Chapter 131: Going Home

“Look at me, dear.” 

Sophia grabbed Richard’s hand; he wasn’t wearing gloves now, and on his ring finger was the engagement ring.

Their fingers interlaced, the identical engagement rings on their fingers touching together.

Richard gazed at Sophia’s face, his weary heart slowly relaxing.

“I couldn’t help it.” 

Sophia’s face showed an expression like a child who had done something wrong. 

“Frostsilver’s spell bound me tightly; even a true dragon couldn’t escape. What else could I do besides sleep?”

The smile that was about to form on Richard’s lips pressed down again, and he said, “I understand.”

“I was scared too.” Sophia said, “You weren’t by my side, and I’m just a priest who can only hold up a tower shield and take hits. That night, too much blood flowed, and I felt the blood in my veins drying up with it—I couldn’t do anything.”

As she spoke, Sophia’s eyes moistened.

Richard coaxed and comforted her; after a good while, Sophia wiped away her tears, smiled on her face, and said, “Alright, let’s hurry back to our hometown to get married. I don’t want to stay in the imperial capital anymore, and I don’t want to attend the empress’s banquet.”

Richard sighed tiredly and said, “Sigh… I don’t want to either.”

Beside them, after yawning, Aurina was energetically pulling the orange dragon’s tail to play; the orange dragon simply lay on the ground like a clump of orange cotton, letting Aurina pull and knead it.

A dozen cats came from who knows where, surrounding Aurina and meowing; then she pulled out some meat from somewhere—perhaps from her mouth—and fed it to them.

Richard watched with immense envy and muttered to himself, “I really envy carefree children.”

Sophia came over and pushed Richard. “You go sleep first; later, we still need to book a ship back.”

Richard shifted his gaze from Aurina, whose surface age was less than half a year, and thinking of booking a ship made him even more tired. He said, “How about this—can you go book a ship? I’m very tired.”

Sophia originally wanted to agree, but thinking of booking a ship back to such a distant hometown, which would inevitably involve all sorts of haggling, she shook Richard’s hand and said, “Don’t rush, dear. I’ll first spread the Lord’s grace and go help those in need.”

“Okay.”

Richard went to sleep, collapsing onto the bed without even time to bathe. 

He had only slept three or four hours before being woken again, getting up to handle things like politely declining the empress’s invitation and attending funerals.

Like this, intermittently, three days passed; he finally had some free time to properly bathe and lie on the bed. 

Richard had just lain on the bed when Aurina, lying on the gold pile, opened her golden eyes and said faintly:

“Mount, you’re so pitiful—so tired.”

Richard was startled; he looked at Aurina. 

These few days, Aurina hadn’t caused him much trouble—at least she hadn’t run to the street to grab someone’s cow and swallow it into her belly—perhaps because she had to sell various spoils and exchange them for gold coins.

Aurina was now sprawled sleeping on the gold pile; a true dragon’s ability to collect treasures truly made him sigh in admiration. 

In such a short time, the gold, treasures, and such under Aurina piled together were already a bit higher than a large bed.

Her long, fire-like red hair flowed along her delicate body’s curves, falling onto the glittering gold pile. 

A dozen cats, like her, tucked their front paws and lay beside her. 

For a moment, Richard suspected if Aurina’s words were correct—that cats were actually a kind of dragonkin.

Richard said sincerely, “Really nice—I mean your ability to find gold.”

“This king is the king of kings.” 

Hearing Richard’s praise, Aurina was very happy; she raised her head.

The orange dragon sleeping on her head fell down, smashing the gold pile and collapsing it; gold coins imprinted with the Yanting Empire Emperor’s portrait rolled toward Richard.

Aurina changed her lazy expression; her tail struck like lightning, extending and bending, gathering all the rolling gold coins under her body. 

She used her tail to press the gold coins firmly and patted them with her small hands; after confirming they were relatively solid, she slowly looked at Richard.

Richard laughed. “I won’t take your gold coins.”

But Aurina’s golden eyes stared at him.

Richard asked, “What’s wrong?”

Aurina pushed off with her limbs and leaped down from the gold pile, scampering to Richard’s side. She said, “You’re so dirty—your chin is all dirty stuff.”

Richard touched it; his hand felt roughness.

“These days, no time to properly wash.”

“Get down.” Aurina pulled him off the bed. “This king will wash you.”

“Wash? Do I need to take off clothes?”

Before Richard could finish, Aurina opened her mouth and breathed flames; warm flames enveloped Richard. She then tugged at Richard and said, “Shake it off.”

Richard obediently shook; a shower of ash fell from his body. Aurina held his hand, looked at him again, nodded satisfactorily, and said, “Good—much cleaner. Mount, go sleep.”

With that, Aurina yawned and returned to the gold coin pile.

Richard pondered Aurina’s intention.

“Meow.” At this time, a dirty cat ran into the room.

Richard then saw her tail curl up the mongrel cat and breathe flames at the cat. 

The cat screamed in the fire, flailing its limbs. 

In a moment, the flames receded; the cat was clean as new, its fur fluffy. 

