‘Cute granddaughter’ I dunno, it honestly sounded a bit too weird coming from a giant, intimidating, arm-crossing dragon. The contrast between his appearance and what he said was so gap moe, it makes it hard for me to understand what his personality is supposed to be.

Kargryxmor, the Black Tyrant of the Sky. According to Yorshka, Kargryxmor was the strongest and one of the oldest dragons to have ever lived in Peolynca, ruling over the skies over Miononbolax and the surrounding ocean. Having made the other dragons of legends — the ancestors of the five kinkyuro dragonewt clans and the five empresses of the current dragon emperor, excluding my mother — bow to him through strength, he founded Kargryx as a country in order to rule over all dragons.

This very legend was now standing before me as the God of Dragons and Oaths. Despite being a fire dragon, his scales were colored jet black with small accents of dark red on the edges, making it look like cooled lava. The scales on his stomach were of a lighter color, grey, while his spikes and horns glistened like radiant obsidian.

As a two-legged dragon, my “grandfather” stood before me with his well-proportioned arms crossed, looking like a stern, well-built old man. His tail was thick around his butt, but became slimmer the further away it was from his body, looking nowhere close to my dragon form’s tail though it did have some similarity to my dragonewt tail, just missing the tail spikes.

As I continued looking at him, my eyes couldn’t stop taking a look at his massive wings. They were far longer and larger than his main body, complete with red-glowing webbings and pitch-black scales, looking like actual limbs with the four claws at the end of them. As he noticed me staring at them, he had his wing-hands grab each other and fold close, making his wings look like a long cape. It gave me some overlord emperor vibes.

“Child.” Kargryxmor’s voice wasn’t as deep as I imagined, it sounded average, like an ordinary older man. Of course, despite opening his mouth whenever he spoke, his voice was transmitted through some sorta telepathy and it was booming inside my mind.

“Y-Yes, God Kargryxmor.” As I was shivering down here from his sheer presence, Kargryxmor nodded his head for some reason, before his body transformed into black particles. Condensed into a smaller body, Kargryxmor reappeared, looking a bit like a dragonewt, although it really was just a smaller version of himself.

“Control your fear, little whelp. You stand not before a predator, but your ancestor. I wish not for you to tremble before me on our first meeting, a meeting I have been awaiting for far too long now. Come, we speak. This piece of your soul must return soon, so time is of the essence.” His voice did not invoke fear, on the contrary, it was rather soothing. Not as comforting as Aurena’s, but his voice has the sorta familial charm, as if this God of Dragons was speaking to his own child. Well, in my case, I technically am his granddaughter.

And here I thought I was his great-great-great-great-great-whatever amount-granddaughter, at first.

I took in a deep breath, controlling my shaking soul until I could move it again. I closed my mouth, gulped down some spit, and began massaging my hands to calm myself. I then looked up into the Dragon God’s eyes, nodded at him, and stood up from my chair.

“Good. Fear is no shame, as it is the quintessential ingredient for the birth of courage. I will make my intentions for this meeting clear. First, I must talk with you about the current situation in Kargryx. Second, Goddess Aurena has asked me to give you some advice for your travels,” Kargryxmor stated, looking aloof after praising me. “However, I believe we must first settle some other concerns first. Hestia, my descendant, I believe you have questions. Allow me to hear them.”

“You aren’t mad?” The first thing that came out of my mouth was a confused remark. I remembered how I wanted to separate myself from Kargryxmor, how I complained about him and Aurena leaving me alone in the Belzac forest, and how I went against his wish and rejected the escort he sent over to me.

I was sure he was angry. I was anticipating it the whole time.

Kargryxmor’s left wing let go of his right wing, using it to scratch his jaw like a wizard touching his beard to think. “Anger? Anger at you? Little, not worth mentioning. Why do you ask?”

Huh?

“I mean, aren’t you angry at me for, you know, not meeting you earlier? I could have been speaking with you far earlier if I had not killed your first set of escorts and then fled the second one. I mean, Astalos was an ardent follower of yours, and I killed him. Sure, I guess you planned this with Aurena, but I thought you would be more irritated,” I explained, but Kargryxmor didn’t react much to it.

