Chapter 253 - Swift Judgement Of The Fey Lord

When Staghead didn't speak, Yredemnul arched a brow. Ten times more graciously than I could…

"Well, Jehael? Your refusal to speak only convinces me further that I should simply leave you in the hands of the intruders. After all, it's their right to make their own just vengeance."

Staghead swallowed nervously. "I don't want to speak with this monster's hands on my throat. What if he decides to not let me finish?"

"Would he dare to do so when he knows it would bring my immediate retribution?" The question had a tone of a statement, but JJ still reacted to it.

"Of course not, Lord Yredemnul," he said, smiling politely. His eyes didn't seem very mirthful, though. "Call my kin monsters all you like, but we aren't mindless savages."

"See, Jehael?" Yredemnul gestured at JJ with a sly smirk.. "Now talk."

Staghead threw one last hateful glance at JJ. Then he took in a deep breath and seemed to find some resoluteness in him, because when he raised his eyes to Yredemnul again, his chin was lifted with pride and his voice was strong and even.

"Lord Yredemnul, about three years ago, I caught a witch who was kidnapping animals and lowborn fey from our land for her own magic and experiments. As always, I interrogated her to find out the extent of her crimes and the place where she held her victims. There I and my hunting team found, amongst other things, information on a magical seal called the Seal of Absolute Knowledge."

"Oh? I think I heard this name before." Yredemnul patted his stag on the neck and it obediently made two steps closer. "Wasn't it destroyed long ago?"

"It was broken into fragments, but not destroyed completely, Lord Yredemnul. It could be put together again, with enough effort. And do you know what it does, Lord Yredemnul?" Staghead's eyes sparkled with feverish fanatic gleam. "It's the ultimate divination seal! It pours all the knowledge of the world into the mind of its user. But of course, that would only kill whoever tries to do it."

"In other words, it is absolutely useless thing, and broken to boot. Why would you want it, Jehael? Or you, mortals?"

"I am a witch who specialises in seals. The Seal of Absolute Knowledge is useless from a practical standpoint, but from a scientific one it's treasure!" Eve said heatedly.

"Also, it's just a unique relic that's worth plenty for its collection value alone," I added.

"And what's your reason, Jehael?"

He licked his lips nervously. "You know, Lord Yredemnul, I learnt plenty of interesting things from the witches I caught trespassing on our lands. One of them was that any magic can be performed in two directions, and that included the sort of magic that the Seal of Absolute Knowledge does—divination. In other words, if one can find information… one can put information there instead. After I found about the Seal of Absolute Knowledge, this gave me an idea. An idea about how we can finally take back the lands that were ours by right and stop hiding Under Hills like rodents! How to get rid of all the iron that poisons earth, air and water outside."

The intensity of attention directed on Staghead spiked. The air itself felt heavier under all the gazes directed at him.

"What bullshit is he talking about?" Bob blurted.

"It's not 'bullshit' as you say!" Staghead hissed. "But what would a swine like you understand. Lord Yredemnul, by using the Seal of Absolute Knowledge to access the world's infosphere, we can change it. And by changing it, we can change the world itself! We can wipe out mids of the humans, we can turn iron into copper… So many possibilities!"

"You were going to destroy humanity? For real?" I goggled at Staghead in disbelief. "This… I feel like I suddenly ended up in a book or something."

"I share that feeling," Eve said dryly. "I also have a lot of doubts that the thing he described is indeed possible…" She trailed off and appeared to be deep in thought.

"And even if it was, didn't you forgot one important detail? You aren't even a witch to divine with seals, Jehael."

"But you know that I have one at my disposal. The changeling that I brought in four decades ago. I never told you, but I brought him from a family of powerful witches. I taught him myself, and he's loyal to me and thinks himself to be a fey. Foolish, but useful." Jehael smirked. "He's perfectly capable of fixing the seal and execute my plan."

Yredemnul inclined his head to the side in thought. I watched him with a frown on my face. If he decided that Staghead's plan was cool to follow, then he'd blast us here and now… Just in case, I prepared myself to channel power.

"This is the stupidest thing I've seen you do, Jehael, and I've seen you do quite a few. I won't even bother listing all the things that are wrong with that idea. But me, do you think I'm as big of an idiot as you are? Do you think I will give you that kind of power and wait for you to actually succeed in an assassination attempt?"

"I would never!" Staghead denied vehemently. "I am loyal to you, Lord Yredemnul!"

Yredemnul just waved his hand in a dismissal. Suddenly, the dimensional lock on the area disappeared, leaving the space stretchable and malleable again. "Yes, yes. And I wasn't here, in this spot, at the moment when several individuals illegally crossed into Under Hills and kidnapped you. Right, Herald?"

"You weren't, Lord Yredemnul," Fish-Toad confirmed solemnly.

"Right, former hunters of Jehael?"

"You weren't, Lord Yredemnul…" an unsteady chorus of voices came from the beaten up fey hunters.

Yredemnul nodded with visible satisfaction and turned his steed away from us. His last words to us were, "But of course, if I were to find any intruders in our sacred lands at any time, I would deal with them as with any others and put them under my sword."