CHAPTER 266: 266: VISITOR OR ENEMY?

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"You are awake." Her voice was quiet, but her smile blazed like the sunrise.

Kai rubbed his face. "I think I just had a nightmare where a frog tried to lick me with a nasty tongue."

Naaro nodded jokingly. "That was real."

He groaned. "I hate my life."

Sha’s voice echoed from the side. "No you do not. You just hate frogs just like us."

Kai looked around. The others were already up. Sha was brushing her blade near a rock. Vel had a map spread out beside a stew pot. Azhara was standing upside down on her hands, for some reason, mumbling chants that might have been either meditation or a breakfast song.

In truth she was lusting over Kai, she got a weird thing that if she saw Kai upside down then it would make Kai directly look into her lower lips, and Kai’s Anaconda might get hungry. She thinks, "Sir Kai. See me... watch my rabbit hole and get hungry and fill my insides with your big thick anaconda."

Akayoroi was tending to the eggs with practiced focus. The twins were helping her. Four wounded sisters were now better than before.

"Is it morning already?" Kai asked.

"Yes," Vel replied. "You slept for fourteen hours and growled in your sleep."

"I dreamed I was drowning in frog spit."

"Still better than your last dream," Azhara said, flipping back onto her feet. "You kicked me in the jaw last night. I wanted to give you a massage but your instinct..."

Kai stretched slowly. "You must have tried to do something perverted. My predator instinct is off the chart. Don’t try that again. I don’t wanna hurt my people."

She mumbles, "I just wanted to give you a hand job. But you..."

He didn’t focus on Azhara mumbles. "Status report?" Kai asked the system. But he said it out loud.

Akayoroi approached. "Your aura has recovered one third. Body repairs are complete. No signs of infection or internal backlash."

He blinked. "How do you know that?"

"We checked your organs."

"...You what?"

She walked past him. "Nothing inappropriate. Just efficiency. But Azhara got kicked by you when she tried to touch your anaconda."

Kai tried to process that while buttoning the upper half of his armor. "All these girls are horny as hell. I must keep my guard up. I can’t let them do whatever they want." These were his thoughts.

Naaro offered him water. He drank half the skin and nearly choked. "This tastes like spicy clouds."

"It is mountain springwater with crushed hot mint root," Naaro said. "It helps with recovery."

"It helps my throat melt," Kai muttered.

Azhara plopped down beside him. "Breakfast is moss meat jerky and warm leaf buns. You can thank Vel. But if your tongue turns green, that might be a problem while kissing."

Kai took the offered food and bit into it. It was chewy. Bitter. Slightly sour. And it tasted like victory. "I will eat anything that is not a toad," he mumbled through a mouthful.

Kai pulled out his soul storage cube. "GO BURN ALL THESE FROG’S. I WON’T EAT THESE NASTY THINGS. I don’t need that shit smelling essence liquid."

A few moments later...

Sha sat down across from him and passed a sharpened stick. "We already burned all the frog leftovers. The only thing left is the smell."

Kai sniffed the air. "...Yeah. That smell is definitely suffocating. I got beautiful girls to cover that smell. I will just smell you all."

"Nope," Vel said, standing up. "It is not enough. Can give us a kis..."

Suddenly, something interrupted her, "What is that? Let’s go and check."

She looked toward the forest edge, her eyes narrowing. Kai followed her gaze. Something was coming.

A breeze rolled in from the north, stirring the grass and curling the mist like a curtain being pulled back. And with it came a scent.

Not the girl perfume. Not frogs. Not a beast. Not a bird. But something familiar.

Akayoroi stepped closer to the cliff’s edge. Her antennae tilted. "Something approaches," she said. "Not hostile... yet."

The group rose to their feet in quiet readiness. Even Azhara’s playful expression sharpened.

From the mist, a shape emerged. A silhouette at first, long and slim, with a hood over its head and a satchel across its chest.

A single figure. They walked toward the ledge with slow, cautious steps. No blade drawn. No aura flaring.

Kai stood, spear now in hand, but not yet raised.

The stranger paused at the edge of the ridge and slowly lowered their hood. It was a frog.

But not one of the marsh generals.

This one was smaller. Sleeker. With dark red skin marked with silver lines. A crooked scar ran over the top of his left eye. His gaze met Kai’s with an exhausted calm.

Vel blinked. "I know that one. It’s called Troog."

Kai frowned. "...You are... Trogg?"

The frog bowed slightly. "Correct. Trogg, the former Tactician of Swamp Intelligence."

Sha raised her sword slightly. "Former? You mean you quit in mid battle?"

"I fled," Trogg said. "Because I knew what Blor’Ghul was planning. And I also knew you would win."

Kai narrowed his eyes. "You betrayed your own people?"

Trogg gave a sad smile. "I served my people. Not the generals who wanted to drown the world in slime and licking rituals. I saw what you did. I saw the crater you left in our leader’s face."

Azhara whispered. "He really did slam that toad into the next life."

Kai lowered his spear, but only slightly. "Why are you here? What do you want?"

Trogg lifted the satchel. "I brought something. And a message." He knelt slowly and placed the satchel on the ground, then stepped back.

Akayoroi moved forward and opened it. Inside were scrolls. Several sealed scrolls. And three glowing toadstones.

Vel gasped. "These are command stones."

Trogg nodded. "They belonged to the frog high elders. They kept these to maintain control over certain tribes. I stole them before fleeing."

Sha crossed her arms. "Why give them to us?"