“Why should I worry about you slaying some wyverns? I was more angered when I saw them failing to fulfill my Quest. Incompetence. If I still had some sway over the lacking dragon youths of this age, I would have sent them to pick you up, but, alas, their lack of faith in me forced me to rely on lesser dragonkins,” Kargryxmor’s expression contorted into disgust as he thought of the wyverns he sent me, showing the anger I thought would be directed toward me. “On the contrary, you have made me proud; elated to see your growth. You survived alone as a G rank whelp inside a forest filled with nothing but enemies, struggling to reach the same rank that a Kargryxmor normally should have been born into. You ask if I would denigrate your efforts? Preposterous.”

Kargryxmor hatchlings were meant to be born as C ranks, but I was an early birth. Without all the blessings and the fact I had my mind from my past life, it would have been impossible for me to survive as a G rank in the Belzac forest. The first day alone was already a close call. I did feel a bit happy to hear Kargryxmor shower me in praises, but I did not feel safe to thank him just yet.

“Yes, we could have met sooner, but a year is nothing to either a god or a dragon. I also would have liked you to fully embrace your bloodline by taking a black dragon evolution, but your mutations have turned you into a magnificent dragon with shimmering scales and abilities worthy to hold my blood. Astalos might have just been a wyvern, but he was formidable in his own right. You did well enough against someone far above you in levels and combat experience.” Kargryxmor’s mouth curved into a smile. “Those wyverns did well to allow you to demonstrate to me your abilities. They might have failed their original task but they have made me confident you will be able to fulfill the goal I set for you.”

“…You don’t seem to hold those wyverns in a good light. Weren’t they your followers? They died for you but it sounds like… it sounds like you couldn’t care less about them.” It was unnerving for me to hear this from him. Aurena seemed to at least care about her followers even if she had her ruthless moments.

“Wyverns are lesser dragonkin, beings who cannot stand up against us dragons. To me, a lesser dragonkin is nothing. To me, a wyvern is similar to a human or an ant.” I gulped. “I only respect the strong. If a wyvern or human manages to contest against me, then I will give them the respect they deserve. To me, even the true dragonkin and the dragonewts bearing our blood are uninteresting if they cannot prove themselves.”

“But—” I knew speaking against a god wasn’t the wisest idea, especially if it isn’t someone like Aurena. However, my gut told me I could and I should speak up against the way Kargryxmor was thinking. My sentence was interrupted, but he didn’t seem annoyed.

“Do not try, Hestia. I do not care what opinion you have on this topic, and I would dislike it if you tried to change my mindset, as if yours is the righteous choice. When you have lived as long as I have, all you can do is look down on others. Respect can only be earned.” Kargryxmor’s wings formed back into a cape. “Enough about this topic. Is there anything else you wanted to ask?”

“Yes,” I replied. It was a question I’ve been asking myself since the beginning. “Why me? Why did you choose me to be reincarnated? I’m just one of many, someone not even worth mentioning back on Earth.”

As depressing as it sounded, it was the truth. Aurena already explained that she chose me due to my dream to become an idol, that she felt I would be the best one for the job as this dream could motivate me to help Aurena. Even with my past memories erased, it would still drive me forward. The only question is, why exactly me? I bet other boys and girls would have had the same unfulfilled dream.

Kargryxmor, understanding the meaning of my question, allowed himself to think. For a couple of moments, the realm was silent, only to be broken by the Dragon God’s voice. “I despise oath breakers. I have always hated them. Lies are for the weak, subterfuge is for those who cannot confront others head-on. This mentality sounds inflexible but it is far from it. I understand that sometimes fighting must be avoided, that combat is not the only way to resolve a situation. An emperor who cannot use both diplomacy and violence to open the way forward is a failure. I was forced to learn this lesson to uphold my oath to Kargryx and my followers.”

