CH 026: The Plot Thickens

- (???)

"Miss, excuse me for interrupting your rest, but a letter has arrived for you." The man knocked on the door. "Come in." The gorgeous woman gave permission, and the man walked in. Kneeling down, he held up a letter with both hands.

She noticed something strange. The letter was imbued with Magic, making it so not just anybody could open it. 'Pretty secretive.' She hummed, taking the letter and unlocking it :'Oh, no wonder. This is serious.' But she smiled :"Send back a letter saying that it's alright, our young lady has found him and is taking care of him."

"As you wish, ma'am. I'll excuse myself."

- (???)

"(Sigh, goddamn it...)" Atop an enormous mountain, a figure flew into the temple-like castle. Gorgeous white scales that reflected the sunlight, beautiful wings that span far longer than her arms and an elongated tail that followed her revealed her identity. The most glorious and dangerous monster in the world, a dragon. And not just any dragon.

But an SS-Class Dragon Queen.

But at the moment, her graceful demeanor couldn't be seen. Instead, she was sporting A tired look on her face. Not out of physical fatigue, however, but out of mental worry. Distress and worry filled the being that all continents feared as she walked into her humongous castle :"(Gorgandr! Gorgandr!)"

She roared for her right-hand woman. With a flash, another dragon appeared, her head low in submission :"(Yes, my queen?)" The Dragon Queen was not the merciful, fair and graceful being Drakkenheim and all the other continents knew and feared. And she could understand wholeheartedly why.

But even though she could understand why, it still didn't make her body tremble any less. Her instincts as a lower Class Dragon making her shiver in fear from the outrage of the ruler of the dragons. Even if she herself was an S-Class Dragon, the difference between them was a gap beings of their strength could easily distinguish.

"(Damn it all, hasn't there been any news or progress?! It's already been several days!)" She roared, making not just the S-Class Dragon and the castle with everything and everyone in it, but for the entire mountain to tremble. She wasn't known as the overlord of dragons and monsters for nothing.

It had already been several days since one of her eggs disappeared due to certain infuriating events. Even since then, after she had captured all the culprits she could get her hands on, she had set off immediately to look for the egg that was transferred to somewhere by a damn Magician skilled in Space Magic.

She had left getting information out of the bastards to the dragons under her, while she had gone to find her egg. The world was far too dangerous for a defenseless egg to be out in a random place after all. Much less in Drakkenheim, hell for normal beings.

But in the several days that she searched all around the continent at full speed and full focus, she couldn't find any traces of her baby or the bastards that had tried stealing it. She knew they didn't have it since she interfered with their Space Magic at the last second. At least that was some good information.

"(My queen, we weren't able to pinpoint the exact location of the teleportation spell's destination, but we were able find out that it sent it to the human continent, Vukreigall, and to the country of Welron, my queen!)"

"(Then what are we waiting for?! Mobilize all our forces and be ready to set out to Vukreigall right away!)"

"(P-please wait, my queen! I know you're worried, but please have patience for a moment!)"

"(Have patience? My child was about to be stolen right under my nose and now has been teleported to a random place, and you dare ask me to calm down?)"

"(P-please forgive my insolence, but I only wish to assist you to the best of my abilities. Please make a decision after hearing all that I have to say. If we were to march towards them full force, the greedy bastards among them would surely take advantage of the situation.

And worst case scenario, if they manage to find his highness, there's a chance they will threaten you. To prevent the worst from happening, we can't act carelessly. Otherwise, it might threaten the life of his highness. So please, be patient.)"

"(Grr... sigh... fine, I'll try to keep calm. So what do you propose we do? If you're decided to convince me to not act rashly, then you must have a solution.)"

"(Thank you for understanding, my queen. And yes, before you arrived, I sent a letter to a trustworthy individual on the human side.)"

"(A human?)"

"(Correct. Do you happen to remember the human known as Apostle of Abyss?)"

"(Apostle of Abyss? Are you talking about that famous human Berserker?)"

"(Yes, her. As you know, she is a trustworthy person. And because of being a mother herself who cared deeply for her own child, I was sure she would at least try to help if she knew our situation.)"

"(Yeah, you're right. Although she is famous for being a bloodthirsty individual, that's only towards the wicked and those who have wronged her. Other than that, even I'm aware of how many lives have been improved because of her and how many orphans have been saved thanks to all the orphanages she established. So? Has there been a response?)"

"(*Smiling* Yes, my queen! Just a while ago, she responded saying that not only will she help, but she has already found the whereabouts of his highness!)"

"(Really?! Tell me everything!)"

After explaining everything she had read in the letter, not missing anything, the Dragon Queen finally sighed in relief :"(That's a relief. Although I'm still worried since he's not with me, I'm still relieved that he isn't in danger.)"

"(I'm glad you're satisfied with the news.)" Seeing the queen calm, she sighed in relief :'The rage of a being in her caliber is truly terrifying. Thank goodness she isn't prone to fury. Who knows how many creatures in the continent were horrified because of the bloodlust she emitted.'

