"Claudia, get back here."
Leonard grabbed Claudia and pulled her behind him, meeting her bewildered gaze as he did.
"But... if a fight starts like this, that's not good, is it? It's dangerous. Claudia doesn't want Leonard and Big Sister to get hurt," Claudia said softly.
"What is there to negotiate?" Leonard grinned. "They're only a few wolves. Dealing with them is easy."
The little girl clearly still did not understand what Leonard and Midgard were capable of. She thought they were as fragile as ordinary wizards.
But neither Midgard nor Leonard was easy to deal with.
Midgard was the leader of the werewolves. Her position had been won with her fists from the very beginning.
And Leonard...
Unless a few legendary wizards showed up to assassinate him directly, no matter how many enemies came, they would only end up as fertilizer for his plants.
"Exactly, Claudia. You're underestimating Leonard and me," Midgard said in agreement.
Her voice had turned hoarse, carrying a frightening edge.
"There are things in this world that can threaten Leonard and me, but these beasts certainly aren't among them."
As she spoke, Midgard had already fully transformed into a werewolf. She stood upright, snow-white fur rippling in the wind, green eyes gleaming with both reason and the natural dominance of a wolf.
"Awoooo!"
Midgard threw back her head and let out a long howl. The domineering cry swept across the Forbidden Forest.
The dozen or so giant wolves opposite her trembled slightly under that howl. Aside from the lead wolf, the others all took a few steps back, their tails drooping as they instinctively showed submission.
A low growl rumbled out.
The lead wolf stared fixedly at Midgard, and on that canine face covered in black fur appeared a strangely human look of disgust.
But after it lifted its head and glanced at the sky, that expression quickly turned into a comically blank confusion.
Wait a second. It was not even night yet, and today was not the full moon either. So why had the werewolf on the other side transformed already?
Leonard caught that whole change of expression clearly.
That made it obvious that the creature was not some mindless wild beast, but an intelligent being, something between a magical creature and a wizard.
So why had these things suddenly come here?
Leonard stared at the giant wolves with their black fur and suddenly remembered the bloodstains and clumps of fur he had once found on the outer thorn wall last semester.
So these were the ones that had left them behind.
Which meant they had had designs on his botanical garden for quite some time.
That settled it. He could not let them get away.
"Midgard, leave this to me," Leonard said as he stepped up behind her.
"Awroo... leave it to you?" Midgard froze for a second and nearly failed to switch back to speech. "But I wanted to take them alive and subdue them the way a wolf pack would."
She had planned to personally step in and defeat the alpha wolf by force. That should have been enough to directly bring the whole pack under control.
"That probably won't work. Their bloodline may come from werewolves, but the ones they hate most are also werewolves. There's no way to subdue them with a wolf's methods. Let me handle it. I'll leave some of them alive."
He still wanted to ask these creatures exactly why they had been eyeing his botanical garden.
Had this pack of wolves suddenly turned vegetarian or what?
As he spoke, Leonard switched to a different seed.
If he used Thornpiercer, not a single wolf here would survive. So this time he planned to use a plant that offered steadier control and did not cause direct damage.
"Claudia, Midgard, cover your ears."
As he spoke, Leonard tossed out a neatly cut square chunk of root.
It landed squarely in front of the giant wolf. The wolf instinctively stepped back a little, thinking it might be something dangerous.
But once it hit the ground, the little thing did absolutely nothing.
The lead wolf thought it had been tricked. Anger showed on its face, and it looked just about ready to lunge at Leonard.
Then suddenly, a pale green sprout pushed out from the chunk of root. It began growing at a speed visible to the naked eye, and in just a few seconds it had turned into a complete plant.
Its straight stalk bore not a single leaf except for a small tuft of green at the top and dozens of tiny fruits.
The giant wolf froze.
It stared at the suddenly grown plant and cautiously edged closer, nose twitching as it tried to figure out what it was.
Then a familiar scent, something carved into its instincts, entered its nose.
A look of terror instantly appeared on the giant wolf's face.
Damn it. A Mandrake.
Thank goodness. As long as it stayed rooted in the ground and no one touched it, it would not be a problem.
The giant wolf glared furiously at Leonard.
This human had actually used such a dangerous plant to scare it. That was going too far.
The enraged giant wolf bared its gleaming fangs, looking ready to rip Leonard to pieces.
Then suddenly, a faint rustling sound caught its attention.
It lowered its head and saw the soil around the Mandrake shifting. Two pale roots, like tiny hands, stretched out of the earth, swept aside the surrounding dirt, then pressed against the solid ground and yanked the whole thing free like a carrot being pulled from the soil.
A pale humanoid plant with three hollows like eyes and a mouth jumped out of the ground.
This was... a Mandrake root.
The giant wolf panicked instantly.
That was a deadly plant capable of taking every life around it. That shameless human was actually trying to drag his whole pack down with him.
At this point, the giant wolf had no time to think about why this Mandrake root looked so strange.
It instinctively let out a loud howl to warn the others to run, while opening its jaws wide and trying to swallow the Mandrake root whole.
Eating a Mandrake root raw might be poisonous, but there was no time to care about that now.
Despicable human. He deserved to die.
Its fangs snapped toward the Mandrake root, but the oddly shaped Mandrake reacted with astonishing speed. Its abyss-like eyes fixed on the giant wolf, and the hole that served as its mouth split open wider and wider, almost tearing the root itself apart.
The Mandrake opened its mouth.
The next moment, a horrifying wail burst out, turning into a visible cone of sound that surged forward.
The giant wolf took the brunt of it.
Its eyes rolled back, and before it could react, the close-range scream overwhelmed its mind and knocked it flat to the ground.
Just before losing consciousness, the giant wolf had one final thought.
Had they not said the owner of this place had not shown up for a long time, and that it looked abandoned?
Then how were they this unlucky, running into him the moment they arrived?