Chapter 52: The Magical Beasts and Desert Treasure Hunters
“Your Highness, goodnight then. The palace maids will take turns keeping the night watch. If you need anything, just let me know.”
In the Kingdom of Humans, the realm where the king resides is the Royal Capital Jerusalem.
Especially on the highest and most guarded floor, Princess Leaf’s door is always under the strict watch of maids, ensuring she sleeps soundly.
‘Sleep is becoming a luxury now.’
Princess Leaf grumbled as she tucked herself under the covers. Of course, her situation had much to do with her own actions—her escapades running around the castle, seeking to escape into nature.
In the first few days, Leaf was enamored with the sparkling jewels, but life in the palace was stiff and excruciatingly boring.
‘I bet that white furball fled to the comfy embrace of nature all alone.’
Leaf curled up under the blanket, scratching the bed linens with her nails.
Swish, swish. Squeak, squeak.
Clunk.
“Your Highness, please don’t scratch the bed linens with your nails. You just had them prettily manicured, and you’ll ruin them. Tomorrow, you have an audience with the ambassador from the neighboring territories…”
“Grrr!”
“Pretending you can’t understand and acting like a raccoon won’t work. You know how to talk now, don’t you?”
“Okay, Deborah. I won’t scratch anymore, but could you close the door?”
Head Maid Deborah sighed softly as she peered into the room, seeing just Leaf’s face peeking from under the blankets. Finally nodding, she slowly closed the door with a creak.
“Wait a sec.”
Just as the door was about to click shut, Leaf called out to Deborah.
“What is it?”
“Have you heard any news about the white furball?”
“The white furball… you mean Sir Alpha? Well, there isn’t much to say…”
“Hmmm…”
Seeing Leaf’s downcast expression, Deborah clicked her tongue sympathetically.
“The Golden Mercenary Group and the hunters of Batus are searching diligently, so they should find him soon.”
“Tell them to send more manpower! We need to find him quickly!”
“It’s not that simple…”
“I’ll just have to talk to Grandfather Solomon!”
Leaf had quickly figured out that she had a pretty high standing among these humans.
Her talent, “Handicraft,” allowed her to create tools and skillfully use them.
The more she learned their language, the more she realized she could wield the ‘power’ of her position like a tool.
Clunk.
As Leaf’s door clicked shut and her chamber was cloaked in silence once again, she got out of bed and sighed, gazing out the window.
‘I’ll find you, no matter where you are.’
They say the bloodline of the Solomon royal family harbors an obsessive and paranoid desire for rare treasures. Leaf, who bore that bl**d thickly, was also slowly revealing her obsession for the magical beast with white fur.
Flash.
Suddenly, a pillar of light shot up into the sky outside the window, bright enough to look like a bridge made of light connecting to the heavens.
‘Is that coming from the west?’
Leaf furrowed her brow at the strange phenomenon unfolding in the west. The dark sky brightened as if it were midday.
Buzz, buzz.
At that moment, Leaf noticed the necklace in the corner of her room was resonating with the light, like a lion roaring.
It was a talisman made with the teeth of some beast, a memento Batus had discarded, claiming it was no longer needed.
“You can no longer find ‘Alpha’ with this. ‘Alpha’ has disappeared completely.”
Leaf recalled Batus’ murmured words when he tossed aside the necklace. Apparently, it was a tool meant to act as a guide in the search for the white beast.
She picked up the glimmering necklace and moved closer to the window.
“Are you saying my ‘white furball’ is over there?”
Buzz. Buzz.
The tooth dangling from the necklace began to rise into the air, drawn towards the beam of white light like a magnet.
Clunk.
“Your Highness, are you alright? There’s light coming from the west…!”
The maids burst in, anxiously checking on Leaf’s wellbeing. Leaf hurriedly shoved the necklace, adorned with her friend’s teeth, inside her clothes and shrugged.
“I, I’m fine.”
Leaf smiled brightly, as if everything was perfectly alright.
