Chapter 90: The 4 Heavenly Kings (2)
Question for the initiated, what is the easiest way to get rid of these turtles? For anyone, and it could happen to anyone, whose streets are filled with these little turtles, the best thing they could do...
"Ho Ho Ho, put in these spices right here."
Nea poured in the salt and spices. She was looking around nervously.
"I-I’ll mess it up, Axel..."
"Don’t worry, it’s your cooking that we need. You got this, Nea."
From the front, Soren and the Bearded man (who was this guy?) returned to us. They had a small pot full of the turtles.
We handed the turtles to Nea. Funnily enough, they were chewing their way out of the pot. How sharp were their teeth and strong their jaws? It was a humbling sight, but a sight we followed through with nonetheless.
Nea dropped the turtles inside and swirled them around. More spices, more shaking. They tried to bite her back, and to which she only slapped them to get them to straighten up.
In a few minutes, black and purple mist started to rise.
Her cooking was working.
Soren, Enteki, the Gnome and the beard man all had their eyes widening. One after the other, like dominoes falling.
When they smelled it.
"Gurk!"
When they saw it.
"M-my goodness."
When it finally dawned on them.
"Cruel... what a cruel man, Sir Phantom. Evil has its limits!"
"Thank god we are on the same side..."
"What does that say about us?"
"Just, this."
"Ok seriously, who ARE you?" I asked about the beard guy. The beard guy turned to Soren and said.
"This is Lord Soren. It’s hard to recognize, I understand. But he has given up the status from the empire and started to live with the rest of us—"
"Fuck, I know him!"
"Right..."
"No, I mean. Tell me who you are damn it."
The beard guy reeled back as if in shock.
"I... I am the book shop owner."
"Why did you think I would know?"
The book shop owner looked sadly toward the ground. Soren held his shoulders, and the Gnome tapped his calves.
Seriously, what the fuck.
"Rude of you, Axel."
"No I mean... Hah..."
There was no arguing here was there?
The food was ready. We carried the pot closer to the streets and started stirring it.
On the ground, the many turtles walking around all stopped.
Did you know? Turtles eat each other. Whether it was for space, size, or anything. They were solitary as hell and would frequently cannibalize.
With a ladle, I tossed the turtle stew onto the turtles.
"Krrrr!"
"KRAAAA!"
They started to run away. Some took a few bites and died then and there. Hahaahah! Face the wrath of Nea’s cooking, bastards.
"MWAHAHAH!"
Laughing, I started to splash the food everywhere. Behind me, Nea looked away, tears almost in her eyes, while the others also followed without saying a word.
A path was clearing over the streets.
"Go back, assholes! I’ll make this out of you! BAHAHAHAHA!"
The turtles whether capable of understanding or not did not matter to me, they all ran and slithered here and there while I continued the job.
"Show me, show me where you will scatter."
They would just chew through everything? Chew through this, bitch.
My plan worked splendidly and the turtles started to scurry from the entire city. With the super special turtle ridder potion, we traveled the border of the city and splashed them.
Eventually, the turtles all gathered at the edge of the city and started to run. Hundreds, thousands of them, climbing over each other just to get away from this.
People started to pour out of the houses, and the trees looked around nervously.
Unbeknownst to me, at that time, everyone seemed to be thinking the same thing.
’’What an evil man...’’
***
The turtles were all flowing away, so I and Nea started chasing them.
What if they came after us a second time? For the fucks of it, I also took the Garden Gnome.
"...!"
"What? Complain later. Aren’t you the mayor now?"
"...."
"Yeah, I don’t get it either."
Nea, running in the front, turned to me and frowned.
"You understand that thing? It’s not saying anything."
"You bet I understand. Right now, the Garden Gnome is saying he finds me very cool and accountable and was inspired by me for taking up the post of the mayor. Oh dear, you think this is all thanks to me and anything you earn you want to dedicate to me?"
"....!"
"Even I can say that’s not what he said," Nea murmured. The turtles were running like a wave of water, and we were really just jogging behind them.
Soon, we went past the forest and opened up to a clearing. Further up stream on the river that passed by where our farmland was being made, the turtles went.
"Damn it, are they in the water?"
So far water wasn’t a big issue in the city. Why? Well, because Weiss had started to make it rain. She did say use it sparsely since it took moisture straight from the air, yet.
The turtles went further upstream, and we followed. Finally, the river started to curve. And behind...
A giant ox-bow lake had formed...
It was a big body of water right near the main part of the river, but it curved entirely from one side to the other. In the center, the large patch of land remaining had almost started to look like an island.
All the turtles scurried into the lake and went into the water, hiding beneath.
The lake almost looked green from their shell, but it was still distinguishable.
"Is this the place that these damned turtles had occupied?"
"The 4 Heavenly Kings, he said right?" Nea asked. "I feel something very strong here, but I don’t see anything.
We looked around, there were only the tiny turtles in the lake in front of us. Nothing else around.
Suddenly, the lake rose up. From all around us, the ground trembled.
There was no denying it. We had stepped into the territory of the Heavenly King.