“You’re not coming with us, Your Gloriousness?”

Vur blinked at the dwarf staring up at him. “Nope.”

“But, but why?” the dwarf asked. “If you came with us, the humans wouldn’t stand a chance. There’s nothing they could do to stop you. Their defenses would crumble, and we’d claim their lands without any issues.”

“I only came here to fight the phoenix,” Vur said, crossing his arms over his chest. “My wife says I rely too much on smacking my problems to solve them. Just follow my orders and you’ll win the war. It’s not that hard.”

“I, I don’t understand, but I hear and obey,” the dwarf said, hanging his head. “Men”—he gestured towards the dwarves standing behind him in neat rows—“we move out at once! We’ll seize the remainder of the forest and strike the humans where they least expect it.”

“You’re really going to leave them to their own devices?” Lulu asked Vur, rolling her eyes up to look at him. As usual, he was standing on her head.

Vur nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “They’ll be fine. One of them is supposed to be a leader, but I can’t remember who.”

“Probably the one with the eyepatch,” Lulu said. “You know, the one who just spoke to you? Now, I’m no detective, but I’m pretty sure it’s him.”

Vur shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter,” he said as the duo watched the dwarves march into their cars and drive away. A few went towards the east to deliver the captive elves back to the capital while the others pushed westwards. “The dwarves are supposed to be the strongest force on the continent, right? They should be able to take down a human city without my help.”

“If you’re not going with them, then what are you going to do?” Lulu asked, tilting her head, causing Vur’s body to slant towards the side.

“I want to go back to Auntie and see if she figured out a way to help me stay in my dragon form,” Vur said. “After fighting with the birdy mother-in-law…” He shook his head. “I can’t keep depending on your sketchy mana potions.”

“Hey, what part about my mana potions are sketchy?” Lulu asked. “They’re just a teensy bit alcoholic. Nothing a dragon can’t handle. Besides, you’re not going to find any mana potion that can fully recover your mana without some sort of negative side effect. Everything has a tradeoff.”

“That’s not true,” Vur said. “What are the negatives of being a dragon?”

Lulu blinked. “That’s obvious,” she said. “Everyone else is super jealous of us and our easy lives. Haven’t you noticed?”

Vur grunted. “People are more afraid than jealous of me,” he said. “But I get your point.” He sighed. “We live such tough lives.”

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“Mm, definitely,” Lulu said while nodding. “Can you believe my mom kicked me out of the house for no reason? That first explosion wasn’t my fault, but I’m the one she blames.” She rolled her eyes before sighing.

The phoenix matriarch hopped beside the two. “Wow,” she said, her voice dry. “I feel so bad for you two. You two were planning on leaving soon?”

Vur nodded. “I was going to wait for Tafel to come back, but it’s already been a week. How far away did you send her?”

The matriarch rubbed her head with her wing. “I asked her to watch over my children,” she said. “I might’ve asked her to take them back to her home on the other continent. I don’t know if she actually went though.” She sighed. “If I knew you were her husband, I wouldn’t have asked her to go. I really thought she’d be back to check on the aftermath of our battle. It seems like I kept you here for a week for no reason.”

“That’s alright,” Vur said and yawned. “I had nothing better to do anyway. Thanks for feeding Sheryl this whole time.” He glanced at his shoulder which was pulsing with a faint yellow light. “How’s she doing, Deedee?”

“Please, stop calling me Deedee,” Diamant said with a sigh. “Sheryl’s still sleeping. I suspect she’s in the middle of evolving, but the aura she’s emitting is nothing like a volcano elemental at all.”

“Phoenix flames are hotter than lava,” the matriarch said with a snort. “If she only became a volcano elemental after consuming all of my flames, she should just give up on being an elemental. After she evolves, she should be closer to the position of elemental ruler than you.”

Diamant grunted. “We’ll see about that,” he said. The brown runes on Vur’s arm stopped glowing as Diamant stopped speaking.

“Elemental ruler?” Vur asked. “What’s that?”

The phoenix matriarch blinked. “You’re an elementalist and you don’t even know that?”

“Should I know?” Vur asked.

“Yes,” the matriarch said, staring into Vur’s eyes. “You should.”

Vur stared back. “Oh. Okay.” He nodded.

Lulu waited, shifting her gaze from Vur to the phoenix. Neither of them said anything. “So,” Lulu said while swishing her tail, “did you two just communicate silently or something? Did I miss something? Maybe I went deaf for a moment?” She picked her ear and wiped a glob of earwax onto the ground. “So?”

The matriarch sighed. “I thought one of your elementals would explain,” she said before shaking her head. “Like how a common human wishes to become king, all elementals want to become the elemental ruler. It’s their goal. You think they make contracts that enslave themselves out of goodwill?”

Vur nodded again. “So in the end, it doesn’t really affect me,” he said. “Why did I need to know?”

“Tafel seemed like a really responsible person,” the matriarch said and furrowed her brow. “Why did she marry such a carefree soul like you? You two don’t seem compatible at all. Are you sure you’re my son-in-law?”

“As sure as the sun rises from the west,” Vur said.

“The sun rises from the east,” Lulu said.

Vur snorted. “You know what I meant.”

The matriarch sighed and shook her head. “Well, I guess I should give you a parting gift as your mother-in-law,” she said. “You’d probably explode if I gave you an imprint…” Her feathers fluffed outwards as she shivered. “And phoenixes don’t hoard treasures like dragons….”

“You don’t need to give me anything,” Vur said and opened his mouth. A stream of blood-red flames that resembled phoenix fire billowed out from his lips. “I already learned a few things from you.” A ball of flames appeared above the matriarch’s head. Vur’s body dissolved and reformed atop the matriarch, falling onto her back. “Like this too.”

The matriarch’s eyes widened as she froze.

“That ability’s a cheat,” Lulu said, pawing at the ground. “Why can’t I be a blue mage too? Then I can swoosh and swish my way to breathing out phoenix fire.”

“Phoenix flames are more of a haa, hoo, and bang!” Vur said as he hopped off the matriarch. “It’s totally different from polymorph.”