Players' NPC Big Daddy

Romeo’s Curse had not been completely lifted. Unable to revert to his Human form, he could only maintain the appearance of a massive Silver Werewolf.

Fortunately, because this took place in the Arcadia Territory, Romeo wasn’t ostracized by the villagers of Wolf Head Grass Village. In fact, many children had also transformed into Silver Werewolves and were affectionately nuzzling against him.

”Blaze, do you think it’s possible that I...” Herbie stared at the Silver Werewolves, a meaningful expression crossing her face.

”Not a chance. Don’t even think about it,” Blaze said, preemptively shattering Herbie’s wishful thinking. ”The Village Chief has already confirmed it. You’re just an ordinary Arcadian.”

”Damn it! I can’t believe you guys are leaving me out! You’re all bullying me! Whatever, I’m neither a Blessed nor a Werewolf. I’m just small, helpless, useless, and forever stunted!”

Herbie threw a tantrum, stopping just short of rolling around on the dirt. However, Blaze could understand her frustration.

In the beginning, Silver King Lycan founded the Arcadia Tribe. The tribe later expanded into a town and eventually grew into the Arcadia Kingdom. To achieve such massive expansion, population growth had to be the top priority. Lai Kaion had fifty sons and one daughter, so his bloodline spread at an astonishing rate. Then his sons had children, and their sons had children.

After several hundred generations, almost every Arcadian possessed at least a trace of Lai Kaion’s bloodline. A purebred normal Arcadian like Herbie—meaning a regular Human without any activated supernatural blood—was considered an extreme rarity.

”Wait, why didn’t Lai Kaion lose his mind? Why did he die in sorrow instead?”

Blaze had caught onto a blind spot. Other Silver Believers always lost their sense of self very quickly, turning into Wild Beasts. Yet, Lai Kaion was able to personally execute the Silver Princes who had transformed into Werewolves.

”Probably because Lai Kaion was a pureblood of the Silver Race. His Spirit Resistance must have been far higher than that of mixed-bloods, allowing him to resist the bestial nature of the Werewolf,” Herbie said earnestly, putting away her playful demeanor. ”Although you saved Romeo, you *only* saved Romeo. You can’t repeat what you did for him thousands of times over, so we have to find a way to eradicate the Curse at its root.”

”Speaking of the Curse, there’s this...” Blaze pulled out Herbie’s Ancient Silver Coin and tossed it to her. ”Although I don’t remember exactly what happened, there’s no doubt that your Protective Talisman played a decisive role.”

”You’re welcome. It is my lucky coin, after all.” Herbie caught the Ancient Silver Coin. With an agile flick of her five fingers, the coin danced nimbly across her knuckles.

”The Arcadians’ Faith is quite pure, though. Despite being cursed by the Goddess, they still engraved her image on their common Silver Coins.” Blaze stared at the coin as it flipped, the Goddess and the castle alternating back and forth.

”What are you talking about? The engraving on this is Silver King Lycan.” Herbie rolled her eyes, adopting the tone of an elder to educate young Blaze about the history of currency in the Arcadia Territory. ”This is the currency that circulated during the era of the Arcadia Kingdom. Like other Kingdoms, it was minted with the King and a castle. However, my coin is a first-edition Silver Coin made of one hundred percent pure Silver. You could say it’s—”

Herbie’s voice faded into the background as Blaze stared blankly at the Ancient Silver Coin. A Blessing rarely made mistakes under most circumstances, meaning there was a ninety percent chance the relief on this coin was indeed the Goddess. Yet, Herbie claimed it was the portrait of Lai Kaion.

Did the two of them just happen to look alike? No, even if they shared a resemblance, the Blessing wouldn’t have specifically identified it as the Goddess’s portrait. At the very least, this Ancient Silver Coin was minted with the specific intent of ’I am carving the Goddess’s likeness’.

There were many questions, but Blaze felt this was good news. In the words of Foreigners: questions equaled clues, and loopholes were shortcuts just waiting to be exploited.

”Say, the castle carved on the other side should be the one in the center of Lai Kaion City, right?” Blaze asked.

”That’s correct.”

The Village Chief appeared between Herbie and Blaze, his hands clasped behind his back, hunching over like an eighty-six-year-old man. Despite his listless posture, the weariness had vanished from his face. He watched the frolicking Arcadians with a warm smile.

”That castle was built on top of what was originally meant to be a Werewolf statue honoring the Silver Princes. After the Curse broke out, the statue couldn’t be finished. Since it wasn’t easy to tear down either, they had no choice but to construct a castle over it.”

”...This might be a strange question, and I’m not even entirely sure why I’m asking it.” Blaze reached out and slapped his palm over the back of Herbie’s hand, covering the Ancient Silver Coin as if they were playing a game of heads or tails. ”Which side of this silver coin is heads, and which side is tails?”

Herbie and the Village Chief both froze. No one had ever pondered this question before because it seemed completely meaningless.

”Then let me ask another seemingly unrelated question. Where is Silver King Lycan’s tomb?”

”No one knows. Even in the records of the Arcadia Clan, there is only a single line stating: ’He fell into eternal slumber amidst the agony of missing his sons’.”

This question was answered by Audrey. She had changed into a crisp Knight’s attire and combed down her bangs to hide the scar on her forehead. She was fully prepared to return to Lai Kaion City at any moment and inherit the position of Lord.

”By the way, I think placing the portrait beneath the castle implies that the King resides within it,” Audrey added.

Blaze removed his hand, revealing the Ancient Silver Coin on the back of Herbie’s hand with the castle facing up. He put forward a wildly different perspective. ”Or it could mean he is buried beneath the castle. Could Silver King Lycan’s remains be right under the castle?”

Everyone was taken aback by Blaze’s completely baseless speculation, yet they could also understand his reasoning. The only person unaffected by the Curse was the very man who triggered it—Silver King Lycan. Therefore, it was entirely possible that Lai Kaion’s remains held the secret to lifting the Curse. Blaze was simply throwing out all kinds of hypotheses in hopes of finding a clue.

”I mean, Silver King Lycan lived thousands of years ago. His remains would have rotted away long ago,” Herbie pointed out, fundamentally debunking Blaze’s theory.

Her logical deduction, however, was completely ignored by everyone around her.

”It’s possible. That’s a bold hypothesis.”

”Maybe Lai Kaion never even died. Maybe he’s just been staying under the castle this whole time.”

”Eternal slumber is just an artistic euphemism for being dead!” Herbie shouted, waving her arms wildly and hopping around between the three of them. ”Seriously, he lived thousands of years ago! Even the relief on this Ancient Silver Coin in my hand is almost worn flat. How could the actual guy have so much as a single hair left over?”

”But he was a member of the Silver Race.”

”And he turned into an incredibly powerful Wild Beast because of the Curse.”

”He might have even been a Blessed.”

The Village Chief, Audrey, and Blaze each offered a counterpoint before declaring in unison:

”How can you apply common sense to things like this?”

Herbie felt an unprecedented level of bullying—the kind of bullying that screamed, ”Since you’re just an Ordinary Person, you wouldn’t understand the wonders of our world.”