Rise of the Eromancer

Chapter 233 The Dessert

"I've never seen a talking human before. Wait, are you really human!? I've studied your species for years and…"

Rhys and the others were finally allowed to pass through the gate by Prince Dubhai's orders. He seemed to be spouting all sorts of things from his excited mouth, but Rhys was not really listening to any of it as he was in slight awe of what he was seeing.

A city.

It truly was an entire city. He was expecting somewhat wide streets, market stalls, and a few people walking here and there like how it usually is with those fantasy animations and comics — but it wasn't like that at all.

If it wasn't for the cenleons, then Rhys would have thought he was just visiting a less advanced country with how normal the city looked. In fact, it looked more normal than the sights he saw when he went to Enkland to visit Lina's royal family.

There were even street lamps which were clearly run by electricity of some sort.

This wasn't Rhys's first time visiting a settlement of another race, but the ones he did, especially the Hissyrs who had scales for skin but shared more characteristics with humans, were not this advance at all.

"Ah. That's called electricity, e—lec—tri—ci—ty," Prince Dubhai then noticed Rhys looking at the street lamp and immediately pointed at it, "Is it your first time seeing it?"

"...No," Rhys could really only blink a couple of times as Prince Dubhai slightly leaned down to talk to him even though he was the smallest cenleon he had seen so far, "I was just wondering why you have street lights when the Underworld doesn't really have a concept of night and day. Does it get dark in this region?"

"Oh…" Prince Dubhai seemed visibly confused as he looked at Edissa, "...This is amazing, no? Where did you even discover this human from? He is even more fluent than the people in the castle."

"That—" Edissa, who was walking behind the two, didn't really want to say anything, as in truth, she was slightly embarrassed with what was happening. After all, she had also thought that the humans were savages and just prey with no intellect at all, just slightly smarter than the monsters, but she was quickly proven wrong as soon as she got to live in their world.

"I can answer your questions, anything you want." Fortunately for her, Rhys answered for her, "Just let Edissa's tribe live here and we can talk."

"Oh, that's no problem at all," Prince Dubhai then gestured to his men to assist Maha and the others, who were behind Edissa and also just looking at this grand city. Of course, Maha quickly bowed his head and followed the guards; he seemed to want to say something to Rhys, but Rhys did not even bother glancing at them as he and Prince Dubhai continued their walk.

"Oh…?" Prince Dubhai, however, stopped walking as he noticed Edissa was still following them, "...Are you not going with them?"

"I am Rhys's Bond," Edissa shook her head, "I go where he goes."

"Ho…!?" An almost screaming gasp escaped Prince Dubhai's mouth as a smile quickly crawled on his face, "One of us… a Bond of a human? That is… wow."

Prince Dubhai then let out a chuckle of disbelief and gestured with his hand as if his mind was blown. Rhys had noticed this since earlier, but Prince Dubhai's way of expressing things seemed almost too human.

"I have so many things to ask you, Rhys. That is your name, right?" Prince Dubhai's ears almost stood up to their limits as he started walking backward as he talked to Rhys.

"It is."

"Yummers," Prince Dubhai smiled, slightly revealing his fangs, "Let's get to the castle first and get you guys situated."

"We'll… be living in the castle?" Edissa could not help but smile at Rhys as she heard that, "We will only really be spending a few hours here before going back."

"Then stay in the castle," Prince Dubhai shrugged, "I insist…

…I've already had them prepare your rooms for you."

***

"What the…"

The only thing Edissa could do was listen as the sound of metal rolled and scratch the ground in front of her. It was then followed by a loud tinkering noise as the guard locked her and Rhys inside a cell in a dungeon.

"What is the meaning of this, Prince Dubhai!?" Edissa hissed as she slammed her hands on the bars, "Why did you lock us up!?"

"Why…?" Prince Dubhai seemed visibly confused, "...Rhys is a human, I can't have him roaming around the castle, that would freak the staff — and someone might eat him, I don't want a precious subject to be eaten."

