Chapter 136: It’s not Ren
The count arrived at the town, and he actually saw why Ren told him not to have an issue with the monsters. He saw all the monsters that filled the town, helping fix the entire place. A few questions asked, and he discovered that they were all from Ren. It made him question who this monster Ren was and why he was working with the humans as well.
So when he walked into the manor and had a seat with Lia, he made up his mind to ask.
"Welcome, Count Liam. I hope your journey here was fine," Lia spoke, her sword leaned to the side of her chair. She still did not let go of it no matter the case, that was her deal. Even when she saw how the count looked at the sword with heavy eyes.
"My journey here was... eventful, to say the least. I also ran into someone that seems to know you," he said and leaned back into the chair, interlocking his fingers. "The monster, who is that monster?" He asked.
Lia hesitated for a moment, but then she realized that her entire town was getting fixed by monsters. There was really no way that they could hide who Ren was.
"He is one of the forest lords, Ren Crimson, the dragon."
The moment the words left her mouth, the butler, the mage, the dual wielder, and now the archer who stood behind the count were stunned.
Count Liam was no exception to this. He sat there frozen for a solid second, processing what she had just said. He looked at her as if trying to see if she was lying or something else.
"Are you telling me that that monster was a dragon?" He asked.
Lia nodded. "I do not know if you have heard about the dragon that arrived in the forest or heard rumors at least. He is Ren. All the monsters outside are his subordinates, evolved monsters that are capable of things that go far beyond what many humans are even capable of.
"He came here after the spiders attacked, and he helped us, struck a deal to work with us, that’s all," she said, pushing out the information that Ren himself had said was okay.
Count Liam frowned. "Why did you not rush to inform me when this happened, rather than making a collaboration with a dragon?" He asked while shooting her a fierce gaze, but rather than back away, she looked him dead in the eye and replied.
"Because you had no interest in helping us. All you are doing now is the mandated check after there is an issue. If we had waited for anyone, those monsters would have killed us and taken..." She stopped herself. "And taken all our lives," she completed it.
Liam heard how she froze, and he understood that there were parts of this that she was not willing to tell.
"How can you make such large and bold claims when every other town that was attacked only lost a few dozen people? Why did your town lose nearly half of them?" He asked with an intense gaze.
She saw what the count was trying to do. He wanted to get her to speak on what really happened, but she and Ren had decided that they would not be telling anyone about the fact that these spiders took over the bodies of people. They did not know who to trust, so the information was to be kept hidden.
"I honestly do not know anymore," she replied in a calm way. "Everything I told you is what happened, and you can recount from any person in the town."
The count leaned forward slightly, his fingers still interlocked, and shifted his approach.
"You speak highly of this dragon," he said. "But consider this. He is a monster. The ones that attacked this town were monsters." He held her gaze. "How can you be certain he had nothing to do with it?" He suggested with a soft smile.
Lia smiled.
She could not help it.
The count noticed and frowned. "You find that amusing?"
"I find it familiar," she said. "I asked him that exact question myself when we first met."
"And?"
She settled back in her chair, her hand resting on the hilt of her sword out of habit.
"There is no benefit in it for him," she said. "Think about it properly. If Ren wanted to attack towns, he would not need to send spiders to do it quietly. He would simply do it. And he would not stop at one town." She looked at the count evenly. "Multiple towns were hit over several months. Each attack small enough to avoid drawing too much attention. That is not how a dragon operates. That is not how something that strong operates. If Ren wanted something from this region, he would have taken it already, loudly, and moved on."
She paused.
"I have done my own reading into this. The kingdom is already aware of him. If he were behind the attacks, more towns would have been hit and far more attention would have come down on this forest. None of that happened." She met his eyes. "It was not him."
The count said nothing for a moment, his jaw set, clearly not finished with the line of questioning.
Lia moved first.
"My father is currently being held, waiting for you to carry out your judgment," she said, her voice carrying the particular tone of someone closing one door and opening another. "That is the reason you came here. I would suggest we get to it."
The count’s expression tightened.
He looked at her, read her, understood that she had placed the conversation exactly where she wanted it and had no intention of moving it back.
He exhaled slowly.
"We will return to the matter of the dragon," he said.
"Of course," Lia replied.
"But yes." He straightened in his chair. "Let us deal with your father first."