Rather than a kingdom, it’s closer to a tribal group, but it’s said that there is a country called the Beast Kingdom in the Eastern Plains.
“Beast tribes are numerous, and so are their legends. A Beast King who could unite all of them shouldn’t have existed in the first place.”
There are wolf tribes like Roka, and probably cat tribes and dog tribes too. Tiger tribes, fox tribes, lion tribes, bird tribes, bear tribes… Originally, countless beast tribes lived in the plains as different species.
“The Eastern Plains are called plains, but aren’t they actually barren wastelands? It’s amazing that so many tribes could live there.”
“That’s why… even though there are many tribes, the numbers are small. Some tribes had only a few dozen members.”
Finally calming down a bit, Lady Kisea took a sip of tea and continued.
“That’s why they were easy to extinct. Compared to you humans, our tribes were at a disadvantage from the start. The population difference alone made it inevitable.”
“So in the past, when humans invaded the plains and all beast tribes were in danger, the leaders of that era decided to unite beyond their tribes. The Beast Kingdom was established then. The position of Beast King was also a temporary role created out of crisis.”
Even if they combined their numbers, they couldn’t catch up to humans. In a divided state, defeat was certain. The beast tribes weren’t fools, so they united to protect their homes in the war against humans.
“The one who ascended to the throne at that time was Epirna of the Tiger Tribe. She was the chieftain of the Tiger Tribe, known as the Snow Tiger of the Plains.”
“But what our ancestors overlooked was that beasts could be more dangerous than humans. Epirna… ruled the plains for hundreds of years after that. She rarely showed her face to the outside, using her loyalists to deify herself.”
Roka hesitated.
“Wasn’t Epirna the name of the Plains Goddess? I thought…”
“She’s not a goddess yet. Just a hopeful who wants to become one. For that ambition, she betrayed the beast leaders right after defeating the humans.”
Including the wolf tribes led by the Blue Wolf and the Gray Wolf, she purged all forces that could pose even the slightest threat to her, said the Wolf King. But how? Was the Tiger Tribe’s power that strong?
If the Tiger Tribe’s power was overwhelming from the start, why bother borrowing the framework of the Beast Kingdom? Why not just establish a Tiger Kingdom from the beginning? That thought crossed my mind.
“Of course not.”
When I asked, Lady Kisea denied it with a scoff.
“She borrowed it. Just like that Chancellor from the Citadel. No, chronologically, this was much earlier. Epirna… borrowed monsters from Grimudo. Five of them. Enough to drive out powerful beast tribes like the Bear Tribe and the Wolf Tribe.”
“Grimudo…?”
This time, I was genuinely surprised. It felt like that name kept popping up everywhere.
It seemed like every chaotic place in the world was connected to that guy. That Demon King wasn’t just crouching in the Polaris Fortress for ages; it seemed like he had been doing a lot of things.
“Really?”
“The aerial monster Griffin. The petrifying monster Cockatrice. The man-eating monster Manticore. The subterranean monster Death Worm. The venomous monster Hydra. His monster legion was deployed in such numbers for the first and probably the last time. Why would I lie about this?”
Well, that’s true. There was no reason to lie.
“You humans are always like this. You have no interest in the barren plains. Whatever happens in the Eastern Plains, you don’t care. This land is just wasteland to you.”
“Strange. Didn’t Chancellor Adolf from the Citadel pay with the Fruit of the World Tree to borrow just one subterranean monster? But five? What did Epirna pay?”
The Empress, who was listening, tilted her head.
“The Demon King is different from people like us. He doesn’t consider political outcomes. No matter how great Epirna is, she couldn’t have the ability to threaten the Demon King into lending her monsters. What did she negotiate with? Did she have something the Demon King would covet?”
“I don’t know. What’s certain is that Epirna is cooperating with the Demon King in some way.”
“What do you mean?”
“The cooperation between the Chancellor and the Demon King was a one-time thing. The Chancellor gave something, and the Demon King lent a monster. But this deal seems more long-term. Even now, three monsters remain under Epirna’s command.”
The Wolf King crossed his arms and looked at Roka.
Even though the Empress, being human, couldn’t believe it, Roka, being family, seemed to open his heart. His expression softened when he looked at Roka.
“Our Gray Wolf Tribe fell due to Epirna and wandered the edges of the plains, eventually having to hide in the wider world. A tribe that once held the hegemony of the plains fell so miserably. That’s probably not just someone else’s story to you.”
