… Ah, so not only random dragons but also my sister, huh? Getting invitations to join a succession issue certainly is ‘normal.’

“Wendriosa, you—” Kahalameet tried to step in, but my eldest sister snapped back immediately.

“My turn first, brother. The youngest is a fledgling in Father’s eyes now, which is why we need to treat her as such. That treatment also includes involving her in our empire’s internal issues. Do not baby her,” she said with a glare, her smile laced with venom. “If you wish to turn her in your direction or another, then you will have an opportunity after I am done speaking. Do you think I would force her? I am simply proposing.”

Brother and sister glared at each other while the rest of our siblings turned their eyes away in awkwardness, ignoring the confrontation. Nobody wanted to deal with the two of them as the atmosphere began to worsen. It only ended when Kahalameet nodded and turned around, prompting Phso, Ryranakus, and Taim to follow him out of the citadel. Only Nong stayed behind, standing next to me like a guard.

“Always good to see your valiant side, Nongramos. My little brother is turning out well, no?” Wendriosa grinned.

“… I try my best,” Nong let out, uncomfortably. Almost as if he didn’t believe those words himself.

He’s keeping his promise to Tasianna and the others, I see.

Feeling unnerved, I decided to say, “I already showed you my position in this matter.” At least, I hoped that was the intention when we lined up in two rows before Eltharion. The front row are for throne contenders while the ones in the back, so Ryranakus and I, want to stay out of it or remain neutral.

“I understand, yes, which is why I am only offering this proposal. If you wish to remain with your current position, then I am happy to ignore it all, but as a candidate for the throne, I cannot overlook your potential to rally two dragon flights none of the rest of us siblings could ever do.” She then approached me, placing a hand on my shoulder while lowering her back so our eyes were the same height. “‘Family does not lie to each other,’ is something our father taught us four eldest, and we made it our duty to do the same for our four youngest. I will not lie, this I swear. I will not trick you, this I swear. However, you have a responsibility to yourself to not remain ignorant, so you must ask the right questions yourself if you wish to understand. Have I made myself clear?”

I nodded. I preferred this more direct and blunt way of tackling issues … even if Wendriosa’s constant smiling made me feel anxious. She felt like a politician but, at the same time, she didn’t and I couldn’t pinpoint why. There were aspects of a human or elven noble in her, but the way she was acting now seemed like a refined version of Neill, or a less raucous dwarven noble.

Urgh, I of all people shouldn’t be questioning why others are smiling all the time when I stand on stage fake smiling for the sake of the show.

“How about you start explaining things from the beginning?” Nong interjected. “If you want to talk, then have her understand the situation. Her mother wanted to do the same anyways, so why not hear it from one of the two main culprits first?”

“How rude, hehe!” Wendriosa replied, not perturbed at all. “A fine idea. How about we do it in our meeting room? It is the only place with any furniture, after all.”

Even if it’s only some chairs?

Nonetheless, we followed our sister back to the spot where I first met all my half-siblings. As we sat down, I pulled out a table and some tea party essentials from my storage, placing them down to everybody’s surprise. They expressed knowing I was a void-touched, but they hadn’t expected me to pull everything out as if I was used to it … I mean, I was used to pulling random things out for the sake of convenience, what did they want me to do?

“Ooh, this tea is good.” Wendriosa smiled genuinely before taking a bite from a butter biscuit. “Mhmm, it feels like I am back on Altrust. Well, aside from the good pastries, of course; when I last went there the little breadlings were woefully too sweet. These have a good consistency and are fairly balanced in taste. I am glad to see the world has progressed even further over these last 200 years.”

You speak like a grandma, Sis …

“I made them,” I answered. “An Earth recipe for British butter biscuits. He, if I had known you had a sweet tooth, I would have brought you a Danish box filled with them. The five types they offer are delectable, indeed.”

“No, no, you don’t have to. I am more of a sweet and sour type of woman, instead of a snacking one. When I eat my meals, I like to have everything prepared all at once to fill myself. Snacking results in laziness, so I rarely delight myself in these vices.”