He continued after pausing, “It is true that your soul wasn’t anything special, Hestia. Goddess Aurena wanted somebody to gather followers better and I needed somebody who will never go back on their oaths, their promises. You might not have been special, but you were the choice the two of us agreed on.”

I had a dream I wanted to fulfill desperately, to the point I swore not to cry until I became one. Although I couldn’t keep this promise after coming to Peolynca, my dedication to it made me a candidate for Aurena. The fact I even made this promise in the first place and kept it ongoing until Saori gave me that speech, impressed Kargryxmor. These two parts of my past self were what should have been left in me after I was reborn and had my memories wiped.

“Don’t second-guess yourself, Hestia. You were our first attempt and you have vastly surpassed our expectations. Your birth is not important, what makes you valuable and special is what you decide to do with your life. Even I had to shed blood and sweat to become even a footnote for the scholars.” Kargryxmor’s tail moved, patting me softly on the head. “There is still much I want you to do, but you have already impressed me, my Granddaughter.”

‘You are my ‘Schatz.’ My treasure in German. ‘I love you, **k***’

‘Your Papa and Mama will always support you. Your dream is our dream, **k***’

Fuck… Papa. Mama.

Memories hidden inside the cracks of my soul emerged, causing me to remember certain memories of my past. I could hear it. I could hear something similar to a name as my soul felt like weeping. Saori and Tasianna had already told me several times that I was special, that I was unique. I already felt special just from having friends like them. Kargryxmor was a stranger to me, so why did I feel this same urge to cry?

Dammit. I haven’t even accepted you as my grandfather yet, don’t make me want to cry…

After calming myself down, I told Kargryxmor I was ready to hear why he wanted to summon an otherworlder to Peolynca. And the reason was…

“I need you to kick my lazy descendants and subjects back into action. Their complete disregard for the world and their true task is causing my faith and Goddess Aurena’s trust in me to waver.”

…

…It was practically the same reason as Aurena’s. “Fix my faith” somehow.

Kargryxmor seeing my confusion, quickly began explaining, “I am one of two members of Goddess Aurena’s patheon who did not become her subordinate god because of faith. Including the God of Knowledge and Magic, Istari, we joined Aurena for personal reasons.”

I was further confused. I was sure Aurena told me only those faithful to her could enter her realm, so why was Kargryxmor able to become a subordinate god in the first place? That was when I remembered Yorshka’s words.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Oooh, I remember hearing you accepted her apotheosis due to a deal. You would join her in exchange for the Dungeon of Infinite Feasts, right?” I told him what Yorshka already told me.

“Correct. You remembered the dragonewt’s words,” he nodded. “Most of Goddess Aurena’s subordinate gods became part of her pantheon due to their faith in her, that she was the one true god among all the Origin Gods. Most of these subordinates are consequently human. On the other hand, Istari joined due to the mystery of the Origin God’s homeworld, wishing to learn it while in Goddess Aurena’s presence. I wanted to alleviate the dragons’ famine issues.”

It didn’t take me long to connect the dots. “Ahh, our hunger. I’m already a glutton, so I can imagine beings far larger than me having even more problems. The dungeon is there to solve this problem, right? The name is pretty much a dead giveaway.”

“We dragons can sustain ourselves using Mana, or in your case, from the sun. We rarely need food while we hibernate, but, once we awaken, the tastelessness of mana is enough of a motivation to hunt for flesh and blood. Hunting grounds were contested for this reason, making it impossible for Miononbolax to sustain a higher dragon population without bloodshed between the hunters. As the strongest dragon, I wanted this to end.”

“So you, someone who could go against demons, literal demi-gods, became Goddess Aurena’s subordinate for the future of your race? That is pretty admirable.” It was the lofty aspirations of the first founder of a country that made it so likable. “So why are you losing Goddess Aurena’s trust? I’m not sure why you are losing faith, but at least I can understand what you mean by that.”

Also, it doesn’t help that you allowed some of your followers to die, old man!

