Lust-Eating Grimoire - The Witch Queen's Heir is a Man!

Chapter 89: The 4 Heavenly Kings!

The world often gave us some things and took away some others. One thing it took away was the peace and quiet the Grim Palace used to have...

Not.

By all means, really. Everything was still the same somewhere minus the town-hall type function we had started to provide every other day. People from the city would tumble and fall to the doors of the Grim Palace, generally it was the Garden Gnome himself.

"Miss Witch! Some people are protesting against living with the Ents!"

"Beat them up."

"Miss Witch! That one Ent keeps trying to get Ents to abandon the city."

"Beat him up."

"Miss Witch! There has been a theft in the city!"

"Butler, I’ll beat you up!"

"Sorry~~"

Bring problems, ask for justice, receive solutions. What a pipeline! The ultimate form of problem solving indeed, just beat people up.

What the crisis gave to us, in the Grim Palace, in return for this crazy loop of getting complains and solving them, was passion.

Weiss was irked beyond belief by the weapon we had seen. And so, she became completely engrossed in researching it. Every time she was deeply engrossed in her work, the responsibility of the Palace and the City behind shifted to me.

It was one such case, when I had just brewed some coffee for our new in-house guests and myself when Gnome, Soren, Entek1, and a bearded old man came tumbling and wumbling to the gates of the Grim Palace.

"T-Trouble! Mister Phantom! There is trouble, we are being attacked."

"You must call Miss Weiss!"

"Hey, hey," sipping my coffee, I asked them to calm down a little. "She’s busy right now, I can’t call the Witch Queen every time you guys have an issue."

"..."

The big rock golem was walking by. It saw the Garden Gnome and decided to stop by and say hi as well. The new bearded man was stunned to see him.

Nea took a cup from the table and watched us, while Keith stood in the back.

"What kind of attack?"

"It’s a really big problem!" Soren said.

"Enteki! I-I know what it is!"

I pointed at the tree.

"T-the Four Heavenly Kings!" Enteki announced as if everyone should know. Keith and Nea on this side of the conversations (there were always 2 sides to a conversation, the side of the winners and that of the losers. People like me, who were really amazing, were always on this side) moved a little with surprise.

"That sounds like someone strong."

"Four Heavenly Kings...?"

"That’s right!" Enteki said. "The forest’s rulers. You guys killed one of them, but that was just the weakest of the five."

"Wait wait wait."

"Perhaps he realized that the Gryphon is gone, and that is why it is attacking us here! The 2nd of the 4 Heavenly Kings, Island Turtle!"

"I said wait, you definitely said five."

"That’s right."

"Am I the only one seeing an issue here?"

"N-no... there are actually 5 heavenly kings in the forest. But it doesn’t sound very cool as a group name, five heavenly kings, its one too many. We call them collectively the 4 Heavenly Kings."

It had been a while since I pulled out a lighter and wanted to burn a book. This time, why not burn a tree itself?

Keith held me before I could resort to violence (the one solution Weiss would have 100% endorsed).

Enteki and Soren continued.

"There are 100s of little turtles that have infested the city. They are crawling all over the place. They look like tiny turtles—"

I sighed.

"Your big problem is turtles?"

"T-that’s right... If you see the state of the city you will understand."

I looked back. There was no need to break Weiss’ study for this. She was finally just doing things for herself after being around and helping this city settle in.

Plus, didn’t Adam and Arlene leave us with firepower precisely so we could use it?

"Should we go and check this?" Nea asked, as if reading my mind. "A-xe-l."

Keith bit his lips.

I bit my lips as well.

"Y-y-yeah... I think it would be good."

"I’ll come along too—"

"No, Keith, you stay here," said Nea. "Miss Witch might need her butler, someone needs to step in."

"Little Delka will handle that stuff."

"You people say that but you don’t ask anything out of that kid, just let Keith be here. Right?"

"Y-yes Vice Captain," said Keith.

Not a single one in this room wasn’t a man. And so, they felt it as much as I did.

The wrath and hatred of a woman.

The Gnome, Enteki, Soren, and the beard guy all looked at us and shuddered.

They may be calling a big problem to solve a problem.

***

Alright.

"I think I owe you an apology," I said to the mayor, ex-lord, and tree-man of the city in our backyard.

Every last inch of every single road in the entire settlement of Serenia was filled with tiny turtles. Turtles everywhere, wherever we looked. Completely within the city’s borders so far. They lined up on the paths and roads, the ones built well and the ones still weak.

No person was able to step out. The ground had become turtle.

If that was all, it would have been okay. But the turtles were even crazier. They had climbed the Ents and were eating their leaves directly!

"E-Enteki! What barbarianism!"

"Oh my..." Nea muttered, her eyes widened. "I could hack them away, but just how much? And without hurting the city? That’s not possible."

It was an infestation, much like how termites would get into a house. The only way to get rid of them was to use that very magic bomb the prince had made, but we couldn’t do that. With termites one could throw away the furniture, what to do with the city?

"They don’t seem to be coming here to where we are."

"Their eyes are targeted, Enteki... It’s the way the Island Turtle takes over land in the forest. By sending his children everywhere... We are helpless."

"Is it...?"

There was a way.

"Can one of you boil some water."

I knew the perfect deterrant.

"The Empire doesn’t have enough beaches for Turtles to grow. No worries..."

I’ll show them.