Evan didn’t know why these dragons were trying to antagonise him, but he wasn’t exactly pleased with the one-sided hostility.
Just as his expression darkened and Bianca was about to order the dragons to stand down, a calm voice echoed across the area.
"What is going on here?"
Footsteps followed the voice, and from another hallway erged a tall woman with long, curly black hair and lightly curved black horns extending from the sides of her head, wearing a sleeveless shirt that revealed her well-defined arm muscles over cargo trousers and boots.
The mont her amber eyes landed on Evan, she narrowed them slightly, and Evan, adopting a polite smile, spoke.
"Nice to et you, Elder Dragon Ciarrucrorth. Evan is the na. As for your question, how about you ask your fellow dragons why they regarded with hostility, even though this is the first ti I’ve t any of them?
I’m very curious what they have to say."
The mont Evan spoke, one of the dragons forced himself to his feet, shouting,
"You cur—!"
"Silence!" Bianca cut them off, turning to glare at the group.
The dragon imdiately flinched and fell silent, and clicking her tongue, she muttered,
"How can you all be so incapable of controlling yourselves in the presence of foreign High Nobility? Don’t you realise how badly this paints the discipline of Dragondune’s elites?"
Ciarrucrorth silently observed as Bianca scolded the dragons, who now looked down in sha.
Afterwards, Bianca turned to Ciarrucrorth, her frown softening as she spoke casually.
"Ciar, there’s a bit of an issue right now, which is why I brought him here," she said, gesturing toward Evan.
"It’s related to last ti’s problem with Rathal," Bianca added, prompting Ciarrucrorth to raise an eyebrow.
"Things are a lot different from what we assud and estimated. I’ll fill you in on the details, and..." Bianca trailed off, motioning to the surrounding guards. "I don’t want these ones here anymore by then."
All the dragons’ eyes widened in shock, realising Bianca was essentially suggesting they be relieved of their duties as guards, which, when related to a nation like the GWE, ant being stripped of their roles as Royal Guards, clearly prestigious positions.
So wanted to protest, but a single glance from Ciarrucrorth made the words die in their throats.
Evan, hands in his pockets, spoke up. "You still haven’t explained why they showed unnecessary hostility toward . I’m fairly certain I’ve never done anything to or against Dragondune. So why?"
This ti, it was not Bianca but Ciarrucrorth who answered.
"The dragon you killed in Lacertilia was part of their faction within Dragondune’s High Order.
Their hostility cos from the fact that you handled and eliminated a mber of their faction, who was involved in terrorism in another country, before they could intervene. It affected their standing, and what made it worse is that you devoured his heart and used it to gain greater power for yourself."
Ciar casually revealed this to Evan, her eyes searching as if testing his reaction. Evan, however, didn’t seem to care about that.
Nodding in understanding, he said, "Oh, you an Faldo, the one I killed and devoured?"
So of the dragons nearby twitched at his words, and Evan laughed. "You regard with hostility because of that? As expected of mbers of the faction that can produce a dragon willing to ally with those who want to turn your country into a sea of flas and slaughter you all.
Foolishness clearly runs in the blood."
Shaking his head, he turned to Bianca as he walked toward the lake. "Please lead the way, Princess. I want to finish my business here so I can leave already."
There was a trace of displeasure in his voice, and Bianca sighed, glancing at Ciarrucrorth. "Please, handle them."
After that, she ran up to Evan to deactivate the security systems around the lake that prevented access to the small artificial island at its centre.
"I’d rather you not base your impressions of Dragondune’s higher order on these few examples," Bianca said, reaching out to summon a glass-crafted magical seal, which she placed into the opening in the small pedestal at the edge of the lake.
"I have favourable impressions of those who helped us with their forces in Kreah last year, but after this..." Evan trailed off, shaking his head. "Not so much for the others."
"And that’s exactly what I’m saying," Bianca shot back. "Don’t generalise based on just a few bad cases. A few bad eggs do NOT spoil the whole basket."
She pressed the seal into the pedestal, pouring magic into it and causing the water to stir. Slowly, an underwater bridge, about five tres wide, rose and extended all the way to the artificial island at the centre of the lake.
Bianca began walking across it, with Evan following as he said, "Well, let’s see how the conversation with your leader goes. Then we’ll see if my impressions need revising."
The conversation ended as they walked in silence toward the centre of the lake, entering a circular building topped with a glass do.
The first thing Evan noticed about the building was how ’glassy’ it looked.
Though built from stone, it had enormous windows, about four stories high, and even the do, including the small central piece at its apex, was entirely glass.
The windows were stained glass paintings depicting various dragons, with inscriptions underneath stating their nas.
Like the building’s exterior, the chamber inside was circular, with tiered seating descending to a large open centre.
As they walked down the stairs between the seats, Evan comnted, "This place feels like a coliseum where gladiators would fight. Reminds of one of the illegal fighting rings I busted shortly before I was sent back in ti."
Bianca looked montarily puzzled, then realisation dawned and she raised an eyebrow. "Are you talking about the ss in Zlunard tropolis? That was you?"
"Yep," Evan replied, turning his gaze to the centre of the clearing at the bottom of the tiered seats, where only a single pedestal stood.
Resting on it was a transparent glass sculpture of a dragon, and when they reached it, Bianca placed her hand on it, silently infusing it with magic.
