The Laws of Werewolf Hunting

Chapter 550 The Book of the Earth
The formation of natural wonders requires a carrier, and the power that the carrier receives is not without reason.

Stone horses can run, pots can eat; the changes they undergo are all related to their uses and concepts. The power of the strange objects formed from books is naturally related to their content.

"The Land of Sasha" records the changes in land ownership in Sasha City and the genealogy of the local nobility. Even knowing this information, it is not easy to guess the ability it has acquired. However, the person suspected to be its owner has stolen a large number of hearts. Considering that the deceased Sir Penson did not have the heart of his ancestor, the ability of this book more or less reveals its characteristics.

It requires the heart of a nobleman to maintain or enhance its own abilities.

The heart and head are the most significant parts of the human body, regarded not only as the source of strength and wisdom, but also as the repository of the soul.

When people swear oaths, they either point to the heavens or to their own heart. The gesture of placing one's hand on the chest in court etiquette also originates from this meaning. Pointing to the heart represents absolute honesty, and the heart is also an important medium in the formation of various magical contracts.

Nobles forged a bond with the land during their lifetime, and their hearts were extracted and preserved after death. These were the most primitive land deeds. The more ancestral hearts a noble family preserved, the more it demonstrated their noble nature. Collecting these hearts seemed similar to collecting land deeds, but since they were dead and had lost their power, they could no longer be used to perform any magic.

But if the book that Sir Penson was in charge of keeping turned into a strange object, then the situation would be uncertain.

A curse is something that defies common sense.

Just as the binding ritual attracts the curses left by ancestors, new blood attracts old power, there's no reason why the reverse shouldn't be true. By using the hearts of these past lords, the holder of the book might have the opportunity to fool the will of nature, reclaim the scattered land rights, and become the de facto new lord—or even the sole lord of the entire city of Sasha.

Aside from lacking alchemy skills, the ancient nobles were practically complete bronze-ring wizards within their domains, possessing some abilities even surpassing them. They were immune to illusions, had premonitions of events unfolding within their territories, and could not hide their hostility from their eyes. Those born within their domains were more likely to obey their commands. The commands of a true lord could divert streams, open all doors and locks within their domain with ease, and simultaneously extend their lifespan to a full one hundred and twenty years.

The aforementioned abilities were not actually worth Clayton coming over to inform the church.

What's truly troublesome are the consequences of the deaths of nobles.

Unless the lord dies of old age, the death of a true lord will harm the land, such as causing prolonged drought or flooding, which takes many years to recover from.

Some mystical scholars have proposed a hypothesis that the First Empire's westward expedition failed not because it happened to encounter a natural disaster, but because the First Empire's army wantonly killed too many true lords on this land, causing a large-scale disorder of the will of nature. The chain reaction led to a ten-thousand-fold increase in harm, directly causing the outbreak of natural disasters.

It is now known that some people are searching for the book "Sasha's Land," and others may be stealing the hearts of nobles in search of the book.

Because the two events occurred so close together, it's almost certain that the people who did them were not the same person.

If this book truly possesses all the abilities of the true lord, if the former finds the latter, if the former is unaware of the true lord's power, and if something unpleasant happens during the book-stealing process...
In other words, there may be a well-hidden occult bomb in this city. If it explodes, the people of Sasha will not die instantly, but they will suffer for decades or even centuries to come.

When Clayton told the priest his guess on the way, he was immediately convinced and ran almost faster than the werewolf.

There are five chapels in Sasha, but only two contain the hearts of nobles.

In the past, the noble forces in this city were divided into two factions, east and west, and the bodies of the nobles were buried according to their respective factions.

When Clayton and the priest arrived at another chapel, responsible for preserving the heart of a nobleman, everything was peaceful and serene. The guards' rifles leaned against the wall, and one of them was sweeping the floor while carrying the visitors. He only put down his broom when he heard the chaotic footsteps.

There are no enemies.

They rushed in to check, and the Heart Boxes were all safely on the shelf.

The priest's expression was as if his heart had left his body and was now being put back into his chest.

“We’ve come at just the right time.”

He ordered the guards to immediately notify the brothers in the nearby church, and then, together with these clergy, moved all the hearts into the church.

A true lord can use his absolute "right of way" over the guards to enter the Church of the Dead, but the church is a state within a state, and even a true lord cannot unlock it with his authority alone.

While the clergy were busy reinforcing their defenses, Clayton turned and left again, riding home on horseback.

He could already hear the piano music when he was outside the house.

That was the piano he bought for Donna, but she only played it for a short time when she was a beginner, and later she would rather practice swordsmanship than touch it.

He went upstairs and, judging from the smell, realized that it was Julius playing the piano in the room. He opened the door to the music room, and the wizard was standing by the piano, playing casually. Hearing the door open, Julius stopped playing and turned to face him, his expression gloomy.

