Author: The Sole Survivor | Original Source: SFACG |
Translator: CatatoPatch | English Source: Re:Library |
“You’ve been with Sinmosa for so long and you still haven’t learned a word of Devil tongue yet?” Neanderke mockingly eyed Sasani. “Sinmosa is clearly a genius so how can you be stupid, I swear…”
“Woof!” Sasani angrily barked before charging at Neanderke without any further warning. His words just now had definitely crossed a line, that was probably why Sasani simply couldn’t swallow this indignity.
“Come at me then!” Neanderke fiercely roared with all three of his head before charging back at his rival, not at all intending to back down from this challenge. “Today is the day I’ll show Sinmosa who is the real dog worthy of being by her side!”
‘A dog worthy of being by her side? Fine, that was mean of me to make fun of dogs…’
Faced with their near instant aggression towards each other, Sinmosa had no intention of stepping in to pull apart these dogs. She merely pulled her daughter to the side and quietly watched them.
One of the Cerberuses who was patrolling with Neanderke turned around and galloped off in the direction of their nest. In all likelihood, he was off to call for help. As for the last remaining Cerberus, he stayed behind to watch this spectacle play out, barking his encouragement from time to time.
Both Sasani’s and Neanderke’s strength were roughly equal. In a fair fight between the two of them, it would be difficult to tell who would triumph in the end. The deciding factor would be how they played their cards.
Yet even in a fight between Cerberuses, their match played out as would one expect a dog fight to play out. A bite here. A scratch there. At the very most, the both of them threw out a couple of fire breaths here and there to spice things up. Because there were three heads on each side involved in this fight, one could say that their aggression was tripled as well. That also meant that their strikes were three times as ferocious.
Neither side had any intention of showing mercy to the other, yet their first clash still ended in a tie. Neanderke braced himself from the resulting impact, and with a fierce swipe of his claws, managed to land a decent strike on Sasani who couldn’t dodge in time. Immediately, three tear marks appeared on his hide.
Being the first to be injured in this fight, Sasani promptly stepped his game. With a flashy spurt of fire, he engulfed Neanderke’s vision in a wall of flame, covering his approach in the process. By the time the flames died down enough for Neanderke to see, Sasani had already charged up to him, and with a vicious snap of his three jaws, bit down hard on the unsuspecting dog!
However, Neanderke was no fool either. The moment his vision was obscured by the flames, he immediately guessed what Sasani was up to and quickly tried to retreat. Unfortunately, he was still a little late and ended up with a gash at the side of his left neck. Had it not been for him retreating just now, he might have even ended up losing one of his heads.
With how vicious each of their attacks were, it was clear neither of them even considered holding back. Even the smallest of attacks was intended to draw blood. How was this supposed to be an argument? This was clearly a fight to the death!
“Shouldn’t we stop them?” I wasn’t particularly worried that Sasani would end up losing, I simply didn’t want those two to continue duking it out like this. No matter who died in the end, my plan would be adversely affected.
“It’s alright, they won’t die.” Surprisingly, Sinmosa was a lot calmer than I had expected. She reached out and gently rubbed little Cinderel on her head, then in an educating tone, said, “If our little Cinderel ever encounters a situation where she has many suitors and can’t decide on one, just let them fight it out like this. Only the winner has the right to be a mate.”
‘Wait, so you’re saying that whoever wins this fight, you will follow them?’ Naturally, I didn’t voice out that thought.
However, she still managed to guess my thoughts from my eyes. “I know what you’re thinking. Even if Neanderke wins, I won’t follow him.”
“In that case… what’s the point of this fight?”
“If we don’t let them fight it out like this, we will have a lot of problems in the future.”
Yet before I could ask what she meant by a lot of problems, their fight came to a close.
It was Sasani’s victory. Neanderke laid there lying on the ground, chest heaving with each breath and face pressed to the ground by Sasani’s right paw.
Both parties were covered in injuries, their blood falling to the ground with an audible drip amidst a noticeably quieter battlefield.
“Well, aren’t you two chummy, getting into a fight like that right away.” A sturdy as a bull Cereberus came trotting into view. Behind him were a group of Four-stars and Five-stars. He gazed at the fallen Neanderke, then turned towards me, eyes straight like he was evaluating me. “Your scent… you’re that Lust Demon?”
“Uncle…”
I didn’t reply, instead, it was Sinmosa who first broke the silence with this large Cerberus, though her eyes were downcast. Despite being victorious, Sasani didn’t dare gloat at all. He merely lifted off his paw and quietly stood to the side.
“You disgrace of a dog, get out of the way!” Sidarth barked at Neanderke, then left him to devices. He turned around to Sinmosa, and in a voice completely different than he just had, said, “Sinmosa, you’re back.”
‘This presence… so it’s that old dog, Sidarth.’ Perhaps because we were now in the presence of his clan, Sidarth wasn’t as flippant as he last was when we met. Instead, he had the bearing you would expect of an elder.
“Elder Sidarth, we meet again.” I pulled Mo Na to me then greeted him while Jeerah stood behind me quietly.
“Woof woof~” I still had no way of understanding their language, but based on Cinderel’s expression, my guess was that she just said hello to Sidarth.
“My precious little grandniece, don’t you know how much your granduncle has missed you?” The moment he laid eyes on Cinderel, his old dog eyes practically teared up with joy. From the looks of it, he was extremely fond of the little puppy.
While on the topic of her daughter, Sinmosa had a brief chat with Sidarth before finally turning to the purpose of our visit. “Uncle, we’ve returned this time in order to…”
“I think it’s better if I explained it.” I interrupted her then took a couple of steps forward. Sidarth had already seen the golems we brought with us but hadn’t brought it up at all. I had no clue as to what he was thinking now, but I had no desire to guess either. Thus, I stated exactly what our goals were. “I hope to gain the Hellhound’s support. I wish to declare war against the Warhorses!”
“Declare war against the Warhorses?” Sidarth threw me a bemused but searching look. “Do you know what you’re saying right now? Even though I don’t know what has happened to cause you to change from a Lust Demon to a Fallen Angel, you’re still just a Four-stars. And you wish to declare war on the Warhorses? Are you sure about that?”
“Positive.”
Sidarth chuckled. “Based on what?”
I pointed behind at my seven hundred or so golems, then with confidence brimming, declared, “Them!”
Shameless Self-promotion
If you liked my work translating Devil’s Evolution Catalog, feel free to check out Song of Adolescence. Also, every comment is appreciated even though I might not reply. I do read them.