Werewolf Hunting Rules.

Chapter 419: Disturbing the Heartstrings
Clayton Bello could die with honor, but he would not fight a battle he had to lose.

This is an insult.

He lay flat on the bed in some unknown room, thinking, perhaps his life had gone wrong since the moment he decided to join the army with Ulun.

Funny enough, when he joined the army, he never thought that one day in the future he would need to kill or be killed.

Relying on the deterrence of military airships, Dorne's army has not fought a war for a long time. In Fisbrica, many colonies are law-abiding, and local princes still rule their own countries. Their guards are mysterious and fierce, and even the sovereign does not need to take action to suppress the rebels.

The real mission of the colonial army in Fisbrica is to protect various cargo operation centers, maintain trade routes, and escort scholars to continue exploring the unknown parts of this land. None of these are dangerous things. Every year, the vast majority of soldiers who die in Fisbrica are related to diseases, and the rest are attacked by wild beasts, extreme climates, or personal grudges.

Even though the newspapers said they were going to teach the Towtons a lesson, Clayton didn't believe it would be a war that would last for years.

Peace had lasted for decades, and the moment the war actually broke out was like waking up from a beautiful dream.

If he hadn't signed that piece of paper, he would be a farmer today, with nothing to show for it, but...
But it won’t be happy either.

Disturbed by the well-dressed city people, Clayton Bello had long lost the spirit of a farmer. Although he missed working in the fields, he never really wanted to spend his life as a farmer, either now or in the past.

Now he had to rethink what the country's colonial endeavors had brought to his family.

Clayton's grandfather once recalled the past, and the old man missed the time 50 years ago. In Batnu, farmers and herders could create corresponding wealth with their hard work. They could cultivate large tracts of land, and no one died of hunger and cold in winter.

A family like the Bello family, which has been in business for more than a hundred years, can even keep three or four more friends in the house who are completely unable to work.

By the time it was time for Clayton's father to inherit everything, the land business had already begun to decline. In addition to the nobles' decision to reclaim the land and build factories, the afterglow of the colonial era after the resumption of the great voyages finally burned on the farmers. Merchants imported a large amount of cheap grain from Fisbrica, pushing down the domestic grain price to a level that the farmers could not accept. The agricultural product market has since undergone earth-shaking changes.

Some people even committed suicide because of this. The remaining farmers either took time out to work in the city to supplement their family income, or began to try to raise animals - but this was not something that inexperienced people could do, and many people lost all their money due to epidemics among animals.

Only those who mastered breeding techniques and were real landlords could continue to maintain the wealth accumulated in the previous era. The Bello family was one example.

Clayton actually didn't know much about the origins of his ancestors. Many of the exiled Mansis were nobles or officials who were forced to flee during the political struggles in their homeland, but he didn't care much about the past. In short, his ancestors came to Dorne with some money to buy land, so that Clayton's father's generation could still maintain some dignity in the storm.
By the time Clayton came of age, he had no idea what the pride his grandfather was talking about was.

The Kingdom of Dorne has undergone dramatic changes due to its colonial economy, and its cities are developing rapidly. Everything is different now.

Farming has become a dead-end job. If a person wants to farm, he'd better save some money in the city in the first half of his life, unless he doesn't plan to get married and have children. The market demand for meat has grown by leaps and bounds, allowing people who know how to raise animals to continue to make money, but only large-scale breeding can make big money. The Bello family's ranch is not large enough to receive large orders, and the future is still bleak.

In order to allow the two brothers Ullen and Clayton to go to college and find a decent job in the city, their father spent a lot of money, but there was still a shortfall, and Clayton had to earn the rest of the tuition by himself.

In the end, Ulen, who had truly completed his college education, died on the battlefield. Clayton saved some money by fighting in the war, but he no longer wanted to go back to school when he was thirty. His originally orderly life suddenly shattered like a reflection in the water. He traced the root cause and finally concluded that all the misfortunes started with the discovery of the New World.

As for the decline of Patnu, it can be traced back to when grain traders destroyed the agricultural product market.

Damn it, the food grown by farmers in the colonies is so cheap, and the food in China can't be sold at a high price. Who is the money going to? Is the grain trader making money from the price difference?

Clayton couldn't figure it out, but he knew he suddenly wanted to kill someone.

The time he should have used to attend college was spent honing his killing skills on the battlefield. If these skills cannot be put to good use, then he must accept the fact that he has wasted his youth.

While he was thinking about how to kill and who to kill, Norris's face appeared before him.

"Clayton, are you okay?"

Clayton said absentmindedly, "Not bad."

"Perhaps you don't remember what you did. Do you need me to tell you?" Clayton's rare needle turned twice in the tycoon's hand, and then was thrown back to the original owner. "You killed three people in the street, and smeared blood and internal organs everywhere."

