Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

The old hunter nodded gratefully.

Winters laughed and said to the young hunter, "Kid, come back for archery next Sunday, I'll have the prize you want ready for you next time!"

Young hunter Bell scoffed disdainfully; the lad's archery was astonishing, easily winning the prize—a half-dozen feather pens—from a group of adults. However, this youngster clearly was not fond of these trinkets.

Seeing this adolescent in his rebellious phase, Winters found it amusing. He nodded in acknowledgment and lightly spurred his horse's flank to bid farewell to the hunter father and son.

...

On the way back to Wolfton City, Winters, Gerard, and Sergei chatted idly.

"Why do they call it a wolf plague?" Winters still wondered, "Is that a Paratu dialect? What's the origin?"

"It's not Paratu; it's our dialect here. Dusa Village and the villages to the east and west of the river all call it that," Gerard replied with a smile.

Old Sergei brimmed with gusto when that subject came up, "This place used to be plagued by wolves! In the early years, they really tormented the bumpkins living here. Later, when we Dusacks were settled here, boy, did we slaughter them. We killed lots of wolves, big and small—I still have a pair of wolf-hide knee pads! In the end, we drove the wolves into the mountains and finally had peace. Hey! The local mothers still threaten their crying kids with, 'Keep crying, and a wolf will snatch you away!'"

"Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Sergei, forgive my presumption. If I'm not mistaken, you're both Dusans, aren't you?" Winters couldn't resist asking the question that had puzzled him for a long time, "How did you come to settle in the Senas Alliance?"

Ever since he heard the unusual name Gerard Pleninovich Mitchell, Winters had been suspecting that Gerard was a Dusan.

"Of course we're Dusacks! Isn't it obvious at a glance that we're different from bumpkins?" Old Sergei laughed heartily, reminiscing, "You're asking how we ended up over here? Well, that's a long story. More than thirty years ago, we were still serving the old Emperor, and then after that, well we were..."

"Vladiminovich! That's enough! Stop talking!" Gerard clearly did not want to dwell on the past and interrupted Old Sergei's recollections.

Sergei was surprisingly obedient. As soon as Gerard said stop, he stopped talking.

Seeing that Gerard didn't want to go into details, Winters changed the subject, "Mr. Mitchell, I'm curious... why do you call Mr. Sergei... Vladiminovich?"

The question apparently was safe to answer, and Gerard explained with a smile, "Sergei's father's name is Vladimir, and Vladiminovich means son of Vladimir. He calls me Pleninovich because my father's name is Plenis, that's how we Dusans do it."

Winters laughed and said, "Should I perhaps be called Gravinovich then?"

To his surprise, this remark made Gerard and Sergei's expressions turn somewhat embarrassed.

Gerard was reminded of something else and hastily asked Winters, "Did you just arrange for Ralph and his son to stay with family friends for a few days?"

"Yes, I think they might be the most in danger right now."

"I'm afraid they have nowhere to go," Gerard said with some concern.

"Why?"

"Because the boy is of Herder descent," Old Sergei blurted out bluntly, "Ralph got himself a Herder woman, and then she died. That left just the kid. They wouldn't even have been part of Wolfton if it weren't for Pleninovich taking pity on them."

"That's enough, stop it!" Gerard reprimanded his old friend.

Sergei immediately fell silent.

Gerard scratched the back of his head and continued, "Actually, it's easy to solve. I'll just invite the two of them to stay at my home for a while."

"Afraid they might not appreciate it," Sergei commented coldly.

Gerard thought for a moment then said, "Even if Ralph doesn't want to come, he will for the safety of his son."

Old Sergei snorted but said nothing more.

Gerard then looked at Winters, "Lieutenant Montaigne, how do you feel about this arrangement?"
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"Of course, that would be great," Winters, a bit flattered, replied quickly, "It's just a bit of trouble for you."

"Hey, no bother at all; so many empty rooms in my house make me anxious..." Gerard was saying when he suddenly slapped his forehead, "Lieutenant, about mobilizing the militia... I can run to the villages east and west of the river and to Dusa Village. But those two Protestant villages—we have to go together..."

————cut————

The content about werewolves recorded in "The Hammer of Witches" published by the Holy Inquisition of the Empire in the year 526:

"...Half man, half wolf... Fears silver, garlic, and Holy Water... Immensely strong, fierce, and bloodthirsty, extremely dangerous... Once bitten, even the purest of heart, one who does not forget to pray at night, will inevitably transform into a wolf on a night when the aconite blooms and the moon is full..."

An excerpt from the master's thesis in anthropology titled "Explorations into the Deep Consciousness Behind Mythical Creatures – A Case Study of Werewolves" recorded in the Grand Database in the year 1020 of the New Calendar (Empire Calendar):

"...After the fifth century, as the process of internal colonization deepened, humans began to demand land from forests and wilderness, resulting in a large number of wildlife attacks. It was during this period that the legend of the werewolf spread far and wide... The name of Wolfton City in Jire Wodan Province originates from a pack of wolves that settled in this area in the early sixth century, and rural areas of Wolfton City still carry tales of werewolves to this day..."