Book 4: Chapter 44 |
If you had to ask which human had the best reputation among the dragon clans, it would undoubtedly be General Leon.
There was no need to even mention the Silver Dragon Clan—his wife and children were there; that was practically his own home.
As for the Crimson Flame Dragon Clan, he came and went freely as well. Old Constantine couldn’t really do anything to him.
And then there was the Sea Dragon Clan. Thanks to the relationship with his master and mistress, Claudia had given him the green light too.
The last time Leon visited the Sea Dragon Clan, Claudia had explicitly said that from then on, he could come and visit his master and mistress anytime, without worrying as much as before.
Of course, that was said privately.
Officially, it was framed as the Sea Dragon Clan and the Silver Dragon Clan formally establishing diplomatic relations.
Diplomatic envoy Leon Casmord had once again advanced the cause of grand human–dragon unity.
On the way, while thinking about how to coax more primordial magic manuals out of Claudia, Leon arrived a few hours later at the outer waters of the Sea Dragon Clan’s territory.
It was one of the Sea Dragon Clan’s “security guards.”
“Silver Dragon Prince, welcome to Atlantis as our guest.”
The sea region controlled by the Sea Dragon Clan was called Atlantis, one of the few dragon territories with a specific name.
“Mm. I’m here to see the Eldest Princess, Claudia.”
“Understood. Please follow me, Your Highness.”
To reach Atlantis’s underwater sanctuary, one had to be guided by a Sea Dragon. Otherwise, no living creature could withstand the crushing pressure of the deep sea and would be flattened into a pool of blood in an instant.
“You wait here for me. It won’t take long.”
Leon turned back and reminded the Silver Dragon guard who had escorted him there.
The guard nodded. “Yes, Your Highness.”
With that, Leon followed the Sea Dragon and dived into the depths.
This wasn’t his first deep-sea journey, so Leon was already fairly accustomed to the gradually tightening sensation in his chest as breathing became difficult.
After a brief adjustment, he adapted quickly.
About twenty minutes later, he arrived at the entrance to the Sea Dragon Clan’s sanctuary.
“I’ve already notified the attendants inside via a messenger jiao. Someone will come to receive you shortly, Your Highness.”
“Alright. Thanks for the trouble.”
“Not at all. Please make yourself comfortable.”
With that, the Sea Dragon guard bowed and departed from the sanctuary entrance.
On land, dragons used messenger dragons to pass messages; in the sea, they relied on creatures known as messenger jiao.
It seemed that no matter where you went, those running delivery services always had steady work.
Before long, the sanctuary gates slowly opened. A Sea Dragon maid stepped forward and led Leon inside.
Once inside the hall, Leon looked up.
On the throne, Claudia was bent over her desk, busy with work.
Her focused, serious expression looked remarkably similar to Rosvitha’s.
“Sorry to disturb you, Senior,”
Leon said.
Only then did Claudia set aside the piles of documents, let out a relaxed breath, smooth the hair by her ear, and lift her gaze to Leon.
“Here to visit your master and mistress?”
Leon nodded. After a brief pause, he added, “Actually, there’s another matter I’d like to ask your help with, Senior.”
The mature woman raised an eyebrow and gave a soft chuckle.
“I knew it. You never come to the temple without a reason.”
As she spoke, Claudia rose slowly, pressed down the slightly wrinkled hem of her skirt, then walked down the steps to stand before Leon.
“Whatever it is, we’ll talk about it later. Let’s go see those two first.”
“Alright.”
The two left the main hall and headed for the residential quarters.
When they reached the room where his master and mistress lived, Leon pushed the door open.
The moment he entered, Leon was about to greet them—his mouth already open—
but the scene before him made him stop short.
His master was bare-chested, braced against the floor. Though his body was aged, his muscles were still clearly defined.
At the same time, his mistress was carefully seated sideways on her husband’s back, staring at the old man with obvious worry.
