“So, can any of you recall why we’re here?” I asked as I gathered all of the heroes in my room. I sat lazily on my chair while they stood, pondering about my question.

“To vanquish the evil from this world!” Blackhair answered, excited as if he was a little kid that got an answer to a hard question right.

“No. Anyone else?”

“Uh….aren’t we here to stop the Orcish-Elven War?”

“Good! Good!” I got up and ruffled Kendra’s hair. It was such a blessing that my apprentice-in-magic had common sense and decent memory.

“But can anyone tell me what's your current problem?”

“Hmmm….”

“Problem?”

“What are you even saying…”

“….”

None of the heroes could give me a solid answer. With a sigh, I shrugged mockingly at them.

“You guys have no idea…wait. Where’s the girl with the unusual hair color?”

“The girl with the unusual color?” The Sword Princess asked me.

“Yes. The blue haired girl! The one called What’s-her-name!”

“It’s Leyna! Remember your students’ names at least. Never mind that, I heard that she wanted to go spread some of her teachings to the elves or something.”

“…Spread her teachings?”

That sounded somewhat bad, but interesting at the same time so I dragged my group of kids with me to search for her until I found her in a small hall with some elves. She was standing on a podium while the elves were seating neatly, listening to her.

“Repeat after me, ye who wishes to see their souls saved! ‘Oh Goddess, show me light in the darkness, where you shall burn and slaughter the heretics, heathens and undead!’”

The elves repeated after her with a slight deviation where they added a ‘comrade’ before ‘Goddess’.

“I feel as if comrade Goddess shall see the Union through,” One of the elves whispered to another.

“Vah, that is true.”

Leyna continued chanting along with the elves until she took notice of me. Closing her large book, she was accompanied by two men who wore black armor.

“Teacher! It is so good to see you! I was spreading my wisdom and enlightenment to these heathens and infidels.”

“…Who are those?” I pointed at the two armored men.

“Bless be the Goddess, we are paladins from Aon’s diplomatic mission. It was such a surprise to find Priestess Leyna here. She has apparently taken a more…proactive approach in…showing the way to the elves.”

“…I am pretty sure you guys are not allowed to do that.” I tilted my head slightly, skeptical at one of the paladins.

“Oh, but Priestess Leyna is not part of Aon’s diplomatic mission. None of the problems would rest upon our shoulders. Heh heh heh…”

‘That means she’s your problem.’ …is what they were probably trying to tell me.

“So, teacher, why are you here with the rest of the others?” Leyna took my attention from the paladins.

“I’m going to give a lesson on information gathering and knowing about other nations. You are heroes after all, it’s inevitable that you would end up in other places.”

‘Cough. Also to know if the other races are messed up. Cough’

“As expected of the High Cardi-…Ahem. Excuse me. As expected of teacher.”

Wait. I forgot to clear up her misconception that I am the High Cardinal. Ah…But the others are with me. With a sigh, I decided that I should just explain myself some other time.

“That’s everyone...Not. Where’s Lard?”

“He ran off saying something about hoping to find cat ears.” Blackhair raised his hand.

“Oh by the Abyss…” I muttered to myself silently, pressing my palm against my face. It took a few minutes off my eternal life to find the loony standing in a corridor within the manor. He was spying on someone or something as he was leaning against a corner.

“What are you doing?”

“GAH! Don’t give me, Vakasa of the Darkness, a scare like that! N..not like I, Vakasa of the Darkness, was scared or anything! I, Vakasa of the Darkness, was simply indulging your foolishness in thinking that you surprised me, Vakasa of the Darkness!”

“I swear if you say ‘Vakasa of the Darkness’ one more time…”

I peeked from the corner that Lard was on and I saw some uncanny figures discussing amongst themselves in a corridor. They were like oversized wolves that stood upright. They communicated with short grunts and barks.

“What are they?” Lard asked.

“They’re called Lycans.”

“Are they werewolves?”

“We call them lycans because it’s more like they’re oversized mutts that are trying to be men. Wouldn’t that mean they’re weremen?”

“Hail, stranger.”

Lard and I was taken aback by the surprise greeting from the lycan that had approached us without our knowing. I recovered and fixed myself, coughing lightly.

“Rava couldn’t help but notice you talk about the so-called ‘werewolves’. Please do not compare lycans to those lowly trashes. They are sick perverts.”

I nodded at the lycan in response as I studied the talking dog. He had a purple and dark green coat on, with a red beret resting upon his head. Like the lycans that I knew before, this wolfman also wore a skirt instead of pants.

The lycan placed his right hand across his chest and gave me a bow. With a slight grin, he also lowered his head.

“This lycan’s name is Ra’rava’ral of the Patrician House of Raral. Please, use ‘Rava’.”

