Deyanin walked out of the grand hall with his hand on his head.
The meeting itself went smoothly.
In Orazen’s mountains, there were rangers who belonged to the hunting department, but there were also civilian hunters who went around hunting wild boars, pheasants, or carbuncles. In other words, the forest wasn’t some obscure place no one visited.
Deyanin had decided to find Manun by questioning those people if they had seen Manun, or gotten attacked or suffered damage because of Manun. And once Manun’s location was identified that way, Deyanin said that he would gather the palace guards and bring Manun back to the royal palace by luring Manun with cows, his favorite food.
The commander of the palace guards did express discontent since he would have to lend Deyanin some of his troops, but it wasn’t possible to gather new troops just to catch Manun. Due to the story of the huge Drake protecting the royal family, the citizens favored Manun quite a bit, but public sentiment would certainly make a turn should Manun cause a big problem.
King of Serenity and the other ministers also acknowledged that realistically, they wouldn’t be able to bring back Manun with a small number of troops. Thus, he gave full authority to Deyanin to capture Manun and asked the other ministers to actively cooperate. That marked the end of the particular matter on the agenda.
Due to the order to hurriedly catch Manun, Deyanin was allowed to leave the grand hall earlier than the other ministers, before the meeting ended. However, nothing about that seemed good to Deyanin.
‘You’re going to lend me your palace guards? Huh, even if you gather all the palace guards inside the palace, they would all die if Manun did a forward roll.’
The commander of the palace guards would shout in anger if he could hear Deyanin’s thoughts, but Deyanin was a realist.
Deyanin did believe in the existence of Night Sky, but he thought the legends of Lakrak defeating the demon queen or killing the evil god were all exaggerated. Furthermore, the Miracles of Night Sky had been limited over the past hundred years.
‘…Well, a beast is a beast. Even though he’s gigantic, he’ll probably follow us back if he sees something to eat.’
Deyanin thought that with enough time and effort put into it, catching Manun wouldn’t be a big deal. He had been taking measures so that there wouldn’t be any dangerous animals around the mountains, and thus there wouldn’t be many prey to fill Manun’s stomach. And for whatever reason Manun went up the mountain, he would come down sooner or later.
The real problem was how many people would be hurt in the process of bringing him back. Until now, Manun’s temperament had been gentle, but it would be impossible to know for sure when an unpredictable creature like Manun would make a sudden move. In Deyanin’s frank opinion, it would be Night Sky’s blessing if no one ended up getting hurt.
‘…But that’s impossible.’
Manun was a giant that was 25 meters long. Even though he had only ever been seen dozing off and sleeping in the garden inside the palace, he was still a Drake in nature. Merchants that traveled along the north coast and peninsula were sometimes killed or injured due to a Drake’s attack. There was a reason the Drakes of the wilderness were considered the most ferocious creatures in the present era.
‘I might really resign this time.’
Deyanin began to think that he should resign, go back to his hometown to open a school, and live a worry-free life, but he realized that could only be the case if he got lucky. If he was unlucky, he would be exiled, and in the worst case, he could lose his life as a punishment for all the problems that Manun might have caused.
‘…Mother, it seems that your son’s time has come.’
Even though he had overcome the contempt stemming from the assumption that he was cursed due to his white scales and red eyes, and he had studied hard, entered the palace, and even rose to the position of a minister, it seemed that this was his limit.
Just in case, Deyanin went to the garden where Manun had been kept. He examined the wooden fence to see if it was tampered with for someone to easily break it, or if someone had induced Manun to break it down. If it was all a part of someone’s plot, the blame could be shifted to them. However, Deyanin knew that wasn’t the case after only a quick look.
‘…There’s no way that would be the case.’
It would’ve been too dangerous a scheme. It was possible for a group to come together to play a trick on Deyanin since he was a person of low-status, but going so far as to do something like this just to get Deyanin kicked out of the palace? Deyanin looked at the mountain path that Manun had disappeared into and quickly turned around to go back to the palace, thinking he should pressure his subordinates to quickly catch Manun. Or it would be more accurate to say that he was going to go back to the palace. Just then, however, he saw a flock of Cockatoos rushing past him. Deyanin noticed a familiar face among the riders and hurriedly waved his hands.
“W…wait! Stop!”
It seemed that the Cockatoo group would ignore Deyanin and go past him, but they suddenly stopped and turned around.
One of the riders then said, “Why have you stopped us, Deyanin?”
“Prince Vasen! Where are you heading right now?”
