Chapter 87: Power’s Tyranny
Jaden stared at Amelia with a disappointed look before waving his hand and gesturing towards the devouring pups.
"Just check them."
Amelia lifted her head and looked at the bed as she asked with a puzzled look.
"Check what?"
Just then, he saw that she couldn’t see the pups because of the wooden plank at the far end of the bed. He picked up the devouring pups and showed them to her.
"These."
Amelia’s eyes widened upon seeing the devouring pups. She shifted her gaze a few times between the puppies and Jaden, her expression full of surprise as she murmured.
"How do you have them?"
Jaden raised an eyebrow at the strange question. He thought.
’Don’t the Bannisters and war knights have them? Why is she acting so surprised? Is it because I am not eligible to have them? It’s got to be that.’
He finished his thoughts and gave a loving smile to the devouring pups as he responded softly.
"Lady Maria gave these two to me."
He expected Amelia’s expression to turn to understanding after his words. To his surprise, however, that wasn’t the case. Instead of what he had expected, her expression became more pronounced.
"Why would she do that?" she asked with a puzzled look. That question puzzled him as well. He asked.
"What’s wrong with her doing so?"
Amelia pointed at the devouring pups and spoke in a frightened tone as her lips quivered slightly. "These belong to the Cerberus of the Flaming Castle."
"Flaming castle?" he asked.
"It’s the territory under the Bannisters in the dream realm," she paused and looked around as if checking for things that couldn’t be seen. After doing that, she walked closer to him and whispered, "It was captured by the War Duke after killing Cerberus around six decades ago."
Jaden blinked a few times and looked at the pups before continuing. "Shouldn’t they be different from this? Why do they look like puppies?"
Her face darkened as she sat on the bed, her body trembling.
"B-because they are not natural... the war duke had created them with the help of the magic and the remaining flesh and blood of Cerberus."
’What?’
His eyes widened, and his face turned dark as he involuntarily hid the devouring pups within himself.
’How is this even possible?’
’What kind of person can do something like this...?’
"The duke believed that to reach the level of gods one must learn to create life... even those of the mark of nature can only heal and save, they can’t create life." She continued, her head lowered.
He opened his lips to question further, but suddenly heard a low cry from the devouring pups.
"Br... br..."
"Br..."
This time, it came from both of them. His expression hardened as he spoke out sharply.
"It doesn’t matter, just help me! Tell me what’s wrong with them... Why are they crying?"
Amelia looked at the devouring pups, who had tears glistening across their big eyes. She heaved a sigh and answered.
"They are hungry... for mana."
"Huh?!"
"They can devour anything within seconds, breaking it down into raw mana. They also need mana to grow — but our mana isn’t like that of nature. Whoever feeds them becomes their master... or their parent," she responded.
He nodded at her explanation as it made a lot of sense, considering they were named devouring pups.
"So, how am I supposed to feed them?" Jaden questioned as he walked near the bed.
Amelia rose from the bed and walked to the door while speaking. "There’s no point in doing so... they were created two decades ago and they are still like this because no one’s mana can grow them."
She pulled the door and stepped out as her departing words echoed within the room. "It’s better to give them a peaceful death instead..."
Jaden didn’t say anything and just stared at the door. He didn’t know what to say, but one thing was for sure: Amelia’s serious demeanour surprised him... and it also told him how much torment she had seen these little ones face in the past two decades. He lowered his head, looked at the devouring pups, and gently channelled his mana into them.
The puppies’ eyes suddenly widened as their orange fur began to shimmer like magma, Jaden’s mana coursed through their bodies like a calm stream... It was different from anything they had eaten before. Whatever they had eaten till now was broken, just a part of what could’ve been. However, that was not the case for Jaden; he had all affinities, thus his mana was complete, unlike everyone else.
"Go ahead. Fill yourselves up."
The puppies fell silent and focused on eating the sweet mana that Jaden was pouring for them.
Moments passed and turned into minutes, and seeing that the devouring pups were still eating the mana, he sat down in a lotus position, held both of the pups in his open palms and began absorbing mana as the pups ate them.
Minutes also passed and turned into hours, and finally, when his room was drenched in the orange of evening sun, the devouring pups stopped eating mana.
Jaden opened his eyes and looked at the devouring pups with a raised eyebrow. The pups were a little different from before; One’s fur had turned pale, the other’s dark. Both of them had a few strands of multiple colours, and they had also become a few centimetres bigger.
"That’s fast... or is it because they never got to grow in the past two decades?" Jaden muttered, his tone bitter.
He held the puppies closer to his chest as he mumbled.
"Everything’s going to be all right, little ones."
This time, the pups answered him.
"Br... Br..."
"Br."
Jaden didn’t know if they were telling him about the things that had happened to them before or if they were agreeing to his words—looking forward to their new lives.
But he chose to believe the latter to be true.