You are sooo a grandma!

“Raw?”

She shook her head. “Cooked. When I first went on my adulthood pilgrimage, I was forced to learn that eating is more than just mindlessly devouring after a victory. I didn’t visit the dragonewts too often, since I was always glued to my eldest brother’s tail, and I, unfortunately, learned some of his less enviable traits. ‘If ya’s gonna eat something annoying, might as well make it good for the mouth. Why waste time on shite, if ya have all the time in the world?’”

Wendriosa suddenly imitated the dwarven accent of Inkoran-Tazul perfectly as she recited that quote. Seeing me flabbergasted, she giggled and began teasing me by asking if I had thought of her as an antiquated woman or not. “Family does not lie to each other,” so I kept my mouth shut and that was enough of an answer to my sister. Yet, she wasn’t displeased.

“It took eating some pretty bad dwarven stew for me to understand the sentiment of eating well. Food is also part of the world’s culture, no? The adulthood pilgrimage was intended to teach me, a young dragoness, about more than just my isolated sphere in Miononbolax … It also didn’t help that the drunk innkeeper kept insisting how I had to pay him despite how terrible his stew was. I was ready to throw the meal into his face; oh, how angry I was, I swear!”

… Hehe, I guess everybody used to be a teen.

“Uhm, hello?” Nong interrupted us. “What’s with this? I thought we were about to discuss the succession stuff, so why exactly are you two talking about all this nonsense?”

Wendriosa scowled. “… Can’t we have some small talk?”

“I’m trying to get to know my sister, Nong,” I added.

“Yes, exactly, what she said.”

“I don’t know anything about her, so what am I supposed to do? Read her mind instead of talking about our interests?”

“How bright our little sister is. Nongramos, my dear, you must learn from your juniors! A bit more tact, please.”

Nong stared at us with widened eyes, his green head feathers somehow dulled in vibrancy as he sunk into his chair, embarrassed. Like a chameleon changing its color, his emerald-green slowly turned into black, making his head look like a raven’s.

I jerked back a bit at this, but Wendriosa explained it was simply a trait inherited from his mother. The rainbow colored feathers I saw covering Empress Virrflax’s body was a racial trait that allowed Arviosa dragons to change their feather colors to adapt to situations. Nong, however, could only switch from green to black, although that might change once he evolved into a rank S.

Wanting to calm things down, I asked, “Nong, what about you? How was your adulthood pilgrimage?”

Nong scratched his neck, his flamboyance was nowhere to be seen. “As I told you, I remained mostly incognito. I mean, I did flaunt my strength as an adventurer, but I didn’t really do anything really substantial.”

“Nothing compared to your feats, Hestia,” Wendriosa added.

“Precisely, and eldest sister was the same, if I remember correctly.” Nong nodded, the colors around his head slowly turned back to normal. “It helps that being arrogant and overconfident is pretty common amongst the stronger adventurers … Although, then again, I do remember a time where I had to show my dragon self to accomplish a ‘humanoid’ issue.”

Oh?

“I think … Rikkarson Town; that was its name. A settlement in the southwest of the Folschreck Empire bordering their giant desert. While I was leaving the town for a Quest, I found a group of demonkin nearby planning to sack the town. Didn’t sit right with me and I tried to warn the town, but they all got so agitated and hard headed by it that, instead of fleeing, they wanted to fight the demonkin,” Nong said in an annoyed tone. “Honestly, I wasn’t so sure if they could win since the raiding group seemed prepared for a quick attack with explosives, and I wasn’t intending to interfere in the human-demonkin war. I just didn’t want a local clothier to be affected; I had them make a dress for my mother as a souvenir, as I was planning my trip back to Miononbolax.”

“So what did you do?”

“The town was ransacked, of course, but nobody died in the fighting. I picked up the dress and transformed into my newly evolved rank A form. I flew through the town, roaring and creating enough turbulent winds that it was impossible for anybody to fight. Their weapons couldn’t harm me, their mages were too weak, and none of the adventurers were a match for me. I defeated them all and placed the fear of dragons in them, forcing them to flee before the demonkin came.”

