The next morning was a rush as a startled Richard watched as hordes of serpents moved busily throughout the mansion.

Seeing his confusion, Leo laughed happily.

"She's a wyrm you know." Leo reminded him, as Richard could only watch dumbfounded.

Richard knew of course, he knew all the traits of wyrms, including their sovereignty over serpents.

And yet throughout the duration of their stay within sister Alexandria's territory, Richard had never seen the serpents around the territory.

Now that he thought about it, he realized that he hadn't even seen a serpent since he began staying here.

The last one he had fought had been a boa concrusher, and since then he hadn't seen one since then.

Looking back, perhaps that was more than pure coincidence.

This thought did not linger long, as sister Alexandria began prepping them for the interview.

Nothing extravagant was planned, merely for them to avoid certain topics.

Richard did not dress up, nor armor up. He assumed it was better not to armor up, since it could be seen as rude.

He assumed at least, since knights did not wear armor when having guests over, according to the books.

It seemed to be the correct response, since when they entered the dining room, none of the paladins were armored up, seemingly dressed in casual clothes.

Did they have spatial type storage objects? Probably.

Regardless, the meal went well.

It was a meal, worthy of being called brunch.

It was a quiet, proper meal, and yet, also one clearly fraught with an undertone of urgency.

Eating was merely a formality, something meant to be finished, and then move into the interview.

Still, Richard didn't let this get to him, choosing to enjoy his meal.

He noticed that paladin Devis was a lot less hostile than before, and paladin Copernicus seemed more... hostile.

Hostile wasn't quite the right word, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

Not while he was busy feeding Galileo.

Apparently, Galileo wanted to enjoy being fed, since Richard couldn't do so before.

The dragon himself found it terribly embarrassing, yet at the same time, couldn't help but want to take care of the kid, regardless of him now being an adult.

He had wanted to do it in his youth, when Leo was a far smaller child, and far cuter.

Now 17, he was less cute, and yet there was an enjoyable feeling to it all.

Jealousy.

That was the word Richard was looking for, as Copernicus secretly grumbled to himself about how cute his apprentice was to the young dragon, yet clearly so cold and snappy to him.

'Cheer up' Scave said mentally. 'He's just excited to see his old adoptive father'

The words fell flat, with the paladin of Isis too busy complaining in the back of his mind.

'He doesn't let me feed him or tussle his hair. It's so unfair!'

Sister Alexandria commented nothing, but easily saw through Copernicus.

And secretly wished that Richard would be more infantile as well.

Oh well, at least Achil was more open to it.

Achild was being hand tail fed by sister Alexandria, much to the jealousy of all the serpents watching in the background, as their queen handfed all the food to this random upstart.

It was truly, an interesting meal.

Finished eating, Devis cleaned his mouth with a few dabs, complimenting the wyrm appropriately.

"My compliments to the chef. The food is truly amazing."

"I am glad to hear that. I'm sure a few of the culinary techniques he's used are outdated, but hopefully palatable."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"They are timeless and have aged finely." Devis complimented politely.

And that was practically the only real conversation to the meal.

A certain crab and octopus were nowhere to be seen.

----------------------------------------

The interview took place in what could be described as a lounge, at least according to what Richard had read in the books and did bear a resemblance to the ones used by the temple to greet guests.

The paladins were sat on one side, opposed to where Richard and Alexandria sat.

Achil was resting next to Alexandria, next to Galileo who had Panda resting on his lap. The latter was far more interested in the conversation than the former, who was concentrated on getting more comforting from Alexandria.

With everyone nice and comfortable, the conversation began.

Paladin Copernicus took the lead, with the other two observing, and not reacting for the most part.

Likely Devis had been restricted due to his prior involvement in their initial less-than-pleasant interaction.

In spite of the seemingly hostile appearance he had earlier at the meal, he was perfectly cordial throughout the conversation.

That was it had felt like throughout the whole thing. A conversation.

It started simple at first, things like how he was doing, if his life had been good so far, simple surface questions like that.

The more difficult questions started following suit.

-How are you feeling? Uncomfortable?

-What does this "system" actually do?

- has this system told you about the locations of other players?

- Have you tried praying to Isis ever since you've been reincarnated as a dragon?

- How did you meet the demigod squirrel?

The first had not seemed a difficult question at first glance until it was revealed the reason he inquired was that the churches had worried about the effect of reincarnation would be on a soul when they retained their previous life memories.

