The Red King looked at Gravis intently. Gravis, meanwhile, only looked back with his usual, even expression.
"Did you gather all the necessary ore?" the Red King asked.
"Yes," Gravis answered.
Then, the Red King smirked. "Great! When will you be ready for a fight?" he asked.
"I should be done in about a month or so, but I don't want to fight yet. Since you're forcing me to stay here for over five years, I want to keep my sense of danger sharp. I want a fight three years from now," Gravis said.
The Red King hummed for a bit. "It's a bit later than I'd like, but I can see your point. It would be horrible if you wouldn't be able to perform in front of the Empress. I've heard from my commander that you have eaten the Golden Dragon, but you're still a level two Lord. Apparently, you told the truth, and you actually really need much more food."
"If the Golden Dragon hadn't fallen to the third level, he might have been enough for me to reach the third level," Gravis said.
The Red King only smirked. "It's better this way. Like this, you can test your new Battle-Strength more effectively."
Gravis shrugged. "I guess. Though, the fight against my future opponent will probably not be as devastating as my fight with the Golden Dragon," Gravis answered.
The Red King nodded. "That's alright. The fight with my disciple was to force you to become even stronger. The next fight is only for you to keep and test that strength. I've already risked and sacrificed enough for you to become this powerful. I don't want to risk even more."
Gravis sat down on the mountain. "I will remain here for the next three years. I see no point in going anywhere else."
The Red King felt relieved when he heard that. The less Gravis moved around, the better. When he had told Cynthia to keep watch over him, he had already accepted the fact that Gravis would maybe kill several beasts. After all, the Red King knew that Gravis knew that his life was way too valuable. So, since only one beast died, the Red King saw that as a positive surprise.
Then, the Red King turned to Cynthia. Cynthia had heard their entire conversation, and she had been incredibly shocked. She wasn't shocked about the topic that they were talking about, but about the absence of even a mention of the beast that Gravis had killed. It was almost like the Red King didn't even care that one of his beasts died.
"You can return to your duties now," the Red King said. "As long as I'm inside my abode, no one needs to watch him. I'll call you to watch him when I'm going somewhere else."
It was challenging for Cynthia to process the current situation. Hadn't she failed her duties? Her King had said that Gravis wasn't allowed to kill a beast, but he had killed one under her watch! Was this some kind of elaborate punishment from her King?
"My King… I-I'm sorry that I failed my duties," Cynthia said nervously. She felt like it would be easier if she just directly apologized. Maybe her King wanted to test her loyalty towards him?
The Red King was a bit confused for a couple of seconds but then remembered something. "Oh, you mean that beast he killed? Forget it. I've already expected that something like this would happen. He got all the ore he needs now. A death in exchange for that is a good trade," the Red King said with a smile.
Cynthia was still in shock. Why did her King act like she hadn't failed? "I don't mean any disrespect, my King, but haven't you said that he isn't allowed to kill a beast? Haven't I failed in my duty?" she asked nervously.
The Red King waved one of his wings dismissively. "You're too uptight, commander," he transmitted to her nonchalantly. "I already knew that he would kill some beasts. I don't care about some weak beasts dying. I only care about him not eating himself into becoming a level five Lord. That would be horrible for his Battle-Strength."
Cynthia was still in shock by her King's dismissive response to her failure.
"Actually," the Red King transmitted after some seconds. "The fact that he only killed a single beast and didn't even eat it is better than even the best-case scenario I had in my mind. So, I could say that you actually did quite a good job."
Cynthia just couldn't wrap her head around the current situation. "I… did a good job?" she asked in confusion.
"Yes," the Red King answered. "He has gone through a large amount of my territory, gathered everything he needs, and only killed a single beast during that time. That's a good job, in my opinion."
Cynthia still couldn't fully accept the reality of the situation. "But he has gone against your commands by killing that beast. He has shown no respect for your authority," she argued.
"Of course not, why would he?" the Red King answered like it was obvious. "He's constantly taunting me directly without any fear for his life. It's frustrating me to no end, but he's not stupid. He has a lot of guts to gamble with his life like that, and that's a quality I admire, even if he's angering me by doing that."
"Also," the Red King continued. "Why would he respect my authority? I'm forcing him to do something he doesn't want. Of course he's going to fight back. Powerful beasts have their own pride, and they hate it when someone suppresses them."
Cynthia remained silent for a while and thought about her King's words. After some seconds, she finally came to terms with the situation. "Then, thank you for your praise, my King," she said with a slight bow.
"Yes, yes," the Red King said in annoyance. "Go back to your duties. I'll call for you if I require you to watch him."
