If the werewolf clan had an alpha, the alpha would have declared neutrality like other beast-kin clans. However, strangely enough, the wolf clan was currently without an alpha. It was just recently that Duke Ulpaz, before stepping down from the alpha position, had sent out his last official document ‘requesting cooperation in prohibiting marriage between Reina Tilbut and beast-kin’.

Therefore, it was unclear which side the werewolves spanning both countries would take.

Of course, it was certain that Duke Ulpaz would not side with Tigrium. He wouldn’t align with Staxston, who used Chloe as an excuse for war.

However, given Duke Ulpaz’s feelings towards Calcus, it was also certain that he wouldn’t be cooperative enough to fight on the Elaion Empire’s side without any tangible benefits from the Santal mines.

So the Ulpaz family should be excluded from underground operations.

“End it with an official document for the beast-kin in Tigrium. Send unofficial cooperation documents to the Schneider and Falcon families. Send the same content to the Whale, Dwight, Darcus, Brockburk, and Everetian families as well.”

He had chosen all the families owning knight orders that had even the slightest possibility of cooperation. But it was a very small possibility. Would any of them actually send their knight orders…

Just because a man had nothing to protect didn’t mean an emperor had nothing to protect, so Calcus Trascan had to prepare for an all-out war. The battle between the old tiger and the young lion was beginning.

After safely passing through the mating season, Hugrey’s gruffness melted away like spring snow.

Chloe seriously pondered whether Hugrey was simple-minded, or if werewolves were simple, or if males as a species were simple, but in any case, fortunately, her mother accepted Hugrey who had returned to his usual temperament.

However, Chloe’s expectations, which had risen high thinking she could finally marry Hugrey, once again crumbled due to an unexpected situation.

“War, you say?”

“It seems war will break out between Tigrium and Elaion.”

“…”

“I hear Staxston has put forward the Tigrium princess’s whereabouts as the justification for war.”

“If that’s the justification, what’s the real purpose?”

Surely they wouldn’t start a war between nations just to kill her. She was probably just a convenient excuse.

“The ownership of the Santal mines. It seems the greedy old man has become blind with desire for the treatment liquid. He’s never satisfied, no matter how much he takes. Same with his greed for a beast-kin heir.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Greed for a beast-kin heir? As far as Chloe knew, his much older cousin brother and murderer, Tuscan Staxston, had no beast-kin children.

“I hear he demanded cooperation in the war on the condition of giving the Santal mines to Reina Tilbut as a wedding gift. Giving the mines, what a ridiculous proposal. She’d become the Queen of Tigrium after marriage anyway.”

“Ughhhh.”

An uncontrolled raw emotion escaped from Chloe’s mouth.

Chloe only found out later. That Hugrey had given up his alpha position, and before that, he had ordered to prohibit Reina Tilbut’s marriage and cut off the Tilbut family’s beast-kin bloodline. But it seemed King Staxston had completely ignored the wolf leader’s request for cooperation.

Is it because he’s a king that he can ignore even an official request from another race? Even so, the age difference between the two…

She didn’t even want to think about it. If you consider it, aren’t they like father and daughter? Moreover, Reina Tilbut is the vicious one who even tried to do such a thing to Hugrey…

Chloe shook her head vigorously as if to shake off the disgusting thoughts. How angry she had been when she heard about Reina Tilbut’s horrible plan.

“So is that woman going to marry Staxston? Since she’s also a werewolf, if she marries the king, she’ll imprint on him…”

Goodness, imprinting on someone old enough to be her father.

“They say she accepted. Even though she was expelled from the werewolf clan, it seems she wants to continue her family’s beast-kin bloodline even if it means doing that. No other beast-kin would mate with her except Staxston.”

“That woman gives me the creeps.”

“I’m scared of her too.”

Hugrey said it like a joke, but Chloe thought that Hugrey had good reason to be truly afraid of that woman, remembering what she had tried to do to him. Disgust for Reina Tilbut churned in her lower abdomen.

Chloe had already forgiven that woman twice. It wasn’t because forgiveness was easy. It was a decision made while struggling to suppress feelings of hatred and resentment, believing that killing should be minimized.

