The gathering lasted for many long hours.

In the war room, His Majesty's word was the one to prevail in the end, and they then just had to adapt the plan to work with a mixed combat force.

Now only a few days were left to get everything ready and rehearse the formations so everything would go as smoothly as possible. In this way, many unnecessary casualties could be avoided.

During the feast in the palace, where the representatives of the younger generation gathered, Gerald kept mostly to himself.

That was not to say that he avoided interacting with people, far from it. He just avoided anything that smelled of mind games and politics. Having a casual conversation with the guests and learning a few interesting things from them was one of the few engaging things there was to do, apart from eating and drinking.

Toby made sure nothing went to waste, and he even learned how to act cute and beg for leftovers. A usually bloodthirsty beast acting like some small puppy attracted much of the attention and it was a great conversation starter.

Some brave souls even attempted to pet him. However coming from a recent bloody battle, Toby wasn't exactly the example of cleanliness and fluff. His fur was rough and he stank, so most people were satisfied with tossing him a bone from afar.

Now that I think about it, the kind of gifts people were throwing his way might not be because he was acting cute after all… Abandoning your meal to get away from a stink ball might be more accurate.

In any case, news of the competition quickly spread and the debate on its significance excited most, if not all the participants at the gathering.

However, for Gerald that only meant one thing: He was not getting into the library, at least not any time soon.

But that was fine too, he wasn't in a hurry. And besides, it wasn't like the evolution into a Bloodhound was quick. It would probably take years, perhaps even decades out in the wild.

Who knew if it was even possible to artificially shorten the time frame?

There was one more thing Gerald found out. He finally remembered who the eagle girl was. Turns out he saw her once before, back when he just learned to fly.

Apparently, she belonged to the wider family of general Crag Carre. She was the daughter of his brother… Or was it his sister? Gerald wasn't paying attention to the conversation at that time. He just managed to catch a few fragments.

Well, they were the true Beastmasters. Most of the army of the Guardian of the West consisted of wild boars, massive chunky bears, and some weird excuse for a dear. The funny thing is the animals looked quite friendly and soft on the outside, but they were dangerous carnivores on the inside.

The only reason they were able to be used as weapons was that they were raised from young. There was none of that nonsense of beating a wild beast into submission. Anyone doing that was just looking for trouble as sooner or later their 'pet' would turn on them.

Or at least that was the general knowledge.

Gerald simply replied with, "Oh, I see…" and then proceeded to actively ignore those people.

GTA was now on the road back home. Gerald laid on top of Toby, belly up, breathing heavily. He ate too much good food and now he couldn't even sit comfortably anymore.

The Warg beneath him also looked quite chunky from all the food. He was probably making up for all the years of starvation he experienced before. Hopefully, he wouldn't pop like a balloon one day.

Now they both just wanted to get back home and sleep.

After Tabbris returned, some interesting information came to light. Apparently, many of the nobles in the war room had sons among the city guard. They weren't the firstborns, of course, as those had the family business to run and had to be sharp. More likely they were the spoiled brats, youngest children, or something like that.

Anyway, Gerald frightened many of them with his imposing figure, riding the Warg and scaring the populace. Even if it wasn't his fault, and even if the cowards were the failures in the noble's families, blood was at the end of the day, thicker than water.

That was also the main reason why so many complained.

Why else would they care what some lunatic was doing in the outer city? They lived in gated communities in the inner ring after all.

No, the reason they even knew what was going on, is because they had some crybabies in their circle whining about it.

Gerald was incredibly annoyed by it. They discriminated just because he looked scary? Just because he was covered with scars and blood from top to bottom? Just because he was riding a beast that could tear a man's head clean off in a single bite?

Well, sucks for them, because he didn't care!

It made absolutely no difference to him! So what if they talked and complained? As long as nobody did anything stupid, how were they different from internet trolls?

Retaliate? Go on the offensive and remove them before things escalated? Why? They were not even worth the mental energy, let alone the physical one. Most of them were just all talk after all.

"Yawn, so tired…" Gerald yawned loudly, and Toby copied him as they crossed the front gates of the Black Onyx Mansion.

Now he just hoped he could get a good night's rest.