Netori SSS-Emperor: All Queens Shall Be Mine!-Chapter 42: A Shrewd Eye For Assessment

Sparing Kukei's life by announcing William's victory, the queen masked an act of mercy as the only logical leap comprehensible to the masses. Yet her adoptive son, Wolf, knew better. He knew that she had done that not to end the standstill of a battle but to spare Kukei from being killed in her sleep by William.

Staring at his mother's viewing window, Wolf also wondered whether Astoria saw the value that Kukei could provide in their ranks. Their vessels sailed on water, so who could be better than a reptilian who could control storms? No longer just a participant, Kukei had turned into an investment for the kingdom. Why else would the queen rush to the window to announce the end? Not to mention the moral toll Kukei's death would've put on the people of her island. A coup could've formed–something best avoided given the circumstances.

'As for William...' Looking to the middle of the ground at William, Wolf further questioned his mother's intentions. 'She couldn't see him hurt, and maybe that's part of the reason why she did what she did.'

Being healed not by Kanna but by Hestia–the greater healer of the two, William was being given more care than the previous injured participants. As the thought of injury crossed Wolf's mind, his eyes lifted to the edge row at the coliseum where Runner's friends had been cheering him from.

Sitting by a faunan girl with bear paws and ears, Runner was sound asleep with his head on the same girl's shoulder. A blush rode on the girl's cheeks, and the handful of the other rowdy young adults and teens kept snickering to themselves while teasing the young couple.

Already having moved on from the intense battle, their group was beyond rowdy and disturbing the rest of the audience around them.

'How bad is their attention span that they can't help the urge to be a nuisance to everyone around them?' Pulled out of his thoughts by a light tug on his clothes, Wolf turned his head to find a little reptilian faunan with teary eyes trying to get his attention.

"Are you okay?" He asked, slowly placing a hand on top of her head.

Unable to form words between her crying hisses, the girl pinched his clothes tight, forcing Wolf to look for an answer elsewhere.

"Renee, where's everyone from her clan?"

"They just took Kukei back to her room a few seconds ago, sorry I didn't say anything to you since you seemed to be focusing on something..." Offering a weak smile, Renee squatted to meet the kid's eye level. Pulling her hand off of her man, she grabbed the child's hand and made her turn to look at her instead. "We're gonna find your parents, okay? Let's go."

Although Renee had donned a smile, her instincts were kicking in even against a child. Flashes of bloodshed and the corpse of a child reflected in the back of her eyelids, but with a quick shake of her head, she began leading the kid to Kukei's room.

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Walking away with the faunan, the little girl glanced back at Wolf with tears still resting on her eyelids. She wanted to tell him that he had to be king since Kukei could no longer be queen, but the weight of those words was too much for her tiny lips.

As the girl was returned to her parents, once again, Wolf was left to contemplate something else. The queen had been meddling far too much with competition, but even then, their goddess hadn't done a thing. Was there something the two were aiming for? As it felt as if anything that got in the way of those results, was being swept to the side with no regard to the rules of the competition or Aestonian tradition.

'It's almost like she is aiming for a specific outcome.' Wondering just to what extent the queen knew how the events would unfold, Wolf decided to question her intentions further the moment he had a chance. But before then, he had something else important to attend to. 'I should visit Kukei and see what she has to say now that she has lost.'

Right as he was about to turn around and leave, Wolf's eyes lifted to Runner group once again. But this time, the youngster was nowhere to be found, and neither was the girl who'd been sitting beside him. Giving it little mind, Wolf marched towards Kukei's room, and just like before even while being across the hall, he could hear the commotion in her room.

As he marched further up close, a pair of footsteps echoed from the back. Turning to look, he found both Runner and the girl walking up behind him.

"How's Kukei? I heard she had a tough fight against Prince William," his right arm thrown across the girl's shoulder, the young man was still struggling to walk.

Moving even closer, the two stood before Wolf, and while the girl lowered her head in a bow to the prince, Runner could not be bothered to make even the slightest, unnecessary movement. Glancing between the two, Wolf turned around to face them directly.

"She is probably being healed by Kanna. You can come with me, and we can check on her together," gesturing for the duo to follow him, the prince turned back around and marched further down the hall. Following him, albeit slowly, for any movement was painful for Runner, the two kept as close of a distance from Wolf as possible.

As their group arrived at Kukei's room, the crowd of reptilians were already packing the room full. Noticing Wolf, however, they gave slight way for the prince to go and check on their late chief's daughter. Walking inside unhindered, Wolf was amused to find a veil parting the room in two. On one side were the men and children, and on the other, the silhouette of the reptilian women, along with that of a human could be seen moving around.

Renee, too, was standing outside of the veil. And right next to her was Sola, who'd followed the reptilian group while Renee had stuck around with Wolf back at the basement's entrance.

"Is she okay?" He asked Renee.

"Not sure, but when I arrived, the room smelled like burned fish, so I doubt she's doing too well..." Responding with her eyes still closely following the silhouette, the party kept their distance for now and allowed the priestess Kanna to do her work behind that cream veil.

'She gave William a tough fight, but it took a great toll on her.' Having witnessed the fight, Wolf had been wondering all this time how could a sorceress–a class reliant on magic, be fighting with hybrid methods? But now the answer had become quite clear, and he didn't even have to say it as Renee reached the same conclusion as well.

"She was pushing herself beyond cautionary limits just so she could kill William. It would've killed her if she had the mana to keep up that special form."