Chapter 153: Werewolf
Anse stood up, walked to the window, pulled it open with one hand, and then stepped back two steps.
That yellow-green bird flew in with spread wings, transforming out of thin air into a girl wearing simple verdant leather armor, with a slender build, light brown skin, delicate and soft features, and green eyes full of vigilance, giving off a very easy-to-bully feeling.
The room suddenly had one more person, and Quentin and Kalenno were startled, immediately surrounding her.
“Carissa?” Quentin recognized the visitor, his eyes full of surprise, “Why are you here?”
“You know her?” Anse asked doubtfully.
“Carissa is a druid of the Verdant Courtyard, living in the deep Toothed Forest, not far from Dulag.” Quentin explained, his words somewhat hesitant.
This group of druids did not have a very good relationship with Dulag, and former president Stol had even clashed with them.
The core problem lay in humans recklessly cutting down trees and wantonly destroying the forest, causing dissatisfaction in the Verdant Courtyard, who intimidated and drove away humans, leading to increasingly deep conflicts.
“I’ve heard of it, are you looking for me?” Anse gestured for her to sit.
Carissa carefully sized up Anse for a moment, her gaze shifting to that shield, her eyes narrowing slightly, before she casually spoke: “President Hollewen, what have you heard the Verdant Courtyard is like?”
Her voice was as crisp as a bird’s, but her tone was prematurely aged.
“The Way of Balance protecting civilization?” Anse probed.
He didn’t remember these details, only knowing that the Verdant Courtyard was an unconventional druid organization, quite loosely structured.
Carissa raised an eyebrow, a smile appearing on her face: “President Hollewen is indeed different from others. The Verdant Courtyard has never been an enemy of humans; we have always been committed to protecting civilization from destruction…”
She spoke at length, from the organization’s ideals to what they had been doing recently.
Anse didn’t know her intentions and simply listened quietly.
The Verdant Courtyard’s main ideal was the Way of Balance, protecting civilization from destruction while maintaining the balance of natural order.
The organization’s symbol was the deer head badge, they favored wearing verdant clothes, and the members were diverse: druids, rangers, barbarians…
The Verdant Courtyard had a branch organization in the Toothed Forest; their greatest enemies were actually werewolves, undead, and shadow creatures, and they had fought these evil creatures for many years, indirectly protecting ordinary people outside the forest.
They actually didn’t oppose reasonable logging, only intervening in irresponsible destructive behavior.
But none of this was understood by humans, who only saw that the Verdant Courtyard had once stopped them from cutting down the forest, so relations between the two sides had never been friendly.
Quentin’s expression was subtle; this wasn’t the first time he had heard this, but the Federation didn’t like the Verdant Courtyard—from a human perspective, the Verdant Courtyard was indeed meddling too much.
Humans relied on mountains for a living from mountains and on water from water; wood was an indispensable fuel for human life, and having to hear a bunch of reasoning just to chop a few trees was incomprehensible to him, let alone to ordinary people.
After a long while, Carissa finally finished speaking, standing with her hands behind her back as she looked at Anse.
“I very much agree with your ideals.” Anse spread his hands, “But I can’t stop the people from chopping trees; many children rely on this to survive.”
Orphans existed everywhere, and Dulag was no exception, but there was no orphanage here; those children could only rely on themselves to survive, and picking up firewood or chopping small trees was perfectly normal.
“Agreement is a good start.” Carissa smiled, her eyes curving into crescent moons, seemingly unconcerned about the tree-chopping matter.
Anse focused his mind on her, and the dice spun slightly, popping up her information:
【Carissa, wood elf, level 10 druid（Earth Society）】
‘Strength is decent, but probably not enough to fight werewolves.’
He inferred that the Verdant Courtyard definitely had advanced or peak professionals; with weak strength, it would be hard to survive in the Toothed Forest.
“What are you here for this time?” he asked directly.
“I’m here to warn you: be careful of werewolves!” Carissa’s expression was solemn, “The werewolf tribe in the Toothed Forest has been active frequently, and we’ve seen humans contacting them; the target might be Dulag.”
