A few months spent working with runes, potions, and crystals had passed, and winter had arrived. Though he was busy, at least he was happy—he had his own life now. He helped Ms. Malonne on the farm, trained with Kavrala in the forest, visited Syl, brewed potions with Zhoron, and went hunting with Griffin. Though his life was far more exhausting than before, at least he wasn’t alone anymore.
Today, after closing his restaurant, he was heading to visit Syl as usual. After a short walk, he arrived in front of a small, single-story wooden house painted white. The door opened shortly after he rang the bell, and Syl’s anxious expression relaxed when she saw Vulren. After greeting the children and sitting down on the couch, he asked, “You look worried. Is something wrong?” Syl brushed it off, saying, “No, no, nothing’s wrong. It’s just… never mind.” Syl was a strong woman, and seeing her like this wasn’t a good sign.
Growing more suspicious, Vulren handed the children a picture book and headed to the kitchen, with Syl following and closing the door behind her. Vulren leaned against the counter, waiting for an explanation, and Syl continued, “I don’t want to cause trouble for you. It’s just that my father died a few days ago, and the gang he owed money to is now demanding it from me. But that damned father of mine borrowed so much that there’s no way I can pay it back!” The fact that the gang knew where Syl lived was a big problem. She could move again, but if they found her, they wouldn’t be as friendly next time.
After thinking for a few minutes, Vulren said, “My house is outside the village and out of sight. You can stay there for a while. We’ll figure things out after that. My father is the guard captain, so we can ask him for help too.” Syl objected, “I don’t want to cause you any more trouble, really. I’ll find a way to get the money and handle it. Don’t worry about me.” Knowing this wouldn’t work, Vulren said, “If you’re not thinking about yourself, think about Conell and Lusha.” Hitting her weak spot, Syl reluctantly agreed. After a few days of preparations, Vulren helped them move their belongings to his house.
He rearranged the room he usually used as storage, adding a large bed and a wardrobe. Having others in his home, where he had always been alone, felt strange—not bad, but strange. Though he had to give up some of his freedom for a while, Syl and the children’s safety was more important. He needed to resolve this issue within a few months. After showing Syl around the house, he went to the backyard to train. It was cold, but that wasn’t much of an obstacle.
Since his training options in the backyard were limited, he mostly did weight training. After all the painful training with the monkeys in the forest, he had improved significantly, and it was time to move on to more challenging exercises. After a few hours of training with the steel weights he had made from materials bought at the market, he went back inside. Seeing the kitchen light on, he went to check and found Syl cooking at the stove. The children were sitting at the table, waiting, so Vulren joined them and sat quietly. Cooking after a tiring workout was uncomfortable, so he thought adjusting to this new routine wouldn’t be too hard.
After finishing the massive plate of food in front of him, chatting a bit, and then heading to his room, he read through the notebook he had been working on for years before falling asleep. Vulren usually slept without a shirt, so after waking up, he would shower without putting anything on. When he sleepily stepped out of his room in the morning and ran into Syl in the hallway, he found himself in an awkward situation.
Without saying a word, Syl turned around and went downstairs, while Vulren, unfazed, headed to the shower. Remembering he couldn’t roam his own house freely anymore, he felt a little spark of sadness and started getting ready to go to the forest. Seeing Syl preparing breakfast lifted his spirits, though. Since he worked at a restaurant all day, cooking at home to feed his customer with the biggest appetite was exhausting. Sitting at the table with the children, he couldn’t shake the feeling that they were like a married couple.
Knowing things would get unnecessarily complicated if Kavrala found out, he decided to keep it a secret for now. A few hours later, when he arrived at Griffin’s place, he started talking about random stuff. Griffin wasn’t listening, but it still felt good to let it all out. Today, they were going to hunt a Giant Wolf. Vulren hadn’t given up on the energy potions yet. This time, instead of luring the wolf into a trap, he planned to actually fight it. If things got bad, Griffin would save him anyway. Creeping through the bushes, he managed to get within a few meters of the wolf. He jumped on the wolf from behind, grabbing it by the horn and biting its shoulder. The wolf howled and snarled, thrashing against the trees to throw Vulren off.
