I Became A Zompirewolf

Chapter 246 Washed Away (1)

The sun was dawning over the land of werewolves, which meant it was time for everyone to pack up, stop working and enjoy the night in Livan. Everyone, but the heads of various departments needed to discuss the development of the city now that they didn't have any shortage of resources.

Numerically, there were several secretaries that served under Ashton's command. Virgil, who was the secretary of defence. Fae, the secretary of healthcare. Renee was made the secretary of food procurement and supplies. Baiter was considered to be made the secretary of technological advancement and development.

However, even after giving them their tasks, there were a lot of things that still needed to be taken care of and thus Ashton needed more secretaries. Thankfully, he had no shortage of capable people on his side to fill the most important roles.

The minute Duncan and Daniella decided to stay with Ashton, despite the things he had done to them in the past, Ashton decided they would be the perfect candidates to voice the opinion of the humans in his city. Thus, Duncan was given the position of Secretary of Human Relations.

This move also made the humans that now lived and worked in the city feel safe as now for the first time in their lives, their voices would be heard on an equal level as the werewolves.

Apart from them, Ashton also gave Verina a post, even though she shouldn't have been assigned a role as their stay in Livan was considered to be 'temporary'.

However, when Verina asked for Alucard's permission, he readily agreed to the proposal thinking it would be the perfect way for the sisters to show their usefulness to him and win him over.

As a result, Verina was made the secretary of external and internal affairs due to her cool-headed nature. In the meantime, Irina was made the secretary of training armed forces along with finance. Because she happened to be good with numbers and money as a whole and also training people for warfare.

Obviously, in time he would need more trustworthy people to fill in for more secretaries as his city expanded. But for now, seven secretaries were enough.

To anyone who saw his city, it was clear that Ashton wasn't treating his territory like a city, but as a kingdom of his own. After all, there was no reason for him to make a secretary for external affairs if he was merely restoring a city.

But he did because he knew Jonathan wasn't on his side completely and also simply because he could do whatever he wanted to. No one would dare to go against him as long as he minded his own business and they minded theirs.

"Alright, people," Ashton started the meeting as usual, "Let's start with Verina. What do you got for me tonight?"

"More lords have offered you money, for atonement." Verina shrugged her shoulders, "Or so they say."

Ashton shook his head and replied, "That's no atonement money, but blood money. They want to ease their guilt and I'm not going to let that happen. They will pay for what they did, but not now."

Getting money and resources from the neighbouring lords had become a custom. They often send things his way, thinking he would forgive them for their 'irrational' behaviour. But Ashton had no intention of doing such a thing.

Soon the lords got a wind of what happened to the Morgans and Mera, but they couldn't do anything about it. Mainly because they were just as guilty as the Morgans had been.

As for the matter of women and children who had been kidnapped from Livan, most of them were safely returned to Ashton as a strategic move to not invoke his anger. But some were unfortunate.

A few of them had already been sold to a variety of buyers, and even sent to some uncharted regions that were the home to the most vicious night creatures. just because their buyers wanted them to suffer. But they weren't sent just like that.

Surveillance devices were strapped across their bodies so that they could enjoy watching them suffer while they had fun betting on how long they would survive.

It was safe to say that all of those people died horrific deaths. Earlier humans were used for this purpose but now even the werewolves weren't safe.

How did Ashton know all of this? Multiple Lords had confirmed it themselves. But these weren't the ones who indulged in it, that's why they agreed to inform Ashton all about it in the hopes of getting on his good side.

The guilty lords, especially the Gruntas, readily compensated their loss with money, but Ashton declined their offer.  The blood of the innocents was on their hands and Ashton wasn't going to accept some blood money to ease their guilt.

By offering him the money they wanted to force Ashton into keeping his hands to himself, but now that he had declined their offer, they were afraid of retaliation.

Especially the Gruntas who were known to go against Ashton ever since he was just a student at the academy. Not to mention, they were directly responsible for what happened to Livan and its people, so they were afraid Ashton might do what he did to the Morgans and Mistress Mera.

They even went to the king to beg for his help but to no avail. He, who barely managed to protect his daughter, was in no shape or form going to do anything to protect them. On top of that, every noble household was aware of their 'crimes' and decided to distance themselves from them for good.

"Should we attack them or something?" Virgil asked calmly, "I mean they know sooner or later we will come for their heads."

"We do not have the resources to start another war." Fae interrupted, "Also, waging wars so often would only make everyone conscious of having any contact with us. Not to mention, wars could also hinder the development of our city to be added to a merchant route."

"As much as I want to rip their heads of myself, Fae is correct." Ashton nodded, "Fighting against them would do us more harm than good. Now is the time for us to make more friends than enemies so we should focus on that. Anything else?"

"Hm... not at the moment but I do have a personal request from father for you." Verina replied, "There's something he needs to discuss with you."

"Oh, did his intelligence network find those Conundrum rats?" Ashton said with a smile on his face, which disappeared once Verina shook her head.

"They found something alright, but it has nothing to do with Conundrum." She said, "They found an Undead creature washed away at the shore of one of the vampiric kingdoms."

"And...?" Ashton couldn't figure out how it was any of his concern.

"Since you're an Undead too... well, at least a third of it, he was hoping you could have some clues for finding more about that creature."

"Oh... hm. That could be arranged easily. I was looking for an opportunity to go there as well."

"Anything special?" Irina asked him.

"No. Just a few things I need to do there."