“I made an oath to Goddess Aurena in exchange for my apotheosis and the dungeon,” Kargryxmor stated. “To become her subordinate and turn the dragons into the world’s defenders, following what many of my followers and I did during the Demon War. Of course, I do not expect all dragons and drakes to do so, but at the very least, my son should have been more competent. Eltharion… Your father is a foolish procrastinator, Hestia.”

“Come on, don’t tell me that, that’s a low blow to him. Besides, I haven’t accepted the fact that I have a new family in this world yet, so I don’t know what to say to that.” It honestly felt like a grandfather complaining to his grandchildren about his own son. You’re putting me in a weird position, old man.

Kargryxmor shrugged and continued. “Hmph, unfortunately, I expect you to do so. You must have heard enough from that dragonewt, Yorshka, about the situation with Kargryx. While the dragonewts haven’t lost faith in me yet, most dragons rarely, if ever, pray to me. The children and some grandchildren from dragons of my era have become so lazy in their advanced age, that most only stay inside their lairs. Only the whelps journey the world, but they are in a similar situation to yours, Hestia. They aren’t strong enough.”

In other words, buncha boomers.

“Then, how am I supposed to do this? The current task Goddess Aurena gave me is already forcing me to journey around to make allies to rebuild her church and, I guess, get rid of the threatening demonkins.” I was expecting Kargryxmor to tell me to kick Emperor Eltharion’s ass, to make him move to his father’s whims.

“I will reveal more once you reach Kargryx,” Kargryxmor told me, explaining his plan for now. “I suggest you become stronger first, Hestia. Your mother… most likely will come for you, but if she asks you to come back with her to Kargryx, then decline her request.”

“Why?”

“Because once you arrive in Kargryx, you may not leave until your adulthood pilgrimage. Hmph. A pathetic law Eltharion’s scale-mates established to protect the empire’s children. Truly, the females of our race are far too overprotective,” Kargryxmor scoffed, looking annoyed.

Hey, I’m a female of our race over here.

“If that is the case, then it’ll delay Aurena’s plans,” I replied. “Still, I’m pretty sure she said your plans have advanced far more than you expected due to my circumstances. Wouldn’t waiting a few years just bring me back into the original plan?” I didn’t exactly want to go to Kargryx, but I was just stating questions out of curiosity.

“Simple, why must you restrict yourself to that single continent? Altrust is far larger than Miononbolax and far richer in culture and experience. In addition, once you meet your mother, you will understand why I call females overprotective. A low fertility rate causes dragon mothers to be rabid when it comes to protecting their whelps. Do you want her flying over you for everything?”

“No, Sir…” Cernust already made me aware of how dragon mothers could be. Having a helicopter mother keep watch of every single one of my actions was not possible for me.

“I will not advise you on how to handle your mother, but you mustn’t go to Kargryx with her. Once you reach A rank, your pilgrimage would be ‘finished,’ so you may visit and leave Miononbolax as you wish. To grow stronger, you need more autonomy,” Kargryxmor paused for a moment before continuing. “Which leads me to our second discussion point. Hestia, I disagree with your human companion’s choice to accept the demon’s powers. They are not to be underestimated. Etch this advice into your mind so you may prevent Klea’Hatma from corrupting your companion’s and, through her, your mind.”

I nodded, steeling my will to not give the demon one inch. I will protect Ellaine and help her conquer her demons, literally and figuratively.

“Good. Remember, you will not be able to befriend or win over a demon. They will always strive to fulfill their sin, especially Lust, the most hedonistic of all Demon of Sins. If you wish to keep her in check, awaken her curiosity and make her want to stay with you. This will allow your companion to use a demon’s powers.” For Kargryxmor’s goal to come true, he needed Aurora and me to become stronger. “‘Survive against more ordeals,’ is all I can say to help you and your companions to become stronger. Just as I once did. Now, concerning what you learned from Goddess Aurena today, I suggest you withhold this information from the saintess and anybody not already your ‘retainer.’”

“Wait, what?! Aurena— I mean, Goddess Aurena hasn’t told Saintess Eshe about the fact a demonkin is impersonating the pope of the church yet?! What is she thinking?!”