Clayton sat up suddenly, not even caring that the syringe had rolled under the bed. He just looked at Norris in doubt.

He wanted to kill someone, but at least he wanted to kill someone he had a grudge against, rather than a stranger he had never met.

“Please don’t worry, those three men died worthy deaths.” Norris sat on the bedside table without caring about his manners: “They are my enemies in my current identity. If you hadn’t dealt with them for me, maybe I would have been finished. Now it’s all right, things have been dealt with, and I don’t have to worry about anything except recuperating.” He rolled up his sleeves and showed Clayton the bullet hole on his arm.

"Even though it looks like I helped you, I should say sorry. It's not easy to deal with the impact of this," Clayton said.

"It's not easy. If someone saw me carrying a naked man on the street, it would make me more sad than my second wife cheating on me." Norris's serious answer made Clayton laugh, and he even temporarily forgot the idea of ​​killing someone.

"Fortunately I have an accomplice, the police officer you sent for. But you gave him a great fright."

"I'll buy him a drink later." Clayton turned over and sat on the edge of the bed. Only after he stood up did he realize that he was now wearing a loose robe with nothing underneath. It didn't look like an outfit suitable for going out.

The surrounding scenery was also very familiar, and he was back in Norris's house.

"Clothes that fit your body need to be customized." Norris crossed his arms and looked at him: "You can rest here for a while. I used that syringe to extract the excess curses from your body, but maybe if I do it too much, it will make you weak. At least for a long time, you won't be as strong as before."

"It's just this level. I can recover completely in two or three months."

Norris didn't ask why there were so many curses, and Clayton was relieved.

“Does what I said really make you so angry?” Norris suddenly spoke again.

Clayton tilted his head as if looking out the window, but was forced back by the dazzling sunlight: "I thought I could hold back my anger, but I can't. The girl I'm raising now, I treat her like my own daughter, and her father - my brother died on the battlefield. That happened before I met you. Before the bad news came, we all thought he would have a bright future."

"I'm sorry," Norris said, "but this is not going to stop. There will always be people who need to deal with future crises."

"Then let others die next time." Clayton answered him calmly.

The silence lasted for about ten seconds, and Norris spoke again: "Let's not talk about this anymore. We should end our previous topic. I want to tell you that I do agree with you now. I believe that fate is not fixed. If possible, it can turn bad luck into good luck and make disasters a help."

"I'm no longer out of control, old friend. You don't need to cheer me up."

"Please rest assured that this is not a statement made against my will. It is just that my view on nature remains unchanged."

"That's not much better than before,"

Norris smiled and said, "I thought you would change after knowing the secret of the Loren War. No matter how noble the purpose is, it will lead to bloodshed and sacrifice. But even if you know this purpose, you still hate it. Doesn't this prove something? You are disgusted by the indifference behind this plan. The collision of different natures is the root of our struggle. And it is precisely because our nature does not change that some things are unavoidable, and the consequences are called fate."

"There is no such thing as nature, Norris," said Clayton. "Education changes everything. Man is a beast before he is brought up. It is environment and education that give us character."

"You mentioned your niece before. She sounded very restless. Have you educated her into a lady now?"

This almost knocked Clayton down. He went from calm to a little furious: "She was already very old when she was educated by me. It's not the same difficulty as educating a toddler. But her character is not innate, but shaped by others. She received an unconventional education in another school, which gave her a good sense of justice, but it's a bit troublesome for me. You can't find such a girl anywhere else."

"What about you? Can't you see the changes that education brings to your own children?" he asked his old friend.

Norris shook his head. "It's hard for me to explain my current situation to you. But I can tell you that, unfortunately, my children are not that good. They can't understand the pain of my lost identity. On the contrary, they regard this as a lucky opportunity. Because they are no longer the children of a craftsman or a clerk, but the children of a rich man. This is the opposite of the result of my past education."

"If I could go back in time, even if I rejected my father's request, they would definitely agree on my behalf, and even push me to get to where I am today. It may be their nature to covet wealth and pleasure, but I still love them and want to satisfy them. This is one of the reasons why I did not choose to leave this identity and position after I became free."

"Do you need me to help you educate them?" Clayton asked. "To be honest, I have taught a few classes at the university and have some experience in education. Even if I can't completely change the situation, I can at least make some improvements."

"Still not."

"Blindly spoiling a child won't make him successful."

"I know this is not right, so I have taken measures." Norris said: "I arrange for them to work in positions that are somewhat risky. If they can do their job well, then let it go and take the wealth as their deserved reward. If they die unfortunately, that is the price they pay for pursuing their dreams. They should have realized it before the tragedy happened. I can't expect everyone to bear this pain forever."

Hearing his response, Clayton had a complicated expression.

"Norris, your education method is a piece of shit!"