After a brief struggle, the wolf succeeded in throwing Vulren to the ground and pounced on him. As Vulren held onto the wolf’s neck, trying to tear its throat out, his energy was fading fast. Just as he was about to give out, another massive creature descended from the sky and tore the wolf apart with a single swipe of its paw. Admiring Griffin’s strength once again, Vulren took the wolf’s horn and hide before heading back to the meadow. While Griffin feasted on the remains, Vulren wrote about the fight in his notebook. Though the notebook was quite thick, he was nearing the last pages and needed a new one.
After returning home and preparing to go to the restaurant, he headed out again. The day passed uneventfully, and after closing the restaurant, he went home. Days went by in an ordinary fashion—though not ordinary for Vulren. The gang’s silence worried him. But this silence ended a few weeks later when Vulren encountered a few suspicious men in front of his house. Approaching them, he politely asked, “Is there a problem?” One of the men turned to him and rudely replied, “Yeah, there’s a problem, Mr. Freak. Your wife is refusing to pay her debt to us,” pointing at the house with his thumb.
Keeping his composure, Vulren responded, “May I see the debt papers, please?” One of the men pulled a parchment from his pocket and handed it to him. After reading it for a moment, Vulren smiled politely and said, “I think there’s been a mistake here. The person who signed this note isn’t Sylmare; it’s someone else. I suggest you collect your debt from them.” Annoyed by Vulren’s demeanor, the man snapped, “Listen here, Mr. Smartass, her father owed us money, but since the old fool died, we’re collecting it from her.” Vulren examined the parchment again and said, “There’s no clause here stating that the debt transfers to her upon her father’s death. Even if there were, it wouldn’t be valid without her signature,” handing the parchment back. The men, growing increasingly angry, began to surround Vulren.
There were three of them, and they didn’t seem particularly strong. One of them pulled a knife from his belt and pointed it at Vulren, saying, “You’re making a big mistake, kid. Give us our money, and no one gets hurt.” Vulren raised his hands and said, “Look, I don’t know who you guys are, but what you’re doing is illegal. And my father is the guard captain. I suggest you don’t mess with us.” The men hesitated, but the one with the knife laughed and said, “Sure, buddy, and I’m Messie” (a dwarf god from fairy tales), stepping closer to Vulren. When there were only a few centimeters between them, the man threw a punch at Vulren. But Vulren leaned back slightly, dodging the punch—after all, there was almost a twenty-centimeter height difference between them. Frustrated, the man swung his knife, but Vulren grabbed his wrist and squeezed until the man dropped the knife.
After releasing the man’s hand, the guy with the knife ordered the other two to attack. The two gang members who attacked Vulren with clubs they pulled from their bags were no match for him, as they couldn't use magic and were far weaker in comparison. Vulren disarmed both of them, throwing their clubs far away, and then heard the man with the knife say, "This should be far enough." When he turned around, he saw the man holding the knife conjure a small fireball in his hand, but Vulren wasn't quick enough to react.
The man hit Vulren directly with the fireball and laughed, saying, "That's what happens when you mess with the Growlers Gang, hahaha." Vulren burst out of the small smoke cloud created by the fireball, grabbed the man by the neck, and hurled him at the other two. The man's magic was much weaker compared to Kavrala's, so it didn't affect Vulren much. Seeing that Vulren wasn't affected by the spell, the gang members shouted, "This isn't over, you bastard!" as they started to run away. Vulren muttered to himself, “What the fuck was that,” before heading inside. As soon as he opened the door, Syl rushed to him with tears in her eyes, checking to see if he was hurt. Seeing that Vulren was unharmed, she said, "Thank goodness you're okay. I'm so, so sorry. We'll leave right away, don't worry."
Then Vulren angrily said, "You're not going anywhere. You're staying here. I'll handle this, don't worry." Syl was sobbing uncontrollably, clinging to Vulren and crying her heart out. After calming her down a bit, Vulren went to prepare dinner himself. By the time the food was ready, Syl had calmed down, though her eyes were still red. They ate in silence, and afterward, Vulren went to the backyard to do his evening training. Syl sat on a bench in the garden, knitting something and watching Vulren.
They chatted about various topics as Vulren finished his workout, then he went back inside and lay down on his bed. Vulren had read all kinds of books, but his least favorite by far were romance novels. The unrealistic events that never happened in real life kept repeating, offering nothing of value to the reader. When his mind wandered to the absurd scenarios in romance novels, he imagined Syl entering his room with a frightened face, asking, "Can I sleep here tonight?" But he quickly dismissed these embarrassingly cliché thoughts and focused on falling asleep.
