Aurina swayed, leaning fully back against Richard.
From the phone came the doubtful voice of Frostsilver’s subordinate.
Aurina’s three fingers and tail frantically tapped on the purple crystal-like phone: “This is the king’s command! Everything is this king’s plan—just use that porcelain-white fool to launch a sneak attack! Shout this king’s name! Because—”
Frostsilver anxiously fired a disintegrate spell.
Aurina blocked it with the tip of her tail, politely letting out an “ow” to give Frostsilver a basic sense of impact.
After all, if she didn’t react at all, the disintegrate spell wouldn’t even know if it had taken effect.
Frostsilver realized she basically had no way to deal with Aurina.
She tilted her head up and said, “Richard, are you really going to just stand by and watch while a wild child ruins everything?”
“If the Hellknight Order goes to war with the Emperor,” Richard said, “I’d love to see the expression on your face.”
“Hee hee hee hee.”
Aurina laughed, tapping the phone with jolt after jolt, as if some massive prank was about to land successfully on a certain sour-faced unicorn’s head.
Frostsilver asked, “Could it be that the renowned dragon-slaying hero Richard is holding a grudge just because he couldn’t win an argument, and now he’s ignoring the bigger picture?”
“Why not?”
Richard asked.
“Could it be that the renowned Countess of Champagne can’t even handle a baby dragon girl who’s not even six months old?”
Frostsilver said, “I lost to her on purpose.”
“Frostsilver, there’s no need to use someone else’s consideration as a bargaining chip.”
Frostsilver crossed her arms and said, “You think I’m anxious? My subordinates aren’t stupid—could they really be fooled by a baby dragon? On the other hand, you, the great dragon-slaying hero Richard—your brothers and sisters, your fellow believers—they won’t be able to withstand the Emperor’s iron hooves.”
“Hee hee hee hee.”
Aurina hid behind Richard, tapping the phone screen while laughing out loud.
Richard fell silent.
The cold war began, and the cold war ended.
“Damn it! I really give up. I have so many plans, yet I always end up at a disadvantage against a dragon with congenital brain underdevelopment.”
Frostsilver said, “This world was unfair from the start.”
“Who told you to laugh at my mount?”
Aurina said while furiously tapping the phone, trying to make the people on the other end believe she was the supreme king.
“The mount may be dumb, but it’s still this king’s mount, and it gets a share of this king’s wisdom—it’s way better than you, who knows how much.”
“You’re just lucky,” Frostsilver said.
“Fine, I just need the dragon-slaying sword’s blade. Give me back the phone now—I still need it to get information.”
Richard said, “Alright, Aurina, give her back the phone. I don’t want the imperial capital to be destroyed in military chaos.”
“Huh?” Aurina, who was squatting, tilted her head to look at Richard. “Get your position straight, mount.”
“I’m not joking, Aurina.”
Aurina flipped Richard the middle finger. “Little bug, this is this king’s phone—this king does whatever she wants with it.”
With that, she frantically tapped the screen. Line after line of text appeared on it.
“Aurina!” Richard curled his knuckles, making as if to knock.
“Gah gah ha!”
Aurina leaped up, facing Richard directly.
She wildly shook her head and said, “This king has already figured out a way to counter you—a super mega headbutt method! Now you have no way to deal with me at all.”
Richard shook his head.
“Then I can only resort to violence.”
He knocked, and Aurina’s head met it.
“Gah gah!”
Aurina called out happily.
“A mount is just a mount.”
While calling out, she circled around Richard, shaking her head and spinning.
Frostsilver released her hand and gripped her staff tightly.
“She’s not joking—she’s naturally gifted with powerful pondering power. If we team up, I can hold you still—”
Richard flicked a finger right on Aurina’s crown: “Dong!”
Her whole body shuddered, trembling all over. She spun in place once, then collapsed toward the ground, still muttering, “As expected of the strongest little bug.”
