The White Cat That Swore Vengeance Was Just Lazing on the Dragon King’s Lap - Volume 6 - Chapter Pr

Prologue

A chalk-white castle floated atop a lake. It was the Nation of the Spirit King’s royal castle, where the Spirit King dwelled. It was also where the Spirit of Trees resided, a supreme-level spirit with the body of a great tree. The great tree had been there ever since the founding of the nation, reaching toward the heavens and watching over the kingdom.

The nation’s people were spirit-religious, meaning they worshipped the spirits—albeit not as fervently as the Nation of the Beast King. Because of this, they had not seen strife or conflict for a long time. In fact, the Nation of the Spirit King had a long history. It was the oldest kingdom in the world with the oldest surviving records. The Spirit King, Awain, had supported the nation as its ruler since its inception.

Awain had eyes as blue as the deepest sea and shoulder-length blueish silver hair. Unfortunately, something about his face just looked vicious, so much so that it would make any child cry. Despite that, he was tall and slender and—if you looked hard enough at his face without flinching—handsome, so it was a shame that his general look wound up offsetting everything else. He had a high approval rating among the nation’s people, though, regardless of his appearance.

Contrary to his countenance, Awain was an extremely sensitive soul. People would often catch him sulking in private because despite his love for children, they were terrified of him. It was similar to how Jade would pout when a fluffy little animal ran away from him.

Awain belonged to a race called qilins. They were highly intelligent, and their mana was stronger than that of a dragonkin. Qilins had perpetual youth, so Awain appeared to be in his midthirties, despite being the oldest king of the oldest nation in the world. Sadly, he was the only pure-blooded qilin left in the world. Qilins had difficulty producing offspring, which was why their numbers were dwindling.

Awain did have a son—Lapis, who was also a Beloved—but Lapis hadn’t inherited any of the qilin qualities. Awain had absolutely no intention of taking another spouse either, because he was still in love with his deceased wife. Consequently, the qilin race would most likely die out with him.

Awain himself didn’t care much about that. He was more concerned with his nation’s present and future. However, what claimed all his attention right now was a sacred beast.

“Have you found the culprit yet?” Awain asked the people in his office, who were all looking pensive.

“No, sire. Our apologies. We split our forces to investigate, but we still haven’t found anything.”

“I see.”

Awain sighed, his brow tensing so hard that the ensuing wrinkles made his already vicious-looking face appear downright ferocious. Fortunately, he was surrounded by his trusted aides and vassals, all of whom were immune to Awain’s lethal facial expression. None of them were fazed by the display. They just continued with their discussion.

Some time ago, the Nation of the Spirit King’s sacred beast died from poisoning. It had still been a cub, so its childlike curiosity and lack of awareness had probably contributed to the incident. It had eaten the food it was given without any sense of danger.

Although the cub had lost its life, the supreme-level Spirit of Wind had asked to use its physical body for some reason or another. No one had objected, stating that it was better than leaving the corpse as it was. The supreme-level Spirit of Trees, the guardian of the nation, had approved it as well.

A mere mortal could never interfere in the spirits’ wishes to begin with, and Awain wasn’t the only one glad it had worked out that way. There was a secret about sacred beasts known by only a select handful of people. When a sacred beast died, their body produced a certain substance. That substance could be used to make a very powerful elixir, and there was even a time far in the past when they were hunted solely for that reason.

Awain and the Spirit of Trees had helped safeguard these animals since the founding of the nation. In order to protect them, they’d declared that the beasts were important to the nation—they were sacred. Since the sacred beasts were now behind the castle walls and there were limited chances to see them, knowledge of the elixir was eventually lost to time. And thanks to the castle’s protection, their population had stopped decreasing, though they were still on the brink of extinction due to their low fertility rates.

Never before had anyone been foolish enough to commit a crime under the watchful eye of the Spirit of Trees...and yet it had happened. Awain was utterly shocked that a cub in his protection had been killed, and so was everyone else who worked in the castle. The person who’d poisoned the cub was one of its regular caretakers—a very diligent and hardworking individual. No one had suspected that he would commit such a heinous act. Even after they’d learned of their acquaintance’s guilt, those who knew him were unanimous in their disbelief.

No one knew why the caretaker had poisoned the cub in the first place. Before anyone could find out, the caretaker had suspiciously died in his jail cell. Judging from the erratic scratch marks he’d left on his own chest, it was clear that he’d been poisoned. They had thoroughly inspected his belongings before he was placed in his cell and had found nothing, so it was suspected that the poison had been brought in from elsewhere.

