August Intruder- Chapter 249- Fealty or Conquest (Patreon)

The room was still as the creature took his place on the other side of it. Melmarc read the notification on his interface once more.

Bayad the Spotted. S-rank.

No class.

He didn’t like the idea that all he got was a name and a class. Then again, it was not as if he had used [Knowledge Is Power] on it. Still, Bayad the Spotted stood there, eyes fixed on him, sparing Ark only a brief glance, as if he was nothing but an interruption, as a royal would to an equal’s manservant.

But that was where the creature was wrong. They were not equals. Very much far from it. At least they were not equals here.

Melmarc walked forward, with only one thought in mind. Ark hesitated for a moment. He looked at Melmarc, then at the one-winged creature, then back. In the end, he made no complaint, simply following his lead.

His steps seemed to take forever. The distance between Melmarc and the creature seemed infinite. There were steps and there were footsteps. Something about moving in this moment carried too much weight. Still, Melmarc walked. Walking was only one step in the different steps that he was about to go through in this meeting.

And just like that, in the blink of an eye, he was standing in front of the creature, looking up into its eyes. Bayad was more than clearly male. He had sharp eyes that were currently piercing green. Somehow, Melmarc knew that they were not the real color of his eyes.

Both of them stared at each other and Melmarc did not like the idea of looking up at the creature. There was something insulting in having to look up at the man’s eyes. Something insulting in having to adjust himself just to do it.

Bayad held his hand out to him. “I am Bayad.” His voice was smooth, like sweet syrup. It was what you would expect from an angel that appeared in front of you to tempt you into doing things that you were not supposed to do but so dearly wanted to do.

Melmarc looked from Bayad’s eyes to his outstretched hand. It was not contemplation that made him wait a little, it was understanding. Bayad was being polite. So, Melmarc reached out with his own hand and shook Bayad’s.

Then he reached up and spat in his face.

Bayad turned away at the last second, taking the spittle on his cheek. A frown creased his brows, and a very quiet growl rumbled in his throat. Melmarc did not fear it. In fact, he did not care for it. His grip on Bayad’s hand tightened and he looked him in the face, looked him in the eye and waited for him to look back while the indicator flashed above his head.

[Intruder]

“You,” he said plainly, “are trespassing.”

Bayad set his jaw, tried to banish the insult he was clearly feeling from his expression. Then it looked around at the room pointedly. “Am I?”

Everything made sense now. It was in how Bayad looked around as well as the color of his wings. This was the reason the school’s choice of color had never sat right with Melmarc since he’d entered the premises months ago. It was the reason for his discomfort.

“You,” he repeated, “are trespassing.”

Bayad’s grip tightened as well. He still hadn’t cleaned Melmarc’s spit from his face. It was almost as if he understood the exchange. The reason for the spit. Why he was in no position to clean it. Why he had to keep it there.

Another low growl rumbled within him.

“I heard that one,” Ark pointed out. “I can’t say I’m a fan of you doing that.”

Bayad shot Arka scathing look and Ark stepped up to him.

“Come on,” Ark dared him, teeth bared. “Do it. Give me a reason.”

Both of them stood there, locked in each other’s gaze. Bayad looked like a noble who had just been insulted by a servant but could not do anything because it could potentially cause a war between two kingdoms.

He was wrong, and Melmarc was more than happy to let him know.

“Careful,” he warned. “An insult to him is an insult to me.” His eyes sharpened when Bayad’s gaze returned to him. “And right now, I have already been insulted enough.”

“I am not a trespasser,” Bayad said, his voice still buttery smooth. “I was here before you. If anything, you are the trespasser.”

Melmarc cocked his head to one side. There was no dissonance in Bayad’s voice. Regardless, intended or not, Melmarc knew an insult when he heard one.

He released Bayad’s hand now, let the man drop it to his side. Then he gauged the distance between them—the height distance to be specific, and said, “I am going to slap you now.”

“Don’t—”

The air cracked with a loud sound as the palm of his hand struck the side of Bayad’s face, sending his head turning.

Bayad’s lips tightened, he held his composure.

Do not take his territory, a voice called in Melmarc’s mind. Taking his territory will declare war.

His territory on earth is mine to give and take as I please, Melmarc reminded himself, fighting back against his aspect of War for the first time since gaining [Optimum Existence].

Civil wars exist for a reason.

Melmarc hardened his expression. He had not even claimed Earth fully and he was already having guests partitioning out their own little part of his world.

