I Inherited a Beautiful Wife and a Territory - Chapter 30

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Inheriting a Beautiful Wife and Estate Episode 030

30. Shadow Puppies

Cliff examined the wolves.

Their ears were pointed forward and perked up.

Their tails were also raised high.

Just as much as they were on guard, the Shadow Wolves were also showing wariness at this moment.

Grrrrr.

And their eyes were basically focused on him.

While also glancing at those beside him, especially Teobaldt and Leticia.

‘Did they instinctively understand that I’m the leader of this group, and figure out who’s strong? Then… one of them has been staring somewhere else this whole time, is that because of Kyuung?’

They were also sensing Kyuung’s presence from afar.

It couldn’t be helped. Now that he had mana too, he could gradually feel it.

Even from a distance, Kyuung was asserting his presence.

Kyuung’s warning that he wouldn’t stand for any trouble here. It was truly reassuring. That was the moment he let his guard down.

Awoooo!

“Master! Sylph, please protect us!”

He snapped to attention at Leticia’s startled voice.

And in that instant, Cliff was greatly surprised.

The massive wolves that had been in front of him had disappeared. To be precise, except for one that was wary of Kyuung and the largest one that had been staring only at him, the forms of eight wolves were nowhere to be seen.

They had moved while he was distracted.

“Leticia, protect the master!”

He heard Teobaldt’s shout.

His voice wasn’t coming from right behind him either. While he had failed to react to the wolves, Teobaldt had not.

“Hyaaaah!”

He could see Teobaldt’s greatsword moving with a battle cry.

It was urgent.

“Teobaldt, try not to kill them if possible!”

Fighting without killing was harder than killing.

It could be dangerous without overwhelming superiority in strength. But he could sense that this was possible for Teobaldt.

“I receive your command! Hyah!”

Clang!

Whine!

Teobaldt struck the charging Shadow Wolf with the flat of his blade rather than the edge, sending it flying.

The Shadow Wolves flew away making pitiful sounds that didn’t match their massive frames. It felt like Teobaldt definitely had the upper hand over them.

“How dare you think you can harm someone like him!”

Teobaldt.

He didn’t know he could be this talkative.

Still, it was reassuring.

He was holding off three wolves by himself.

And he looked relaxed doing it.

‘If I hadn’t told him not to kill them, all the wolves here would have died to Teobaldt.’

And Leticia.

“Undain, Silafe!”

The two spirits she called each held down one Shadow Wolf.

Here too, the atmosphere was relaxed.

It wasn’t like they were overwhelmingly crushing the Shadow Wolves, but it felt like they were toying with them.

‘And…’

With five wolves caught this way, three remained.

They were being handled by the four beastfolk.

Perhaps because they were beastfolk, their reaction speed was basically fast. What Cliff had missed, they not only noticed but were responding to properly.

‘Everyone’s amazing.’

Only Cliff was out of place.

Though he wasn’t a combat character, it was embarrassing.

As if trying to forget that, Cliff made eye contact with the one that had been standing there blankly. As if saying his opponent was that one.

It was even larger than the other wolves.

‘That one seems to have been conscious of me this whole time too…’

Leticia was beside him, and though Leticia was wary and glaring at it, it didn’t even make eye contact with her.

It only looked at him.

It seemed like its target was only him. Regarding this, Cliff thought the wolves had identified the leader among them.

He recalled wolf behavior he had glimpsed before.

‘I think if you just defeat the leader, the whole pack would leave… So in some comic, they found the leader wolf and shot fireworks at that wolf…’

He wondered if the Shadow Wolves were thinking the same thing.

The leader of this place was Cliff himself.

So were they thinking that if they just eliminated him, the party would fall apart on its own?

If that were really the case, those wolves would be strange too.

‘Because I’m not the strongest one here.’

By his guess, either Teobaldt or Leticia.

Probably one of those two would be the second strongest in this domain.

Of course, the first was Kyuung.

Even now, one of their pack was only watching the direction where Kyuung would be, wasn’t it?

‘If Kyuung got involved here… they’d probably run away immediately?’

They probably had no intention of fighting Kyuung.

As evidence, they flinched every time Kyuung made a sound.

They were afraid of Kyuung.

Yet they had come here. And among them, the largest one was only looking at him.

Cliff also met that wolf’s gaze.

‘What a strange feeling.’

That was the moment.

He heard Leticia speak tensely.

“You need to make a choice soon. Right now we can hold these guys, but they’re like spirits. Unlike simple wolves, it means they don’t get tired.”

“What?”

“Right now it looks like we’re overwhelming the wolves, but it’ll change as time passes. Phew. My spirits also consume my mana to keep manifesting in the material world. The rate my mana decreases is slower than usual, but I wonder how long they can hold out…”

He understood why her mana depletion rate was slow.

Anyway, Leticia’s warning.

It meant that if this fight became a war of attrition, it would be disadvantageous for them.

‘This doesn’t mean we’ll lose if time passes. It just means… we won’t be able to keep them subdued alive as time goes on.’

So she was asking him to make a decision quickly.

If he just gave the order to kill here, everyone would reduce the Shadow Wolf population without much difficulty. And he would fail the Quest.

‘Phew.’

Cliff made eye contact again with the wolf looking at him.

That Shadow Wolf also seemed to understand this situation, as if asking him what he was going to do.

Cliff was dissatisfied with the current situation first of all.

Everyone was sensing and reacting to the unfolding situation. But on the other hand, it felt like only Cliff couldn’t keep up with it.

Uncomfortable.

Cliff, who had caught his breath, found a solution.

“…Domain Declaration.”

He used the skill he possessed.

The skill he had only used once experimentally when he first obtained it.

