Chapter 317

317 The Decadence

Selma Payne’s POV:

The elves’ ambiguous attitude caused a lot of trouble in the pursuit. Three days later, after receiving no response from the Elf King, my father sent a small elite team into the elf forest to scout the situation.

Without a doubt, I became the leader of this search team, so I didn’t have to return to the Lycan pack. I had to wait for the team members to arrive in the Shadow Pack. Since this was a top-secret operation, we would disguise ourselves as a civilian scientific research team. The elves’ attitude toward non-threatening civilians was still very peaceful, so we couldn’t reveal our identities, or it might cause a diplomatic incident.

I couldn’t help but get angry: I really didn’t understand what those pointy-eared people were thinking. They had to be careful when werewolves entered the country, but they could ignore the vicious wandering criminal gang. They could send someone to catch us if they didn’t trust us. Were there people who were naive enough to think that the stray werewolves only targeted the werewolf race and were harmonious and friendly to other races?

I didn’t know what the Elf King was thinking, but I realized that the size of the brains of some werewolves was eye-opening.

In the three days after the scandal of the missing orphans was exposed, many criticisms drifted like snowflakes to the three packs at the border, which tried to cover up the reality. In this regard, the first thing the Alphas in these three places thought about wasn’t how to calm the public’s anger, how to organize a search and rescue, but instead began to throw the pot down, ‘Are you accusing me of dereliction of duty? Alright then, I might not do anything. Whoever has the ability will take care of this mess.’

This ignited the public’s anger. The arrogant Alphas might have wanted to force the public to see the ‘fact’ that ‘they can’t live without them’, but he didn’t expect to push himself into the pit of fire.

The people with the Yellow Leaf and Floodwater Packs held a referendum to overthrow the legitimacy of the current Alpha. The Saber Tooth Pack members were even more furious. They attacked the government, deprived the Alpha of all power, and sued him for ‘serious dereliction of duty’ until the Federal Court.

In other words, the final decision was now in the hands of the Lycan pack. The Yellow Leaf and Floodwater Packs needed to elect a new Alpha, and the Saber Tooth Pack’s situation was even more critical. In addition to selecting a leader, they also needed to quell the rising trend of riots.

My father made a prompt decision and immediately sent Duke Frank to deal with the most critical pack – the Saber Tooth Pack. My itinerary changed again. I immediately set off for the Yellow Leaf Pack and Floodwater Pack to host the Alpha election and wait for the search team to meet me here.

On the day I left the Shadow Pack, my relatives and friends were all very reluctant to part, and my adoptive mother was so worried that she almost cried.

“I heard that there’s a Riot Brewing at the border. You must be careful wherever you go. If there’s any danger, protect yourself first and think about other things, understand? I know you have to bear the responsibility of a Princess, but that doesn’t mean you have to take the lead in everything. Promise me. You must ensure your safety!” she said worriedly.

I hugged my adoptive parents tightly and said, “I understand. Mom and dad, you have to take care of your health too. I’ll come back to see you when I’m done with the things over there.”

Rhode had gradually shown the qualities of an Alpha. He wasn’t acting like a kid anymore when he calmly told me, “Take care of yourself. If there’s anything you need me for, let me know immediately.”

Before leaving under everyone’s watchful eyes, I nodded and bid farewell to Teresa and the others.

The werewolves did not have any strict regional discrimination. However, the difference in Regional Development was an objective fact. Only some of the packs with superior geographical location could be as prosperous as the trunk pack, and not all the packs with convenient transportation could be as prosperous as the Silver Moon Pack.

The closer we got to the border, the more obvious the gap between the rich and the poor became. The size of the pack gradually shrank, and in the end, it was just like a small village. The level of prosperity within the packs also decreased in order. Some particularly small packs were like small districts with slightly larger areas.

This also made me understand why the packs attacked by the wanderers were so negligent in taking care of the orphanage. They really didn’t have the resources to do so, even if they wanted to.

It took us a day and a half to reach the nearest Yellow Leaf Pack. What I saw along the way made me question one thing, ‘Could those especially weak packs that would not have the resources to support themselves in a few years form a city?’

The strict geographical division and isolation had severely miscalculated the distribution of resources and population between packs. The rich became richer while the poor became poorer. In recent years, with the infiltration of human society into the werewolf race, some young people even became popular with cross-pack immigration, which they didn’t even dare to think about in the past.

However, reality forced people to make this choice. Young people had to work if they wanted to survive. If their own ‘pack’ didn’t provide the opportunity, they could only go to other, more prosperous, powerful ‘packs’ to survive. Their departure made their ‘pack’, already weak, even shakier, eventually forming a vicious cycle.

The Yellow Leaf and Floodwater Pack were undoubtedly the places the immigration tide had ravaged.

Legend had it that the Yellow Leaf and Floodwater Packs’ ancestors were inspired by the Moon Goddess’ handmaidens, thus creating these two packs.