Chapter 16 - 12: Master and a Contracted Beast (2) (2/2)

”So, what do you suggest?”

”I'm not the one who had that right.”

Dmitri pushed himself up and dusted his armored trunks. Simply bearing a glum look, he shifted his eyes on Lady Ketu.

~It is I. I am seeking the right keeper, the protector of the Pearl Treasure, a person who can wield tremendous power and guard this item. And it is the Wandering Forest who chooses that rightful person.~

Lady Ketu's sweet voice rang once again.

”…”

Ziro compressed her lips when the funniest thought came knocking inside her mind.

The sacred beast said that the Wandering Forest chooses a powerful person but as she was thrown over inside this cave, it could only mean that she was the chosen one.

Butterflies fluttered in her stomach. How come she thinks of that preposterous ȧssumption?

She couldn't be the keeper. She's hell weak. Only that, a simple reason could end up this discussion at an instant – she's a cripple. How the hell would she protect that treasure if she couldn't even protect this new body she has?

~And with the greatest luck ever given, you were the one chosen.~

”…”

Damn it! It was as she thought. Her face crumpled in a second and dug her fist on her bone chiseled ċhėst.

”I am very sorry to disappoint you, Lady Ketu, but here onwards I couldn't guarantee that I'll agree with what you'll say anymore because… this is just impossible.”

She paused for a second, thinking of a better argument, and continue…

”That… that treasure is just too big of a responsibility and I think you've chosen the wrong person here. Giving me that pearl might as well mean shattering it in this exact moment. I… I can't protect it, I am sorry. I am… I'm just not fit for the job that's all.”

Yes. This is the right decision. She thought. She already had mountains of worries to be taken care of, and never in her mind will she dump another sack of problems upon her.

If this situation actually happened in the future when she has already broken out of her crippled body, she might consider Lady Ketu's proposal.

But regardless of what she said, Lady Ketu's expression seemed not disturbed, but rather stretched up in a smile.

~Your stand is rather opposite of what you've attained. If it chose the wrong person, then why would you be here standing in front of me, still in whole flesh?~

Ziro's glabella seemed to twitch slightly.

”Dmitri saved me, I guess.”

~You don't quite understand, young one. I was pertaining upon your entry in the Wandering Forest. My shadow servant only saved you inside this cave; it was completely a separate matter from the outside. Did you even ask yourself how you ended up in this cave?~

”With no disrespect, I was just about to ask that, in fact, I purposely came here with Dmitri because of that matter.”

Ziro said in a straightforward manner but in a solemn tone.

~Well, you had it wrong after all.~

Lady Ketu raised her nimble arm and ċȧrėssed a spirit stone snugged on her ċhėst and continued without waiting for Ziro's reply.

~The answer doesn't lie within me. It resides within your deepest self. The forest only served as the gate that searches for the key. And I am only a guard that only served the Pearl. Then, only this matter will suffice, you're the one who opened the knob.~

Ziro held her ground for the time being as a faint pain suddenly pierced her forehead. This confusing arrangement seemed to bring her into another level of annoyance.

”Meaning to say, you can't open the gate.”

For such speech Lady Ketu had, that's the heaviest issue she ever got. Being transported inside this Cave of Death, she initially thought this was some kind of summoning a chosen person, but this was completely reversed into an unexpected predicament.

~It is you, young prince, who had the capacity to do it.~

”C-capacity? This -”

Ziro immediately bit her lips. This no good, if she hasn't calmed herself in this instant, she might regret it afterward when her unstoppable lips would explode.

If Lady Ketu, a powerful Sacred Beast, couldn't open the gate, how could even she do it?

Heaving a short sigh, she regained her former bearing.

”Lady Ketu. I might sound imprudent about this matter, but I just can't… I never had that capacity you're aligning on me. I… I'm a cripple.”

******

”…”

Lady Ketu was stopped from her tracks of convincing the young 'prince' towards reigning as the keeper of the pearl and turned silent for a moment. At a second, she almost put up a smirk when she thought the young one was holding a lie, but…

Ziro wasn't even lying. She thought.

She knew for herself, those impeccable eyes with traces of thirst and sorrow, at a speck, Lady Ketu's mind was changed.

Just to be sure.

Lady Ketu dawned her jade eyes towards the young 'prince', exactly below 'his' ċhėst and above 'his' abdomen.

Peering for seconds, her sight eventually pierced through Ziro's body as though it turned transparent revealing dull and grayish omnidirectional circuit lines running from Ziro's toes up to 'his' head.

Trace of shock could be seen on Lady Ketu's eyes as she saw how Ziro's mana vessels hasn't been used a single time, making it an ash gray in pigment.

From her thousand years of existence, Lady Ketu met countless mishaps and misfortunes, from her journey beside her supreme liege, up to this very moment where she's curling her jade serpent tail inside this Cave of Death.

She already met Commoners helplessly surviving within the populace of blessed blood people, powerful ȧssassins who lost their humanity from being deprived of their rights and cripples who had a pitiful life within the abyss of the Blood Lineage System.

Every one last of them had countless life and death survival, and the different perceptive stand that account, but this was her very first time meeting a crippled royal prince with the first blooded lineage of dragons.

Just how did this young 'prince' manage to survive being with the royalties? She already sailed within this echelon when her former contractor was still alive, and even though, the Supreme Ruler was beyond powerful, Lady Ketu felt that her master was still struggling to survive. Yet this young 'prince', she couldn't just imagine what hardship 'he' overcame.

But leering further down to the young 'prince's soul ocean, Lady Ketu's eyebrows suddenly twitched…

Drroom!!

'…!'

At an instant, she lost her grasp of air when her whole body fell into a suffocating shadow that enveloped the cavern into a lifeless monochrome.

Sweat trickled down to her spine while her eyes were only laid on the young 'prince's very root of all the mana vessels intertwining at every node of 'his' joints – an ominous black ball, carelessly bobbing at the very center of 'his' soul ocean.

'This is…'

At an instant, Lady Ketu was lost in thoughts.

******