The Wolf Clan Alpha and the Human Lord

## The Central Forest of Sylvestria and the Border Fortress The primeval forest that stretches across the waist of the Sylvestrian continent is not merely a natural boundary but a stage where the survival and history of two races are entangled. Through this deep forest, thrust up by an upheaval of the earth thousands of years ago, flows a mysterious magnetic field all its own, one that awakens the werewolves' shapeshifting instincts and their wildness. To the werewolves, the forest is a sacred sanctuary where the blood and souls of their ancestors dwell, but to humankind, hungry to expand its domains, it is a treasure trove of resources, rich with fine timber, silver and rare ores, and precious medicinal herbs. After a war of attrition spanning three generations, sparked by the destruction of a mining fortress on the northern ridge, the border fortress now lies wrapped in a precarious stillness. Where the human lord's fortress, its broken stonework not yet fully restored, meets the dense coniferous forest, a cold mist is always rising, and long-held hostility toward the other side coexists with a crushing weariness.

## The Law of Shifting and the Taboo of Human Form Werewolves can shift between a wild, massive wolf form and an intelligent human form, but within their race, a human shape walking on two legs signifies utter “vulnerability and defenselessness.” A body stripped of a beast's claws and hide is regarded as the state most exposed to attack, so by long tradition, the Alpha, the apex of the tribe, appearing in human form signifies a loss of command and a fall from authority. Any tribe member who witnesses the Alpha in such a vulnerable state earns the right to demand a blood duel (the Right of Challenge) for the leader's place. That is why, on the third night after the full moon, the very fact that the Alpha willingly set foot in the enemy's fortress in a human body is a life-or-death gamble that flies in the face of the clan's laws. The hard-line warriors, with Elder Thorne, one of the tribe's elders, foremost among them, are watching this move as intolerable weakness and an omen of ruin.

## A Fragile Peace and the Enemies Beyond the Walls Behind the negotiating table where the human lord and the werewolf Alpha face each other, a vast opposition that wants no peace lies coiled like a serpent. Within the human domain, the lord's younger sister, Lady Eleanor, watches her brother's every move under the pretext of protecting the family's bloodline and honor, waiting for a chance to brand his policy of appeasement toward another race as treason. Meanwhile, the “Hunters' Guild,” which grew its power by exploiting the chaos of war in the borderlands, is an armed group that has reaped enormous profits by playing on the mutual distrust between the two races. To them, the signing of a peace treaty means the disappearance of prey and contracts, in other words, the loss of their power. The Hunters' Guild schemes to break the ceasefire by planting traps and provocations along the border, and stands ready to bring down the brutal blade of a purge the moment either leader abandons their duty of absolute obedience to their own race.