MISTRESS OF NATURE - Up to 50% off for a limited time!

CHAPTER 8

Drago advised against Gatria introducing herself as such, and since Gatria was curious how Drago would help her, she listened.

"Please, let me hire all of you. Any amount will do, just please, I beg of you, help us protect our town." Count Salas bowed his head. It should have been a surprise to everyone who saw him since he was a noble, but he had been bowing his head to protect his town that the people around him had gotten used to it and even respected him for it.

Treven glanced at Gatria as if asking for permission.

Gatria didn't answer Treven, instead she turned her attention to Count Salas. "Why do you want to save your town so bad? It had become a barren land. Whatever you do, it'll only get worst. You cannot defeat nature, even if you desperately try."

"Because this is our town," Count Salas answered as if it was the most natural thing to do. "This town is our home. It is our responsibility to take care of it and protect it. All the nobles in different towns and villages already run and escape to the capital. Even the famous noble's hill who's only high ranking nobility could enter was abandoned." Exhaustion was evident on his face. "I, myself, know how hopeless and scary the situation is. We are not fully equipped and ready to fight the monsters, and it seemed that the kingdom had forgotten about us as well, but if we, too, run, what will happen to our home that we worked so hard to build for so many years? We can't just abandon Belrac. We can't— I can't..."

Gatria stared at Count Salas for a long minute before she glanced at Drago. Taking care of Azitera together. Gatria remembered Drago's words. This was what he meant by that?

Gatria turned her attention back to the Count. She wanted to know his opinion on something, and her decision to help Belrac depends on his answer. She would not pretend that her hate towards humans had lessened, but she had to curl her anger for the betterment of Azitera.

"Tell me, Count Salas," Gatria's eyes were narrowed on the Count. "Do you know of the Yther's queens?"

Count Salas nodded solemnly. "They are wicked beings who tried to end the human race."

"I'm hearing a 'but'." Treven was quick to pick up on Count Salas' tone.

Count Salas sighed heavily and lowered his voice as he speaks. "But... one of the four queens of Yther is the Mistress of Nature. If she could breath life in Azitera with her essence, then it makes one wonder if she was truly evil. Why would a blessed queen like that be wicked? I'm certain that the deities wouldn't bless an evil being the ability to nurture nature since it was such an important rule."

"That's because she's not a wicked person." Said Drago, who was just silently standing behind Gatria like a dutiful guard. "I'm from a long-lived race and I had the pleasure of meeting the Mistress of Nature."

It was like an intense fire was lit in Count Salas' eyes. "W-What was she like?" It was the Count's first time meeting a person who had met one of the queens.

Not all humans believed the history that was taught to them while they were growing up. And one of them was Count Salas. And the reason for that was his great-grandfather's journal and his other predecessors. He had read it from start to finish and his grandfather had nothing but praise and gratitude towards the Yther's Queens.

That was the start of Count Salas' doubts. But he couldn't possibly voiced out his doubt to the kingdom, afraid of being charged with treason. He had a family to protect, so he kept his silence until the Mistress of Nature became the talk of the town many weeks ago.

She had escaped, they said.

But according to history, all the queens were dead. But now, whispers on the street say that they weren't dead, but imprisoned. No one knew, but this was thanks to Warlord Hakkeran who's spreading this news through whispers and gossips. The kingdom hadn't addressed this issue and was keeping silent, but Count Salas was certain that the whispers on the streets were true. And what happened to the Infernal Empire capital and outside Adral weeks ago was the proof of that.