Her magic poured into the glass sculpture like water into a jar, and Evan watched as the transparent interior slowly filled with Bianca’s brown magic.
Once it reached the brim, the glass dragon’s eyes glowed with a dull, amber light.
After a mont, it began to move, its curled body stretching, wings flapping, and long neck arching up toward Bianca.
Then its jaw dropped slightly, and a voice echoed.
[BIanCa? Is tHere a problem?]
The feminine voice had a slight chanical quality with a hint of static, though it cleared toward the end.
"Well, not exactly a problem, but you do have a guest who wishes to speak to you, Mother," Bianca said, and for a mont there was silence.
Then the glass dragon’s head turned to Evan, tilting slightly as it asked,
[You...are the Hero from the Great Western Empire, Evan Eris, are you not?]
Evan silently nodded, his eyes scanning the results of his Full Appraisal on the sculpture.
|Na- None
Race- Constructed Golem
Gender- Inapplicable
Age- 174
Level- 200
Existence Level- Master (Superior)
Titles- Glass Dragon Golem, Proxy of Dragondune [...]|
Shrugging slightly, Evan bowed lightly and spoke formally. "The Count Bourne greets the Master of Dragondune."
Raising his gaze, he returned his hands to his pockets and continued, "I’d like to have a word with you on a few matters of planetary security."
There wasn’t the slightest hint of surprise at Bianca referring to the Master of Dragondune as ’Mother.’
Bianca had expected this revelation to shock him, not realising she’d already given him the clue when explaining how she had survived being taken over by Felicia.
Since then, Evan had already suspected that Rizass was Bianca’s ’unknown’ mother.
So, hearing Bianca refer to Rizass—or rather, the glass sculpture through which Rizass’ voice was projecting—as "Mother," Evan was not surprised, as it was simply confirmation of what he had already deduced.
As for Rizass, she didn’t seem bothered, taking a few seconds before responding.
[Planetary security, you say? You use words that catch my interest.]
There was a brief pause before the rest of her reply echoed.
[Very well. I hope you’ll pardon the delay in my responses, as the physical distance between Dragondune and my current location makes instant replies impossible.
Even the speed of light takes ti to get places.]
Those words were the first to make Evan’s expression change, a light look of puzzlent crossing his face as he wondered just how far away she was that magic signals moving at light speed still took ti to reach her.
Still, it wasn’t important, so Evan quickly pushed the thought aside.
"That shouldn’t be a problem," he said, stepping back and sitting down on one of the chairs on the lowest layer of the chamber’s tiered seats, leaning back as he continued.
"Without further ado, let’s get right into it."
And there truly was no further ado as Evan imdiately declared his intent for her to take on the Fifth Finger during the Tarse Defence Battle.
"As I always have, I plan to make them execute their plans before they’ve finished preparations."
[And how do you intend to achieve this?] Rizass asked, and Evan replied,
"Simple. I’d remove a key factor of the plan, though it wouldn’t be obvious until it’s too late, and by then, most of our forces would already be in place.
The First Finger would be forced to hurriedly order the Fifth Finger to begin executing the plan.
The Demonic Hand’s forces would gather in the Wild Lands, and so would ours, eting in a battle that would decide the fate of this Continent.
The Demonic Hand would try to buy ti to complete the magic to create a dinsional rift linking to Gozon—the world Aidos’ invaders co from—and I, with permission from ’Aidos,’ would go around blowing up energy hotspots to interfere with that plan.
anwhile, the combined forces of the armies of Tarse, special forces from the GWE, GEE and Kasteblum, the many Living and Veiled Legends I’ve contracted along with, by your command, the dragons of Dragondune, would work together to fight off the Demonic Hand’s Fifth, remnants of the Sixth and Seventh Divisions, as well as the Wild Card Protocol High-Rank Demons and the Special Second Division Senior mbers who would also be present."
There was a short silence after Evan spoke, then the small Glass Dragon Golem inclined its head.
[You speak of the Demonic Hand’s Second Division? That’s the sa Division whose leader you claim is after my life, correct?]
"Yes," Evan replied. "The Second Finger once ntored the Fifth Finger, and their relationship is favourable. It’s reasonable to believe they’d send so of their subordinates to ensure their forr student’s plan succeeds, even if they can’t appear in person."
Rizass was silent for a mont, and before she could respond, Evan continued.
"If the levels of the Second Division Senior mbers aren’t too high, then I plan to have my fellow Heroes handle them. Your daughter included."
"Eh? Wait, what?" Bianca imdiately interrupted, her eyes narrowing on Evan as she spoke.
"If the Demonic Humans running around Tarse the past few weeks are part of the Fifth Division you say is spearheading their plans, then these Second Division Senior mbers you want us to ’handle’ are Level 700s!"
"I did say I planned to empower you, didn’t I?" Evan asked, keeping his gaze fixed on Rizass’ Glass Golem, and before Bianca could respond, her mother spoke up.
[Hold on, Bianca.]
The golem then turned its head toward Evan and asked.
[You ntioned having contracted Veiled Legends, didn’t you? You know they’re called ’Veiled’ because they refuse to be placed under the sa restrictions as others of their level.
What could you have offered them to bring them out of hiding?]
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