Chapter 263 - Terror Unleashed by the Dragon
Hugo Riverclimb:
I swallowed hard, unable to look away from the chaotic scene. In the center of it all, stood a gigantic red dragon, a creature far surpassing any beastly form of demi-human I had ever seen or even imagined. Its presence dominated the place, an overwhelming force that seemed to bend even the air around it. Every breath it exhaled reverberated a primal and terrifying sound that made my heart falter. Its eyes, glowing intensely, burned with a primitive hatred, fierce and tangible, as if piercing the soul of anyone who dared to look at it.
This dragon is much bigger than when I saw it in the cave. I think ten times bigger? No... maybe more.
I glanced at Sifu, who was a little distant, and the old man was calmly sipping his tea, watching the chaos with absurd calmness. He was even eating something, as if it were a normal, peaceful afternoon.
This monk is truly crazy.
Even knowing the dragon was on our side, I kept sweating from tension.
How can someone be so relaxed with a monster of that size nearby?
I left the nobles, trembling and wetting themselves, as they recounted the failed attempt to assassinate the young master, and I started walking toward Sifu. Even while walking, I kept my cautious gaze on the dragon, unable to fully relax.
My wife is crazy, I thought, remembering the times I saw Martha playing with the little bird, throwing meat for the phoenix.
When I finally got closer, Sifu greeted me with a slight nod of his head, not saying a word. He went back to drinking his tea, as if there wasn’t a gigantic and terrifying creature lurking, or as if the world were in complete normalcy.
"I must be the only sensible one. Why aren’t you scared?" I asked, still trying to understand how Sifu managed to maintain such absurd calmness.
He looked at me, letting out a light laugh. "And what’s the point of being afraid? If that thing decides to kill us, we wouldn’t even tickle it," he replied with unsettling tranquility.
I leaned against the wall, my back tense, and I remembered the story he told us years ago, when Nathan arrived at the castle with that little bird on his shoulder. "You told us that if the phoenix hadn’t become Nathan’s friend, it would have grown full of rage because of what the True Humans did to it. Our entire duchy would have become its hunting ground. Was there any way it could have changed its mind if it hadn’t been saved by the young master?"
Sifu looked me in the eyes, his expression serious for a moment. "No. If it hadn’t found Nathan, it would have been flying around, killing everyone."
I turned my gaze back to the giant red dragon that now inhabited the place, swallowing hard. "Good thing everything worked out in the end..." I muttered.
He laughed again, this time placing his hand on my shoulder. "There are greater forces in this world that mere mortals like us could never compare to. Don’t worry about what you can’t control," he said.
I sighed.
Sifu laughed, giving me a slap on the back. "Go on, stay near the queen, ‘guard’ sir, and find out what she’s planning," he said, pushing me gently away.
That old man was crazy, but he wasn’t dumb at all.
I took a deep breath and moved closer to the group. My wife was busy feeding the giant plant with the noble whose mind had collapsed. The men from our army had already gathered the bodies scattered around the fortress, and, one by one, they were throwing them to the plant. That creature devoured everything, from flesh to bones, except for clothes and armor, which were expelled as if completely useless. What were once bodies became just a forgotten memory, melted in acid inside that monstrous plant. When it was all over, the only proof that a battle had taken place there would be the material destruction. No corpse would remain.
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The soldiers of the enemy army, still kneeling and tense, watched the giant plant with fear. They sweated, unsure if their fate would end as food for the plant or death by the dragon, which continued hovering above the castle, silent and threatening.
I moved closer to the group of nobles. They were confessing their crimes with a tone of desperation. With every word, they revealed what they had been plotting since before Nathan and Chloe were born. They told how, taking advantage of Margaery and the duchy being vulnerable during the war, they allied with Nikolaus Wolves, planning to take control of the territory when they learned that Margaery had given birth to a daughter. Thus, they planned to force an arranged engagement.