… Hold on, he did what?

“You scared the entire town away? Nong, did you even think about how that would impact our reputation to the humans?” I was genuinely surprised, remembering how a young wyvernslayer ranted about dragonkins to me in Estralia. About how his village was burned down by a wyvern and how he feared and wanted to slay our kind.

Yet, Nong nodded nonchalantly. “I’m not an idiot. Of course, I knew what would happen, but I was only a rank B hunter back then. There was a rank A mercenary party inside the town at that time, and they did their best to advertise themselves, saying they would kill the demonkin for the ‘Holy Emperor and our glorious empire.’ I never had a chance. I was only a traveler, and my time on Altrust was over. Since I was returning home anyways, I wanted to make sure I left at least one mark on the continent … It just felt right, back then, even if people started to think of me as a doom bird.”

He sighed, waving his hand around. “Well, that was about 50 years ago. The town was destroyed and I wasn’t sighted again. I made sure to slowly fly over different settlements before I entered the ocean’s airspace, to make sure people knew I wasn’t around any longer. Humans forget easily, and feral wyvern and dragon attacks aren’t extremely uncommon. I probably became an afterthought.”

Yet those reports would only terrorize the human countries. The unknown is scarier sometimes.

“Makes you want to protect them, right?” Wendriosa commented, causing Nong to suddenly frown even deeper. He sighed and nodded, causing our eldest sister to smile. “The image of a strong black tyrant lounging on the ground, watching over others to keep them safe under the shadow of their wings. Such thoughts would make our grandfather in the heavens happy, no?”

Where was this going? I squinted my eyes. Her current smile was back to that same slimy one when she proposed an alliance with me.

“My pilgrimage has taught me quite a lot as well. Kahalameet had always been loyal to Father, almost mirroring Father’s attitude with Grandfather. Our eldest always believed in Father's ideology of staying neutral to the world’s problems and to only take care of our own and to keep our civilization intact. I admired it,” she said in the past tense. “Yet, here we are, as strong as mountains and fierce as volcanoes, but we remain oblivious of the fact a world war has happened. The ‘War for the Faefolk;’ none of us, thankfully, participated in it. Yet, I saw the scars still remained the last time I went to Altrust.”

Wendriosa finished her tea, letting out a satisfied sigh before locking eyes with me. Small talk was over.

“188 years ago, the Leosfalt kingdom broke apart into Artorias and Atadoro. I was only 21 when it happened; in a way, it was a blessing, but experiencing the fallout was certainly something. A full invasion from the elves that destroyed practically everything in the center and south of the kingdom, and the young usurper was fortunate enough to have four unscathed allies.” Sis smiled, closing her eyes to reminisce. “They had no outside allies. Folschreck didn’t care. All I could do was watch as I told myself I wouldn’t intervene.”

I personally wouldn’t condemn her. Artorias wasn’t her problem and trying to participate in something she had no investment in or history with seemed more tiresome than nothing. I could tell, since I did the opposite. Me and my bleeding heart …

“I saw the destruction left behind by constant war and the construction of a new kingdom before my eyes, only to leave before it fully stabilized. I thought, if the human kingdom closest to the dwarves and elves suffered this much from their arrogance, what about the others? Well, it made me realize how much those humans needed their ruler—the Folschreck Empire.” She sighed. “Then again, they didn't really need the Empire. The Divide of the Five Princes were too weakened through constant conscription to help, and despite the threats, and Aleistunum forbade fae hunting altogether in the first place. It helped that their counsel was inherently pro-fae due to their founder and relations with Saelariel. So, who was to blame for all those issues?”

“Artorias accepted it was theirs,” I replied. “Their people, even now, regret the actions of their ancestors. At least those in the Morgiana and Myrrdin duchies. King Drangleic isn’t repenting for himself but for his father’s and grandfather’s wishes, though.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Good to hear.” Sis nodded. “I’ve heard of your role in creating this ‘Shakaie-Narn Alliance.’ Now, tell me. After seeing these rulers and representatives act, what is your opinion on a good ruler?”

