"Please send this document to Supply Station No. 2 on the transportation line and tell them they must be on high alert toward the northeast direction," Evelina called out loudly to a communications blood wyvern, as the surrounding noise was immense.

With the core community of Pillar Mountain destroyed and the scattered dragon kin tribes and goblins too spread out while working on building mountain roads, it was difficult to reassemble and rebuild. So for now they were nestled in the corridor between the community and treasury.

In this tunnel less than a hundred meters long, chaos reigned. The floor was piled high with sheepskin parchments and scrolls detailing the future plans and resource situations for Pillar Mountain's territory. Numerous blood wyverns ran back and forth delivering orders and bringing back reports from all sides to be reviewed.

The engineer Kobold had even partitioned off a space with scrap wooden boards as living quarters for the two human women, having to make do without proper bathing, toilet or laundry facilities for now.

As for the interior of the treasury, Raphael had issued strict orders once again forbidding all entry. His elite rat dragon guards stood watch at the breach melted open by the lava flow - the golden sea of Erl's central treasury once more the red dragon's forbidden hoard.

Raphael himself had already secretly flown away with Nana, concealed by stealth magic that left no trace of their departure. Evelina only learned the crimson dragon had left through casual conversation with one of the rat dragon guards.

"Good day, Miss Tomiray."

"Greetings to you."

As Evelina finished distributing the sheepskin parchments she had spent the night transcribing, many of the Kobold and blood wyverns greeted her on her way back to the office area.

"It seems I've become integrated, doesn't it?" she couldn't help but lament wryly.

Within the central treasury of Erl, all the dragon kin knew it was the humans who had revived Nana and earned Raphael's special reward.

In the highly hierarchical crimson dragon clan, anyone befriended by the leader instantly ascended, regardless of race or gender.

For example, the little canary bird temporarily housed in the corridor - an utterly ordinary small bird without even an awakened mana bloodline. But as the crimson dragon's favored pet, no one dared show it disrespect. If a blood wyvern encountered it in flight, they had to actively make way to avoid injuring the pampered bird with their wingbeats.

"Chirp chirp chirp!"

As Evelina returned to the office partitioned off with stones and lumber, the canary joyfully flew over to perch on her shoulder.

"What's wrong? Hungry again?" Evelina used her fingers to lift it off before sitting down across from Garry's desk.

"I don't know, I'm not even clear what birds eat," Garry said gloomily, resting her chin in her hand as she stopped sorting the reports from various regions.

Every morning, blood wyverns from all over would bring yesterday's reports which they had to spend three hours swiftly and accurately transcribing from the dragons' dictations onto sheepskin. With nearly half the blood wyverns' numbers decimated, speed and precision were essential.

Then came organizing all the reports by priority to pass along to Milmos. After finishing his work, Milmos would dictate all his decisions for them to swiftly transcribe, to be carefully copied in Draconic calligraphy on parchment overnight, ready to distribute to the returning blood wyverns with their reports the next day.

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This was just the basic workflow - sometimes Milmos would have them look up data about the territory from the archives, or draft charts and forms, requiring additional overtime work.

Garry used to love sleeping in at school, but now the daily workload was becoming overwhelming.

"Evelina, the dragon kin life isn't what I imagined," Garry said with mock pathos. "I pictured them as savage and ignorant, sleeping in the wilderness or mountain caves, venturing out baring fangs each day to indiscriminately hunt, living in a daze serving their mighty dragon masters, eating any intelligent races they capture while keeping the females as playthings to sate their lust. Not this well-oiled machine-like structure."

Evelina smiled wryly, "Without immersing themselves among the dragon kin, how would an outsider know the details of their life without going deep into their midst? From chatting with Raphael's close guards, I learned that the dragon kins of the three noble red dragon families is actually highly specialized: In ancient times, the hammer drake assisted the dragons in combat and hunting prey; the blood wyverns were the scouts and transporters; the Kobold excelled in all technical tasks - the place we live now and the food we eat were all made by them."

"So we can't simply view them as ferocious monsters. They should be considered a sub-human race akin to humans, orcs, elves and other intelligent species, having inherited ancient social attributes."

Garry gave a dry laugh. "I don't get it, I still think dragon beast should look like dragon beast. A lifestyle structured like humans' just seems so bizarre!"

"Miss Watty! Quickly pass me the chart you compiled on the road construction progress across the mountains!"

Perhaps their voices had grown too loud, as Milmos shouted impatiently from the far end urging her to hurry.

"Sorry! Coming right away!"

Though the dragon kin's civilization could not alleviate her fear of Milmos's grotesque appearance.

Watching her best friend rush to work with the same pained expression as when professors rushed essay deadlines, Evelina smiled nostalgically recalling the sweet memories of school days, before lowering her head to start on her own tasks.

The office fell into a brief silence as the three immersed themselves in their labors. Garry began softly complaining again about why the dragon kins couldn't just write and submit their own reports rather than forcing them to swiftly transcribe and copy everything - such a tremendous waste of effort.

Suddenly, a shrill ringing shattered the tranquility. Evelina and Garry looked up anxiously seeking the source, wondering if some new calamity had befallen the disaster-plagued Pillar Mountain.

But the rat dragon guard showed no reaction. Milmos raised his elongated head from the towering stacks of scrolls, his pupil-less crimson eyes wearily scanning the room before settling on a spatial ring on his right claw.

"A magic communication orb? The Master needs me?!"

His first thought was that Raphael was contacting him - after all, who else would use such an urgent method?

A small crystal orb was released, now filled with swirling green smoke.

"Hm?"

Milmos seemed surprised, for Raphael never used the communication orb's alarm function, simply insistently demanding a response.

This was one of the gifts bestowed by the Prulis Clan, one thousand such magic communication orbs distributed among key members and the rat dragon, with the rest stored in the Central Dragon Valley.

To curry favor with Raphael, the Prulis Clan had specially prepared the latest model with features like freely establishing communication links and smoke alarm signals.

Milmos's protocols for Pillar Mountain dictated these could only be used in situations potentially destabilizing the entire territory, issued solely to the rat dragon elite.

"What's the situation?"

Milmos infused his magic into the sphere, dissipating the green smoke to reveal not the Master, but one of the rat dragons on the other end.

Evelina and Garry watched as Milmos's expression grew increasingly rigid, as if shaken by some terrifying development.

"Mama Evelina? It couldn't be a human alliance attack, could it?" Garry said nervously. "That dragon just happens to be away - if we're captured, we're doomed!"

After Amelia's lessons, she no longer harbored delusions, subconsciously accepting her status as part of the crimson dragon clan.

"It shouldn't be, otherwise the blood wyverns would have raised an alert," Evelina reassured her.

Thump!

A soft sound came as Milmos abruptly left his seat. To the bewildered looks of the two women, he instructed curtly, "I have a situation to attend to. Carry on with your duties," before departing.