The soldier answered in a serious tone.
"Young Master Lucas is leading a punitive expedition to search the outskirts of Kalmor. It would be best for you not to leave the village until the remaining forces are dealt with."
Thalia looked around with a grim expression. Only then did she notice a few armed standard-bearers lined up at the end of the gently sloping hill.
She unconsciously placed her hand on Khan's neck and grasped a handful of soft bees.
"What is the scale of the damage?"
"A caravan leaving Kalmor was ambushed. I heard that seven people lost their lives, and all the goods on the wagons were looted."
The soldier let out a heavy sigh, turned his head toward the guards, and added
"It would be best for you to return to the castle early today. You never know where the remnants of the Zram might be hiding."
"Thanks for the advice."
The guard who had replied curtly signaled to Thalia.
"Let's wrap up today's inspection and head back."
Thalia, who had been glaring at him with a displeased expression, eventually turned away. She was somewhat disappointed by the fact that she could not verify the feasibility of the business plan she had come up with for the first time in a while, but there was no reason to go out of her way to take the risk.
She gently patted Khan, who was standing on tiptoes as if sensing the ominous atmosphere, and began walking back along the path she had come from.
"Please wait here for a moment. I will prepare a carriage right away."
Just as we left the stream and entered the village, one of the guards walking ahead stopped by the roadside and spoke.
Thalia sat down on the fence on the side of the road without a word. Then, stroking the back of Khan's neck, she watched as the soldiers approached the wagon parked in the village assembly hall clearing, when suddenly a sharp scream was heard from the alley opposite.
Talia snapped her head, witnessed the scene of passersby milling back in confusion, and flinched, wrapping her arms around Khan's neck. At the same time, a sharp shout struck her ears.
"Catch it! Don't let it go!"
With the urgent shouts of the soldiers, a man in tattered clothes pushed his way through the crowd and rushed out.
Thalia involuntarily held her breath when she saw his face. The center of the man's face was deeply sunken, as if his nose had been cut off with a knife.
He came across the road, shoving passersby around. Talia realized that he intended to take her hostage and jumped up from her seat.
Just as he turned to run away, Khan leaped out like lightning and knocked the burly man to the ground. It happened so quickly that there was no time to stop him.
Thalia covered her mouth with both hands as she watched Khan tear one of the man's arms off his torso. Immediately afterward, a desperate scream tore through the street.
Khan threw away the arm he had been biting and bowed his head toward the nape of the neck of the man writhing in pain.
Thalia shouted urgently.
“Khan. No!”
Khan's movements came to a sudden halt.
Seizing the opportunity, the man who had crawled out from under Khan desperately tried to get up, supporting himself on the ground with his remaining arm. However, before he could even take a few steps, he was caught by the pursuing soldiers and fell back onto the road.
A series of rough, metallic sounds escaped the man's lips. However, that voice, filled with rage, soon faded into a faint groan. He appeared to have lost consciousness from excessive bleeding.
She looked down with a terrified expression at the man, who was gradually turning pale. Red blood flowed ceaselessly from his shoulder, where his forearm had been torn off, soaking the road. It was a blood loss so severe that his breath would not have been a loss even if he had stopped breathing immediately.
Whether he was an important prisoner kept alive for interrogation, the soldiers hurriedly took off their coats and began applying pressure to the assailant's wounds.
I watched the scene blankly, then turned my head back to Khan, but the wolf that had been standing still next to the pool of blood turned around and ran off somewhere.
"Cannes!"
As she hurriedly tried to chase after him, a strong forearm wrapped around her waist.
Malia lifted her head sharply and held her breath as she met a pair of gleaming golden eyes peeking through his disheveled dark brown hair. Lucas, covered in blood and sweat as if he had just fought a battle, was gasping for breath with his chest heaving.
"Didn't you see what he just did? You must not chase after him!"
“Let go of this!”
Thalia struggled, pushing his arm away. But Lucas didn't budge.
"We will take care of that wolf. Please stay here, sister-in-law."
Then, he gave orders to the soldiers who had rushed over belatedly.