Awain suspected that the caretaker’s murder was a cover-up, but that was merely his intuition speaking. He did know that there had to be a mastermind behind the poisoning. Although they hadn’t been able to identify why someone had killed the cub, Awain feared that it was to obtain the special substance from the sacred beast’s corpse. However, only a select group of people within the nation knew of that secret, and all were from families who’d served the Nation of the Spirit King since times of old. Awain didn’t want to doubt any of them, but he had to fulfill his kingly duties and get to the bottom of this matter.

Awain had asked an especially trustworthy aide in his court to conduct a top secret investigation, but they hadn’t been able to identify the mastermind or discover the reason behind the attack. With nothing to go on, Awain had contemplated every possibility from every angle, but he still hadn’t come up with any other plausible reason aside from the special substance.

Ever since the incident, Awain had tightened the security around the sacred beasts more than ever. He was praying that there wouldn’t be another casualty, but that would require identifying the ringleader.

“Still, Your Majesty, we cannot focus our attention on this alone,” said Awain’s aide.

“Yes, I am well aware.”

The incident was indeed important, but no matter how peaceful the Nation of the Spirit King was, it wasn’t without its issues. Maintaining a nation that had been around for eons was a difficult task. As Spirit King, Awain had more than just one task to attend to. He couldn’t get hung up solely on the killing of a sacred beast.

“There is also the issue with the Nation of Iolite,” said the aide.

“Yes, I remember. Oh, my aching head,” Awain complained, massaging his temple.

The Nation of Iolite was located not far from the Nation of the Spirit King, but a neighboring nation had wiped it out a few years ago. They had executed every member of its royal family and absorbed the country, erasing it off the map.

That much was a common occurrence, so it wasn’t an issue. The Nation of the Spirit King wouldn’t take sides unless an allied nation was involved. Part of their pact with the Spirit of Trees was that they wouldn’t stick their neck out unnecessarily. Because of that, the Nation of the Spirit King had remained exclusively spectators.

However, Awain had heard that the nation that absorbed Iolite imposed excessively heavy taxes on its former people, thereby oppressing them. As a result, those who couldn’t pay became thieves who haunted the roads leading to the Nation of the Spirit King. Some became pirates, attacking the Nation of the Spirit King’s ships and carrying out other nefarious acts. It was starting to directly affect the country, so the Nation of the Spirit King could no longer sit on the sidelines.

“There’s a meeting of the Alliance of Four Nations coming up soon,” Awain said, “but there is a mound of issues to attend to.” He preferred to cast everything aside and run away, but his serious and diligent nature wouldn’t let him.

“Not only will Celestine of the Nation of the Beast King be attending, but also the Beloved of the Nation of the Dragon King. We shall need to be more vigilant than usual,” commented the aide.

Awain nodded. “The Beloved of the Nation of the Dragon King has contracted three supreme-level spirits. Although highly unlikely, we must try not to earn their ire.”

“Yes, about that. Will the supreme-level spirits also be attending?”

That was the court’s biggest concern. Supreme-level spirits were sublime entities, and most people had gone their entire lives without seeing one. Once the court heard that Ruri had not only contracted several supreme-level spirits but had even subjugated them by giving them names, their surprise turned into speechlessness. They’d also heard that aside from the group of contracted spirits, several other supreme-level spirits were gathered in the Nation of the Dragon King. The power balance between the four nations was completely askew.

Fortunately, Ruri had visited the Nation of the Spirit King in the past, and from what they’d seen of her, she wasn’t a bad person who would abuse her power. Actually, she’d left a favorable impression because of how she interacted with the spirits like friends.

Not everyone could be as casual around supreme-level spirits as Ruri, though. The people in the castle were used to interacting with the Spirit of Trees, but they hadn’t learned how to deal with multiple supreme-level spirits. What if they were to accidentally upset any of those spirits? The mere thought of it was enough to give the aides stomachaches.

“According to the Spirit of Trees, she doesn’t seem to be unreasonable,” Awain assured them. “If the situation calls for it, the Spirit of Trees will intervene on our behalf, so don’t fret.”

“Yes, well, one can only hope, sire,” the aide replied.

“Well, I wouldn’t worry about it. Just act like you would normally. Also, see to it that the welcome party is in order.”

“As you wish.”

The aides exited the room, leaving Awain alone to peer out the window. He looked at the great tree that towered high into the sky.

“We must do something before there are more casualties. Should push come to shove, we might have to ask the Spirit of Trees for their assistance,” Awain said aloud, but he wanted to avoid that option as much as possible.

Spirits wouldn’t back anyone unless they were under contract with them. The Spirit of Trees had protected the nation, but that was because of their own personal feelings. They weren’t necessarily siding with Awain or the Nation of the Spirit King. That was why, even with the sacred beast incident, Awain had only asked the Spirit of Trees for facts and reports and nothing else. But if things went any further, Awain would have no choice but to ask for the spirit’s assistance.

“This is such a massive headache...”