The Red King sighed again and looked at Gravis with a serious expression. What he was about to say will change the whole dynamic between him and Gravis.
"The Empress has a fondness for special food, and you fulfill all these-"
"Shut up, you lying piece of shit," Gravis interrupted the Red King with a sneer.
The Red King was shocked when he heard that. At first, he couldn't believe what he had just heard. Did he just get insulted by some Lord? He would have never believed that a mere Lord would insult him like that. This felt so surreal to him.
"Lying?" the Red King asked in a threatening tone.
"Yeah, lying," Gravis answered.
The Red King was still taken aback, but he soon recovered. Then, the Red King just laughed menacingly. "So, that's it," the Red King said. "You aren't able to handle the truth and avert your eyes-"
"No, you're just lying," Gravis interrupted him again.
The Red King took another deep breath to calm down. Gravis' constant interruptions made his blood boil. "And what, pray tell, makes you think that I'm lying?" he asked with narrowed eyes.
"For starters," Gravis said as he pointed at the Red King, "You objected to me calling you a liar but didn't object to me calling you a piece of shit. That's a pretty good indication that you're lying."
The Red King's face transformed into a grimace. He hadn't even thought about that.
"Additionally, if I would be killed in five years, you could just kill me now and freeze my body. Like this, you wouldn't need to fear me going for a 'walk'."
"Also, you want power above everything else, and you sounded pretty convincing when you said that I would be your future enemy. This means that you know that I won't just die as soon as I arrive there."
"On top of that, such a powerful beast like the Empress wouldn't waste her valuable time with such nonsense. She has become this powerful by fighting for her life, time and time again. If she had such a weak mindset, she would be a Lord on the fringes of the continent."
"Finally, when I said I would become your enemy in the future, you didn't show even the slightest reaction. If you knew that I would die, you would have had a self-satisfied smirk on your face. With your petty mindset, you wouldn't have been able to hide your mirth."
"So, yeah, that's why you're a lying piece of shit," Gravis shouted. "I thought you had some self-respect. I thought you would think such mere deceptions to be beneath you." Then, Gravis' sneer intensified. "Oh, how wrong I was."
The Red King's body shook in rage as he heard that tirade. He had never been this disrespected in his entire life.
Crk!
The sound of scales scratching on stone could be heard as Gravis stood up. "So, anyway, since you aren't ready to pay up, I think I'll go for a walk."
The Red King took a deep breath to calm himself. "Okay, yes, I lied to you," he confessed with a grumbling tone.
Gravis only looked at him evenly.
The Red King took another deep breath. "I wanted to shock you and make you fearful of your life as a payback," he grumbled. "I would have told you the truth either way."
Gravis huffed. "Oh, is that so?" he asked in a sarcastic tone.
"Don't push it!" the Red King threatened.
Gravis just rolled his eyes. In truth, Gravis believed the claim that the Red King would have told him the truth later. Gravis already had a pretty good picture of the Red King's personality. Something as petty as that seemed to fit his mindset.
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"Alright," Gravis said as he sat back down. "The truth, then."
The Red King sighed as he felt a headache coming on. He only wanted to frustrate Gravis a bit to get one over him, but Gravis wouldn't even give him that.
"You will be one of the Empress' breeders," he said with a dejected tone.
Gravis blinked a couple of times out of surprise. "Breeder?" he asked.
"Yes, a breeder," the Red King repeated. "Your Battle-Strength and body are shockingly powerful. The more powerful the parent, the better the offspring. Your Battle-Strength is powerful enough that the offspring will take on your traits while receiving the nourishment from the Empress. This will produce a Divine Beast with your appearance and powers."
Gravis was still taken aback by this turn of events. He had expected many things, but he didn't expect to become a child-factory. He thought that he would maybe become some commander in her army or some trainer for some beasts. He had even considered being a slave.
The Red King saw that Gravis remained silent and sighed again. "You really don't know how lucky you are," he said with some dejection. "So many beasts want to breed with my powerful Empress but can't because they are unworthy."
"But I don't want to have any children yet," Gravis interjected.
When the Red King heard that, his head shot up in confusion. "What do you mean by you don't want to have any offspring?" he asked in confusion.
"I don't want to have any offspring," Gravis repeated. "I'm still not at the end of my journey, and creating offspring will create a new bond that will restrict me. What if I want to leave? I wouldn't be able to do that due to my responsibility and obligation towards my children. Having a child will only hinder me in my path to power."
Even though Gravis explained his reasoning in great detail, the Red King only grew more and more confused. "What do you mean with, they will stand between you and your path to power? Also, we beasts don't much care for our offspring. The bond between parents and offspring isn't even as deep as the bond between one of my common soldiers and me."
"Well, I'm not like you," Gravis said. "If I had a child, I would want to give it the best possible life. I couldn't rest easy or cultivate in peace if I didn't know that my child could be in danger. To me, a bond between a parent and a child is deeper than any bond in the world," Gravis explained.
The Red King was still confused and looked at Gravis like he was a freak. "You're really a strange beast," he commented. "Even something as basic as this is different when it involves you."
Then, the Red King suddenly smiled victoriously. "But you have revealed something new to me. Apparently, there's some common information that you don't know about."
Then, the Red King snickered. "Oh, I want to see your face when you find out," he commented.
Gravis furrowed his brows. "What do you mean?"
"I'm not going to tell you," the Red King said with a smirk as he turned around.
Gravis grew a bit nervous when he heard that. Apparently, there was something that he didn't know about, and the fact that he didn't know that information delighted the Red King. Something like that couldn't be simple.
Yet, what could he do? Just like the Red King wasn't able to force Gravis into answering his questions, Gravis couldn't force the Red King.
On top of that, Gravis was sure that the Red King would never tell him. Gravis had frustrated the Red King to no end by keeping information from him, and with the Red King's petty mindset, he would want to do the same thing to Gravis.
The moment that Gravis had shown interest in that particular piece of information was the moment he was destined to never hear it from the Red King's mouth.
Well, at least, Gravis got to know what would be waiting for him in the future. Yet, he didn't look forward to it at all.
The situation with Cynthia was over, and Gravis went back to staring into space. Trying to comprehend Laws was the only thing that could help him become stronger. Sadly, Gravis knew that he could understand some parts of some Laws but wouldn't be able to fully grasp them without some kind of sudden comprehension or enlightenment.
And most of those happened in perilous fights.
The days stretched into months, which eventually stretched into years. Gravis just continued looking at the CMO and his surroundings in a trance as his fight with the level five Lord drew near.
And before he knew it, the time for the fight had arrived.