Chp.37: Trust and political strategy

After Carrion's defeat, neither the dragons nor the large number of beastmen that were with them left at once, but they remained to survey the air, relentlessly searching for the man's body. Haku, Rhaegal and Darbi flew for miles watching from above, while Serengal, Corgorin and all the beastmen looked under every stone and behind every dune to find him. Even Inpu, under orders from Serengal, took part in the search, but after scanning the area the spirit confirmed that there was no trace of Carrion within tens of kilometers. Eventually, all of them had no choice but to give up and accept that the man had been completely consumed by the flames. Haku was very annoyed, since he hoped to recover Carrion's body to examine it and find out what he could do with it, but unfortunately the remorse was useless, so he simply had to let it go and concentrate on what he had gained, not on what he had lost.

Having accepted this factor, he had recovered all the pieces of his secret weapon and had brought them back, obviously at a good distance from the caravan to avoid causing panic; after which he returned to his real body and went to have a look. The huge avatar he had built badly needed to be repaired, especially in the ventral and shoulder area, and also it would have been appropriate to add some improvements. He had a couple of ideas about them, but he was going to take his time to see if they could work. After all, with Carrion dead, he had no reason to worry about encountering a legendary tier anytime soon. And then, he also wanted to interrogate that spirit, Inpu, before rebuilding the cage of bones and muscles equipped with a reduction spell in the belly of the wyvern: in fact, if he had discovered what was the effective way to kill spirits, he could have modified it to make it capable of performing that task. At that point, killing a spirit would have been not only possible but also easy, at least based on the battle he had just fought: Sutekh had indeed let himself be trapped rather easily, therefore if the trap had worked he would surely have been killed without too much effort on the part of Haku.

That battle had given him a greater understanding of how the legendary levels and their minions fought, and more importantly now he had a prisoner who could rattle off information about supernatural beings. There were all the conditions for a revolution in warfare. Once he had managed to extract all possible secrets from Inpu, only a god could stand up to him. And who knows, maybe he could kill even that one day...

However, he mustn't let himself be dominated by arrogance and fall into the illusion of being invincible. He had just defeated a legendary level, but still had many powerful enemies in the world. While he had proven to possess great power, it was essential to keep a low profile and not attract the attention of someone too dangerous. Haku saoeva that the more he used his secret weapon, the more people would see it, the greater the chances that the wrong people would know about it and consequently see him as a potential enemy who must be eliminated immediately before he could improve his skills further. fighting skills. Therefore, Haku would continue with his original plan: he would spend the following years hidden in the Thul Oasis with only a few allies who knew of his existence, allies who furthermore agreed that no one even knew of their existence given the consequences that this would have entailed. That way, he wouldn't risk someone dangerous finding out about him or his family before they were ready to deal with it.

Haku had never been someone who wanted to fight or dominate or conquer. He knew that by doing so he would only make enemies. He would think about those possibilities when he became an adult and climbed to the top of the food chain; for now, he just wanted to lead a quiet life.

He stuffed all the components of his secret weapon inside his dimensional bag and then went towards the caravan of beastmen. He longed to go and interrogate Inpu, but he knew he had other things on his mind right now. He had to meet with the beastmen leaders and assure them that all was well. Even if they already knew everything, having followed the fight through telescopes from a distance, and even if other of their underlings had probably already confirmed Carrion's departure, it was still his duty as commander-in-chief of that mission to present a report of the events that occurred. It was mostly a formality, but Haku knew that it was actually very important, since it would allow him to verify how the opinion of the beastmen towards him and his family had changed after that incident.

Haku wasn't stupid and he knew how difficult it was for relations between dragons and beastmen to remain peaceful. For now, they were united only by mutual cooperation, but both were constantly looking over their shoulders in anticipation of a backstab. Furthermore, depending on how they continued on their journey, the opinion of the beastmen towards them could have gotten better or worse; in the second case, the relations between them could have deteriorated to the point of no longer being sustainable and causing a separation or even a conflict between them. If such a scenario had occurred, Haku wouldn't have hesitated for a second to completely wipe out the beastmen using the weapon he killed Carrion with. However, since she wanted their relationship to work so that she could efficiently lay the foundations for a peaceful relationship with the newcomers and thus potentially create a community where her siblings could have the life they wanted instead of the one forced upon them by the laws of that damned world, Haku had to do everything to prevent relations between them from deteriorating. Therefore, after such a battle, he definitely had to meet with the chiefs and discover what they thought of him.

Someone might have believed that defeating Carrion would grant him more acclaim, but Haku knew that was not the case. Sure, the beastmen would probably be grateful for getting rid of the man they hated the most, but they'd also be scared. The fact that he possessed the power to kill legendary level meant that he also had the power to destroy them if he wished. Therefore, it was likely that after this affair the beastmen chiefs would be even more suspicious of him. Haku knew this because that was the exact way he would have reacted if he was in their place.