“A good ruler takes care of their people. That is one trait I agree with all of them.”

“‘A ruler without his land may still lead, but a ruler without ones to lead is nothing more than a braggart.’ Phsothophus and Kahalameet both agree on this ideology. Both are quite close since it took 150 years for me to be born, and this is something you can’t change even now. Haha, how annoying they were when I became their family, they spoiled me to no ends as the ‘youngest.’” Wendriosa smiled fondly, allowing me to feel the warmth and kindness my eldest brothers must have given her. Sadly, it quickly turned bitter. “Yet, with all their strength, why did my two eldest brothers grow up with no ambitions?”

She clicked her tongue. “Hestia, what do you think our position in the world is?”

“You should elaborate on that. An important question like that in our current situation will only create misunderstandings.”

“Of course, I apologize for being vague. Let me rephrase that: how do you feel about Kargryxmor’s decree for dragons to become the world’s protectors? The reason why he abandoned his children to an unimaginable strife that broke his son and many other elder scales for the sake of a foreign goddess.”

I thought it through a bit since Kramps did explain his reason for making me his blessed. To be honest, it was the same Artorias dilemma Wendriosa mentioned before, although on a larger scale since Kramps wanted dragonkin to maintain order and balance, whether it was to stop issues like the human-demonkin war or invaders from other worlds.

“I am not opposed to it, but only because I chose to help people myself. There is also my role as a Champion that compels me to do so, not to mention the memories of a friend pushing me in that direction. Still, the idea is inherently flawed and arrogant, though. After all, if you force somebody to do something they don’t want to, how can you be sure they will do it well?”

“Precisely!” Wendriosa snapped her fingers, eyes sharpening as she focused on my words. “To force somebody to enforce peace and law against their will is the mark of a bad ruler. They may howl their false pretenses for the sake of ‘justice’ and ‘peace,’ but all they want to do is to propagate their influence and will. A ruler cares about their people, a tyrant enforces their authority. Kargryxmor is a tyrant for wanting Father to do something this insane!”

<… This young scale.>

I could hear Kramps grinding his teeth. I could guess why he would dislike her, despite from the sound of it, Wendriosa seemed to agree with Kramps to a certain point.

She continued, “Yet at the same, I understand Grandfather’s will. We dragons possess so much power; my brother possesses so much power and potential, yet he hides here like Father in his cave. Our allies suffer while we do nothing. Why do we have an alliance with the dwarves and elves, if we leave them to their own devices? What purpose is this relationship we fostered since ancient times?”

I kept quiet. At this point, Wendriosa was unleashing everything. If I wanted to understand her, this was the time to be silent and listen.

“My pilgrimage made me think … What could we do more? Yet, at the same time, I had to take care of my people as the empire’s eldest princess. Our own country’s health must be prioritized above all else … Yet due to this conservative stance, our country lags behind others. Us dragons still live in the times prior to the Origin Gods, yet our descendants, the dragonewts, continue to thrive and grow. Their technology and arcane studies ever reaching towards the heavens.” She turned to Nong. “Yet, what do we provide them? Little brother?”

“… Protection,” Nong said reluctantly but with full confidence. He had been asked this once before, I presumed. “We are still stronger than them; our Empress-Mothers and Dragon Rulers still possess world destroying powers and we use this to keep their lands safe from others, while their administration handles threats and issues from within.”

Wendriosa nodded. “Yes, it is so … I always imagined one of us siblings living with the elves or dwarves, protecting them like the dwarf’s giant statues to intimidate others, but, then again, to the humans, we might as well be a threat. An issue they have to solve one day … That is the issue Father, Brother, and I agree on, and something Grandfather outright forgot. Humans have killed others for less. Beastmen challenge the strong to remain on top. Other monsters wish for evolution … To have power will always attract usurpers.”