"(Though it's a pity I wasn't able to witness him hatching from his egg.)" The Dragon Queen sighed, a sad but relieved smile on her face. Gorgandr stayed silent, before the Dragon Queen's face turned deathly cold :"(Now that the matter of my child's safety is solved, it's time to attend to our unwelcomed guests.)"

"(After you, my queen.)" Gorgandr wasn't filled with fear this time, but anger. The thought of somebody daring to break into the castle and trying to steal the queen's egg enraged not just the queen herself, but also her royal subjects.

There was no royalty or kingdom in Drakkenheim, but it wasn't uncommon for creatures of lower strength and Class to try and become a pack member of a strong being. Packs had differences among them, but if she knew one thing, it was that in their pack, the love and care their queen had bestowed upon them wasn't wasted. If not for her order of not killing the captured prisoners, she knew they wouldn't be able to stop themselves from tearing them apart.

With Gorgandr following, she led the way to where the bastards were being kept. The Castle of Dragons didn't have any prisons, for there was never a need to keep prisoners. All who harmed them or at least tried to would be killed right away.

Hearing roars of outrage and cries of pain, she knew they were getting nearer to where the prisoners were being tortured for information. "Will you not speak even without any hope of you surviving?! Speak now and you will at least not suffer any more!" A dragon transformed into a humanoid slapped a chained figure, causing teeth, blood and spit to fly around.

The scenery was the complete opposite of the beauty of the castle and its interior. Cut off limbs, torn off flesh, several burnt to charcoal corpses, along with blood all over the place was all that could steal the attention.

"(Cydan.)" Gorgandr called out seriously. The humanoid red dragon turned with a frown, but immediately put on a respectful face as he bowed slightly, along with every other dragon present :"(My queen, I'm glad to see you back.)"

"(Hm. I see you have been busy, have they said anything?)"

"(I'm ashamed to say no. These persistent bastards won't spill anything no matter how much they've been tortured!)" He growled in frustration, causing Gorgandr to glare :"(Brother, have care for how you behave in front of the queen.)"

"(I-I apologize, my queen.)" He lowered his head, the queen hummed :"(It's alright, I'm not mad. Step aside for a moment.)" He stepped aside, letting her walk towards the restrained human. Bloodied and bruised, he looked up. Unexpectedly, he smirked at the glaring dragon :"Are you not going to speak even when knowing your ending?"

"Knowing how it's going to end is the exact reason why I won't talk."

"What do you wish to achieve to go as far as to take away a mother's child?"

"*Smiling crazily* Hmph, how can monsters care about their offsprings like humans? You're obviously just mindless animals somewhat better than the rest! You might as well give all your eggs to us humans to make better use of them!"

"Is that what this is? Mere damn greed?!"

"Hahahaha, call it whatever you want, but it's the simple truth! You're just there for us to use just like all the other monsters! So what if you have some strength, you can still be killed! Hahahaha what continents of dragons and demons?! All you monsters are just there for us humans' benefits!"

He laughed haughtily, crazily, tauntingly, managing to make every dragon in the room growl. The fire of rage reignited all over again in their hearts. All except the queen herself. Instead of getting mad, she smiled mockingly :"Hahaha, is this what you're really after? Is this your pathetic attempt to make us wage war against humans, elf?"

His laughter died down immediately, a look of disbelief taking over. Making the dragons smirk in contempt and ridicule :"What, did you really expect to fool us? Me at that? Foolish elf, you are too young to even think of trying to fool me."

"How?" He growled, his mocking facade falling apart, replaced by rage :"How did you find out?" Causing the queen to scoff :"Find out what, your pitiful effort in trying to disguise yourself as a human? And with what, Illusions? You make me laugh. Your plan of creating enmity between us and dragons is so pathetic. You're so pathetic it's funny."

"Shut up..."

"Why, I thought we were chatting and laughing just now."

"Shut up."

"Does it anger you to realize just how much of a useless trash you are, you pathetic, racist elf?"

"I said SHUT UP-!"

But a swipe of tail striking him, sending him flying with cracking sounds of ribs breaking, shut him up instead. As he rolled on the ground, grunting in pain, the dragon queen growled :"Know your place, fool. The only reason why I haven't personally made you go through hell and back is because you're somewhat useful.

Don't think you can act cocky, I can always just pry your brain open with Magic. The only reason why I haven't already done that is because I don't want to see any unpleasant memories of some racist elf. So you better know how to act if you at least want a painless and quick death."

"S-shut up..." The resilient elf coughed, glaring angrily :"Shut up, you bastard! How dare you act like that to a noble and superior race like me?! You're just a mere monster, an overgrown lizard! How dare you act like you're above the superior race of elves?!

How dare a mere monster be hailed as superior to us magnificent elves, the apple of the world's eyes?! You and every other race should just grovel in front of our feet and serve us, the superior race! You're simply there to be used and slaughtered by us for items and materials, how dare you act so haughty?!"