78 Back to the castle

Damian then shared some portion of the fish that he caught with the dragons and the kids which earned him a look of amazement from all of them except for Natsu who was standing beside Damian puffing up his chest I'm pride.

Seeing that Igneel felt a bit annoyed but just kept those thoughts at the corner of his mind and eyed the human who was currently being looked by the other dragon kings and quuen.

Maka then took up the huge fish and flew up in the air and said, "What are you all waiting for, Igneel light up the flames, Metallicana make a grill big and strong enough to hold this thing."

Hearing that the dragon kings and queen looked towards the old dragon and just nodded their heads. Weisslogia and Skiadrum then went away to gather some fire wood, while Metallicana started to make the things that Maka told him.

Damian just looked at all of them working from the side sitting on the ground and saw the two dragons who were still not busy looking towards him.

"What?"

"Hmm.... nothing, you must be quite strong to defeat that sea creature."

Before he was able to say anything Natsu stood from the ground with his eyes shining and said, "Yeah! Nii-chan is extremely strong!! He defeated that thing in just one attack, you know!!!"

Hearing that the other kids looked towards him in awe as well except for Gajeel who just snorted and looked away.

Igneel snorted at that as well and said, "Hmph, I can do that as well you know."

Natsu looked at his dragon father with a mocking expression and said, "Ehh, really?"

But just as he said that Igneel fired a fireball towards Natsu, who immediately started shouting, "AHHH!!! HOT HOT HOT!!" but just after that he started eating those flames and said, "What was that for!!!"

But Igneel just looked away without replying to Natsu.

Seeing him acting like that Grandeeny who was sitting beside Igneel started to chuckle and said, "Looks like someone bis getting jealous." She then looked towards Damian and smiled seeing Wendy happily reading a picture book given to him by Damian in his lap.

Wendy who also noticed her gaze waved her hand towards her and walked towards her to tell her the story that she was reading.

Damian who now had his lap free spread his legs and looked towards Sting and Rouge who were playing rock paper scissors, that Damian just taught them.

Seeing that he was now free, he started meddling with his new watch, checking if there were some new features in addition to the ultimate mode.

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Damian put his hand down once he was done checking the watch and didn't found any noticeable upgrade except for the fact that the magic consumption was lowered.

He then saw that Weisslogia and Skiadrum were back with what looked like huge uprooted trees in the. name of firewood.

Igneel got onto work once Maka used his magic to age the trees a bit to make them dry. Grandeeny and Mama then put the fish that was given by Damian on the huge grill made by Metallicana while Grandeeny made sure to not let the fish burn by constantly controlling the flames with her magic while Weisslogia and Skiadrum made sure to let it cook evenly.

Damian who saw that the preparations were complete took out huge sacs of salt from his storage and started spreading them over the fish.

Once all was done Damian took out his sword to cut the fish small enough for the children to eat while also taking his share as well. The rest was given to the Dragons among which Maka recieved the most.

The children and the dragons happily enjoyed the feast and once they were done Damian decided to go back alone since Maka wanted to meet some old friends.

"Ehh! You are going?!?!" asked a panicked Natsu.

Damian nodded his head and said, "Yeah, I need to go back it's already late, you know."

"But if you go who is going to teach me how to be strong and cool like you?!?!"

"Hmm, isn't Igneel teaching you how to be strong and no one said that you have to be like me, right? You can because your own kind of strong and cool you know."

"B-But- Oi, you all say something already!!!"

Just as he said that the three children Wendy, Sting and Rouge started to cry up a bit seeing which Damian flinched as he knew that if he left like that he would feel way to guilty for making the children cry.

"H-Hey, aren't you all strong kids, why are you crying just because of something like this, it's not like we will not meet again, right?"

But all of a sudden the three children came closer to him and grabbed his legs and looked back at him with puppy eyes, that coupled with the tears in their eyes was enough for Damian to choke up on his saliva.

