Chapter 157: The Beastman King
The beastman king's command tent had been pitched on land that had once belonged to the Dragon Kingdom.
Enormous panels of stitched hide formed a space large enough to hold dozens, with a rusted iron flag at the tent's peak, the lion-head totem on its face clearly visible.
Inside, a few oil lamps were burning, filling the air with their greasy smoke and the smell of beastman sweat.
The beastman king sat on the stone chair at the center — the seat was covered with several full human skins. His frame was larger than Urgov by a full size. A mane of golden-brown fur spread from the top of his head down to his shoulders, and on that lion face, a pair of amber eyes were half-narrowed, giving nothing away.
To his left stood a lean, wiry fox-beastman with greying white fur, a crude pair of crystal spectacles perched on his muzzle, a roll of parchment tucked in his arms — the beastman king's clerk.
To his right stood a lion-beastman only slightly smaller than the king himself, two short axes at his hip — the captain of the king's personal guard.
Kneeling in the center of the tent were more than a dozen bear-beastman warriors.
The dark brown fur across their bodies was matted with dried blood and mud. Their heads were lowered, their shoulders heaving hard — they had clearly just escaped a battlefield with their lives and run all the way here without stopping.
"Tell me again."
The beastman king's voice came from above, carrying a weight that needed no anger behind it.
One of the bear-beastman warriors clenched his jaw and raised his head. His bear eyes met the king's amber gaze for an instant, then dropped back to the ground.
"Your Majesty..." His voice was raw, as though something had scraped his throat on the way out. "Chief Urgov... was killed by a human old man. One punch."
A brief silence fell over the tent.
The guard captain to the king's right let out a short, contemptuous snort. His face wore undisguised scorn.
"Urgov's strength ranks in the upper tier of this nation's fighters," his voice was sharp and mocking. "And you're telling me he was killed by a human old man with one punch?"
He stepped half a pace forward and looked down at the kneeling bear-beastman.
"You couldn't handle the cavalry riders and you're scared of being punished — so you made something up, is that it?"
The bear-beastman warrior's head snapped up. The broken red veins in his bear eyes looked ready to burst. He pushed himself to his feet.
"What did you just say!"
The dozen or so bear-beastman warriors behind him raised their heads as well, teeth bared.
Several of them reached for their hips — but their weapons were long gone, dropped in the retreat. Their hands came back empty.
The air in the tent went taut.
The fox-head clerk slipped back two quiet steps and folded himself into the shadows of a corner.
The guard captain didn't flinch. The corner of his mouth spread to show two rows of sharp teeth.
"What's this? Hit a nerve? Want to start something?"
"Enough."
The beastman king's voice came down like a bucket of cold water over everyone's head.
The bear-beastman warriors shut their mouths at the same moment. The guard captain also stepped back half a pace, though his eyes stayed fixed on the bear-beastmen.
The beastman king's gaze settled on the warrior who had stood up.
"Kneel."
The bear-beastman warrior hesitated. Then he went back to his knees. The others behind him followed, though the anger hadn't left their faces.
The beastman king looked at them, and something complicated moved through his amber eyes.
He hadn't failed to want to stop the clash. But he had needed to know whether these bear-beastmen were telling the truth or looking for an excuse to cover their defeat.
Their reaction just now had answered that well enough.
The truth.
Urgov of the Giant Claw Tribe had always been a thorn in his side. That one had used the strength of his tribe to openly defy him at chiefs' councils more than once, and had even quietly reached out to other tribes trying to undercut his authority.
If Urgov was dead, it wasn't necessarily bad news.
But the problem was — that "human old man."
If what these bear-beastmen were saying was true... then things had become complicated.
"You're saying this one person," the beastman king said slowly, "killed over three thousand of your people?"
"Yes." The lead bear-beastman kept his head lowered, his voice unsteady. "We... we charged at him. We wanted to avenge our chief... but we couldn't even make him bleed."
"Three thousand of you. And one person cut through all of you without taking a single wound?"
The bear-beastman warrior's shoulders shook violently.
"Yes... yes."
The tent went quiet.
On the guard captain's face, the contempt had gradually pulled back. He looked at the bear-beastmen kneeling on the ground.
These bear-beastmen might not be the sharpest fighters in the nation, but they weren't the type to manufacture a lie this outrageous.
And besides — that fear coming off them from somewhere deep in the bone. That couldn't be performed.
"Did he say anything?" The beastman king spoke suddenly.
The bear-beastman warrior blinked, confused.
"What?"
"That human." The beastman king's tone sharpened slightly. "Did he say anything? Where he came from. Why he was there."
The bear-beastman warrior furrowed his brow and dug through his memory with everything he had.
Behind him, the others exchanged glances and strained to remember.
"He..." A younger bear-beastman warrior spoke up. "He said he came from the Baharuth Empire."
The beastman king's brow drew in. "The Baharuth Empire?"
The young warrior thought for a moment and continued: "He also said... he came to discuss something with whoever held authority in the beastman nation."
"He asked if we were willing to surrender."
The beastman king's pupils contracted slightly.
That sounded like an envoy sent by some kind of power.
A frightening thought surfaced from somewhere deep inside him.
This year he had gathered the main forces of the beastman nation's tribes with the intention of finishing the Dragon Kingdom in one campaign.
The Dragon Kingdom had already lost several towns. The Adamantite-ranked adventuring team Crystal Tears had been pushed back to a steadily retreating line.
At this rate, it wouldn't be much longer before he broke through the Dragon Kingdom's capital and folded that fertile land into the beastman nation's territory.
And then, at precisely this moment, a "human old man who killed Urgov with one punch" appeared.
The timing was too convenient.
It made it difficult not to think in a particular direction.
"What did he look like?"
"He was... wearing a black coat. His hair was white. He looked old." The young bear-beastman warrior worked to recall the details.
None of that matched any of the legends about dragons the beastman king carried in his memory.
But that was exactly what made it more suspicious.
Perhaps the dragon was using that form deliberately — to signal that it had come to protect the Dragon Kingdom's humans.
The beastman king's expression darkened.
He rose from the stone chair and began to pace across the enormous hide-skin rug spread across the tent floor.
The guard captain and the fox-head clerk exchanged a glance. Neither dared to make a sound.
"Your Majesty," the guard captain finally couldn't hold it back any longer. "In this subordinate's view, this matter may not necessarily be—"
"Silence." The beastman king didn't turn his head.
The guard captain shut his mouth immediately.