1766 Who Is More Domineering
The sight of the Toad having just one webbed foot among its two front legs took Grey by surprise. The second he noticed this, his curiosity made him look at the two hindlegs of the Toad. Since it had only one webbed foot in its forelimbs, he was curious how the other two were. His expression mixed between a baffled and amused one for a second before he hastily hid it. Both the Toad's hindlegs lacked webbing. An aquatic Toad one normally has four webbed feet, but to Grey's shock, this one had only one, and the rest didn't. At first, he almost thought it was born with a deformity.
"Look what those filthy humans did to this King, and you expect me to offer any help to them?" The Toad asked coldly, its gaze locking onto Grey and the old man from the Vaergahl Family's body. It was as if it wanted to swallow the duo whole.
Sir Astarot was already aware of this as this wasn't the first time dealing with this Toad.
"I'm not telling you to stop hating humans. All I want is peace in the Inner Court. What I can say for sure is that, although humans are vile, none of them dares to carelessly barge into the Inner Court. Those things are different. Since they dared to invade this world, they won't be satisfied with just the human territories." Sir Astarot explained.
"Astarot, there's no room for discussion here. Leave the human boy behind and go." The Toad Clan Leader said with an indifferent expression. No matter what Astarot says to it today, it didn't care. Not just that, it wanted Grey to stay behind, as compensation for wasting his time.
"What do you want with the boy?" The Toad Leader repeatedly telling it to leave Grey behind piqued its interest, so he dropped the thought of persuading the Toad for now.
"Don't tell me you haven't sensed it too." The Toad didn't hide its intentions as it explained, "You know how valuable the body of such a human is to us. I know for a fact that in your tears of existence, you've never seen a human with such a powerful physique."
Sir Astarot took a glance at Grey. The first thing it sensed when it saw Grey was how shocking of a vitality he possessed. Magical Beasts are known for their powerful physique which gave rise to their insane vitality. The same could be said for Grey; with his shocking physique, the amount of vitality he possessed is vastly superior to that of any human Elementalist; this is the reason why he has survived so many injuries, holding onto his life by just a thread in so many instances.
"Kid, I'm not going to mince my words. It'll be an honor for you if you allow this King to eat you." The Toad looked at Grey and said, as if offering him the greatest opportunity in his life.
Grey looked at the Toad, speechless. He couldn't believe that the Toad said such words with a straight face. His eyes twitched, but he still replied casually, "Thank you for the opportunity, but I'm not interested in being anyone's food anytime soon."
"Kid, I feel you're misunderstanding me here. You don't have any say in this matter." The Toad said matter-of-factly, it didn't even see Grey as a living being any longer, rather, it felt he was its meal.
Heading the Toad's words, Grey's expression turned dark. He didn't expect the Toad to speak to him in such a manner.
"Hehe, don't worry about it kid, with me here, there's nothing that stupid frog can do to you." Sir Astarot laughed when it saw Grey's expression. It clearly knew that the words of the Toad somewhat scared him.
Grey's expression turned back to normal as he chose to ignore the words of the Toad. He was a bit upset, but he didn't think too much about it. There's no point speaking back to the Toad since it was superior to him in terms of strength.
The Toad looked at Sir Astarot coldly before saying, "Are you willing to offend me for a petty human?"
Sir Astarot chuckled and said, "I'm not willing to offend you in any way."
Heading Sir Astarot's words, even the old man from the Vaergahl Family looked at him with an odd expression.
"Nevertheless, the next time you dare threaten me, consider your stay in the Inner Court over." Sir Astarot spoke in a calm and casual manner.
The Toad's expression changed greatly when it heard this. It might be domineering, but against a clan as powerful as the Dragons, it didn't dare to act too out of line.
"Then the kid?" The Toad asked, staring in Grey's direction. Not interested in giving up on him.
"The kid is out of the question. If he didn't come with me, you would've been free to do as you please, but he's under my care." Sir Astarot didn't have any plans of giving Grey to the Toad.
The Toad's eyes flashed, it stared at Grey with eyes shining with greed, yet it couldn't take him for itself.
"Kid, you can keep your life for now." It said before refocusing its gaze on Sir Astarot, a light flashed across its eyes as it proposed, "What about you leave the kid with me, and I'll agree to your request of aiding the humans."
Sir Astarot was taken aback when it heard this, not expecting the Toad to make such an offer. The Toads would be a massive addition to their group if they could be added. But sacrificing Grey isn't something it could do. Grey's father is supposed to be the one who came with him for these meetings; if Lucas was the one here, there's a good chance that even if the Toad showed its hostility, it wouldn't attack him.
With Sir Astarot falling into silence, everyone turned to look at him, clearly waiting for his decision, Grey included whose future seemed to be in Sir Astarot's hands.