Chapter 193: Payment
"Cut the humans off?" Ren asked. He leaned his head on one arm and looked at them, wanting Kane to explain deeper.
"Why do we have to punish all the humans because of the actions of the others?"
Kane gritted his teeth and balled his fist. "The humans are far worse than anything else.
Before we were all saved by you, Master, they had the forest lords use us for their games, if you recall. We were all forced to do it, and we never had anything that was like a choice.
If I have the freedom to speak, I'd say what they suffered against the spiders was fair and deserved."
His words stunned everyone, and no one thought that he would have the mind to say that.
Ren heard that and leaned forward. He looked at Kane with sharp eyes. "So you really think their deaths were worth it?" He asked. His aura exploded outward, and suddenly the massive hall seemed far too small. The air got heavy. They tried to breathe but could not.
They were not the target of all this force, and yet they were feeling this way.
Kane, who was the target of all of this, did not allow it to break him. He stood strong and looked ahead, his gaze filled with defiance and refusal to bend.
"Yes, Master Ren, I believe that they deserve what they got."
At this point, everyone had believed that he had signed off on his death.
"Hahaha." Ren burst into a laugh and clapped his hands a few times. Everyone was shocked by the sudden change. He was no longer releasing his aura, and it made everyone breathe easier.
Kane heaved a massive sigh of relief. His knees buckled a bit, but he caught the table and refused to fall.
"That's great. You should always stand for what you believe," Ren said and placed his finger on the table.
"If what you believe can be easily shaken by pressure, then it is safe to say that you did not believe in the first place at all," Ren said.
"The humans are a problem, yes, and I'm very sure that they will cause even more issues for us going forward," Ren said, "but I discussed this with Remu and Ezra. There is a reason why we still have connections with a few of them, especially Raven Town." Ren said and looked at Ezra.
She stepped forward and began explaining. "It's really simple," she started. "We still need to ensure we build our relationship with the humans that have chosen to be on our side.
No matter how bad the rest have been, we must accept the ones that have chosen to stand for us and with us.
We are not going to toss aside those that have helped us," Ezra explained.
"So does this mean we are going to keep accepting those that don't pose a threat to us? We never posed a threat to humans all this time, and they walked into our homes and caused us a lot of pain," Kane pushed, and a murmur erupted, with everyone agreeing with him.
Remu saw this and wanted to speak, but he recalled what Ren had told him.
"Remu, you must not stand against anyone when they speak. You, Riker, Ezra, no one. I understand that my words are final to all of you, but when we sit in the hall, all words spoken are to be looked at with complete importance.
These are not the worries of a single monster but rather every monster under me, and we must take them into account and treat them accordingly."
Remu clenched his fist and took a deep breath. "Fine, Master, they can speak to you how they want here," he muttered to himself calmly.
"I guess that's another way to see it," Ren said. He placed his elbows on the table and leaned in with his fist under his chin.
"What do you think, all of you? Anyone can answer here," Ren said. There was a silence for a few seconds before finally Ragna spoke. He rose up.
"The humans have always seen us as enemies, and you, Master, want us to see some of them as nothing but friends and people that we are meant to accept.
Normally, I would refuse this and I would say no, but in the same breath, I must now say, I understand you, Master," Ragna said.
Ren raised his brow when Ragna got to this point.
"I have stood with some humans that actually went the step further to fight for us. I cannot refute what they have done for us, and so I must say that accepting humans is a good thing.
Lady Fey is one example. She is a human that I would be willing to protect and believe that she would protect even me," Ragna finished.
"Good points, Ragna. But also, I would not really place Fey in a human category."
"Lord Ren, do you not find me human enough?" She asked and leaned in to see his face, a smile on her face as she asked.
"Leave me alone, Fey," he said and looked away from her. His eyes turned back to Kane.
"I promise you, Kane. In the occasion that a human threatens the life of anyone here, he, along with everyone connected with him, would be ground down to their bone," Ren said and looked at him with eyes that said it all. He was not joking.
Kane saw that look and heard that voice. He could not fight against it. "I understand, Master Ren. I believe you." After saying that, he sat back down.
"What's next on the agenda, then?" Ren asked, moving on from the previous topic.
"Payment," Ezra stated.
"Most of this was an issue of humans, and we have agreed that if we helped in any way, we would get paid by them.
For the development of Crimson, we need resources and more, and so we have to get our payments.
Sir Remu and I have looked into it to see how possible it is to get it from them, and it is not looking good," she said.
"Not looking good? What does that even mean?" Riker asked. "We risked our lives for this. Heck, I even died."
"I'll explain," Ezra said. "The humans might put the blame of the losses that they faced due to Ophelia almost becoming a god on us.
No matter how we look at it, a huge number of humans surely died because of what she did. We analyzed that there is a high chance that they are simply going to make their people believe that this has something to do with us."
The hall went silent when she said that. Everyone realized how real and practical that was. If they did that, it would make a lot of sense, because then they could also attack and kill all the monsters.
"This is a real issue indeed," Remu said. He took a deep breath. "Master, while you were evolving, I had multiple wolves and lizardmen scout the human towns that were close by, and it was clear that they lost a lot of lives and are enraged."
"I see. Then it is safe to say that they will not be willing to easily let go of our payment. Aside from that, I am still a dragon running a massive monster organization, and I also took one of their armaments. They have a plethora of reasons why they would want to ensure that they capture and stop us," Ren analyzed. He leaned back into his chair and crossed his leg.
"That being said, we are getting our payment one way or the other. They are not running away from what they have already agreed to."
"I feel like that would lead to a larger battle against them," Silas pointed out.
"Yes, it might lead to that, but it's going to go extremely bad for them if they try to do that. We will be prepared long before they are stable enough to come after us."
"What Master Ren is trying to say is simple. He wants to ensure that the humans do not disrespect us. His greatness has analyzed that allowing the humans to believe that they could get away would cause them to disrespect us and feel like they can step on us," Remu explained.
'No. It's because I want to get paid, you dummy,' Ren thought but didn't say it out.