Frostsilver fell silent for a moment, giving Richard a strange look or two.
Richard took the purple crystal-like phone from Aurina’s hand, glanced at it, tapped something he didn’t quite understand, and the screen content changed.
The background image became an erupting volcano.
Richard remembered that was the Doomsday Volcano, because he had seen it—during the crusade against the Dread Dragon, whose lair was right beside the Doomsday Volcano.
And in this background image of the Doomsday Volcano, amid the erupting lava, the massive body of the Dread Dragon battled the volcano.
At the mountain’s base were the northern peninsula people, kneeling like tiny ants.
Frostsilver reached out to him. “Give me back my phone.”
“The Dread Dragon?”
“Yes.”
“You worship it?”
“The creatures in the world who worship the Dread Dragon are countless,” Frostsilver said as she took the phone, quickly taking a selfie and sending her photo along with orders.
“But I’m different from them.”
Richard didn’t feel particularly surprised.
As a dragon scholar and a dragon-vein sorceress, it was perfectly normal to have special feelings for the Dread Dragon.
“Alright,” Frostsilver said. “Latest intel: The Emperor has ordered his pile of nobles to directly assist in attacking the temple district.”
“The Hand of Tyr knight order has successfully returned to the temple district—I don’t know if they can break out. But I don’t care anyway.From the strength comparison, once the war starts, it’s your loss.”
“The good news is, that idiot Emperor has returned to the palace, back to the Violet Chamber. At least we don’t have to try assassinating him from amid a bunch of military nobles.”
“Richard.” Aurina stood up from the ground like a zombie, straight and rigid.
“You stole a true dragon’s treasure…”
As she spoke, she suddenly raised her right hand, pointing at Richard with her index finger. “In the future, you’ll surely suffer a true dragon’s wrath—you won’t even have time to beg for mercy.”
Frostsilver commented, “As a red dragon, recovering so quickly is quite impressive—she’s really easy to raise. Richard, you really stole my spoils of war.”
Richard said, “She was just shaking her head—could it be you have no way to deal with her?”
Frostsilver immediately changed the subject. “I have a plan: We go directly to meet the Crown Princess. That throne needs a new occupant. He’s been intoxicated with his own power for too long, but he doesn’t know to show respect to the strong.”
“Can you teleport us into the imperial palace?”
No.
“You could in the dragon’s lair.”
Aurina’s ears immediately perked up. She planned to thoroughly understand how this dragon-slaying squad had luckily, temporarily, with exploding luck and despicable methods, defeated her.
“I set it up for a long time, and it was only short-range teleportation,” Frostsilver said. “If it weren’t in the dragon’s lair, there’s no way to hide it from his eyes.”
“Yes,” Richard said. “Aurina, fly us over—the flight ability of dragons is too terrifying. If the Dread Dragon could have flown, ten of me wouldn’t be a match.”
Aurina proudly puffed out her flat chest.
Look at what a strongest little bug is.
Frostsilver glanced at Aurina, assuming she was proud because her father was the Dread Dragon, and said, “You’re very lucky.”
“Very lucky—the Dread Dragon never left the cave from start to finish.”
“No. I mean something else,” Frostsilver said. “Aurina obviously sees you as another dragon—she cares about your words, values your opinion.”
Richard was puzzled. “What?”
Frostsilver said, “Most true dragons fundamentally don’t care about anyone else’s opinion—only other dragons. From a biological perspective, this is because other dragons have pondering power; caring about them can make one stronger. From a personality perspective, true dragons are naturally arrogant and don’t take other creatures seriously at all. You’re very ignorant, and very lucky.”
Richard asked, “So that’s why you say I stole your spoils of war?”
“Yes,” Frostsilver said. “Obviously, she should be mine, raised by me who knows dragons. Forget it—now’s not the time to argue. I have a path that leads to the imperial palace’s rear palace. Let’s go.”
Richard said, “Can you bring Sophia along too?”