The Laws of Werewolf Hunting

Chapter 566 Tall, Short, Fat, and Thin
About two days ago, Sir Franklin had his hard-won clue stolen by a female vampire, so he had to seek help from Sir Jonard.

As for why they always seek out Jonard, it's because Jonard has a closer relationship with the Knights of High Rock. Jonard's territory is in the north, and the Knights of High Rock's main business is also in the north; they actually have quite a bit of overlap and even share a thin kinship.

The old knight offered a guide who knew the local area very well, but Franklin never expected that the guide was a dwarf.

And he's a druid.

“Occasionally, one should listen to the cawing of crows.” Jonard used this proverb to explain why there were so many heretics in his court.

Druids and the Three Good Paths were one thing, but the young knight even saw voodoo and shamanism.

He was very dissatisfied with Sir Jonard's arrangements.

If a nobleman of Jonard's stature likewise likes to fill his court with a large number of heretics, how can people uphold the state religion? The Queen's court has only four heretics, and they are not allowed to appear without being summoned. At Jonard's residence, however, these people come and go as they please, as if they were his family and friends.

"You idiot, are you going to eat or not?"

In the café, the dwarf guide's greeting brought Jazz back to his senses, and then made him even more annoyed.

Franklin discriminated against dwarves, and he made no secret of this. However, his orthodox chivalrous education taught him to treat women kindly, which made him easily at a loss when facing a female dwarf, unsure of how to treat her.

Angel Redbeard, a truly detestable fellow.

She not only noticed his prejudice against dwarfs, but also said that she also discriminated against tall people (dwarfs are another name for humans of standard height), invited him to insult each other on the road to relieve fatigue, and even demanded that he treat her to a meal before she would work. How vulgar!

But she really was useful.

Franklin now knows at least that the organizers of the Earth Mother cult in Sasha are the Bronzefoot Clan and the Fire-Hair Clan.

Angel took Franklin's plate and said as he ate, "I must make it clear that the Highland Dwarfs and the Cave Dwarfs are not the same people at all. We share the same ancestors, but that's all. The Earth Mother religion is the religion of the Cave Dwarfs, and the Highland Dwarfs do not believe in it."

The female dwarf had no fondness for the religion that had emerged among the Moriel people.

She told Franklin that the Moriel had their own creator god, but did not believe that the creator god would govern the mortal world. The Rugged Mother was a new god that appeared after the Moriel lost their country, and her existence was likely created by some people for political purposes. However, the mother of mountains, lava and caves did not exist, and many of the saint stories described in other doctrines were true.

Traditionally, dwarves believed that a giant named Urgog created the world by shaping dust scattered throughout the universe into planets and creating the seeds of life.

The doctrine of the Earth Mother Cult is different. It believes that the power of origin comes from inside the planet, so the deeper the dwarves dig, the closer they get to the gods.

This view has existed in the past; some dwarves believed that the planet was Urogor's treasure chest, where he hid artifacts that could rule the world deep within the earth, so digging deep was necessary.

Because underground worship existed in the early culture of the Moriel people, the Earth Mother religion gained many followers.

Even Franklin, who didn't care about the dwarves, knew that the Earth Mother Cult in Sasha City was not thriving because the mineral veins there were depleted. In other mining cities, the Earth Mother Cult was already quite influential. Although the number of believers could not yet rival that of the White Cult, they were generally more devout and more willing to sacrifice for their faith.

Unlike Angel Redbeard, Sir Benjamin Franklin believed that if the Earth Mother religion was created for political purposes, it was a perfect masterpiece.

It has almost completely reunited the Moriel people who were scattered after the fall of their nation. What will happen next?

How to cultivate a new national consciousness in them?
This is a very dangerous sign. The Denons are already dangerous as a similar species. If the Moriel were to come, they probably wouldn't be able to accomplish anything significant, but they would be more than capable of causing destruction.

The jazz was saddened and wanted to eat something, but remembering that his food was in Angel Redbeard's mouth, he had no choice but to order another one.

"Do the priests of the Earth Mother Cult, those called the priests of the Earth Mother, possess their own miracles?" he asked while waiting.

Angel's answer was ambiguous: "It is said to exist. But it could also be witchcraft."

There are countless sects that disguise witchcraft as miracles to gather followers, and they are difficult to expose. The Earth Mother Cult is likely one of them.

“Although I haven’t witnessed it myself, I’ve heard about how those places perform miracles,” the dwarf woman sighed, having finished her meal. “It’s exactly the same stuff the Maxri people do: the twelve gates, the twelve cave lords, messengers of the underworld, golden ships sailing on underground rivers. If they educate the next generation like that, I don’t know if those children will even be considered Moril when they grow up. The only thing that can be connected to our cultural traditions is the Children of the Caverns, the Children of the Lava. Oh, and recently the Bronzefoot Clan has mentioned the Army of Immortality.”

"The Immortal Army?"