Vulren was furious with the gang for disrupting his peaceful life. If they showed themselves again, he could seriously injure them. When morning came, hoping nothing would happen, he got out of bed and went downstairs. Syl was preparing breakfast. With Vulren's help, she had improved a lot in cooking, but she was still nowhere near his level. After a tense day for everyone, evening came, and there was still no word from the gang. Curiosity got the better of him, and after closing the restaurant, he decided to visit the unsafe parts of the village again.
Trying not to draw attention, he entered a bar. Though he didn't usually drink, he ordered a beer. Then, without raising his voice, he asked the old bartender cleaning glasses, "I keep hearing about the Growlers everywhere. Do you know anything about them? Just asking out of curiosity." Hearing the gang's name, the bartender put down the glass he was cleaning and looked around. After a few seconds, he replied, "Look, buddy, I don't know anything about that, okay? Don't ask me any more questions." Vulren had expected this answer. Without saying a word, he reached into his pocket and placed a few silver coins on the counter.
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The old man hesitated for a few seconds before taking the coins and putting them in his back pocket. "If you're just asking out of curiosity, I guess it's fine," he said. Then, he began to whisper, "That gang is a very dangerous group that has been haunting this area for several years. No one knows how many of them there are, but they say they have ears and eyes everywhere in the village. It's best not to get involved with them. Not only are they extremely cruel, but there’s also a rumor that they’re working with the region’s chief guard." Vulren was about to leave without even taking a sip of his beer when the old man quietly added, "This conversation never happened, okay?"
Vulren nodded in agreement and then left the bar, heading home. Now that he had learned how dangerous this gang was, Vulren felt even more uneasy. To avoid worrying Syl too much, he quickly returned home. Syl, who greeted him at the door, seemed relieved to see him return safely. After a quiet dinner, Syl began reading some stories to the children, and Vulren retreated to his room. He planned to research the gang a bit more before bringing the matter up with his father.
When morning came again, he prepared as usual and left the house. Even while with Griffin, he couldn’t get the gang out of his mind. After hours of being on edge, he returned home and got ready to go to the restaurant. He left the house and headed toward his beloved restaurant. With the arrival of spring, almost all the snow had melted, leaving only muddy patches along the roads. As he turned onto the street where his restaurant was, he saw a large crowd gathered in front of it.
Yes, the restaurant had become even more popular after the festival, but this crowd wasn’t normal. Anxious and curious, he approached the restaurant and froze at the sight before him. Where his restaurant should have been, there was nothing but a pile of burnt wood and ashes. “Wh-what?,” he thought as he stared at the charred remains. The fire had also damaged a few neighboring buildings. When his mind finally processed the shock, his legs gave out, and he collapsed on his knees. A storm of emotions raged inside him, but one feeling grew larger and overshadowed the rest: anger. Quietly, he muttered, "If you attack me, I might forgive you. If you attack my friends… I might still forgive you. But if you dare touch my restaurant, my life, I will hurt you." Then, he pushed through the crowd and left.
Syl was a brave woman, and if she found out about what had happened, she could become a serious hindrance. So, Vulren put on his calmest expression and returned home, using the excuse that he had forgotten a few things to gather the necessary supplies. Seeing Vulren hurriedly packing a few items, Syl approached him and asked, "Is something wrong?" Vulren, doing his best to suppress his anger, replied, "No, no, everything’s fine. I’m just going to visit a friend in the village. I need to pick up a few things. I’ll be back late." Before Vulren left, Syl looked at him with worried eyes and said, "Take care of yourself, okay? Don’t get into any dangerous situations." Vulren nodded silently and then left the house. He quickly did the opposite of what she said and made his way to the dangerous parts of the village.
It didn’t take long for him to reach the area with narrow streets, ugly, unplanned houses built haphazardly. Before starting his search for the Growlers Gang’s base, he put on the light armor pieces and helmet he had packed in his bag. He threw a cloak over the armor and began scouting the narrow streets. He planned to search until sunset and then make his move once it was dark. First, he quickly scouted the entire area, marking the locations of people he suspected were gang members on his map. By connecting these locations, he narrowed down the search area. Then, he focused on the spots where gang members were most concentrated, further reducing the area. After questioning a few drunks using money, he roughly identified the gang’s headquarters. Despite being such a large gang, they weren’t even trying to hide. If Vulren could find their location in just a few hours, the guards could easily do the same. This supported the theory that the gang was collaborating with the guards.
