Chapter 86
“If you want the flower, you can take it over my corpse.” I drew the sword I had been given as king and pointed it at the young woman. “You know I’m more powerful than you are. We’re not even.”
I was only guessing. I didn’t know what levels the queen and king were supposed to be in this scenario. I could also tell this woman was a high-level evolved too. However, she was masking her mana level, so unless we fought, I wouldn’t know her strength. Either way, I was assuming in this scenario, the king was stronger than the queen. At least, that was how the attendants seemed to treat us. Furthermore, it stood to reason that the queen would stand on equal footing with this woman.
“You can’t fight me here.” She lowered her voice, her eyes darting to the mouth of the breathing cave. “This is the territory of the red dragon. If we awaken it, we will both die a horrible death. We’re both suppressing our auras right now, so in this place, we are equal.”
She glared at me bravely while pulling out a bow from over her shoulder and knocking it. At least she understood that mana or not, I was stronger than her. She was trying to keep her distance. I frowned and then took a look at the flower.
“If you give me the flower, I will provide a remedy for your brother.”
Her eyes flickered, and then she looked angry, “You think I’m a complete fool? As soon as you take the flower, I will never see you again.”
I didn’t want to spend time arguing with her, so I reached for the flower. “You have my word as a king.”
She immediately slashed with her knife, forcing me to pull back.
“You’re word as a king is garbage! You assassinated my father and tried to kill my brother.”
“Do you honestly believe we were the ones who attacked you?” I demanded, feeling irritated. “It took very little effort to determine it was a plot from a rival country. They want us fighting so we’re both weaker, and you’re falling right into that plot. Do you think a king would handle his poisons? Do you think I’d poison myself?”
She hesitated for a moment and then shook her head. “Even if it was your enemies who attacked us, it was your people who allowed them in, and your people who couldn’t protect your honored guests. You are responsible for this disaster.”
“You’re not wrong, we need to make it up to your tribe.” I felt a bit relieved she seemed to be seeing reason.
“Then, you can give me the flower and we’ll consider negotiating!” She responded, still keeping her voice low.
“Why are you being so difficult?” I snarled quietly. “I don’t even need the flower. I just need the analyze a sample of it. After that, I can create my anti-toxin.”
She snorted. “So, you admit you’re knowledgeable with toxins and curses. The longer you allow a liar to speak, the more easily they’ll reveal the truth.”
“You want the truth? The truth is that I’m trying to stop a war here. If our people battle, it won’t be good for either side. We could come to a peaceful agreement if you’re willing. If you could persuade your brother, I’d even be willing to meet him on his terms.”
She looked at me for a moment, a bit of doubt in her expression, but then her eyes seemed to focus on something behind me, and she broke into a sneer. “You have a funny way of showing your peacefulness but sending out an army.”
“What are you talking about?” I frowned, looking back at where her eyes went.
I hadn’t been looking back as I climbed the mountain, but we happened to be quite high now. If I was a mortal human, the cold would have been paralyzing and it would have been hard to breathe at this height without supplementary oxygen. As I climbed, I had altered my lungs on the fly, dehydrating them and increasing the surface area so that I could breathe easier. I had been too focused on my goal to think of it, but it must have contributed to the difficulty.
Now that I noticed, I couldn’t help but spare a glance at the woman across from me. I could tell that there was some kind of spell the wildman woman was using to protect herself from the extreme environment. Either way, this ledge had quite an incredible view, and that view seemed to overlook my entire kingdom from the castle to the borders. In particular, the way she was looking was the border of my territory.
It would have been nothing but a blur to a mortal eye, but my eyes could see far clearer now, to the point I could make out two armies meeting on the border. One army was the wildmen, but the other army came from my kingdom. I was about to question it, but I noticed the flag being flown. This country used the colors of blue and yellow, but blue on the outside and yellow on the inside signified the king, while the queen was yellow on the outside and blue on the inside. In other words, they were showing the queen’s colors.
“Why is she there?” I hissed.
I heard a laugh behind me. “You’re still going to play dumb? I know you’re a coward, but I didn’t think you stupid. After all, who would abandon their kingdom and make their queen face their battles for them because they are afraid of a little curse? Even my brother wouldn’t step aside despite his ailment. This journey was all I could do to help him…”
Her voice grew emotional for a second, and then she went back to glaring at me.
“What?” I asked.
“You almost had me, speaking of wanting peace while sending out your armies.”
“She must not want your people to slaughter their way into the country,” I responded. “She’s not waging war, she’s protecting the people.”
I was certain that was her thought process, although she was going against what we had agreed. It annoyed me because none of these people were real. Their lives did not matter. As long as we defended the castle and found the cure, we could leave this trial, so her actions were only causing trouble. That’s when a thought struck me. My eyes turned to the castle, and then my lips turned thin.
“What?” The woman asked, noticing my change in expression.
Her eyes must have had more limits than mine. She could see the army which was closer to the mountain, but she was unable to make out the details of the castle. I could, which was why I could see smoke rising.
“The castle is under attack… a sneak attack,” I muttered.
She looked surprised, taking a step back. “It wasn’t us. It isn’t our way to backstab people.”
“It’s the other nation.” I sighed. “While our army left to verse the wildlands, they sneak attacked the castle.”
“You…” She looked a bit lost for words before her expression. “It serves you all right!”
“It’s time we end this. I have to go.”
“What does it matter?” She sneered. “You can’t be in two places at once. I wonder what you’ll pick. Will you rush home to save your wife or your kingdom? What matters more to you?”
I actually could break myself into two and go to both places at once, but that didn’t matter. The travel back would be just as long as it took here. It was a day’s travel to the battlefield, and three days home. The fate of either location would have been long decided by the time I arrived. My limitation was speed. I couldn’t create subspace portals like whatever the immortal who made this trial did. All I had was my own physical body.
“Fine then.” My expression darkened as I made my conclusion. “You want to fight? Let’s fight!”
I lifted my sword and swiped it toward the woman. It was just a swipe. I had no mana to channel, so it was just raw physical force, but it was still powerful enough that it cut through the air with a crack, sending out a wind blade toward the woman. She sensed the danger and leaped to the side just in time as the airblade struck the rock behind it with a crack, cutting a one-inch groove.
“Are you mad?” She hissed a curse, warily getting to her feet. “You will alarm the dragon!”
“The red dragon?” I spoke at full volume. “I doubt there really even is a dragon! You’re trying to take its pressure flower. What was its name again? The fire cleansing orchid? It hasn’t even appeared!”
She looked at me in a panic, but I responded by attacking her with the sword again. This time, the wind came close enough that it disturbed the pedals on the flower before creating a long gash along the floor. It was at that moment that there was an earsplitting roar. Heat erupted from the mouth of the cave, cutting through the cold like a knife and forcing both of us to retreat from the entrance and the flower respectively.
Thudding sounds came from the cave, and the woman looked in horror between the cave, the flower, me, and the exit. It looked like she wanted to run, but was too afraid to do so. That’s when a full dragon erupted from the cave.
“Who dares try to take my things?” It let out a fiery roar.
“Well, isn’t that interesting… it does exist,” I whispered.
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