Ceylon had undertaken all of the responsibilities of ruling Draliz on her back. Sometimes she listened to the Dragon of Water’s advice ⁠— whose collar had now received Malz’s mana instead out of precaution fearing her D Tier mana wouldn’t be effective ⁠— and other times she listened to Malz.

While, in the past, Ceylon didn’t know what to make of the Dragon of Shadows, but right now; based on everything she had experienced, a very strong impression had formed in her mind. Described in a single word, it was:

Dependable.

The Dragon of Shadows was dependable, but more than anything she was loyal. Ceylon was sure of it. While Ceylon didn’t fully understand why Malz was loyal to Arc, it didn’t exactly matter. Not right now. While they were both worried about the danger Arc was undergoing, all they could do was focus on protecting Arc’s hard work.

And it had been surprisingly… hard.

Since the election two weeks ago and since then there had been two revolts, not only that but certain businesses had gone on strike for petty reasons. Unfortunately, Draliz revolved around business, and with it came alliances. And now, people were trying to cause unrest in order to bring scrutiny to the effectiveness of the new ruling family of Draliz.

Thankfully, Malz and the Dragon of Water had been available to deal with everything effectively; even if a little violence had been required. Though, Ceylon did find it funny. In the past she was so against things like this but now…

“Well if it’s for Arc it’s fine…” And then she sighed. “Though it really has been two weeks since she disappeared… I wonder if she’ll be returning any time soon.”

Ceylon shook her head, she was in a grand opulent office in the castle. This was meant to be her father’s office, but after she placed her foot down she had essentially taken control of the Arlow family. All of her hard effort in the past had been rewarded in one go, and yet she didn’t feel an ounce of happiness.

In the end, all she cared about was her friend’s whereabouts, hoping more than anything that she’d return home safe.

“I hope she is,” Malz added, a long sigh leaving her. “All of this human stuff is boring.”

“Maybe you could go do other stuff?” Ceylon asked hesitantly.

She was afraid of Malz not being around, but she wasn’t Arc. Even after these two weeks, they hadn’t grown that much closer. She exactly couldn’t expect Malz to stay around just for her⁠—

Malz scoffed. “Yeah and disappoint Arc? Hard pass.”

“Right… thank you.” Ceylon nodded, and then chuckled awkwardly. “I guess we both really like Arc? I certainly wouldn’t be bothering to run the country if it wasn’t for her…”

Malz raised her brow. “You like Arc?”

“Of course,” Ceylon agreed without hesitation. “Don’t you?”

“Well naturally, but…” Malz frowned, looking all over her. “Well why do you accompany Arc?”

Ceylon paused, confused. Then, she scratched her cheek. “Well, Arc saved my life and has done so much for me. I think it’s only natural for me to try to repay her to the best of my ability. Plus, she has also done so much for me emotionally.”

“Done things for you emotionally?” There was an increased curiosity in Malz’s tone.

“Well like, helped me deal with my family hang ups; helping me process feelings… that kind of stuff. Though I, uh, thought she saw me as something else and I rejected her?” Malz tensed, Ceylon chuckled. “Turns out she didn’t feel anything of the sort for me or anyone really…” And she began to trail off. “I just see her as a big sister I guess⁠… I like her a lot…”

“Right…” the Dragon of Shadows tensed. “Did she truly mean anyone?”

“Well, I didn’t ask.” Ceylon tilted her head. “Why? Are you curious?”

Malz frowned and then shook her head. “I guess I’m not surprised.”

With that, the Dragon of Shadows stood up and left the room, leaving Ceylon bewildered.

* * * * *

Malz walked out of the room and into the hall. She was the Dragon of Shadows. A figure that was feared in history, and one that had a legend behind it, and in spite of all her life experience she felt… weird. She didn’t understand what she was feeling. It was like a burning feeling of annoyance. The words ringing in her mind.

Arc had never really felt that way for anything or anyone. It was something that Malz actually didn’t feel all that surprised about, even if it had come out of nowhere. It was…

Why did she even care?!

She stomped on the ground crossing her arms in annoyance. Arc wasn’t even around, she was in the forgotten places, and yet Malz was just worrying about this instead. Something that⁠ should’ve been quite obvious to her already!

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Ugh,” she groaned. “I really should get my priorities checked.”

Malz pinched the bridge of her nose. She did care about Arc’s interests, however she cared way more about the heroine’s safety.

A sigh left her.

“Hopefully Arc will return soon…”

And then, when she was about to head back into the room she heard hurried footsteps coming in her direction. She turned only to pause. A man was coming, it was just an ordinary man ⁠— a worker of the castle ⁠— however, in his arms there was a rather small box. As soon as he spotted her he seemed to heave a sigh of relief.

“Thank the System that I found you, Lady Malz.”

He came to a stop in front of her as she raised her brow. The man let out a very long breath as he pushed the box in her direction.

