After hearing Frostsilver’s request, Richard said, “Your condition is, to repay you for breaking the siege, so you want the blade of the dragon-slaying sword from the spoils?”
“That’s right.”
Aurina stretched out her hand straight between the two: “Wrong!”
Frostsilver said, “Bas—little brat, don’t interrupt adults.”
Richard said, “Let her speak. Aurina, what’s your opinion?”
Aurina, satisfied with her mount’s self-awareness, said, “Because the dragon-slaying sword’s blade is mine, and it should be mine.”
Richard asked, “Why?”
Aurina’s brain stalled for a moment: “Why? What do you mean why? Because it’s mine, so it’s mine.”
“Hmph,” Frostsilver said.
“This is the dragon’s virtue of excessive greed manifesting. To her, precious treasures naturally belong to her. It also shows that your education and expectations for her are just wishful thinking, nothing but self-touching behavior.”
Richard said, “How do we split the rest of the spoils?”
“Half and half.”
“No.”
“Think clearly, foolish paladin,” Frostsilver said.
“It’s you who needs me, not me who needs you. In terms of intelligence, I can easily obtain the emperor’s information through divine magical items you can’t imagine. Secondly, have you considered the consequences of killing the emperor? If you have the guts to think about killing him.”
Aurina squatted on the ground, hugging the valuables Richard gave her in one go.
There were so many miscellaneous valuable things; Richard’s dimensional storage bag was now flat like a sponge squeezed dry of water.
“So poor, mount,” Aurina said, opening her mouth wide and pouring the valuables in her arms into her big mouth in one go.
“Poor enough to make a dragon want to shed tears for you.”
“I’ve thought about it,” Richard said.
“Chaos and disorder, soldiers running rampant, maybe someone will launch a fierce attack on the Good God Alliance under the banner of avenging the emperor. If possible, I’ll discuss it with the grand master and them, but…”
“I really want to kill the emperor; we’ve compromised for order time and again, yielding once after another.”
Frostsilver said, “I have a way to avoid that.”
“Speak.”
“The condition is, the dragon-slaying sword’s blade must go to me.”
“Alright,” Richard said.
“I’ll make a written agreement with you.”
Frostsilver said, “The emperor’s daughter isn’t dead.”
“Which one are you talking about?”
“You know which one.”
“Hee hee hee hee,” Aurina suddenly covered her mouth and let out a burst of laughter.
The expressionless Frostsilver and Richard both looked at Aurina.
Aurina tried to press down the smile on her face with her fingers; she said, “This king thought of something very happy.”
Hee hee hee, just thinking about this idiot, the strongest little bug, thinking the emperor’s daughter died in the cesspit, owing fifty thousand gold coins, it’s really… No, no, as a dragon with world-shocking wisdom beyond mortals, this king can’t show any flaws.
Aurina’s little face was all red, laughter squeezing out from between her teeth from time to time.
Richard shook his head and said, “She’s always like this, naturally cheerful; I’ve almost never seen her looking worried. Sometimes it really makes one envious.”
Frostsilver looked at the snickering Aurina, pondering for just a moment: “Because you know nothing about dragons, Richard. Red dragons naturally take pleasure in others’ pain. Let me think… You actually think Richard is stupid, because the emperor’s daughter didn’t die at all; she’s alive and well, at least not drowned in a cesspit.”
“Just because the Dread Dragon sprayed his dragon breath off-target and blew up the cesspit before dying, plus a clumsy lie, the world’s greatest dragon-slaying hero was born in a pit—”
“It must be dog paddling,” Aurina’s smile could no longer be contained; she clutched her belly and laughed heartily, making dog-paddling motions while circling the two: “Like this, Your Highness the princess, where are you?”
Frostsilver said, “She admitted it.”
“No! Not at all! I didn’t admit anything!” Aurina tried to widen her eyes, like a cute cat.
“I’m just a little girl.”
Richard said, “Theoretically, Aurina, you shouldn’t know that much.”
“She knows,” Frostsilver said.
“Because she’s the Dread Dragon, that red dragon who lewdly enjoyed the world; even among red dragons whose nature is lewd, she’s a standout… “
Aurina’s heart skipped half a beat, but she was confident her acting was flawless; no one in the world could discover she was the Dread Dragon.
