TSKD 195

The Beast Lord and the Blue Cat Tribe

Rigdis had already lost the will to fight. Likewise, Fran had done the same despite still being on guard. The reason for her sudden change in attitude was because Royce, one of the Beast Lord’s guards, had started healing Zefmate.

「Explain situation?」

「Your Majesty, did you perhaps forget to inform her as to the current circumstances?」

Roche immediately began questioning the Beast Lord’s actions, or rather, the likely lack thereof.

「Uhh….」

「Hah… Let me guess. You provoked her by acting in your usual cocky manner without actually telling her what had happened?」

「Hmph…」

「Do you have any injuries, young lady?」

「…None.」

「That’s good. So, exactly what kind of relationship do you have with Blue Pride?」

「Zefmate… Friends. Hate rest.」

「Ah, I understand now. As for you, Your Majesty…」

「I know, I get it already. My bad, alright?」

「So? Why wanted to kill Zefmate?」

「’Cause he tried to protect his buddies.」

「Hah… Allow me to explain.」

Roche gave us a detailed explanation of exactly what had happened.

Much to our surprise, Rigdis was against the enslavement of Black Catkin. In fact, he’d been going around freeing as many Black Catkin slaves as he happened across.

That precise action had caused an ideological rift to form between him and his father. The rift was so vast that he’d almost gotten disowned,so he ended up organising a coup d’etat, murdering his father, and claiming the throne with his own two hands.

It was an act that he’d always suspected he might need to perform, and to that end, he’d joined the Adventurer’s Guild, tempered his body, and secretly built up his connections. The only reason his coup had gone as smoothly as it did was because he’d managed to make every single last one of the Beast Kingdom’s A or higher ranked adventurers into his subordinates.

Upon his ascension to the throne, Rigdis had promptly purged all of the spies and slave merchants formerly connected to the royal family. He’d then gone out on a mission in order to find all slave merchants outside the bounds of his country so he could free every single last Black Catkin that remained in captivity.

「But fought Zefmate? Why?」

If that really were the case, then him fighting Zefmate didn’t really make sense. The two seemed like they’d get along from an ideological standpoint.

Or at least it did until one considered that Blue Pride was effectively Zefmate’s family. He couldn’t assent to allowing the Beast Lord to murder any of its members, even if they happened to betray his ideals. The Blue Leopardkin had ended up begging Rigdis to let Blue Pride’s members keep their lives so he could rehabilitate them and fix their ways.

As the Beast Lord was rather short tempered, he ended up flaring up in anger and engaging Zefmate in combat upon hearing what he could only interpret as an excuse. That was when Fran had thrown herself into the equation.

Hearing the Beast Lord’s side of things made me realize something. His manner of speech was crude, but he’d never actually said anything to belittle the Black Cat Tribe as a whole.

He had said, “So I take it you’re siding with him? Even though you’re a Black Catkin?” not because he wanted to insult Fran, but because he thought it was odd for a Black Catkin to want to side with the type of people that sold their kind into slavery.

The same pretty much applied to when he’d said, “Hahahah! What is this? A Black Catkin and a Blue Catkin acting all buddy buddy? Man, that’s so funny it actually makes me kinda pity you guys!” It came off like a sort of cheap provocation, but was actually far from it. He hadn’t actually meant to insult the Black Cat tribe in any which way..

The Beast Lord’s intentions were further evidenced by how subordinates had ended up capturing Blue Pride’s members while we were attempting to engage him in combat.

「Fuck…!」

Zefmate groaned remorsefully.

「Hate me all you want. Just know that this is your own fault. I told all you Blue Catkin to stop with the slavery shit already, but your underlings ignored my orders and kept their black market dealings going anyways. And you didn’t even notice. Seriously man, that one’s all on you.」

「I… know…」

A fair bit of Zefmate’s regret stemmed precisely from the fact that he understood that he’d failed. He would’ve been able to avoid this whole mess had he just kept a tighter leash on his subordinates.

「How many… are still alive?」

「Approximately twenty, I believe.」

「Only twenty…」

「Lord Rig, I’ve found the pair behind the whole incident.」

Goldalfa entered the scene with a pair of Blue Catkin in tow. And when I said in tow, I meant they were literally in tow. He was dragging them along the ground with the very same piece of rope their hands were tied by.

