Ball of Nothing

Chapter 563 - A Royal Steed

Truen and Zero were escorted back to the palace with King Sharo. The elven king went back to his ice popsicle behaviour in the presence of many eyes, and Zero sighed. There was a long way to go if Zero wanted to re-educate the poisoned mind.

"What did you discuss with the spriggan?" Truen asked after they were given some privacy in their room.

Zero’s expression was grim. Compared to the time back at Rocket Mountains, Zero didn’t have the luxury of a few months to re-educate a stubborn elf. Bob sent a message to inform him about Jermine and her family’s condition. While the mole beast folks were able to remain hidden underground, the pressure from King Gaon was getting worse. Lycantopia was a huge city full of festering wounded warriors.

"The request isn’t hard, but it’s a little too time-consuming. We’re in a rush to find Monoman and Jermine in Lycantopia, and I have to go there in person as the envoy of Smargdas. I also can’t leave you to complete the request on my behalf."

Truen sat down on the bed beside Zero. "What’s the request? Can’t we just bring it along with us and work on it in Lycantopia?"

Zero thought about it and wondered if it was possible to kidnap the king of Altear to travel with them so that they could fix some of his poisoned mentality.

"That’s it!" Zero beamed and looked at his friend. "We can create a clone to replace King Sharo before we leave and disguise the actual King Sharo into something else. How attached are you to your wyvern?"

Truen blinked. "Not particularly attached but it is a very convenient mount. Why?"

Zero grinned and whispered his plan in Truen’s ear. When the wood elf heard about what his friend intended to do, he smirked. This was probably better than any form of torture Truen had in mind. The amount of humiliation at becoming a mount for someone else would be enough to crush Sharo’s mind completely.

"How are you going to do it? We can keep the wyvern here or send it back to Half Moon Village while I ride on the royal steed. For the record, I’m not going to let you ride on him just in case he tries something funny. You’re not a very skilled rider, and I believe he would need someone capable of strict discipline."

Zero pouted but agreed. "I can always make something and slip the transformation potion in."

The plan hatched quickly, and Zero decided that the sooner they left Altear, the better. Bob wasn’t able to do much for Jermine and her family. He might be a dragon, but Zero told him to stay out of the conflict between the werebeasts and the merfolks. Having a dragon from Half Moon Village would only complicate matters. If possible, Zero wanted to swiftly resolve the internal conflict in Lycantopia and bring Jermine’s clan back to New Moon Village safely. He didn’t want to meddle too much with Lycantopia’s royalty and politics.

That night, Zero spent it in his mindscape pharmacy designing a tasteless transformation potion with Lovina’s help. The potion’s effectiveness only lasted for a few days. Zero wondered how long it would take them to get from Altear to Lycantopia. At the same time, he wondered if there was a way to keep King Sharo in his horse form without needing to force-feed the royal transformed steed more potion when the effects started to wear out.

By the time the potion was ready, it was already morning. Zero gave the potion to Truen who used stealth magic to sneak into the kitchen. With this, they could create a doll of King Sharo to take his place while they kidnapped the actual elven king with them. The treaty could wait for now. Smargdas wasn’t in urgent need for a non-aggression agreement, and the trade pact between Altear and Half Moon Trading was only a matter of time.

Zero was still figuring out the route they should be taking when Truen returned.

"So fast?"

The archer nodded. "The potion’s transformation worked better than I expected. However, he is now a stubborn mule instead of a handsome stallion. I guess you need to revise some parts of the potion if we want to travel quickly. The donkey isn’t going to run fast."

Zero blinked. "Did he really turn into a donkey instead of a horse?"

Truen nodded slowly, and Zero couldn’t help but burst into laughter. The potion might still need tweaking to be perfect, but this was a happy accident. At the very least, King Sharo would soon understand the meaning of true beauty. Now that he was just an ugly mule, nobody was going to pay him any attention.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s saddle up and leave! Is the clone ready?"

Truen nodded. The golem he created will last for a good month before it disintegrates. He was confident that they would be back before that happened.

"I stole a hair from him to create the puppet. Nobody would notice the difference apart from the spriggan, but we should be fine. King Sharo doesn’t often visit Alex, so we have time."

Zero agreed and patted the hostile donkey. King Sharo wasn’t pleased with the situation. The stables stank so badly, and he didn’t like the metal bit in his mouth that Truen forced upon him. Nobody would recognise him as a donkey and to make matters worse, the saddle was enchanted with some sort of absolute obedience spell. He couldn’t even retaliate even if he could be noisy as a form of protest.

With King Sharo as a donkey, Zero knew their speed would drastically decrease if they travelled on foot. Hence, the brilliant solution Zero came up with was to create a transformation potion for donkey Sharo. The effects wore off quicker than the transformation potion, but Zero only needed Sharo to fly for a few hours. The paka-paka couldn’t fly as fast as the wyvern so this was a perfect arrangement for Truen.

"Are you sending the wyvern back or leaving it here?" Zero asked as Truen smacked the donkey’s behind when it made too much noise.

"I’m leaving it here because it is closer to Lycantopia. Even if it doesn’t respond to my whistle summoning, we can always call for Pegasus to bring us back."

Zero liked the idea and smiled at donkey Sharo. "You heard it. We have urgent business in Lycantopia, so we need to leave now. Don’t worry. Nothing will happen to Altear. Think of this as a field trip, alright? It’s about time you sheltered high elves learnt more about the outside world."

That said, Truen kicked the sides of donkey Sharo who yelped and took off to the sky in alarm. Zero laughed and quickly followed with his paka-paka as they raced to the gates and waved to the startled elven guards.

"We’ll be back!" Zero yelled to the guards and laughed as the wind tossed his hair backwards. Just like that, the envoys were gone from Altear, leaving everyone to wonder what was going on.

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