The shout left everyone in the room stunned—even Ravell stopped crying. The atmosphere went dead quiet.
Scowling, Chanis thought for a moment, then asked Ravell again, "What's the full name of that commoner?"
"Glen Nibanklu," Ravell answered in a low voice.
"Glen Nibanklu… Glen Nibanklu…" Chanis closed his eyes, as if trying to recall something.
After half a minute, he opened them again, his expression a little better but still hesitant. "I need… I need to write a letter. Yeah, a letter."
Under the baffled stares of everyone present, Lord Chanis left the mess behind and headed to his study.
Lady Sophia was the first to snap out of it. She glanced at her son, then said to Barbul beside her, "Barbul, look into this Bayek Town."
"Yes, my lady."
Barbul saluted and left.
Ravell was still confused. He didn't understand why his father had reacted like that, so he asked his mother, "Mom, aren't you going to get revenge for me?"
"Wait a little. We'll make you happy, my poor child." Sophia stroked Ravell's swollen cheek to comfort him.
Time passed, and outside was now completely dark.
Just as Ravell was about to nod off, his father, Lord Chanis, appeared, holding a letter. He handed it to a male servant.
"Deliver this to the East District of the capital. Give it to the courier there."
"Now?"
"Yes, now! Go!" Chanis raised his voice.
Without hesitation, the servant dashed out into the night.
Lady Sophia stepped forward, hesitated, then asked, "Why all this?"
Chanis exchanged a brief look with her, then glanced at Ravell before saying in a low voice, "Let's talk inside."
With that, he walked into a nearby room. Sophia naturally followed.
"Bayek Town is mostly inhabited by lunatics and monsters. They're extremely dangerous."
As soon as the door closed, Chanis began.
"Lunatics? Monsters?" Sophia was horrified.
"Yes." Chanis took a deep breath.
"Normally, I shouldn't know this—it's only for high‑rank nobles—but I happen to know someone familiar with such matters. We were chatting once, and he mentioned a special place in the Zern Kingdom called Bayek, where nearly all the residents are terrifying monsters. Supposedly, even a dragon causing trouble there would end up a dead dragon. I don't know if that's an exaggeration, but it shows how dangerous the inhabitants are."
Lady Sophia covered her mouth. There was such a dangerous place near their estate, and she'd never known.
"Then what about that commoner Glen…"
"No need to worry for now." Chanis's tone was steady. "My friend did say there are specific monsters and people in Bayek to watch out for, and this Glen wasn't among them. Some of the weaker residents have sold their houses and moved in ordinary folk. This Glen might just be one of those fools."
Hearing that, Sophia relaxed a lot. "So now…"
"I've already written to my friend. We'll decide after his reply."
…
Thanks to Glen's enthusiastic service and the tasty black pork, his second trip to town with more black boars went well too.
But there were still few families in town who could afford meat, so it wasn't as crazy busy as the first time—which Glen had expected.
Even so, he managed to sell all the meat in the end.
Not far away, Im, who also sold meat, could only stare with dry eyes, fuming inside but too scared to pick a fight.
With Glen as competition, Im's business was worse than ever—almost no customers, even after he matched Glen's prices.
Two black boars had earned Glen a tidy sum; he was practically a small‑time rich man now.
So for the next few days, he stopped selling pork and used the money to spruce up his home—repainted the walls, replaced the furniture, and so on.
He also built a simple pigpen in the forest outside Bayek, since it was unclaimed land.
Everything went smoothly, nothing went wrong—which actually puzzled Glen.
Why hasn't that noble brat come to cause trouble? What's taking him so long? It's been almost a week… Swinging his kitchen knife, Glen chopped the pig fodder he'd gathered in the forest, letting his thoughts wander.
He skillfully poured the processed feed into the trough, and a few black boars crowded up, grunting happily.
It was morning, and Glen planned to haul another black boar to Doud to sell. Once he saved enough, he'd see about studying magic at a mage tower.
He'd heard being a mage apprentice cost a fortune—only rich merchants or nobles could afford it. Selling pigs wasn't going to cut it.
I wonder if my werewolf physique affects learning magic? Glen slaughtered a sturdy black boar and loaded it onto the sled.
"Watch the pigpen, don't wander off," he told the beast, who'd been seeing him off.
The beast howled in acknowledgement.
…
In the distance along the road, two figures were walking slowly, talking to each other.
Them again? Glen halted his sled, his eyes showing surprise.
Approaching were two puppets. One wore a blue vest, round‑headed, not far off from a stick figure.
The other was a highly realistic female puppet, with delicate, three‑dimensional features, holding a parasol, dressed in a clean, pretty light‑pink dress. From afar, it was hard to tell she was a puppet at all.
This wasn't Glen's first encounter with them—he'd often seen them while traveling between home and the pigpen, with no idea what they were wandering around for.
Though he'd met them before, they'd never exchanged greetings—part of the unspoken rule among Bayek's residents.
Of course, if people were familiar enough, they'd greet each other, like Glen did with Black Crow and the old man.
The puppets stopped talking when they saw Glen, and as they passed, each glanced at the other from the corner of their eyes.
Once they were farther away, Enna asked curiously, "Parlindes, where's he taking that thing?"
"Obviously, he's a butcher. He's going to sell meat," Parlindes replied flatly.
"Where to?"
"How should I know?" Parlindes answered casually.
Enna looked back at the figure about to vanish. "Let's follow and see."
"No way!" Parlindes said sternly. "We can't appear before more people. It'll put us in danger!"
Enna opened her mouth, but seeing her brother's serious look—probably genuinely serious—she chose to obey.