The moment that skill unfolded, the Shadow Wolves’ reactions stopped abruptly.

Even the wolves fighting his subordinates turned their heads to look at him.

“Huh?”

“Why are these things?”

Teobaldt and the beastfolk made bewildered sounds.

They felt no change at all.

But Cliff, the moment his domain was declared, felt and saw much more.

The fighting had stopped.

And all the Shadow Wolves’ attention was focused on him.

Growl.

The massive one that had been still raised its body.

It slightly moved its front paw and twitched its nose.

The emotions of the Shadow Wolves within his domain were transmitted to him. So if he were to express this in human words…

‘Are they uncertain?’

He couldn’t think of any other expression at the moment.

That’s the emotion he felt from the Shadow Wolves. In that moment, Cliff recalled what Leticia had said.

Come to think of it, Leticia had definitely said something like that.

-Usually, contracts are made through summoning circles. When you send mana and will there, that spirit is summoned, and through mutual conversation, a contract is…

Mana and will.

Indeed, how does one communicate with spirits?

Cliff’s mind began racing.

‘Could it be… that these guys are feeling my mana and making judgments?’

The domain alone had no effect on people.

It only made his own senses sharper within the domain.

So people showed bewilderment at this phenomenon.

“Silafe, Undain!”

Leticia called the two spirits to her side.

“Be careful, Master. Suddenly these creatures have started taking interest in you.”

Teobaldt also came to his side.

He spoke with both tension and determination.

“I’m sorry, but… I’ll cut down any that attack now.”

It wasn’t just words.

Because he was declaring his domain, he could feel it more clearly.

‘This is killing intent!’

Teobaldt was beginning to emanate killing intent.

The beastfolk also gathered around him, wary of the Shadow Wolves’ sudden actions. Naturally, it became a formation where the wolves surrounded them.

The wolves also looked at the other people with wariness.

But even so, they gazed at him with curiosity.

‘Right. This is curiosity.’

Within his domain, Cliff grasped the wolves’ emotions.

They showed wariness toward the other people nearby – Teobaldt, Leticia, and the beastfolk.

But not toward him.

They held no malice toward him whatsoever.

Cliff chuckled.

“What, don’t tell me you guys were puppies all along?”

“Master?”

Puppies.

The kind that are loyal to their master but wary of others and don’t easily warm up to strangers.

Sometimes there are puppies like that.

He didn’t know why that thought suddenly occurred to him. Setting that aside, Cliff actually lowered his guard.

The Shadow Wolves were still looking at him as if wanting something.

‘Do they still lack sufficient grounds to make a judgment?’

He seemed to remember hearing that dogs with excellent sense of smell actually have poor eyesight.

So they distinguish others not by sight, but by scent and sound.

These ones were probably sensing the mana he was spreading around him.

Not just these. All spirits would probably be like that. They said mana flows through summoning circles.

‘Only spirits that like that mana get summoned through that magic circle.’

And then they decide whether to make a contract or not.

Though he hadn’t called them from the spirit realm through a magic circle, they had probably come after sensing the mana from the skill he used.

A summoned situation.

And them seeming to explore a bit more. But it was quite disappointing. The performance Cliff could show had limits.

Still, there was one thing.

‘This might backfire, but honestly, there’s no other method.’

Cliff steadied his breathing.

“Everyone prepare thoroughly. They might become fiercer instead. But don’t attack first.”

“Huh? Ah, understood.”

“Got it.”

Teobaldt’s and Leticia’s responses.

Cliff smiled while looking at the largest Shadow Wolf.

“If you’re a puppy, act like a puppy and show me your belly.”

Skill Domain Declaration.

Sub-skill Intimidation.

Growl?

Whine…

Whimper.

He used the skill toward the surrounding Shadow Wolves.

The Shadow Wolves hesitated at the overwhelming aura spreading from Cliff. Some of the weaker-willed ones immediately lowered their tails and upper bodies in a prostrating manner, and some even actually rolled over to show their bellies.

What was amusing was the change in the Quest that occurred each time Shadow Wolves rolled over like that.

-Contract with Shadow Wolf (1/10 creatures)

-Contract with Shadow Wolf (2/10 creatures)

…

-Contract with Shadow Wolf (9/10 creatures)

Before he knew it, all except the largest one had prostrated themselves.

They had really become puppies.

“Wh-what is this…?”

The beastfolk, Leticia, and everyone else looked at Cliff with surprised faces.

Only Teobaldt was relatively fine.

He showed a bewildered expression, then soon burst into laughter.

“Hahaha! Truly worthy of being this Teobaldt’s master! To think I’d live to see these damn persistent wolves showing their bellies.”

Having lived in the Western Mountains, Teobaldt often encountered Shadow Wolves.

So he knew.

How prideful these creatures were.

But having witnessed Cliff cause various strange incidents, he just laughed it off.

But Leticia was different.

‘This is impossible!’

It was something that couldn’t exist in her common sense.

Meanwhile, Cliff took steps one by one toward the largest wolf.

Groan.

A pained sound came from that Shadow Wolf.

“That’s right, good boy? There, there.”

Cliff’s appearance shocked Leticia even more.

Cliff harbored his will.

So that all the intimidation’s effects would focus on the large wolf.

Eventually, even that wolf lowered its tail.

As if accepting Cliff as its leader, it willingly exposed its belly to the approaching Cliff.

“Oh, this one’s softer than I thought?”

Cliff exclaimed in admiration as he touched its belly.

“Shadow Wolves… good heavens…”

Leticia’s hollow muttering spread from one spot, her common sense having been denied.

Before long, the remaining nine wolves gathered around Cliff, rubbing against his body and acting affectionate.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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