Inside the rental carriage, Wagner, the furniture merchant built like a brown bear, puffed on his cigar, then chuckled, "I was worried about this operation earlier, afraid you might mess things up instead." He spoke with genuine admiration, "Mr. Collins, your mind and your grasp of human nature are truly impressive."
"That's because their desires were just too obvious." Raphael said, smiling modestly.
Wagner shook his head, clearly not buying Raphael's humble reassurances. He then asked, "When will the next step take place?"
"The day after tomorrow, or the day after that," Raphael said, "I have something very important to do tomorrow." He paused before adding, "But tonight, we can pay a visit to the grain merchant Holmes first, just in case he gets wind of things and flees Backlund."
Tomorrow night would be the full moon, his first since advancing to Werewolf. To be safe, Raphael decided to go to the forests outside Backlund to transform...
The group returned to headquarters, where Mafia members had already bought dinner. Before the operation, Raphael had sent men to keep an eye on Holmes.
Now, as he ate, he listened to his subordinates' reports:
At around 5:00 PM, one of Councilor Wood's men had visited Holmes' home. The grain merchant immediately began packing his belongings, didn't even have time for dinner, and fled with his whole family by carriage.
Mafia members had already followed in their own carriage.
Raphael twirled a forkful of Feynapotter fried noodles on his plate and said, "We'll wait until he's out of the city before making a move."
With that, he put the noodles in his mouth...
...
The group quickly finished dinner, then immediately boarded carriages and gave chase toward the city outskirts.
Holmes had left in a hurry, and his carriage was loaded down with luggage and his family, so they weren't moving very fast.
By a little after 9:00 PM, Raphael and his men had already caught up from another route.
Carter, whose face was covered with a handkerchief, drove their carriage across the road, blocking the Holmes family's convoy.
Amidst a chorus of startled screams, Raphael calmly stepped down from his carriage, his face not covered.
"I want to speak with Mr. Holmes alone." He said, then unhurriedly walked to the second carriage and opened the door.
Wagner, still dressed as a Mafia thug, followed closely behind.
Inside sat Holmes, his leg broken, along with his wife and two children. The whole family was trembling in fear, some of them crying.
Raphael said, "Ladies and children, please step out."
Holmes's wife just cried and shook her head.
Raphael's expression turned cold, "Get out!"
They scrambled out of the carriage in a panic. Raphael sat down inside, while Wagner stood guard at the door with an indifferent expression.
Inside the carriage, Holmes wiped his sweat and said, "Mr. Collins, I think this is all a misunderstanding."
Raphael simply shook his head, then took off his coat, saying, "Mr. Holmes, perhaps you don't know me very well. I've always been very good to my friends. Whatever a friend asks, I try my best to help." As he spoke, he also removed his vest, "But when it comes to enemies, I never show mercy."
Holmes hurriedly said, "W–We're friends, not enemies!"
Just then, Raphael's eyes turned brown, a thick layer of short black fur sprouted on his body, and his mouth and nails elongated. In an instant, he transformed into a Werewolf.
Holmes's eyes filled with shock, his expression shifting from bewilderment to terror, "Good heavens! what is this–"
Raphael bared his fangs in a grin, "Still want to be my friend?"
Before Holmes could say anything, Raphael reached out and tore a large chunk of flesh from the man's throat, even ripping through his windpipe...
*Squelch!*
Blood sprayed out, filling the carriage with the stench of gore.
Standing outside the carriage door, Wagner was momentarily stunned. He had guessed that Raphael was a Beyonder, but he hadn't expected him to already be a Sequence 7 Werewolf.
At that level, he could even compete for the position of Oracle.
What he didn't understand was why Raphael had bothered to transform just to kill an ordinary person...
Now back in his human form, Raphael had already put his vest and coat back on and stepped down from the carriage. Wiping the blood from his face, he said, "Let's go."
The reason he had done this was to test whether it would help digest his potion.
According to the advice he had received from the Temperance Faction on digesting the Werewolf potion, the easiest way to digest the potion was if one could cause others to experience an emotion somewhere between fear and bewilderment.
That had been a revelation for Raphael. He had previously suspected that the core of the Werewolf acting method wasn't bloodthirst and slaughter, but being an outcast. At the time, however, he hadn't been able to think of a concrete way to act it out.
The information from the Temperance Faction had pointed him in the right direction.
People's feelings toward an outcast were complex. First, there was disgust and alienation. But if the outcast was too powerful, besides terror, there was also the kind of confusion and bewilderment one felt in the face of the unknown.
That explained why the battle with the Zombie, Ackerman, had resulted in a small amount of potion digestion. Many people had seen Raphael in his transformed state and felt terror, but they hadn't experienced that sense of confronting the unknown, so the digestion had only been minor...
Raphael walked toward his own carriage without looking back. Soon, screams erupted behind him as someone discovered Holmes' gruesome death and shrieked in horror.
Inside the carriage, he sensed that his potion had indeed digested a little more.
He sat quietly, processing the experience, and finally concluded that besides making his target feel terror and astonishment, he could also design the crime scene to make more people experience those emotions when confronting an outcast.
This was a clearer, more detailed plan than his earlier line of thinking...
...
Early the next morning, Raphael, on his way out of Backlund by rental carriage, read in the newspaper:
<..Grain merchant Holmes was killed outside the city last night by a wild animal. Authorities remind residents to travel in groups when leaving the city after dark..>
Reading this, he smiled faintly. Since Isaacs had already helped, once the full moon transformation was over, he would have to fulfill his end of the bargain.
On his way out of the city, Raphael reviewed the intelligence on the Stinger Gang and began sketching out a rough plan.
After reaching the suburbs, he rented another carriage from a nearby village, then switched carriages twice more before finally leaving Backlund behind.
Finally, disguised as a hunter, he hurried toward the forests west of Backlund.
Once inside the forest, he noticed wheel tracks on the path.
He frowned, wondering who had gone into the forest in a group.
Once he was deep enough, Raphael stopped hiding his speed. He ran swiftly, reaching a valley deep in the forest before nightfall.
When night came, a round crimson moon hung in the sky.
Raphael felt as if something were calling to him. He couldn't stop himself from letting out low, bestial growls as the transformation began involuntarily...