Chapter 167: Unifier Fairytale
After the two armies regrouped, uniting under the new commander, Korr, he gathered everyone back to his castle.
They marched back together, and soon they were at the castle.
Slave 135 walked by himself in the slaves’ region; everyone was tired and fell asleep once they had a bite of bread.
Only he was awake, unsure of how he would proceed with his life.
"How much longer?" he whispered. "Can I keep them safe if I keep doing this?" he asked himself, but there wasn’t an answer.
His only solace was Slave 139, someone who could keep up with the madness he was playing. The game of barely ditching death willingly every battle.
He shook his head and smiled. "Yeah, at least 9th Bro is here," he said, ready to turn around and get some sleep.
"Staying up late, huh?" a voice rang out, a voice so familiar and hateful at the same time.
"Are you finally deciding to stop bitching and get your head ripped?" Slave 135 said threateningly.
"That isn’t how you should address your owner." The man stepped forward, his silk robes the color of red and green. A scar on his right cheek.
Korr.
"I don’t have an owner," Slave 135 said. "You’re just a useless bitch." He turned around, making eye contact with the older teenager.
Korr nodded. "You’re not wrong; without you, I would have suffered too much."
Slave 135 nodded, "I knew it," before turning around to leave.
"Wait!" Korr called.
"Use the seal, force me to obey... bitch!" Slave 135 said, not taking him seriously.
"I might really need to do that, but I won’t," Korr said. "How about this, we make a deal?"
"I don’t trust bitches," Slave 135 said while walking away.
"Don’t you want to be free?" Korr asked. "Don’t you want to take these slaves you love so much away from here and live in peace?" he added a new question, forcing Slave 135 to halt.
He turned around. "Are you shitting yourself now?" he asked back.
Korr smiled. "How about this, aren’t you curious about the reason why we, Ashspawns, fight without an end or a reason?"
"Well, I already know," Slave 135 said. "You fuckers have scorpion cow dung for brains," he taunted again.
"Have you ever seen an owner being so kind to his slave?" Korr asked, trying to defuse Slave 135’s anger.
"Korr, you need me." Slave 135 walked closer to him, locked his eyes with him, who was taller by more than 10cm. "You need me," he stated.
Korr nodded. "That’s true."
"You’re only being nice after I gave you some victories you couldn’t dream of," Slave 135 added.
Korr nodded again. "I won’t deny that." He smiled and added, "I wouldn’t have known that the feral kid we caught by coincidence, the one I hated so long for what he did to run away, would become my greatest possession."
Slave 135 nodded back. "Stop bitching then." He turned around to leave again.
Korr sat down on a tree log. "I want to tell you a story only Ashspawns who are qualified to wear silk can know."
"I’m not interested," Slave 135 dismissed him.
"I’ll set you free along with your brothers, how about that?" Korr enticed him again.
Slave 135 halted. "What do you want?"
"Just give it a shot; listen, it might be worth your time," Korr added.
Slave 135 sat on the log opposite to where Korr was seated. He didn’t talk, only stared at the face he hated to the core.
"A long time ago, Ashspawns lived scattered all over the world until one day we learned of a legend," Korr started telling the story, the story of why Ashspawns fight and kill one another without remorse, without reason, without looking back.
Why they lose the concept of family, of peace... the reason they are killing each other without an end.
Slave 135’s face fell. "Then what?"
"Hm?" Startled, Korr raised his eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"
"This unity bullshit you brainless fucks speak of - what’s next?" Slave 135 asked. "You get crowned as the king of brainless fucks?" he spat.
"I—"
"Just shut up already, I want to sleep." Slave 135 stood, turning around to leave.
On his way, he spoke in a loud enough voice for Korr to hear.
"Unify idiots is a great cause, bruh."
"An entire grey of idiots."
"Unified idiots are still idiots."
"What a load of bullshit."
"That’s not everything," Korr suddenly added. "Unifying is just a qualification."
"QUALIFICATION FOR WHAT?" Slave 135 lashed out.
"For touching the great power of the ancie—"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Slave 135 yelled. "YOU WANT ME TO BELIEVE IN FANTASY FAIRY TALE?"
With that said, Slave 135 went on his way, leaving Korr behind.
Back in the present...
Moon opened his eyes and looked into Boa’s. "It was Korr himself who told me!"
"That disgusting bastard with a scar on his cheek, that son of a bitch spent an entire hour trying to convince me to help him become that unifier, to make him the absolute king of all lands," Moon said.
His words brought silence, an eerie, long silence to the entire table.
Moon himself wasn’t bothered much; he took a sip of his coffee and a bite of his cheesecake. Their silence had nothing to do with him.
Talia leaned forward and broke the silence. "Could you please tell us about your relationship and enmity with him, the Ashspawn named Korr?" she asked.
Moon slowly savored the taste for a moment, swallowed, and brought back his gaze on Talia.
"Not sure how long ago we met him, our mercenary band of ten," Moon started telling a tale. "We were hired by him to follow specific rules in his army."
"What kind of rule?" Talia asked.
"Ashspawn commanders, if killed, the entire war stops and the survivors join the remaining commander, no question, no exceptions," Moon clarified first before adding, "Our rule was to breach behind enemy lines and kill the commander, minimise the losses and ensure the survival of most of the forces on both sides."
"What?" Roran’s face collapsed in disbelief.
"How— How did you live like this?" Lexie held her hands together.
Nola hugged her arms.
Behind him, Colten made brief eye contact with Abshi, one that was meaningfully desperate. It was like their lives flashing before his eyes.
"How many times did you do this?" Talia asked.
"I don’t know," Moon shrugged, taking another bite. "I did it so many times I lost count," he added before taking a sip of his coffee.
Moon mixed lies with truth seamlessly, making sure the real story was there but leaving out the things he desired not to be known.
Still, he left them wondering.
How long has he been on battlefields?
How many battles has he gone through?
But that wasn’t important now, not the most important.
"If you’ve worked together so well for a very long time, stacked together victories, why are you enemies now?" Talia asked him the important question.
She wanted to know if it was possible for them to work together again or not.
It was the most important aspect of their collaboration.
"We were betrayed," Moon stated flatly, digging his spoon into the cheesecake. "Korr betrayed us."
Author’s Note-
Yo, beautiful readers, thank you all for coming this far. I just wanted to say a few things. Regarding pirating, I know it’s inevitable. I know my novel will be pirated regardless of how unwilling I am or how much I try to fight it.
So, I decided to leave this note here. I invite you all to read it on NovelPhoenix.
Keep reading for free; support me with Power Stones that are available daily.
Just reading there is immensely helpful to me.
Thanks!