Chapter 27: Chapter 26: Short return

[City of Andra]

Waiting for the council to fully arrive, Darganth and Allaire let their gaze wander over the city. While it was still filled with the same carefree atmosphere it had yesterday, now it held an underlying sense of worry. While there never was an official announcement as to why, the large scale troop movements to the wall clearly failed to remain unnoticed. This lead to the civilians speculating about the reason, leading to different rumors circulating.

While few believed them, some of the rumors revolved around a threat that would destroy the city, making a few citizens even more nervous than the rest. A large majority instead believed the cause of these movements to be the kingdoms army, something that was largely responsible for the lack of panic.

Their walls stood since over two hundred years against the army's of the kingdom, making the current state of affairs older than nearly all humanoids on the peninsula. Only a few elves and dwarfs could claim to have lived before this time. As to when the walls were last breached? This is so long in the past that even the most ancient of elves on the peninsula weren't alive back then.

This made them quite confident in their security, only worrying about their family and friends that served in the army. While the wall was impenetrable in their mind, years of skirmishes had shown that this invincibility didn't extend to its defenders. While only the presence of one of the seven peak fourth ranks of the kingdom would result in more than a few hundred deaths, each attack still resulted in some casualties.

Hearing the door opening to allow the last missing council member inside, Darganth and Allaire turned around to face them. Smiling at the hopeful expressions of them, Darganth started talking.

“Welcome, I hope you didn't make too many unnecessary plans since my departure?” He said, causing Allaire to chuckle.

“We had to be prepared.” Marcus answered him.

“Really? I hope that you didn't think that I would fail to kill a messily second rank. Some of the more impulsive members of my kind would see such a thing as an insult, you can count yourself lucky that I am not one of them.” Darganth said.

“But these wouldn't even have heard our request, so we decided that this was the safer alternative.” One of them said, causing Darganth to smile.

“Color me impressed, most humanoids project the behavior of the worst of my kind onto all of us.” He praised them.

After pausing for a moment he continued, “Well, there is a good and a mediocre news, which would you like first?”

“The good.”

“Gladly. The good news is that every last soldier in that army is either dead or routed. I didn't bother chasing after those that don't wield mana. Additionally I learned quite a funny story about the king, something I would like to speak with you about after this.” He said.

This caused the council to sigh in relieve. While it would take the kingdom only a few months to send a new army, it allowed them to start some operations outside of the city walls. Of course these would have to be either well hidden or finished before the replacement arrives.

This caused the thoughts of all ten to race, each of them thinking about different plans they could finally fulfill. Reinold who was watching this unfold from the sides started to frown. He could already see the difficult choices he will have to make. While the council trusts him to make all military decisions, voting on them only as a formality, he always had to consider their impact on the city.

While they presented a unified front, with only Randal initially falling out of this picture due to his absence during the discussion, at the end of the day they were different people with different ambitions and plans.

Watching the council members sunken in their thoughts, Darganth shook his head with a sigh. Before they had even received the full report, they already thought about their own benefit. This was one of the reasons he preferred the company of his kin over most humanoids. After all dragons may be a thousand times more greedy than they were, but cases of infighting and betrayal were extremely uncommon among them.

“Before you make any world changing plans you should probably listen to the rest of what I have to say.” Darganth said after a while. While some of them frowned a bit, the councilmen focused their attention back to him.

“In regard to the mythical beast the only good news I can give you is that she has no plans of attacking your city nor any reason to do so. So I can only tell you to not give her a reason and you will likely be fine.”

This caused some unrest to erupt between them. The idea that all they could do is following the whims of someone else was new to most of them as they came from powerful families. In their entire life they were only told that even the influence they had was meaningless in front of certain beings, never before have they truly met such beings.

Against Darganth they had at least the White Fang Clan as a bargaining chip and against the beast lord they had hoped to pressure it with his presence. But now that the being they had placed their hopes on told them they could only pray, each of them reacted differently. Noticing the different expressions of his colleagues, Marcus decided to continued the conversation before they could act.

“Then what do you recommend to prevent us from angering her?” He asked.

