Chapter 51

Then all of a sudden, it was as if a dam broke as the people started arguing.

“How dare you imply our King wants a human as a companion?”

“Are you delirious?”

“Someone beat up this lunatic!”

“W-What? Did I say anything wrong? I am just guessing too!”

“Use your head! Words are precious—once you say them, you can’t take them back! Are you asking to be killed and all your descendants to be killed? A devil falling for a human? Hah! Preposterous! You just insulted the King!”

“We know how cunning and treacherous humans can be. Our king will not favour them even if it’s a female.”

“That’s why I said I am just making a guess! Can you think of any other reason? Agartha has remained peaceful for so long, so why did the King break this unwritten rule for a single human female?”

“Perhaps…you are right. Maybe the human tricked the King—”

“It’s a child—”

“I heard she’s a young lady so she might be only feigning innocence—”

“What if—”

“—we can’t allow the King to fall for human’s tricks again!”

“Once was enough!”

Surrounded by chaos, Morpheus let out a bored sigh and rubbed his ear with a finger as if to say their chattering was annoying.

“Silence!!!”

The Chief’s loud voice resounded within the assembly hall, its imbued sonic power causing the walls to slightly shake. Though he controlled it to not hurt anyone, it still caused some weaker ones to suffer ringing sounds in their heads. However, his shout successfully calmed down the arguing leaders in attendance.

Agraleus glared at the leaders, especially the most hot-headed ones, before speaking, “We know nothing for sure, though I am pointing out that if His Majesty had truly taken a liking to that female, she should have stayed in his palace, not given to the elves in Ronan.”

Someone hurried to agree to it. “True. Don’t we know the King? He had never taken a liking to any female. The Fae, the Snow Elves, the Moon Elves, the mermaids—which of them aren’t peerless beauties? Even with the Head of the Witches, King Draven didn’t bat an eyelid in front of her beauty. Compared to such existences, human females won’t even stand a chance.”

“Even if we pick the least attractive lady among the Dark Elves, she will still be more beautiful than the prettiest human females.”

“Well, now that you mention that, I heard from a merchant in Ronan that the human female is quite ugly compared to an average human.”

‘Ugly?’ Morpheus wondered if it was right to say she’s ugly. He remembered watching her when she was sitting by the edge of the cliff. Though he was far away from her, he had seen her eyes and he felt they were like the most precious green gemstones he had seen.

Because of her eyes, he didn’t pay much attention to the rest of her appearance. After all, for a warrior like him, the bruises and scars on her body were like badges of honour, akin to the white tribal tattoos his family painted on their bodies—evidence of the suffering they went through and a show of pride that they survived through them all.

“—Still we can not deny this possibility of the King taking a liking to her. Afterall, he is a male and she is a female that he saved…”

The Chief of the Shapeshifters raised his hand to stop everyone from talking and focused on his silent nephew.

“Morpheus, didn’t you try to tell him what is good for this kingdom?” Agraleus asked.

Morpheus smirked. “I did offer him some advice.”

Thinking that Morpheus must have asked the King to send that human out of the kingdom, the Chief nodded. “Then, what did he say? Did he agree to it?”

“He didn’t agree but he didn’t refuse it either,” Morpheus replied, as his eyes carried an evil glaze. “I believe he’s considering accepting my advice.”

“We can only expect him to consider it,” the Chief agreed.

Morpheus suppressed the evil grin forming on his face. He vowed inwardly, ‘I will make sure he will consider it.’

“In the next council meeting, I will press the King to send that female to the human villages. I have received messages from the council members from the other races that they have made a decision and we, shapeshifters, are actually the last ones to make a stand. We won’t leave this matter until that human is out of here. At the next council meeting, it will be the end of this issue.”

‘I wonder if I shall attend that meeting? Though only council members go there, as one of the strongest warriors who helped the King build this kingdom…Am I not his good old friend?’ Morpheus smirked. ‘I can always go there.’

The meeting went on, but it was nothing but pure boredom for Morpheus. However, he had to wait until it was done to leave, at least as a show of respect towards the influential figures among the shapeshifters.

As soon as his uncle adjourned the meeting, he escaped the assembly hall in his beast form. While flying around, he realized he had gone near the rugged peaks outside the city. He noticed a certain place up a rocky slope and his large wings brought him there before he realized it.

A graveyard.

Dotting that side of the rocky mountain were tombstones. For the people of the feathered race, it was part of their tradition for their loved ones to be buried in locations where they were nearest to the vast sky, and at the same time, they could watch over the people they left behind below them.

Morpheus landed in front of two graves that belonged to his family.

One belonged to his father, the previous head of the Divine Eagles as well as the most powerful warrior their family ever had. Beside that grave lay his mother, known as a female warrior equally powerful as his father.

When his parents were alive, that time was revered as the golden age for their kind, but before their people could enjoy prosperity, war broke out once more. Both lost their lives when humankind launched a brutal massacre against the people of Agartha.

“Father! Mother!”

He kneeled in front of those graves and lowered his head.

“There is finally a chance for me to take revenge for both of you. I will make him regret the decision he had taken at that time… I will make him regret destroying our lives. I will never let him forget our pain…I promise you… ”

He lifted his head, his grey eyes steely with determination, but the next moment, his expression softened as he gazed at those graves once more.

“Soon, the only regret I’ll have left is my missing sister. I could not find her despite searching for her for so many decades. But just like today, I am sure I only need to be patient. Fate won’t be so unkind. It will give me a chance to find her. I won’t give up. I will find her one day and bring her back home.”

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