Standroad was about to argue that it was all just a joke, but then he remembered the housekeeper's advice before entering the door and ultimately confessed honestly. "Yes, mother. I regret it now, and…"

"Enough, pack up your pretentious tricks. I know this is the fourth time you've harassed the dwarves without cause! The first time, you slipped into the mine and overturned a row of miners; the second time, you stuffed several overseers' heads into the anus of a young purple worm, and their faces are still oozing pus!” The legendary ancient dragon no longer hid her fury, directly roaring at Standroad.

The young green dragon didn't dare to move, continuing to bow his head and endure his mother's rage and spittle.

"I'm telling you, the cost of feeding you alone is two gold coins a day. To satisfy your other strange cravings, including the monthly allowance I give you, it costs over a thousand in a year. It's like a bottomless pit! Bottomless pit!" The legendary green dragon bellowed.

"Look at what else you've done. All day idling around, either chasing wild beasts in the forest - don't tell me you're practicing hunting; can you still not catch a wild boar? Or attacking dwarf miners. Or flirting with my maids." Lady Bloodfall glanced quickly at the half-dragon maid beside her, Aisia's face turned pale, bowing her head.

“I traded the slaughter on the battlefield for the divine blessing the Dragon Queen bestowed upon you. How do you repay me?”

"For so many years, you've contributed nothing to my domain. And the dwarves—" The legendary ancient dragon waved her front claw towards the outside of the fortress. "It is they who bring me wealth from the mines and the rocks. They are the steadfast foundation of Calamity Fortress, far more precious than you. They are my property, every single one of them!"

At that moment, a sapling of boneset under the Dragon Queen's feet began to sway, rapidly sprouting and growing, making a crackling sound of growth. Its branches and leaves formed the face of the old druid.

"Ma'am," he said slowly, "Dunback the dwarf has already calmed the miners."

Lady Bloodfall responded absently, "Uh, I know."

Standroad said angrily, "Mother, it's all because Old Oak snitched; otherwise, the dwarves wouldn't have discovered my... condolence early, which blew up the situation. This is causing trouble out of nothing!" He unhesitatingly blamed the other party.

The face on the boneset did not argue. The druid said, "My lord, there was no need for me to snitch. You were discovered by the dwarves."

"What nonsense are you talking about? My stealth was perfect. How could the dwarves, with their nearsightedness, spot me hidden among the treetops half a mile away!"

The druid pondered for a while, "Let Dunback talk to you about it." The boneset's branches and leaves became dense, turning from the emaciated face of an old man into the chubby face of a dwarf.

“Ma'am?” The dwarf using plant communication for the first time was unclear about the situation at the dragon’s nest.

" Dunback, how did so you discover Standroad's ambush?" the Bloodfall Lady asked.

The dwarf looked puzzled, "Isn't it obvious? On the gray-white ground, a lone white-bark pine stood, its treetop so bloated and huge, it looked like a giant green apple on a thin wheat stalk that was swaying from side to side…"

“Damn it!” Standroad, furious and ashamed, bit the boneset into pieces.

Lady Bloodfall slapped her own forehead, the surrounding servants turned their heads, trying hard to hold back their laughter.

With a tone of discouraged disappointment, the mother dragon asked Standroad a strange question, "Sende, by the continental calendar, how old are you this year?"

"Fifty," Standroad felt that something was wrong.

"It's fifty years, eight months, and twenty-one days. Your fifty-first birthday is coming up soon."

Standroad thought, could you even remember so clearly.

"When my scales were the same color as yours, I was already soaring high in the sky on long journeys, roaring towards the sky and the mountains, proclaiming my territory. And you, are still hiding under my wings, like a frail foal."

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What she called journeying was nothing more than leading a group of minions to rob passing merchants on long roads. In the end, wasn't it just that after being surrounded and pursued by local city-states, they fled ingloriously into the deep forests and mountains? Standroad secretly grumbled in his heart.

"According to the tradition of the chromatic dragons, by the age of fifty-one at the latest, you should leave the family and stand on your own. So Sende, I'm giving you three months' time, and by your birthday, you must move out of my domain."

"Can I find a cave nearby to live in after moving out?"

Lady Bloodfall suddenly brought her head close to Standroad, her huge head pressing down on her son until he could hardly breathe. The lady bared her teeth in a grim smile, speaking word by word to her son, "I made myself very clear. Within three months, move from - my - domain, otherwise, I will personally snap your neck."

"Alright, understood…" Standroad instinctively shrank his neck.

"Good that you understand." The legendary green dragon lifted her head again, yawned, "I've spoken so much today, I'm already sleepy. If there's nothing else, you may leave."

Aisia stood still, while the rest of the servants got up, bowed to the lady, and prepared to leave. Standroad saw Aisia wink at him, and he nodded slightly to acknowledge. Just then, the lady suddenly spoke again, "By the way, reward ten gold coins to that dwarf foreman. He reduced the casualties among the slaves, his name is..."

"Dunback, Lady," Aisia responded.

"Take it from Standroad's monthly allowance."

Standroad stormed out of the living room, huffing with anger, leaving only the mother dragon and the boneset swaying with new sprouts.

The old druid reshaped his face, "Lady, the young master's disguise is getting more and more realistic. If I hadn't watched him grow up, I would have thought he was both stupid and dull. But this time, it’s not about triggering your maternal love."

The mother dragon, devoid of any anger or discouragement, said intriguingly, "You're mistaken. The dragon whelps don't rely on disguises and lies to trigger some damn maternal love, but to prevent their parents from feeling threatened by their offspring, after all, a domain cannot accommodate two dragons."

