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The Beastmen settlement, much like that of the Elves, was not truly in harmony with nature. If the Elves’ buildings represented harmony, the Beastmen’s buildings resembled shacks. The wooden planks were haphazardly assembled to form what could barely be called a house. Perhaps the difference lay in technical capabilities, but it was also that these structures were made hastily.

Despite this, like the Elves, the Beastmen were pooling their strength.

Even though we looked like Beastmen, it took considerable effort to infiltrate the settlement.

◇◇◇

The Beastmen’s settlement lay deep within the forest, a place where formidable monsters roamed. A brief survey of the area revealed mostly C Grade monsters, with occasional sightings of B Grades. Deeper in, A Grade monsters could even be found.

Within this forest lived the Wolf of God. Simply put, it was a very large, fluffy wolf. In light novels, it would generally be referred to as a Fenrir or something akin to that. A Fenrir’s abilities often varied depending on the story, and there were even cases where they were portrayed as women. However, in this world, the Wolf of God was just a monster. It was intelligent and capable of communicating if one made the effort.

I was even able to hear the Wolf of God’s voice thanks to the Beast Ears skill.

Despite not even using the skill. It sounded like his death throes.

In the end, the Wolf of God wasn’t a god. It wasn’t even close to being as strong as a god. It was probably something I could defeat with just a flick of my finger. It was stronger than the Wind Dragon, sure. The Wolf of God’s status was probably tenfold that of the Wind Dragon, but that still didn’t make much of a difference to me.

Anyhow, as I was watching the Wolf of God, I suddenly noticed it sniffing around, and it dawned on me that Beastmen must have a sharp sense of smell. Not all of them, of course, but certain species had extraordinary noses.

It was clear there were several kinds of Beastmen. It seemed unlikely that only the feline-like ones I had seen so far existed.

“How many different kinds of Beastmen are there?” I asked.
“It varies from generation to generation. I don’t know how many there are now. In the past, it was said there were dozens.”

Confirming information was always important. Lullus’ knowledge, though sometimes outdated, was still more extensive and useful than mine, which I found quite helpful.

“So there might be less now, or there might be more.”
“That is correct.”
“Are the ears and tail enough to define a Beastman’s features?”
“Yes. There are also individual differences, like good ears, good eyes, or good noses.”

In some ways, this information was both beneficial and bad.

“So as long as someone has ears and a tail, they can be accepted as a species that’s never been seen before?”
“As long as we don’t know all the types of Beastmen that exist now, I think that’s a fair assumption.”
“And we also need to be careful about their sense of smell, right?”
“Yes, that’s right. The Stealth skill seems to be useful, so as long as we stay hidden, it should be fine.”
“I’ll pass on that. Well, let’s just come up with a suitable excuse.”

We could have just gone and hunted down the leader while using Stealth, but that would have nulled the Contract I’d made.

Even if the outcome didn’t change, I wanted to value the process. In the grand scheme of things, the result was that this world would eventually collapse. Without valuing the process, that would be the only result left—a hollow conclusion, nothing more.

With that justification in mind, I started considering a way to handle the situation in case my scent gave away that I was not a Beastman.

◇◇◇

And so, we arrived at the Beastmen settlement. It seemed safety was thrown out the window here, as there were no walls to protect the settlement. However, that was offset by an increased number of guards. This setup likely worked because each of the Beastmen could fight reasonably well.

Or rather, it was probably more accurate to say that the Beastmen here could fight reasonably well, rather than each of the Beastmen. Since there were so many guards, we decided to let them find us and then guide us into the village. This was where some acting came into play.

When I spotted a lookout, I ran toward them as if fleeing from something. The startled guards initially prepared to attack us, shouting, “What’s going on?” However, they quickly lowered their weapons upon seeing us more clearly.

The guards had dog-like ears, and both Lullus and I were disguised as lop-eared rabbits. We chose rabbits simply because we liked them. I enjoyed the lethargic look of the drooping lop ears. I’d also had Lullus transform into a lop-eared rabbit to make our relationship easier to explain.

“What happened?” one of the guards asked.
“Well,” I began, “we used to live among the Elves, but recently things have seemed dangerous, so we ran away¹.”
“I see. So that’s why there’s no scent. But how did you end up mixed up with those Elves in the first place?”
“We tried to eliminate our odors daily, just in case. Odor removers are easy to make.
As for the Elves, our clan was ordered to live among them.”

The guard seemed to interpret the scent issue on his own, so I was happy to go along with it and let him draw his conclusion. I thought we’d probably smell faintly of Elves, but we were odorless. It made sense—Lullus was a spirit, and I, being a Demigod, had no discernible scent to speak of.

As for the odor remover, it was surprisingly easy to make. All one needed was to gather some grass from the surrounding area, and the materials were ready. If necessary, I could even use Creation to produce it right now.

This time, our backstory was that I was a descendant of a family once secretly ordered by the king of the Beastmen to gather intelligence while living among the Elves. The rationale for my clan taking this mission included simple excuses, such as the fact that our tails were small and our droopy ears were easy to hide within our hair. Even after the death of the king, the family supposedly continued their secretive work, motivated by love and loyalty to their kin.

What a convenient whitewash of a story. It helped that there had been no significant conflict between Elves and Beastmen until relatively recently, so the idea of blending in without much danger seemed plausible enough.

This explanation was as far as I intended to go. The core of the backstory this time was that I had come to warn the Beastmen that even if they defeated the Elves, it would be meaningless if they didn’t know the whereabouts of the spirit.

“Right. I’ll go talk to the leader. Wait in this station until I’m done.”
“Okay. We must meet the king and tell him about it as soon as possible.”

And so, Lullus and I entered the Beastmen’s settlement.

1. Robinxen: So will this work or will they be accused of spycraft – actually given how beastfolk seem to be rather collectivist they probably won’t be accused.

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