“That's quite easy actually, just don't attack her child. Keeping away from her territory may also be needed, but only for any third rank or above individuals. And that is also just because they are powerful enough to hurt her daughter.”

This calmed the others dissatisfaction over their inability of preventing themselves from having to watch out for someone's whims. While they were still slightly dissatisfied, avoiding entering its territory and not attacking its child were extremely mild conditions to prevent a beast lord from attacking.

Just as Marcus wanted to sigh in relieve that none of them did anything stupid that may even have angered Darganth, Randal started speaking.

“What would it cost us for you to take care of this beast lord?” He asked, the greed behind this request palpable to everyone.

Most of the council reacted either neutral or exited to this question. They had already come to terms with the fact that a beast lord would live in front of their city, so none had thought about this possibility. It took them just a moment to find the merit in this idea. Most of them didn't even consider the idea that he would reject, after all dragons were greedy creatures and more than powerful enough to kill a mere mythical rank beast.

None of them even considered either the possibility that the size that was reported to them when he flew out of the city was his true size, as it would have meant that a dragon not even a decade old crossed the ocean. Few dragons would ever leave their parents territory before reaching the first century of age and even fewer would do so and place themselves in danger.

The though that Marcus was meanwhile having was also absent in all of them. While even he wasn't sure, Darganth's familiar way of referring to her made him consider the two met. Thus the proposal made him nervous to Darganth's reaction. When Darganth started laughing at the proposal he grew tense together with the rest of them as they could clearly notice his laughter being filled with ridicule and disdain for them. Some looked towards Allaire who stood silently behind him, hoping for her to hold him back. To this she simply gave them an amused smile that made it clear that she had no interest in doing so.

“Let me tell you this you lowlifes. The only reason I didn't slaughter you for even proposing such stupidity is that you lacked the full picture, so maybe let this be a lesson to not speak hastily. For you to ask of me or any true dragon to kill a lesser dragon is the height of madness. We may consider them as a whole as worse than our kind, but their value still exceeds that of every citizen of this city.” Darganth said with anger in his voice.

“So I invite you, try your luck and you will see what it means to face a truly enraged dragon. But if you prefer you city to remain anything but a tale to warn of the dangers of angering dragons I advice you to not do so. A mythical beast may be able to change its form freely, but you bunch are incapable of hurting her anyways so just don't do anything to her daughter. A nearly fifty meter long hydra is hard to miss, so simply stay away from the part of the forest she is in, alright?” He said with a threatening smile.

Feeling his gaze on them, the council members nodded shakily. Continuing to stare at them for a few seconds, Darganth leans back and relaxes again once he was sure that they would keep to this. This is one of the skills he had his countless mortal lives to thank for, before his death he never bothered to learn how to read someones intention from their behavior as it wasn't needed.

'Maybe I should advice other dragons to learn how to read body language, the fear most have towards dragons makes it quite an affective tool for how easy it is.' He thought.

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The pause that developed allowed the council to calm down enough to process what Darganth had said. Gulping, they thought about the implications of having a mythical rank lesser dragon living in front of their city. Not to mention their city, such a being could probably lay waste to the entire peninsula. While the other beast lord living here archived this rank nearly three centuries ago, lesser dragons shared their name with true dragons not just due to their ancestry.

“I apologize in his stead for his inquiry.” Marcus said after a few moments.

“Lets hope for his sake that he also knows his mistake.” This made Marcus sigh in relieve.

“But back to other matters, I am quite sure that you have some intel about the king, am I right? How much do you know about the motivation for his obsession with dragons?” Darganth asked.

Looking at each other, the council members all had the same thought of using this chance to weakening the kingdom. While they wouldn't take the risk of lying to him in the hopes of turning Darganth against the kingdom, luckily they didn't need to to do it.

“There are rumors that his chief adviser presented a plan to him that caused it. While the king had always been fascinated with dragons, whatever it was caused him to try and capture one. We have many theories about why, but the most prominent one is that he may be capable of controlling one.” Marcus said, with the others nodding in approval.

“So not much more than I already know. Theories as to why I do have in abundance so they don't matter to me.” Daranth said, while standing up.

