Raising a hand, Kip sighed and prepared for the impromptu lecture about the Firebrands and dragons.
“I will answer your questions one at the time, but please let me gather my thoughts first. And Heracles, how did you not know about dragons if you've been trained by Hera?” He asked. Heracles, with all the grace of a tortoise on its back, shrugged. Kip stared, dumbfounded and slightly disappointed, at Dianas friend before continuing.
“Yes, dragons still exist. They are rare, most of them don't interact with The Kingdom all that much due to plenty of reasons that won't be mentioned, and take a much longer time raising their young compared to a human. A couple of hundred years longer. They still haven't recovered their numbers from the wars against the gods five hundred or so years ago, but you might see one in Crownfield if you're lucky.” He paused, seeing if there were any followup questions for him. Vita had plenty of questions for the man, like what the god wars were even about, or where Vita could find dragons. Because going up to a dragon that was made of fire didn't sound like an easy target to assimilate.
Seeing that no one spoke up, Kip stood up with a grunt and walked over to a wall. With a wave of his hand and some mana to fuel it, a hidden bookshelf revealed itself. There were a surprising amount of books stacked up side by side, and the subtle blue glow covering them all hinted at some form of magical protection. The book he pulled out had a leather cover with an artistic rendition of a dragon sleeping drawn on it. Kip held the book, flipped it on its side, and allowed the pages to quickly flip over on their own while using his ability to read them. Looking around confused, Beatrice leaned over to Diana to whisper.
“What is your dad doing, Diana?” Diana's smile hadn't gone down since seeing her father, and Beatrice got a good look at her white teeth.
“It doesn't really have a name, since everyone calls it something different, but he is more or less thinking super quickly, it's why we can afford a lot of stuff with barely any export.” Beatrice nodded, understanding how such an ability would benefit a noble, while looking over all the papers littering Kips desk. Rubbing his chin, Heracles was staring at the ground while deep in thought about something, while Kip continued.
“Ah, during GW, the dragons lost 3451 members of their species to various gods and their slaves. Before that, they lost 2094 members of their species during the demonic era. Finally, during the demonic era, the first recorded instance of a wendigo arrived from the Words Tongue and caused mass casualties to every actively fighting army. The dragons lost 506 gold dragons and roughly a thousand other dragons to it before it was killed by the Hero and his companions.” Kip turned around to look at everyone present, and tried without success to not stare at Vita. Everyone was looking at Vita with different levels of awe, fear, and curiosity. While Diana didn't look at Vita like the rest, she was worried regardless. Feeling the need to speak up for Vita, she does so.
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“Vita isn't like that, Vita is really nice! Just because he got a potty mouth, doesn't mean he'll go do anything that horrible!” She spoke, trying to lower the tension. But Vita found their reactions to oh so funny. The smells they released that a human couldn't register, the flush of hormones and chemicals running through their bodies as they looked at Vita. It was intoxicating.
Yet also unproductive, them being scared to immobility just meant more seconds would pass without anything happening. Vita hated it when nothing was happening.
“No need to panic, I would never do something like that.” Vita's words didn't do much to easy everyone's minds, but Kip did see the opportunity that was presented. He clapped his hands together once.
“Well, you kids must be tired after everything that has happened today. Diana, would you like to guide your friends to the guestrooms? Get yourselves comfortable while you're in Wolfheart. If you have any questions, ask any of the maids or servants, and they'll guide you to me.” He returned the book to its place and waved the shelf away, returning it to a regular wall. They shared a few quick pleasantries before walking out and down the halls once more. It was quiet, save for the sound of them walking and the distant sounds of work being done. Diana led them from the front in silence, Vita moving by her side. The three others were trailing along, with various expressions of their own.
Beatrice, looked at Vita, imagined what Vita could do to them if a wendigo could slaughter dragons. Heracles was clenching and unclenching his hands and frowned heavily. Yet it was Earl who seemed to be more annoyed at them instead of at Vita.
“Ok, enough of being scared. It's unfitting of all of us to be afraid of Vita.” Earl, surprisingly, declared. Everyone stopped, surprised at the sudden introduction of a voice. He continued.
“Anything done by a previous wendigo does not mean that Vita would act the same, and we all know this. If, and I mean purely in theory, Vita could've killed Diana when they first meet, but here they both are. Vita could've killed us in the tournament, or done more to harm us, but almost always held back in some way. It was only against Rubert-Ree Jacob that something went wrong, and that was in a fight against the son of both a Royal and a dragon.” Earl looked Vita directly in an eye that was placed in the back of Vitas head.
“I doubt any of us knows you as well as Diana, Vita, but I think I understand you well enough to say this. You are not a threat, because I know you are a friend.” He finished with a breath, and waited for a response. Everyone was shocked, even Vita was. But while everyone was shocked at how Earl had pointed out Vitas known behavior, Vita was shocked by something else.
At how wrong Earl was.