She put the mongrel cat down; the mongrel cat fled outside in fright, but not long after, it came back meowing.

“Shh, quiet.” 

Aurina put her index finger to her lips.

All the cats quieted down.

Richard said, “Granny must be very envious of your ability; she hates it most when cats jump around on the bed at night, knocking things over.”

“Shh.” Aurina said to Richard, “Quiet, mount.”

Richard closed his mouth; he suddenly realized that in Aurina’s eyes, he seemed the same as the cats on the gold pile.

Aurina flicked her tail; somehow her tail extended, curling the door handle and closing the door. With another flick, she extinguished the candle flames on the candlestick.

The entire room darkened; in the darkness, sparks occasionally emerged from Aurina’s small nostrils along with even breathing sounds.

Richard lay flat on the bed, listening to Aurina’s even breathing, gradually sinking into sleep.

This sleep lasted a long time.

Richard woke up, rubbed his eyes, and saw Aurina still sprawled sleeping on the gold coin pile; the cats curled into circles, lying on the gold coins like balls of fur.

He pushed open the window; noon sunlight accompanied by the coolness of autumn wind hit his face—it was autumn. 

But more surprising to Richard than autumn was…

Richard was startled. “So late?”

He immediately thought there were things to do this morning.

“Lord Richard, you’re awake?” 

A servant from who knows which house waved to Richard from downstairs. 

“My master personally came to find you, but your dragon chased him away.”

“I’ll go right away.”

But Richard had never felt so clear-headed; it had been a long time since he had a complete, high-quality sleep like this.

Today’s affairs went particularly smoothly; many people called him the chaos ender. But Richard didn’t have much energy now for enjoying banquets or such; he wanted more to find a ship that could carry them home.

But among the sailors, a rumor spread: “The Deep Sea Queen’s servant personally said that She is extremely angry at Richard; as long as he’s on the ship, it will surely be swept by waves, sinking people and ship together into the sea bottom.”

Many captains politely refused, advising Richard to take the land route. 

Even if Richard was favored by Tyr, on the sea, it was still the Deep Sea Queen’s domain—ships could capsize at will.

With great difficulty, Richard found a bold captain.

So, one afternoon.

The group, carrying a coffin filled with ice blocks—in which lay the Haisha City commander’s body—arrived at the imperial capital dock. 

Richard acted like a thief, wearing a deep hooded cloak; Aurina was no exception, only Sophia was.

Otherwise, too many people would recognize Richard, and with more people on the road, it would be hard to walk.

Richard said, “I finally found a captain; he received my favor, though I don’t know him. He said thanks to me, his goods stored in the imperial capital port warehouse weren’t looted in the chaos. This is the benefit of fighting for justice.”

Aurina, riding on his head, asked, “Then how much does he charge?”

“Fifty gold coins.”

“So much?” Aurina said, “Is this the price of justice?”

Richard said, “It’s good that someone is willing to take money; the Deep Sea Queen might be furious at me for indirectly thwarting her conspiracy. Look, there— the sail with the swordfish.”

Richard pointed; the two women saw a ship docked at the port, not far. 

The ship was somewhat small, somewhat dilapidated. 

It looked like it was made from wood taken from demolishing those wooden houses in the slums.

Sophia said somewhat disappointedly, “With our travel fee, it seems he can refurbish it.”

Richard said, “As long as we can go back.”

Sophia asked, “But why is the sail raised?”

Richard then realized something. “Maybe… waiting for us to board and immediately weigh anchor?”

They arrived in front of the ship; the sailors on the ship shouted, “Is it Lord Richard?”

“Yes!”

Soon, the sailors exerted all their strength, pulling up the anchor. 

With a clattering sound, the rusty iron chain pulled the anchor up from underwater.

Richard said, “We haven’t boarded yet; quick, lower the gangplank.”

“Sorry.” The captain threw a bag of gold coins to Richard. “We don’t want to feed the fish; really sorry, Lord Richard.”

That bag of gold coins contained fifty gold coins, exactly what Richard had personally given the captain. 

A gust of wind blew; this dilapidated ship shot toward the sea like an arrow from the string, fast as if fleeing a plague god.

Watching the departing ship, Richard said, “At least we can wait for a better ship.”

Sophia only wanted to go back quickly. “Let’s take the land route.”

At this time, a large ship flying colorful silk flags slowly sailed in.

“That albino unicorn’s ship.” Aurina looked far. “Ga ga, let’s take hers.”

Richard said, “Don’t say her nickname—at least not in front of Frostsilver, and don’t let her know.”

Sophia was overjoyed. “Great; ask Frostsilver if she can give us a ride.”

Richard said, “I always feel this is all her conspiracy.”

A small boat was lowered from that snow-white ship like a seagull; it rode the waves forward quickly. A short hellknight stood at the bow; he was actually as tall as Aurina. Walking closer, it turned out to be a gnome.

“Respected Lord Richard.” That gnome hellknight said, “My master asks if you have the honor to board and return you to Haisha City?”

Things had come to this… Richard nodded. “Then, trouble you.”