Natsu seeing that Damian was now faltering a bit clenched his fist and mentally prayed for the kids to change Damian's mind.

"Don't go!!"

"Don't go Nii-chan!!!"

"Nii-chan please stay here!!!"

Damian felt the arms of the kids tighten around his legs and tears started to fall down their cheeks.

Seeing the man being forced by the small kids the dragons chuckled on seeing Damian's misery, but all of a sudden a person stood forward to help Damian out of this.

"Oi idiots, even if he doesn't ho back, who is he going to stay with? Did you forget that we will go back to our places as well."

Everyone looked at the person who said that and saw Gajeel looking at them with his arms crossed with a stern expression on his face.

Natsu immediately raised his hand and said, "Who else, Nii-chan is going to stay with me and Igneel, you know."

Wendy looked back at Natsu and said, "Noo!!! Nii-chan will stay with me and Grandeeny, he told me that he will tell me stories!!!"

The two boys chimed in as well and said, "What are you talking about!!! Nii-chan is going to stay with us and tell us a lot of new games and play with us!!!"

The children then moved their attention from Damian and started arguing amongst themselves and Damian was finally able to give a sigh of relief.

Damian then looked towards his saviour Gajeel who still had his arms crossed and secretly gave him some sweets for his help.

Gajeel smirked on getting the sweets and said, "I will fight you the next time you come here, alright?"

Damian who heard that chuckled and ruffled Gajeel's hair much to his annoyance and said, "Sure Gajeel, make sure to get stronger during that time."

Gajeel moved the hand away from him and said, "Hah, I am already stronger than you, you know?! It should be you who should be prepared."

Damian just chuckled at the kid's antics and just nodded his head.

In the end the children were not able to decide and Damian was finally free to go back. He asked about the locations where each of the dragons lived and promised the kids to come back when he gets some free time once again.

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A few moments later Damian came back to the castle by flying using his Jetray form and transformed back to his human form.

'Today was fun, but let's go and meet Irene, maybe ask Zena-san to prepare the fish that I caught for dinner for her and enjoy a candle light dinner with he-'

Damian who was walking in the halls of the castle while greeting the people on the way suddenly noticed that there were not a lot of people in the hallway leading to his and Irene's room, instead he noticed a lot of maids and soldiers hiding in the corners much to his confusion.

But his confusion soon vanished once he noticed the scene in front of him.

What he saw was Irene and the blond haired prince standing close to each other in the hallway with the prince holding her hand and going for a formal kiss, though the fact that pissed Damian off was that the prince was using his charm magic as he could feel the magic power leaking from him.

Immediately the aura around Damian changed as his eyes lost their light and he grabbed the hilt of his sword, '...The prince won't miss his hand too much, right? I will make sure to cut the one you use for jerking yourself.' and started walking towards the two of them.

"Good evening your highness and you majesty the queen!!!" said Damian from far away, stopping the prince who was about to kiss Irene's hand and look towards the source of the voice.

Irene who saw Damian coming towards him gave a sigh of relief as it was getting quite annoying for her to ignore the Prince's effort to use his magic on her, she immediately took a few steps away from Felix and said, "Good evening to you as well, Lord Ian." but didn't received a reply and instead saw Damian staring at his prey *cough**cough* prince, and seeing his expression Irene immediately had some cold sweat and the only thought that came to her mind was-

'...He is looking very cool right now....WAIT WHAT THE HELL I AM THINKING!!! GET YOUR MIND OF THE GUTTER IRENE!!! HE IS GOING TO KILL A PIECE OF SHI- I MEAN A PRINCE HERE!!! DAMIAN STOP!! STOP!! AT LEAST DO IT SOMEWHERE WHERE PEOPLE CAN'T SEE IT!!!'

But all those thoughts didn't came out of her mouth as Damian was now standing in front of the prince who had an awkward smile on his face as his forehead was covered in sweat.