The person Deyanin had stopped was Vasen Lak Orazen, King of Serenity’s first prince.
“Can’t you tell? I’m on my way to find Manun.”
“What?”
“Oh, right. You’re the Hunting Minister. I had forgotten. From what I know, permission from the Hunting Minister is needed to enter and hunt in the mountain. Do I also need permission?”
Deyanin sighed. Vasen was making fun of Deyanin. Vasen and his hunting friends had never acquired Deyanin’s permission until now. And for that reason, Deyanin had sent several official letters to their houses for a fine. Vasen’s hunting friends were all children of families who were well-off, so they could pay the fine and get it over with. Still, it seemed that Vasen didn’t like the fact. But that was a different matter than this.
“Normally you wouldn’t need my permission since I can’t give a fine to His Majesty. But in this matter, I’m not just the Hunting Minister. I’m the Hunting Minister who has been given full authority to catch Manun by His Majesty.”
“Oh wow, I didn’t know about that part.”
“It was decided at the previous meeting.”
“I thought that meeting wasn’t done yet.”
“His majesty had given orders to bring back Manun as soon as possible, so I left the meeting early.”
Vasen put his hand to his chin and said, “That’s good, Deyanin.”
“What’s good?”
“My friends and I were gonna go watch Manun. We heard that the sleepyhead went out for a walk and thought it was a chance to finally see Manun move.”
“So?”
“I’ve become greedy after hearing that. I will catch Manun.”
Deyanin furrowed his eyebrows.
“You’re kidding, right?”
“No. I mean it. What do you think, friends?”
At Vasen’s words, his hunting friends laughed and agreed with him. Deyanin belatedly realized that they smelled of alcohol. Fortunately, even though Vasen was drunk, he was at least sober enough to ride on top of the Cocaktrice stably.
‘The first prince, Vasen. His hunting skills aren’t too bad.’
Deyanin realized that Vasen wouldn’t listen to him even if he voiced his opposition. .
‘I don’t know how fast Manun is, but if you think about his size, Cockatoos won’t be able to catch up to him. And even in the worst case scenario, those friends of his would become Manun’s food instead.’
Besides, Deynain could guess why Vasen was so eager to catch Manun. Even though he was the crown prince, he would be aware that lots of people were secretly saying he wasn’t competent to be king, Deyanin being one of them. Therefore, Vasen was trying to earn merit while using the boldness of a hunter as an excuse.
Deyanin said, “Alright, Prince Vasen. I was about to call the hunters to find Manun anyways.”
“No, I’m not going to find Manun. I’m going to bring him back.”
“It’s okay to show courage, but if you find Manun, please at least give word to the rangers nearby before you bring him back.”
Vasen looked at Deyanin with a serious expression. And then his face relaxed again.
“Well, alright then. I’ll do that.”
“I wish you a safe return.”
Vasen smirked and rode off to the path that Manun had disappeared into with his hunting friends.
‘Good, now I’ll just go back and…’
Deyanin’s thoughts came to a halt when he realized that there was someone behind him. He was surprised because he didn’t hear any footsteps. Meanwhile, the person behind him was squatting and looking at the wooden bars that Manun had broken through, as if they weren’t interested in Deyanin.
Deyanin smiled at the sight of a familiar face, but then he hid his expression and cleared his throat.
“Prince Kyle, what brings you here?”
King of Serenity’s third prince, Kyle Lak Orazen, raised his head.
“Oh, Deyanin. I heard Manun had disappeared and came to look for him.”
At those words, it was hard for Deyanin to regain his smile. Even though Kyle was a prince, he was just a 13 year old child. And in addition to that, he wasn’t very good at using his body, so he couldn’t ride Cockatoos like his first brother. However, his brilliance was extraordinary, even to the point that Deyanin asked himself if there was really no way for Kyle to become king.
“So you’ve come to find Manun. However, Manun has already run deep into the mountains, so the mountain rangers and hunters have gone to look for him.”
“Even my brother?”
“What?”
“I saw my brother riding a Cockatoo in the distance earlier.”
“Yes, well…I don’t expect much.”
Kyle nodded.
“Even though my first brother is good at hunting, it would be hard for him to bring Manun back.”
“Yes.”
“Even if all the palace guards are ordered to bring Manun back, there would be nothing they could do if Manun doesn’t want to go with them.”
Deyanin thought the same, but it made his heart burn to hear it said out loud since he was the one responsible for the task.
To forget the painful reality, Deyanin asked Kyle, “By the way, what are you looking so hard at?”
“There’s something strange about the wooden bar.”
