Star Eater-Chapter 44 -

Arthur's Point of View

Lestrania Thousands of Years Ago

"Lay low and try not to cause any trouble." I pointed at her directly and firmly. "You, especially. Avoid any trouble, and you shouldn't receive any in return. Although, I doubt many would be willing to fuck around with a giant stone bear golem tree thing." I told her.

"Do I need to remind you what cobblestone taste like? I can stomp you into the ground again." Kandma threatened.

"Calm yourself, child." I mocked. "This isn't a dance you want." Was my reply as I gestured to myself.

Scoffing, she rolled her eyes and put her snout in my lap, which was utterly massive, but she was sweet about it. "Well, what do you plan on doing?"

I shrugged. "Probably piss off some royalty and other important people. It's a talent, but rest assured, I have enough practice fucking around to get away with it." Kandma just gave me a look. "Trust me! You'll be fine. Now, let's relax a bit before we get our reward."

Closing my eyes, I laid back as the massive stone head rested across my legs. Had I been a regular human, they would've been crushed to dust, and I'd likely be dead. So, at least this new body was coming in handy for something. Eventually, though, sweet death would come, and no fucking Star Creature would be able to stop it.

We were able to rest for a bit before someone started shouting my name. "Is there a Sir Mordred here!?" Someone shouted from behind the stone bear's head.

Raising my hand, not that it could be seen, I shouted back. "Over here!" 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐𝘰𝑚

A servant of sorts gave Kandma some wide birth as he walked over to the side so he could see me. "The King requests your presence, Sir." The human man slave told me.

He was dressed in nice robes, but nowhere near compared to Aydan, his student, or the Princess. "Please tell him that I must decline." Gesturing down to my lower body, which was completely hidden, I continued. "Surely you can explain my current predicament to him."

"While I may understand your 'predicament,' the King may not." He said with a pause as he looked at Kandma. "I am terribly sorry, but I must insist you accompany me to the throne room."

"Fine." Was my simple reply as I gestured to Kandma. "You wake her up, and I'll go with you."

The man quickly frowned as his eyes focused on the large stone bear. "Surely, being woken up by her caretaker would be better." He shot back as he took a step back and further away.

I shrugged. "Who can say, but if you're so insistent, I feel like you should be the one to wake her up."

Obviously, he wasn't going to do it. "I will notify the King of your situation." Was all he said before he left.

"You know I'm awake, right?" Kandma asked me in a low whine.

I chuckled in response. "Yeah."

She snorted in amusement before returning to her pretend slumber. So, I relaxed once more as my eyes closed and waited for something else to happen. Hopefully, the King would piss off for a bit so I could get some sleep. Truthfully, it had been a long couple of days and I was tired. Not exhausted by any means, but still, sleep did sound nice.

Unfortunately, I wasn't that lucky. "Sir Mordred!"

"Yes?"

Princess Arceana stopped right next to Kandma, who paid her no attention. "Your presence was requested by the King."

"It certainly was." I confirmed with a small nod as my eyes were still closed.

"Insulting my brother is-" Arceana began, but I cut her off.

Opening my eyes with a sigh, I interrupted her. "Look, Princess, your brother, isn't my concern. I feel no need to answer the summons of a king who is not my own. Just like I don't need to listen to you because you're not my princess, Princess." Then I gestured to Kandma. "I haven't had the chance to relax for a few days now, and I don't really consider going to some meeting too important."

The Princess, along with a few soldiers who were also present, glared at me. "Sir Mordred, the King formally requests-"

Again, I cut her off. "No."

Her eyes slammed open at the disrespect I had shown, but she just clenched her teeth before replying. "I will inform him of your decision. However, you should know that he wished to speak to my savior."

Gesturing around the area, I replied. "I'm not going anywhere. He is more than welcome to come speak to me."

"You would ask a King to come see you in his own castle?" Arceana inquired while the common soldiers seemed to grow more and more irate.

"Would it make it better if it was in someone else's castle?" I questioned back with a small smirk.

Several of the soldiers moved forward with their hands on their weapons, but the Princess held up her hand to stop them. "Do not anger our guest." She then glanced at the dozens of soldiers watching us. "For he is far stronger than all of you combined." Her gaze then returned to mine. "I daresay he would even give Sir Aydan a tough fight."

Crossing my arms, I shrugged. "Who knows? We'd have to fight for us to find out, and I'm not in the mood. Besides, would you really want to fight an unknown 'guest' in the middle of your home? Sounds like you're playing with fire."

Arceana closed her eyes in annoyance before responding with a small nod. "And I have seen your fire. Even from the front of the line, I could feel the sheer volume of magic you produced." Definitely wasn't magic. "The amount of heat produced made all of us sweat. Even me."

This is getting slightly kinky. "Are..." I paused as I leaned forward. "Are you making innuendos about... You know?" Gesturing downward, she huffed and walked off. "Guess not."

Kandma laughed slightly. "What innuendos did you think she was making?" The stone bear inquired.

"It doesn't matter. I don't think that's a thing here. In the past or the future." I told her, but she still chuckled. "Then you have these schmucks just watching and threatening me. Foolish really. I've killed people for less." Kandma stopped laughing and looked at me. "A lot less."