—
“Ugh, jeez. I’m getting chills. What’s going on?”
I shuddered as if someone had run their slender fingers along my spine. Azidahaka, checking a compass beside me, looked at me with a puzzled expression.
“Did you eat something wrong for breakfast?”
“Maybe, that cactus was tasty.”
I recalled the taste of the cactus I had snacked on in the morning; it was a sweet, popping flavor like aloe juice.
‘Truth be told, it wasn’t that great.’
In the barren desert, my options were limited to such delicacies.
Scorpions, snakes, and whatever else prowled the sands were all hiding beneath the dunes, making sightings rare.
“Surely, The Ancient Nest must have plenty of food.”
But the problem was, those creatures wanted to eat me instead.
“Anyway, I’m picking up a signal now. That’s what I wanted to say.”
Azidahaka showed me the compass. It was just a flimsy piece of metal with a needle stuck onto it.
However, that needle was a tiny thorn pulled from my back, crucial to Azidahaka in locating the precious gems.
‘It’s said that similar properties attract even from afar…’
As I recalled the explanation of how the compass worked, my mind wandered to the incident with Batus when he pulled my tooth out to make a talisman. Adam had similarly made a compass with my tooth to track where I was.
‘What if I’m still being tracked now?’
A sense of unease settled over me. A week had passed since the explosion in the tangled city of Sumer—a city caught in the web of grievances among Nialli, Guki, Usir, and Azidahaka.
The explosion had been substantial enough to stitch a bridge of light across the night sky, leaving me wondering if the kingdom’s minions might still be searching the area.
Yet surprisingly, we faced no pursuers.
Thus, Azidahaka and I continued heading toward the Fire Dragon’s precious gem smoothly.
“…”
Every once in a while, Azidahaka seemed to want to say something as he cast glances back toward the tower looming far behind us.
“If you’re that worried, wouldn’t it be better to turn back? With this compass, I can track the gem alone, even without you.”
“If I don’t supplement my magical power from time to time, this compass will become useless. Since you don’t know how to handle magical energy, it’s up to me.”
“Hmmm.”
“And the fairies still left in the tower will be well assisted by the automatons. After pulling out the source that was spreading disease, new shoots will soon sprout.”
After Nialli’s heart and inner core were extracted, the corruption that had spread in the tower decreased remarkably, and frequently, beings were waking from a trance like Usir.
Azidahaka had been tweaking the functions of the golden robots clustered at the top of the tower so that the automatons could aerosolize his elixir throughout the tower by dispersing it on the 29th and 30th floors to ensure a widespread and thin supply.
“Isn’t the effectiveness reduced when mixed with water?”
“Unless you have strong magical energy like I do, an overly potent elixir becomes a terrible poison for ordinary folks. The dilution will be just right for them.”
Even the healthful mountain ginseng can turn toxic when fed to children without processing or filtration.
‘This is the same.’
I looked at the two round beads in my front paw. One shimmered a brilliant blue, while the other was as dark as a black pearl. They resembled the bouncy balls I’d played with during my childhood.
Soft and plump, they felt just like their nostalgic counterparts.
‘What a shame I can’t eat these.’
I recalled the incident a week ago when I accidentally swallowed a bead, only to have to spit it out because it made my insides churn.
According to Azidahaka, the energy from mythical creatures was so condensed that to eat this, my body needed to become comparable to that of a mythical creature.
If you forcibly stuff contents into a mismatched container, it will only end up breaking, right?
‘Once I obtain the Fire Dragon’s precious gem, I should reach a state resembling a mythical creature. At that point, I’ll be able to eat this too.’
Hehehe.
A devious smile crept upon my face.
I could see Yingyi, whom I had sent flying to the sky earlier, coming back from afar. Had they discovered an oasis?
—
Life really is tough and resilient.
Always finding a way to sprout roots and spread seeds in places one wouldn’t expect to survive, thriving through adversity—that’s the nature of living beings.
