A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Chapter 176: The Shadows - Part 1

They certainly smelled worse when they burned, or so Beam thought, as he saw dark smoke rise off the bodies, as the flesh gave away, leaving only bone.

"Ah, I wondered who it was causing such an awful stench in my campsite," a voice called out from behind him, as Beam poked the fire with a stick, looking for more space to toss the scraps of meat on.

Beam turned around. "Master!" He said happily. "I've been looking for you – it's been a crazy couple of days."

Dominus nodded in acknowledgement. "I noticed something had changed when I came back from my meditation. So it's affecting the village as well, is it?" The man said, stepping a little closer, as he wrinkled his nose at the fire.

It was only when he drew nearer that Beam was able to see the terrible blue and purple marks of the Pandora Goblin – they now extended up past his neck, onto the bottom of his face, peaking their way out from under his clothes. His smile faded as he saw it. "Master…" he said in shock.

"Hm? This?" Dominus said, immediately understanding what he was referring to. "I already told you, didn't I? I can't control it forever. Of course, it's going to spread. Only now that I'm making progress again, it's spreading much faster than before…"

"Are you really going to be alright?" Beam asked. "You told me that you had a year."

"And I do intend to keep that promise. But such is the arduous nature of trying to break through. The Sixth Boundary does not seem to be too far away. The stench of progress is overwhelming. Even as it harms my body, I cannot bring myself to turn it away. Besides, what point is there – I'm going to die in the end, aren't I?

I may as well go as far as I can in the meantime," Dominus said.

Only slightly reassured by Dominus' words, Beam chose to ask him about his progress instead. "Is it going that well? Didn't you say you were stagnant for 10 years before?"

"Well, aye, not completely stagnant, y'know, there were minor improvements… But nothing that truly made me stronger. Just slight changes in perception. It's you I've got to thank for giving me a new perspective on things – for enlightening a domain that I did not realize existed.

It's thanks to you that I might be able to overtake Arthur, at least before the end," he said that last part with a teasing smile, as though Arthur was there, listening, and he was purposelessly saying it to irritate him.

"Didn't you already surpass him, by wounding the Pandora Goblin as you did?" Beam asked.

Dominus paused before he answered. "Mm… I cannot say that proudly. Arthur, for all his talent, shackled himself with responsibility, just as your suffering has shackled and fuelled you. He only died that death of his in the name of loyalty, in the name of his people. The man deserved far better."

"I see…" Beam murmured, throwing the last of the meat on the fire. "Well, I hope you do manage to overtake him in the end," he said, forcing a smile.

"That is the intention, anyway. So what's this about? You turning my campsite into a monster barbeque? That stench is unbearable. I'd planned to nap for a while before going back to training in the afternoon, but it looks like I'm not going to be able to sleep anyway for miles around without smelling that," Dominus complained.

"Ah. Well… Sorry. It's sort of an experiment. I want to see if I can lure the monsters in using a pile of dead ones, so I don't have to track them all down individually. But I've also seen that when they eat each other's flesh, they grow stronger, so I thought I'd get rid of the smaller bits that I didn't want to carry, before they have a chance to eat them," Beam said.

"Hm… So we've got Konbreakers and Gorebeasts added in now, do we?" Dominus murmured, kicking a couple of the scraps of meat that Beam had put on, recognizing them merely from their flesh alone. "How unnatural. The creatures both live in entirely different places. Konbreakers are desert dwellers – you'd be lucky to find any in the entire country.

Then the Gorebeasts… Well, I suppose they're more suited to here, but there isn't enough dark mana in the air to support them."

"Dark mana?" Beam repeated. discover-MVLeMpYr-novels

"Indeed. They need that in the same way we need air. A few weeks without it, and they'd just perish by themselves. So y'know, that's the state of unnaturalness that things are in. I hope you're up to solving it, 'cos I'm a busy little bee at the moment," Dominus said, reaching his hands behind his head and stretching.

"The thing is master… A little girl, Nila's little sister – she's gone missing. I was hoping to ask for your help in that," Beam said awkwardly.

Dominus paused a moment, looking momentarily surprised. "I see things are progressing quickly without me," he said. Beam caught the old knight looking at his hand, as it was stained with the purple poison. He could see the regret on his face.

"I can't at the moment, boy," Dominus said apologetically. "You've caught me at a bad time. If I let this poison run riot by itself for more than an hour, I won't be able to hold it back anymore… As it is now, I'm maintaining a pretty delicate balance. To allow progress in, whilst controlling the movements of the poison. It's taking everything that I have."

Hearing that, Beam glanced at the ground regretfully. "Ah…"

"That said, I will keep an eye out. If things grow too dangerous, then I will have to get involved. As they are now though, I would say you have not yet lost. Besides, looking after this village – that's your responsibility now, is it not?" Dominus said.

"I haven't lost yet?" Beam looked up at those words. Dominus nodded back with a smile. Though his master had not explicitly said so, from the nature of that smile, he had to assume that Stephanie was still alive. He clenched his fist. "Then I will deal with it."