SCT-Novel Chapter 265: The Eagles’ Nest (1)
Chapter 265: The Eagles’ Nest (1)
They had expected the Sky Tribe to track down Cyrus’ whereabouts, but what they didn’t know was that Luan was the one who tracked down their whereabouts first.
Exactly two nights after Luan met Jarva in the forest, the tiger beastman finally appeared at the Vixeria Settlement.
Zeir, who was standing guard near the gate, narrowed his eyes the moment he saw him approaching. His cold gaze alone was enough to make the atmosphere tense.
"What are you doing here?" Zeir asked coldly. "I don’t remember my Leader giving you permission to come to our tribe whenever you want. Go home."
Jarva’s eye twitched in annoyance. "Like I even want to come here," he muttered. "I’m only here because I have information for Luan."
Zeir frowned slightly. "What kind of information?"
Instead of answering right away, Jarva crossed his arms and said, "You’re not the one who gave me the mission, so I’ll only tell Luan."
The more Jarva spoke, the more Zeir wanted to throw him out of the settlement.
More importantly, Zeir didn’t even know Luan had given Jarva a mission in the first place. As far as they knew, Luan had only spent the night in the forest a few days ago to gather poisonous plants.
"Wait here," Zeir ordered. He turned toward one of the warriors nearby. "Bring Luan here."
The warrior quickly nodded before leaving at once. Only a few minutes later, Luan arrived at the gate together with Roxanna, who seemed to have been taking a peaceful night walk with him earlier.
"Oh, the tiger!" Roxanna blurted out the moment she saw Jarva.
Their conflict had already been settled a long time ago, and Jarva had even given her the Black Fang Token as proof of peace between them. Still, she definitely didn’t remember allowing him to casually walk into their tribe whenever he pleased.
"What are you doing here?!" Roxanna asked firmly as she wrapped both arms around Luan’s arm possessively. "Did you come here because you want to kill my husbands in their sleep again?"
After all, the token he had given her would be useless if Jarva himself wanted to attack her.
"Hey! Do I seriously look like some kind of walking murderer?!" Jarva shouted back in frustration.
He was already tired of everyone treating him like a criminal every time he showed up. Unfortunately for him, instead of looking convinced, everyone only stared at him with even more suspicion.
"No!" Jarva said again loudly, almost sounding wronged. "I didn’t come here to kill anyone or make trouble!"
Then he immediately turned toward Luan. "Hey, say something, you cat!"
"What?" Luan slowly lifted his chin and looked at him sharply. Under the pale moonlight, his emerald eyes almost seemed to glow. "What did you just call me?"
He didn’t speak in a loud or harsh tone, but his gaze alone already sent shivers down Jarva’s spine.
"N-Nothing!" Jarva quickly corrected himself. "I’m sorry! Please forgive this loose mouth of mine!"
[Actually, why is he always so afraid of Luan?] Roxanna thought softly. [Is it because Luan killed his brother? But usually people would hold grudges instead of acting terrified.]
"Did you get what I asked for?" Luan’s voice pulled Roxanna out of her thoughts, making her focus on Jarva again. "I honestly thought you would run away."
"R-Run away?" Jarva laughed awkwardly while rubbing his hands together nervously. "How could I possibly dare to run away from you?"
Then his expression slowly became serious. "And yes," he continued, "I found the information you wanted."
Luan straightened his back and asked, "Say it."
Jarva took a step forward as if he wanted to enter the settlement, but Zeir immediately raised his axe and blocked the path with the wooden handle.
"Say it here," he spoke coldly.
The tiger beastman clicked his tongue softly, but he didn’t dare to protest too much. "The Sky Tribe has become nomads now because their old tribe was destroyed by demon beasts from the rocky mountains."
He added, "Because of that, they’ve been wandering from place to place for almost a year now. But lately, I noticed something strange. They keep going in and out of... the Sky Tribe’s settlement."
Roxanna and the others fell silent for a moment because what Jarva said didn’t make much sense at first. But a few seconds later, Roxanna suddenly realized something.
"Ah! Carla and Harlan’s tribe is also called the Sky Tribe!" she shouted.
To be honest, she still didn’t fully understand why two different tribes shared the same name, but since "Sky" wasn’t exactly a rare word, maybe it was normal for multiple tribes to use it.
Still... the whole thing felt suspicious.
"What are they doing there?" Luan asked calmly. "Are they allies?"
Jarva scratched the back of his neck. "I’m not completely sure, but from what I know, one of the bird-version Sky Tribe members married a female from the land-version Sky Tribe."
Roxanna gasped softly. "Could it be that the bird-version Sky Tribe did that so they could slowly take over another tribe?"
The more she thought about it, the more it actually made sense. Still, Roxanna honestly hadn’t expected political marriages to already exist in such a primitive world.
"Like I said, I’m not completely sure," Jarva admitted. "But these days, I mostly see eagle beastkins going in and out of that settlement."
Zeir suddenly narrowed his eyes. "You didn’t try sneaking inside?"
"Have you lost your mind?!" Jarva shouted immediately, but the moment his eyes met Luan’s cold stare, his entire attitude changed.
"A-Ahem... what I mean is..." Jarva quickly corrected himself. "I wouldn’t dare disturb an eagle’s nest. As fellow predators, it would be stupid to provoke another predator."
Roxanna stared at him with a blank expression. [What predator? He’s scared of a little cat.]
Beside her, Luan frowned slightly because he definitely wasn’t just a little cat.
"Yeah, you’d probably get ripped apart if you tried entering their territory," Luan said calmly.
He fell silent for a few moments, organizing the information in his head before speaking again. "Based on the eagle-version Sky Tribe’s behavior, I doubt they took over that settlement peacefully."