As it began to get dark, Vulren continued his search from the rooftops, looking for large concentrations of magical energy. Although his magical sensing abilities were quite advanced, the area he was examining was still quite large. After sitting on a rooftop for about forty minutes, scanning for magical sources, he noticed a cluster of powerful magical energies converging in one spot. Bingo. From the rooftop of a building, he observed a structure emitting a strong magical aura. Gangster-looking people were coming and going, and guards were posted at the entrance. Above the door was the emblem of a wolf skull, the same one he had seen on the jackets of the debt collectors. Confident in the location, he sat down to observe the guards and formulate a plan.
The windows on the top floor had iron bars, so entering from there was out of the question. Since he couldn’t use the main entrance either, his only option was to enter through a window on the second or third floor. Given that the lower floors had more gang members, he chose the third floor to sneak in. The building’s security was surprisingly weak, likely due to the gang’s overconfidence. Shortly after sunset, the streetlights would come on, but for a brief period, the area would be almost pitch black. According to his calculations, the lights would come on in about ten minutes, and it would take at least seven minutes for it to get dark enough. This meant he had roughly three minutes to get inside. Vulren spent those seven minutes focusing entirely on his target and regulating his breathing.
As soon as it was dark enough, he leapt from the rooftop to the adjacent building, moving as quickly and quietly as possible from roof to roof toward the gang’s building. When he reached the building next to the gang’s base, he climbed down to the third-floor window using the neighboring building’s windows for support and jumped towards one of the windows of the gang's building. With only seconds left before the lights came back on, he pulled himself up, slid the unlocked window open, and slipped inside. He closed the window just as the lights came back on—he had made it by the skin of his teeth. He crouched and surveyed the room. It was some kind of storage area, filled with cardboard boxes and metal shelves stacked with more boxes. He quietly checked the door and found it locked. Picking the lock himself was too risky, so he hid among the boxes and waited.
After a few minutes, he heard the storage room door open. A skinny man in a gang jacket entered, whistling and muttering to himself, "...joined to be gangsters, and now I’m just a errand boy!" He began inspecting the numbers on the boxes with a flashlight. A few minutes later, he reached a small box on one of the metal shelves and said, "...aha, found you. Time to take this to the Boss..." As he set the flashlight down to grab the box, Vulren seized the opportunity. He emerged from behind the boxes and clamped onto the man’s neck. The skinny man barely struggled before losing consciousness within seconds. Vulren "borrowed" the man’s clothes, tied him up with a rope he found in the storage room, and slung him over his shoulder. He removed his helmet, put on the man’s hat, grabbed the box and a large empty box, then he lit a fire crystal from his bag and threw it into the pile of boxes before leaving the room.
After confirming no one was around, he placed the unconscious man in the large box and left it on a small balcony outside the storage room. Hoping it wouldn’t attract too much attention, he moved on. He walked cautiously through the corridors, looking for the Boss’s room. When he found the stairs leading up, he climbed to the next floor. The upper floor had more gang members than he had expected. As he passed them, he bent his knees to hide his height and counted the gang members. After passing exactly twelve gang members, he reached a long corridor—the building’s layout was quite bizarre. At the end of the corridor was a dark brown door with two burly men standing guard. Vulren, still crouching to match the height of the man he had knocked out, approached the guards. One of them looked at Vulren and the box in his hands, then went inside the room. A moment later, he returned and simply said, "Go in." Surprised at how easy it was, Vulren calmly entered the room, and the guards closed the door behind him. The interior of the room was surprisingly luxurious compared to the old, ugly structure of the building.
The room was decorated with beautiful carpets, comfortable chairs, and a high-quality wooden desk, behind which sat a large, bald man with a mustache. The first thing Vulren noticed was the scar on the man's face. The man looked up from the paper in his hand and stared at Vulren, who spoke up, "I've brought your package, sir." The man said nothing, so Vulren placed the box on the desk. As the man gestured for him to leave and began opening the box, a massive explosion echoed from the floor below. It was likely caused by the explosives hidden in some of the boxes.
