Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters-Chapter 1004 - 56 Prologue

Caman laughed out of frustration, pointing at the two wolf-dogs wagging their tails like windmills, “You don’t know the barbarians’ witchcraft? Then how did you make them as tame as dogs? A miracle? Don’t tell me you’re going to say—it’s because you tamed wild beasts with love?!”

Hearing Caman’s questioning, Winters coughed with a mix of embarrassment. Holding the two wolfdogs, he defended, “They are dogs in the first place!”

…

After the bloody battle at Qingqiu, the Red River Tribe examined the bodies and ultimately identified the Wolf-taming assassin as the Beast Speaker Bai Xuan.

The Red River Tribe seized Bai Xuan’s body and resolutely disagreed with Winters’ request to examine and take Bai Xuan’s body away.

The reason was: even though Bai Xuan attempted to assassinate White Lion, he was still an authentic Shaman Priest and Chosen One—The Red River Tribe would never allow his body to be dishonored by outsiders.

Winters also seized White Lion’s warhorse, Longwind, as a return gesture, reluctantly balancing things out between them.

Therefore, the only thing Winters got from Bai Xuan was that peculiar bone flute.

However, as the warrior who killed Bai Xuan, Winters also had the right to select an item first from Bai Xuan’s trophies of war.

Bai Xuan had brought six wolf-dogs to Qingqiu, “spent” four, and two remained locked in cages, which were only discovered during the cleanup of the battlefield.

Members of the Red River Tribe regarded these two dogs, which looked no different from wolves, as evil creatures, and originally intended to kill them. Bell, the young Hunter, could not stand by and watch, so he begged Winters to save the two spiritual beasts.

After learning about this, Winters also felt some compassion and asked the Red River Tribe for Bai Xuan’s spiritual beasts as trophies of war.

The Red River Tribe was happy to get rid of the problematic creatures that were caught between “spirit beasts” and “evil things,” and gladly sent the cage with the wolf-dogs to Winters’ camp.

At this point, the story should have come to a conclusion.

Because the wolf-dogs were so ferocious that they were difficult to approach, they could only be kept in iron cages. For some time, Winters couldn’t figure out how Bai Xuan had managed to control the wolf-dogs as if they were an extension of his body.

However, there was an even more ferocious fellow in Winters’ camp than the wolf-dogs.

The “little one,” who could not sleep because of the wolf-dogs barking incessantly at any hour, once took advantage of Bell’s absence to quietly approach the horse carriage transporting the wolf-dogs, providing a “newcomer training” session through the iron cage.

Since then, the two wolf-dogs quickly understood their place. They no longer barked at random nor acted aggressively towards people. They would wag their tails to show goodwill when fed, and could even be led on a leash.

However… The little one had never given up the idea of eating dog meat.

It always lurked sneakily behind the wolf-dogs, and despite repeated lessons, it almost succeeded several times, forcing Winters to lock the wolf-dogs back in the iron cage to avoid a tragedy.

To save the dogs’ lives and prevent a disaster, when the Iron Peak County Delegation coughed up a ransom and was reorganizing the group, Winters had Bell take the little one along the southern path, following Colonel Moritz to escort gold bars back to Iron Peak County.

He himself took the two wolf-dogs along the northern path, returning to Jiangbei Province first, then into the mountains.

This was how the two wolf-dogs ended up in Steelcastle, and Winters had the inspiration for the “Beast Speaker Divine Arts” after arriving in the Monta Republic.

…

[Time returns to the present]

Hearing Winters say “They are dogs in the first place,” Caman immediately retorted, “Would you like to ask someone for their opinion?”

Winters didn’t speak.

During his travels in Monta, the two wolf-dogs caused several misunderstandings.

The Monta Republic, with more mountains and less land, needed to import grain from the Van Republic all year round. Other than tending to a few acres of thin fields at home, the most important livelihood for Montan farmers was herding, and they deeply hated wolves that preyed on their livestock.

So along the way, the two wolf-dogs were almost universally pursued and harassed.

Anna tried sewing a pair of conspicuously visible collars and putting them on the wolf-dogs’ necks to prove they had an owner. However, this only made it easier for the Montans to notice them and did nothing to diminish the hostility in their hearts.

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Winters had to explain over and over again, “These two are dogs, not wolves.”

Even so, the stubborn Montan hill folk remained skeptical, and many Montan farmers would whisper as soon as they turned their backs, “What’s wrong with them? Keeping wolves as dogs? Hah, those Venetians!”

So if you asked others to judge, the winner would definitely be Caman.

Winters petted the wolf-dogs’ necks and explained earnestly, “If I’m not wrong, they’re likely hybrids of wolf and dog. Although they look like wolves, their loyalty is no less than that of dogs.”