Bayad finally turned his head back to look at Melmarc. “You are young,” he said, fighting against every urge to do something he clearly believed he was not supposed to do. “You allow your instincts to lead you, to control you.”

Melmarc cocked a brow at that. “And what do you know about these instincts, Bayad the Spotted?”

Bayad growled visibly and flames ignited around Ark’s hands, black as night.

“Do you really think you can take the both of us?” Ark asked, sounding more interested in finding out through combat.

Bayad looked at him. “A child [Demon Lord] and an [August Intruder] is an interesting combination, but you are both still children.”

He’s goading you, Melmarc’s mind rumbled. He wants you to draw first blood.

There was a part of Melmarc that already knew this. He also knew that if he drew first blood, if he well and truly attacked, then he would have to kill Bayad. He had nothing against killing Bayad, though. There was just something that didn’t fully sit right with killing the creature, whatever it was.

Bayad folded his arms over his chest, giving him a more imposing visage. It would have made him imposing enough if Melmarc hadn’t spent his entire life living with his father. He had been around an actual monster of a man in size since he was tiny. Large men did not intimidate him.

“Do you want to go to war with me or are you here for a different reason, Spotted?” Melmarc asked, knowing that the title did not sit right with Bayad.

The muscles on Bayad’s arms tightened a little, but Bayad relaxed them just as easily. Then he sighed. “I am here for a different reason.”

“You wish to remain on this planet?”

“I wish to—”

The sudden sound of blaring alarms filled the air. It was loud and continuous, evoking a sense of panic in Melmarc that smothered itself very quickly. It was an interesting feeling. Right now, he stood up against a creature that did not belong on earth, standing as Earth’s representative, a dauntless representative at that, yet he was still a student of Fallen High. A student who’d almost panicked at the thought of getting caught where he was not supposed to be and ending up expelled.

Bayad, however, sighed at the ever-growing sound of the alarm. “It seems they have discovered my absence.”

“So they are aware of you,” Melmarc muttered. It was not a question. He also did not like knowing that people had been keeping an [Intruder] on earth.

Bayad chuckled a little. “They have been aware of me for longer than you have been alive. They have been aware of me for longer than your parents and their parents’ parents. They have been aware of me for—”

“I’d bet this fire will burn you quite well and good,” Ark interrupted, holding his flaming hand up for all to see. “Stick to the point. What. Do. You. Want?”

Bayad’s eyes darted from side to side, from Ark’s flames to Melmarc’s presence. The creature was afraid of the flames, aware that it could actually do him harm, but he did his best to hide the awareness. But if Melmarc had noticed it, then he was sure Ark had noticed it too.

There was something in Bayad’s eyes as he opened his mouth to speak, a hesitance that Melmarc couldn’t quite place.

“I,” he said, “have come face to face with a creature that should not be on this planet.”

Melmarc’s mind focused instantly. Veebee.

“A being of your position,” Bayad continued, “should not doom his world to such a creature. You are not in its care, [August Intruder]. You are at its mercy.”

“Should you really be throwing insults at a creature allied to me in this moment?” Melmarc asked, very much aware of the absence of dissonance.

“No,” Bayad answered. “I was merely giving advice, unsolicited, though it may be. But you are young, in your world and in Existence.”

Melmarc picked up on the use of Existence. It meant the creature knew more about the world beyond than just Earth and wherever it had come from. For some reason, he still couldn’t think of Bayad as ‘he.’

“I’ve seen a portion of this Existence you speak of,” Ark interrupted. “I think it would be on our side if we chose to cave your head in.”

Bayad looked at both of them, really looked at both of them. It was like a senior assessing disrespectful juniors even if he was the one at fault. Bayad sighed. “You both do not strike me as willing to bargain.”

“Whatever you’ve done to this place,” Melmarc said clearly, “does not sit right with me. It makes my skin crawl, and it is all I can do to not bring this building to the ground.”

And he could.

Melmarc paused at the realization. There was a part of him that genuinely believed he could bring the building down with the strength he had.

My God, that’s ballsy.

He had no weapon in his arsenal that he knew for a fact could accomplish such a task, and yet, he was very sure that he could accomplish the task. It was ludicrous. And it made him laugh.

It started as a small chuckle, small but loud enough to make Ark look at him. Then it rumbled from the depths of his stomach and grew into a full blown belly laugh. He could bring the building down if he wanted to, and yet he had no inkling of an idea how he was going to do it.

All because the idiot in front of him did not know its place.

Bayad’s face turned into something of slight worry, as if it was just now realizing that he was not speaking to a person who worked with its own logic.

