Naming
A small bark.
After interrogating the bull and securing the information, he cut off the bastard's head and sent him to the afterlife.
Including the inner core obtained from the earlier hunt, the total came to three. Since there were three of them in the party, it would be best to divide them evenly—one each.
"Let's make this our lunch."
"Yes. That would be good."
As usual, they replaced their meal with inner cores.
Each of them held a bull's inner core in hand and took a large bite. Like biting into a juicy fruit, thick blood dripped down in streams.
As he licked the droplets of blood from his hand… he suddenly felt a faint surge of power rising within him.
'Did I acquire a trait?'
The bull's brute strength.
It wasn't anything remarkable. Simple physical abilities had a relatively high chance of being inherited, and the bull's strength wasn't an especially outstanding trait to begin with.
'Still… better than nothing.'
It was far preferable to inheriting some strange ability like Beastification. Thinking that, Woojin continued eating.
'This isn't bad at all.'
The bull's inner core was surprisingly edible. It tasted like a mixture of blood sausage, raw beef, and assorted organs. Perhaps because, even though it was a demonic beast, it had originally been a bull.
He bit into the core repeatedly as if eating an apple, and before long, one inner core disappeared.
'That was a quick and decent meal.'
Having finished first, Woojin let out a contented yawn. He would have to wait a bit—his companions ate far more slowly than he did.
Perhaps feeling self-conscious, the priestess and the squirrel hurriedly chewed their inner cores. Woojin spoke up.
"Eat slowly. You'll get indigestion."
"Y-Yes, sir."
Their eating pace noticeably slowed. Watching them, Woojin let out a small chuckle.
The two of them shared quite a few similarities. Though both possessed exceptional abilities, they were timid and frequently watched his reactions.
Maybe that was why… he found himself growing fond of them.
"…You've both suffered quite a bit under me. If you wish to leave now, I won't stop you."
Woojin spoke suddenly. The priestess, who had been eating, lifted her head in surprise.
"W-Why so suddenly?"
"From here on, I think I can find my way even without your help."
He had already learned the enemy's location and gathered the information he needed. That had been possible thanks to the priestess's diligent assistance.
He had received plenty of help up until now. It was time to acknowledge her contribution and grant her freedom.
'It's about time I let her go. The farther north we go, the more dangerous it'll become for anyone nearby.'
Woojin intended to strike at the defensive line of the dark-side clerics. Forcing the priestess to accompany him into something like that didn't feel right.
The moment she helped him attack their defenses, she would become a target of merit for the dark-side clerics. The career and position she had built over a lifetime would turn to dust.
The priestess answered cautiously.
"But… I've already betrayed the Order."
She had eaten the inner core of an outer god and provided information to the enemy. It wouldn't be wrong to call her an apostate who had already left the Order's embrace.
Woojin thought for a moment before replying.
"Would it really matter? There aren't any witnesses. No one knows you helped me."
The one called 'that person' with the clairvoyant ability bothered him somewhat, but it didn't seem likely that such a skill would be omnipotent enough to detect her apostasy.
And besides… it was laughable for the dark-side clerics to talk about betrayal in the first place.
"From what I've seen, your Order spends every spare moment plotting to stab each other in the back. Giving a bit of guidance isn't exactly a serious crime, is it?"
"…I suppose."
Considering she had nearly been killed by her own subordinate's blade, she couldn't easily deny what he said.
The priestess fell into thought. Now that freedom had been offered to her, she found herself unsure what to do with it.
"…What do you think I should do?"
The sudden question caught Woojin off guard.
"Why are you asking me? It's your life."
"You could at least offer some advice."
Advice.
He folded his arms and sank into thought. Honestly, he didn't feel like someone who had lived an exemplary enough life to lecture others.
So instead, he quoted something he had once been told—words from the hunter Hector.
"Just do what you feel like."
"What's the very first thing you want to do?"
At his question, the priestess tilted her head slightly and pondered… then finally spoke.
"…I want a name."
After saying that, she stared at him expectantly. Her gaze held a clear and unmistakable wish. Confronted with it, Woojin felt a faint sense of pressure.
What name should he give her?
In truth, he had already thought of one. Quite a bit of time had passed, after all.
"Arwen. What do you think?"
It was a name he had come up with after some deliberation. Whether she would like it, however, was another matter.
"Arwen…"
She rolled the word around in her mouth once before asking,
"What meaning does it carry?"
An awkward question.
"…It doesn't have any special meaning. It's just uncommon, and I thought it sounded nice."
"I see."
As if making excuses, Woojin added,
"Cut me some slack. It's my first time naming a woman. That's a pretty high difficulty level."
It wasn't like giving a fetus a temporary name—he was naming an adult woman, and right in front of her, no less.
And since Woojin wasn't particularly skilled at naming things to begin with, this had turned out to be even more burdensome than he'd expected.
