Chapter 167: Illiteracy Stress Disorder

Chapter 167: Chapter 167: Illiteracy Stress Disorder

The hand she’d always used to rip out the throats of her prey was now clumsily clutching a long, slender quill.

The paper before her was covered in crooked, misshapen letters of the common tongue.

SNIFFLE...

Ella gave a sharp sniff, her nose bright red, forcefully sucking a glistening stream of snot back up before it could drip into her mouth.

The gray Beast Ears on her head, which usually stood erect, were now drooping listlessly on either side like two wilted leaves.

Her beautiful amber eyes had long since filled with aggrieved tears, which now swirled, threatening to spill.

’This is so unfair to a wolf!’

And behind her.

Rein was leaning back comfortably in a slightly worn recliner.

With a sharp little knife in hand, he was meticulously carving and smoothing his favorite cane.

"Don’t stop. Take that Common Tongue phonetic chart I just taught you and copy it twenty more times, properly."

The veteran didn’t even look up, his tone flat and emotionless.

"Miss even one copy, and you can forget about having a single sip of the thick meat soup tonight."

At the words "meat soup."

Ella’s empty stomach let out a long, traitorous rumble of protest.

"Argh! I’m not writing anymore! I really can’t do it!"

Like a child having a meltdown, Ella suddenly slammed the quill in her hand onto the desk.

"AAAAAAH!"

She balled her hands into fists and began pounding on the table in a chaotic, unrhythmic tantrum, expressing her intense dissatisfaction with this cruel tyranny.

Faced with such unreasonable resistance.

Rein couldn’t be bothered to waste words. He simply raised his free left hand and casually snapped his fingers.

The Alchemy Trap, Silver Thorn Binding, activated instantly.

A Secret Silver Thread, shimmering with a dark light, shot down from the crossbeam like a striking viper.

The tip of the thread deftly snatched a wad of cloth from the corner.

In the blink of an eye.

The Secret Silver Thread expertly wrapped around Ella’s flailing hands before roughly shoving the wad of cloth into her mouth and binding it tightly by circling her head twice.

A powerful force from above yanked her upward, leaving the bristling wolf cub dangling upside down in midair.

The noisy attic instantly returned to a comforting silence.

This sort of chaotic scene had played out countless times over the past two days.

At first.

When Ella heard Rein was willing to risk taking her in, she’d naively thought she had finally found a long-term meal ticket.

She had joyfully fantasized about spending her days eating meat and sleeping in this warm, safe room, comfortably riding out the storm outside.

But when Rein was shocked to learn during a later conversation that she couldn’t recognize a single letter of the common tongue...

...all her beautiful fantasies were shattered.

The veteran had pulled a dictionary as thick as a brick from the bottom of a chest and slammed it down in front of her.

Faced with the dense, tadpole-like script, Ella had immediately thrown a fit.

She had wailed that being forced to read and study would be the death of her.

And so, as a matter of course, she ended up hanging upside down from the attic rafters.

In truth, for a thick-skinned Werewolf, simply being hung up wasn’t unbearable torture.

The terrifying part was that Rein, that devil, had moved the stove directly underneath her.

While reading a newspaper, the veteran would methodically stir the simmering stew in the pot with a wooden spoon. Every so often, he would deliberately scoop up a spoonful of the savory broth and slurp it down right in front of her.

This form of torture instantly brought all of Ella’s cravings to the surface.

As a canine member of the Sub-human Species, her salivary glands were already quite active in the presence of good food.

Stimulated by the meaty aroma, glistening drool began to spill uncontrollably from her mouth.

But with her hands bound tight, she had no way to wipe away the drool streaming down her cheeks, forced to remain in that comical, humiliating state.

Anyone who has experienced such a predicament would understand what a cruel form of mental torment this was.

Under the twin assault of delicious food and her own pride, she could only surrender spinelessly.

But surrender was one thing; after a few hours, the moment she encountered those obscure, difficult characters again, she would almost uncontrollably have another outburst.

For a mind naturally averse to thinking, studying something so tedious was simply agonizing.

"SOB SOB SOB SOB..."

Gagged by the cloth, Ella writhed in midair like a fish out of water.

She stared at Rein with a pitiful expression, attempting another round of begging.

Rein sighed, a hint of resignation in his voice, and gave a casual wave of his hand.

The Secret Silver Thread binding her immediately receded like a tide.

THUD! Ella landed on the wooden floorboards and ripped the gag from her mouth.

"WAAAAAAAAAH..."

This time, she truly couldn’t hold back and burst into tears.

She missed her faraway aunt who had always spoiled her. In her short life, her aunt had never abused her like this.

Just as she was about to throw an even bigger tantrum.

Relying on the powerful Perception of a Werewolf, far beyond that of a normal person, she acutely heard the faint rustle of Rein raising his hand to snap his fingers again.

Ella shuddered, instantly swallowing all her grievances.

She sat on the floor, looking at the veteran in the recliner with tear-filled eyes.

"Rein, why do I have to learn your human squiggles?"

"We can communicate perfectly fine just by talking."

She retorted stubbornly. As royalty, she could understand and speak the continent’s common tongue for daily conversation.

Rein paused his work and glanced up at Ella.

Then, looking like he had a headache, he lowered his head and resumed work on the cane.

This wolf cub was cast from the exact same mold as her aunt.

Back in his days at the Command Bureau.

It was precisely because her aunt, Celeste, was also completely illiterate that she’d caused him, her partner, no end of deadly trouble.

Rein would never forget it for as long as he lived.

He had never seen anyone who, because they couldn’t read an official wanted poster on the street...

...would dare to swagger right through the gates of a Black Iron Command Bureau garrison to ask a guard for directions. They had almost been wiped out completely that time.

So when he’d learned two days ago that the little wolf in front of him was also hopelessly illiterate, he was immediately triggered.

He couldn’t beat her terrifyingly strong aunt back then, so bullying this fledgling wolf cub now was a small way to heal some of that old psychological trauma.

"Written language is extremely important, especially in the human kingdoms where your Sub-human Species wants to survive."

Rein’s tone became extremely serious.

"If you can’t read the rules and warnings written on paper, you could very well get yourself killed through your own foolishness."