Richard was deep in thought, pondering what Frostsilver was up to.
She had already obtained the dragon-slaying sword’s blade, and during the division of spoils, she grabbed it and left immediately.
Of course, this had something to do with his own momentary oversight—when Aurina suddenly lunged at her, it scared her off right away.
This was probably the “escape route” Frostsilver had been muttering about all along.
But it also resulted in those rare items called phones not being returned to her; there were two in total.
One was on him, confiscated from Aurina, and the other was found on the corpse of the Yanting Empire’s emperor.
Right before he died, his body split in two, but his hand was still gripping the phone tightly.
On the amethyst-like phone screen, the last message read: “Yes, I love you too.”
Blood had stained the screen, dyeing half of the message red.
“I’ll return both of her treasures,” Richard said as he pulled a small box from his dimensional storage bag.
It was stuffed with straw, and naturally, the phones were inside.
“As for Count Champagne’s kind offer, I’ll—”
Aurina waved her hand grandly, interrupting Richard’s words. “Since it’s an honor for your master, why don’t you hurry up and make way? What are you still doing standing by the ship?”
The gnome hell knight glanced at Aurina, and that single look convinced Richard that his strength and ferocity must be inversely proportional to his height.
But then again, for a gnome—famous for making people laugh—to become a hell knight, he must have achievements far beyond the ordinary to shut everyone’s mouths.
And extraordinary achievements corresponded to extraordinary strength.
The gnome hell knight stepped aside.
Aurina patted Richard’s helmet and called out cheerfully, “Giddyup, giddyup!”
Richard originally didn’t want to risk it, but on second thought, every time Frostsilver encountered Aurina, she was left helpless—what was there to fear?
So Richard leaped straight down from the dock, landing on the small boat.
“It seems the dragon-slaying hero is quite cautious,” the gnome hell knight said.
He propped his chin in thought—probably something like that.
Out of basic courtesy, Richard didn’t lean down. “You were about to refuse just now.”
Sophia also jumped onto the small boat, causing it to rock, and Richard steadied her.
Richard replied, “Yes.”
“Then why did you decide to board after all?”
Aurina, listening to the voices from below, her golden eyes gleaming, gazed at the twenty-eight thousand gold coins floating on the sea surface and said, “Quack, because this king’s courage infected the cowardly pack beast.”
Richard said, “From a certain angle, she’s not wrong.”
The gnome hell knight said, “Forward.”
Before long, under the efforts of the oarsmen, the small boat reached the side of Frostsilver’s large ship, and they lowered a rope ladder.
Aurina cheered once and leaped up, trying to climb aboard, but that damned pack beast grabbed her little leg and said, “Stay put and ride on my head properly.”
Aurina said, “Actually, this king just wants to see Frostsilver. It’s been so long, and I kind of miss her. She’s like my… sister I’ve never met.”
“Then you’ll see her soon,” Richard said while struggling with the rope ladder.
“What I said is true.”
“But your whole body is radiating an ‘I’m going to rob you’ impulse, and that’s also true.” Richard climbed onto the deck and said, “That’s enough.”
“I really feel like she’s a sister I’ve never met.”
“You came from an egg—where would a sister come from?”
“Oh, right.”
Aurina shook her head, shaking off the longing for a dear sister.
She nearly slipped up—good thing this king’s astounding wisdom crushes Richard daily; even if a bit leaks out, he helps plug it right back in.
“But she really does seem like one, even though she’s a pitiful, pitiful unicorn dragon descendant. So pitiful.”
Frostsilver’s voice drifted over faintly. “Who are you calling a unicorn?”
Richard was just helping Sophia onto the ship when he saw Frostsilver and a group of black-armored guards had arrived at some point.
Her face was as cold as a woman who had died miserably in a graveyard, killed by a vampire’s hand.
Aurina didn’t speak; she raised her hand to touch her own dragon horns, her palm stroking along the smooth horns, flaunting her pair of dragon horns.
Richard held his breath, staring at Frostsilver.
Unexpectedly, Frostsilver didn’t get too angry; instead, she looked at Richard and said, “It’s quite an honor for the dragon-slaying hero to board my ship today.”
Richard said, “Thanks for giving us a ride along the way.”
“Richard,” Sophia called out discontentedly.
Only then did Richard notice that although Sophia was holding his hand, she was still stepping on the rope ladder, looking at him with puffed cheeks.
With a pull, he yanked Sophia up.
Frostsilver said, “It’s not along the way.”
Richard took out the wooden box, and Aurina lowered her head to look—this wasn’t the box with the expensive phones? Even through the box, Aurina could feel it.
The pack beast is always rebellious and hard to tame, even “stealing” the master’s treasures. Bad!
Thinking this, Aurina bent down and swung her tail, trying to snatch it away.
But as expected from the strongest little bug, his hand dodged with a flick and blocked with his wrist, evading and defending.
Bad and stupid!
Aurina shouted, “Stupid pack beast!”