"A… subject?" Edissa's voice slightly turned weak as she finally looked at the cells on the other side of the dungeon, only to see several humans who were completely naked; most of them missing their limbs, and some even being fed through a tube, "You… put us in a barn!?"

"Oh no, no. Me? I don't eat humans, I'm a vegetarian. I've been told that the meat of the humans is the most delicious thing in the entire world, but I just don't dabble," Prince Dubhai let out a small chuckle as he started waving his hands, "I'm a doctor, and I primarily research humans since they are so complex.

I've always known they were more intelligent than they let on… but for some reason, we just can't understand each other. Maybe now, with Rhys, we can…"

"What the…" Once again, Edissa was left completely flabbergasted as Prince Dubhai just started talking to himself. He then glanced at Rhys, who seemed to have already made himself comfortable, laying on hay and just yawning, "Rhys, please help me out here!"

"Relax, Edissa," Rhys waved her off, "I'm also enjoying hearing his thoughts. A vegan cat, that is new."

"Relax…?" Edissa then once again glanced at the humans who looked like they were already begging for death, "He will experiment on you, Rhys. Look at what he is doing to your kind."

"W—"

"Who taught you how to speak!?"

Edissa hissed and jumped from her spot as Prince Dubhai suddenly slammed himself on the metal bars; his breaths, incredibly heavy as he stared at Rhys, "Are you from the Forbidden Land, or were you born here? No… are there any others like you? Do you also know how to read, what about writing?"

"Prince Dubhai!" Edissa could no longer take the Prince's incessant yapping as she also slammed her hands on the bars and hissed, causing Prince Dubhai to almost scream as he leaned back, "Let us out, now. You have no idea what you're trying to do here, or what you're even dealing with."

"I do, it's a human," Prince Dubhai adjusted his glasses as he stared at Rhys again, "They are the gods' most detestable creations. Punished for their greed and disobedience and then sent to the Forbidden Land — did you know that there are scriptures that hint that the humans were once a thriving people, enough to wage war against the gods?"

"What?"

"See?" Prince Dubhai scoffed, "You are the one who has no idea. You people from the smaller tribes are just like these humans, uneducated. The only difference is that we can actually talk to you. And if you're still not aware of it, I am calling you stupid."

"Rhys," the tone of Edissa's voice quickly changed as her eyes became dead there and then, "Can you do to this one what you did to Muran?"

"That will lead to a lot of problems."

"Well, you two just talk for now," Prince Dubhai then clapped her hands before turning around and leaving, "I'll come back once a few of my fur fall down with some tools and questions. Oh, yes — I'll leave this too."

Prince Dubhai then rolled some sort of ball through the metal bars before letting out an almost childish and exciting giggle.

"I look forward to seeing what happens next. Ooh… this should be exciting."

"Why are you so relaxed!?" Edissa, however, did not find it so amusing as she just slapped the ball away with her paw before pointing at Rhys, "I have only known you for a short amount of time, but this is very out of character for you — you are a warrior, ruthless. Why did you not intimidate that scrawny cub!?"

"He thinks I am simple, let him think that," Rhys let out a small but very deep sigh as he sat up, "The more he thinks that, the better we can finesse our way out of this—can you smell that?"

And before Rhys could finish his words, he slightly covered his ears as he caught a whiff of something — and it wasn't the other humans who were being captive there.

"It smells…" Rhys's eyebrows began to furrow, "...nice and comfortable."

"No…" Edissa, however, did not seem to share his sentiment as she dropped to the floor and started wheezing, almost as if it was too heavy to breathe. She then quickly turned to look at the ball she kicked away, only to see fumes emitting out of it, "...That… that is satyr weed."

"Satyr weed?" Rhys squinted his eyes as he looked at the smoke very slowly starting to fill up their cell, "Some sort of relaxant?"

"N…no…" Edissa started shaking her head vehemently countless of times as her fur and tail began to stand up, "We… well, they… they use it whenever it is time to mate. It's…

…an aphrodisiac."