Published at 24th of December 2025 7:55 am

Chapter 1651: The Same Problem

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Jack stared at the body on the ground, frozen for a long, breathless moment. The creature’s twisted limbs were still twitching, spasming as whatever had just happened inside its body finally shut down. Around him, the other infected began to pull back, their eyes widening. They had all seen what happened when one of their own bit into Jack, how violently the reaction struck.

None of them dared to get close now, at least not close enough to try and feast on him.

But Jack wasn’t looking at them.

Jack couldn’t look at anything except the dead creature at his feet.

Because everything about the way it had moved, the way it attacked, the savage hunger behind the eyes...

It was identical to Lilly.

Exactly the same.

‘This infection... it’s exactly the same. Exactly like Lilly.’ Jack felt his breath catch, only for another infected to leap onto his back, a pair of long, sharpened nails closing around his throat from behind.

Even while distracted, he barely needed any effort. He reached over his shoulder, grabbed the creature by the arm, and hurled it off of him, slamming it so hard into the dirt that dust exploded upward in a cloud.

‘Why? Why here? Why are there people like Lilly all the way out in this region?’ Jack thought, panic tightening around his chest. His mind raced to one place, the last person he wanted to think about.

Unzoku.

The words he had whispered on that night...

How the world would begin to “curse” Bronzeland because Jack had not fulfilled what fate demanded of him.

How everything happening now was supposedly Jack’s fault.

Jack didn’t want to believe it. He never wanted to believe a single thing Unzoku said.

But now... now the pieces were snapping together in the worst possible way.

While Jack stood there in that moment of torment, another infected lunged toward him, only for its head to whip backward as a clean slash tore through it.

Bluebird had moved behind Jack, cutting down the creature before it could reach him.

“What are you doing, Jack!?” Bluebird shouted, voice edged with disbelief. “These things are monsters! If we don’t put them down now, they’ll tear through every village in the region!”

Jack wanted to argue. He wanted to say they weren’t monsters, that they were like Lilly, victims of a disease they couldn’t control. But a second thought hit him just as quickly.

Even if they were like Lilly...

Lilly had survived because he had been there. Because she only needed his blood.

One infected person had nearly torn apart an entire city street. But here? There were dozens. Nearly a hundred. If they needed blood constantly, if they hunted indiscriminately...

No town could survive that.

And worse, no one knew how the infection spread. If one infected person bit another... would the disease multiply endlessly?

Jack clenched his jaw.

He didn’t want to.

He hated it.

But he understood what had to be done.

He raised his arm, claws gleaming in the moonlight, and slashed cleanly across the infected villager’s neck.

‘I’m sorry,’ Jack thought as the creature collapsed. ‘I’m sorry I wasn’t able to help you the way I helped Lilly. I’m sorry I didn’t find a cure sooner. I’m sorry this is the only thing I can do for you now.’

With Jack fighting again, serious, focused, furious, everything shifted.

Between Bluebird’s swordsmanship, Jack’s overwhelming physical dominance, and the trained knights supporting them, the infected villagers began to fall one after another. Even with their unnatural resilience, they could not withstand coordinated strikes from two Heroes of Bronzeland.

Eventually the chaos slowed. The screams faded. And silence stretched across the bloodstained village.

Rike and the other knight captain had managed to subdue two of the infected, barely. Their legs and arms had been slashed repeatedly in a precise pattern that allowed only minimal movement. It wasn’t elegant, but it kept them pinned to the ground, restrained but alive.

“It’s cruel...” Rike admitted, breathing heavily as he forced one infected man’s wrist down. “But if we tie them any other way, they’ll snap the ropes and run wild. This is the only way to hold them.”

“With these two,” Bluebird said, gripping his sword tightly, “we might be able to investigate the disease properly. As long as we have living subjects, maybe we can find a way to stop this from spreading.”

Jack had remained oddly quiet. His fists were trembling, not out of fear, but from the storm raging inside him.

“I think...” Jack finally murmured, voice low, “I know what’s causing this. And I know what needs to be done... if we’re going to stop it.”

Bluebird turned sharply.

“How? Jack, what do you mean you know, ?”

But Jack wasn’t listening anymore.

His eyes had already shifted, not in colour, but in direction, toward where the Red Wing Kingdom lay far in the distance.

“I’m sorry, Gary,” Jack said, using Bluebird’s real name for the first time that night. “I was called out on short notice, and there’s... there’s too much on my mind right now. I’ll meet you back at the kingdom. We can talk then.”

Bluebird opened his mouth to stop him, but Jack had already transformed.

His body snapped into his full werewolf form in a burst of muscle and fur, and in the next heartbeat he was sprinting away, covering entire fields with each leap, racing back toward the Red Wing settlement.

“Do you think something’s wrong?” Rike asked quietly, watching the shrinking silhouette.

“There is always trouble in Bronzeland,” Bluebird said. “But this time... this trouble belongs to Jack.”

Jack ran faster than he ever had in his life.

The night wind tore past his fur. The ground cracked beneath each powerful stride. The image of the infected villagers, their hunger, their strength, their reaction to his blood, kept replaying in his mind.

If Lilly was discovered...

If someone saw her condition...

If another Hero saw her the way Bluebird saw the infected tonight...

They would kill her without hesitation.

And after the things Jack had just done, how could he defend her?

How could he claim she wasn’t a danger when he had slaughtered dozens who mirrored her exact symptoms?

‘I’m coming, Lilly. Please be safe. Please, please don’t let them find you like this.’

When Jack finally reached the Red Wing settlement, he didn’t wait to catch his breath. He didn’t wait to gather his bearings. He didn’t even wait to shift out of his transformed state.

He ran straight into the center of the village, scanning every face, every corner, every shadow.

Then he looked at the nearest patrol guard.

“Where is Lilly?” Jack demanded, chest heaving. “Where is she!?”

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