Frostsilver extended her hand and said, “You’re returning my treasures to me, right?”
“Yes,” Richard said. “Two amethyst slabs.”
“They’re called phones,” Frostsilver said. “Open the box and hand it to me.”
Richard asked, “What’s the difference?”
Frostsilver, with her white-gloved hand, swept the silver hair falling on her shoulder back behind her and said, “So that Aurina can watch them come into my hands with her own eyes.”
Richard paused. “Is that the reason?”
“Yes, open the box, dragon-slaying hero.”
Richard opened the box, and the two phones lay on the worthless straw.
In Aurina’s eyes, the golden light they emitted formed a stark contrast with the dull straw, like someone tossing a flashbang into the night.
Such fine treasures, just handed over to someone else!
Aurina covered her face. “Quack! I don’t want to see.”
Frostsilver’s lips curved up slightly, and she hummed lightly. “A brat is a brat, even if her dragon voice is like her brother’s.”
Richard said, “You competing with a child is a bit too…”
Frostsilver glanced at him and said, “Ninety-seven point six percent of people in the world can be ignored; there’s no need to care about their judgments. But true dragons are an exception.”
Richard, carrying the eye-covering Aurina on his back, handed the box to Frostsilver.
Frostsilver picked up a phone, sniffed it, and said, “Disgusting, it reeks of blood. You didn’t even wash it. It must be that second idiot emperor’s—thinking that makes it even more disgusting.”
Richard said, “I was worried about damaging it. What if it can’t get wet?”
“It could soak in seawater for years. Didn’t you realize it’s actually a classic magical item structure?” Frostsilver said. “Your ignorance shames it.”
With that, Frostsilver put the bloodstained phone back on the straw.
She picked up the other phone, sniffed it, and a wave of dragon saliva scent hit her.
Frostsilver immediately set the phone down, frowning. “You actually gave me the phone Aurina licked. That’s truly disgusting.”
Richard said, “It’s fine, at least it smells nice.”
“It’s the scent of dragon saliva— you wouldn’t understand,” Frostsilver said. “Put it away; I don’t want it.”
“Huh?”
“Quack?”
Frostsilver tossed out a small booklet and said, “The user manual is in here. I’m granting you these two phones. Kabrun, Kabrun, take these three guests to the prepared rooms.”
“Yes, my lady.”
Without any further pleasantries, Frostsilver turned around and, with her long strides, vanished in a few steps.
“Quack!” Aurina let out a victorious cry.
She used the tip of her tail to scoop up the phone stained with her own saliva, holding it high and shaking it like waving a victory flag. “Licked means it’s mine!”
Richard rubbed the not-so-thin user manual and said, “It seems like she planned this all along.”
“My lords…” The male servant approached, bowing in respect.
Aurina corrected him. “Call this king the future great king of kings who kills seven with one blow.”
This male servant was worthy of being one Frostsilver could name; he only froze for a moment before saying, “Dragon-slaying hero, Shield of the Wounded, and the future great king of kings who kills seven with one blow, please follow me.”
Frostsilver was quite generous, arranging one large and one small room for them, specially considering the situation where Aurina and Richard would sleep in one room.
Of course, this was more for the safety of her own property.
In Richard’s large room, the two people and one dragon gathered together.
The male servant simply said that if they had any requests, to pull the red rope bell, and then took his leave.
As soon as the door closed, Sophia said in a low voice, “I realized that Aurina and Frostsilver really seem like sisters.”
“Where do they seem alike?” Richard said. “One’s a dragon-vein sorceress, one’s a young dragon, one has silver hair, the other red.”
“And, and…” Aurina said, “One has a single horn, the other a pair.”
Richard asked, “Why do you care so much about dragon horns?”
“To true dragons, horns are like two to little bugs—”
“Wait,” Richard interrupted. “Normal people only have one.”
“That’s why having two makes them flaunt their horns so often,” Aurina said. “Only one left—that’s so—hee hee ha ha.”
Aurina couldn’t help laughing as she said it. “So pitiful, quack quack. Just like cutting off one side of a female’s chest.”
Richard didn’t want to discuss dragon aesthetics with Aurina anymore.
He looked at Sophia and said, “Did you notice where they seem alike?”
“Um…” Sophia puffed her cheeks in thought for a moment and said, “Their movements are similar, especially the way they sweep their hair back over their shoulder.”
Richard said, “That hardly counts as evidence.”
“It’s just a feeling,” Sophia said. “I often have visions of the essence of things.”
Now Aurina couldn’t sit still.
She extended her two fists and said, “Sophia, test you—which hand has the gold coin?”
Sophia glanced and said, “Neither.”
“Quack?!”
Aurina’s tail jumped up, hitting the butt of the orange dragon sleeping on her head.
The cat let out a sharp cry, jumped down from her head, and scampered away with its plump body.
“S-so scary insight, only a tiny bit worse than this king’s when I squint my eyes.”
Sophia said, “Because I didn’t see you take anything out of your mouth, so…”