She took in a deep breath before breathing out. “Yet, at the same time, if we do not do something, Kargryx will remain stagnant as it always is. My brother disagrees with this, but I do not. I fully believe we need to help, even if I am the only one to protect our allies.”

I squinted.

“You mentioned something about leading the strongest army out to help me take care of my problems, even promising the world if I wanted to. That doesn’t sound very similar.”

“Stability requires us to intervene in such matters as well. We dragons will always remain a threat in the minds of others, but at the same time, years of relying on dragonslayers and fighting feral dragons have made Folschreck and Carmaniate overestimate themselves. We are still Kargryxmors, our blood is that of the conqueror. To not fear us is an insult most will not survive from … and this is the authority I wish to enforce once I open Kargryx’s borders up.”

“And what then? Replace one issue with another? You can’t possibly think about opposing yourself in countries who do not wish for your presence. You will only cause another social issue,” I replied, thinking she sounded a bit like any other warmongers. It sounded hypocritical after her grand speech about being a good ruler.

“Only our allies,” she stated firmly. “We have a duty to our allies, nothing more. If countries do not wish for our protection, then I couldn’t care less about them. We might be dragons, but our time is just as precious as any other living being, not to mention, I do not wish for my kin to be taken advantage of. Not to mention, if I am heir apparent, I do not wish for us to be rulers, only protectors … Although, there is no law stopping us from founding our own states if we wished, which is why I presented that option to you. If you wish to be independent, I can help.”

“It’s a bit too far to call that a favor! Giving me the world if I’m greedy enough, yikes, sister!” A chill ran down my spine as Wendriosa laughed it off. A dragon was still a dragon, no matter how virtuous they might be. “… Okay, well, setting that aside … I can understand why you want to fight for the throne.”

“I am happy to hear that.”

“Yet, why are you escalating it into an actual succession crisis?” I asked, causing my sister to turn silent, a smile wavering a bit. “Brother Kahalameet and you are supposedly close. You know him well. I know you are over 200 years old and you seem mature enough, so why? This is a repeat of everything that scarred our mothers. I want to know this; why is Nong saying he has to step in to prevent you two from hating each other?”

Wendriosa frowned, clearly uncomfortable at me confronting her. Still, she didn’t complain about it and took her time to think her words through. She was pondering quite a while, making me worried she might not be earnest with me.

“… We talked about,” she admitted, making me raise a brow. “We talked about our wishes as a candidate. Everything. Neither of us wanted it to come to this, but neither did we compromise. Even when I told him I would not involve the empire with my plans by going out with those loyal to me, he still rejected the idea, telling me my mere presence would disrupt the world’s order.”

She sighed. “We thought we could delay the inevitable with Father still in good health, but it recently got worse as you just learned. We dragons instinctively know through his aura when his life force was waning. That’s how we siblings knew it, and it didn’t help Empress Melloxtressa fought with him. The news became clear through their roars … the news about you, as well.”

I nodded. I was just happy to hear that was why people knew I wasn’t an “actual princess.” It didn’t matter at this point, though.

“So our followers naturally egged us on and the threat of Father’s demise made us wary of each other. You see, the two of us have been building our factions since I first came back from my pilgrimage—for over 150 years now. I am weaker than Brother, but we have competitive numbers and power. He controls the fire flight well, while I received help from my leviathan side.”

“Leviathan side? Your mother is a leviathan?”

“A mutant. Instead of water, she soars in the sky through our empty vessel magic, [Cloud Control]. Water, wind, and lightning are the base for this element, so you can imagine what we can do with it,” she explained. “In any case, to make it simple, our paternal side supports Kahalameet while our maternal side is helping me. Politically, Caedhul’s leviathans wish to exert their influence over our empire. Unlike us dragons and drakes, the leviathans and adamantoises are quite loyal to their head Origin Goddess. We do not really respect Aurena, due to Grandfather leaving us for her.”

Neill made that abundantly clear … Well, anyways, that explains why those leviathans spoke to me in Iceskale.

“Why are you letting them help you, then?”