Gravis hadn't heard the majority of the conversation, but he could guess what they talked about based on their body language. There were very few things that Gravis hated more than hypocrisy, and Cynthia's conduct had been extremely hypocritical in his eyes.
So, Gravis wanted to confront her with more of her own hypocrisy by unveiling the truth of the current situation. If she could deal with it, maybe her mindset would change. If she couldn't, she would go through hell. This was also a kind of tempering.
Yet, not everyone wants to temper themselves.
Cynthia just turned around and wanted to fly away to get back to her duties when she heard Gravis' voice from behind her. "I will destroy the Red Kingdom in the future," Gravis commented evenly.
Cynthia halted and almost couldn't believe what she had just heard. Did Gravis just say that he would kill all of them?
The Red King didn't seem to mind his words. In actuality, he had completely expected them. He was forcing Gravis into doing something he didn't want, and the whole Kingdom was complicit in it. Who wouldn't want to destroy their captors? To him, this sentence had no relevancy at all.
It wasn't that the Red King thought that Gravis was too weak to pull off something like that. It was just that this sentence changed nothing about the situation and was basically meaningless.
Both the Red King and Gravis knew that Gravis would want to avenge this enmity in the future. On top of that, the Red King believed that Gravis had the potential to actually succeed. So, why was he even commenting on it?
"But you don't care about that, do you?" Gravis asked the Red King. "You don't care about the destruction of your Kingdom. You are probably sure that you would soon become an Emperor. As long as you're still alive, you can always make a new one."
"Why are you talking nonsense?" the Red King asked with a bit of annoyance. "You know that we both know that we will become enemies in the future. What's the point of saying this? In truth, I'm looking forward to our fight in the future. My life has been too easy and calm for the past hundred years."
Gravis smirked. "I thought that you would want to use me to put pressure on you. You are already very powerful, and someone like you should know that pressure is the best way to become powerful. So, by suppressing me, you not only get a reward from the Empress but also get a powerful, future enemy. That's quite smart, in my opinion," Gravis said with a mocking tone.
The Red King also smirked. "To be honest, I stole that idea from you. I've heard about the snake that you invited into your River Tribe. I thought this was a great idea, but why use just any beast if I can use the beast that originally came up with that idea? This makes your situation just that much more ironic and entertaining, wouldn't you agree?"
Cynthia listened to this conversation with incredible shock. Was this really the truth? Did her King plan on putting her home, the entire Red Kingdom, into mortal danger just so that he had a chance of becoming more powerful?
In her mind, the Red King had always been incredibly wise. The Red Kingdom had flourished under his leadership, and he had given the members of the Red Kingdom power, freedom, and relative peace. Cynthia had seen what the Red King had accomplished, and she had looked up to him with worship.
Yet, this kind and benevolent King had invited mortal danger into her home willingly? This didn't conform with her impression of her King at all.
"What are you still doing here? Leave," the Red King said with annoyance as he noticed that Cynthia was still there.
Cynthia quickly regained her bearings. "I-I'm sorry, my King," she stuttered and then fled into the distance.
The Red King was a bit annoyed by her and flew back into his abode. He had more important things to do than talk about such useless stuff.
Meanwhile, Gravis only smirked. Gravis had a lot of experience with people and beasts, and he knew that the Red King was incredibly proud and only respected power. This was an outstanding mindset for becoming powerful and was probably one of the main reasons why the Red King had become so powerful.
Gravis knew that people and beasts often judged others by their own mindsets and standards. The Red King was proud of his Kingdom and trusted in his followers' thirst and greed for power. He trusted in the fact that his beasts would also be ready to risk their lives for power.
Yet, this implicit trust and pride in his beasts made him subconsciously think that his powerful followers had a similarly powerful mindset to him. Sadly, by being so prideful in his own mindset, the Red King didn't even realize that many beasts in his Kingdom didn't share his mindset.
He had talked with Gravis openly in front of Cynthia because he believed that she also had this mindset. To him, this was no secret.
Yet, how we perceive people and beasts and how they truly are can be frighteningly different.
Gravis had only stated and talked about the things that he and the Red King thought as evident. To both of them, this whole dynamic seemed so obvious that it even felt like a waste of time to talk about it.
But only Gravis realized that it wasn't as obvious.
The image of the Red King in Cynthia's mind was utterly upturned and destroyed. With her mindset and loyalty, she would go through an astronomical amount of uncertainty, fear, and anxiety in the coming future.
'Cynthia,' Gravis thought coldly. 'You also suppressed me like the Red King. Yet, you spoke to me like I should be thankful for that. This makes you even worse than the Red King in my books. I can respect the Red King's power and mindset, but I despise yours.'
'So, if I can't kill you physically, I will kill you mentally and emotionally!'
