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Chapter 24

The girl’s strange thoughts sometimes exceeded the expectations of the blue dragon.

He fell silent for a moment, bypassing a question he couldn’t answer.

“Want to try it out?” he asked.

Mira stared at the scale in her palm.

“If you give me the medium, won’t it cause you any problems?” she asked.

“I have plenty more,” Lance replied honestly.

“Oh.” Mira was reassured and put it away, though she didn’t intend to use it just yet.

“The medium is too valuable,” she said, showing a stingy expression. “I’ll wait until the crucial moment to use it.”

“My life is more valuable,” Lance said, watching Mira tuck the scale into her pocket. “Aren’t you planning to subdue the magical dragon? It’d be better to use it for that.”

“Do you think the magical dragon will come back?” Mira turned to look at Lance, her uncertainty apparent.

There were too many strange secrets inside the tower.

“Yes,” Lance nodded firmly. “He will definitely come back.”

“You’re so sure,” Mira said, a new question rising in her mind.

Lance sighed inwardly. Mira’s thoughts were too erratic, and perhaps from now on, he’d have to think carefully before speaking to avoid being caught by this girl with a bizarre way of thinking.

“Yes,” Lance said, looking at her. “What did you see in the library?”

“Books piled up like mountains.”

“What about the other storage rooms?”

“Grain, wood, stones…” As each word slipped from her lips, Mira’s eyes gradually brightened.

She had only explored a few rooms in the tower? There were so many more rooms, and it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that a tower was like a world in itself.

Seeing the sudden realization on Mira’s face, Lance nodded in satisfaction.

“There are too many treasures in this tower. The magical dragon won’t give it up,” he added. “Besides, I’m still here.”

The magical dragon wouldn’t miss any opportunity to humiliate him. After all, how could the high-and-mighty black dragon allow himself to be defeated by a weak blue dragon?

For the black dragon, it wasn’t even about obtaining the tower. What he wanted was to crush the blue dragon clan and make him admit, with unwillingness on his face, that he was a freak.

Lance turned his head.

Only he viewed the tower as something of extraordinary significance.

“I really don’t understand,” Mira said, tilting her head at Lance. “Why would the magical dragon want to marry a princess? The tower doesn’t seem suitable for a delicate princess life.”

Mira couldn’t help but think of Princess Maria. She was a kind-hearted girl, filled with curiosity just like Mira. But the king had always spoiled her, which meant the princess had never left the kingdom and didn’t possess the strength to protect herself.

Mira was somewhat glad that it was she who came to the tower instead of Maria. If Maria had been sent to the tower, they would have starved to death together with Lance.

There was no food here, nor any water.

Maria would certainly stay optimistic, but optimism couldn’t replace strength.

Mira had magic.

She sighed. The days spent with Maria in the kingdom were really fun. I wonder how she’s doing now?

Human girls were truly the most mysterious and frightening things in the world.

After hearing the sigh, Lance’s mind was left with only one thought.

A minute ago, Mira was happily discussing whether the magical dragon would return to the tower. In just one minute, she had started sighing.

The giant dragon observed her expression, but she didn’t seem unhappy.

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“Didn’t you adapt well?” Lance asked her. “Although, you might not be a princess.”

Mira tilted her head. She wasn’t surprised that Lance knew her identity because she didn’t seem like a princess.

“You can say that to me,” she said, “but I must be a princess. Understand?”

If the magical dragon knew the king had lied to him, it could bring even more trouble. Right now, the magical dragon wasn’t here, but Lance said he would definitely return.

She had acted overly curious about magic, revealing her identity in front of Lance. Good mages were always clever, and Mira knew she had been too hasty.

“Why do you insist on staying here?” Lance asked. If she wasn’t a princess, then she wouldn’t be the magical dragon’s bride.

“The scale is a permanent medium,” Lance said seriously. “If you take it and leave, you can use the scale to filter and cast magic for the rest of your life.”

“I have nowhere else to go.” Mira stared at him. “You seem to not want me to stay here, Lance. Are you having second thoughts about teaching me magic?”

“Mages are interested in many things. Mira, you’ve been asking me a lot of questions. We need to be fair.”

“You already know why I’m here in the tower, and I only know you’re a fake… no, a real princess,” Mira pouted, hesitating whether to reveal something to Lance. He was a powerful mage, and he had traveled across most cities of the continent. He must have more knowledge than she did.

Could he help her? Mira still remembered the description of “her” in the letter.

The strongest casting medium created by the Magic Nexus in this world.

“She” could be shared.

A medium was a unique existence. Shared mediums—this was a new and unfamiliar concept.

Even more frightening was that Mira realized she was the medium. Was she going to be shared, torn apart, and consumed?