“Because I have no other supporters,” she admitted. “It is the same case with Phsothophus and Ryranakus. Even if little Ryranakus proves himself, nobody would support his rule over his older brother. The former is 81, the latter is 356; Phsothophus had over 300 years to befriend the current generation of earth dragons and drakes, including his elders. Our eldest two are competent, Hestia, they, sadly, lack the ambition to do something with it.”

“Since Kahalameet is 280 years your elder, you can’t find anybody to help you so you have to rely on foreigners?”

She nodded. “The fire and lava dragons respect Father as their one true emperor. They are completely loyal to our clan, which means they would support the one who resembles him the closest—our eldest. They disagree with my wishes, yet I do not wish to give it up, which is why Mother’s clan is helping me. I understand the truth … which is why I am trying to build up an actual faction with my own power, right now.”

“Wendriosa took care of us younger siblings,” Nong added. “She made sure to act as the best sister ever to gain our love.”

“Well, I did fail with Taimatrack since he was born while I was on my pilgrimage, so I missed out on his developmental years. In any case, I don’t want to think of my younger siblings as such, but I do know if it came to it, everybody in between Taimatrak and Fargryneill would help me over our two eldest.” She sighed, looking me in the eyes as the shame was consuming her. “Which is why I am asking this of you.”

“… Because I have the chance to rally the ice and holy dragon flights to your support, am I correct?”

She nodded. “I do not wish to hurt Kahalameet or Phsothophus. I do not wish for us to repeat our uncles’ and aunts’ mistakes. Which is why I am planning on winning by possessing the larger army. Dark, wind, water, ice, and holy; if I have all of them on my side, I could appeal to Kahalameet’s sensible side. He does not want the same bloodshed, so if I could present the number of dragonkin willing to die for us, I might be able to have him entrust me with our empire’s future.”

“This is a gamble.”

“Either that, or I must give up on my ambitions. Neither Kahalameet or Phsothophus will change Kargryx for the better, and I cannot allow that.”

I nodded, fully satisfied with all the information. “Understood.”

My reaction, though, made her anxious.

“However, I can’t abide such a threat. A succession crisis? And your option is to escalate it into a full on war when you know you have a way to end it peacefully? I understand you are desperate and you think this is the best way forward, but you are completely overlooking one option.”

I snapped my arm to the door, pointing at it. “The easiest solution to all of this is to remind our deadbeat father that he has no right to decide to just die like this! Over the most pathetic reason, ever! If he does, have him solve this by deciding on a damn successor! Even if it goes against your ambitions, this war between siblings cannot begin. As the youngest, I want my eldest sister to solve this properly!”

I slammed the table, pushing my face closer to hers. “Family is everything. We only have each other for so long … One stupid, stupid mistake and it can all go wrong. Our father is the prime example for this. One mistake and this is the result? He can’t accept me as his daughter and he decided to follow along Kramps’s selfishness? Like father, like son, huh?”

I could hear Hikari’s mind going crazy as this all reminded us of our big mistake back on Earth. I broke our family apart. I made Papa and Mama sad ‘cause we couldn’t think of a better way out of our slump.

Not this time. This was my family now, as well. I couldn’t allow something like this to happen to them … I felt so cursed. It felt like I was at fault again, even if I was trying to tell myself otherwise. Why was I at the center of a breaking family, again? Those thoughts made me feel so guilty.

“I know sometimes a war can’t be helped. The difference in ideologies and the creeping hostilities lead into it. When you can’t get something, then you have to grab it through force,” I said. “I have my own war to fight back on Altrust, but while I am on Kargryx, I won’t allow it. I am an idol! I make people smile and be happy. I will not be a part of your scheme, Big Sis Wendri”

Wendriosa smiled bitterly, nodding in acceptance. “… I can’t divert from my personality either, my little sister. You make me proud as a fellow Kargryxmor. Steadfast; good. You grew up too fast without me … You remind me too much of Taimatrak in this way … I want my ambitions to come true.”

“Then I will speak with our eldest brother. At the very least, I want to understand both sides of the story.”

