Dragon King's Harem Chapter 109. The Spooky Town III (Patreon)

Dragon King's Harem Chapter 109. The Spooky Town III

"What do you mean? Isn't the statue fabulous?" I said without taking my eyes off the monster statue in front of me. It was a monster corpse that turned into a stone statue by The Late Dragon King's epic earth spell. It turned the monster's entire body into black stone that gleamed like high-quality marble without losing any details. As if it was carved by a professional sculptor perfectly. Even, the glint in the monster's eyes made it look like he was still alive.

That monster statue was about 5 meters high. With the shape of a gigantic wolf for his lower half and skeleton for his upper body that reminded me of a lich. But his head shaped like a dead deer showed he wasn't. Sharp teeth adorned his wide-open mouth. His attack stance pose showed how fierce he was when he battled against the late dragon king. That monster was the leader of a horde of Death elemental monsters in this area thousands of years ago. The late dragon king had made sure he wasn't part of the Undead Tribe since he didn't have the intelligence of a tribe, but only the instinct to destroy and consume anything he came across.

Although the monster had a shape like most other undead-type monsters, what fascinated me about this statue was the detail. The late dragon king used one of his legendary beasts, Terra, to turn him to stone and crush his army out of rage. So everything on the monster's body including his fur, bones, flesh that hung between his upper body was perfectly preserved, making him an extraordinary masterpiece and a symbol of the strength of the dragon king bloodline since he was a high-level monster.

Argod's words almost made Evelina and Jyne let out their squeaks. How could he possibly admire that monstrous statue like a masterpiece? Moreover, why did the inn think placing this statue in the lobby was a good idea?

"Please tell me you're kidding," Jyne squeaked again since she couldn't contain herself and was shocked by Argod's art sense.

"No, I'm not. Look at that detail. Isn't it beautiful?" I said. Well, the old me would find this awful but it was a cool sight for the current me. Maybe if all my problems were over or there were monsters like this again. I would take it to the Palace as a decoration or collection.

"I see you like our famous decoration. You have good taste, sir," a male voice came from near us. We turned to him. It was another Mandragora tribe that was older than the previous one. He smiled and lowered his head politely.
"Welcome to our inn. I'm the inn owner. Instead of standing in a place like this, how about taking a seat in our second story? You can enjoy our special dinner while looking at the statue," he offered.

I just opened my mouth. But it was Evelina who answered it.
"We'll take it," she replied. She wished she could at least take her eyes off the ghastly statue.

"Please follow me," said the inn owner politely.

As our feet moved following him, our eyes swept into the lobby. The interior was dominated by elegant dark colours, mostly in dark purple and black with a large stone staircase at the end of the room. A large reception desk was on the right side of the room, near the entrance about 7 tables that were filled with guests, were in the middle of the room and two waiters were busy serving them. A large carpet was underneath. A collection of monster heads of various sizes adorned the wall. A wide stone staircase was at the end of the room. It looked like the vampire castle's interior in the cliche horror movie, the difference was that this place looked clean and had more lighting with a huge magic chandelier hanging in the middle of the room.

I could say this place was the best inn along our journey and I was sure a warm bed awaited us tonight. Well, this city was located at the intersection of several travel routes to larger cities, so despite the spooky scenery, this place was quite lively.

After we passed the stairs, we could see two hallways lined with room doors on our right and left. The dim light illuminated the place. But we didn't go there, instead, we made a U-turn to the tables above the entry.

"What an interesting statue," I said as my eyes fell on another smaller monster statue between the tables. It was a Death element monster so it had similar features to the previous one. The difference was that this one looked better with some flesh that covered the upper half of his body. While his lower half was the body of a deer.

"Oh no..." whined Jyne and Evelina in unison.

While the inn owner looked pleased with my expression.
"I know you will definitely like this, sir. That's why I recommend this place," he said as soon as we arrived in front of the statue.

"This is indeed a nice spot," I said. My eyes checked every detail on the statue. It had a similar black colour to the previous one. But it was a plain rock, not a marble. Moreover, the detail was not as good as the first one. The fur texture was barely visible and the glint in his eyes looked empty. Still, whoever beat him, had a high-level earth spell.

"Are you curious about the caster?" asked the inn owner, as if he could read my mind.

"Can you tell me who he is?" I asked curiously.

"He is the duke of the dwarf tribe, sir. This monster attacked when his convoy passed through this area 3 years ago," he explained.

In an instant, my expression turned serious. I turned to him.
"Did he tell you the reason why he came here?" There were no reports of this before so what I thought was something to do with Sela.

"He didn't say anything about it. What I do know is he headed to the capital by road. But he returned to his tribe the next morning after he got a Magic Messenger. I don't know what the message was, but I'm sure it was either bad news or an urgent matter since his face turned pale," said the inn owner.

"I see..." That was the reason why I never got a report about it.
"Is the Duke still young?" I made a wild guess. As I remember the duke was a sickly old man, since he was able to make this trip and fight the monsters with a high-level spell like this, I could only guess the old duke was dead and it was his son who replaced him.

"Yes. He is around your age," replied the inn owner.