“I am willing to pay tribute,” Bayad said, trying to sound confident in its words, voice always smooth like honey.

Melmarc stopped laughing, but the smile did not leave his face. “Tribute?” he asked, realizing a little too late that he sounded as if he was laughing at the idea of it. “What could you possibly offer in tribute that I would care about?”

“[EP],” Bayad said, as if playing a trump card. “I have [EP] far more than you could possibly imagine.”

Melmarc’s attention narrowed on that. He saw a touch of triumph in Bayad’s eyes but knew that the creature misunderstood. The [EP] did not hold his attention, something else did. For Bayad to possess [EP], it meant the creature was either Sapient or at least Oath level.

It could be an [August Intruder], too, he thought remembering how Veebee had taking him to that other world using his [EP], claiming it was one of the perks of an [August Intruder].

Melmarc’s senses sharpened before he could say anything. Behind him, within the room, a dear ally appeared, simply existing within.

<<[August Intruder] have [EP],>> Veebee’s voice called out in a tone that was laughing at Bayad’s offer.

For some reason, Veebee’s presence made Melmarc want to smile. The creature was nothing but a bundle of unpredictability.

Bayad held back a frown at Veebee’s presence.

“Veebee,” Melmarc said, keeping the smile from his voice.

<<Veebee listening,>> it said in a very careful voice, as if afraid of being scolded.

“Did you eat anybody?”

Ark chuckled lightly. “Please tell us you didn’t eat anybody.”

<<Veebee not eat anybody,>> it answered hurriedly.

“Good—”

<<But Veebee eat something.>>

Everybody in the room paused, all three of them. Bayad included.

“What did Veebee eat?” Melmarc asked very carefully.

<<Familiar,>> Veebee said carefully, worried that it had done something wrong. <<Like lion.>>

Melmarc didn’t know anybody that had a lion familiar in Fallen High. There were too few people with familiars in the school that he knew of them. Was it an older student’s familiar or was it a newly acquired familiar that he was not aware of?

Ark sighed in relief. “Then I guess that’s fine. It’s just a familiar.”

Veebee looked at Melmarc, waiting, perhaps hoping for him to view it in the same way Ark viewed it.

“I guess that’s fine, too,” he said in the end. He couldn’t really bring himself to care about the familiar. “Does Veebee want to eat Bayad the Spotted, too?”

Bayad did not even flinch at the offer.

<<Bayad too strong,>> Veebee answered, matter-of-factly. <<And Veebee not think abomination taste good.>>

“My offer still stands,” Bayad interrupted. “I am willing to offer [EP] as tribute in exchange for my continued stay.”

For all its confidence, Melmarc couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something Bayad was trying to hide.

<<[August Intruder] have [EP],>> Veebee repeated.

“I am ready to offer more,” Bayad challenged.

Ark tilted his head in curiosity. “How much more?”

“Ten thousand [EP] a month.”

Melmarc’s jaw dropped. Ten thousand [EP] was a lot of [EP]. He could use the [EP] he had refused to access because he was saving it for his mother’s Oath-hood and finally increase his stats without any worry. Then, he could grow as strong as he wanted as fast as he wanted without even having to risk his life.

“For how long?” Ark asked.

“Two years,” Bayad said, some level of comfort returning to his visage. “Then I would like to renegotiate.”

Melmarc was thinking about it when Veebee spoke. <<All [EP] gathered by abomination belong to world by law of Existence. [EP] not abomination’s to give. Counteroffer.>>

Bayad frowned, muttering something under its breath too low to be heard.

“Counteroffer?” it asked in the end, and Veebee’s line for a mouth split into a grin.

It moved, existing right behind Melmarc. Then levitated, rising into the air in ominous presence. Melmarc knew what was about to happen the moment it started, and he held back a sigh while Ark smiled in anticipation.

Melmarc knew it then. Veebee had a goal, and its goal was to bring the world under his control. By fealty or by conquest.

And he was fine with it.

<<Swear fealty. Bow!>> Veebee declared, <<to your [August Intruder]!>>

All eyes fell on Bayad, and there was no one in the room that did not know the only two answers that existed. It was fealty or conquest.

And they waited for its answer.

Bayad met their gazes and expectations, knowing the only paths available to it. Its hand moved, and Melmarc knew what it’s answer was going to be.

“No,” Bayad said, ready for war.

Conquest it is.

The weight of mana settled on his wrist, and Melmarc sent the ring flying in the blink of an eye.

[You have used skill Rings of Saturn]

[Remaining Uses: 3/4]