But it seemed her forgiveness had left nothing on that woman. She was still living as if being forgiven was her natural right. No, perhaps she wasn’t even aware that she had done something that needed forgiveness?

So she keeps living the way she always has. With no reflection, she’ll continue to do so in the future.

Her own life may be most precious to that woman, but to Chloe, her and Hugrey’s lives are more precious. So if that woman harms her and Hugrey again, Chloe had no intention of forgiving her anymore in order to protect what’s more precious.

“Calcus Trascan didn’t request support from me.”

“Ah…”

At Hugrey’s words, Chloe let out a regretful sigh as she emerged from her thoughts about Reina Tilbut.

It was natural that Calcus couldn’t ask Hugrey to join the war. Unlike Reina Tilbut, he wasn’t a person who forgot his own wrongdoings.

“Even if I don’t get involved in the war, I guess a wedding during wartime would be difficult, right?”

Hugrey spoke lightly, seemingly concerned about Chloe’s darkened face.

Ah, that’s right. They were talking about marriage when the topic of war came up.

“I suppose so. And besides the wedding…”

Even if it was just a hollow pretext, the justification Staxston put forward was the issue of her whereabouts. A truly nonsensical pretext of getting Santal in exchange for conceding her to Elaion.

What whereabouts! It’s like saying he won’t take her to Tigrium to kill her, so hand over the land Calcus covets.

This time, Staxston used her life as an excuse to Calcus because Calcus has what Staxston wants.

What will Staxston want next? Will it be me again?

Did Staxston really give up on killing me? That man who’s trying to marry Reina Tilbut and have a beast-kin heir? Whether he has a beast-kin heir or not, I’ll be a target he wants to kill. As long as she and Staxston breathe in this world together, forever. Because just as Reina Tilbut hasn’t changed, Tuscan Staxston won’t change either. Now that those two have joined forces, they’ll try to kill her anytime. So forgiveness is not the answer. To protect herself from those for whom forgiveness is meaningless.

She clearly faced her own heart.

“I want to fight the King of Tigrium.”

Thoughts of marriage were no longer in her head. Forgiveness cannot protect her. She had to fight. Protecting herself was also protecting Hugrey, who had imprinted on her.

As her resolve actually became words, it became an even clearer will, now firmly settled in her heart like bedrock.

“What?”

However, Hugrey’s face as he asked back was completely crumpled. Had he recently frowned so openly at Chloe like this?

“He’s the man who killed my father and brother and tried to kill me and my mother. This time he’s only using me as a pretext, but he hasn’t given up his ambition to kill me, so he’ll try to kill me again anytime. Me, who is the only family left for my mother, your mate, and the most precious to myself.”

“…You’re right.”

He finally opened his mouth after being silent for a while.

“Chloe, but I’ll do the fighting. I don’t want to help Calcus, but that old tiger needs to die.”

“No, I’m not asking you to kill him. I want to fight directly. It’s me he wants to kill, not you. This is a fight between Tuscan Staxston and Chloe Liden.”

“Chloe, but you…”

She knew what Hugrey was going to say. He would probably mention that she still couldn’t control her tiger transformation at will.

She hadn’t succeeded in transforming into a tiger even once since rescuing Hugrey, so much so that it seemed unreal that she had actually saved him. It seemed she could only change her form by instinctive reaction rather than by will for now. So Hugrey’s negative reaction was natural.

“Hugrey, you’re no longer an alpha. Wolves can’t beat tigers. And you can’t fight alongside your own kind. So you should stay out of the war. Calcus didn’t even request an alliance from you, right?”

“Chloe, it’s not about that. This war isn’t a beast-to-beast fight one-on-one. This is a human-versus-human war. A war where no beast-kin changes form and fights to the end as humans wielding weapons. So what kind of beast-kin you are doesn’t matter much.”

“…”

Chloe was momentarily shocked by the realization she had belatedly come to. What Hugrey had been trying to say earlier wasn’t pointing out that she couldn’t transform into a tiger. It was that she didn’t know how to wield a sword.