Chapter 114: Chapter 114: The Goddess’s Charm

Lila’s POV

The air inside the tent seemed to freeze. The only sound was the occasional CRACKLE of firewood from the central bonfire. The Great Elder’s sharp, hawk-like eyes were fixed on Jasper, his Bone Staff raised slightly as an invisible pressure began to spread through the cramped space. Kael stood to the side, nervous sweat beading on his brow. He clearly hadn’t expected the negotiations to reach a stalemate so quickly.

“Jasper.” I gently placed my hand on his, which rested on his knee, and felt his muscles instantly tense. I turned to the Great Elder, keeping my voice as calm and firm as I could. “Elder, we understand your urgency and are willing to help. But as he said, forcing someone’s hand is no way to form an alliance. The power to heal requires a mutual will, a resonance between both parties, not a one-sided demand.”

The Great Elder’s expression was terrifyingly dark. He stared at Jasper, as if gauging the visiting Wolf King’s limits. After a moment of dead silence, he finally spoke, his voice hoarse but filled with unyielding force. “Very well. Since Lady Lila puts it that way, I will try a different approach. Unless this visiting Wolf King swears an oath—swears that he will never have designs on our tribe and will never use his power to harm our people—I can only ask you to leave right now.”

“An oath?” Jasper sounded as if he’d heard the most ridiculous joke. He leaned back on the animal-hide cushion, his eyes filled with derision. “Why should I swear an oath? I, Jasper Hale, only swear oaths to two kinds of people in my life: the dead in their coffins, and the woman in my bed. Clearly, you are neither.”

“You!” The Great Elder slammed his Bone Staff down, and the ground seemed to tremble for a moment.

“Elder,” I sighed helplessly. Caught between these two stubborn men, I could feel my temples starting to throb. “That’s not what Jasper meant. He just doesn’t like being threatened.”

“That is the nature of a wolf.” The Great Elder stared coldly at Jasper, not backing down an inch. “The strong devour the weak. To conquer and possess—that is the law etched into our very blood. As a Wolf King with such immense power, how could you possibly be content with just ’passing through’?”

Jasper fell silent. He watched the Great Elder, his gaze so deep it was impossible to read. The atmosphere in the tent was stretched to its breaking point. Even Kael held his breath unconsciously.

Just when I thought Jasper would explode, perhaps even tear the tent down, he suddenly laughed.

It wasn’t a sneer or a laugh born of fury, but a soft chuckle, tinged with self-deprecation and amusement. He turned his head, and with the firelight dancing in his golden eyes, they took on a rare gentleness. He turned to me, throwing his hands up in a helpless gesture. “Lila, just listen to him. The old man makes it sound so reasonable. He’s almost got me convinced.”

I stared at him for a moment, unable to follow his leap in logic. “Huh?”

“He says I have to have ambition.” Jasper turned back to the Great Elder, but the smile on his lips became somewhat bitter. “Maybe that’s because I’m a mongrel. I still have too much useless, weak humanity left in my bones to understand your so-called ’pure’ wolf nature. For me, conquering this godforsaken desert or taking over a tribe that doesn’t even have Wi-Fi is far less appealing than taking you to see a sea of flowers.”

The word “mongrel” left his lips not with a trace of self-loathing, but with a world-defying arrogance—the kind of pride that scorns playing by conventional rules.

I was stunned for a second, and then I couldn’t help but snort with laughter.

At a moment so tense that bloodshed felt imminent, he had somehow managed to make me laugh. Just imagine: the great Wolf King of the Hale family was complaining with a look of utter disgust that he didn’t want to be some local tyrant and couldn’t accept a life without Wi-Fi. The sheer contrast was both absurd and adorable.

“You… you’re still laughing.” Jasper looked at me, shaking his head in mock exasperation, but a flicker of fond indulgence crossed his eyes.

However, to the people outside the tent, that laugh was like lighting the fuse on a powder keg.

The previously tense and heavy atmosphere instantly… spun out of control because of my laughter.

The young warriors gathered outside were already filled with awe and curiosity for the legendary “Goddess.” My laugh, as clear as silver bells, now pierced the thick animal hides of the tent. It sounded exceptionally beautiful in the silent desert night, as if carrying a sort of Magic Power that struck them to the soul.

What followed was a strange rustling sound, as if people were shoving each other and whispering urgently.

“Listen! The Goddess is laughing!”

“Gods, that laugh… It’s beautiful.”

“I want to go in… I want to get closer to her…”

CRASH—!

Before any of us could react, the small ventilation flap on the side of the tent was violently thrown open. Three young, able-bodied warriors tumbled in, piled on top of each other like a human stack. The one on top, his face a mask of panic, still had his hands clapped over his ears—he had clearly been shoved in by his companions.

The scene was so sudden, so comical.

The tense standoff instantly devolved into a farce.

The Great Elder stared at the three young, dust-covered warriors tangled in a heap on the ground, his beard trembling with rage. He struck the ground hard with his Bone Staff. “You… you pack of fools! Who let you in?!”

“Elder… we didn’t mean to!” The warrior who had been on top scrambled to his feet, his face flushed red. His gaze drifted uncontrollably toward me, filled with a mixture of fervent adoration and shyness. “It was the Goddess’s laugh… It’s so beautiful. We… we couldn’t control ourselves. It was a joy from our very souls, a primal instinct to draw closer to the divine… We just wanted to hear more of it…”

Before he could finish, the Great Elder’s furious glare made him flinch and cut his words short.

Jasper was taken aback for a moment, then the smile on his lips deepened. He leisurely adjusted his cuffs, shooting a disdainful glance at the disheveled warriors before his eyes finally landed on me. He teased in a low voice, “It seems my Priest’s charms are so irresistible even these primitive wolves can’t withstand them.”

My cheeks flushed, and I shot him a glare, silently warning him not to add fuel to the fire.

The Great Elder was clearly flustered by this sudden turn of events and caught in an awkward position. But he was, after all, an elder who had weathered many storms. Taking a deep breath, he suppressed his anger and waved his hand, shooing the young troublemakers out as if they were flies.

“Out! Get out and stand watch! And don’t come back without my order!”

Once the tent was quiet again, the Great Elder returned to his seat. Though he still looked displeased, much of his aggressive aura had dissipated. It was as if the farce had drained him of his pent-up hostility, causing the tense atmosphere of the negotiation to shift subtly.

Some of the hostility in his eyes had faded, replaced by a complex, scrutinizing gaze.

“It seems… the Goddess truly does possess the power to soothe the heart.” The Great Elder’s voice was much lower, no longer laced with its earlier confrontational tone. “That being the case, let us talk again.”

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