We already knew about this part, but we wanted to hear it straight from their mouths, to know every detail from the traitors' perspective.
"So, when my husband and his brother died defending the border, it was at that moment you saw the opportunity to fulfill your plans, trying to secure the marriage of my newborn baby," she said, her words as sharp as blades. She punished them, and the screams of the nobles echoed as Margaery whipped each of them with the enchanted chain, each crack on the floor followed by pain and suffering. She stopped for a moment, looking at them with disdain.
They couldn’t lie, the shadow of death was present in every word. None of them dared hide details, fearing that the other noble would reveal more information in an attempt to save themselves. The false loyalty crumbled there, as each one recounted the plots and secret conversations they had over the years.
Margaery sighed, staring at her nails for a moment, but the coldness in her expression remained.
"So, the kingdom was involved..." she said, and the air around seemed to freeze. Her rage was palpable.
Margaery gripped the chain so tightly that her hands were marked by the enchanted metal, even as she felt the pain pierce through her fingers. The anger burning in her chest was so intense that she hadn’t ordered those men to be devoured alive by the panther or the dragon while listening to them speak.
"But I’m glad they just played by the rules of diplomacy. Because if even one finger from the kingdom had been involved in the assassination attempts of my two children, I would have gone to Apsalon personally and taken the lives of their children," she said, staring at each of the nobles. The heavy silence filled the room, and their gazes faltered, swallowing hard, fearing what was yet to come.
They continued speaking, daring not to look away, detailing all of their plans.
"Looks like the kingdom honored the mediation agreement, and didn’t move behind the scenes after Nathan appeared as heir," Margaery said, her voice laced with contempt. "It was just your greed."
"So it was you, the worms, who funded the gangs in my duchy," she continued, "allowing crime to grow while I tried to strengthen security. It all makes sense now. The more measures I took, the faster new gangs would pop up, like damn cockroaches! The worst part is, you knew exactly which roads to avoid and where to strike, as if you had a map of my defenses."
She glared at them.
The nobles, terrified, tried to justify their actions, but their voices barely came out. The fear was clear on their faces.
"We always suspected local nobles were involved, but we never imagined it was such a large operation, involving people like you. You allowed chaos to reign in my duchy to profit from it!" Her voice grew in fury, echoing through the castle walls.
"You didn’t even need to directly finance anyone," Margaery continued, her tone acidic. "All you had to do was stop overseeing the lands, and naturally, troublesome people would emerge. The chaos was something you all nurtured, and worse, you took advantage of it."
She moved closer to the nobles, her words sharp as blades.
"And on top of that, you spread it in the underworld of other duchies. As if the Evenhart duchy was easy territory for committing crimes. And it was easy, because you, the lords of the lands, allowed it!"
Margaery could no longer contain her anger and, with a swift gesture, pointed at the nobles, one by one, ordering: “Kill this one! Kill that one! Kill this one too!”
Upon hearing what she said, the nobles tried to flee, but they were quickly stopped by the moon panther, who jumped with agility and surrounded them. In a brutal movement, the dragon descended upon them, its enormous jaws swallowing three at once. The creature raised its neck, displaying the macabre feast for the other kneeling nobles, while blood dripped from its mouth, splattering on those left, who trembled in sheer terror.
Margaery watched the scene with relentless coldness, as the heavy silence fell over the courtyard.
"Please! Mercy! You promised you wouldn’t kill us if we cooperated!" one of them cried, prostrating himself on the ground.
"And I’m honoring the promise. Do you see me killing anyone? My hands are clean, it’s the dragon doing the killing," Margaery replied, with a cutting coldness.
The men cried again.
"Who do you serve?" she shouted, her voice full of authority.
"To you!" they shouted in unison, desperate. "We serve you!"
Margaery snapped her chain on the ground, the sound echoing, and went back to whipping them mercilessly.
"NO! You serve the EVENHART FAMILY!" she corrected, with every word marked by the whip falling upon them.