Chapter 124 - Lizardman Village Pt.II

“What do you want?”

“You friends with him?”

I asked the lizardman. This made his tail wag from side to side as he broke into laughter.

“Friends? I’d rather kiss thornbush. At least that way I’d have dignity.”

“Is there something wrong with him?”

“Oh, you guys are from out of town so you probably didn’t know. He must have lied to you about his exploits and stuff.”

‘Yeah… I don’t think anyone is stupid enough to believe his lies.’

“Lies?”

I feigned ignorance.

“Ah yes. He’s a crazy kid who keeps spreading lies. He can’t stop ever since the- ah, never mind. What did you want?”

“Do you know how we can get to the Tyrant of the South?”

“The old witch? What would you want with her?”

‘Old witch?’

“Um, she was calling for me. That is why I am here.”

“Erhn? Where did you say you were from, again?”

“I never said where I was from?”

‘Could they be the ones the chief was talking about?’

I read his mind.

“Maybe your chief could help us out?”

“You wish to meet with him?”

“Is that possible?”

“Yes. The chief should be in his hut right now.”

“Could we trouble you to take us to his whereabouts?”

“It would be no problem at all. You’re lucky you found me. If you had gone with that disgrace, the chief would have killed you all for sure.”

‘Oou… this gets more interesting by the second.’

“Killed? Why?”

The lizard man stood up and proceeded to walk in a direction. We followed after him.

“Well, the chief really detests him.”

“Why?”

“He always challenges the chief’s way of doing things. He even dared to challenge the chief for his title saying nonsense like the chief is dead and what-not.”

“Such disrespect.”

“That’s alright to be honest. A lot of us here have done that before. But we all got angry when he refused to honour his part of a duel.”

…

The guy made a dramatic pause for no apparent reason.

“He was supposed to stop dueling the chief after that duel so he started to make up lies about the chief. Eventually he was found, but that did not stop him. He started to bring in the heads of powerful monsters, claiming that those were his kills. That mossidile head he was holding was probably killed by one of you, wasn’t it?”

‘Well… that doesn’t really matter to me. What about you, Shiroi?’

‘Anything you are ok with, I am ok with, Master.’

‘Ugh… don’t be boring Shiroi. Speak your truth.’

‘…’

Was it really that difficult to speak her own thoughts on the matter?

“Actually, my partner over here killed the monster and gave him the head.”

I tapped on Shiroi’s head. The Lizard man glanced at us from the side of his eye. Because of his face, I couldn’t tell if he was grinning wildly or not, but he seemed satisfied.

“Quite the powerful beast you’ve got on ya. Being able to kill a mossidile. Only the chiefs are able to do that. Our last chief struggled with one.”

‘Huh? The chief struggled to kill a mossidile? But Shiroi barely took a minute to do so. Did we overestimate this king?’

After some minutes of questions and answers, we arrived at a large hut that had its own platform separated from the others. In terms of appearance, it looked like the average hut, but its size in comparison to the others was unbelievable.

“There it is, the chief’s room.”

“Does the chief have a name?”

“Name? Ha! Funny one. We’re called the cursed dragons for a reason, you know?”

“Cursed dragons?”

‘Lady Hinotori… I’ll explain later.’

Sylvie said in my head. I looked down and saw her hiding in my robes alongside Amethyst.

‘When did you get in here?!’

I flinched at the discovery.

“Is everything alright?”

He asked us.

“Y-Yes. Do we just enter the hut?”

“No, throw an offering at the hut first. Here.”

He threw us some weird fish.

“That’s a Marsh Chomper. Nasty creatures they are. Always travel in swarms and finish of food together in the blink of an eye. Quite difficult to find and hunt down, but they are the chief’s favorite.”

Did he just describe piranhas? In this disgusting place? Well now this got way scarier.

He threw the piranha at the plat form. We waited patiently, but in a split second, something stole the fish off the platform.

‘D-Did you see that?’

‘Yes. Although barely, I saw it. A giant tail that moved as fast as lightning.’

“Ok, you can go in now. Be careful to not get him pissed off.”

He waved us off and we approached the hut carefully. I decided to let Shiroi and the others stay outside, since I wasn’t sure how well kings interacted with each other. She had managed to deceive every other eye, but deceiving a king was a whole other matter.

I entered and was surprised by the complete emptiness in the room. This place was more depressing than Minerva’s cave. It barely had any thing present. There was a throne at the far end with a mossidile skull on top of it and a fire place at the center. I noticed a trident leaning against the wall, but other than that, there was nothing special in this place.