Considering Aurena just told me all of this information to fulfill her Divine Quest, I thought she had already told her saints and champions about it, since, you know, this concerned the sanctity of her church! Why did she tell me about it but not her other followers?

“You do not need to hold up etiquette with me, Hestia. Istari and I are the only subordinate gods who Goddess Aurena allows herself to reveal her true personality to since we aren’t actually her worshippers. I am formally addressing her since I respect her strength.”

Kargryxmor explained that Aurena’s followers had a clear image of her personality and conduct, spread and told through the church of Aurena’s bible. The serene, angel-like Goddess of Light was what everybody thought of her, so she forced herself to keep that persona on whenever she spoke with any of her fervent followers, especially her current subordinate gods.

In fact, the only ones she could trust right now were Istari and Kargryxmor, who didn’t care about her facade. The other members of her pantheon weren’t actively working against Aurena; in fact, most of them were trying their best to spread her religion to help her overthrow Plesia as the number one most influential Origin God. The issue was, most of them believed they knew what Aurena wanted.

She did show her full personality if it was somebody she could trust. While she was thankful for her subordinate’s aid, she also finds it hard to share everything with them. If she did, they might do something she had not planned. She could tell people her plans, but she worried she could risk breaking the illusion they had of her, turning their zealous faith against her.

Wow, this reminds me of a certain skeleton sorcerer king. Amazing, as expected from Goddess Aurena’s ability to turn faithful worshippers into gods.

Hold on, she showed her true personality to me. What does that mean?!

Speechless at Aurena’s situation, I continued listening to Kargryxmor without replying to anything. “Goddess Aurena has not told you what to do with your newly acquired knowledge, as she expects you to figure it out yourself. That is why I am here. I suggest you tell none of this information to any clergymen, champion, or saint. This will just cause chaos amongst the ranks, distrust in your ability to ‘interpret’ the Goddess’ words, and it will alert the demonkins fully to your existence.”

The last part did make sense. Currently, none of the demonkins should know I knew demonkins had infiltrated the church and the empire of man, but if they did, they would probably send people to kill me off. I could also imagine some people ridiculing me for believing the pope was killed and replaced by a duplicate, since the pope is one of the most important members of the church. Even if they did, how would they solve the whole demonkin problem then?

Still, why would they think I was interpreting Aurena’s words?

Noticing my confusion, Kargryxmor continued. “Aurena cannot interfere, as this is a worldly issue. Yes, the summoning of the heroes was something we gods could interfere with, but the interfering foreign power is gone now. The demonkins, themselves, did not summon the heroes, they simply petitioned the gods who did. Not punishable.”

Kargryxmor then summoned his admin window and showed me my profile, pointing at my age. “Hestia, the reason why I said you had a limited amount of time in the divine realm was due to the risk of overloading your soul with words. Goddess Aurena should have informed you already. The Demon of Lust currently has some of her mana mixed into Ellaine’s soul, making her able to visit the divine realm since the demon is a demi-god, but not as long as you. No champion or saint of Aurena’s can do this.”

“I can understand Ellaine, but why am I an exception? Also, why not send the champions and saints a System message?” I asked since this was something I needed to know.

“A mortal’s soul isn’t the strongest, and yours wasn’t either. However, since your soul had no vessel when you died, we took our time to allow your soul to attune itself to a god’s aura. [The Light] is a result of this, something we gods cannot replicate on living followers since their bodies would just explode. You had to accept Aurena first for the title to begin working.”

So when I prayed to Aurena to keep Rajah and his family safe, that was when I accepted Aurena as a goddess?

Kagryxmor then sighed after his explanation. “As to why we can’t rely on system messages, it is because the message rarely ever reaches them intact. Do you understand why I used the word ‘interpret?’ If the message isn’t pitifully easy to understand, our followers would try to analyze every detail of the message. As zealous as Goddess Aurena’s followers are, they would not accept the fact the youngest and newest champion understood the words of their goddess better than they could.”

… So many issues.

“So, what do you want me to do with this information?” I wondered.