“…Patrician House? Not a tribal clan or something?”

“Yes. Rava is one of the many merchant-aristocrat of the Lommardei. Also, Rava is not a barbarian. Why would Rava be in a tribal clan?”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Wait! Like…you’re one of the few merchant wolfmen, right?!” Lard interjected since I was speechless. T..That’s right! Lard was right for once! This one is probably one of the few merchant families, right?!

“Hmm? Please do not call lycans ‘wolfmen’. Lycans are preferred term. As for your question…Most lycans are innate stewards. Numbers and order are lycan’s prime joy. As such, lycans are made for money and could smell a profit many trade sails away….Er…that is a trade sail is a Lommardite distance unit.”

 I quickly turned around, crouched and grabbed Kendra by her shoulders.

“Did you know of this?!”

“YE..YES! STOP SHAKING ME!”

“WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?”

“WHAT?! TELL YOU WHAT?!”

“Ra’rava’ral, what’s going on here? Kastra smells someone rich here.” A lycan that was slightly shorter than Rava, wearing a red and dark blue coat, approached with other similarly dressed lycans behind.

“Ra’kastra’ral, Rava found these folks peeking at us. Rava was thinking they were interested in a trade deal so Rava approached them and is trying to find which country they are from.”

“…Tell me…Aren’t lycans a….warrior race or something? Don’t you all live in the forests trying to enlarge your bulging muscles and have a beast king or something?” I asked with a shook voice, Lard also had some glint of hope in his eyes.

“That sounds very barbaric. Lycans enjoy riding gondolas between the canals and live in sturdy stone houses. As for our leadership, lycans have a Doggo of Lommardei. By the way, who is Rava voting for? The current Doggo’s health is not so good.” The shorter lycan turned towards Rava.

“Rava hopes Ka’dastra’el wins. But Rava has heard that Kastra would rather vote for that grey-furred elder.”

“Of course. Yava’s logical and very rich. Kastra could even smell Yava’s riches from all the way here.”

“Wait, let’s not get sidetracked…” The first lycan to talk to us, Rava, turned to us.

“From which country do you hail?”

“Angolia. I am actually one of the Duke’s daughter,” Aera answered first, pushing both Lard and I to the side. Well, that was fine for me. Allow me to sit in this corner and despair.

“Angolia?”

Rava nodded at Kastra’s question and sighed.

“Lycans already have many trade deals with them. To think Rava smelt someone different from the others. And that ‘someone different’ is…” Rava stood in front of me while I was crouching in a corner. He bent his body, being about a half body taller than the average man and sniffed the air around me.

“You’re different. From where do you hail? Can Rava interest you in a trade deal?”

The oversized fleabag started going on about starting a trade route towards my country but I just ignored him while I stared at the wall in front of me blankly until Aera started shaking me.

“TEACHER! WAKE UP!”

“W..what do you want, you brat?! I’m trying to get nostalgia from the days when there were warrior lycans that only wanted to gut me every second of my life!”

“You said you wanted to teach us something! Are you going to indulge me or are you incapable of teaching me something interesting? Hmpf, as I thought. You’re a failure of a teacher.”

If I had veins, they would’ve popped from anger. I stood up with vigor and fixed my robes. I turned to Rava and looked up with a serious composure.

“Rava, why are you here in a nation that despises the rich?”

“Rava is part of the diplomatic mission at the Lommardei Embassy. Rava is afraid Rava cannot divert any more information than that.” Rava bowed apologetically, but I was sure he was just doing that out of formality.

“What do you know of the Union? Any problems occurring inside?”

“For that, Rava is a diplomat. Rava doesn’t know anything about the Union on a deeper level.”

“I see. What do you know of the growing conflict between the elves and the orcs?”

“…Pardon Rava? Rava doesn’t know anything about tha-…”

Rava stopped and his ears twitched. All of the lycans in the surroundings also cocked their head forward when I pulled something out of my robes. I held it up for all of them to see.

“This ring was found in an ancient tomb and could possess a power that could be wanted by many knights or even kings,” I said as I showed a ring with pieces of rubies embedded in it. It was one of my many random junks that I got during my adventuring days.

All of the lycans started sniffing the air and their eyes started becoming crazed. Rava’s mouth opened and drool started to fall out.

I pulled out a necklace, a scroll and other things that made the lycans’ eye grow bigger than the last until I had my hands full of expensive looking goods.

“Sniff, sniff. Those…if Rava could get those…Rava could be…”

“Rich, yes. But, these are expensive. You know what else is expensive? Information. Rava, you’re a merchant, right? You know what I want.”

“Y..Yes! Yrahga…honorable friend! We should discuss this in Rava’s office! Kastra, quickly prepare the office!”