The child nodded with a heavy expression. It was humans who destroyed this child’s tribe. But it was another beast who drove the tribe to that state, forcing them to fight humans over territory.
“Really hearing this for the first time? Didn’t the elders of your tribe tell you this?”
“I didn’t know. Thinking about it now, probably no one in our tribe knew. No one ever mentioned it. Not even a hint.”
“The Blue Wolf’s legacy is already broken… like so many other beast tribes…”
The child, feeling somewhat heavy-hearted, took out a star candy and bit into it. Seeing Roka enjoying it, the Empress and Lady Kisea also reached into the open bag and took a star candy each. A crunching sound was heard as they bit into it.
“Ouch.”
The Empress frowned for a moment, then spat it out.
“Kid. A young child like you shouldn’t be chewing on rocks. You’ll suffer from bad teeth like me when you grow older.”
“It’s delicious. Good for dental health.”
But it seemed humans have their ways, and wolves have theirs.
Finding it better than expected, they chewed on the star candy and took another one. A species that gets healthier teeth the harder they chew, truly enviable.
Humans, if they tried to follow that, would have to prepare to lose their teeth instead of getting stronger.
Munch. After eating two, Lady Kisea looked at Roka and spoke again.
“We wolves know satisfaction. No matter how big our greed is, once it’s fulfilled, we don’t look beyond. But tigers are different. That woman has a huge ambition.”
“To become a god?”
“Yes. She can no longer be satisfied as a worldly king. But she’s not aiming to be an emperor. She wants to become a god. But the reason she’s been waiting until now, despite being able to act on that ambition long ago, is probably because of the Three Divine Gods.”
Even among gods, there is a hierarchy. If she were content with being a tribal or ancestral god, that would be one thing, but such gods are even less than a king of a country.
If Epirna were content with that, she could have achieved her goal long ago. But that would be a degradation. Not getting better, but worse.
But if she aims for the position of a major god, that means she’s becoming a competitor to the Three Divine Gods.
The Three Divine Gods, who actively responded to worldly affairs and tried to take over the empire, wouldn’t welcome the emergence of a competitor who could directly threaten their divine thrones.
Is Epirna’s ambition to surpass such checks and increase the number of major gods to six? Is that why she’s been biding her time, waiting for the opportunity?
Or perhaps, does she want to become a god powerful enough to subdue all five major gods at once?
‘Monsters. And gods.’
And Grimudo. The three keywords spun around in my head. They didn’t seem to connect at first, but thinking deeper, they did.
‘Gods usually don’t have physical bodies because their mortal forms can’t withstand their divinity and collapse.’
Even the Three Divine Gods, who seem to dominate all faiths on the continent, have one weakness.
Because of that weakness, they must use saints and holy knights, borrowing the power of the Church Country to influence the real world. Without physical bodies to directly intervene, they must create avatars to descend, a process that consumes astronomical amounts of divine power.
The Three Divine Gods, along with the Evil God Oberta, are all originally human. Once human, they became gods through apotheosis.
They don’t have bodies not because they want to, but because their mortal forms couldn’t withstand the condensation of divinity and disintegrated.
The balance between spirit and body is like that. If one side becomes too strong, it eventually eliminates the other, leaving only one.
I’m going through that process right now. Thinking like that, something clicked.
‘In the case of the Ancient God, the Law of the Universe is the body, and it’s so powerful that it overwhelms the mind, causing it to collapse.’
In this case, the body is so powerful that the mind can’t withstand it and collapses.
‘Then, is that what Epirna is aiming for…’
Think simply. The bodies of monsters are much stronger than those of humans.
Wouldn’t they have enough resilience to withstand divinity?
‘A god with a physical body.’
The divinity itself could be similar to the Three Divine Gods, or even slightly inferior. No, even if it’s clearly lacking, it doesn’t matter.
If she secures the biggest advantage of having a physical body to directly act in the real world, even with inferior divinity, she could simultaneously oppose the Three Divine Gods.
If this speculation is correct, it also explains why Grimudo is helping Epirna.
That Demon King is genuinely obsessed with exploring unknown realms. A god with a monster’s body? No matter the cost, it’s worth seeing with his own eyes.
Lending a few monsters to see that spectacle wouldn’t be a big deal for him.
