Chapter 144: The Board With an Identity Crisis
Chapter 144: The Board With an Identity Crisis
Elyn’s POV
I blinked. "Excuse me?"
"This is free," he said simply.
"Free?" I asked in shock.
"Yes, my queen. Just being able to see you before the other demons can, to even speak with you and do something for you, is payment enough," he told me.
Honestly, if this was my past life, I’d probably take the chance and just go. But I have money now, and I have no idea what I should be doing with it half the time—especially since I don’t even leave the castle much. Oh, who was I kidding? I loved me a free meal. But I was going to pretend that I didn’t.
"What?" I said. "No. That’s not how this works. You did exceptional work. You deserve compensation."
He shook his head again, firmer this time. "No, my queen, I do not."
I turned to Marrok for backup. It was actually pretend backup, though, because I was hoping Marrok would tell me something along the lines of—
"My lady... Gravemelders are stubborn. It’s better to just let it go like he said," Marrok told me.
I almost grinned.
That was exactly what I wanted. But I feigned shock.
"You can’t just—" I started.
"Please," Khaedros said gently. "Do not insist. You honoring my craft is sufficient payment."
I stared at him for a while, counting numbers in my head so it would look like I was actually at a crossroads—which I wasn’t—but they didn’t need to know that.
"Fine, if you insist," I told him.
"I do," he said with a smile.
I gave him one back, already counting how much I could put in my account. Speaking of accounts, did I even have one? Well, not that I cared. I was going to open one for myself anyway. I’d be richer than I ever was in my past life.
"If that is all, you may go," I told him with a wave of my hand.
A nonchalant, queenly wave that didn’t give away how excited I was about being rich.
Khaedros bowed deeply, then turned to leave. There was a bounce in his steps, and he even hummed a tune—his music was much better than the one I heard the gargoyles singing when I returned to the castle after being in the beast demon territory.
Azerion glared at his retreating back, though.
"Azerion," I said without looking at him.
He huffed. "I don’t like him."
"You don’t like anybody," I told him.
"Not true. I like you," he told me with a smile.
I chuckled, then pinched his cheeks. "I’m likeable."
I turned back to Marrok and Versha. "Alright, we have the board. It’s time to make use of it."
Marrok nodded and stepped forward, facing the board. He cleared his throat.
"Board," he said carefully.
"Why would you address the board as just board?" Versha asked with a groan.
Marrok blinked. "It’s a board."
"But that doesn’t mean you should call it a board," Versha argued.
"Okay then, what do you expect me to call it?" he asked her.
Versha paused, then turned to Rin. "What do you think it should be called?"
Rin blinked in shock. "Why are you asking me? I’m not the one who said the board shouldn’t be called a board."
"Well, I know that, but I’m just curious what you think. It’s not proper for the board to be called a board, right? How would you feel if someone just referred to you as raven demon?" Versha asked.
Rin tilted her head, actually considering the absurd thing spilling out of Versha’s mouth. Even Morthen had his head tilted in thought, as did Marrok. Could it be that Versha had some logic behind what she was saying, and I was the only one who found it absurd? Was it that I was the abnormal one after all?
"How about we call it B?" Vaelory asked.
"That’s basically nothing. Why would we need to call the board B? Imagine you being called V," Rin told her.
Vaelory frowned, then nodded. "That’s true. It wouldn’t suit."
"You guys do know the board doesn’t need to have a name, right?" I asked them. "You just need to tell it what you want it to display."
"But then how would you approach it? It would be rude to just go up to it and say, display the destination each gargoyle would be going to," Marrok told me.
"That would be rude," the others said, nodding.
Am I the only one here who thinks it’s absurd that we’re trying to be kind to a non-living thing? Something that was basically furniture at best. Something that couldn’t hear or speak.
"The board is a non-living thing," I said aloud. "It has no voice and wouldn’t even know if we were being rude or not."
And to my greatest surprise, Vaelory gasped in shock. "Your Highness, why would you say something like that? The board is no longer just a non-living thing. It’s living—it pulses."
Azerion rolled his eyes. "The queen is right. You guys are so dumb. The board is basically just a board," he said with all the annoyance a child could muster.
"Now that you say it... perhaps the human is wrong," Marrok said.
Rin snickered. "Can you imagine the board being a living thing?"
"Yeah," Versha said with a shake of her head. "There’s no way that’s possible."
Vaelory gasped loudly. "So now I’m the one in the wrong? Were we not all just talking about how we should approach the board politely and not rudely?"
"But we didn’t say it was a living thing," Versha said with an eye roll.
I rolled my eyes too and pinched the bridge of my nose. I was tired of this topic.
"No one is right, and you all should have listened to me in the first place. Now can you stop trying to put the blame on Vaelory and get on with the message? The gargoyles are anxious to know what they’re supposed to be doing," I said.
Did I think the gargoyles were anxious? No. I only said that because I was tired of hearing their wings flap in the air. Believe me, no one wants to know what it sounds like when numerous gargoyles are flying together—stone wings flapping continuously.