I'm not a discriminationist, but you can roughly tell how someone has lived from their appearance. Even in this remote place, the crisp white shirt and neatly pressed suit catch the eye first. Short triangular ears rising above a neatly cut black bob follow suit. You might think they're a beastman, but another characteristic of beastmen—the tail—is nowhere to be seen.
Immaculate attire and neat appearance that the jungle barbarians couldn't even dream of. A human who has tasted the waters of civilization. You can tell from their posture alone what their education level is.
I'll say it again, I am not a discriminationist. I merely stated the facts.
"Baskerville House? Why here?"
"Hm? You know us?"
Blue beast ears flashed in an instant, and at some point the suited beastman stood before me. Blue eyes—definitely Baskerville.
"I've heard of you. Famous as the Imperial loyal hounds, right?"
In the distant Empire, there is a concept of the Watchdog House. Simply put, beastman butlers. They teach etiquette and qi gong to sensitive, brave, and loyal dog beastmen, then use them as bodyguards, butlers, and emotional companions.
I'm telling you, the tastes of those in power are hard to understand. Wanting to use people as hereditary watchdogs. How perverse is that?
Huh? You mean what I did to Aji? No. Aji is a dog, isn't he?
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Anyway, Baskerville House mastered outstanding qi gong and remade themselves into loyal hounds, and perhaps that effort bore fruit, for even a One Who Reached the Principle appeared.
That was the head of Baskerville House, Blanca Baskerville. The pride of Baskerville House looked me up and down before answering.
"-Woof. Not anymore."
"Huh? Retired?"
"You know us, but not our current circumstances. You're not from the Empire. Kingdom person?"
"It's been a military nation for a while now."
"Right. Military nation person. Otherwise you wouldn't have bothered correcting me."
Got me. Though I wasn't particularly trying to hide it.
"Woof. Maximilien is absent right now. Want to leave a message? I'll pass it on."
"No business with that person. These people have business. They say they have a request for the witch."
"This isn't the witch's house, and it's certainly not a detective agency."
"What we need is paper. I said I'd write down the requirements on paper, organize them, and deliver them upstairs."
"You're taking on troublesome work. Is serving your hobby?"
"Yes. It's a hobby. Not work."
"Woof. Envious."
Blanca Baskerville smiled lightly and took out paper and pen from the desk drawer. I received the paper and pen and passed them to the people waiting outside.
"Now, line up and write your name and request for the witch one by one! No cutting in line!"
"Write? Letters?"
"I don't know how to write."
"I know how to write, so I'll write for you!"
People crowded to one side. Having roughly handled the crowd, I slipped into the pavilion and naturally asked.
"Are you the Lord of All Creation?"
It must have been an unexpected question, as Blanca stared at me and answered.
"I thought you came knowing."
"Well, it is true."
"Where did you hear it?"
"I'm an acquaintance of Maximilien."
"Woof. So you did come knowing."
Actually, in a way, it's a natural thing.
Nebida created the Lord of All Creation. And Maximilien planted that seed in the military nation.
If those two have their base at the Origin Tree, naturally the Lord of All Creation would also have their base there. Even the Origin Tree is a demon god where all kinds of plants grow. A tree that provides distribution and financial support without sparing anything.
"Right. Woof. The Lord of All Creation."
"From what I know, the Lord of All Creation is a gathering of beastman discriminationists."
"...Woof. You're asking how a mere beastman like me could be the Lord of All Creation?"
"Not how, I want to ask why you're the Lord of All Creation. You'd be well-treated wherever you go. I wonder if you really need to be here."
"You have a talent for making words sound pleasant, woof."
Of course. Someone with poor physical abilities needs to at least speak pleasantly to manage their shabby body, don't they?
Blanca slightly shifted her body as if to let me in. I stepped inside without hesitation.
"Beastman discrimination is not our gathering's purpose. Of course, I can't deny that many people believe so."
"Then what is the purpose?"
"Finding the King of Humans. A King of Beasts stronger, wiser, and greater than any beast."
"What will you do after finding them?"
"Probably, that's different for each person."
General Ebon who came to Tantalus wanted to ask the King of Humans whether beastmen are also human, and Maximilien wanted to make the cogwheels into superhuman rules.
"What's your reason for finding the King of Humans?"
It wasn't a question to ask someone who suddenly visited, but Blanca readily answered my question.
"Woof. For me, it's enough that the King of Humans simply exists."
"Just existing is enough?"
"Yeah. If it's the King of Humans, they'll become my master."
"Master? Are you looking for the King of Humans because you need a master?"
"Reasons differ for each person, woof. In this world, there are people who need a master."
What bizarre reasons exist. Baskerville House is the Watchdog House that took the Emperor as their master. Are you saying even the Emperor isn't satisfying anymore?
Blanca, hugging her knees, looked at me and asked.
"Or, will you become my master?"
