"Everyone?"
"Yes everyone, quite a few guest have arrived, the lord holds these type of events all the time, he doesn't believe a person shouldn't share their wealth, so whenever he throws a feast he throws it for the entire city and quite a few people who are of a certain stature would normally come to see what it is"
Azreal thought it was going to be just a small gathering but of course, it had to turn into something else.
Following the guides leads Azreal stared thinking about the bone armor, because he was reading the book on Dante it slipped his mind to look for the information on it, he'd have to try and do it tonight.
It didn't take very long before he was brought to a balcony, where he saw dozens of warbeast laughing and drinking, all of them were dressed in a similar style but some were in even more vibrant colors.
When Azreal entered no one paid much attention to him, for a second but once they took a second glance at the clear black scales a few of the older warbeasts started staring at him, others noticed this and also turned to look, not so much at him but the black scales that seemly covered his entire body.
The majority of younger Warbeasts only looked over out of curiosity but didn't really pay much attention to Azreal's scales but rather his unfamiliar face.
The more observant ones of the bunch tried him entirely trying to figure out what their elder was looking at since someone just walking in wouldn't garner their attention.
"They've never seen you before and you're coming from the lords home they're bound to stair" his guide whispered.
Azreal knew it was only half true, he remembered what Nawai and Eru had said about the different colored scales and he could feel their gaze on his scales.
Taking a deep breath Azreal wanted to find Eru and Nawai—familiar faces— to ease his slight discomfort.
Feeling a slight tug on his shirt Azreal looked at his guide who subtly pointed towards the area where Eru and the lion were talking.
Just as Azreal got to where they were Eru smiled and patted his shoulder and then merged into the crowd.
With a smile on his face, the lion signaled Azreal to come join him.
As he got closer to him the noise in the surrounding area seems to diminish until it was barely audible, despite being puzzled Azreal didn't slow down or show it, only raising his guard while subtly observing surroundings.
None of this escaped the eyes of the lion but he took no offense.
As soon as Azreal took a seat the lion started speaking.
"How did you cultivate your strength?" He asked with genuine curiosity.
Azreal didn't immediately answer, looking back to what Kakar....to what Kakar said, him saying he used energy would only make the lion want to dig deeper to find out how such a young warbeast was able to cultivate energy and he didn't think it would be hard to figure out his origins, Azreal didn't know how he just felt like it wouldn't be hard.
"Bad luck," Azreal said simply, he didn't want to lie but couldn't tell the whole truth and since the majority of what led him to achieve his current strength was just a series of unfortunate events [1] bad luck technically wasn't a lie in any way.
The lion had to pause for a moment he didn't let any emotion show on his face—expect his resting happy face— but he was surprised.
Azreal was the first "stray" he'd seen in a long while and none of them that he'd met or even heard of had the strength of a Beast King at such a young age.
Sure those less desirable who was brought up by the clan had strength equal to Azreal's at the same age or slightly younger but they were brought up with the strength of a mighty race, they didn't face many struggles until they were strong enough.
Azreal, on the other hand, did this by his lonesome, yes by our stand he's only okay based on strength alone but add in the fact that he achieved his okay strength on his own makes him an unpolished diamond.
"In the nation, there is a tradition of awarding the young who've broken through to beast kings, normally this is handled by the king's court but since the award ceremony is already gone and you've made it past the first level, ask and if I can I'll give it"
It's never a bad thing to help to build up the young while you are still strong.
Azreal retreated into his thoughts for a moment, they were quite a few things he could ask for but common sense told him he wouldn't get them all.
Ask him to help me get back Nala? No that's something that has to be done with his strength.
The empyrean wolf king? Still no since even if he found him there was no guarantee he'd help him and he doubted the dragons would force him.
The bone armor?.... he could try, since I'm their eyes he grew up in the 'wild' it's understandable if he didn't understand some of their customs so at most *lion man* would only reprimand him if he wasn't willing.
Hmmm, but he couldn't ask here, too many ears.
Watching Azreal fall back into his thoughts lion man waited patiently, for a moment he saw Azreal's eyes light up slightly but then he looked around and it dimmed again.
"None of them can hear you"
Taking a deep breath Azreal pauses to organize his words.
"Before I met up with Eru and Nawai, I found a tomb that had a form of cultivation on it.....it used the bones of a strong Warbeast to create a set of that would place the body under constant pressure forcing it to constantly be moving forward....."
When Azreal spoke he didn't hide the uncertainty in his tone, capitalizing on the ignorance that would come with not being raised with dragons.
The lion didn't take very long to reply.
"Mhmm, there should be some books about it in the library, what of it?"
Getting this response Azreal couldn't help but pause, he answered the question that easily? It had to be some kind of trick.
Seemly reading his mind the lion spoke again.
"It is something that is considered taboo by all dragons, but just like you I wasn't raised by dragons"
Hearing that something occurred to Azreal something he should've thought of from the first time meeting him.
He wasn't raised by dragons meaning he should've, Nawai and Eru said the breeding habits of dragons change so does that mean the lion is a kind of half breed?