vault."

Christian nodded.

"My lord, what you promised…"

"I am a man of my word. I will protect you and your sister."

"But my lord, if they find out that I was the one who spilled the secret, they will kill me."

"They? Christian, how many werewolves are still here?"

"Four. He must be talking about the other two. There is one female that must be his sister," Christian said with hushed voice.

"Do they know about the vault?"

"All the werewolves do. The others left to find backups. We were left to guard the vault."

"Then why did you tell me about the vault?" Anfey narrowed his eyes in disdain, but he was able to hide his sentiments well. Even though werewolves like this were beneficial, if this werewolf could betray his own kind, he could betray Anfey and his companions as well.

"Because they are terrorizing my sister."

"Can’t you protect her?"

"I’m too weak to take on two of them," the werewolf said, lowering his head.

"Unbelievable," Anfey said slowly.

"Yes, my lord! I couldn’t take it anymore and this was my last resort." Seeing that Anfey understood him, the werewolf appeared very grateful.

"Christian, kill the other two werewolves." If the werewolves had second thoughts and were not planning on working with them, there was no use keeping them alive. "Don’t worry," Anfey told the werewolf. "Dead men tell no tales."

"Thank you, my lord!" The werewolf sank to his knees, satisfied with Anfey’s decision.

"If your kind finds backups, will they contact you?"

"I am the only one they could contact."

"There was just a group of mercenaries here. Dragon Rider mercenaries. Do they look like backups your people speak of?"

"No way. Humans would never fight for werewolves," the werewolf said.

"You’re saying the backups must also be werewolves? As far as I know, this is the only place werewolves reside within the Country of Mercenaries. Where are they going to find backups?"

"That…that I don't know, my lord."

Anfey frowned and was about to ask another questions. Christian poked his back, and Anfey sighed. "Alright," he said. "Go wait for us by the tunnels. We will be there in a few moments."

"Yes, my lord." The werewolf bowed and left quietly.

Anfey waited for a few moments, then turned to Christian and said, "Did you discover something?"

"Anfey, remember the orcs?"

"You’re saying they’re looking for a sanctuary?" Anfey asked, quickly making the connection.

Christian nodded.

"I don’t understand. If the werewolves have a sanctuary, why did they stay in the Country of Mercenaries? Why did they stay in Moramatch?"

"Maybe waiting for more werewolves to appear," Christian said after a few moments of silence. "From our point of view, the werewolves here live a difficult life. For the werewolves, maybe this is a place where they could observe and learn more about humans."

"Makes sense," Anfey nodded slowly and said.

"I began to have my suspicions a few days ago when I was cleaning out the tunnels with Feller."

"About what?"

"I talked to you about it, but you weren’t paying attention," Christian said. "After you enter the tunnels from the main entrance, there are nineteen major tunnels. Every tunnel has a built-in cave large enough for more than a hundred people. There were ample food and weapons as well. One was more than enough to contain all of Moramatch’s population. Why did they build nineteen tunnels? To prepare for war? To expand their territory? I don’t think either of those are the right answer."

"I see what you’re talking about. You’re saying that those were built to prepare for the ma.s.s migration of werewolves from the sanctuary."

Christian nodded. "Katuru is just a small part of this. I feel like the real leader is somewhere in the sanctuary. Band of Brothers mercenary tried to get the werewolves out of Moramatch a few times, and every time the mercenary group suffered great casualties. I don't think we are more powerful than a major mercenary group. Maybe it was because we attacked at the right time, when the town was relatively empty."

"G.o.d…" Anfey frowned and shook his head. "That werewolf must have known this as well. Why did he tell about the vault? Isn’t he afraid of retribution?"

"If we keep the other werewolves, who will know?"

"We can…"

"Orcs, beasts, savages, and elves all believe humans are the worst and most sly of all creatures. They would not believe us."

"That means we can't just kill the other werewolves."