(Nov 15)

Elder Vindal had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and lifted Connor into the air from his feet, dangling his body upside down like a piñata.

However, unlike when I first met him, Vindal was extremely buff and muscular. And he seemed furious.

“What… are… you… doing?”

Despite not feeling fear, I felt a strange shiver run down my spine as he said this.

Anger could be heard in his voice.

At first, I thought Vindal was talking to me, but no, he was talking to Connor.

“E-elder Vindal! What are y-you doing here?!” Connor, who was still hanging upside down, nervously asked.

Vindal’s eyes flashed.

“What did I tell you Connor…”

Elder Vindal’s muscles pumped as he slowly pulled back his arm that was currently holding Connor.

“Wait! Elder Vindaaa-aaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!”

He didn’t even get to finish his sentence before Vindal swung his arm and smashed Connor’s body straight into the cave’s wall.

Connor’s skull grinded against the stone as his teeth shattered from the impact.

The entire cave trembled from the force.

Yikes. That’s got to hurt.

But… what was going on? Wasn’t Elder Vindal on their side? Why was he beating up Connor all of a sudden?

Although he wasn’t dead, Connor’s unconscious limp body fell to the ground with a thud.

Elder Vindal then turned towards Mika, who was cowering in fear.

“Grampa…”

“…”

Vindal didn’t say anything as he walked up to her… and slapped her in the face.

Her body also fell to the ground.

Elder Vindal turned his head to Brandon.

Brandon raised his hands up as he stared at Elder Vindal.

“No need. I’ll knock myself out.”

Brandon proceeded to punch himself in the face with enough force to twist his neck and knocked himself out cold.

With that, the 3 A ranked beastkins were suddenly unconscious.

Finally, Elder Vindal turned to me.

I wasn’t sure if he also going to attack me or not, so I cautiously stepped back with my weapons ready.

But to my surprise, Vindal slightly bowed.

“I apologize for what these fools have done.”

As he apologized, he exhaled causing all his muscles to deflate, reverting him back to his original small frail body.

Upon seeing this, I felt there was no need for me to maintain dragonoid form anymore so I also reverted back.

“Can you tell us what’s going on at least?”

“…”

“Does this have to do with Agora? I saw a magic circle deeper in the cave. Let me guess, you guys summoned Agora and since I saw it, Connor felt like he needed to kill me to get rid of witnesses?”

Through my interacts with the others, I did feel like something was weird, something suspicious.

Connor was oddly reluctant to follow Agora, and even more so when I suggested we enter the cave.

It was almost as there was something he didn’t want me to see.

When I saw the magic circle, that was when Connor started attacking me.

So perhaps, Agora was something that they had secretly summoned and they didn’t want us to find out.

This is how I came up with this conclusion.

Elder Vindal confirmed it with a nod.

“Yes… we did summon Agora.”

“Why?”

“Although we live deep in the forest, we are no fools. We have noticed the tension between your kingdoms. As it is now, if a war started, we would be very vulnerable. We know that your human king doesn’t care about us, if we were invaded, you humans wouldn’t bat an eye. We had to rely on ourselves. So we decided to create a guardian, a powerful beast that could protect us… but as you can see, it didn’t go very well.

Agora resisted our attempts to tame it and became aggressive. We are already lacking in manpower, having to deal with Agora alone would be fatal to our village, thus we put aside our pride and asked for support from the city. Then you arrived and you know what happens next.”

So even the beastkins were aware of the impending threat of a civil war.

According to Vindal, I can understand why they summoned Agora if they felt they were at risk, but why did he stop Connor from fighting me?

Despite the fact I was angry at Connor, I can see why he attacked me. He wanted to avoid a situation where the city became suspicious of the beastkins.

If Sven and I return to the city and reported this, it’d look horrible for them since they were the ones who summoned Agora.

Then why did Vindal decide to stop the fight?

Was he simply a good person? Or did he think that by helping me, we would keep this a secret and not tell the city?

Vindal shook his head.

