Chapter 65: Keth’mor (1)

It took several days of travel for the small group—Renard, Zain, and the old man—to arrive back at Draemir territory.

Going back to Taira Castle was still not safe. The commander there had seen Renard’s awakening, and who knew what kind of trap might be waiting for him. So Renard could only return to his grandfather’s domain for now.

The moment they arrived at the main estate, Renard knew he was in trouble.

Lord Augustus was waiting for them in the courtyard, his face dark with anger. The old man was tall and imposing even in his seventies, with silver hair and sharp gray eyes that missed nothing. Right now, those eyes were focused entirely on Renard.

"So," Augustus said coldly, "you finally decided to come here."

Renard tried to put on his best innocent smile. "Grandfather, I can explain—"

"Explain?" Augustus’s voice rose. "You were supposed to come straight here after the awakening ceremony! Instead, I get a message saying your life is in danger and you need help? What were you doing that could put your life at risk?"

Renard opened his mouth, but his grandfather wasn’t finished.

"Do you have any idea how worried your sister was? How worried I was? And then you drag the Martial King into whatever mess you’ve created?"

Augustus glanced at Hobbren, who simply nodded back. The two had already met when Zain first brought the old man here weeks ago.

"At least you had the sense to bring proper protection," Augustus continued. "Though I still don’t understand how you even knew where to find him."

"I have my ways," Renard said, trying to sound mysterious rather than evasive.

Augustus stared at him for a long moment, clearly not buying the vague answer. But after a while, he seemed to decide it wasn’t worth pushing right now.

"Fine. Keep your secrets for now." The old man’s anger was cooling down. "But we’re going to have a long talk about all this later."

He gestured for them to follow him inside. "Come. Your sister is waiting, and I want to hear about your awakening."

They walked to Augustus’s private study, a large room filled with books and decorated with trophies from his beast hunts. Aria was already there, sitting in a chair by the window with a book in her hands.

When they entered, she looked up and quickly closed her book, trying to act like she hadn’t been waiting by the window for hours.

"Oh, brother," she said, standing up and brushing off her dress. "You’re back."

Her voice sounded casual, but Renard could see how tightly she was gripping her book and the way she kept glancing at him like she was checking to make sure he was really okay.

"Aria! I hope you weren’t too worried about me."

"Worried? Me?" She scoffed, tossing her hair back. "Why would I worry about my stupid brother who disappears for weeks?"

But even as she said it, she moved closer, her eyes looking for any injuries on his face.

"I sent messages," Renard pointed out.

"Your messages were dumb. They didn’t say anything useful." She crossed her arms. "So... how was the awakening thing? Did you mess it up like I thought you would?"

She tried to sound like she didn’t care, but it was obvious she wanted to know everything.

Lord Augustus settled into his chair behind his big desk, also eager to hear about Renard’s awakening.

"Now then," Augustus said. "Tell me about your awakening. What Blood Crest did you get?"

Renard had prepared for this question. He’d even thought about what exact words he was going to say.

"I awakened a Royal rank Blood Crest. It’s called Wild Heart."

Aria’s eyebrows shot up, her ears almost twitching with interest. She was clearly too curious about this to keep acting like she didn’t care.

Lord Augustus smiled and nodded. "Excellent! A Royal rank! Just like your mother. She would be so proud!"

There was a sudden silence at the mention of his mother. Lord Augustus understood and quickly tried to change the topic.

"I assume you can make contracts with beasts now. How many contracts can you handle?"

"It’s showing one for now," Renard said.

"That’s strange. Royal rank Blood Crests usually have more slots..." Augustus frowned but didn’t push it. "Well, we can work on expanding that later."

"And the beast egg? I heard you got to pick one during the selection ceremony."

Renard pulled out the case containing his egg. "I chose this one."

Lord Augustus took the case and examined the small, color-shifting egg with interest. "Interesting. I can’t identify the species. What element is it?"

"I’m not sure yet," Renard lied smoothly. "The specialists couldn’t identify it either."

"Sometimes the best companions come from mystery eggs," Augustus said, handing the case back. "When it hatches, we’ll see what you got."

Aria was staring at the egg with bright, interested eyes. "Brother! When is this thing going to hatch?"

"Well, I’m not sure exactly."

Aria looked disappointed but kept staring at the egg like it might hatch right then and there.

"Also, I have a favor to ask, Grandpa," Renard said, seeing his chance. "I was hoping you could help me make my first contract."

Augustus’s face lit up. The old man was proud of his beast mastery skills—he was considered one of the strongest tamers in House Grim.

Although he had been busy lately managing the territory, he was also a famous beastmaster in his youth and even now, there were only few who could match with his beasts in the Grim family.

"Of course! I’d be happy to help." He leaned forward with excitement. "What creature did you have in mind? We have several good options in our reserves, or we could go hunt for something wild."

Renard took a deep breath. This was the moment he’d been building up to.

"Actually, I’ve already decided on the beast."

"Oh really? What is it?"

"Keth’mor."

The room went completely silent.

---***---

Tip: You can use left, right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.Tap the middle of the screen to reveal Reading Options.

If you find any errors (non-standard content, ads redirect, broken links, etc..), Please let us know so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report