“How many people are in the werewolf tribe?” Anse pressed.
Werewolves were actually humans who turned into beastmen due to bloodline or curse factors, able to transform into fierce wolf forms or half-wolf half-human hybrid shapes, classified as monstrosities, with a base challenge rating of 3, excelling in pack tactics, and very difficult to deal with.
“The werewolf tribe isn’t just one or two; the largest one has about a thousand people.” Carissa replied.
“Do you know who’s contacting the werewolves?”
“Not clear.”
“Thank you for the warning; we’ll prepare defenses.” Anse sincerely thanked her.
Regardless of whether the intelligence was true or false, her intentions were good.
“You’re welcome; I hope we meet again.” Carissa smiled brightly, turned around, transformed into a small sparrow, flew out the window, and soon disappeared.
“She must have come specifically for you.” Quentin chuckled.
“Mm.” Anse wasn’t surprised; he had just taken office and stirred up a bunch of things, so it was normal for a neighbor to come probing, “Have werewolves come out before?”
“They come out frequently, raiding adventurers or farms; they’re very smart and have never entered the city.” Quentin recalled the werewolves, his brows furrowing involuntarily, “Being bitten by a werewolf can also turn you into one; it’s very troublesome.”
“We can’t ignore the werewolf issue; activate the patrol watchtowers outside the city and strengthen the guards.” Anse said thoughtfully.
There were multiple watchtowers west of the city near the forest, one every mile, but they were rarely used.
“Understood; I’ll go arrange it right away.” Seeing Anse’s serious expression, Quentin didn’t dare delay and left immediately.
Anse stroked his chin, lost in thought.
‘Could it be Amn people? Aren’t they busy fighting the Green Dragon Kingdom’s invasion? Or maybe those Claw City-States nobles, or mind flayers…’
The most terrifying thing about werewolves was that they were originally humans, hard to detect when not transformed.
Moreover, ordinary people bitten by werewolves in transformed state would suffer the werewolf curse and turn into werewolves even if they survived.
So those werewolves intercepting adventurers or villagers might not have come from the forest; they could have been hiding in the human world originally, and due to the influence of full moon night or other factors, couldn’t suppress their transformation urge and came out to commit crimes.
If werewolves were really bought off by someone, it could be extremely tricky.
At this moment, he felt that Faerun was truly chaotic; a small Dulag actually had so many entangled conflicts.
He sat back down at his desk, quickly finished writing the army-building plan, and set it aside; that was enough.
He had some experience with fighting, but his military ability wasn’t even as good as the forum keyboard warriors from his previous life; no need to micromanage—just give a general direction.
It was nearing noon by now, so he simply called Kalenno to go to the Federation dining room together, mooch a lunch, and get familiar with the Federation staff.
——
Toothed Forest, Moonmark Basin.
Next to a patch of ancient and dilapidated building ruins sat a small village, with uniform wooden buildings, most having a small courtyard, hung with lots of air-dried beast meat and sun-dried hides, in a style no different from humans.
It was noon, and cooking smoke rose from the village, but those eating included humans, wolves, and half-human half-wolf werewolves.
This was clearly a werewolf tribe.
In the central large wooden building that looked more like a warehouse than a house, a dozen shadow figures sat facing each other, devouring the food in their hands, much of it bloody and uncooked.
The man sitting at the head didn’t eat, arms crossed, expressionlessly watching these wildman-like companions on both sides, a hint of disgust in his eyes.
“Chieftain,” one werewolf said indistinctly while eating, “Are we really going to listen to those bird people and raid Dulag?”
The person next to him slammed down the bone in his hand and retorted: “Bird people this, bird people that—you’re not human yourself!”
“Of course I’m not human.” The werewolf refused to back down, baring his sharp fangs with a mocking expression, “I’m a noble werewolf. If you want to be human so badly, why stay here? Get lost to the human world.”
“You…” That man roared in anger, his canine teeth protruding, fur sprouting—this was a sign of transformation.