Wendriosa nodded and stood up. “A fair point … Let us leave it at this. Haaaaaa … how tiring. How do humanoids constantly fill their schedule with these difficult talks.”

“Better to talk than to fight,” I said.

“Who knows,” Nong replied. “Sometimes clawing and biting each other would result in a more peaceful outcome.”

“Haha, in that case, either Kahalameet or Phsothophus would win it all the time. A battle tournament would only favor them,” Wendriosa pouted. “If I only had enough time to train, but Kahalemeet is on the precipice of reaching rank S. The moment he does, he will challenge me for the throne.”

… Okay, yikes. Yeah, I wouldn’t want to fight against somebody like that without an ace.

I was considering giving my sister a small edge by making her my retainer, but this was the wrong move right now. Any support could be misconstrued by Kahalameet and I didn’t want that. We needed to talk, first.

Speaking of which, Wendriosa promised she would plan the [Battle Frenzy] training for me in Eltharion’s stead. She mentioned she was responsible for training Nong, Ryranakus, and Neill, so she had the experience to prove her mettle. However, in addition, she mentioned she would plan a schedule around all my available siblings, as she wanted this to be a chance for us all to get to know each other.

“Kahalameet won’t say no. He is quite busy with his training and preparations for the succession, but after today, he probably will be curious about our talks. Use it well. Even I have trouble meeting him.”

Here’s to hoping we get along …

After we left the citadel, I instantly snapped my head up to the mountaintop, but felt a bit disappointed as I only saw Mom and Virrflax. My siblings hyped it so much; how impressive it was to see all six dragon empresses stand guard around the mountain, but it seemed I missed it all. A shame.

With my meeting here over, Wendriosa and Nong both excused themselves as it was evening and they wanted to return home. I said goodbye to them and Virrflax before I reunited with Mom and the others in my dragon form.

[“You did well, my dear.”] Mom nuzzled her gigantic head against my tiny body. [“Eltharion isn’t a cold person. He probably understood the sentiment despite his silence. Please, don’t take it too harshly.”]

[“I won’t cry again, I swear, jeez.”] I pouted as a joke. [“Still … what a dysfunctional family. I heard Wendriosa’s side of the story.”]

[“I presumed as such when I didn’t see you or Wendriosa come out. Give it some time, don’t rush your final choice. I can’t intervene, as to not sully my relationship with first empress Gyadiosa, but I will support you through the dragon ways.”]

[“Through offerings and deals, I presume?”] I said, causing Mom to giggle. I then turned my head down to the vast valley below this obsidian mountain, marveling at how beautiful it was. [“Then, I want to ask for my first favor—how do I survive through the blizzards of the northern glaciers?”]

Tasianna gasped. “Lady Hestia, are you intending—”

[“Yes, after hearing everything, I don’t think I have any choice. I somehow have to delay things until I become a rank A and evolve in time for power. I’m stopping this succession crisis. This is my family. I will not become the reason that it broke apart … and I will not allow my foolish father to die. He’s living one way or another to see me grow up in 100 years, Mom, I promise you that.”]

Mom’s eyes widened, letting out a deep sigh as she knew the importance of a promise to me. Still, she couldn’t help but smile slightly. [“How did I deserve such a devoted daughter? Don’t overdo it … I would rather he live long enough to see your fifth birthday. That alone would be enough.”]

[“Aim higher! Your daughter will become a wishing star if I have to!”]

To unlock my silver dragon lineage … It sounded so far-fetched but Aurena didn’t deny the chance this could be possible. This might actually influence my rank A evolution, maybe even unlock another mutant option. Even if that wouldn’t happen, it could unlock a new unique Job option or even new skills in my SP shop.

However, for now, I still had some things to handle before I could fully dedicate my time and efforts in our expedition up north. Two things, in fact, my promise to Vicar Marius to help his family member and also to have a stern talking to the one truly responsible for our family’s suffering.

<… Why are you thinking about me?>

Kargryxmor said before I glared at him.