“I need to contact your mother, but I don’t know where she is. Is there a faster way?” Clayton asked bluntly.

Julius sighed. His solution was to go back to his room, retrieve a seemingly empty glass bottle, and then go down to the garden. In front of Clayton, he opened the bottle and poured it onto the lone camellia plant that had been left unprotected by magic, as if it contained some liquid that he was using to water it.

A moment later, he put the bottle away and let Clayton speak to the camellia.

This method doesn't allow for real-time communication; it only provides information unilaterally, but it's sufficient. After the werewolf revealed all his conjectures about the book "Sasha's Land," Julius ended his magic, and his expression returned to some semblance of normalcy; clearly, this matter had piqued his interest.

"I never imagined there was such a priceless treasure behind the Heart Box. You've really given her something to do."

Gloria is the largest landowner in the city. If someone were to reclaim most of the land and become the true lord, she and the Druids would be the most anxious.

Because the true lord can prevent plants from growing in the ground.

“But the fact that you thought of telling the church about this seems incredibly reckless to me. Now both the church and my mother want this book. If you’re wrong, things will be fine, but if you are right, things will get messy. My mother will also have a problem with you.”

A treasure that can transfer land ownership cannot be given by the Church to the Druids, nor would the Druids allow the Church to possess it. The city government may have the power and right to control it, but Dorne is a theocratic state, which would be no different from it falling into the hands of the Church.

Although Julius was not very close to his mother and had been kicked out of the Elders' Council, he still showed some favoritism towards Gloria.

Clayton shrugged. "I can't worry about too much. Let future people deal with the trouble later. Right now, we need to cut the fuse of the bomb."

When faced with such a major event, the worst thing is to let a private individual with certain abilities and knowledge handle it quietly.

They are intelligent, but not highly intelligent; they are capable, but not strongly capable. However, this lack of intelligence and capability has led them to consider themselves experts and ignore the risks involved in events, going their own way.

Clayton didn't know who had taken the book or who was after it, and this unknown could lead to the aforementioned trouble.

If these two sides were replaced by a larger church and druids—no matter how many people died, at least they would treat this book of wonders with sufficient care.

"So what benefits can we gain from this?" the wizard asked.

“There’s no benefit to it,” Clayton said. “I’m just a good citizen, eliminating safety hazards for society.”

"That joke is actually quite funny."

"Okay, I do want to take this opportunity to kill someone and satisfy my bloodlust, but I need to restrain myself now and can't kill anyone. And if I don't kill anyone, I don't know how to handle this matter, let alone how to get any benefits."

“Hmm.” Julius fell silent; he too sensed how lacking Clayton was in experience.

However, passing the troublesome task to someone else is also a solution, and if he weren't Gloria's son, he shouldn't have complained about it.

He had no objections whatsoever when Clayton handed over the investigation of the Earth Mother Church to the Knights of High Rock.

Two days later, the news came out.

The combined efforts of the Church and the Druids in their investigation were indeed powerful. They had already captured the mysterious employer who craved "Sasha's Land." This time, even Sir Jonard had no reason to protect him. This mysterious employer was a nobleman known as Sir Janeck. He had recently seen the book at Sir Penson's house, and the drunken Sir Penson regarded him as his only friend, telling him everything about the changes that had occurred in the book.

Clayton's guess was correct. Sasha's Land did indeed have the ability to seize land rights by absorbing the hearts of nobles. Its first offering was the heart of Sir Penson's ancestor, which is how Sir Penson came to know its power. However, its initial power was too weak, and Sir Penson did not want to risk taking other hearts for it, so he did not value it much.

Sir Janeck, however, was neither afraid of sin nor reverent towards his ancestors, and his demands for offerings suited him perfectly.

He encouraged Sir John Penson to steal the book and leave for distant lands, so that he could take it without anyone noticing. If Sir John Penson only discovered the book was missing after boarding the train, he would naturally not be able to turn back and prove his innocence.

Thus, Sir Penson was charged with theft, while Sir Janeck received the goods.

Given his style of doing things, killing the person who possessed the book would not have troubled him, and he did not believe that killing the person who possessed the book would have the same consequences as killing the true lord.

Clayton likely averted a major catastrophe for Sasha.

But the person who actually possessed the book was still not found.

The thief, Charlie the Drunkard, was originally Sir Janeck's trusted Black Glove. On the surface, he was the mysterious employer, not Sir Janeck. However, he betrayed the company midway, taking the Book of the Earth but not handing it over to Sir Janeck, choosing instead to keep it for himself.

What infuriated the clergy was that the drunkard Charlie had close ties to the Presbyterian Church. He was the deputy leader of the notorious tomb raiding gang "Easter Island," which had been employed by the Presbyterian Church for a long time to do dirty work.

That's why he was able to get the druids to help him.

The drunkard Charlie deceived the naive druid, who believed he was acting for Gloria until he was found.

(End of this chapter)