"In my view, that’s the ‘maternal love’ in dragon culture."

"If he hadn't understood even this, I would have driven him out of the dragon nest thirty years ago. For our species, the main cause of premature death is the pride and recklessness that comes from not knowing fear. Now that he has learned the virtues of compromise and showing weakness, I'm reassured to let him leave the nest. What I'm most satisfied with is that he didn't even tell Aisia, who's closest to him. Being able to endure and keep secrets is far better than his brothers!"

"Is now the right time?" The old druid hesitated. "The neighbors to the east are becoming restless."

The mother dragon said disdainfully, "Standroad has been bowing and scraping for fifty years; if it continues, he will truly be unable to lift his head. As for the east, as long as I'm alive, they won't dare!"

Standroad spread his wings and flew towards the sky, but he didn’t go far before turning back, sneaking into a nearby abandoned dwarf mine. The cave was transformed by Aisia's stone shaping spell into a spacious room, large enough to accommodate the young green dragon's massive body, and was covered with soft fur.

Sure enough, two quarters of an hour later, Aisia's slim figure appeared at the entrance of the cave, "Sende, are you here?" She called out softly. The young green dragon lay still, extending his tail to help Aisia down the mine shaft, then wrapped his tail tip around Aisia, burrowing into the chest through the rabbit fur robe's seam.

"Alright, alright, Sende… stop it." Aisia pressed his tail tip with her hand. "I sneaked out while the lady was deep asleep to tell you a few urgent things, then I must go back."

"Don't worry, she’ll sleep for at least a whole day."

"No, she knows about our relationship. Today, you've made her so angry again. We should be more cautious recently."

"Fine," the green dragon sullenly retracted his tail, "It's rare for us to be together, and you're still so depressing. Maybe we won't have the chance later." The green dragon thought about his impending departure and grew even more melancholy.

"Sende, don't you want to leave?" Aisia lifted the green dragon's head with both hands, looking into his eyes, gently massaging his rough chin scales.

"Sigh~" The green dragon sighed deeply, his face full of helplessness. "Leave? Of course, I want to. What else in Calamity Fortress is worth my attachment besides you? My own mother always looks at me with disgust and disdain. She calls me an insatiable bottomless pit. But what chance do I have, with Old Oak, that old tree fork, monopolizing everything - the mines, forests, markets, not a single thing I can get involved in."

"Then why are you still so depressed? Soon, you will be able to escape from her shadow and prove yourself."

"Aisia, you know I have to leave the hidden forest every year to collect taxes. Those barren wastelands and hills I flew over outside are so desolate. After leaving Calamity Fortress, do I have to, like a wild dragon, roam around every day for bloody meat? I need servants, territory, and wealth!"

"Cheer up, how can you worry about such a laughable reason as food. You are blessed by the Dragon Queen…"

"I know, I know," Standroad interrupted impatiently, "You and she have been nagging for fifty years: I was born on the battlefield, due to my mother's outstanding achievements, divine grace was bestowed... I'm sick of it! It's just growing faster and being able to use a few useless pseudo-spells."

"You're a whole size bigger than dragons of the same age, faster and stronger, and you can also use pseudo-spells of the earth domain, evil domain, and chaos domain, a talent that only a few red dragons and blue dragons in the chromatic dragons possess."

The green dragon pressed his claws on the ground, and bunches of serrated-edge and spiny bushes grew rapidly, taller than his claws in a few breaths.

"Plant growth, soft stone spell, do you want me to be a gardener or a miner?"

Aisia carefully avoided the poisonous serrated bushes, softly saying, "Don't worry, I'll be by your side."

The green dragon looked up, puzzled at the half-dragon maid, "What do you mean? Are you planning to go with me?"

The half-elf dragon knelt on the ground, looking up at him, "Of course. My mother often talked about Neverwinter, her hometown, when I was young. She told me the city walls of Neverwinter were built with limestone of similar color, shining white; those towering spires, each taller than the oldest redwoods in the hidden forest; and the miraculous three stone sculpture bridges, I've dreamed of seeing them. Yet day after day, I can only be confined between the mountains and forests, gasping under the lady's oppression. You are my only chance for freedom, how could I not seize it."

"But the lady won't agree."

"Yes, she won't agree, so you have to help me. My poor mother, who carried the nostalgia for her hometown till death, never set foot out of the lady's domain once in her life. I don't want to end up like her, imprisoned by these mines and caves for a lifetime."

Standroad pondered. If he could cooperate with an eighth-level sorcerer, his chances of growth would greatly increase, especially since they trusted each other quite a bit.

"What should we do?" Standroad asked.

"You can tell the lady that you need manpower to establish a new domain, then list a name list for her, adding my name in an inconspicuous corner."

"It's useless, you are the maid most pleasing to her heart, and she has spent a lot of money nurturing your magical talents, she won't easily let you go."

"You have to do your best to persuade her, at least make her waver, Sende—you are a smart kid... dragon, I know you can do it. If not, I have my own way."

"What way?" Standroad asked. He didn't believe any rhetoric could move the legendary, ancient dragon's heart of stone.

Aisia smoothed her ear-side hair, soft as satin ribbons, slightly raising her mouth corner, revealing a resolute smile.

"I don't want to be a prisoner of Calamity Fortress for life. If I can't get freedom, then I will climb the Iron Claw Peak's watchtower and use the woodpile there to burn myself clean."