[Verdan's Solitary Wolf]

He stood with closed eyes as his chest moved heavily up and down while staggardly breathing through his mouth. He couldn't use his nose, the scent of iron proved too thick for even the rain pouring down to wash it out. A large amount still remained on the ground, blood seeping from the corpses he'd littered around him.

“Die monster!!” An unremarkable knight with a hint of immaturity shouted and charged at him with sword in hand.

Mustering up what was left of his strength, he raised his left arm to block the weapon. He clenched his hand— sharp steel drawing blood as it slid across his fingers and aimed towards his heart. With the sword tip almost upon his chest, he made another attempt to grasp it with his opposite hand, but...

...There was a rush of adrenaline in his body that had numbed him to his pain and made him forget, the heavy weight of despair on his mind also forced on him a moment of neglect— The sword wasn't stopped. Its trajectory was unhindered as there was no right hand, nor anything else below his right shoulder to halt it.

“Hahaha!!!” The knight reveled, elation blooming along with tears and snot, “I have finally slain this beast!!!”

The sword had pierced through— past his heart, and a few inches off from emerging out his back.

“So this is how it ends... killed by a blundering fool...” He muttered.

“Hah!—Fool you say?!!! It is this very fool that has come out on top! Not the Sword King of Wiseria— not the Tower Sage of Eredius, nor the Witch of Merdain's Ruin— Me!!! Hahah! When I return with this achievement, it is I that will hold the title of the ruler—Wha!!!”

With the knight's hand still gripping onto the handle and his left hand holding onto the blade, he yanked it closer, allowing the sword tip to fully extend out his back but bringing the knight within reach of his face.

“—If you return.” He growled, before extending his neck and widening his jaws, revealing a pair of inch-long canines and a set of sharp teeth.

“No no no! What do you think you're doing, dog!?”

A crunching sound emerged from the knight's shoulder guard— a ceremonial armor adorned with gold and silver providing not much protection— as sharp fangs embedded themselves, not allowing for the knight to let go of the sword.

With his vision fading, he used his last vestiges of consciousness to flick his head back and rip out a good deal of the knight's flesh, before collapsing onto a dark red puddle on the ground.

“AAAAAAH!!!”

The last thing he heard was the painful wailing of the knight, a wonderful send-off for his departure to the underworld.

*

“A-Aaaaaa—!!!”

Yeung was having another of his regular dreams, though this one felt more vivid and striking— more so than any he had had before. The details he could recall clearly, like the events in his dream had just occurred and he was there to witness it.

“—aaaaaah!!!”
Even the scream he had heard at the latter part, he could still hear ringing by the side of his ear.

“—Y-Yeung, you b-bastard, g-get off of me!”

“Hmmm...? Ah? Dokk...? What are you doing?”

“W-What am I doing? W-What are y-you doing!!?”

“Well... I was woken up with a knife to my chest, can't I ask why?”

“Y-You!” Dokk, with a furious expression, pointed at his shoulder. There was a deep imprint of a bite. It looked red and painful but his skin wasn't broken and was still intact.

“Wahh— That's nasty... Did you get that from a goblin?”

Dokk trembled with anger and pulled at his hair, “I got this from you, y-you son of a b-bitch! I've heard of k-kicking other people in their sleep, b-but I've never heard of someone b-biting!!! I grabbed m-my knife 'cause I t-thought you were coming onto me!”

“Biting? Wah— who? Me?” Dokk continued to glare at him, Yeung didn't argue as Dokk looked genuinely pissed.

Did I really do that? A puzzled expression was on his face. He was confused at why he would do such a thing unconsciously.

“Ah? Maybe I was dreaming— wait, dream...? ” Yeung had a strong feeling that he had missed something important. That's right. He was having a dream. What was it about again?

“—Y-You're sleeping outside n-next time!!”

“Ah? Come on, brother, it was just this one time! Let's calm down and go have breakfast, alright?” Yeung said, as he dragged the angry Dokk to the living room.

He then tried to go back to his previous train of thought but Dokk's last words seemed to have brushed it all away. “...Forget about it. Doesn't look like I'll remember anything this time either...”

They arrived to the smell of sausages and fried eggs, a staple breakfast along with steamed white rice. Someone was already in the kitchen cooking breakfast.

Light brown hair, wearing the same oversized shirt and pants from yesterday— it was the young lady they had rescued from the goblins.

“Good morning, Anna.” Yeung and Dokk greeted.

“G-Good morning...” Anna replied meekly.

Yeung approached and asked over her shoulder, “Are you cooking for everyone...? Hmm?”

He noticed that her face, ears, and neck were completely blushed. She looked quite cute. How old was she again? Maybe seventeen or eighteen?

...But there was this weird expression on her face that Yeung couldn't make out. He placed his hand on her forehead, “Hey, are you alright? Are you sick?”

“Ah! No,” She pulled back, her eyes hastily darting to the side where Dokk was setting up plates on the table. “I'm fine... Thank you.”

“Hmmmm—?” Yeung felt something amiss. It was a small detail, but he had still noticed. He shrugged his shoulders and turned to help Dokk with the plates... Or so he made it look out to be. At the corner of his eye, he was still paying attention to Anna.

The pan she was frying eggs in was crackling with the sound of heated oil and her hand was holding a spatula, however, she wasn't moving. She was glancing over at their direction, her ears reddening even more after stealing a look.

...Could it be? Yeung gulped. He felt a shiver run down his spine.

“—H-hey, are y-you deaf? I said g-go get a f-few mugs from the p-pantry.”

He stared at the deep-voiced stutterer in front of him, his line of sight falling to the bite mark which had receded and had now appeared more like the mark of a lover. His eyes widened as he came to a realization.

There seemed to be another dangerous misunderstanding.