Chapter 174: A stab not seen
Ren looked at Remu for a second longer than he needed to. He had never seen the man speak out of turn like that, not once, not in front of anyone this important.
The Duke looked equally caught off guard, his composure slipping for just a moment before he pulled it back into place.
"Excuse me?" the Duke said.
"You heard him," Remu said, standing now, meeting the Duke’s eyes without flinching. "Do you really think we’re here to accommodate whatever request you feel like making? Do you think my master is some random monster who bends over sideways because you asked nicely?"
The Duke’s jaw tightened.
"We were forced to come here after we’d already offered something," Remu went on. "You should have come yourself and settled it. Instead our lord decided to be the bigger man and travel to your home. And the only thing you’ve given him since he arrived is questions, rage, and attitude."
The Duke stared at the both of them, something sharp flickering behind his eyes.
Louis slammed his fist on the table and rose to his feet.
"How dare you speak to the Duke that way," he said.
Ezra, who had been sitting quietly this entire time, turned her head toward him.
"I really don’t like the way you’re speaking to my lord," she said. "Would you like to see what death looks like? Keep talking and you might."
Something passed through the air when she said it. Louis staggered back a step, his hand going white where it gripped the table edge. He had been told this meeting would be difficult. He had not been told it would be like this.
Ren just kept eating.
The Duke looked between all of them, visibly out of options.
"Mister Ren," he said, "are you really going to let your subordinate speak for you?"
Ren shrugged, still chewing.
"Honestly, I don’t care," he said. "If it’s the armament you’re still on about, forget it. It’s gone, there’s no getting it back. Talk about that later if it still matters that much to you. What I actually want to talk about is my payment. But it seems like you’re not all that interested in finding a way to deal with the spiders." He stood. "So I’ll be taking my leave."
He turned and walked toward the door. Everyone who had come with him followed.
Count Liam, still seated, looked between the door and the Duke, clearly unsure who he was supposed to be loyal to in this particular second.
The Duke tapped his finger against the table, once, twice, then slammed it flat.
"I have seen what those spiders can do," he said, low. "This is a threat to the entire kingdom, and it needs to be dealt with fast. Everything else can wait. Let’s talk about your price."
Ren stopped and turned around.
"Guess that’s better than nothing," he said, and started back toward his seat.
Remu stepped directly into his path.
Ezra was up as well and moving before Ren had even reacted, stepping forward with her eyes locked on the Duke.
"As of now," she said, "the terms have shifted in our favor. You chose to disrespect us, so this is what that costs you. If you don’t like what we’re about to propose, we walk out of here and you never see us again. If you try to stop us by force, we destroy this entire city and still walk away at the end of it. The choice is yours, Duke William."
The Duke’s teeth ground together, his fist curling tight enough to whiten his knuckles. He had never been spoken to like this in his own home, and he was getting all of it inside of five minutes.
Then he let out a short, humorless laugh.
"Fine," he said. "Fine. Let’s get this started."
[-----]
The clearing had once been forest. A hundred meters of it were simply gone now, trees flattened, ground churned open in long gouges.
Aris and Tempest stood across from each other in the middle of it, both of them breathing hard. Iris was still in wolf form. Tempest was hunched over, using his sword stabbed into the dirt to keep himself upright.
Ari’s shifted back to human and started walking toward him, slow.
"Give up," she said. "I’m not letting you throw yourself away over this."
"No matter what you do," Tempest said, "I’m going to get rid of that dragon."
"You couldn’t even beat me," she said. "What makes you think you’d stand a chance against him?"
"Because I’m stronger. I’m better." His voice cracked upward. "I won’t let someone else come in and outshine me. All of you have always been above me. You, Ophelia, everyone, always looking down at me like I’m too slow to matter. And now this dragon wants to take the last spot too. No. That place belongs to the Calamity. Not to me. Not to the king out of Orgres."
Aris stopped walking.
"So that’s what this is about," she said. "Not wanting to be the weakest. You’re willing to risk every ogre under you, most of them, just so there’s no one left around to make you feel small. That’s why you took her hand. That’s why you took the evolution."
He breathed hard through his teeth.
"Even with the evolution, I still couldn’t beat you," he said. "That proves my point." He leaned harder on the sword. "I’m not letting this continue."
She kept walking. When she was close, she looked straight into his eyes.
"Tempest. This isn’t it. There are better ways to do this."
He went still, like he’d actually heard her. The tension in his eyes eased. He staggered forward and rested his head against her shoulder.
"I’m tired," he said. "Tired of all of it."
She started to answer.
Then she felt it, a sharp pain low in her gut. She looked down. He had driven the poison dagger into her.
She stumbled backward in shock. The poison was already moving fast, her skin darkening toward purple as it spread.
He looked at her and smiled.
"I’ve spent too long being the one who never gets what he wants," he said. "I’m not losing anymore. Never again."
He watched her drop to her knees, watched her try and fail to speak, watched her go down flat against the churned-up ground.
Then he looked at her body for a few more seconds, turned, and limped away, leaving her there.