In a desert where even a single blade of grass struggles to grow, I could spot clusters of white plaster houses.
People of all ages dressed in brightly colored fabrics welcomed us.
“Those horns on your head… what an esteemed guest has arrived!”
Most of them had sun-kissed faces, with deep wrinkles etched from hardships against the sandy winds and labor, yet their expressions brightened without a crease in sight.
“Wait—isn’t that a human? Is it alright for me to stick around?”
“We may be human, but we are descendants of far-off fairies.”
An elderly man, seemingly with infirm legs and leaning on a cane, smirked at my comment.
“You understand my words, don’t you?”
Now that I thought about it, their ears were pointed, like Harmony and Symphony from Mendel Mansion.
“Even claiming to be the descendants of fairies, we possess hardly any significant strength—just the ability to understand beasts, like yourself.”
The old man looked up at the sky, which was beginning to darken. The tall tower stood prominently beside him.
“The legendary mage tower, Sumer… and here stands the horned beauty. It seems you must be the goddess, Azidahaka. How astonishing!”
His eyes sparkled with awe, as if he’d just seen a living angel.
“Though we were merely passing through, would it be alright to stay here for the night?”
Upon Azidahaka’s question, the old man blinked as he gazed at the faces around him. He then inclined his head and replied politely.
“Of course. It’d be our honor to host you. I am Abraham, son of Dera. This village is one I built alongside my relatives and family. It may be humble and insignificant, but please feel free to rest here as if it’s your own home.”
“Well then, I won’t refuse.”
As Azidahaka nodded, Abraham clapped his hands and called out to everyone around.
“Esteemed guests have arrived! Tonight is a feast! Catch the Merino sheep! Roast the meat! Open the skin bags and bring out the drinks!”
With the chief—no, the tribal leader Abraham’s words, people bustled about, preparing for the festivities. Azidahaka and I were led to the cleanest and best room by their attentive hands.
“Such hospitality is lovely.”
“There’s a law to sincerely welcome guests. The peoples of the West don’t change over the years. Even if the land turns from dense jungle to desert, the hearts of the people remain as green as the streams.”
Azidahaka adorned herself with jewels and trinkets handed to her by dark-skinned maidens, draping them on her horns and around her neck and limbs.
Clad in rustling veils and jingling jewelry, she appeared every bit the desert princess or a divine dancer.
“You look too beautiful!”
“You’re just like from the stories of legends! With your white cream-colored skin…”
“Thank you for the compliments; I am at a loss for words.”
Azidahaka responded lightly, bowing her head to the admiration and kindness from the maidens.
“Such cuteness! So fluffy!”
“So soft!”
“Try this on!”
The desert maidens showed great interest in me as well. They wrapped me in the yellow-green fabric and blue veil they had brought.
At first, wearing clothes felt quite uncomfortable.
‘Oh, this is refreshing.’
It was cooler and more breezy suited up than undressed! I couldn’t help but wag my tail in delight at the mysterious fabric.
“Do you like it?”
“What is this made of?”
“It’s made from Merino wool. Isn’t it magical? The wool of the Merino sheep living in the desert keeps cool. Since you didn’t know, you must not be from this desert!”
The descendants of dark fairies gently stroked my head and chin while combing my white fur with a brush.
“Your fur looks great too. So soft and plentiful. If I weave this into a carpet, it’d be my dowry…”
“I think these thorns could be used as needles!”
“Your claws are sharp enough to potentially be used as a hook or a dagger! With such sharpness, you could make skinning wool or leather much easier…”
Indeed, it was amusing how resourceful these maidens were, living in such a harsh environment.
It was funny to think that the legendary beast and the sacred artifacts of divine energy made from my bodily materials could only be fashioned into needles or skinning knives.
I couldn’t help but recall the crumbling remnants of the Unicorn King’s vessel—it was a tool made from the bones and skin of the legendary beast Behemoth.
Perhaps it was possible to craft such tools from parts of my own body?
—
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