She moved around, pacing a circle before stopping back in front of Lance.

“What do you know about the Magic Nexus?”

Lance smiled.

“You want to trick me for information without telling me anything?”

Her little scheme was exposed, but Mira wasn’t discouraged.

“I lived in the Magic Nexus for eighteen years,” she looked at Lance. “Aren’t you curious why I suddenly left?”

Lance squinted slightly, not speaking, waiting for Mira to answer.

“I saw a letter on my mentor’s desk. To this day, I believe he purposely let me see it.” Mira gazed at him. “The letter said they were going to use the best medium humans had ever created. It said, ‘she.’ ‘She’ is the medium.” Mira’s voice trembled.

“I was just scared, an indescribable fear.” Mira’s hands shook as she recalled her instinctive shivering at that time. She could still feel the palpitations.

It was just an ordinary letter. Letters exchanged between mentors and old friends were never just one or two. But only this time did Mira feel an indescribable fear.

And Lance’s earlier words had provided a reason to explain where this fear was coming from.

The Magic Nexus had stolen parts of the goblin technology related to creating casting mediums, and twenty years ago, they had made their last move on the goblins.

The goblins who survived never mentioned this catastrophe. Though they hated the Magic Nexus, they never tried to retaliate.

Perhaps the “she” in Mira’s words was… Lance’s gaze fixed on the girl in front of him. She was just a gifted spellcaster, a girl with a natural sensitivity, and apart from that, the Dragon’s Eye could not see anything unusual about her.

“You think she is you,” Lance gently nodded, looking at Mira, whose eyes held confusion and worry.

“I ran away because of this guess. I left the Magic Nexus in a hurry, but your words confirmed it. Ever since I left, the pursuers behind me have never stopped.” Mira recalled the days and nights spent in fear of being chased.

If it hadn’t been for the king’s recruitment order, she truly wouldn’t know where to go next.

In the palace, Mira spent the most peaceful time during her flight, meeting the frank and fragile Maria. Just like her, the princess also had her troubles.

However, her troubles seemed a little childish in Mira’s eyes.

Mira wasn’t afraid of being sacrificed to the magical dragon because she really had nowhere else to go.

And coming to the tower was completely different from her imagination. Lance was a strange guy, but Mira didn’t deny his vast knowledge.

Although Lance had appeared extremely weak since she arrived in the tower, Mira’s mage intuition told her he was hiding a lot more.

In her pocket, Mira carried a piece of dragon scale. The blue-glowing dragon scale—if Lance’s story was true, it came from a blue dragon.

A spellcaster who survived dragon flames, a lost spell, and using dragon scales as a casting medium. From his words, one could tell he had deep connections with the tower’s previous master.

Lance was also considering whether the “she” Mira mentioned referred to a person. During his travels, he had indeed heard about goblins creating a more powerful medium, but before this news could be verified, the goblin settlement was attacked.

The goblins who were lucky enough to survive never spoke of the catastrophe. They hated the Magic Nexus, but never sought revenge.

Maybe the “she” in Mira’s words was… Lance watched the girl in front of him. She was just a gifted spellcaster, an exceptionally perceptive girl, and aside from that, his Dragon’s Eye didn’t notice anything strange about her.

“Does this question make you troubled?” Mira looked at Lance, who hadn’t answered yet, and wondered if she had made it difficult for him.

Lance wasn’t a mage from the Magic Nexus; how could he possibly know how they planned things?

“The clues are too few,” Lance shook his head.

“I know humans have been trying to create powerful mediums. But, as I told you before, mediums come from nature. Every strong mage is strong because of their own power. Although I don’t know what ‘she’ represents in your words, the only thing I can say is that their direction is wrong.”

“You’ve already said that once…” Mira felt a little annoyed. Was she wasting Lance’s time by being so fixated on it?

“It’s fine,” Lance still maintained patience. “It’s normal to feel scared when something concerns you personally. After all, this isn’t an ordinary matter.”

“Do you really not think I’m troublesome?” Mira looked at him. “Sometimes, I even think I’m strange. The other people at the Magic Nexus thought so too… They said I asked too many questions. But isn’t it a mage’s job to maintain curiosity? Can everything really be figured out by following the usual steps?”

“Do you think I’m strange?” Lance didn’t answer directly but asked her back.

Mira shook her head. “You’re very patient, Lance. If others heard my questions, they would show signs of disgust soon.”

“I’ve always been called a freak, Mira.”

Mira blinked. How could this be? Lance had such a good personality. He was mysterious, but he was truly patient in answering her questions.

“Don’t lie to comfort me.”

“It’s true. I’ve always been called a freak,” Lance’s eyes flashed with a hint of recollection. “They always liked to bully me.”