There was a reasonable silence after Rahabat finished his story. I was rubbing my little paw thinking about him from my vines-made throne. Then I said finally,
"Were you blunt with your story, so that I find it reasonable when you betray me?"
"I have no intention to betray you, fine King."
"Leave."
The humanoid dragon looking shapeshifter turned his neck and casually left my palace.
He was in fact, a traitor. When I learnt he can transform into dragons I thought of making him into my close companion, but sigh. He himself admits that I cannot trust him.
"Mar Hast, call Kavest in." I announced, sitting still.
Mar Hast moved from the entrance and I saw nothing moving in, but I knew somehow, it was Wizard Kavest there, perhaps right in front of me, perhaps smirking. How I hated this man... And he is a human too, apparently, I am justified in hating him. Ah, but Rahabat's story.. I don't know what is justification anymore. Who gets to decide what the moral thing to do is?
"I am here by your command, your Majesty."
"What do you want to do with Rahabat?"
"He is a extremely powerful despite being a mere shapeshifter. I believe he would add much strength to us."
"Should we trust this traitor?"
"We need not trust him."
"So we just use him?"
"We benifit from his loyalty as long as he remains loyal."
Kavest made a sensible statement, which I thought, was plausible.
"Fine." I affirmed Rahabat's wish to server me. "Here's another command for you.
"You spoke of adventurers, did you not? Adventurers are humans, who hunt in dungeons... And Astagha, which is deemed to be among the most dangerous lair for humans, hardly anybody dared to challenge this forest. However, few years ago a certain individual managed his way in. In fact, he killed me. But he himself died in the process as well. Because of that event, the forest of Astagha was left without a guardian. In my absence the aura or whatever, I do not understand that concept clearly yet.. but it surely reduced significantly.
"...And because there was no signs of my horror for humans anymore, in this long span of time, now many Adventurers are willing to take the risk and check out the condition of this abyssmal dungeon, for they suspect that I, the guardian, have suffered in some way.
"Am I on the right track?"
"Entirely." Kavest answered. "There were around twenty raids in the past one year. None left alive thogh."
"Good work." I commended. "However, I am not done yet.
"Two years after my death, I was reborn in my Arcane. It almost feels like a monsters has two possible lives. First one as a monster, and the second one as its Arcane... Oh right, only a handful Arcanes are sentient apparently.
"Whatever, so ever since I regained my senses, I began emitting a certain aura. An aura that spreaded throughout the entire world, inviting every spirit present anywhere to come and strengthen the Forest of Astagha. Perhaps like Rahabat, some other monsters will also respond to this call along with spirits. But what I believe is, humans have definitely received my call as well.
"They fully understand that something new is happening in the Forest of Astagha. What action do you expect from them now?"
Wizard Kavest remained quite prompting me to answer the question myself.
"The old man you buried last day, he told me a story once. There a brave man learnt of a situation. That a man far away wants to burn down a house of a stranger. The brave man decided to stop the man and save the stranger. He set out of a journey for this, even though he did not know nor cared about any of the two. He simply wanted to righteous.
"I don't know how much sense this story made. Old man did not necessarily say the most meaningful stories, they were often abstract. In any case, the moral was that when you know that something evil is going to happen, you should eradicate it before it grows.
"Oh, and by evil I mean us. The humans, they will eradicate us before we succeed in whatever we are supposedly trying to do."
"Do you mean..." Kavest answered lowly.
"Yes, I believe, the humans are going to send their strongest, well if not strongest, still an extremely formidable force that they are confident with about clearing the dungeon."
Kavest replied a while later as though in doubt about my reasoning for a second. "Your wisdom is enlightening, your Majesty."
"Yes. Tomorrow, we will ready an army to fight against the strongest of humans. You are the strongest in Astagha after me, aren't you? I appoint you in charge of this whole affair. Good luck."
"I will try my best to not disappint you. Your Majesty." he replied, calmly.
I smiled.
This is what I learnt from Rahabat's story. Indeed, lasting peace is not achievable. In fact, I felt, that's too boring. What stories are people going to write if there was nothing called a war going on? If there's no sadness, how will people value happiness? Yet, I felt I should serve the greater good.
That is helping those who are in need of me. Those who trust in me that I will never betray them. Those who accept me as their, Guardian.