“Of course, brother! Um…Where did Kastra put those wine?!” Kastra ran towards his office with the other unnamed lycans in tow.

“Please, yrahga, follow me.”

With an air of superiority, I nodded and started following. Blackhair grabbed my arm, causing me to stop.

“Wait, teacher. We are stooping to bribery?”

“…Er…did you not just see what I did? Of course, you’re learning the importance of bribery!”

“But bribery is…is…”

“Bad? Evil? Oh, come on. That’s very subjective.”

“I thought we’re heroes!” Aera joined on Blackhair’s side.

“Heroes are only titles. We do what we must to stop the coming war.” Kendra took my side and defended me.

“Then what makes us different from the demons?”

My only response was to laugh as I walked towards the lycan’s office with Lard around my arm, since he was still traumatized like me, for some reason.

*

*

*

I took a cup and gulped from it. Satisfied at the quality of the wine, I smacked my non-existent lips and raised my cup at Rava. I got a lot of useful information from the lycans. Apparently, they had already established deep networks within the Union using elven spies.

Despite all their talks about unity, the elves weren’t what they seemed. Standing at around a few hundred years old only, the Union wasn’t stable yet. Conservative rebels or ‘Traditionalists’ were still rooted within the Union, hiding in the shadows. That was expected since elves live slightly longer than humans. Or…at least that was what I thought.

“Elves only live as long as humans?”

“Only the new ones. For some reason, the traditionalists live longer,” Rava answered as he inspected one of the rings I bribed him with.

“Do you know why?”

“As much as Rava wishes to answer, Rava doesn’t know,” Rava replied while his ears flopped downwards. He looked disappointed since he couldn’t sell any information about that.

“Let’s talk about these traditionalists. What are their goals?”

“To bring back the monarchy. Rava thinks the conservatives don’t like how the elves are turning. Rava agrees with them. So little trades are being made with the new elves, Rava is disappointed at the loss of potential income.”

I placed my cup down at the table and held my hands together. That princess that I talked to the prison could be one of the targets of the traditionalists. However, I was cut off from getting any further information from the princess herself.

“Rava, do you know of the princess stuck in prison?”

“Rava knows. But yrahga knows this informattion has a price.”

I groaned as I placed a small piece of emerald onto the table. Rava happily took it and gave it to Kastra for inspection. Upon taking it from Rava, Kastra licked her lips like a hungry dog. Wait, she actually is a dog…

“Rava used Kastra’s network to find as much as possible. Princess Evergreen is the last of the royal blood. Rava only knows she’s been locked for decades.”

“Decades? Why would they lock her up? Why keep her alive?” Kendra asked as she leaned forward from her seat. I tapped my head and snickered.

“Think, my apprentice. If you have bait for your enemies, why would you want it dead?”

“Yrahga is smart. The elves uses her as bait to catch the pesky rebels. Worked many times. But lately, the traditionalists have been quiet. Maybe they are conserving energy. Get it? Conserve? Conservative? Rava made funny joke!”

The mutt opened his mouth happily and waited for us to laugh but I was too busy thinking. I tapped onto the table to signal the start of my next question.

“The orcs and elves. What are they up to?”

“Rava knows little of the outside affairs. Rava only knows the orcs are preparing for a conflict,” Rava answered.

“Tell me of the orcs,” Since this was a good time, I might as well ask about my enemies. If I swear that the orcs suddenly became monks living on top of mountains trying to achieve inner peace…

“The orcs are savages. Barbarians. They are crude and warlike. Rava does not like them and the orcs does not like Rava or the lycans. Rava is fine with that,” Rava growled as he described them.

Ok. Good. I think.

“Thank you, Rava. This has been…enlightening. It’s time for me to take my leave.”

“Wait, yrahga. How about a trade deal with your country?”

“I have no home, Rava. At least not anymore.”

“Ah. Rava understands and apologizes.” The lycan gave me one last bow and also a jug of wine as thanks for the profitable discussion. Leaving the lycan’s office, I turned towards the goody two shoes.

“See? It’s effective. Also, it’s not bribery. It’s making a deal. It’s not like we’re bribing our way out of murder.”

“Yes, I understand. I’ll need to rethink on this later…” Blackhair scratched his head, uncertain.

Aera only bit her lips in silence, probably too prideful to admit defeat. With the day done, I slapped Lard’s depressed flabby back.

“Cheer up, I’m not sure why you also knew that the lycans were a warrior race but I’m sure you’ll get used to it.”

“No. It’s not that….I….I realized that Kastra person was a female. Shouldn’t wolfgirls be humans with dog ears?!” He shouted at the ceiling with a passionate anger.

“That sounds weird so I won’t talk to you anymore than I need to for now.”

As I made my way back to my room, I noticed Maven and one of my companions waiting for me. This ought to be good…