novelraw Chapter 375: What Crashed?! [Bonus 2/2]
Chapter 375: What Crashed?! [Bonus 2/2]
A/N: Bonus Chapter for the Castle worth 5000 coins given by ’Jeffrey_Cornuelle’.
Thanks for the support!
It means a lot, really.
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Chapter 375: What Crashed?! [Bonus 2/2]
In the 30 or 40 minutes while Leo was reinforcing and surveying, these 4 had started something new.
Apparently, Miho had brought over some homemade cake for everyone as a light snack before breakfast, since it was still morning and nobody had eaten yet.
And the cake wasn’t distributed evenly. It was a large, unevenly cut cake kept on a common tray, and everyone was told to eat however they wanted. But the taste was too good for the extra pieces to be given to anyone else.
Currently, Kaelion and Tavian were standing on one side of the room with their eyes narrowed, intently observing the scene in front of them, while the cake tray was kept on the other side. Leo saw that a few smooth, round marble pieces were scattered around the tray, and Virat and Brok were using some sort of handmade ruler to measure distance.
"See, I told you, Sir Kaelion, Sir Tavian, and I had a draw while you lost by 1 centimetre," Virat said, setting aside his ruler.
"No, it was actually me who was 1 centimetre closer, you fool. It’s just that my marble is on the opposite side and you missed the detail," Brok argued.
"Don’t talk nonsense, let me check again," Virat said before measuring Brok’s marble distance once more.
After a while, Virat scratched his head awkwardly.
"I swear..."
Then Tavian spoke calmly, "Actually, this Brok guy cheated. He used wind magic to move his marble in the blind spot, which was created when he walked there to measure the distance."
"I knew it!" Virat exclaimed.
"You cheater!" Virat nearly took out his Desert Eagle, but abruptly stopped when a shadow loomed behind him.
"You bastar—" Kaelion didn’t even get to finish.
"Mm~ Tastes good," Leo said, casually eating the cake without even participating in the small competition.
"What? I didn’t get to eat any," Leo added, dusting his hands as the crumbs fell away.
But Kaelion was still glaring.
"Want to settle something? I am always ready. But fighting here would call Lily. And I suppose you don’t want that," Leo said with a smirk.
"Tsk." Kaelion clicked his tongue as they sat down peacefully.
"I still cannot believe something so good was built within half an hour," Tavian said, slowly looking around the room.
The walls were reinforced so much that they had the polish of marble, along with small, quick decorations. Thick vines acted as structural support so the ceiling wouldn’t collapse due to the thunder crashing down continuously.
Everybody could still hear the thunder crashing down on the antler every second, sometimes multiple times in a single second. The sound rumbled through the structure like distant explosions.
It will probably break soon... Leo thought. There was no way something could stand under so much pressure for so long. He was amazed it had even withstood the first strike, when only the permeating force had blistered his hand.
As they discussed random things, the talk finally shifted to something important.
"What do even the followers of such strong beasts gain?" Leo asked.
"Those that were flying with the King Beast?" Kaelion asked.
"Yes. And what bidding did you talk about previously? What is something that King Beast cannot do that their followers can?"
"It’s simple," Tavian began.
"Strong beasts help their similar kind who are weak to grow strong. It comes in various forms. Some help by letting them cross their bottlenecks, some provide treasures that might be useful for the weaker beast and useless for themselves, some outright take a weaker beast under their banner and make them their successor. Though this behaviour is more common among intelligent beasts."
"Successor in what sense? And wait, why do they even help them?" Leo asked. Virat and Brok were also listening intently to the conversation, because it was a topic they weren’t allowed to access in the library.
"They don’t actually help them in a literal sense. It’s more like the help comes from the king, allowing the weaker beasts to stay around them so the lower-ranked beings can absorb the ambient essence that permeates from the king’s body, which mainly assists in advancing a beast’s bloodline."
"As for more literal help, like giving out treasures, it’s more of a whim or even pity. As if watching a certain ant run around in front of you, you get interested and throw bread crumbs so you get something new to watch," Tavian said, pointing at the crumbs Leo had just dusted off his hands.
As they talked, many things became clear. But one thing was certain — it was always the desire to gain strength that made the lower-ranked beasts follow the higher-ranked ones. Tavian wanted to talk more, but Leo realised he refrained from speaking because of Brok and Virat.
Leo had also received the same restricted treatment when he asked why Kaelion had pulled him back so urgently, saying he could be affected or something when he was watching the king in the sky. Even when Leo pressed a bit, Kaelion refused to talk about it.
"What?" Leo asked in confusion.
"Instead of fighting themselves, they send out their followers to fight for them?"
Kaelion nodded.
"Yes. For some reason, these King Beasts rarely fight each other directly. Instead, what they do is make their chosen followers fight among themselves. And whoever’s follower wins, wins whatever they were fighting for. In most cases, it is some rare treasure, a land area suitable for a den, or even some rare beast offspring whose parents died off."
"Doesn’t make sense...?" Leo frowned when he saw Kaelion looking at him with a different expression. The same was true for Tavian. He once again understood he was getting incomplete information because Virat and Brok were present in the room.
Soon, Miho, along with some elves, entered with food and served them. Since there was no proper sitting place and Leo didn’t want to make a needless effort, they sat on the floor to eat. Though Leo did make enough effort to connect a water supply from the pool above, so they could wash their hands and get drinking water.
The elves thanked him because, ultimately, he had made their job easier.
As they talked, suddenly Leo and Kaelion’s heads snapped up. Initially, Tavian didn’t understand, but in the next moment, he also sensed the approaching threat from above.
Leo heard Lily’s hurried footsteps as she approached to warn him, but it was already too late.
Shing! Crack! BAM!
The ceiling was cut open by a terrifying wind pressure that tore straight down from above the plateau, forcing the group to scatter into all four corners.
"Wha—" Leo couldn’t even finish his sentence before he saw more wind blades crashing down through the new hole to make it wider.