「These two are both connected to the Slavery Syndicate your predecessor managed.」

「Sennek, Tord, were you two really responsible for manipulating everyone into doing all this?」

「Hmph! Why the hell should we care about Black Catkin? Why do we have to go through all this for just turning them into slaves? They can’t even evolve!」

「Yeah, I know right! All we were doing was making use out of an otherwise useless bunch!」

The two old Blue Catkin spouted off bold claim after bold claim.

Both were members of the many mercenary groups that’d come together to create Blue Pride. They’d functioned as something along the lines of consultants ever since the new organisation’s formation. They’d always been in positions of power within every band they’d ever been a part of, and thus, managed to use them in order to engage in the underground slave market.

The two had intentionally raised Zefmate to feel repulsed by the slave trade. They’d done so because it then made it easier for them to fool those that they wished to hide the true nature of their business from. His sister, on the other hand, had been brought up in the exact opposite manner. The two had effectively brainwashed her to have her current scumbag-like mindset.

The Blue Leopardkin likely would have been able to notice that something about his band of mercenaries was off had the two not constantly been one or two steps ahead of him — they’d trained him to not only be pure of heart, but also the type of person that wouldn’t doubt his comrades.

「But I guess we went a bit too far. We trained you so well you became unable to shake that stupid sense of justice of yours.」

Sennek attempted to mock Zefmate, but was hit right in his sore spot by Rigdis in retaliation.

「Says a no-tail.」

「How dare you!」

『What’s a no-tail?』

（Long-tailed beastkin without tail.）

Longer tailed beastkin species put great importance on keeping one’s tail, as losing it typically implied cowardice. Thus, those that were supposed to have tails but didn’t were mocked as no-tails.

It normally wasn’t too much of an issue as one could recover a chopped off tail so long as it was immediately treated with either magic or potions, but, in cases where one’s injuries were more severe, priority was instead given to the limbs and whatnot. As a result, those with a lesser degree of access to healing would end up permanently losing their tails.

The old man known as Sennek appeared to be precisely someone that’d ended up in that kind of scenario. I’d thought that he’d just hidden his tail away in his pants, but apparently that simply wasn’t something that long tailed Beastkin with tails would actually do for reasons I failed to intuit.

Getting called out by the Beast Lord had, for some odd reason, caused Sennek to glare in Fran’s direction.

「I would still have my tail if not for you meddling Black Catkin…!」

「Nn?」

「Fuck! How dare you look down on me like that? And with a face that looks just like that annoying brat’s to boot!?」

「Brat?」

「Yeah, fuck her! Fuck Kiara for taking my god damned tail! And fuck you for looking just like her!」

「Know Kiara?」

「Of course I fucking do! Fuck her to hell!」

It seemed Sennek hated the Black Cat Tribe because Kiara had caused him to hold some sort of grudge. That, in turn, explained why he’d purposefully raised all the Blue Catkin around him to see Black Catkin the way they did.

「But you know what, it’s fine. I don’t care anymore, because that bitch got sent right off to the Beast Lord! Hah! Probably got turned into a slave and forced into a straight up living hell alright. Gyahahahah! Bitch got right what was coming to her!」

Fran immediately approached Sennek with me drawn and in hand.

『Wait, Fran! Hold on! Don’t kill him!』

Ending his life here and now seemed like an act that could potentially anger the Beast Lord and his bros. To them, Sennek still had value, as he likely knew about others that worked in his trade.

Convinced, Fran sheathed me and instead started pummeling both men with her fists. I realized that she’d went too far by the time their already old, twisted faces had ended up even more deformed and bent out of shape than they were before. I figured it’d be best for me to stop her, but the Beast Lord actually beat me to the punch.

「Hold on kid. Hey, you assholes. When you said Kiara, did you mean the old lady? You know, Grandma Kiara?」

<– Prev — Next –>

74 thoughts on “TSKD 195”

  4. “Grandma Kiara”? Does it mean she’s still alive, and she is the grandmother of the Beast Lord?
    I’m looking forward to Fran meeting her!

