Once upon a time there was a greedy snake

Training the warriors wasn't a big deal, but Casaloran felt utterly exhausted.

It wasn't physical exhaustion, but more of a mental one. Casalon couldn't understand how things had turned out this way—they were the ones who had won, they had everything, so how could things have turned out this way...?

"I'm afraid we can only seek the wisdom of the North Wind God."

With a sigh, Casaloran rose again.

Seeking the wisdom of the North Wind God once or twice is fine, but frequently going to the North Wind God to solve problems will only show one's incompetence—but it doesn't matter if he is judged as incompetent now, because he really doesn't know how to deal with this situation.

The ice warriors who once fought alongside him now regarded him as an enemy. The resentment hidden beneath their awe and the gazes of those warriors was like a series of cold snakes, slowly tightening around his neck.

It's not fast, but it's extremely sturdy.

No matter how much he swung his arms, he couldn't break free.

"snake……"

Thinking about this, Casaloran even felt a little suffocated for a moment.

Even the sweet-smelling air around us now seemed to be laced with snake venom.

"This can't go on any longer!"

With that thought in mind, Casaloran hurried into the depths of the palace, this time ignoring even David Day at the door.

But Casaloran quickly withdrew.

The god of the north wind is not here.

He didn't even see a single feather.

"Why isn't he here again?"

Casalon emerged from the palace with a bewildered expression on his face.

The North Wind God has been noticeably busy lately; who should he turn to to resolve all of this?

"It seems you are indeed of no use to your Eagle God."

It was at this moment that David Day, who was being held at the palace gate, suddenly spoke.

"To your Eagle God, you are not even as useful as me now. At least I can really sacrifice my liver... But you, obviously, have done nothing."

"What do you know..."

This time, Casaloran didn't even bother to throw a punch.

At this moment, he felt only endless exhaustion.

It shouldn't be like this.

They were the ones who won, they had everything they'd ever wanted, but why, why...?

Why didn't you tell me?

Just as Casaloran was about to leave, David Day spoke up once again.

“How do you know I don’t understand if you don’t tell me? Even though I’m imprisoned by you now, I was at least the thirty-sixth king of the Ignis… I still have some understanding of the troubles a king can encounter.”

"You? What can you understand?"

Casalorn scoffed, thinking that the dwarf king must have gone mad.

"The trouble I'm facing right now is something you weak dwarves can't possibly understand..."

As he spoke, Casaloran poured out all the pent-up frustrations he had been experiencing these past few days.

Although much of what he said was not, strictly speaking, suitable for the dwarf king to hear, he wasn't worried about the king having any other ideas, considering that the dwarf king had once rebelled against the so-called serpent god—perhaps he was just too frustrated and wanted to talk to someone.

What Casaloran didn't expect was that right after he finished explaining the suffocating situation he was in,

David Day, however, suddenly laughed.

"I thought it was something serious, but it's just this... It seems your knowledge base is still a bit lacking."

"Just this?"

Casaloron frowned, his fists clenched tightly.

What do you mean by "just this"? This situation, which almost silently rendered the Icefield Warriors useless... is actually described as "just this"?

"Otherwise what? As a king, can't you see the problem?"

David Day simply shook his head as his gaze swept over Casaloran's iron fist.

"Why have your warriors lost their fighting spirit? It's because they have no enemies. The Ignis have been conquered by you, and you have no enemies... Without enemies, who are you going to fight? Without enemies, what can they do besides live their own lives?"

"How could there be no enemies!"

Casalon argued his case forcefully.

"Your serpent god! That serpent! It hasn't just not appeared yet! It's the enemy of the gods! The common enemy of all the Icefield people..."

"Wait a moment."

David Day suddenly interrupted Casaloan.

"Think about it carefully, are the enemies of the gods really the enemies of the Ice People?"

"What's there to think about?"

Casaloan thought David Day was talking nonsense.

The enemy of the gods is the common enemy of the Ice People. The serpent lurking in the shadows has not yet been eliminated, which could be an unimaginable catastrophe...

"Think about it again, think about it carefully."

It was at this moment that David Day spoke up once again.

"Think carefully, think seriously, is your Eagle God's enemy really your enemy? Or rather, would your enemy be considered an enemy by that Eagle God?"

"Think about it carefully, think about it carefully."

"Don't rush to conclusions, think about it carefully."

……

Casalorn fell silent for a moment.

He was actually not very willing to think about these kinds of issues.

Are the enemies of the Eagle God the enemies of the Ice People? There's no need to ask that question. No one can question the Ice People's devotion to the Eagle God; they all regard this god of the North Wind as a stern father.

But could the enemy of the Ice People be the enemy of that Eagle God?

Obviously, no.

If they were enemies of the Ice People, they would also be regarded as enemies by that Eagle God. The great Eagle God would have led the Ice People warriors to break through the defenses of these dwarves long ago. Why would the Ice People need to fight on the front lines for hundreds of years?

The enemies of the Ice People are not the enemies of the North Wind God.

Conversely, the enemies of the North Wind God...

"Ah, judging from your expression, you should already know what I'm talking about."

