She Belongs To The Devil

Dragomir\'s restlessness disappeared when Theodore agreed to take him to Tarrin. "At least I will be able to help Adeline with this issue before I go," he thought to himself and sighed.

Adeline looked up to see her father when her hunger died down. The aura that was enticing her had disappeared already. And her restlessness was also reduced to some extent.

"By the way," Dragomir then focused his attention towards Nigel and asked, "How many werewolves can fight in the war?"

"There aren\'t a lot of werewolves among us who have already mastered the battle techniques in their wolf form." Nigel thought for a few seconds and replied, "Maybe around two thousand of the werewolves will be able to participate in the war."

"Hmm…" Dragomir noted that number down in his paper and then glanced at Edwin. "Edwin, do you have any rough idea as to how many witches and wizards would be able to come to our aid if we were to ask for their help?"

Edwin pointed his palm towards Nigel and answered the King, "Just like the werewolves, there aren\'t many of those who have already mastered their magic. Maybe around a thousand of them can fight properly."

When Edwin\'s eyes met with Nigel\'s, Edwin finally didn\'t see detest in those sapphire eyes. A very subtle smile appeared on Edwin\'s lips.

Dragomir finished jotting down the number of magic users as well and then wondered out loud, "So, we will have three thousand of those who can go against the vampires. I wonder if that one thousand gap between us and the enemies will make a huge difference or not."

Tabitha, who was silently listening to the conversations finally put forth her voice, "We can also increase our defense by wearing the silver battle armor. We have successfully managed to create a cloth that can expand or contract based on werewolves\' changes. We can use that to create battle armors as well."

"Er…" Nigel squinted his eyes and gave a soft chuckle. And he let everyone know, "I am not really supposed to be disclosing this but I think I need to."

Dragomir saw Nigel hesitating even after saying that so he nudged his son with his words, "What is it Nigel? Feel free to share. Everyone here is tight-lipped." He chuckled and added while flicking his brows at Adeline, "I have firsthand experience."

Adeline pressed her lips into a thin line and awkwardly looked away when her father gazed at her.

Nigel then glanced at Edwin and asked, "Edwin, will you pass me that silver ring of yours?"

Edwin\'s heart almost jumped with excitement when Nigel took the initiative to talk with him. He gave a smile to Nigel and nodded, "Sure."

Edwin didn\'t know why Nigel asked for his ring but he took it off anyway. And then threw it at Nigel.

Nigel caught the ring but he immediately winced in pain and dropped the ring on the table. He then opened his palm to show it to everyone. In the middle of his palm, a layer of his skin had peeled off just by that brief touch of that ring.

All the others had the same question at the tips of their tongues.

And Nigel answered their unasked question, "Silver is lethal to werewolves as well." He darted his eyes on everyone and then asked in a polite tone, "If the word about our weakness gets out then our kind will be in trouble. Please keep this secret to yourselves."

Everyone in the room agreed in unison to their Prince\'s request.

General Osmond then asked his former student, "Then won\'t it be a problem if we wear the silver armor? We might accidentally collide or run into each other during the battle."

However, Nigel thought otherwise. "I think wearing the silver armor will be better for the humans. We werewolves have trained ourselves ruthlessly to be able to keep our wolf instincts in check."

Nigel inhaled the air and exhaled another secret, "But if we give in to our wolf instinct even for a second then we might end up attacking the humans on our side. We are attracted towards human blood just like the vampires."

Those who didn\'t already know about this turned stiff all of a sudden. One of the generals was even close to declaring Nigel as a monster to be feared.

However, Nigel was quick enough to let them know that werewolves wouldn\'t deliberately attack humans.

"The effect of human blood on the two species is different though. Human blood makes vampires stronger while it is a curse to us. If human blood even touches our tongue then we will be stuck in our wolf form forever."

Nigel then confidently looked at everyone and stated, "But as I said earlier, only those who have absolute control over their wolf instincts will participate in the war. The chances of them losing their control after smelling human blood is less than a single percentage."

Dragomir lightly tapped the table and said, "And even that one percent chance of any mishaps happening in the battlefield will be nullified if werewolves will be repelled by the silver armor. Am I correct?"

Nigel agreed to his father. "Yes. So, please, I urge the human soldiers to use it."

General Herwin, who was always a champion at raising concerns and picking a fight, asked Nigel with a stern voice, "If Prince Edwin hadn\'t found out about this silver thing then you and Princess Adeline were ready to look away from that one percent error?"

Herwin glared at Adeline and asked in a similar rude tone, "When we are talking in thousands, even that single percent means a lot, Princess. Were you going to sacrifice our soldiers by letting the werewolves join the battle alongside us?"

Nobody in the room liked the way he accused Nigel and Adeline, especially when they had gone through a lot of troubles to bring in the werewolves as allies.

Nonetheless, Nigel still managed to reply calmly, "Adeline and I were depending on Edwin to persuade the Vampire King into sending their vampire soldiers to a different location than their human soldiers. That way the werewolves would be able to fight the vampires without holding back."

Adeline put on a smile and gritted from between her teeth, "Yes, General Herwin. We were going to try our best not to mix the werewolves with the humans. And if that didn\'t work out, we would have searched for some other option. We were never going to overlook that small chance of error."

It was now Dragomir\'s turn to speak sternly. "And if nothing had worked out then I would have authorized the werewolves to fight alongside the humans."

"Sometimes we have to make small sacrifices to reach the bigger goal. That is a cruel choice I would make as the King, but it is a choice I would have considered nonetheless. Especially if it meant that by getting aid from the werewolves, we could save a hundred thousand lives at the expense of ten or twenty."

This was also a lesson from Dragomir to Adeline. He wanted to let her know that sometimes, rulers would have to make a hard choice.. He wanted her to know that sometimes she would have to minimize damage than completely avoid it and that it was okay to do so.