Dragon King's Harem Chapter 383. Crossroads
Viperax's PoV
Viperax's eyes widened, and he felt a surge of anger rise within him.
'What is he talking about?'
He hadn't sent any monsters into Argod's camp—except for the Shadowglide Lizards, and those were just spies, not attackers. The lizards were harmless creatures with no ability to wreck the kind of destruction Argod was describing.
Viperax had barely managed to keep his own men alive through the chaos. His camp had been overrun by monsters, his soldiers scattered, and his own survival was a near-miracle. Yet here was Argod, standing in his battle-worn camp, accusing him of orchestrating an attack.
Viperax's confusion only deepened as the image shifted, showing the dragon tribe's camp in greater detail. Tired and wounded soldiers huddled together, some bandaging each other's injuries, others lying on makeshift cots. There were the corpses of slain monsters strewn across the ground, their bodies charred and mangled. The outer perimeter of the camp was in disarray, as if it had been penetrated by a swarm of attackers. The ground was scorched and everything had the air of a place that had just been through hell.
The crystal shifted again, returning to Argod's face, now clearer than before. Viperax noticed the dirt smudged across Argod's cheek, the slight tear in his shirt, and the disheveled state of his hair. It was clear that Argod had been in the thick of the battle himself. There was no pretense in his appearance; he looked genuinely exhausted, worn from the fight.
"You want to kill my patients, my wounded? To hide your crime? So you don't have to face the consequences of what you had done to them?" Argod's voice rang out again. "You think those pathetic monsters will weaken us? You think that makes you smart, Viperax? No, it just makes you a coward—a pathetic, desperate coward!"
Viperax's fists clenched tighter around the crystal, his knuckles turning white with rage. 'Coward.' That word echoed through his mind like a taunt, mocking him. How dare Argod accuse him of something so dishonorable? Viperax's entire body tensed as his anger flared.
He hadn't sent any monsters to attack Argod's camp. 'This isn't my doing!' he wanted to shout, but the words lodged in his throat.
His men were watching, their eyes flickering with uncertainty as they observed their king's reaction to the accusations being thrown at him.
Argod's accusation didn't make sense.
The idea that he would have the resources—or the audacity—to send an assault team to Argod's camp at the same time was laughable. But here was Argod, painting him as the villain in this story.
'He's twisting this against me,' Viperax thought bitterly, gripping the crystal so tightly his knuckles turned white. 'He wants to make me look weak, like a coward who hides behind tricks and ambushes.'
"Damn you, Argod," Viperax muttered under his breath.
His jaw clenched so hard he could feel the tension in his neck. But behind that fury, there was something else—a flicker of confusion, of doubt.
'But what if it was true?' Could Argod's camp really have been attacked at the same time as his? If this was all an elaborate deception, Argod was playing the role of the injured victim too well.
He was also confused by it. 'If this was a coincidence, it definitely wasn't just luck.' It was too perfectly timed, too orchestrated. Either Argod had staged the whole thing to make Viperax doubt his own position, or… or maybe something else was at play.
If he wanted to think selfishly, he could just throw all the blame on Argod. That would be the easiest path—accuse Argod of everything, paint him as the instigator. But Viperax was no fool. As a king, he knew he couldn't afford to think only of his pride. There was more to this attack than just Argod's usual posturing.
'What if this wasn't Argod?' The thought crept into his mind, uninvited but persistent. What if there was another tribe or force at work here, trying to push the two great tribes into conflict? What if someone else was trying their luck, hoping to set them against each other while they reaped the benefits of the chaos?
Viperax's mind raced through the possibilities. He hated Argod, hated everything the dragon king stood for. If he could, he'd burn his entire tribe to the ground. But as much as he despised his rival, Viperax had to admit—there was no clear advantage for Argod in staging this kind of fake attack. Argod knew full well that Viperax would have jumped at the chance to accuse him of any wrongdoing or literary anything. Why would Argod hand him the ammunition? Unless…
'Unless he didn't.'
His eyes bore into the fading image of Argod once again. "You're lucky," Argod's voice continued, his tone sharp and biting. "Lucky because I didn't find any clues. Not yet." His eyes glinted, the threat clear in his words. "But once I get the proof, once I find out who's responsible for this…" Argod's voice rose, his fury growing with every word. "I will make you pay for everything."
The image flickered, Argod's face frozen in that expression of barely-contained rage before the projection dimmed and finally blinked out of existence. The crystal glow faded and it shattered into Mana pieces.
Viperax was silent for a moment. His wives waited for his next move, their eyes locked on him, waiting for their husband to decide the next course of action. But Viperax was at a crossroads.
He wanted to roar in defiance, to reject Argod's accusations outright and march straight to the dragon tribe's capital to challenge him. But that would be playing into Argod's hands, exactly what the dragon king wanted. Instead, Viperax felt a cold, calculating anger settle in his chest.
'I have to think clearly,' he thought. 'But this isn't over. Not by a long shot…'
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