Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

  Aya went into the kitchen to prepare lunch, with the ever-so-helpful Mordred offering her assistance.

  Meanwhile, Baiyi and his family had retired to the living room. He had reclined on a long couch, and Little Mia—who was tired from her games and relaxed from her bath—lay snuggled beside him, resting her head on his thigh, and her two slender legs dangled of the side of the couch. Meeting a new friend, Mia was in high spirit, her legs swinging in glee.

  Attie’s exhaustion was more evident. She had fallen into a deep sleep, curled up like a cat at Baiyi’s other side.

  Tisdale was reclined on a nearby couch, and in her hand was a book that chronicled the courageous tales of dragon knights. She was fully immersed in it, reading it out loud, and Laeticia, who was nearby, laid down on her belly, listening to Tisdale. Ever so often, she would stop Tisdale in her tracks to ask what certain words meant. Being a villager, she was illiterate.

  Baiyi was playing a silly, childish game with Mia. He was trying to poke the girl’s cheeks with his fingers, and the child playfully attempted to block the finger attacks with her palms, chuckling as she also rolled from side to side, trying to avoid the pokes that she couldn’t block.

  They were having so much fun. Suddenly, the sounds of footsteps and discussions echoed from outside.

  The door was pushed open, and in came a middle-aged man and an elder. They appeared to be the owners of this residence.

  The first things that entered their sights was a stranger and some girls who seemed to be having their family time in his living room.

  The situation was very awkward. Little Mia quickly sat up bashfully, remembering to pull her dress down as it had rolled up from her silly game. Baiyi had to yank a very groggy Attie up before he turned to face the duo.

  A look of alarm crossed the middle-aged man’s face, but he recollected himself quickly and announced loudly, “Gosh, I did not expect visitors at all. I should have knocked!”

  “Haha, very true. We haven’t had many visitors for ages,” the elder beside him added with a mirthless chuckle.

  The girls moved to another side of the room, while the house-owners sat before Baiyi.

  The middle-aged man was very candid. “So, you’re a friend of Aya’s?”

  Baiyi nodded. “Yea. I’m Hope.”

  “Hope?” The duo looked at each other and quickly asked in unison, “That Hope from Isythre?”

  “I can assure you that the legends have been exaggerated quite a bit, but yea, that’s me.”

  Suddenly, their faces lit up with joy, and they finally realized why Aya had invited the man to their house. The middle-aged man hurriedly replied, “My pleasure and fortune to meet you, Master Hope! If I had known that you were coming, I would have been even more respectful……”

  “Um, I’m fine just like this,” Baiyi could only reply awkwardly.

  \r \r \r

  The three quickly engaged in small talk, but Baiyi found time to carefully examine the two men. The middle-aged man wore a military-green army uniform adorned with all kinds of uncommon embellishments. He was, as Baiyi guessed, a man occupying a high position, while the mana emanating from him belied his status as a Legendary-level fighter, or possibly even a Holy-level fighter. However, the man was constantly suppressing his mana from letting that fact out. He appeared to be around 40 years old, but it had always been hard to estimate a dragon’s age based on their human form.

  Judging from his appearance, the man should at least be a commander, or even the general himself.

  Meanwhile, the elder, whose hair and beard were snowy white, looked ethereal and mysterious. Yet, his aura had informed Baiyi that he was a similar dragon as Aya.

  A dragon could live far longer than humans could, but their lives were still finite. Besides, those who had stayed in human form for a long time would have their actual age reflected in their looks. In other words, this particular elder was probably very old.

  It became obvious that this elder and Aya were the keys to the dragon knights’ dragon-taming operations.

  “My name is Kandor. I am the general of this battalion,” the man introduced himself, before pointing at the elder beside him. “This is my uncle, Yosef.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Baiyi greeted. ‘This elder dragon looks like he would be 1000 years old at least, and you looked like about 200 tops! This age gap between uncle and nephew is a bit too large, don’t you think?’

  Just as he was lambasting the pair, Aya frantically pushed open the kitchen door and cried, “Father! Big Brother! You’ve returned?”

  She briskly pranced to the living room. Then, after she shot a glance at Baiyi, blushes blossomed on her fair cheeks, and she sat next to the Soul Armature.

  ‘Why the hell did you blush? And of all the places to sit, why take the seat beside mine?’

  “Master Hope was here for a vacation, and that was when he saw a wild berserk dragon attacking a skycruising ray. He decided to investigate the incident and came to us, so I had him come over here,” Aya explained.

  General Kandor was listening intently, but the elder was surprisingly absent-minded as if he was lost in thoughts.

  “Father? Are you alright?” Aya’s asked in a tone filled with concern as she noticed the old man’s absent-mindedness and drawing herself closer to him.

  Suddenly, elder Yosef’s beady eyelids snapped open, and his eyes lit up with an illumination that seemed to originate within his pupils as some past memories flashed through his mind. He gripped on Aya’s shoulders firmly, and his bright eyes gazed into hers. Unexpectedly, to even more surprises, one of his knees buckled to the floor.

