The young royal recounted a terrifying story in a completely matter-of-fact manner: when a previous king was replaced, all royalty who weren't direct descendants of the new king were completely purged.
Turan looked around at Solif and isa beside him just in case, but they also showed clear signs of shock.
"Is that normal?"
"Yes. Other rman kingdoms besides ours also—"
"Don't tell unnecessary stories, Koloba."
Rowena spoke as if to stop the chatty royal called Koloba.
The fact that there wasn't just one rman kingdom but several was also sothing he was hearing for the first ti.
'Well, I guess it's natural, since other races aren't all one group either.'
Beyond the Undead King that isa had eradicated in the past, black elf groups would still flourish sowhere underground, and there would still be surviving dwarf groups in the Gray Zone.
There was no need to assu that only one group of rfolk remained.
But now that he knew this fact, sothing new occurred to him.
Perhaps these weren't the rman kingdom that Imir had ntioned was collaborating with the lawyer.
If so, he had been barking up the wrong tree from the beginning...
Swallowing his doubt inwardly, Turan continued his questioning to the seemingly reckless royal who had spoken earlier.
"Didn't you ask for help from other kingdoms by chance?"
"Huh? Then we wouldn't have the corpse all to ourselves. That's why we're doing this."
"Koloba!"
Rowena's brother, who was said to be the rman king's eldest son, shouted sharply, but by then Turan had already heard most of what he wanted to know.
Just then, the tenth rperson, whose presence he had been sensing, walked out from behind the bushes, causing Arma, who had been shrinking from the suddenly tense atmosphere, to exclaim with a bright smile.
"Oh, Aba-mama! You look like you had a good poop!"
"Be quiet, you little brat."
The one who spoke with a growl was a middle-aged rman with white hair and a beard grown down to his navel.
Unlike what many storybooks depicted, he wore neither a golden crown nor pearl necklaces, but the experience evident in his intense eyes and deep wrinkles suggested he was a being a level above the other rfolk around him.
Above all, what made him special was a trident he was using like a staff; judging by the massive flow of magical power contained within it, it was clearly no ordinary magical tool.
'A relic, and a top-tier one at that...'
The rman king, holding a treasure that seed to be of the sa class or higher than Turan's Mimicker relic, calmly looked over Turan's group and opened his mouth with a displeased expression.
"Young wizards. They're probably not even sixty years old at best."
"Skill doesn't necessarily follow age."
Turan deliberately used an informal speech pattern to emphasize that he and the rman king were equals.
He had an intuition that if he bowed and scraped in this place, the other would treat him completely as an inferior.
As expected, the rman king rely twitched his eyebrow at Turan's informal speech but didn't express anger.
"What impudent youngsters."
The rman king snorted and sat on a large stone chair, looking down on them arrogantly.
Turan faced him and imdiately asked.
"But it seems the calculation needs to be changed a bit."
"What calculation are you talking about?"
"The giant sea serpent's corpse. Rowena clearly said it had no value, but now it seems that's not the case."
"Who said such a thing?"
When the rman king turned his head, all his royal children looked at the chatty royal called Koloba.
"Uh, I just..."
"Seeing that you won't even ask other rman kingdoms for help and want to monopolize it, it must have quite so value, right?"
Turan stared intently into the rman king's deep reddish-brown eyes.
After about ten seconds of a staring contest, the rman king shook his head with an expression that seed to say "this is exasperating."
"Humans! So what do you want? Should I split the giant sea serpent's corpse, which would be of little use to you anyway, in half? Or do you want a chest of pearls?"
"You an those things that co from clams?"
"For so reason, humans seem to really like them."
"Be quiet when your father is talking, you brats!"
The royalty who had been chattering behind him flinched at the eldest's shout and lowered their heads.
Seeing this, he could sowhat understand why the rman king favored Rowena.
"Nothing too grand, I'd just like to hear a few stories about the land."
From what he could see, none of the rfolk royalty even had decent magical tools.
Probably because it was difficult to hold and handle objects when transford into sea creatures.
The only useful thing was that trident, but asking for it would obviously lead to the giant sea serpent hunt falling apart.
Thus, the most reasonable compensation Turan could demand from the other party was information.
"...Is that all?"
"Of course."
"What kind of stories?"
"The lawyer."
The rman king narrowed his eyes and glared at him, but after a while, he nodded.
"Fine. We'll talk just the two of us. You all! Go play sowhere a bit away from here!"
"But I'm curious about human stories."
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" too."
"Get out now!"
At the king's shout, the grumbling royalty left one by one, and Turan similarly had Solif and isa step back for a mont.
With just the two of them left, the rman king asked quietly.
"Where did you hear that na?"
"From Imir."
Since they were already in opposing factions, he might as well freely na-drop. The rman king tilted his head and said.
"I don't know that na."
If he didn't know that na, it ant that the rman king himself was not an active participant in the gods' domain.
At most, he was just one of the pieces between them.
In fact, the fact that the nickna "lawyer" was used even with allies was evidence that he wasn't that sincere about this relationship.
"Are you cooperating with the lawyer?"
"I'm not sure if 'cooperating' is the right word, but we've had ties for generations. They hold our leash, after all."
Judging by his tone and expression, he seed to have not just a lack of personal goodwill but even hostility toward the lawyer.
Yet he followed because the lawyer had so ans of exerting pressure on the rman kingdom.
Of course, he wouldn't be willing to explain that thod in detail.
'Is he controlling multiple rman kingdoms?'
If so, it would make sense why the lawyer could stand against several powerful enemies even as a single force.
A rfolk force of this caliber, if there were three or four of them, could easily crush a major house.
If the domain he ruled covered the entirety of two seas, the influence he could exert would be even greater.
At that mont, the rman king looked at Turan with sharp eyes and asked.
"Are you also one of those monster races? Living an eternal life?"
"You seem to already know the answer even if I don't answer."
"Ha, I should have realized... when I heard young humans were unusually strong. What kind of mischief are you planning now?"
"I'm sincere about catching the giant sea serpent, so don't worry. As long as your side doesn't try anything strange."
At Turan's words, the rman king shook his head with an exasperated expression.
"Even if I killed you here, you'd eventually co back to life and seek revenge, wouldn't you? I have no desire to gift my clan with an eternal enemy."
"That's fortunate for both of us."
If the rman king misunderstood him, and by extension the other two, as mbers of the Prea god-folk, there could be no better deterrent against betrayal.
After all, there's no greater foolishness than making an enemy of soone who would co back to life even if killed.
Turan suppressed his delight and maintained a relaxed attitude throughout.
"So, is that all you wanted to ask?"
"This matter, why didn't you seek cooperation from the lawyer? It seems like a story that would tempt them."
He didn't know whether the god's vessel would have unlimited magical power or not, but there was no need to miss an opportunity to absorb powerful magic.
At the very least, they could gift the magic to potential vessels.
The rman king responded to Turan's question with an expression of incomprehension.
"Isn't that sothing you would know better? Why ask ?"
"I'm not the lawyer's friend."
When he emphasized that he was secretly of a different faction, the rman king gave a small snort.
"The sealing using that relic you took was a thod he proposed. He never ntioned hunting. Because if he knew, he would never let us have the corpse."
"Why?"
Instead of answering the question, the rman king stared at Turan with wide reddish-brown eyes.
He seed unsure whether this question was just probing or a sincere inquiry.
After a while, he slowly opened his mouth.
"Because we could return to being true rfolk royalty. As priests of the giant sea serpent, in the form we had in the days when we could take their shape."
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