“Sadly this is the extend of our knowledge, but I would advise to pay a visit to the two dukes that spend the most time in the capital. The northern, southern and western dukes are tasked with overseeing extremely remote locations, so they most likely know nothing new. But the duke of the Salin region and the duke of Regor may know something.”

“Salin and Regor?” Darganth asked.

“Salin is the region in the east that surround the capital. Compared to the other duchy's it lacks large city's as both major population centers in the are aren't under the rule of the duke. The capital city of Bral, which the kingdom is named after, and the city of Regor whose population is second only to the capital.

As the capital is ruled by the king directly and Regor is under another duke, the duke of Salin is mostly in the capital. The city's that exist in the region are quite small, too easy to invade and not impressive enough for the duke, so reaching him may be unnecessary as confronting the king directly is barely harder.” Marcus explained.

Hearing this, Darganth started making plans for what to do next. One duke residing mostly in the capital was slightly annoying, but the other one was an easy target. Detecting a transformed dragon was near impossible and with the lack of peak fourth ranks in the city none could stop him. First and second order ones may make it more difficult, but the problem they presented was incomparably small to third order ones.

“Then lets get to the promised treasures.” Darganth said after finishing his thoughts.

“Of course.” Marcus said while pointing towards a box standing at the wall of the room. Walking over to it, Darganth simply nodded and stored with space magic.

“Very well, then our deal is finished. As long as you don't have anything else to say, we will be on our way.” He said. Seeing them shaking their heads, he turned to Allaire.

“Then lets go.” She said, walking towards him.

Snaking her hand around his hip, the two vanished as Darganth teleported them out of the city. Finding themselves in the grasslands outside of the walls, Allaire turned to him.

“So whats the plan? Visit your new friend and then kill the king?” She asked.

“The first part definitely, but before dealing with the king I want to get some more information on him. Besides, according to the duke whose mind I read, four of the kingdoms seven peak fourth ranks individuals are normally in the capital. It will take us a while before we are powerful enough to fight them.” He said.

“Why not ask her for help?”

“I will consider it, but only if something comes up that pressures us to act quickly. As long as it is like currently that we have all time in the world before we have to act we will use it.”

“Alright. Indulging yourself in your battle-junky attitude is no problem.” She said, giving him a kiss.

“Thanks.” Darganth said, reciprocating it.

Once they finished, he took a step back and returned to his true form. Lowering his wing, he motioned Allaire to climb onto his back with a slight motion of his head. Using his wing as a ladder, she reached his back and sat down on his shoulder, just next to the shoulder joint of the wing and at the base of his neck. Letting her feet hang down, she looked for a way to hold on.

“How do I hold on?” She asked after finding none.

“My spikes, I am using aura to make them blunt.” He said.

Looking towards the spikes trailing along his entire spine, Allarie grew curious. As their shape somewhat resembled elongated shark-fin and their sides were both sharp, they were normally impossible to hang on to. Touching them lightly, she felt as if a slight repulsion prevented it from cutting into her skin.

“Interesting, I never new that aura could be used this way.”

“Its applications are rare so few know it despite using the same principle as enhancing the cutting power with aura. The only difference is that instead of forming a wedge that drives apart something into two pieces, the force is completely directed back to the object.

Contrary to what most think, external aura does more than just reinforcing the existing weapon and forming a sharper wedge. It also forms a pressure that splits everything it touches, making it possible to cut through things without any force pushing the edge into the object. While it requires some skill, redirecting this force and making the edge into a blunt weapon is comparatively easy to learn.” Hearing this explanation, Allaire looked at the spikes with interest.

“Then how come I can't see any aura? Internal aura doesn't increase the sharpness so I doubt it could do the opposite.” She asked.

“I am using pure mana aura, meaning without any element. In contrast to decreasing the sharpness, this isn't something that others can learn as it requires a mana heart, making it a dragon exclusive ability. Well, half dragons and draconians can also use it, but you understand the point.”

While this made her slightly disappointed, Allarie just nodded. Grabbing onto one of the spikes, she gave Darganth a nod once she prepared herself to fly. Doing so as gently as possible, Darganth jumped up before beating his wings and flying towards Enilla's home.

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