And indeed, when he met them, he immediately felt the tension on their faces. Though they tried to be friendly, or at least neutral, he could easily see the suspicion in their eyes. Even those most in favor of coexistence with dragons, like Gord, had a certain concern in their gaze. The fight they had witnessed and the power that Haku had shown to possess had frightened them. Zamor came forward and said to him: "I guess we'll have to wait another day for that sand worm you promised us"

The lizardman had spoken in a joking tone, but Haku could read the signals very well. The stiffer shoulders, the increased perspiration, the more marked facial features, the slightly narrower lids of the eyes: all showed that even Zamor had not been immune to the fear that had struck the beastmen leaders. He too, like everyone else, was worried about the strength that Haku possessed. Zamor had always been wary of the dragon, knowing well how much he was actually a materialistic, opportunistic and selfish being who would not have hesitated to kill him if it was advantageous for him, and probably from now on he would still be. more. Haku also decided to speak as if he was amused by the situation: "I apologize, I hadn't considered the presence of parasites. Now that I've taken care of canceling the one who was hindering us, we won't have any further delays"

Zamor's eyes narrowed slightly and his tone became more serious. "Don't rejoice at your actions, Haku! All of this happened because you weren't able to kill Carrion when the time was right! All the people of this huge group of refugees were put in danger because of this incompetence of yours!"

Haku knew that Zamor wasn't serious: his was just a clever political game. He had been the one who had announced Carrion's death and who had convinced everyone that he was really dead; his reappearance therefore had created problems for his position, and Zamor wanted none until the journey was completed. Even if by now there were only a few days of walking to get to the oasis, it was still better to maintain the trust of others in him. Therefore, Zamor had done the smartest thing of all: unloading all the blame on Haku, so that the beastmen's suspicions weren't aimed at him, and above all showing himself inflexible even towards the dragon as a clear sign that he wasn't afraid of him. His every action and word was designed to gain the favor of the other beastmen leaders. Haku understood his choice and therefore decided to play the game and pretended to be offended: "Are you perhaps trying to say that it was my fault? You too were present there that day, or am I wrong?"

That was the classic way anyone would respond when subjected to such allegations. And in fact Zamor's answer wasn't long in coming, a clear sign that he hadn't even had to think about it: "I could only see a landslide fall on that bastard's head, so I couldn't help but believe your words when I you said he was dead. Dragons' senses are more developed than ours, aren't they?"

Haku would have had at least two hundred different ways to rebut and silence the lizardman, but that wasn't what he wanted. Even though his dragon pride was hurt, he knew when to give way to his opponent. For now, it was best for Zamor to remain in a foothold so he could continue to keep the beastmen united and in check. So Haku hesitated for a few seconds, then he replied: "I couldn't see through boulders. My nose and hearing couldn't perceive anything that is underground. My sense of touch didn't feel any vibration. And Carrion probably used the divine power he had left to disguise himself better. We've all been deceived, don't accuse me of things that aren't true"

Even if his arguments were absolutely acceptable, Zamor had already won by now: that brief moment of silence from Haku had in fact given the beastmen the impression that he didn't know what to answer, and that short list he had then provided seemed more like a attempt to justify. Basically, even if no one said it openly, everyone was agreeing with Zamor and believed that Carrion's reappearance was only Haku's fault. And with that, the lizardman's strong position was safe.

Zamor understood this very well, so he pretended to want to leave the matter alone because he didn't have solid evidence of the accusation, when in reality he had totally won. "Mh. Alright, now there's no point in arguing amongst ourselves. Despite this rather egregious mistake, now finally that crazy bastard has been wiped out. So, even if it didn't go exactly as we hoped, the end result is the same" he said . "However, we want to make sure that he is indeed dead. From what we've been told, he was slain by your flames. Which would be a fitting end for him, since he doesn't deserve a grave… but still, we intend to send several teams to patrol the area as soon as the sun goes down to make sure he hasn't slithered into some hole like the treacherous snake that he is. Can we count on your and your siblings' cooperation?"

It was only natural that the beastmen wanted to make sure that Carrion was dead: he was the person they hated the most, being the author of all their suffering. The sun would have set within a few tens of minutes, so the beastmen could have sent even a hundred patrols without them risking being killed by the heat of the day. Zamor was asking for the dragons' help because otherwise someone would have risked getting lost; he was simply telling them that if by any chance a patrol didn't return, they should use their noses to find it and bring it back, possibly before the sun rose again. "No problem. I too won't mind a further verification of his death"

"Good. We're good then" Zamor said concluding that brief meeting, and then asked the other beastmen leaders to go and prepare their patrols since they would have to leave very soon. Haku could have left, but he knew the lizardman still wanted to talk to him. After a while, they were finally alone. At that point a determined light reappeared in Zamor's eyes. "I have some questions for you"