“H-Hello?”

I received no response. I literally couldn’t see anyone present in the room. I couldn’t feel any form of danger. There was absolutely no one in here. So, what was it that stole the fish earlier? I shrugged off the question and tried to touch the spear. However, it moved from the original spot.

At first, I assumed I missed, but I eventually noticed that the spear was moving on its own. This got me really interested. I planned on using [Shadow Limbs] to hold it down then grab it and shove it into my item box for later, but the spear suddenly flew out of the hut faster than I could believe.

‘W-What just happened?’

I ran out of the hut and saw the others looking alarmed. Still there was something wrong.

‘Where is Ulva?!’

‘S-She went to release herself.’

‘Where?’

BOOM!

“Kyyaaaa!”

I heard a cry. It sounded too much like Ulva.

‘Nevermind, I figured out ‘where?’.’

I flew off towards the source of the sound as quickly as I could.

***

“Shitty Adventurer, they call me! Useless explorer, they say. Liar, they scream! Every time I try to tell them the truth, they say I’m lying! They’re all under a useless trick! A stupid spell. One of the simplest yet most effective. The absolute lie, that is strength! Today, I will end it all! I will kill that bastard chief. I will free the others from his reign.”

The lizard man picked up a spear that leaned against the wall of his hut. His trusty weapon that he received from his father. His father was also called a mad man. That is until he revealed the truth. He came back with proof of all he said. Ever since, he had been hailed as one of the greatest explorers.

That was more than enough to motivate him to become an adventurer. Through his adventures, sure he made some mistakes. One that caused the death of the chief. Well, at least the chief was supposed to be dead.

It made almost no sense to him how the chief returned some months back, bigger than ever and having power beyond what he was once capable of. At first, he assumed the chief would kill him for what had happened, but the chief did not care. He gave him a pardon and proceeded with life as normal.

At first, he assumed there was no problem anymore. Later he noticed something odd. The chief never ate. The chief’s eyes would sometimes glow an eerie blue in the dark. Sometimes the chief would completely zone out and act strangely. Even more odd was the bizarre weapon the chief came back with.

Through his adventures, he had come to learn of the existence of [Soul Weapons]. These were not all too uncommon; however, he did know that strong [Soul Weapons] could completely take possession the mind of their wielder. At this point, he wondered what would stop a strong weapon from possessing a dead body.

He had come to his conclusion. That was not the chief he knew. The [Soul Weapon] had taken over. This led to many confrontations with the chief. This led to his banishment. Yet, his desire to save his pride would not allow him to leave. His honour as an Adventurer was on the line here. He had tried everything, and finally, acquiring the mossidile head, he was ready to fight.

An armor set made with a mossidile headpiece, boots from the legs of Larm Jumpers, a shield made from the shell of a Jacked Turtle Head and a spear modified with the head of a Marsh Chomper. Then there was his secret weapon.

He put on the set and walked out of the cave. The spear rattled in his hand and as did the entire set. Today, be it he died or the truth came out.

With a loud shriek that would easily spread throughout the entire quite village, he ran towards the center.

“Where is the chief?!”

He roared loudly. The others saw him and sighed depressingly. Here he was again, coming to create unnecessary noise. The children ran close to him and marveled at his new armor.

“Hey! Your armor looks nice!”

“Yeah, yeah! Where can we get some?”

“Not now, kids! Where is the chief?!”

His voice was so loud and sounded threatening to the point the kids fell back. The adults around picked them up and glared at him.

“What is your problem? Leave our chief alone.”

“Your chief is dead. That is his weapon.”

He argued.

“You’re back again with this weapon nonsense?”

The lizard man from drew a short, curved blade from his belt as he approached the explorer.

“Stay back.”

The adventurer pointed his spear at the lizard man.

“I will not hesitate to kill any who come close to me.”

“Yeah, right.”

Taking his warning lightly, he brushed aside the spear. That was his first mistake of the day. The explorer shook his spear lightly and the weapon coiled itself around the lizardman. With one simple flicker, the lizardman was thrown into a hut, with all sorts of bite marks over his chest.

“If you move, the poison you just got infected with will spread magnanimously faster. Now, where is the chie-“

DOOM!

His instincts raged, forcing him to move out of the way. With no control whatsoever, he found himself skidding some distance away, followed by a powerful eruption of swamp water.

‘W-What the hell?’

Behind the water splash, he made out eerie blue eyes on a hulking figure. A chilly raspy voice followed.

“You… I’ve been too lenient with you.. Maybe it’s time I killed you.”