Chapter 263 - Terror Unleashed by the Dragon

  Hugo Riverclimb:

  I swallowed hard, uo look away from the chaotic se. In the ter of it all, stood a gigantic red dragon, a creature far surpassing aly form of demi-human I had ever seen or even imagined. Its presenihe pce, an overwhelming force that seemed to bend even the air around it. Every breath it exhaled reverberated a primal and terrifying sound that made my heart falter. Its eyes, glowing intensely, burned with a primitive hatred, fierd tangible, as if pierg the soul of anyone who dared to look at it.

  This dragon is much bigger than when I saw it in the cave. I thiimes bigger? No... maybe more.

  I g Sifu, who was a little distant, and the old man was calmly sipping his tea, watg the chaos with absurd ess. He was eveing something, as if it were a normal, peaceful afternoon.

  This monk is truly crazy.

  Even knowing the dragon was on our side, I kept sweating from tension.

  How someone be so rexed with a monster of that size nearby?

  I left the rembling aing themselves, as they reted the failed attempt to assassihe young master, and I started walking toward Sifu. Even while walking, I kept my cautious gaze on the dragon, uo fully rex.

  My wife is crazy, I thought, remembering the times I saw Martha pying with the little bird, throwi for the phoenix.

  When I finally got closer, Sifu greeted me with a slight nod of his head, not saying a word. He went back to drinking his tea, as if there wasn’t a gigantid terrifying creature lurking, or as if the world were in plete normalcy.

  "I must be the only sensible one. Why aren’t you scared?" I asked, still trying to uand how Sifu mao maintain such absurd ess.

  He looked at me, letting out a light ugh. "And what’s the point of being afraid? If that thing decides to kill us, we wouldn’t even tickle it," he replied with uling tranquility.

  I leaned against the wall, my back tense, and I remembered the story he told us years ago, when Nathan arrived at the castle with that little bird on his shoulder. "You told us that if the phoenix hadn’t bee Nathan’s friend, it would have grown full e because of what the True Humans did to it. Our entire duchy would have bee its hunting ground. Was there any way it could have ged its mind if it hadn’t been saved by the young master?"

  Sifu looked me in the eyes, his expression serious for a moment. "No. If it hadn’t found Nathan, it would have been flying around, killing everyone."I turned my gaze back to the giant red dragon that now inhabited the pce, swallowing hard. "Good thing everything worked out in the end..." I muttered.

  He ughed again, this time pg his hand on my shoulder. "There are greater forces in this world that mere mortals like us could never pare to. Don’t worry about what you ’t trol," he said.

  I sighed.

  Sifu ughed, giving me a sp on the back. "Go on, stay he queen, ‘guard’ sir, and find out what she’s pnning," he said, pushing me gently away.

  That old man was crazy, but he wasn’t dumb at all.

  I took a deep breath and moved closer to the group. My wife was busy feeding the giant pnt with the noble whose mind had colpsed. The men from our army had already gathered the bodies scattered around the fortress, and, one by ohey were throwing them to the pnt. That creature devoured everything, from flesh to bones, except for clothes and armor, which were expelled as if pletely useless. What were once bodies became just a fotten memory, melted in acid ihat monstrous pnt. When it was all over, the only proof that a battle had takehere would be the material destru. No corpse would remain.

  The soldiers of the enemy army, still kneeling and tense, watched the giant pnt with fear. They sweated, unsure if their fate would end as food for the pnt or death by the dragon, which tinued h above the castle, silent and threatening.

  I moved closer to the group of hey were fessing their crimes with a tone of desperation. With every word, they revealed what they had been plotting since before Nathan and Chloe were born. They told how, taking advantage of Margaery and the duchy being vulnerable during the war, they allied with Nikous Wolves, pnning to take trol of the territory when they learhat Margaery had given birth to a daughter. Thus, they po for arranged e.

  We already knew about this part, but we wao hear it straight from their mouths, to know every detail from the traitors' perspective.

  "So, when my husband and his brother died defending the border, it was at that moment you saw the opportunity to fulfill your pns, trying to secure the marriage of my newborn baby," she said, her words as sharp as bdes. She puhem, and the screams of the nobles echoed as Margaery whipped each of them with the ented , each cra the floor followed by pain and suffering. She stopped for a moment, looking at them with disdain.

  They couldn’t lie, the shadow of death resent in every word. None of them dared hide details, fearing that the other noble would reveal more information in an attempt to save themselves. The false loyalty crumbled there, as eae reted the plots a versations they had over the years.

  Margaery sighed, staring at her nails for a moment, but the ess in her expression remained.

  "So, the kingdom was involved..." she said, and the air around seemed to freeze. Her rage alpable.

  Margaery gripped the so tightly that her hands were marked by the ented metal, even as she felt the pain pierce through her fingers. The anger burning in her chest was so intehat she hadn’t ordered those men to be devoured alive by the panther or the dragon while listening to them speak.

  "But I’m gd they just pyed by the rules of diplomacy. Because if even one finger from the kingdom had been involved in the assassination attempts of my two children, I would have goo Apsalon personally and taken the lives of their children," she said, staring at each of the he heavy silence filled the room, and their gazes faltered, swallowing hard, fearing what was yet to e.

  They tinued speaking, daring not to look away, detailing all of their pns.

  "Looks like the kingdom hohe mediation agreement, and didn’t move behind the ses after Nathan appeared as heir," Margaery said, her voice ced with pt. "It was just yreed."

  "So it was you, the worms, who fuhe gangs in my duchy," she tinued, "allowing crime to grow while I tried tthen security. It all makes sense now. The more measures I took, the faster new gangs would pop up, like damn cockroaches! The worst part is, you kly which roads to avoid and where to strike, as if you had a map of my defenses."

  She gred at them.

  The errified, tried to justify their as, but their voices barely came out. The fear was clear on their faces."We always suspected loobles were involved, but we never imagi was such a rge operation, involving people like you. You allowed chaos tn in my duchy to profit from it!" Her voice grew in fury, eg through the castle walls.

  "You didn’t eveo directly finanyone," Margaery tinued, her tone acidic. "All you had to do was stop overseeing the nds, and naturally, troublesome people would emerge. The chaos was something you all nurtured, and worse, you took advantage of it."

  She moved closer to the nobles, her words sharp as bdes.

  "And on top of that, you spread it in the underworld of other duchies. As if the Evenhart duchy was easy territory for itting crimes. And it was easy, because you, the lords of the nds, allowed it!"

  Margaery could no longer tain her anger and, with a swift gesture, poi the nobles, one by one, : “Kill this one! Kill that one! Kill this ooo!”

  Upon hearing what she said, the ried to flee, but they were quickly stopped by the moon panther, who jumped with agility and surrouhem. In a brutal movement, the dragon desded upon them, its enormous jaws swallowing three at ohe creature raised its neck, dispying the macabre feast for the other kneeling nobles, while blood dripped from its mouth, spttering on those left, who trembled ierror.Margaery watched the se with relentless ess, as the heavy silence fell over the courtyard.

  "Please! Mercy! You promised you wouldn’t kill us if we cooperated!" one of them cried, prostrating himself on the ground.

  "And I’m h the promise. Do you see me killing anyone? My hands are , it’s the dragon doing the killing," Margaery replied, with a cutting ess.

  The men cried again.

  "Who do you serve?" she shouted, her voice full of authority.

  "To you!" they shouted in unison, desperate. "We serve you!"

  Margaery snapped her on the ground, the sound eg, a back to whipping them mercilessly.

  "NO! You serve the EVENHART FAMILY!" she corrected, with every word marked by the whip falling upon them.