我的狼人代码。

Chapter 13: Questions and Answers

The General Security Department was a five-story building with a literally glowing white paint job on the outside. No one could tell that the building was more than a hundred years old. When the building was first constructed, the city government invested a great deal of manpower and resources to excavate and polish the stone, the construction workers labored day in and day out, and the construction number lasted for six years before this solid building finally reached the point where it was barely usable. Just three years after the city government moved in, more convenient and better building cement was introduced. The inconvenience of living in a building whose main structure was made largely of stone was so great that the building, which was not yet fully completed, was soon abandoned, until the rich men of the central district joined together to purchase the property, which enabled the work to be continued, and the building was then donated to the public for use as a resting-place for the sheriffs. With office space, the sheriff's force tripled in size, greatly enhancing the city's security. Looking back on this history, Clayton, who once thought this was a good deed done by wealthy people out of profit and moral necessity, now has a new idea. Expanding the ranks by slipping darker descendants inside the sheriffs would then make it easier for the Elders to take sides with their own. Since the patrol routes were fixed for each day, they could even specify where the "accidents" would occur. Clayton walked into the first floor office lobby, which was relatively sparsely populated, and most of the people here were citizens looking for help; after all, the sheriff was a part-time job, and not many people didn't have their own jobs during the day. The floor was painted so bare it could have been used as a mirror. He had been here not too long ago because of the accidental killing of the watcher, so this time the receptionist was quick to recognize him. "Mr. Bello, the last ..... gentleman's family has been located, it's his wife, would you like to see her?" Clayton stopped in his tracks, the question had even counted as a shock to him. Even if killing a mentally disturbed man in self-defense was a valid enough reason, it was still embarrassing to meet the other man's family. But his beard was too thick, and his clothes and stance hadn't yet shaken off the habits of his military days, an appearance that could be misinterpreted as being in a rage with just the slightest frown. The male receptionist's throat knots rolled up and down, "Actually, it's okay if we don't see it, she took the remains with her without making any requests." Clayton pleaded, "Let me see her, I must make amends. Please tell her that the time and place are up to her, but only after next Wednesday." "I'll put you in touch with her." The receptionist gulped. "Thank you." Clayton thanked heartily, but thinking about what he had to do today, he turned his head to look around, not finding his target, and turned back: "Is Mr. Galliard in today, I have something for him on this visit." The receptionist pointed upstairs "Right now he should be in the records management room on the fourth floor meeting with someone from the firehouse, it may be a while before he has time to see you." Clayton nodded andThen without hesitation he walked towards the stairs. Electricity was becoming popular in this country, people stored whale oil to generate electricity, and many public buildings had already installed whale oil generators and elevator units, but such stone buildings still had to use old-fashioned lighting equipment like candles and horse lamps because of the difficulty of remodeling. I don't know if someone foresaw this scene back then or for other reasons, but the block behind the Sheriff's Department was divided into a fire station, so even if those lighting devices caused a fire, it could be quickly extinguished. And it was close to the dock area, making it easier to get water than anywhere else. When Clayton went upstairs, he was seeing several gentlemen in red vests walking down the stairs talking and laughing. They were all firehouse workers, and their presence here should mean that Galliard's work there was done. He quickened his pace slightly, and sure enough, he saw Galeed stretched out in the corridor. Clayton couldn't help but try again as he thought about the fact that he would forget the other man's appearance. The result was pretty much the same as before. Just by closing his eyes, he couldn't visualize the other's appearance anymore. It was only when he saw the other person in person that he could still recognize him as Galeed. "Mr. Galeed, I've come to see you." In fact, after Clayton returned last night, he had already flipped through the "Two Thousand Common Sense for Occultists" that Tritis had sent to him in order to understand the current situation, but he felt dizzy after just two days of reading it. That