Jazz stopped chewing.

The term "Immortal Army" originates from the ancient Athallians. They were enemies of a king of the Parabaeans (the dominant ethnic group of the Mansis). After their defeat and forced migration, the Athallians heard rumors that this king possessed an immortal army. No matter how many battles they fought or how many died, the army would reappear at its peak. The Athallians thus called it the Immortal Army. Many military scholars now believe that immortal armies did not exist, and that what the ancient Athallians witnessed was likely the first standing army in human history.

There are similar legends of immortal warriors in the Highlands, namely the so-called "One Hundred Warriors of the Highlands".

The "High Rock" in the Knights of High Rock is actually the Highlands. As a Northerner, Franklin was well aware of this story, and the warriors' immortality was indeed true.

He was particularly sensitive to the "Eternal Army" because of Sir John Lard.

The old lord invited him to stay and continue Mayor Kunty's mission, and as compensation, his original task of investigating the illegal Knights would be carried out by Sir Jonard's men. Before Franklin arrived in Sasha, Jonard's men had already begun operations in Weodie and sent back a considerable amount of information.

Needless to say, news of the Infernal Flame Knights was irrelevant to him, and the war between the city council and the werewolves had nothing to do with him either, but there was one rumor that was truly horrifying.

The Holy Grail Order, renowned for its alchemy of life, replicated the Resurrection Cauldron used by the Hundred Warriors of the Highlands in history. Although this did not bring victory to the city council, its effects were real.

The fact that Weaudi had "One Hundred Warriors of the Highlands" suggests that the emergence of the "Eternal Army" in the nearby city of Sasha might not be a coincidence.

Franklin had been on the road for a long time and did not have a fixed mail address, so his intelligence was somewhat delayed. However, he was quite certain that the news about the Holy Grail Order should have been received by the Knights by now.

If the Knights' mentor were to decide who would investigate this matter—it would probably have to be him, since he's recently…

"I don't know what the connection is between the Longevity Army and the Moriel people, but if we want to organize an army, the Copperfoot Clan and the Fire-Hair Clan are clearly not enough, even if we include the Plainsmen they recruit for their gangs."

Despite being a dwarf himself, Angel didn't have high hopes for the dwarf army.

The reason is simple: most firearms are muzzle-loading, requiring the gun to be held upright before loading. However, dwarves cannot reach the muzzle of a rifle when it is held upright, and even if they persist, the loading time is far longer than the standard speed for plainsmen. Therefore, dwarven armies struggle to suppress their opponents with firepower. This is why dwarven kingdoms have collapsed one after another over the past few centuries.

Even if the Earth Mother Cult were to establish a private army in Sasha, they would only be able to use smuggled pistols or crossbows. This would be roughly equivalent to the level of four centuries ago, and they would crumble at the first encounter with a regular army.

"Have you ever heard of the Holy Grail Order?" Franklin asked.

"I only know that the Holy Grail Order came last year. What is the Holy Grail Order?"

Angel's answer did not satisfy the knight.

After finishing their meal, they set off for St. Alvin.

St. Alvin's Parish was a place Franklin had visited before, but under Angel's guidance, he was able to get up close to some dwarves and discover many things he hadn't noticed before.

The Bronzefoot Clan and the Firestarter Clan are both organizers of a local gang called the Earthbone Gang, which includes dwarves and plainsmen.

The Earthbone Gang's business mainly revolves around scrap metal recycling. In the commercial district's landfills, there are always a few empty cans with unburnable solidified whale oil left, which can be scraped out and refined. There are also large quantities of scrap metal; usable parts are dismantled and sold by the dwarves, while unusable parts are melted down and recast into products that can be sold as commodities.

The dwarves have retained the profession of blacksmith, so they sometimes dare to manufacture weapons to sell, making a considerable profit.

It also functions as a semi-guild, finding jobs for its dwarf brethren and even plainsmen who follow the Mother Earth religion.

This is especially incredible, as it was beyond Franklin's comprehension.

Despite his curiosity about the dwarves, he didn't forget that his main purpose was to investigate the Book of Styx; he needed to know if these dwarves were connected to the drunkard Charlie.

Angel once again played a unique role, venturing alone to the dwarf settlement to gather crucial information for Franklin.

The people of Easter Island often come here to buy and repair weapons, so they are the VIPs of this place.

And indeed, the drunkard Charlie had visited recently and met with the clan chiefs. Afterwards, the two chiefs and the Zandi were very excited and boasted to those around them that the clan had a great opportunity to increase its income significantly.

As for the topic of the Immortal Army, most Moriel people are not very clear about it, and have only vaguely heard the term.

The chieftain and the Zandi had only mentioned "obtaining the Longevity Army" once, but it seemed to be just a concept, and no specific measures were revealed to the tribe. Most of their energy was still focused on fighting for the mining rights of the abandoned mines.

Franklin concluded that the Book of the Earth was in the hands of the Morielites.