Doreen folded her hands on her knees, squatting in the corner of the room in fear.
The Frost Beast she brought was squatting in front of her, staring at her closely.
It was full. Thus, it would not hunt for at least two days.
Doreen, as Spirit Thief, knew this all too well.
But her fear was not because the Frost Beast was staring at her.
However, it was because of “Ghirlandaio”.
—How could a wealthy business person from the Noah Kingdom have the technology to tame the Frost Beast instantly?
Why couldn’t Doreen, a wandering werewolf, tame the Frost Beast?
If she had tamed a Frost Beast, the selling price would be enough for her to indulge in pleasure and enjoy life for more than 10 years. Then, she would not have to use “The Scammer And The Missionary” to deceive passers-by and peek into other people’s minds at risk.
No one could ever tame her Frost Beast.
Just because Doreen took it to “eat a few meals”, it would not take Doreen as the first hunting target if it was not particularly hungry.
The relationship between her and the Frost Beast was more appropriate to be described as “cooperation”.
However, Your Excellency “Ghirlandaio” tamed the Frost Beast without sweat.
No doubt that “Ghirlandaio” must have the Austere-Winter’s Blood!
Even if he pretended to be a wealthy businessman from the Noah Kingdom, he could not hide this power. If a random Transcender could tame Frost Beasts, the beasts would not be a disaster.
If one could tame a Frost beast, even if they were not the Grand Duke Ivan, they were undoubtedly related to the Grand Duke Ivan’s bloodline within two generations… That person was undoubtedly an extraordinary figure.
If she were to follow her original life path, Dorine would never have encountered such a big shot in her lifetime.
But why would “Ghirlandaio” hide his identity and come to the Austere-Winter Dukedom from the Noah Kingdom?
Dorine dared not guess and also dared not ask.
She could only throw all the blame on her teacher.
She had a hunch that she might accidentally get involved in some conspiracy involving the highest level of authority in the Dukedom.
Just being glanced at by Ghirlandaio, Doreen was so nervous that her back was straight, and her palms were sweating.
In the current state, she wanted to flee. However, she was waiting for her permission to go and did not dare to run away on her own accord, fearing that her suspicion about Ghirlandaio’s real identity was revealed.
She would not have any undue curiosity and would never inquire about anything.
Doreen was self-aware.
The less she knew, the safer she would be.
Not to mention…
“I’m just a werewolf.” She buried her head in her knees, muttering softly.
Werewolves were not well received by the Austerians. In comparison, the dwarves who were proficient at wine, had a robust labor capacity, and did not like meat could mingle with Austerians in the resource-poor Austere-Winter Dukedom. When the full moon was approaching, the werewolves, who occasionally go frenzy and lose their minds, lost the people’s trust.
Worse still, it had become a fact that all other races would discriminate against the werewolves.
Of course, werewolves were also citizens of the Austere-Winter Dukedom. In Austere-Winter Dukedom, as long as they were minors, persons with disabilities or serious illnesses, or those who worked in exchange for remuneration for more than one month, they were citizens protected by law.
The Austere-Winter Dukedom law would not protect adults free from disease and disaster but did not work hard.
But the problem was that werewolves could only find a job if they had outstanding abilities.
At the same time, there was such a law in the Austere-Winter Dukedom:
—Slaying a berserk werewolf is not considered a crime of homicide. Instead, they are treated as innocent.
There was nothing wrong with the law itself.
Once a werewolf went berserk, it would attack others like the Frost Beasts. Werewolves would first attack cubs of other races, followed by people of different races, then cubs of their race, and finally other werewolves. Werewolves could attack anything but their immediate bloodline.
The purpose was not to devour but only to kill. Therefore, it was an attack with a relatively high killing efficiency.
Even a werewolf without a transcended profession might defeat Bronze Rank’s Transcender after going berserk.
According to the research, this was the racial ability werewolves obtained since ancient times to compete with other races for resources and living space. Adult female werewolves after the end of lactation and young male werewolves who had no child yet were prone to go into a frenzied state.
For self-protection, no one would spare mercy against a berserk werewolf.
Thus, the law was necessary to ensure the safety of other races.
But there was a problem. Werewolves did not necessarily go berserk on a full moon.
Some werewolves might not go berserk even once for several years, but some werewolves would go berserk twice a month. A fanatical werewolf was no different from usual except that he could not speak or drink.
Wanting to prove that a werewolf who was killed was not berserk was harder than proving innocence.
This unique racial trait also made it difficult for many villages to accept werewolves—especially underage male werewolves. They could only live in caves outside the small barrier in the form of werewolf tribes.
As for female werewolves, they were relatively safe without pregnancy and could stay in the small barrier. But once pregnant, they would also be driven out of their residence. After the lactation period ended, the female werewolf would go berserk almost once or twice a month, and it would last until the child was seven years old and could hunt independently.
The lifespan of werewolves was short, only forty years on average. A six-year-old werewolf was already about the size of a seventeen-year-old human youth.
Logically speaking, Doreen, as a female werewolf, could live in the barrier as long as she did not get married. It was not a particularly hard life if she learned some skills, found a job as a female worker, or saved some money to attend an adult university.
But the problem was that Doreen’s mother had gone berserk in the village.
Her mother had a great personality, so she gained the villagers’ trust. She could even marry humans and have children—yes, Doreen was actually a half-werewolf.
But no matter how good the character was, she could not resist her racial instinct.
Doreen’s mother went berserk twice.
But fortunately, Doreen’s father was a transcender. He was an Idol Wizard who graduated from Howling White Tower.
He quickly put Doreen’s mother down each time.
After that, until Doreen was five years old, she did not go berserk again. Her father gradually relaxed his vigilance.
Until a foreign woman holding a child and asking for directions knocked on the door of their house at night.
By the time Doreen’s father woke up, she had killed the child and nearly killed the child’s mother.
Doreen’s father hesitated for a long time.
He finally decided. After the battle, she helped Doreen’s mother to dispose of the crime traces and hide the corpses.
There was no problem at first.
However, when Little Doreen was playing in the yard the next day, she accidentally dug out the untreated corpse.
With the premise that the victim was not from the same village, Doreen’s mother was not slain or reported by the villagers. But she had already killed someone. The villagers could not accept living with her—their family was kicked out.
Later, for some reason, her father’s illegal use of spells and crimes were exposed.
The Winter’s Hand captured the wanted Doreen’s parents — Doreen’s mother would be imprisoned for twenty years, while her father would be sentenced to three years of confinement and labor.
Doreen was left alone.
Unlike other werewolves, she had such a happy childhood that she did not even know the “survival skills”, even thief and robbery.
Later, she met her “teacher”.
The teacher specialized in nurturing werewolf orphans, turning them into phantom thieves, spirit thieves, spies, killers…
[Professor Wolf] Frederick Wolfheart.