Chapter Fifty-Four: Conversation in the Prison

“You pig-brained fool!” Jaekin furiously jabbed his finger at the kobold chieftain’s head. “You’re a dog! How did you end up with a muddled pig’s brain? That’s a person, and you brought her back as food? If I hadn’t been here, would you have thrown her into the ice cellar with the rest? How many times have I told you? No eating humans! No eating humans! No eating humans!”

The kobold chieftain stared at him blankly.

“I don’t think its intention was to treat that human girl as food,” the werewolf Wolf remarked, coming over to stand by Jaekin. “Otherwise, it would have just killed her. Why bother bringing her back alive?”

“Are you serious?” Jaekin asked, frowning.

“Did you forget who I am? I can sense their intentions,” Wolf replied. “These kobolds strictly follow the rules you set. They would never capture a human as food. Even wild kobold tribes only hunt humans when they’re starving. I suspect the reason it brought that girl back alive is because it saw you returning with several new humans, so it thought you were trying to increase the population and decided to curry favor by taking the initiative.”

“Is it really that clever? It’s just a kobold!” Jaekin snorted.

“Hey, Master, could you not insult my descendants in front of their ancestor?” Wolf grumbled.

“Ugh, I wonder where it even found her,” Jaekin muttered, shaking his head. “This is just chaos.”

“Didn’t you bring back several locals? Why not ask them? Maybe they know the girl,” Wolf suggested.

“That makes sense!” Jaekin’s eyes lit up. Without delay, he returned to his room and called Tina.

Tina’s parents, along with Amber’s family, were busy clearing and cultivating fields. Only Tina was at home—and she was the only one who could more or less understand his words and meanings.

Jaekin took Tina to the newly built jail and pointed through the iron bars at the blue-haired girl, tightly bound inside. “Tina, is she from your village?”

Tina followed his gesture and locked eyes with Perrin, curled up in the corner. She immediately recognized the blue-haired girl, who wore the uniform of the town guards and had helped maintain order at the harvest festival earlier that year. Tina struggled to explain everything to Jaekin, and after much effort, he finally understood the girl’s background. Once he realized she was a colleague of the village chief’s son, he guessed she’d come along with him. What he couldn’t fathom was why the kobolds caught her but missed the chief’s son.

“They should have caught the chief’s son! He’s the one I need to be wary of. What’s the point of bringing her back? She’s just wasting my food! Tina, tell her that once I finish these pressing tasks, I’ll let her go. But for safety’s sake, she’ll have to stay in the jail for now. I can’t guarantee she isn’t a threat—and she almost killed me earlier!”

After Jaekin left, Tina called out to Perrin from outside the bars. “You’re a member of the town guard, aren’t you?”

“I know you. You’re from Alex’s village,” Perrin replied, expressionless. “Did the beast capture you too? Why aren’t you imprisoned?”

“Beast?” Tina asked, puzzled. “What beast?”

“Don’t you know? That man who was just with you is the legendary monster in human form! He ordered those wicked kobolds to capture me. He plans to make me into some kind of horned rabbit feast and eat me!”

“Huh?” Tina’s mouth dropped open, stunned by Perrin’s imagination. “Keen isn’t a monster! Why would you think that?”

“If he’s not a legendary beast, how can he command a tribe of kobolds? How can he use spatial magic? And his language, clearly some kind of monster’s tongue!” Perrin said earnestly.

Tina couldn’t help but stifle a laugh. “Keen just has extraordinary experience! Don’t worry, he doesn’t eat people. In fact, none of the kobolds here eat humans, only animal meat. By the way, did you come with the village chief’s son, Alex? Where is he?”

“My mission was to protect Alex, and his was to capture the foreigner who killed his father! Word is that foreigner abducted the bride the chief was about to marry. Could you be the bride meant for the village chief?” Perrin’s eyes lit with sudden realization. “So that man earlier is the foreigner Alex is after? He’s not really a monster?”

“Who told you I was going to marry the chief?” Tina was visibly annoyed.

“But everyone said your parents had agreed with the chief, and were just waiting for an auspicious day to send you to his house,” Perrin replied.

“Nonsense!” Tina, for once, was truly angry. “The chief imprisoned my parents and threatened them, forcing them to marry me off to him. My parents refused, so he locked them in a dungeon and had people search for me. If I hadn’t luckily run into Keen in the forest, I’d have been forced to marry that villainous chief by now! I never wanted to be his bride, and my parents never wanted me to marry him!”

“So, the foreigner actually saved you?” Perrin was taken aback. “Then why do people in the village say otherwise?”

“Those must be the chief’s men telling you that,” Tina said.

Perrin thought for a moment, her face still blank, then nodded slightly.

“If you ask the other villagers, you’ll learn the truth,” Tina sighed.

“But the fact remains, he killed the chief. That’s undeniable! Alex won’t let this go—he’ll avenge his father!” Perrin declared. “He was planning to catch up today, but we were attacked by horned apes on the way. Alex managed to escape, but I was captured by those kobolds.”

“You don’t have to worry. Keen means you no harm,” Tina assured her. “He’s just busy building defenses right now. Once he’s done, you’ll be released. I only hope that, when you leave, you’ll seek out the truth instead of blindly letting Alex use you.”

“The duty of a town guard is to obey orders from above. The truth means nothing to us. Even if everything you say is true, if the captain gives the command, I’ll draw my sword and charge all the same,” Perrin replied coldly.