Richard did reveal the system had a shop that allowed "players" to buy whatever they wished, skills included, as long as they had the appropriate number of points.

The look they had was ghastly, clearly worried about how this would affect the economy, until Richard revealed how high the prices were for appropriately rare items.

Their faces loosened up at that, though Devis and Scave both grimaced, knowing how much work they would both have as more heavily government involved paladins.

The third was a solid no, given that Richard had been given no information about the location of any player, though he found it weird that the temples really had no clue either. Had the gods not looked, or told them? Player 0 he knew of, but the player's location was still a mystery.

He had never tried praying to Isis, much to Copernicus' dismay. Richard didn't understand why. He'd never prayed to her anyway.

The last question required a little bit of mixing, blending lies and truth.

Richard wasn't sure he should share the fact that the system could just dole out demigods in a game of gambling. It was something that could easily stir trouble and was something Richard feared could also cause strife for all players, once the various churches found out and promptly pushed even further to gather their own players.

The smallest chance to lay their hands on a demigod to serve their order was more than enough to make a few priests turn greedy.

So he told them that they saved Panda when he was an infant and in danger from another creature, and as a result, the squirrel was indebted to them.

It wasn't wrong, given the system had saved Panda in a moment of near death before even being born, and thus, without Richard pulling Panda in a gamble, Panda would theoretically be in a space between life and death.

Whether or not he believed it, Richard did not know, but Copernicus seemed to accept it, as he moved onto his next question.

"When do you plan to leave the mountain?"

"When... do I... plan to leave the mountain?" Richard repeated hesitantly.

"Yup." Copernicus affirmed.

Richard thought about it.

When?

When would he leave?

Richard hadn't thought about it, deciding to wait until when he was stronger, until he was absolutely confident in his strength.

Was he strong enough yet?

No.

No he wasn't strong enough yet. He was only a B rank creature. So small, not with paladins like Devis out there, or S class hunters, or even hunters who would gladly tear him into shreds .

Not yet. Not until he was stronger.

But when?

Richard's mind raced as he thought about it, seeking when?

Richard wanted to go out, but he wasn't strong enough right?

Right?

Noticing Richard's silence as his mind whirled, sister Alexandria checked on him. "Are you alright?" she asked, placing her tail on his shoulder in support, snapping Richard out of his whirlwind of worries, and yet the thought still remained.

When?

He didn't have an answer really. Just a vague 'when he was strong enough.' But when would that be? Richard could feel the expentant gaze of Galileo, and yet Richard couldn't give him an answer yet. He wasn't confident enough yet. Hesitantly, Richard opened his mouth to respond-

Bam!

The sound of a door slamming open reverberated through the whole room as an octopulse and a certain godly crab entered the room.

'We have arrived!'

'Karkinos believes the best entrances are late!' A pair of misfit creatures declared.

The weird feeling in the room from the prior question disappeared as instead surprise filled the room instead, taking the pressure off of Richard.

Seeing the crab in particular, Devis laughed.

"Would you look at that! We finally found him!" he exclaimed excitedly as he pointed at the crab.

Scave looked happier as well commenting, "well, that is certainly one positive to this trip."

Copernicus seemed confused for a moment. "What are you guys talking about-" he paused as he remembered something. "Oooh! That case from a few centuries ago! The one about a wondering monster god!" he said, remembering something.

All three seemed rather glad to have discovered Karkinos, much to the confusion of everyone else.

Considering the abrupt change in pace, sister Alexandria declared. "Well then, I think this was a good first interview, hmm? How about we continue this tomorrow, once you've organized your next set of questions that you can ask Richard, yes?"

Despite her politeness, there was a hint of finality.

Seeing that their interview was at an end, they accepted it quickly, and began to return to their rooms.

Except for Copernicus, who was called aside by Richard.

Despite Richard's unsureness about when he would leave, he was still an organized person.

He could put that aside. The dragon had already been pushing this thought aside well enough already..

He had other things to do.

"Can we talk?" Richard asked the man, clearly indicating for them to talk alone as they left the room.

Galileo got up to follow the two, only to be stopped by sister Alexandria.

"They seem to want to talk about something private." she said, as she watched them go, and then looking back at Galileo.

Galileo, the unwilling student, and Richard, the child who was looking out for him.

What connection did the child and the teacher have in common?