Although it is already the end of winter, the morning in Steel Castle is still freezing cold.

Except for a few poor vendors who ventured to the middle of the lake to get ice, the rest of the citizens of Steel Castle were hiding in warm indoors, and no one had the leisure to go out for morning exercises.

Therefore, at a glance, there are only two people and two dogs on the open lake shore.

"So..." Winters stroked the fur between the wolfhound's ears, and the big dog hummed flatteringly as he was petted. He raised his head and asked Carman: "Why do they obey me?"

Kaman hesitated for a moment: "Because of witchcraft?"

Winters raised the corner of his mouth slightly and asked, "I'm not a Hed shaman, how can I use shamanic magic?"

There were too many quarrels on weekdays, and seeing Winters' smile, Kaman instinctively wanted to choke back a few words.

But now he has something to ask for, so the priest can only suppress the urge to quarrel and follow the other person's words to ask: "Are you really not? Then why did the barbarians call you "Herstas" when you were in Qingqiu?

], and there are barbarians who worship you?"

"you caught me……"

Kaman snorted softly: "It's not like I don't have eyes."

"But." Winters changed the topic and said solemnly: "I really don't know shamanic magic."

Kaman laughed angrily and pointed at the two wolfdogs whose tails were wagging like windmills: "You don't know barbarian witchcraft? Then how did you make them behave like dogs? A miracle? You don't want to say that.

——You rely on love to influence beasts?!"

Hearing Carman's question, Winters coughed a few times in embarrassment. He hugged the two wolfdogs and defended: "They are dogs to begin with!"

…

After the bloody battle in Qingqiu came to an end, the Red River tribe's troops searched the corpses and finally identified the wolf-controlling assassin as the Beast Spirit Whisperer [White Sturgeon].

The Red River Department detained the body of the paddlefish and firmly refused to agree to Winters' request to inspect and take away the body of the paddlefish.

The reason is: Although Paddlefish attempted to assassinate the White Lion, he was still an out-and-out shaman, the Chosen One, and the Red River Tribe would never let his body be insulted by outsiders.

Winters also seized the White Lion's horse [Chang Feng] to retaliate, and the two sides were barely even.

So all Winters got from the paddlefish was the peculiar bone flute.

However, as the warrior who killed the paddlefish, Winters also had the right to first select a trophy from the paddlefish's legacy.

Paddlefish brought a total of six wolf dogs to Qingqiu, and "consumed" four of them. The remaining two were locked in cages and were discovered only after cleaning the battlefield.

The Chihe tribe regarded the two dogs, which looked like wolves, as evil creatures and originally planned to kill them. The young hunter Bell couldn't just sit back and watch, so he begged Winters to save the two spiritual beasts.

After Winters learned about this, he couldn't bear it, so he asked the Red River Department for the white sturgeon spirit beast as a trophy.

The Akagawa tribe was happy to have someone take over the troublesome thing between these two "spiritual beasts" and "evil things", and happily sent the iron cage containing the wolfdog to Winters' camp.

At this point, the story should have come to an end.

Because the two wolfdogs were too ferocious to approach, they had to be kept in an iron cage. Winters couldn't figure out for a while how the paddlefish controlled the wolfdogs like an arm and a finger.

However, there is someone more ferocious than the wolfdog in Winters' camp.

The "little guy" who was kept awake by the barking wolf dogs all the time, once took advantage of Bell's absence to sneak up to the carriage transporting the wolf dogs, and gave the two wolf dogs an "induction training" through the iron cage.

.

Since then, the two wolfdogs have quickly corrected themselves. They no longer bark or attack others. They will also wag their tails to show their goodwill when feeding, and they can even be led around.

But...the little guy never gave up the idea of ​​eating dog meat.

It was always sneaky and lurking behind the wolf dog, and it refused to change despite repeated admonitions. It almost succeeded several times, forcing Winters to put the wolf dog in the iron cage again.

In order to save the dog's life and avoid a tragedy, the Tiefeng County mission recruited the cashier and reorganized the team. Winters asked Bell to take the little guy to the south and follow Lieutenant Colonel Moritz to escort the gold bars back to Tiefeng County.

He himself took the northern route with his two wolfhounds, returning first to Jiangbei Province and then into the mountains.

This was the beginning and end of the appearance of the two wolf dogs in the Steel Castle. It was also after Winters arrived in the Monta Republic that he got the inspiration for the "Beast Spirit Speaker Magic".

…

[Time returns to the present]

After hearing Winters say, "They are actually dogs," Kaman immediately asked, "Do you want someone to ask?"

Winters fell silent.

During Monta's trip, the two wolfdogs had several misunderstandings.

The Monta Republic has many mountains and little land, so it needs to purchase food from the Van Republic all year round. In addition to tending the few acres of thin farmland at home, the most important livelihood of the Monta farmers is grazing, and they hate the wolves that poach livestock the most.

So along the way, almost everyone yelled and beat the two wolf dogs.