"I see." Kandma replied slowly before shuffling off my legs as her head jerked up. "I hear marching."

Looking around to see if I could find the source was difficult in the castle. "Demons?"

She shook her head. "No, I do not believe so. There is no foul stench upon the wind."

My eyes darted around to find the source, but as it turned out, there was a sizable force moving throughout the castle with all manner of magic signatures. Greens, blues, and whites. Five white independent energy signatures could be seen, which told me there were at least five High Elves. This continued to confuse me, but I was starting to assume these other High Elves died in the past during this war of theirs.

Kandma listened intently while I watched the magic signatures get closer. My eyes focused in at the most random of times but seemed to know what I was looking for on instinct. Seeing energies through walls was super helpful. As such, I knew that they were all headed to the courtyard, and with the High Elves with them, I figured they weren't marching out.

As soon as the soldiers made themselves known on the walkways, Zugal flew into the air from the castle rooftops and behind the other walls. They took up positions above Kandma and me, which got her to stand and growl. This would unnerve anyone, but the soldiers held fast as they created a path for the Royal Family.

"Wow." Kandma said, impressed, but low tone. "You really pissed them off. Way to make sure we don't get into any trouble."

Groaning and rolling my eyes, I looked at the bear. "First of all, I told you not to get into any trouble."

The bear snorted. "I'm pretty sure I'm guilty by association."

Making a strangling gesture towards Kandma, I stopped quickly when she looked at me and replied. "Secondly, don't worry. I got this covered. Just watch the master work." Stepping out to address the line of Royals approaching, my sarcastic companion wouldn't drop the issue at hand.

"This should be good." She commented.

Turning back to the stone bear, I gestured to her. "Aren't you like three weeks old? How the hell are you so snide?"

Then she gestured towards me. "Imprinting on the only other living creature I know besides my mother will do that." A smirk came back to her face. "Obviously, someone has been very 'snide' since I met them."

"Oh god... It's like a giant stone bear version of me." Looking at her and shaking my head in a disappointed manner, I added, "But also female, which makes it so much worse."

Needless to say, Kandma swiped a paw at me, but I was able to avoid it easily enough. "Why don't you go to work and show off your master skills?"

Waving her comment away, I turned back to the group of High Elves and Aydan. Three people were familiar. Excluding Arceana, who still looked like a wreck from her fight with the Ghoul, and Aydan, there was another I recognized from the group. A small blonde-haired High Elf with blue eyes that could only have been Elincia. She was adorable and looked like she was rather young. Maybe around the same age as Typhon.

However, there were four others I didn't recognize. A man stood in the middle of the family and was clearly the King, but I'd get to him in a minute. Beside Aydan in the back of the group was a regular looking Human, but I didn't believe that for a second. If he was with the Royal Family, there had to be some importance to him. Thus, my eyes drifted back to the King before examining those who were with him first.

On his right was a male High Elf with blonde hair matching Elincia's along with blue eyes as well. He was rather rugged in appearance and had a light beard, which told me he was rather young. The man was the tallest in the family and matched me in height. His clothes were fit of that of a King with a fur cape decorating his shoulders. Underneath it was a white armor that shined in the light, but black wings jutted out from behind his back and under the cape. In terms of age, he looked around twenty years old, but who knew for sure...

Turning my eyes to the left side of the King was a woman. Immediately, I took notice of her pink hair that matched Arceana's, but lighter. Purple eyes revealed themselves as she locked her gaze with mine. While she was likely trying to figure out where my eyes were, I was lost in hers. Beautiful wouldn't do her justice, and I almost froze upon taking in her angelic form. White wings adorned her back as they blended in with her white dress.

Forcing my gaze away from her, I looked back to the King at the very front. "You must be Sir Mordred." I nodded in response, and he smirked. "A pleasure to meet you. My name is Rudnurth Delmaris. King of Lestrania and ruler of this new land."

"Sup." I gave him a small nod, which got many of the soldiers to frown.

As I expected, the man before me was Rudnurth. So far, he didn't seem like he had done anything too extreme, but his reaction to me refusing his request to meet him was a little excessive. His eyebrows seemed to raise at the odd greeting, and he took a moment to collect himself.

Adorned in the finest jewels, robes, and armor, his crown wasn't needed to show that he was King. Clearly, he was a material man, which immediately rubbed me the wrong way, but his magic was vast and far larger than Aydan's. Whether that meant he was stronger or not, I was unsure. Black wings matching his brother, and brown hair was matted down by his crown. Green eyes studied me as he fiddled with his filled in goatee.

Before he could continue, a female Zugal with armor and decorations matching Aydan landed in front of me swiftly with a knife pointed at my throat. "Shall I kill him?" She asked the King and ignored me.

*********************

I am officially back from my trip! It's sad to see how far we've fallen in terms of Power Stones. Maybe some are just losing interest or maybe it's something else. I don't know. Either way, our new goals are going to remain at 800 and 850 for this new week. If we hit it, great! If not, then we continue with the regular schedule. We hit these before several times so it should be easy!