Richard listened with furrowed brows.
Frostsilver spoke through gritted teeth: “…’s daughter. One look and you know she inherited many of her father’s traits, including memory. The Dread Dragon’s memories before death must have been extremely profound for a dragon as arrogant as him. And for such profoundly deep memories to be inherited by his pureblood offspring is all too normal.”
Richard sighed, “You really understand dragons.”
“Naturally,” Frostsilver said.
“Only fools think I’m an expert in name only.”
“Your hatred for the Dread Dragon always surprises me,” Richard said.
“I even suspect your ancestors were ravaged by it.”
“So do you understand now?”
Frostsilver said.
“From the beginning, Aurina knew the emperor’s daughter didn’t die.”
“It really is that daughter?”
“You still won’t accept it at this point?” Frostsilver said.
“A kind of wishful thinking to bear responsibility, only to find it’s just a pile of shit. The Yanting Empire emperor is smug about it; he didn’t even expect to manipulate you so easily. I can only say that you followers of the good gods have your brains stuffed full of so-called kindness and order, making you unable to see your own strength, letting you be toyed with like a fool by those far weaker than you.”
Richard said, “You don’t understand; we’ve debated this many times before, but now obviously isn’t the time to debate again. Tell me clearly. The emperor’s daughter, the girl we were contracted to save, what happened to her?”
“She didn’t die; she’s alive and well,” Frostsilver said.
“As the crown princess, she’s living in the rear palace, under house arrest by her own father. The emperor told me personally, until the crown princess personally admits her mistake.”
Richard asked, “Admits what mistake?”
“Falling in love with the Dread Dragon.”
“Falling in love?”
“Yes,” Frostsilver said.
“She fell in love with the Dread Dragon, but the Dread Dragon didn’t take her away; I don’t know why. Maybe because he respected her choice, or maybe he didn’t want her to leave her father.”
Richard only felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped on his head.
The sacred dragon-slaying, eliminating harm for the people, upholding justice—it was supposed to be like that, but now it seemed absurd, and he had even shouldered a fifty-thousand gold coin debt for this absurdity.
“Gaga, hee hee hee hee,” Aurina laughed, rolling on the ground, rolling around the human and the dragon.
Richard remained silent.
Frostsilver said, “What do you feel now? Great dragon slayer.”
“I’m not fighting entirely for the princess’s love.”
“I’m talking about the fifty-thousand gold coin debt.”
Richard looked at Aurina rolling on the ground: “I’m very angry, but it’s also because of this that I met Aurina and started an adventure. I think having this adventure as an epilogue before I marry and settle down makes me very lucky. Now I really don’t have to repay the fifty thousand gold coins.”
“Heh,” Frostsilver said.
“My idea is to support the crown princess to inherit the throne, letting her freely pursue her love. Hmm, done by the dragon-slaying squad that killed her lover. I have one more request: that you have a good talk with the crown princess.”
“Why?”
Frostsilver said, “I really want to see what expressions you’ll have when you talk.”
Richard said, “Frostsilver, do you have to make this request?”
“No choice,” Frostsilver reached into the void and grabbed: “Who made it so that I not only provide the crucial intelligence that the crown princess is still alive, but can also use this treasure called a phone, unseen by the world, to directly get the emperor’s intelligence? Oh right, besides the dragon-slaying sword’s body being calculated separately, for the remaining spoils, you have to give me seventy percent. Eh, where’s my phone?”
“Gah, so fun,” Aurina held the phone in both hands, her two thumbs and tail tip frantically tapping buttons, sending messages to the emperor, saying a few nice words.
The emperor over there then sent a long message, explaining everything clearly.
“Damn it! When? Little bastard, give me back my phone!”
Aurina hid behind Richard: “Bleh bleh bleh, if I took it, it’s mine, Big Whitey.”
“Richard!” Frostsilver said.
“You control her.”
Richard said, “I don’t want to control her right now, especially after you mocked me just now.”
“What about your justice?”
Richard said, “You’re only thinking of justice now? I think we should have a good talk—after all, the intelligence is in Aurina’s hands now.”
“Good! Very good!”
Aurina typed frantically: “Pass on this king’s command! All Hell Knight Order, full force mobilize! Target is the emperor; it’s either you die or I live!”
“Stop right now!”