"Hurry up and chase the direwolf! Subdue it as soon as you spot it!"
"No!"
Thalia shouted angrily.
"If you lay a single finger on Khan, I won't let you get away with it! I'll kill you all!"
Lucas's gaze returned to her.
"That monster attacked a person. I can no longer keep it by my sister-in-law's side."
"The Khan was trying to protect me! If the Khan hadn't rushed in, I would have been captured by that barbarian!"
Thalia, who had been thrashing violently, thrust her face, bright red with anger, right in his face and burst into a nervous laugh.
"Or are you saying that would have been better? You wanted to see me die at the hands of a plunderer. You're planning to retaliate because the Khan spoiled the mood, aren't you?"
Lucas's masculine face instantly hardened fiercely.
Grinding his teeth, Lucas spoke as if spitting it out.
"I am trying to protect you."
"I don't need your protection! It was Khan who protected me, not someone like you!"
Thalia screamed in a shrill voice, lifted her head high, and bit Lucas's lower neck mercilessly. Lucas let out a short groan at the brutal attack and released his arms wrapped around her waist.
Talia immediately pulled herself away and ran straight in the direction Khan had disappeared. Her heart sank, fearing that Khan might have left her behind and gone far away.
"Khan! Where are you!"
She ran along the bumpy dirt road screaming like a madwoman, but Lucas, who caught up with her in an instant, grabbed her wrist.
Just as I was about to roughly shake off that hand, I heard the sound of water splashing not far away.
Thalia turned her head sharply. She saw Khan standing at the end of the stream, his large body crouching.
She pushed Lucas away, went down the slope without hesitation, hugged the wet nape of Khan tightly, and raised her voice.
"How could you leave me behind, you stupid idiot!"
As he teared up with relief, Paliaga grabbed Khan's cheeks tightly and shook him wildly from side to side.
Khan, having soaked his entire body in the ice-cold stream, hunched over and let out a faint sob. At that pitiful sound, the tension in my whole body seemed to slowly melt away.
Thalia slumped down on the damp grass by the stream and pulled Khan's large head into her bosom.
"From now on, you must not run out on your own. Got it?"
Then, as she was caressing Khan's cheek, Lucas, who had approached her before she knew it, grabbed her shoulder and pulled her away from Khan.
Thalia glared at him with an annoyed look. She found Lucas extremely irritating, as he had started interfering in her affairs at every turn and trying to restrict her actions.
"If you lay a hand on me without permission one more time, I won't let you get away with it. This time, I'm going to bite off those fingers."
Lucas let out a heavy sigh and took a step back at the low-pitched threat. However, appearing to have no intention of lowering his guard toward Khan, he kept one hand on the hilt of his sword and watched the wolf's movements with a sharp gaze.
Thalia grabbed Khan by the nape of the neck as if to show off and pulled him into the water.
"Come out now; let's go back to the castle."
Despite the rough behavior, Khan walked out of the water without much resistance.
As I watched silently, Lucas eventually took his hand off the sword handle.
"Certainly, it seems he is very obedient to his sister-in-law."
"I've been telling you all along."
"However, even so, we cannot be completely at ease. Monsters are not creatures that can be tamed like livestock. You never know when or what kind of unpredictable actions they might take."
Thalia let out a loud snort.
"Don't nitpick for no reason. If you hadn't let the prisoner escape, the Khan wouldn't have had to step in. The Khan prevented the Grand Duchess of the East from suffering a terrible fate due to the security guards' mistake."
Lucas's mouth was tightly shut, as if he had nothing to say in rebuttal.
Thalia led Khan up the slope, sending a cold warning over her shoulder.
"It doesn't do either of us any good to let this escalate, does it? So let's just gloss over it and move on. You wouldn't want your command responsibility brought up either, right?"
"..."
Thalia, taking his silence as tacit consent, straightened her disheveled coat and added nonchalantly.
"You keep the villagers in check on your own. If bad rumors about Khan spread, they will relentlessly attack the security forces' incompetence, so you'd better handle the situation properly."
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