control.
“Don't look at me like that. Didn't you want the strongest one?”
“You really can't control her?”
“Hmm, she's extremely troublesome, but it's not impossible if we make use of the wolf-beasts' traits.”
The slave trader told him about wolf-beasts—their unique traits that ordinary people didn't know.
“Females become much more violent and stronger when they're in heat, but if you can subdue one at that time, she'll become more loyal than any other slave.”
“That's…rape. I can't do that.”
The trader shrugged and said,
“Well, from a human perspective, it would be rape and she'd become a loyal slave, but from their perspective, it's courtship and love.”
The wizard knew that customs differed between species. But forcing it was still wrong for a human.
“If I could subdue her with strength alone…couldn't we become friends?”
“With strength alone, without having sex? Who knows? Then she'd run wild again during her next heat.”
The slave trader explained.
Outside her heat, she wasn't that violent. However, since she was kept restrained continuously, she was in an extremely sensitive state.
Her heat cycles also came frequently, and there was no telling when she might snap.
“Anyway, forget about this one. I only wanted to show you that something like her existed because you kept asking for a strong one. Come on~ Let's go over there.”
Saying she had no value as merchandise, the trader tried to introduce the wizard to other slaves.
“I see. She really is the strongest vanguard, then.”
“Hey, sir. That one's unusable.”
The wizard approached the cage and put his hand inside.
“D-Dangerous! What are you doing?!”
“Price.”
The wizard's gaze seemed sincere. The trader couldn't understand why he wanted to buy such a strange creature.
The trader had put a slave crest and brand on her, but he was afraid of the monster. What if she went berserk the moment he released her…?
“2,000 credits.”
“Hmm. That's awfully expensive. Didn't you say she had no market value?”
“She may look like that, but she's the monster that wiped out Donetia. The strongest vanguard.”
Thinking of it that way, it was quite cheap.
Donetia. Even among the mercenary corps hailed as the strongest of the era, they had made a name for themselves.
If she'd smashed them all by herself, he could have asked for 5,000…no, even 10,000.
“I'll buy her. I need a strong vanguard.”
“I'll use an aphrodisiac and an anesthetic first. I'll force her into heat and weaken her…then do as you please.”
The trader broke into a cold sweat and injected the slave.
-Whack! After the injection, she staggered for a moment, then slowly began to breathe heavily.
“Kahak…haa, aaah…ughhh!”
The quiet girl's voice echoed through the cage.
The wizard said,
“I'm sorry. I'll get you out soon. In return, lend me your strength.”
[Strength]-[Relax]-[Iron Guard]
He cast spells on himself to increase his strength, composure, and physical defense.
[Relax]-[Add Gravity]-[Iron Guard]
He also cast spells on the wolf girl to give her composure, powerful gravity, and greater physical defense.
“Nnghhh…!”
Powerful gravity arose inside the cage, crushing her down. Still bound in chains, the girl began to thrash.
-Kaang! Kwaaang! Kaang!
As she swung her arms, the chains sprang up and the cage shook. The trader backed away in alarm.
The wizard entered the cage and said,
“You're wild. Calm down.”
He approached the wildly thrashing girl without batting an eye. He blocked the chains flying at him with his body and slowly drew closer.
“Whoa! Y-You're quite reckless for someone who looks like that! Oh…!”
The wizard grabbed the thrashing girl's arm. He had stacked strength-enhancing spells, but the girl's strength was immense.
“What incredible force. Hup!”
-Crack! The wizard tried to headbutt her right then and there. It was hard to understand why he would do such a thing to a vanguard.
Then, just as the wizard had intended, something changed in her thrashing movements.
“Kgh! L-Let go of me!”
“Have you come to your senses?”
The blindfolded girl began to speak, and the wizard headbutted her once more.
“Nngh…!”
“Don't thrash around. Endure it. Stop moving!”
But the girl resisted even more violently.
“Haaah…haaah, I can't control myself! I'll kill you! Don't come near me! Go away!”
Shaking her head from side to side, the girl kicked at the floor and tried to move backward. But the cage blocked her from behind.
“It's all right. It's all right.”
Aris, the wolf-beast, was confused. No male had ever been able to subdue her.
But why? For some reason, she couldn't bring her full strength to bear.
She knew roughly how powerful aphrodisiacs and anesthetics were. This wasn't the effect of the drugs.
Was it because her body had weakened? Had she finally become weak enough for a man to subdue her? No, that wasn't quite it either.
His grip felt like something enormous, unlike anything she had ever experienced.
Though his grip was strong enough to hurt her arm, it felt like a soft blanket wrapping around her. It was more than she could handle; she could feel the man's vastness.
“Calm down. Calm down.”
“Haaah…u, aaah….”
Was it fear? Or was it relief?
Aris instinctively knew what would happen to her now. Her legs would be forced apart, and she would be roughly used. It was an everyday sight she had witnessed throughout her life as a wolf-beast.
But what Aris felt was a soft embrace around her back.
She had never felt an embrace like this even once since being born a wolf-beast.
Their way of showing affection was to lick one another, bite or tug on each other's tails, and smell one another and listen to their sounds.
As a wolf-beast, Aris felt affection for these things, but there had always been something missing.
The warmth of physical contact—the touch between family members she had felt when she was human.
She could feel the warmth she'd been missing all this time.
“Calm down. It's all right. Don't move. Your arm…will break.”
“U, ugh…a, aaah….”
-Trickle.
She ended up wetting herself in front of an unfamiliar man. The strength went out of her, and her body sagged.
“Good girl. Good girl…and I'm sorry.”
Because of the blindfold, she couldn't see anything. Held in his arms, Aris felt the warmth.
“May I see your eyes?”
“Haaah…haaah….”
He removed her blindfold. The girl's clear blue eyes were truly beautiful, like jewels.
When Aris's eyes met the wizard's, she was swept up in emotions she had never felt before.
It was different from the arousal, rage, and destructive impulses churning inside her.
A gigantic mountain seemed to stand before her. It felt cozy, like the wooden fence that had always kept her safe, like a bed piled high with soft grass.
“Haaah…haaah….”
Aris lowered a hand. Swallowing hard, she looked at the man's face as she moved her fingers.
“U-Um?”
The wizard's flustered face was visible, but Aris couldn't stop. She was embarrassed, but she simply couldn't stop what she was doing.
“Wait! Y-You said your name was Aris, right? Stop!”
He grabbed her wrist to stop the girl's self-pleasure. But as expected, her strength was far too great.
Seized by instinct, she experienced her first climax that day.
The girl fainted from pleasure.
The wizard came out of the cage.
“W-What on earth did you do…? How strong are you?”
“No. I'm just an ordinary wizard. It's just that…I couldn't stand by and watch.”
He had entered to save the girl, who would eventually die if left bound like that.
“Are you really that righteous a person? Enough to risk your life?”
“…No. If I had been that kind of person…how wonderful that would have been.”
The wizard let out a sigh.
“I've never saved anyone before in my life. I feel…proud.”
He staggered as if exhausted and sank heavily to the floor.
“Aris is yours now. Do as you please.”
Female wolf-beasts are said to feel intense sexual desire for the male who subdues them. Since she'd climaxed on her own like that, there shouldn't be anything to worry about.
“Get her pregnant before her next heat. Otherwise, it'll be dangerous.”
The wizard lay flat on the floor. Could he withstand that incredible strength? More importantly, they barely knew each other, and he thought that would be going too far.
“I only need a strong vanguard.”
“Do as you please. I also sell anesthetics and aphrodisiacs.”