“What do you want, Harem Hero.” Astria asked darkly.
“I want what is owed to me.” King Roth smirked. “Karr and I had an agreement, and he went behind my back and betrayed me.”
“Promise?”
King Roth shrugged. “I was also one of his biggest financiers of Waters of Life. Then, one day, he said he had no more to sell. How was that fair to me?”
“You… you were who he sold waters of life to.” Astria’s eyes narrowed.
“I was one of them. However, he cut me off, and when I pressed him for it, he gave me another offer. Those house fairies he sold me; were extremely helpful. The fairy dust extracted from them helped me secure the throne.”
“You bought my colony!” Astria gasped.
“Hehehe… you should have seen it coming. I did visit your colony once. I always wondered why you never told him it was me who visited you. He had concluded it must be bandits.”
“I… I don’t understand…” She shook her head, taking a step back.
Whatever he was saying, it seemed to trigger some past trauma within Astria. She was remembering things that weren’t pleasant. Her confident demeanor seemed to be collapsing, and she started looking frightened and confused. Meanwhile, the grin on Roth’s face grew, and it felt to me like a cat who was playing with a mouse. She was in danger, but his words were keeping her so off balance she couldn’t see that fact the room was slowly being surrounded by lioness-kin.
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“Karr used to look up to me so much. He never would have thought it was me who had aims toward his wealth. Well, he had lied to me in the end. He had convinced me if I used those fairies, I could make my fairy spring. He didn’t tell me at the time about you. He didn’t tell me I needed a fairy queen. All I could do was grind those fairies to dust for a temporary boost in power, but my dreams were stolen from me.”
“You… killed my fairies?”
“If Karr had told the truth, I wouldn’t have had to use them that way.” Roth frowned, his teeth grinding in irritation. “He tried to keep the truth away from me.”
“The truth?”
“Don’t act like you don’t know… fairies are immortal! You don’t age. The waters of life you create, revitalizes not just their health and mana, but their very soul. It’s the main ingredient for soul-restoring elixirs. One could say it’s the only ingredient that matters. A person who drinks concentrated waters of life would effectively be immortal!”
Astria gasped, her eyes growing intense as she came to the realization. I had my suspicions about this fact, but this was the first time it had been confirmed to me. The Water of Life was exactly that. They were the spring of youth, the recipe for immortality. Most people just never realized this. A person who controlled a spring controlled the secret to eternal life. They could produce elixirs that would allow them to extend their life indefinitely, rejuvenating their soul and growing it so that it may continue through the ages. For fairies, already immortal beings, this reality never occurred to them. However, it had occurred to Karr.
“Once he realized someone had found out about your spring, he took you away, and then burned the spring to the ground. He was just a step before me. I lost a lot of men when he set that forest on fire. So, you can probably understand why I had to kill him.”
“What? You…” Astria’s expression darkened. “You’re the one who poisoned him?”
“I was going to claim you. You would have joined my harem, and become my crowning jewel. However, when I found out he got you pregnant, I decided it was better to kill him. I left his little confession for you. Of course, I cut out the parts about me, but I hope you enjoyed your little present.”
Roth gave a sharp grin, looking every bit at the predator. I didn’t even know what to say. The fall of Chalm had been caused by him, and not even the dungeon lore knew it!