Fortunately, the priestess seemed satisfied.
Murmuring "Arwen" to herself as if savoring it, she let out a small laugh. Then she bowed deeply toward him.
"I wish to serve you."
Woojin blinked.
"…All of a sudden? Why?"
"You told me to live as I please."
Rather than live as a bishop, she wanted to live as Arwen. Saying so, she bowed respectfully to him once more.
Though taken aback at first, Woojin soon understood her feelings.
Their earlier conversation explained it.
Nameless people who couldn't even joke and were constantly scheming to betray one another—most of the dark-side clerics he had encountered were like that.
'No wonder she doesn't want to go back.'
It seemed she had decided to make a fresh start.
From Woojin's perspective, that was a welcome development.
"Raise your head."
She did so without hesitation. Woojin slowly reached out toward her face.
He removed the butterfly mask.
For the first time, he could see her face. She looked younger and paler than he had expected. Her eyes were a rare shade of violet.
"Your eyebrows are white."
Wasn't that called albinism?
He wasn't entirely sure—just a rough guess. It wasn't particularly important anyway. Shrugging it off, he waved the butterfly mask in his hand.
"This isn't of any use to you anymore, is it?"
After snapping the mask clean in two, he crushed it roughly and hurled it far into the bushes.
They were ready for a fresh start.
"Let's get moving again."
Saying so, he reached out to help Arwen to her feet—
"Squeak."
A small cry suddenly rang out. He turned toward the sound.
The silver sky-squirrel was staring at them intently, its eyes filled with expectation. Faced with that look, Woojin felt a wave of awkwardness.
'…I still haven't given that one a name.'
One hurdle after another.
"Squeee!"
The squirrel puffed out its cheeks to the limit. It was clearly sulking over not having received a new name.
'I kept putting it off, and now it's come to this…'
Woojin scratched the back of his head. He had met the squirrel before the priestess, yet somehow the naming order had been pushed back.
He needed to give it one now. But what kind of word would suit this little creature…?
"…Coco. How about that?"
Arwen suddenly spoke up. It seemed she had been thinking about the squirrel's name as well.
Woojin tilted his head.
"Isn't that a bit too cute? It's the leader-class magical beast of the deep region."
It sounded more like the name of a pet than a monster. When he pointed that out, Arwen gently held the squirrel out toward him.
The squirrel, cheeks still puffed in indignation, deliberately turned its head away from Woojin.
"See? It's actually cute."
"…That's true."
Hard to argue with that.
Nodding slowly, Woojin tried saying the name aloud.
"Coco."
The squirrel's ears perked up sharply.
Though it had pretended to be upset, it must have been listening carefully to their conversation all along. From the look of it, it liked the new name.
'That's a relief.'
With that, the naming dilemma was resolved. All that remained was to head north.
Woojin and his companions continued forward without rest. After walking and walking, about half a day later, their destination came into view.
'There it is.'
The defensive line constructed by the farm faction. Woojin surveyed the enemy position from atop a rocky hill.
The first thing that caught his eye was the wooden palisade. It stretched so far that its end was impossible to see. Though hastily built and vast in scale—its walls not particularly tall—it was by no means a simple structure.
Poisonous thornbushes had been entwined along it in several places, and beneath the palisade lay deep moat-like trenches.
The bull monsters worked in silence. Using massive shovels, they dug the trenches deeper, and with the displaced soil they filled sandbags to reinforce the palisade.
It was hard to believe this defensive line had been constructed in merely four days. Such a feat was possible only because of the bulls' extraordinary labor capacity.
'With that kind of strength… their fortification speed is unbelievable.'
Each time a bull monster drove its shovel into the earth, it tore up soil as though an excavator had scooped it out—faster, even.
The defensive line was still evolving at this very moment. Watching it, Arwen voiced her concern.
"Their numbers… they're far greater than we expected."
Several bulls were laboring in groups, and atop the watchtowers, large chickens stood guard.
Chicken warriors, gripping spears awkwardly in their bent wings. Weaker than the bulls and not particularly intelligent, but chickens laid an egg every day—so their numbers were considerable.
"How are we supposed to deal with that?"
Arwen sounded worried. Woojin scratched his chin thoughtfully and fixed his gaze on the palisade.
'It's covered in sap.'
The wood had likely been cut and transported in haste. Sticky resin clung visibly to many sections. A few brick structures stood nearby as well, though they were incomplete.
As he watched quietly…
An idea formed. Woojin's lips slowly curled upward.
"Do you like playing with fire?"
"I've never tried."
"Is that so?"
Having lived her entire life as a dark-side cleric, Arwen had never indulged in unnecessary mischief.
'Then this can be her first time.'
After all, everything is difficult the first time.
READ MORE CHAPTERS HERE : https://beastnovels.com/