“Tell this to your party, tell this to the heroes. Make these allies of yours stronger. The people you can trust. According to what Goddess Aurena showed me, I believe the best excuse you can give people about your Divine Quest is to say, ‘I am supposed to bring union between all Peolyncian races.’ Humans do not consider grimgarians or demonkins Peolyncians, and it keeps your goal vague while fitting Goddess Aurena’s teachings,” Kargryxmor gave a good reply, something I could agree with.

However…

“Isn’t this lying? I thought dragons didn’t lie?”

“… M-My sweet granddaughter, sometimes not revealing the whole truth is acceptable. Technically, Goddess Aurena wants you to unite the humans with the dwarves, elves, dragonewts, and levianewts to form a coalition against the demonkin princes of sins, right?”

Hmph. Nice come back, old man.

I accepted Kargryxmor’s suggestion, believing information should be controlled. I also did not want the demonkins to take notice of me just yet, although, if they had agents in Artorias already, it might be hard to conceal it.

“Good. This is all. Time is soon over.” Kargryxmor closed his eyes and nodded, returning to his aloofness.

“Thank you very much, God Kargryxmor. I’ll try my best to fulfill what you and Goddess Aurena have tasked me with.” Kargryxmor nodded, smiling. He was probably expecting me to leave now, but I want to ask him something else. “One last question, I heard you call me ‘my cute granddaughter.’ Did you really say that? Did you?”

“… Go now, otherwise your soul might explode.”

Hehe, old man.

Having my chuckle, I closed my eyes, saying goodbye and returning back to the altar room inside the temple of Griffonpeak. When I opened my eyes to check the surroundings, I noticed something wet flowing down my face. When I touched it, I realized I actually cried a bit.

… Verdammt. What am I supposed to do with this whole dragon family thing? Haaaaa, I don’t know what the correct answer is…

There was also something else I noticed: the tips of my hair were white.

Saori and Tasianna did mention my hair turned white when I prayed. Is it ’cause I’m talking to Aurena? Maybe I should ask this the next time I meet her.

As the white tips disappeared the moment I noticed them, I shook my head and shoved these two issues to the back of my mind, picked up Ellaine’s unconscious body and looked into my storage for the demon orb. As Aurena mentioned, it was broken, but I still needed to confirm something.

“Lust?”

Two eyes revealed themselves on Ellaine’s two rings, staring at me in anticipation. A voice entered my mind. [“Yes, dear?”]

“…Don’t try to corrupt Ellaine. I can destroy you at any time,” I gulped a bit. I knew [Shine] worked on it, so I imagined I could probably destroy the rings in their current state, but I still felt some fear for the demon.

[“Of course, dear. I will be a sweet, good girl just for you and little Ellaine. <3 Oh, you may call me by my name, Klea’Hatma, or just ‘Klea’ is fine if you wish us to be closer. Maybe even intimate? Hie hie hie hie…”] With an eerie giggle, the eyes closed and the rings returned to normal, showing no signs of any demonic powers. Only the lightning scar on her arm showed the struggles Ellaine faced during the Astalos battle.

Goosebumps, urgh.

With my business done, I decided to leave the church and find a place to stay at, probably Ellaine’s family. The moment I opened the door, several men and women in silver armor with blue and green tints stood in front of the door. As they stared at me, I couldn’t help but widen my eyes.

W-What is going on?!

“I apologize, Lady Hestia,” the one to answer my question was High Bishop Theodore. “Apparently, the magic field surrounding Griffonpeak had detected an unidentifiable visitor. Someone who had not registered themselves at the gates…”

My jaw dropped, instantly incriminating me. One of the armored men took off his helmet and bowed to me. “Lady Priestess, as members of the Knight of the Lionheart, we must ask you to come with us for questioning. Unlawful entry into our kingdom’s capital must be taken seriously, even if you are a priestess of the Goddess.”

Theodore nodded, urging me to be civilized. “Lady Hestia, I suggest you accompany them. Everything will be alright once dawn comes, I can promise you this.”

I had no other option.

“… May I have a lawyer?”