“What is that?”

“They are letters from neighboring kingdoms, they all arrived at once and…”

“And…?” Malz pressed.

“They are from heroes.”

“What?”

◇ ◇ ◇

An assembly was called.

Malz ⁠— while skeptical if every single letter was of a hero ⁠— still took the necessary procedures and informed Ceylon of what had happened, and shortly after the Dragon of Water had been called over. Now, all three sat at a small round table within the ruler’s office, in front of them there were at least ten letters.

“What… could they even want…?” Ceylon asked.

“That is…” Malz trailed off. She didn’t really know.

Meanwhile, the Dragon of Water was just sitting there with a frown on his face. At first, neither of the two noticed, but soon Malz took notice of it and decided to ask.

“Dragon of Water, do you know what this is about…?”

“I may have an idea…” he said with a frown. “And I do not like it.”

Ceylon raised her brow, now evidently panicked.

“What is it? You can’t just not say it?”

“Well…” He tapped his chin in thought. “The Hero of Flames was evidently interested in Draliz even after Arc had ruined his plans, the Hero of Spirits, the Hero of Necromancy even⁠— so many heroes are interested in Draliz, so it might be due to that.”

Malz blinked and immediately frowned. “So you’re saying that other heroes might be vying for Draliz already?”

“There is a chance.” The Dragon of Water’s frown worsened. “There is also a chance they want something else. We haven’t opened the letters.”

Ceylon seemed to be quite alarmed as well, but she quickly composed herself as she let out a breath. “Right, we should take a look at them first, before making any assumptions.”

They all nodded, and soon the letters began to be read out loud. And all of them, made mention of the Hero of Flames and expressed their congratulations towards finally ruling a nation. It was…

“But the Hero of Flames is dead… do they just… not know?” Ceylon asked, fidgeting.

“Possibly,” the Dragon of Water agreed, sifting through the letters, absentmindedly re-reading them. “However, there is also something else that I’m noticing; all the heroes are on friendly terms with the Hero of Flames. I don’t know if they’ll do anything if they learn of his demise but…”

His face darkened.

“It is for the best that no rumors escape Draliz.”

Malz and Ceylon grievously nodded.

“Though that still leaves the question: why did the other heroes want Draliz? That is not something I fully understand,” the Dragon of Water said.

They both frowned.

“That is something we can figure out at a later time, maybe,” Malz suggested. “I suppose there are more pressing matters to attend to, such as… replying to the letters.”

“Right…” Ceylon nodded.

And the Dragon of Water just stared for a moment before closing his eyes.

It was evident that both people had forgotten; it’d be weird if the Hero of Flames didn’t reply back. So now, they had to reply to the letters, and the question was…

What does one even reply to that?

“If only Regis’karr was here…” Ceylon sighed. “I assume he’d be helpful.”

And then, there was just silence. They all knew where the red-dragon had gone off to. At least, Malz knew; she didn’t really know if the Dragon of Water was in the know, but given she never even bothered to ask his name it’s not as if she’d suddenly try to make sure he understood the situation.

“I think, perhaps we should write a generic reply. Perhaps something casual,” Malz suggested. “While we don’t know what type of relationships the Hero of Flames had, we can just mirror the tone of each letter individually.”

“So something like: ‘thank you, it was really hard’?” Ceylon asked.

“I suppose so, yes.”

And then there was a pause, the Dragon of Water seemed mostly uninterested, but Malz was nervous and so was Ceylon. So after a few moments of deliberation, Malz added something.

“We can probably take a week to send the letters back…”

Ceylon immediately nodded.

“So, at least we have a week to come up with the responses.” A sigh of relief left Ceylon. “That’s… hopefully Arc will be back before anything goes wrong⁠—” And she shook her head. “No, we shouldn’t cause any problems for her return.”

“I do agree with that.” Malz grabbed a piece of paper and a quill from the desk, grabbing a letter and beginning to read it carefully.

The Hero of Mist? She had never heard of him before. But the tone seemed quite amicable, they owned a very small country it seemed. From the sounds of it, the Hero of Flames was considerably stronger than him too.

“Writing a response shouldn’t be too bad…”

Malz sighed. She did want to take the approach of: ‘worst case scenario we’ll just kill them.’ But unfortunately, while she was confident in even killing two weak-ish heroes at once, ten or more was an impossibility.

So in the end, she started writing.

She slowly wrote, picking each word carefully. And when she finished the first sentence, the door slammed open. The same man from before was panting.

“It’s an emergency!” he called.

Everyone turned to him in curiosity, but also there was also tension in the air from what was already happening. And the fact that the man was absolutely panicking, it made everyone present worry.

“The⁠— t-the.” He stuttered.

“The?” Malz asked, frustrated.

And the man screamed.

“The Heroine of Water is demanding to see the Heroine of Frost!”