“I have a lot at stake, my decision will affect the safety of this entire village. I know how powerful you humans are, and so I made the decision to not do anything that would potentially turn humans against us. I told these fools not to do anything rash, but it seems they didn’t listen.

You seem like an important person, so if you went missing, your human city would notice. They will send solders to investigate and then things will become worse than it is now. Which is why I made the logical decision to help you, even though I am well aware you will report this. We wish to avoid any further contact with humans.”

Hm, Vindal really thought this through.

“But why are you so wary of humans? Even though we aren’t exactly on friendly terms, as far as I’m aware, your beastkin village and our city haven’t had any battles. I think a good relationship would benefit both humans and beastkin.”

“I don’t mean to be rude, but you humans are known to wage wars and to be very unpredictable. If they had known we killed you, they’d likely send soldiers to destroy the village. Or even worse, he might come…”

I raised an eyebrow.

“He? Who’s he?”

“…”

I patiently waited for Vindal to respond to my questions.

We were in no rush, and Vindal seemed to be a bit conflicted but he still answered.

“He… is the one you humans call… Prince Briggs.”

“Wait, Briggs?”

Vindal nodded.

“Yes. The prince. You are an acquaintance of his, aren’t you? Close to him perhaps?”

“Uh, yeah. I am, I suppose.”

Vindal nodded again.

“I thought so… I can smell the prince’s lingering miasma around you…”

Upon hearing this, I sniffed myself and even with my enhanced senses, I’m pretty sure I smelled normal.

Vindal chuckled and explained that he has a special ability that allowed him to smell faint magic that normal can’t. Probably something to do with him being a beastkin perhaps.

“Why are you so afraid of Briggs? I don’t think someone like Briggs has ever been here before. He’s quite strong, but he’s a very friendly dude!”

Vindal looked at me in a way that clearly showed he didn’t believe me.

After a brief silence, he suddenly started telling a story.

“Many years ago, before I retired, I was patrolling the outskirts of our forest. There was tension between the kingdoms, so I was on the look out for any troops invading the forest. That was when I sensed an ominous energy. A very… very powerful energy. There was… a pillar of black magic shooting up into the sky. In the center of it, was a single man engulfed in curse miasma. I can still remember the fear I felt. The chill that ran through my entire body. Even from the far distance I was at, I could feel his pure rage.

If this man had attacked our village, we would’ve all be wiped out. Luckily, we weren’t his target. He was on his way to the neighboring fairy kingdom. It took both your human king and the queen of the fairy kingdom to team up to stop his rampage… but not before he drove an entire city to the grounds. On that day, witnessing that, I vowed myself to never incur his wrath. And that man… was prince Briggs of your human kingdom.”

Hm.

Well, shit.

I had heard Briggs once went full berserk from Mona before, but I didn’t think he attacked and destroyed an entire city.

And Vindal mentioned that it was a fairy kingdom, and the only fairy kingdom near us is the Kenava. It seems like we’ve had bad relationships with them for a long time now.

But what caused Briggs to get so mad to literally invade them all by himself?

Vindal didn’t know either, so I guess it’ll remain a mystery for now.

“Not gonna lie, I didn’t expect you to answer everything I asked. You’re surprisingly honest.”

“Your friend over there can read my mind, so lying would be useless and if I resisted his mind reading, it’ll look like I’m hiding something. Being honest was the best option.”

I nodded in approval. It wasn’t that Vindal was a good person, in fact, he was quite sly. The only reason he was honest was because it was his best option.

“Although we still have to report this, we’ll at least put in a good word for you.”

“On behalf on the beastkin village, I appreciate your understanding. If that is everything, let us return to the village. You must be tired. We will celebrate Agora’s defeat with a feast and also as an apology to you for what has happened. I promise you no one will bother you if you so wish.”

As I started walking out of the cave, I turned around to ask one last final question.

“What about them?”

I pointed at the three unconscious beastkins lying on the ground.

“Don’t worry about them, they’ll wake up. And when these fools do, I’ll make sure to… educate them properly…”

I nodded, and then carry Sven in my arms (like a princess) back to the village.

With that, the Agora subjugation was fully complete.