Anna tried to sew a pair of particularly eye-catching collars to tie around the necks of the wolfhounds, proving that they had owners. The result was that it only made it easier for the Monta people to notice them, but it did not weaken the hostility in the Monta people's hearts at all.

Winters had to explain over and over again, "These are dogs, not wolves."

Even so, the stubborn Monta mountain people were still hesitant. Many Monta farmers turned around and whispered, "What's wrong? Raising wolves as dogs? Ha, Veneta people!"

So if anyone else were to judge, the winner would definitely be Kaman.

Winters touched the wolfdog's neck and explained seriously: "If I guess correctly, they should be a hybrid of wolf and dog. Although they look like wolves, their loyalty is no less than that of dogs."

"A hybrid between a wolf and a dog is not a wolf?" Kaman crossed his arms.

Winters was silent for a moment, thought and then replied: "Probably, it depends on who they are loyal to. If they associate with wolves, then they are undoubtedly wolves. If they loyally protect humans, then they are dogs."

"Born cannot be erased so easily." Kaman frowned slightly: "They have wolf blood, so in the eyes of many people, they are wolves."

"That may be true." Winters stroked the wolfdog's smooth fur and sighed with emotion: "But don't you think they are very sad? Their loyalty is unquestionable, but their former owner took advantage of this loyalty despicably and ruthlessly.

He strapped fragmentation grenades on them and sent them on suicide missions. They didn't know they were destined to die. It's likely that the moment before they were shattered into pieces, their minds were still filled with unreserved loyalty."

After Kaman listened silently, he asked curiously: "[Foxes will feel sad when they see rabbits being killed by hunters]; [beasts will shed tears when they see the same kind of misfortune]... Shouldn't you see two

Wolfdog, have you remembered what happened to you?"

Winters was choked to the point of speechlessness and coughed violently.

After a long pause, he asked Kaman mockingly: "When did you become so aggressive?"

"Who taught the teacher well?" Kaman bowed and saluted solemnly.

This time, Kaman won a big victory. Winters waved his hand: "There is no need to continue arguing about whether they are wolves or dogs..."

"It's up to you." Kaman smiled.

Winters reiterated: "I don't know shamanic magic."

"I don't believe it." Kaman's smile continued.

Winters cut the knot quickly: "Do you think that being able to control animals is equivalent to mastering shamanic magic?"

"To be precise, driving animals is one of the abilities of barbarian shamans. Documents record that other pagan magic has similar spells... This is something we have confirmed a long time ago."

Winters shook his head slightly and asked a digression: "On our way here, did you see how the Monta herders herd sheep?"

"I've seen it."

"What about the Hed people herding sheep? Have you seen them?"

"I haven't seen it before." Kaman was puzzled: "What is the relationship between sheep herding and witchcraft? Could it be that you learned the barbarian witchcraft from watching sheep herding?"

Winters did not answer directly, explaining: "Heder herdsmen herd sheep on horses because the grassland is flat and the pasture is vast. But the Munta herdsmen can't. Have you ever seen the Munta herdsmen ride horses? First, they can't raise horses. Second, they can't raise horses.

The terrain in the mountains changed drastically. People and horses couldn't help but turn back and forth down the mountain..."

"So?" Kaman tilted his head.

"So the Monta herdsmen use dogs to herd their sheep." Winters spread his hands: "Of course, the Hud people also raise dogs, but the cooperation between the Hud herdsmen and the sheepdogs is the same as the cooperation between the Monta herdsmen and the sheepdogs.

In comparison, it is like putting a child who is learning swordsmanship on his first day in front of a swordsman."

Kaman frowned again.

"You say I can drive wild animals, but my ability to drive these two stupid dogs is nothing compared to the ability of the Monta herdsmen to drive their sheepdogs." Winters pointed to the mountains surrounding the lake and talked eloquently.

:

"As long as Monta Shepherd blows a whistle, the sheepdog immediately knows what to do. Even the herder does not need to give orders, the sheepdog itself knows how to drive away wolves and leopards, gather the sheep, and stop the rams from fighting. And what about me? I

It took a lot of effort to get these two stupid dogs to learn to pick up sticks."

As he said that, Winters picked up two pieces of driftwood and threw them into the distance, and the two wolfhounds jumped out with a "swoosh".

After a while, two big dogs ran back happily with a branch in their mouths.

"If this counts as driving animals, if driving animals counts as magic." Winters asked with a smile: "Doesn't that mean that every Monta herdsman is a Hed shaman?"

Kaman's thinking was a little confused: "It's still... different..."

"What's the difference?" Winters asked, "Aren't the results the same?"

"The paths are different." Kaman gradually clarified the logical relationship: "Shepherds go through training, and you, you go through witchcraft."

Winters asked confidently: "Since the results are the same, why do you conclude that I used Hurd's magic instead of teaching them to pick up sticks through repeated training?"

"I have no intention of having a philosophical debate with you." Kaman's eyebrows became tighter and tighter: "If you like metaphysical arguments, I will find you some real debaters when I have the opportunity. How long do you want to debate?

Just argue for as long as you want.”
To be continued...