"I'm already your master."
"Aha. You only say pleasant things. Where did you learn that?"
"I'm not joking."
I'm the King of Humans. I'm the master you've been searching for.
"Sorry. You won't do."
"Then why did you ask! Getting my hopes up for nothing!"
"If the King of Humans didn't exist, you might have been acceptable. But not now. Maximilien said he found the King of Humans. So I won't be looking for a master for a while."
That's me, you know? Should I just confess? No, wait. I still need to know why it's necessary.
"Why does it have to be the King of Humans?"
"That's obvious."
Blanca rose from the chair, her blue beast ears flashing as she spoke.
"If it's the King of Humans, unlike the King of Wolves. They will bring down that lofty and arrogant Empire."
On the other side of the continent, the Empire that built a great civilization spanning the Mediterranean and the Great Forest. Blanca bared her teeth toward that massive order.
Whether it's the Great Witch who wants to bring down the Great Forest, or Blanca who wants to bring down the Empire. This place only has people who want to destroy something on the other side of the continent. They're people like that, so they gathered on the opposite side, but.
"You want to erase your former master. So you're looking for a new one? Want to paint over it?"
"Yeah. But you won't do that, will you?"
Blanca slowly moved her nose and sniffed the air. A beastman's hearing and smell are several times sharper than a human's, and a beastman who has mastered qi gong hones those senses to the extreme. Blanca caught the familiar scent of blood among the scents dissolved in the air.
"If it's you who blocked us at Ende... Woof."
Ende? If it's Ende, that's the city of beastmen attacked by the King of Wolves, right? Why there...
...Ah, right. At Ende, Baskerville attacked us. No wonder it felt familiar. I had never directly faced Baskerville so I forgot.
"You, the magician of Ende? You have nerve. Coming to find me so nonchalantly."
Blanca's momentum intensified. I scratched my chin and answered.
"It's not that I have nerve, honestly I completely forgot."
"Does the loser not need to be remembered?"
"You couldn't recognize me at first either. We were meeting for the first time anyway."
I read people with telepathy, you see. Since you couldn't recognize me, I couldn't recognize you either. And you only figured it out from the regressor's scent, not me.
"You only heard my story and didn't know me, and I only heard your story so I didn't know your identity. Besides, the Mountain Lord came after that and annihilated an entire army, so I was preoccupied. Do we really need to create conflict here?"
"Your comrade seems injured. Should I miss such an opportunity?"
"You have to consider the circumstances for it to become an opportunity. Did you think about why I might be here? Who gave that injury? And why they're still kept alive despite inflicting such injuries?"
Blanca's smile deepened. Behind her, the shadow of a black dog wavered.
"If you ask about the beginning and end, you lose your prey. Chase first, bite, then see."
Blue flames reached right in front of my nose in an instant. Before I could even take a stance, an intense shock struck my chest. With brief pain, my body rose along with the chair. Just as the sound of wind reached my ears, my body became a siege ram, smashing through the pavilion door and bursting out.
Smashing through the door was a somewhat flashy entrance. People flocked to the sudden commotion. The regressor who had been blankly waiting outside was no different.
"Hughes! What happened?!"
"Woof. You're really badly injured. What happened?"
The regressor recognized Blanca's voice and stopped in their tracks. Blanca, approaching while slightly wary of such a regressor, saw both arms bound immobile and was both delighted and puzzled.
"My. Both arms rendered unusable. Who did that?"
"Blanca Baskerville...!"
"Woof, right. It's me. Quite a different situation from when we parted."
"Tch!"
'That's not an opponent you can handle without weapons or qi gong! I have to move somehow! Even without Jizan, at least Cheon-aeng!'
The regressor gritted their teeth. So hard that the grinding sound reached my ears. The more force they applied, the more qi gong they circulated, the more terrible pain followed, but the regressor extended their qi gong while feeling pain as if their entire body was being torn apart.
Muscles that had barely finished preparing to heal are forcibly reconnected with qi gong. The body painstakingly stitched together creaks under its master's rough urging.
'Otherwise Hughes will die!'
"How pitiful. Struggling with arms that won't move."
But it's futile. Blanca Baskerville is also a strong one who reached the Principle. An opponent you can't be certain of defeating even in perfect condition. Enduring the aftermath of having both arms torn off, without Cheon-aeng and Jizan, there's no chance of victory.
Blanca, also a qi gong practitioner, grasped the regressor's situation at a glance and expressed pity. Only pity, nothing more.
"But I can't consider the prey's circumstances. Woof..."
Then suddenly, Blanca felt a sense of incongruity looking at the regressor. Blanca examined the regressor's face from various angles and tilted her head.
"The scent is the same... but you became a woman?"
"I lost it because I was defeated by Nebida."
"Woof. What a pity."
"Lost what?! Do you want to die?!"
I was talking about the Mask of Agartha.