The explosion startled the Boss, who stood up just as one of the two guards burst in, shouting, "There's been an explosion on the lower floor, Boss! The flames are spreading fast—what should we do?" The Boss, furious, yelled back, "Then go put it out, you idiots!" As the Boss stormed out of the room, he heard a voice say, "Blood for blood, tooth for tooth." He turned around angrily, only to find that the scrawny and short errand boy who had delivered the package was gone. In his place stood a large, armored man. The veins on the Boss's head bulged as his face turned crimson. "Did you do this? You have no idea who you're messing with, you fucking brat. Consider yourself dead," he snarled, calling for his guards. When no one answered, he grew even angrier. "You lucky fucker, you've earned the honor of being killed by me personally," he said, grabbing a shiny metal bat from the side of his desk. Vulren, already on guard, began moving cautiously toward the man.
A few seconds later, the Boss lunged forward, swinging the heavy metal bat at Vulren. However, the baton's weight made the swing slow, and Vulren easily dodged it. When it was Vulren's turn to strike, he delivered a powerful low kick just above the man's knee. The Boss crumpled in pain but used the bat to push himself back up. His mobility severely weakened, Vulren thought he could easily defeat him. But then the Boss raised his hand. He can’t use spell int he village, right? Vulren wondered, just as the bookshelf behind him toppled over, crashing down on him. Caught off guard—he had forgotten that utility spells were allowed—Vulren quickly pushed the wooden bookshelf off himself, only to see the glint of the bat coming straight for his head.
Thanks to his reflex training with the monkeys, he managed to react in time, blocking the strike with his armored arm. However, the heavy blow shattered some bones in his arm. Holding his injured arm with his other hand, Vulren created some distance between himself and the Boss. He then grabbed a few books from the floor and hurled them at the man, distracting him. As the books suddenly opened in the air, momentarily blocking the Boss's vision, Vulren landed a brutal elbow strike to the man's jaw. The Boss collapsed, unconscious, and Vulren picked up the metal baton before leaving the room.
The baton was lighter than he had expected, making it easier to wield than it had been for the Boss. Vulren moved through the flaming corridors, chaos reigning around him. He targeted the gang members he encountered, breaking their legs or severely injuring them with the bat. The gang members, preoccupied with putting out the fire, didn't notice Vulren that much, and their numbers decreased rapidly. After nearly two hours of chaos, Vulren leapt out of a window and escaped. He had managed to cripple nearly forty gang members, but he was badly battered in the process. His head, nose, lips, and eyebrows were bleeding, and he was covered in bruises, fractures, and cracks that throbbed with pain.
After running nonstop for several minutes, he managed to put considerable distance between himself and the building, though some gang members were still pursuing him. Staggering, he finally reached a safe spot and used the bandages and potions he had packed in his bag. While the pain had subsided significantly, his body was still covered in wounds. There was no way he could return home in this state, so he decided to spend the night in a field near his house. He felt an incredible mix of excitement and satisfaction—his burnt restaurant no longer felt devastating that much. Revenge, it seemed, was a powerful and soothing thing.
By morning, thanks to the dozens of potions he had used, his visible wounds had mostly healed. He could now return home and come up with a lie about getting into a street fight. When he knocked on the door, Syl opened it immediately, her face filled with immense worry. Seeing his injuries, her concern deepened, and tears began to well up in her eyes. Vulren quickly tried to calm her down, saying, "Relax, I'm fine. I got into a fight with a drunk guy while hanging out with a friend. It's nothing serious." Tears streaming down her face, Syl said, "Don't lie to me. I know how strong you are. A drunk guy couldn't do this to you." Vulren, caught off guard by her persistence, improvised, "Honestly, I didn't want to tell you this, but my friend is actually a martial arts master. I sometimes go to him for training, and we spar. I just didn't want to worry you." Syl still looked skeptical but said nothing and walked away.
After resting in his room for a while, Vulren's thoughts turned to Kavrala. He wondered if she had seen the state of the restaurant and remembered what she had said during their last meeting. Her exams were approaching, and she wanted to surpass Gorduin in grades before he graduated. They had decided to cancel their meetings for a while, and during that time, she had hardly visited the restaurant. He didn't know when her exams ended, but he needed a little more time. Eventually, he stopped thinking and let sleep take over.
When he woke up the next morning, he tried to continue his usual routine, but Syl was clearly giving him the cold shoulder. He had no idea how to fix the situation, so he went to the site of the restaurant and began cleaning up the remains. After a week of work, he finally managed to clear the area and started drawing up plans for the new restaurant. As he walked home, a strange feeling crept over him—a very bad feeling. When he saw the broken windows of his house, his heart stopped beating for a moment. The front door was smashed, and a note was pinned to it: "BLOOD FOR BLOOD, TOOTH FOR TOOTH."
