Thankfully, Dalric had misread the jupiter’s eyes. The white feline only showed appreciation and gratitude for being freed. Once she had exhausted her thank yous she rushed into a separate cell.

He quietly thanked the Elders that she hadn’t noticed Thunderfield. Ryku was one thing, but a jupiter would swear their life to him if they thought they too could get access.

Speaking of Ryku, the maybe-man, maybe-woman seemed to have dropped their request too. They had disappeared for a moment which led Dalric to assume they’d attempt to make a run for it, but they had simply left to go find a change of clothes. They ditched the prisoner rags they wore before and now donned a plain black robe.

Dalric had been prepared to give them a second, sterner warning if they made their plea again, but instead of pleading their case they made themself useful by going to the opposite row of cells and breaking them free.

Dalric had mostly done that side anyway, so they finished it fairly quickly. Once they were done with that, they disappeared again before reemerging with food.

There would have been no way to tell it was food if it wasn’t clearly labeled as such. It looked like mud, liquified mud. Without the label Dalric would have first assumed it was water, being that it came out of what appeared to be a leather canteen, but as Ryku squeezed the contents out and into the mouth of some scaled being, all he could see was brown mud.

Better than nothing.

When he finally freed the last of them and stood at the end of the hall, he turned back and pondered. He still had a tiny bit of ahjer left, but it was far from enough for a fight. Without a connection to Thunderfield, he obviously lost his defence, but he also lost his only means of acquiring ahjer easily. Because his body was far from mature enough to handle the power that coursed through it, he had effectively overloaded himself. One of the consequences for that was that his ahjer now crawled when replenishing itself. Considering it was already slow to begin with, he could wait for a full day and still not have enough to feel confident.

He might not need ‘enough’, though. A quick spell came to his lips.

~The earth listens for I command it~

It was meant to be a quick spell at least. He’d let the fact that the earth here was compacted and reinforced slip from his mind. If he put some more power behind the spell it could have still been quick, but there was no ‘more power’ to give. Thus, he waited patiently as the earth below each cell slowly pushed up and around their inhabitants. First, it holstered them on a flat, soft surface, then it grew small silky blades of grass. It might have been excessive to make the earthen beds comfortable, but he felt obligated.

When they were ready and recovered, he planned to use all the former slaves to stage his breakout. They all had very decent ahjer levels. None seemed as strong as ‘Sunset White’, but with thirty-six of them that wouldn’t matter.

Thirty-three minus the kids.

Ryku was on to one of the kids now. They showed a great deal of extra care and diligence in pouring the completely unappetizing ‘food’ into…

…

Dalric quietly admitted to himself that he may just be bad at recognizing human sexes if they weren’t obvious.

Ryku poured the ‘food’ into their mouth. He could appreciate their efforts. He didn’t know what a Paragon was, but the name implied something positive. Ryku certainly spoke of it like it was something to be proud of. None of that truly meant anything though, Dalric didn’t want to interact with them again.

Although…

By ahjer, Ryku was the strongest of the thirty-three. The gap to the next was wide enough that even with the imprecision of using ahjer to gauge strength, Dalric felt confident of that fact. It would be foolish and a bit childish of him to avoid them.

He sighed and made his approach, “What in the world is in that?”

Ryku looked up, “In this? I don’t… know, but it's similar to—ah. When you keep slaves, or prisoners, unconscious long term you feed them ‘tube’. Tube can be made with anything, but it's usually just a form of nutritious, watery gruel. I don’t know what this one is made with, but they’ve been feeding it to us for a while and I didn’t feel any negative effects.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

They still have hopes, huh?

“Nutritious?”

Ryku nodded, “Yeah. It costs more to make it that way, but you use less of it per meal and it provides both food and drink at once so it balances out. Also means you don’t have to clean the bodies as much.”

“Well. I meant what does the word ‘nutritious’ mean, but from that I’m guessing it means something along the lines of ‘highly nourishing’?”

“Ah.” Ryku stuttered for a second, “Uh, hu. Yes. That’s—that’s what it means.”

Hm. How efficient.

Dalric felt a bit of disgust as he took one of the canteens and inspected it, “How do you know all of that, being a Paragon?”

“Oh no, I was born in a city called Taki. It’s one of the major ports in Taiyo. You see a lot of slave traffic growing up.”

“I see.”

Seems like ‘Hiroto's info was good… I’ll probably regret this, but I should confirm a few things.

“What language do they speak in Taiyo?”

Ryku settled the kid back down into the bed and began moving to the next cell, “Surunese. I’m fluent in both Surunese and Sailian by the way.”

Now that I think about it, how is Surunese still Surunese, but Hellgurian is now Sailian?

Dalric followed, “Before the Taiyo Dynasty, who ruled?”

“No one. We were a bunch of scattered clans until Akira Taiyo unified us roughly seventy years ago.”

“Had the Akai Ken always been this… lively?”

They knelt down to feed an adult human this time, “As far as I’m aware, yes. It used to be even more so.”

Hm.

“Does the name ‘Aegeus’ mean anything to you?”

“Aegeus? Other than sounding like an old Salian name, no.”

So neither Whitesails nor Taiyo know of Aegeus. Yet both outlaw Gods? Oh wait.

“Are Gods outlawed in Taiyo too?”

“Not strictly speaking.” They finished with the adult and moved to the next cell, “There are many spirits in our land whom we treat with reverence, but we would not worship another person.”

Dalric wasn’t sure what he meant by ‘spirit’. It was a very imprecise term. Anything and everything with a soul and without a valinoid appearance had been called a spirit at one point or another. Gods could be anything.

Still. Aegeus is a human, supposedly. Even if he took a different name, they wouldn’t worship him there either.

Dalric switched gears, “Have you ever been off this island, Ryku?”

“Twice. As a silver badge, I have rights to see the annual Herculean Events.”

“You don’t need to know any other languages when you travel?”

Ryku grew more perplexed with each passing question, but they skillfully didn’t let the confusion on their face stop their hands from doing their job, “No? Most people who go to the event, even foreigners, speak Sailian.”

Oh?

“I was led to believe the Kingdom of Whitesails didn’t extend beyond this island?”

Realization dawned on Ryku, “Ohhh.” Then pure bewilderment, “Oh. Uh. Whitesails is just one kingdom in the Sailian Empire. There are several and they all speak Sailian. The Herculean Events take place in the Kingdom of Redsails for example.”

Ah. Well then.

“Are they all called ‘a color’-sails?”

Ryku forced a chuckle as they moved to the next cell, “No, only three. The Kingdoms of Redsails, Greensails, and Whitesails. I didn’t study much history so I don’t know why that is. Apologies.”

“No need. Speaking of history, do you know anything about the Hellgurian Republic or North Senate?”

“I have never heard of either, but I believe one of the other two kingdoms, The Altamont Kingdom, was once more republican in governance. It’s not quite in the north though.”

Altamont. Another name I’ve never heard of.

“Do you know when they made the change?”

“Oh. I’m not sure, but it has been like a millennium ago. They’ve been a monarchy since at least the Sky Break.”

Hm?

“Excuse me, the what?”