"Other groups?" Nick seized on the key point. "So there are lots of different kinds of Wesen, not just Wolf Wesen like you?"
"Of course. If you've been awake for a while, you should have seen a few, right? Mauseherz, Höllentier, Coyotl, Lizard Wesen, and so on.
"Especially those Lizard Wesen who love stirring up trouble. They're regulars at the police station."
Eddie Monroe looked as though this were only natural, but his eyes kept darting between Nick's face and the P226 pistol on the table. "Hey, listen, I don't want any trouble. As you can see, I've turned over a new leaf. I've never lost control."
"Lost control? You mean that look you showed this afternoon just because you saw two kids?" Nick raised both hands beside his ears and crooked two fingers on each to make air quotes.
Eddie Monroe immediately looked wronged. "Hey! Man! That was because I smelled another one of my kind. I've never hurt a human.
"I eat extra vegetables every day, cook my steaks well-done, and do Pilates. I'm a reformed Wolf Wesen. I drew a line between myself and those old-school types ages ago. I don't even pray at the same church as them."
"So you even go to church?" Nick found that utterly baffling.
"Of course." The guy sounded as though he were talking about something perfectly ordinary. "Don't you?"
Actually, I don't, Nick thought. Whenever he remembered the story he'd heard in his previous life about a female internet celebrity asking various churches for help, he lost all illusions about this country's religious organizations. He didn't even want to pretend otherwise.
It was only because the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster hadn't really gotten going yet at this point. Otherwise, he would have had to start a Church of the Holy Meow to liven things up.
From the sound of it, this Eddie Monroe seemed to be one of the moderates. Nick silently reminded himself not to let his guard down as he continued drawing information out of him.
As Eddie Monroe rambled on, Nick combined his account with his hazy memories from his previous life and roughly pieced together the relationship between the so-called Grimms and Wesen.
The word "Wesen" came from an archaic form of Spanish dating back to the Middle Ages. They were said to be descendants of subordinate divine races that had once served the gods of ancient Egypt.
That was why Wesen possessed the same animal-headed, human-bodied traits as many ancient Egyptian gods, such as Anubis, Khepri, Ammit, and Nut.
Of course, Nick took that particular claim as nothing more than Eddie flattering his own kind.
Broadly speaking, "Wesen" could be considered an umbrella term, much like "human."
Humans could be divided into white people, black people, yellow people, and so on. The same was true of Wesen, except there were more varieties.
They had only one thing in common: under certain circumstances, such as emotional stimulation, they could transform into a half-beast state.
There were two forms of this state: involuntary and voluntary.
During an involuntary transformation, as Nick had seen earlier, ordinary people couldn't see it. Only Grimms could observe their true forms.
During a voluntary transformation, however, Wesen could truly turn into half-beasts, revealing themselves before ordinary people and possessing certain "skills" corresponding to their underlying forms.
For example, when Wolf Wesen known as Blutbad transformed, they became bloodthirsty and fearless in the face of death. They could attack with fangs and sharp claws, making them extremely deadly to ordinary people.
In the beginning, Grimms and Wesen hadn't been enemies. Legends even spoke of their ancestors fighting side by side.
Only after certain events, now lost to history, had the two sides broken with each other completely.
One account held that an ancestor of the Grimms could no longer stand how certain Wesen failed to restrain their instincts and frequently wreaked havoc among humans, so he had taken decisive action. Relying on the special ability in his bloodline to see through to a Wesen's true nature, he had become a Witch Hunter who punished evil and upheld good.
Over the centuries, generation after generation of Grimms had accumulated extensive experience slaughtering all manner of Wesen creatures and compiled it into books.
Thus came the "book" Eddie Monroe had mentioned. Over the centuries, portions of its contents had found their way into the wider world, blending with various European folk traditions to become Grimm's Fairy Tales. What actually circulated among the Grimms, however, was called Grimm's Journal.
Grimm's Journal supposedly not only recorded and illustrated the true forms and characteristics of various Wesen creatures, but also placed particular emphasis on their weaknesses and ways to deal with them.
At this point, Nick couldn't help feeling a little puzzled. "You mean that when Wesen involuntarily reveal their true forms, sometimes they don't even notice it themselves, but if a Grimm sees them, it almost always ends with one side or the other dead? Isn't there something wrong with that?"
Eddie Monroe scratched his head awkwardly. "You have to understand, even members of the same kind don't always notice each other's occasional involuntary transformations. But Grimm hunters always see them, and what follows is... all sorts of brutal killings.
"Over hundreds and thousands of years, fear of Grimms has become ingrained in Wesen blood. When we meet your eyes, we feel a fear from deep within, as though we're seeing ourselves lying in a pool of blood a second later."
Put that way, the Grimms sounded pretty formidable.
Nick silently breathed a sigh of relief and tentatively sought confirmation. "So that expression you had when you saw me earlier wasn't because I'd turned into something strange?"
Eddie Monroe looked as though he'd been insulted. "What do you mean, something strange? I admit you're better-looking than me as a human, but my true form is super handsome too, okay?"
Nick recalled the guy's wolf fur and protruding fangs. Though he couldn't agree, he didn't argue with him over something like that.
Only now did he work out why that Wesen had been scared out of his wits after transforming and seeing his eyes, screaming, "Don't kill me!" before fleeing for his life.
And there had been that pretty blonde in an expensive women's suit, who had met his gaze while inadvertently revealing her true form, only to look as though she'd seen a ghost and hurry away.
Eddie Monroe now spread his hands and said with blunt resignation, "Okay, I've told you everything you wanted to know. So what are you planning to do next?
"I need to make one thing clear beforehand. Not every Wesen creature runs away or freezes in terror at the sight of a Grimm. We fight back too."
Nick nearly laughed at this threat that was all bluster. "Thanks for the reminder. Someone already demonstrated that for me, and they really did come close to killing me."
Eddie Monroe clapped his hands and sprang straight to his feet. "Aha, I remember now! That shootout on the TV news a few days ago. You're the guy who won the Wild West duel!"
Before you continue