David Day chuckled.

"So, your situation wasn't that complicated from the start. It's just that your giants lacked experience and had never seen anything like this before, which caused you to misunderstand..."

David Day paused for a moment at this point.

"As for the solution, it's quite simple. The reason you're in pain is because you don't know which side to stand on... You didn't encounter this problem before, so you could be both the king of the warriors and the messenger of the Eagle God."

"And now, there is a divergence between what the Eagle God wants and what the warriors want."

"Will you stand with the Eagle God, or with your warriors?"

Chapter 46 The Skilled Attacker Moves Above the Nine Heavens

Under the midnight moonlight, wings that blot out the sky cut through the vast expanse.

The god of the north wind, the lord of winter, the source of the biting winds, the ruler of storms... it has had many names, but none of them matter to it.

After all, it's just a name given by some hairless monkeys. Those monkeys seem to really like coming up with strange and unusual names. They might even think that the name is the name itself.

It didn't know what to say about this idea; all it could say was, "As long as the monkeys are happy."

As for its own words...

It is an eagle.

A very, very big eagle.

It has a clear understanding of itself.

As an eagle, it does everything that all eagles do, such as hunting, preening its feathers, or occasionally flying around in the sky.

Similarly, as a very large eagle, it can do many things that ordinary eagles would never do—such as driving those hairless monkeys to offer sacrifices to it, which is a more convenient way to obtain food than hunting, or learning the way those hairless monkeys communicate, so that those hairless monkeys know what to bring it in order to eat.

Those hairless monkeys are indeed very useful, perhaps even the most useful species.

Unfortunately, the things those hairless monkeys can do are ultimately limited.

Just like now, when it comes to tracking a giant snake that is similar in size to themselves, those hairless monkeys are completely useless.

Although it is almost impossible to completely hide their tracks after growing to such a huge size, the ability to grow to such a size itself signifies a profound foundation and accumulation of knowledge and experience—something that short-lived hairless monkeys could never understand, nor could they comprehend what a long lifespan could bring.

So, from the very beginning, it didn't expect those hairless monkeys to do much.

Or perhaps, these hairless monkeys were simply bait used to lure out the snake.

After all, the snake was surrounded by a group of hairless monkeys, and after putting itself in their shoes, it realized that if the monkeys started fighting, it would definitely affect the snake's food supply.

Originally, it had expected that the snake would take the initiative to step forward and wipe out the hairless monkey on its side—after all, for a behemoth of its size, wiping out some monkeys was not a troublesome matter.

And after that snake steps forward, it can descend from the sky, pick up the snake, have a good meal, and begin its further growth.

The whole process is extremely simple; after all, catching a snake with an eagle is a simple matter, and there is nothing complicated about it.

What it never expected was that the snake would be so calm and collected.

The hairless monkeys who were loyal to the snake were almost all killed, and those hairless monkeys that worked for it had even stepped into the snake's habitat—this was undoubtedly an extremely serious provocation and threat. If it were the snake, it would have already flown out and killed it.

But the snake still did not appear; it never appeared from beginning to end.

"Could it be that my bait has been seen through?"

The giant eagle soaring high in the sky thought this.

"It's not necessarily that it saw through things; perhaps the snake's intuition was just too sharp."

Unlike those hairless monkeys, it doesn't dwell on past events. It doesn't know, nor could it possibly figure out, how the snake hid.

All it knew was that the snake had indeed disappeared; that was an undeniable fact.

So it stopped relying on the hairless monkeys. After all, compared to these long-lived giants, the hairless monkeys were far inferior. Rather than hoping that the hairless monkeys could fish out the snake, it was better to fly around a few more times and see if it could find the snake itself.

Unfortunately, after flying around a few times, the snake couldn't be photographed. It was as if the snake had vanished into thin air; not even a single scale could be seen.

"Looks like we won't find any traces today... Let's try searching further away next time."

Seeing that the bright moon was already high in the sky, the giant eagle prepared to come again next time.

Flying is ultimately a physically demanding activity, and the larger the animal, the more physically demanding it is. Even it, having flown for so long, needs to eat something.

It was at this moment that it remembered those hairless monkeys again.

While the monkeys were of no use in searching for the giant snake, they were extremely useful when it came to finding food—given their enormous size, finding suitable prey was no easy task.

But those monkeys somehow managed to produce large quantities of food, enough to satisfy even their hunger.

From this perspective, the monkeys were surprisingly useful, at least ensuring he had enough to eat when he failed to hunt and was hungry.

"So let's go back and get something to eat first."

The thought of the large amount of fresh meat offered by the monkeys made it eager to eat.

A meal after a long day is the best comfort for the body.

So it stopped circling in the mountains and returned to the city.

When it finally landed in the building that the hairless monkeys called the "palace," the hairless monkeys presented it with a sumptuous feast—from common livestock like cattle and sheep to large beasts like cave bears and saber-toothed tigers, and even mammoths were neatly cut up and served in front of it.

"That's enough for a meal, which will make up for today's deficit."

It didn't waste any words with the hairless monkeys and lowered its head to start eating.