    Liked by 6 people

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    2. probably more like mentor or grandmother-like figure to current Beast Lord…
      since the Current Beast Lord want to free all of Black Catkin from Slavery probably from her teaching.

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  6. Glad that Zefmate was a good guy, despite him being raised by two hateful blue catkins to be a disguise for Blue Pride. Hopefully he gets lighter sentence, at least for the punishment.

    To think Rigdis, the Beast Lord, is quite a good guy. He even usurped the throne from his coward lion father. And he knows Kiara, in surprisingly affectionate way.

    This is quite a twist.

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  7. hell yeah, thanks for the chapter and many thanks for not leaving us with that cruel cliffhanger in the last chapter though this chapter also got cliffhanger but not so steep

    Liked by 2 people

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      3. this translator is superman….
        if I have japanese language skill, I’m sure I would be tempted to read the raw.

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  10. Kinda saw this coming, as there was a decent chance that Rigdis was a good person (though a crude muscle-head) as he had caused a coup against his father (who was a confirmed asshole due to stuff with Kiara) and killed him due to disagreements. There was a chance that he was the same as he might have just been power hungry and impatient for his dad to vacate the throne, but he also might not have been. This may or may not be relevant, but him having the divine grace (protection?) of the god of insects and beast (which is probably a major component for the original 10 tribes to evolve into their superior evolutions) would imply his actions please him to a degree (assuming it isn’t just a matter of strength, but character too). After all, the gods shouldn’t approve of what the Beast Lords did with enslaving black cats as they already punished enough with divine punishment (making it harder to evolve and erasing known memories of the process while leaving literature intact to leave hope for redemption, until beast lords started destroying even that).

    Also seems like he knows Kiara (close enough to call her grandma). Who would have thought that the answer to decades of unresolved frustration and sadness (for Dias, white wolf dude, and black tiger dungeon master) would be resolved here.

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  13. Man the exposition in the last 2 chapters are killer. It’s kinda cool that the current monarch is siding with the black cat, Kiara might have been one hell of a chick to may have sparked a coup and possible revival of the black cat clan.

    Possible plot twist Kiara maybe fran’s grandma

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  16. Wow. This turned out exactly the way i expected it to, with the beast lord being a decent guy and kiara probably being alive. But then again that is kinda a shounen style troupe

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  19. really…. “don’t judge book by its cover” really fit this Current Beast Lord… lol
    now this Beast Lord become one of my Favorite character… and its perfect since Fran has not yet met someone with full Muscle Brain with Crude personality but kind in the inside…

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  21. Meatbun Delivery~
    Thank you for the chapter ( ●w●)

    Key point:
    「Yeah, Fudge her! Fudge Kiara for taking my god damned tail! And Fudge you for looking just like her!」
    「Hold on kid. Hey, you AO. When you said Kiara, did you mean the old lady? You know, Grandma Kiara?」

    Does this mean Fran is actually a princess?!

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    1. We don’t know if KIara is actually a relative of Fran.
      We don’t know if Kiara is actually a relative of Beast Lord either.
      It’s quite possible that it’s the truth, though.

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  23. Eh, it’s not as satisfying with him being a good guy. Would have been exciting for Fran to have such a powerful adversary, especially since I couldn’t care less about the evil god stuff.
    I can get much more emotionally invested if it was about Fran trying to get answers and revenge for her tribe and confront the people that were responsible, rather than some ambigous and generic evil god and some asshole that just wants to be infamous.

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    2. Finally someone who thinks like me. This story of a plot by the reigning family to ensure its legitimacy was to be found on the part of the author. The beastlord would have made a formidable enemy, but above all an enemy with a real personality, who does evil for a valid reason, not like the Catkins blues who persecute the Black Catkins just to be assholes for free.

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  24. It was my job to support Fran, no matter who she wanted to kill. No matter how suicidal the act.
    *next chapter*
    Wait Fran. Don’t kill that guy, it might make the beast king guy, who you just tried to kill, mad.

    Make up your mind Master Sword.

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    1. Well, you wouldn’t want to make the guy you’re totally helpless against mad. Especially after they’ve finally come to some sort of understanding.

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    2. It’s called “being an adult”. Shishou supports Fran when she is doing dangerous things, but stops her when she is doing things she might regret.
      I mean, now that they know that the Beast King is a good guy, they don’t want to needlessly antagonize him. They probably still want to fight him someday.