book was said to be general knowledge, but many of the words were proper nouns that the average person couldn't understand, interspersed with the languages of various countries. If he wanted to rely on this book to make sense of the current situation, he would have to reach the level of "occult enthusiasts" before he could do so. Tristis had overestimated him. "Let's talk in the archives." Galliard walked listlessly into the room full of safes with his hands behind his back. In the daytime, when the entire sheriff's department was empty, those who stayed on duty here were able to ignore the rules and regulations to a certain extent. "I'm trying to understand about the Dark Ones, how did we come to be in this world?" Upon hearing that question, Galeed covered his forehead in disbelief: "How can I possibly know the answer to your question when I don't even know how ducks came into existence? It should be left to a philosopher to challenge. Can't you ask something fitting and more relevant?" Clayton: "........." Without realizing it, he was also expecting too much from the other man. "Well, I was suddenly transformed into a Darkling in the last six months, and I think you said last night that something similar was on the rise, what's the reason for that?" Galeed breathed a sigh of relief, "Because the Judgment Era is coming and the Dark Moon is returning." "And what is that? Those are two words I've never heard before." "Those two words are actually one thing. When the Dark Moon appears, the Judgment Era is here." Galeed narrowed his eyes, "It's a bit unbelievable to say that, it is said that in the Old Era, there were two moons in the sky. One round was called the new moon and the other was called the dark moon."Clayton looked out the window, but couldn't see anything because it was daytime. "I'm sure I've never seen another moon." "Of course, because the dark moon hid itself away. But now the Dark Moon is coming back, and maybe we'll see it in our lifetimes. That's the source of power and life for us Darklings." Galeed looked less than pleased as he said this, and Creighton couldn't figure out what it was about. "Even natural beings have parts within them that belong to the Shadow. The Dark Moon can guide them to grow stronger, transforming the average living being into a new Darkling." Galeed spread his arms wide: "Just as the natural beings have the star that is always on fire, the Dark Moon is our sun. And when one loses the sun, one weakens. We lose the Dark Moon, and our strength is greatly diminished." Creighton pondered, "I see, is that how I was transformed into a Darkling." "Not necessarily, in the days of the Dark Moon's departure, a portion of the Dark Descendants chose to seal their powers and return to the soft, ordinary bodies of mortals. Waiting in seclusion in human society for the return of the Dark Moon, but a long life as a human would also cause their clan to forget the past. It may not take a hundred years for them to forget their beginnings." Galliard glanced at Crayton's appearance as he, too, looked for something special about the other man. "Of course, it's only possible. You'd only be the offspring of such a lurker if you were the type with more altered flesh; after all, the Dark Moon hasn't returned yet, and it doesn't have much power over the torso." Clayton clasped his arms, his mind knotted into a tangled mess. If Galeed's claim was true, then his family should also be werewolves, and the kind that didn't realize it. Could Donna Bello, the newest member of the Bello family, be a werewolf? He asked seriously, "If a Darkling and a human marry, do their children inherit the Darkling?" "Good question!" Galeed finally got energized, "Depending on the probability, some people can inherit the bloodline and some can't. How well did you learn history? You know that the White Church has a heresy tribunal, right?" "I know." It hadn't been long since Clayton had reviewed that history. "The period when the Heresy Tribunal was disbanded was almost the end of the Old Age, and the time when the Doctrine of Species was just beginning to take off." Galliard held up his right index finger: "The author of the Doctrine of Species, Vanis, had the genius to use the system and manner of reproduction to categorize organisms, and because of the lack of reproductive isolation, this led to the popularity of the idea that both humans and darklings were the same species, with elves and dwarves being classified as human subspecies. Though he was eventually burned at the stake for spreading rumors and blasphemy, the seeds of the idea remained." "There were also many clerics within the White Church who were well-versed in academia, and they eventually realized that the Dark Ones could not be completely eradicated, so they chose to dissolve the Heresy Tribunal and reached a peace agreement with us." "The end result was that we and the White Religion maintained peace with the main body even after the Old Era had passed, until today."