  ‘Does he have Parkinson’s disease?’ Baiyi was alarmed at the surreal development. Aya and Kandor, too, were horrified.

  “F-father! Are you alright?!”

  “Uncle! Are you feeling ill?”

  The old man did not respond, neither did he budge when the two tried their hardest to yank him back up to his feet. He knelt stubbornly on the floor, and his chest heaved in sync with his overflowing emotions. Underneath his eyes were long, unbroken line of murky tears. He was weeping—like a child.

  It took a while for the elder to recollect himself. When he finally realized his own state, he quickly wiped away his tears and tidied his clothes, before slumping back onto the couch.

  The first thing he did was to apologize to Baiyi. “I’m sorry, Master Hope, for what has just transpired. However, may I request a private hearing……”

  “I understand. Please, excuse me,” The Fifth Walker wasted no time in heeding the implied request. He took his leave from the living room, closing the door tightly as he left.

  After he had left, Yosef turned his eyes to Aya, an expression of somberness. “Aya, please tell me, have you interacted with any sort of individual…… or even met with a mysterious yet puissant force?”

  Ever since the crisis started, the dragon knights had not gotten a moment’s rest, including General Kandor, the retired former High Counselor, Yosef, and other higher-ups. They had to obtain information from outside sources, conduct investigation on alleged sightings, and request aid from other forces and organizations. In fact, they had just returned from attending a top-secret meeting. They had only returned to groom themselves and rest before another private meeting with the Rodrithelian royals.

  The current High Counselor, Aya, was deemed too young to join in, so she was assigned the role of taking care of camp affairs. Thus, ever since the Crisis, Aya and Yosef hadn’t been able to meet each other.

  “No. If you’re talking about pretty unique individuals—well, Master Hope would be the only one I’ve met today. Before him, the only people I met with were the people from the Empire’s logistics unit, as well as a royal vassal who came to discuss the security issues of the upcoming Harvest Festival.”

  When he heard her reply, the elder’s expression became even more unreadable. Kandor stepped forward out of concern and asked, “Uncle, what’s…… What’s going on?”

  The elderly dragon lowered his breath.

  “Aya…… Aya’s body…… Emanates the scent of Lord Divine Dragon’s blessing.”

  “What?!”

  “Impossible!”

  The younger dragons were in a daze.

  They knew what the title “Divine Dragon” entailed. They also knew that the current Divine Dragon had inherited the prejudice that the previous Divine Dragon held towards those elder dragons who took a liking to human forms.

  To be specific, all dragons close to the Divine Dragon despised these kinds of elder dragons. This was a toxic legacy left behind by the Third Walker.

  Yosef may not have received a Divine Dragon’s blessing, but he had met a blessed Crystal Dragon back when he was young. The dragon had looked at Yosef with as much scorn as a man would grace an insignificant ant. The Crystal Dragon didn’t speak to him, neither did it spare him a second glance; it just spread its wings, which was lustered with the blessing, and took off into the sky.

  Yosef could never forget that scent again. Only a little probe into halls of his memory was required for that scene to replay, vividly.

  “How is that possible?! Lord Divine Dragon would never have blessed me! It only blesses his favored ones.” Aya replied frantically, as her heart fluttered at the sudden attention.

  “I’m more concerned with how the Lord Divine Dragon met you. To it, you’ll probably not be worth than weed……” Yosef added in confusion.

  They did not even consider the possibility of Baiyi being connected to the Divine Dragon. Although the Church had spread the legend of the hero who defeated the Abyss Lord and saved the entire Isythre from hell to the dragons, this hero couldn’t possibly hold a candle to the Divine Dragon. Baiyi can’t possibly be at the same level as it, neither could he be related to it.

  They also had no idea how the blessing process worked, either. Could it be done by simply extending a finger and pointing at the target? With the Divine Dragon’s power, that was possible, but why would he do that to Aya?

  They weren’t wrong that Baiyi couldn’t hold a candle to the former Divine Dragon, because he would choose to drop candle so that he could his both hands to bully it. If they were referring to the current Divine Dragon, then Baiyi would agree. It would be much more difficult to defeat than the Abyss Lord. Maybe if he put in a bit more effort……

  “Could this Crisis have something to do with Lord Divine Dragon?” Aya started throwing everything she had to the wall to see what sticks. “Maybe Lord Divine Dragon wanted us to solve this crisis well, so……”

  It was a preposterous thought. They were outcasts among the dragons, without even the slightest inkling of where the Divine Dragon lived, neither did they know that such a crisis would be considered trivial to the prideful Divine Dragon.

  “M-maybe. It sounds sensible enough,” Yosef nodded and uttered forcefully. He couldn’t come up with a better explanation himself. “B-But Aya, you are not the strongest dragon in our tribe. So why chose you?”

  “M-maybe it was pleased with some of my qualities?” Aya voiced the only thought she had out loud.