Capítulo 72: History of the Minths

Had it been a casual walk through an aesthetic cave like this one, Yuuta and the others would've enjoyed the whole event. The Minths just had to surround and guide them to their somewhat inevitable deaths, however, so that's not always fun.

"Go ahead, convince me," Yuuta simply responded to the talking Black Grsrzy Scarf in his pockets. Up until now, he still had no idea how Aarkra could talk to him in a loud gruff voice without anyone hearing him. Was it because he was connected to the Black Grsryzy Scarf in a way? That was the only plausible conclusion.

Yuuta could've sworn that Aarkra cleared his throat before starting his story but he didn't point that out. As the Minths led his group deeper into the cave and nearer to their supreme leader blah blah, Yuuta started formulating a plan that would hopefully help them get out of the situation unscathed. He already has a plan in mind but it still required a few more tweaks here and there.

"Long ago, in a desolate planet that orbits a binary star, a race of supreme beings peacefully lived. Since the pull of the binary star is great, the planet does a full revolution of 746 years, that's how great of a distance it travels around the binary star."

"The planet had always been scarce in natural resources as well as flora and fauna. that's because a full revolution of the planet takes it on a journey through space, giving it the most unpredictable weather pattern and resulting in a destroyed planet. And that was not the worst of it, the residents of the place began eating each other because of how bad the food shortage was."

"Fast forward to a few decades later, the King of the entire planet was replaced and this King made it his goal to make the residents proliferate in other planets. Because of that, he sent scouts to all planets, hoping that they would be welcomed."

"Hold on a second here," Yuuta interrupted just when Aarkra was moving forward with the story. "Resident this and resident that, just say that the planet you're talking about is your planet and the residents are the Minths. That way I don't have to ask more questions later on."

"I sincerely apologize, this is my first time telling someone about our world history so... ehrmm, I'll continue then," Aarkra responded. This time, it was clear that he cleared his throat. "Where am I? Oh, the scouts. So, the proliferation started and we were sent to the planets that we'd pass through. I don't know how you humans do it but as for us, we just fly to the next planet over. We don't get affected by anything physical after all."

"I was a leader of a scout team that was sent here on Lucid. We arrived at a forest that was covered in ice, or something like that. When we got here, we met a group of people calling themselves "Rock" or "Stone" or something while they were on the way to the village in the middle of the Ice Forest. We gladly led them to it, only to find out that they were there to annihilate the entire village."

"For a moment, I wondered why these people are killing one village when they seem to be innocent people. And when they started killing the kids, I was furious. I attacked them without reprieve, only to find out that they can attack us with their mysterious powers. We were defeated, and I think they pinned the village annihilation on our race just so they would come out of it unscathed."

"I immediately reported this to our King, and he demanded an audience with the group that killed the village. I don't know why our King wanted to meet genocidal humans but I didn't ask questions. I'm only the head of the scout so it wasn't in my position to ask questions. However, I did have some suspicions as to why our King wanted an audience."

"Turns out, I was right. Long story short, our King allied with this group to kill off a few tribes here and there in exchange for land. We help them annihilate other humans, and the land where the annihilated humans live would be ours. Simple as that."

"For me, that was the last straw, I immediately throw hands at the King in disagreement. Needless to say, I lost, and he decided to hunt me down using the very same group that he had allied with."

The explanation didn't even last five minutes and Yuuta finally connected the dots. If what Aarkra said was true, then that means that he was framed by their own King and hunted down by the 'genocidal humans' or so that's what he narrated. Somewhat, the alibi for Yua's kidnapping made sense as well.

'Aarkra was probably backed into a corner with no choice but to talk to the only survivor of the destroyed village. And since he didn't know any better, he resorted to kidnapping in hopes that he could convince Yua to side with him... mmm, something doesn't add up.' Yuuta said to himself as he stare at his pockets.

Before he could talk to Aarkra again, however, he felt a light nudge at the side of his stomach. "Yuuta, are you okay? You've been talking to yourself for a while now. Don't tell me— are you nervous?" Miki

Shaking his head, Yuuta focused on Aarkra once more, confident that Miki and the others couldn't really hear their conversation. "Aarkra, if what you said is true, then why go through all the lengths of kidnapping Yua and putting chains on her?"

Aarkra sighed, then answered. "Our king said that the best way to prevent someone from escaping is to chain them down. Besides, it wasn't even that tight. And the reason why I had to lead Yua or her mom to the Revalia forest to kidnap them was... well, the city is filled with these disgusting, genocidal humans. I wouldn't want to breathe the same air as them."

"You know what, maybe start from that. Before you kidnap anyone, tell them what your purpose is first, that way they'll understand. I don't encourage kidnapping though. Just talking to them is enough. Didn't you think about that? That's the pacifist way of doing things, I thought you're a pacifist?"

"Desperate times, you know, they call for desperate measures." Aarkra heaved yet another sigh, which was so deep that Yuuta wondered if Aarkra was wallowing in self-pity inside the Black Grsrzy Scarf.

"Then the rest is pretty much history, I defeated you, the Sacred Stones members decided to trap you in their Holy Seal, and then you were sucked into the Black Grsrzy Scarf. I'm sorry about that, but I still don't fully trust you yet... I mean, I know you're not lying, but what if you're withholding more information?"

"Well, I wish you the best of luck. Hopefully, our King wouldn't find me in this Black Grsrzy Scarf of yours. It'd be better if I stay trap in here forever rather than be tortured to death to hell and back. And... if you ever change your mind, just sign a contract with me. I know that this is asking for too much but the contract is not all that fancy, you make me your summoned being or summoned pet or whatever, and borrow my powers in combat. I'll be under you forever and there's no way I could break the contract without dying. I was about to offer this to that young faery back then, but you defeated me before I could explain anything. Besides, it's not like you could understand our language before... what happe— wait, that young faery I kidnapped... speak of the devil, she's here with you, isn't she?"

"I'm impressed you only realized right now." Yuuta teased,

"Excuse you, it's hard to take a look around while trapped in this piece of cloth, you know," Aarkra said, but he wasn't that offended by it. "In any case, consider yourself warned, you're going to die soon, along with everyone in your team. I just wanna say, you seem like a promising young human, I hope you don't die in vain."

"Spoken like a true Evil Spirit." Yuuta voiced out once again as he tried to get in Aarkra's nerve. Doing so somewhat took his mind off of the current situation.

But when Aarkra responded with his rebuttal, Yuuta's expression changed as he sensed some sort of presence nearby. The presence was so familiar that he didn't consider it a coincidence. "Humans? What are they doing here? Isn't this the Minths' lair? Or, are they part of the genocidal humans Aarkra was talking about?" Yuuta asked himself as he tried to separate from the group, hoping that he could at least catch a glimpse of the all-too-familiar presence.

"I wouldn't go there if I were you," Abhr voiced out. "Hurry along, we're almost in the presence of our Leader."