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  25. Thanks 4 the chapter!

    *crawling back to the comment section after being dragged away last chapter*

    Grandma Kiara? She an old wo…
    What’s with the violent black catgirls now days? Hel…
    *CONNECTION LOST* *again*

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  26. What the fudge?!?!
    The Beast King is a decent guy like that Blue cat Zefmate.

    Ok, ok, didnt see that coming…

    DAMN YOU NNY FOR STEALING FRAN’S CHAPTER SPOT.

    NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! THE CLIFF, THE CLIFF IS TOO HIGH

    Liked by 1 person

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  27. Finally, some situation that almost escalated out of hand because of fran hot headedness and the sword iresponsibility and stupidity

    His over indulgence to fran almost killed them, literally again, he just let fran decide to kill without thinking the consequence of her action

    They are real lucky because the plot twist, beast king is a good guy and fran trying to kill him!!

    In all, fran is a child that move by her felling, that much is given, but the sword is to irresponsible and stupid, he could do better in advisory about what should be done and not give excuse that he just a sword, his the adult in the duo after all

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    1. 1) The sword might be an adult, but that doesn’t mean he is going to lead Fran by her hand all the time. It’s important for children to make decisions.

      2) Sure, fighting Beast King was dangerous. It would not be the first time Fran and Shishou are in a dangerous fight.
      It doesn’t mean they should not have fought to protect their (potential) friend. The likely result would have been that one of the sides of the conflict disengaged (they both have teleport!), and everybody got to live that day.
      Running away from Beast Lord and his underlings after that would have been a challenge, but that was in the cards since they first learned that the Beast Lord of the past is behind the treatment of black catkin.

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  32. Thank you cant wait for next update so beastlord is a good guy as well that blue cat guy good to know… And kiara is alive

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  33. It’s Funny how everyone assumes Kiara would be alive just because Rigdis knew her. It may well be a very long time ago that he was acquainted with Kiara

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  34. I’m really hoping it doesn’t turn out Grandma Kiara had been turned into a royal concubine or maid/servant-slave. From sounds of it that would been a awful way to had spent her life. Here’s hoping she managed to have a better life more fitting to her personality and wants.

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    1. If she shaped the next Beast Lord into someone who would save her people while in that position, it sounds like she was exactly where she needed to be.

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    2. I am imagining that Rigdis’s grandfather fought her, and he fell for her might. Kiara would probably have had a delayed reaction to blushing while her mind tried to figure out what his proposal meant. Either that, or she just deadpan agreed with a single ‘umu’.

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  35. Thx for the chapter o/
    holy moly what a cliff!!!! please don’t let us on this one, who is Granny Kiara? and what is she to the beast lord. I had the theory she would be his mother or something, but never thought it would be true… argh the waiting is killing me

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  36. What a twist! Now to get rid of one more racist Blue Cat. Jokes aside, such a cruel cliff to leave us hanging.
    Just speculating, the boss for this or future arc will be the Undead Former Beast Lord?

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  38. Thanks for the chapters!
    After the previous chapter’s plottwist, another plottwist in this chapter…
    Maybe Kiara was his caretaker or even his sword teacher.

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  41. It’s good to know the Beast King isn’t an enemy after all. Though battling him will probably be unavoidable with his battle junkie ways though.
    Thanks for the new chapter!

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  44. Next chappy, i’m going to read only half of it… As to not have to see another cliff… Multiple cliffs! Rly?! I’m crying bloody tears here! WHYYY?!
    Ow well, thx 4the chappy.

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  45. /\„„./\
    (=’•’= )
    —(“)—(“)—
    \,\„„/,/
    │„„. „│
    /„/„ \„\
    („)”l l”(„)
    ((
    ))
    ((
    Hang in there plot!

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  48. Wtf is that crap.when will we have an antagonist then? That beast lord could have been so much more than a vanilla trash:/

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    1. This is the big flaw of this series. The author had a great idea with this story of a usurping dynasty that persecutes black catkins to hide the truth. But he ruined everything, and the only enemies Fra will ever face are generic, Manichean, superficial villains who are evil for the pleasure of being evil.

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