“In what way?”
“Isn’t it strange for it to break this neatly?”
He was right. That was why Deyanin had thought there might be a conspiracy at play at first glance. However, he changed his mind once he took a closer look.
“I also thought that someone had made shallow cuts on the wooden bars, but that wasn’t the case. Bugs have eaten it.”
“Oh, the bugs did?”
“Yes. If you look right there… Yes. That part. It’s eaten very neatly. And even if it weren’t for these parts where the bugs had fed on, Manun would have easily broken the fence down. So it doesn’t mean much.”
Kyle shook his head.
“No.”
“What do you mean?”
“It is true that the bugs ate it, but that is not meaningless.”
“Why do you think so?”
Kyle pointed at one of the pillars connected to wooden bars.
“These wooden bars were attached to the stone pillars. If it weren’t for the spots the bugs had eaten, the pillars would have broken along with the wooden bars when Manun broke it. Then the palace guards would have come in time to poke Manun with spears and push him back into his garden. However, because of the bugs, the wooden bars broke as soon as Manun pushed into them, so there wasn’t a loud noise. And that’s why it was discovered late.”
It was a valid deduction, so Deyanin almost agreed to it. But Deyanin was a realist.
“Ah, but Your Highness, it isn’t possible for bugs to only eat in such a neat line. Even if honey was put on the wooden bar, it would take more than one or two days for the bugs to eat away the wood to that extent. And if someone made such a thing happen for more than a few days, they would have been caught.”
Kyle stood up after listening to Deyanin. He hit his thighs like his legs had gone numb.
“Deyanin, do you know what Night Sky used to be called in the past?”
“What?”
Deyanin became puzzled at the sudden mention of God’s name. Compared to others, Deyanin wasn’t very devoted, so he didn’t know what Night Sky had been called in the past.
“I guess you don’t have much interest in old stories. It was the Blue Insect God.”
“Insect…God?”
“Yes. If you look at old literature, it is filled with many Miracles related to insects. So there was a reason God used to be called that, Oh, and one more thing. Lakrak used to call Night Sky the Beetle God.”
Deyanin was bewildered and said, “So what you’re saying is that Night Sky has done this?”
“Yes.”
“But it might just be a coincidence that the bugs have eaten the wood.”
“Yes. Of course it’s just a hypothesis. But there is a way to check.”
“How?”
As if he wasn’t sure why Deyanin would ask such a thing, Kyle bluntly said, “Well, we’ll check and see if there are other parts of the wooden bars that the bugs have eaten. If that’s the case, then it’s just a coincidence. But in my perspective, that seems unlikely. It seems that the wood was even painted with herbs to repel bugs…”
It was something that could be checked right away. Without going back to the hunting department and ordering his subordinates to do so, Deyanin quickly ran around Manun’s garden and checked the wooden bars. After a lap around the garden, Deyanin stood next to Kyle with heat rising from his body and his heart pounding—not merely because he hadn’t run in a long time.
‘…There aren’t any other spots!’
Deyanin bent over while trying to catch his breath and said, “Oh..oh my… Your Highness, let’s say that Night Sky had really…whoo…done this. Then what do you think the reason was?”
“I’m not sure.”
Kyle looked at Manun’s garden, the wooden bars that Manun broke, and the path leading to the mountain that he had made by wagging his tail.
“Fortunately, there doesn’t seem to be anything special in the mountain Manun went into. Even though there are rangers and hunters, they would be able to avoid him before it gets too dangerous since something as big as Manun would go around breaking trees. There wouldn’t be anything for Manun to target. But…”
“But?”
“Someone might be excited enough to follow Manun. And wouldn’t that person become Manun’s target?”
At those words, Deyanin felt chills run down his back.
‘…Oh?’
Normally, no one would go after a Drake just because they were excited. But as Kyle had said, Deyanin had just met someone who was eagerly chasing after Manun.
‘What a fool!’
If Night Sky really existed and wished the country well, they would wish for the third prince to become crown prince rather than the first prince. And that was also what Deyanin had wanted. However, if Manun were to cause a problem, it was Deyanin himself who would be held responsible. Deyanin sighed, thinking that even though he knew it was what Night Sky wanted, he should protect himself. He had to hurry and bring Vasen back.
After taking a few steps toward the hunting department, Deyanin stopped and said, “Prince, you must not tell anyone else about this. Do you understand?”
“Sure. But please do me a favor.”
“What?”
“It’s something that would also help you out.”
The favor Kyle asked for was an absurd one..𝒎
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