The old master truly had a young man’s spirit despite his age. At such an advanced age—and having only recently come back from the brink of death—he was actually doing push-ups in the room with his wife on his back.
And if Leon remembered correctly, a dragon’s bone density was far greater than a human’s.
In other words, his mistress—who looked like she weighed less than a hundred pounds—likely weighed closer to one hundred and fifty, if not more.
Drip—drip—
Sweat dripped from his master’s chin onto the floor.
“Two hundred… thirty… one!”
“Two hundred thirty… two!”
Just as he was about to reach two hundred and thirty-three, a pair of shoes appeared in his master’s field of vision.
Leon squatted down.
“Training hard, Master?”
“Leon, hurry up and talk some sense into your master,”
Mistress Charlotte said worriedly.
“He insists on doing some kind of rehabilitation training, and even makes me cooperate.”
“Oh come on, Mistress,” Leon said.
“You’ve been married to this stubborn old man for decades. You should know him by now.”
“If he sets a number for himself, he won’t stop until he finishes. Two hundred and thirty-two already, Master—how many did you set this time?”
“F-five hundred…” Charlotte replied.
“Then you really should stop now, old man.”
Five hundred weighted push-ups were clearly too much for his master in his current condition.
Leon quickly helped his master up and guided him to sit on the edge of the bed.
His master panted heavily, sweat pouring down.
Charlotte handed over a towel. He took it and wiped his forehead.
“What made you suddenly come all the way here, kid?”
“If I didn’t, your waist would probably be done for.”
Leon smirked.
“Dragons have heart-protecting scales, but I don’t think there’s such a thing as waist-protecting dragon scales, is there?”
The old man shot him an exasperated glare.
“Sharp tongue. Get to the point. What is it?”
While master and disciple talked, Charlotte prepared two cups of tea and brought them over.
She then went to the side with her sister Claudia, chatting about sisterly matters.
“It’s like this, Master. The human–dragon war has officially ended, but there’s one Dragon King who previously colluded with the Empire, and I still haven’t found any trace of him…”
Leon explained his suspicions about the connection between Adam and this so-called “Lord Shadow.”
In truth, Leon hadn’t come to the Sea Dragon Clan only to get primordial magic manuals for Old Constantine. Another reason was that he wanted to ask his master for his thoughts on this “Shadow.”
After all, his master and Rebecca had spent a long time within the Empire back then.
Even though they exchanged intelligence with Leon every three months, some things were bound to slip through the cracks.
So Leon had decided to try his luck here and see if he could make a breakthrough.
“Hm… so you think this ‘Lord Shadow’ might be the true mastermind behind the Empire?”
His master frowned in thought.
“But when I was investigating within the Empire back then, I never once heard of such a person.”
Leon scratched his head, equally troubled.
“But if Queen Elizabeth turned to him when she was truly cornered, then he must have deep ties to the Empire. And yet it’s as if he never existed at all…”
His master stroked his chin, continuing to think.
After a moment, the old man slapped his thigh.
“Right! Kid, do you remember when I told you before that after Kant took the throne, the Empire’s ruling style barely changed compared to the previous king’s reign?”
Leon nodded.
“Of course I remember.”
His master had mentioned this once during an intelligence exchange.
Logically speaking, whenever a new emperor ascended the throne, their governance style would subtly shift to consolidate power.
But during the thirty years of King Kant’s reign, the Empire hadn’t changed much at all.
Especially when the previous king and many ministers died, the newspapers never published a single photograph of their bodies.
That had never happened with earlier kings.
At the time, master and disciple had only mentioned it in passing and hadn’t investigated further.
Now, with a new enemy slowly emerging from the shadows, this key clue resurfaced in his master’s mind.
“Let’s make a bold assumption,” his master said.
“If the Empire’s governing style over the past thirty years hasn’t changed from the previous king’s era, doesn’t that suggest the one controlling Kant—the puppet king—was actually the previous king himself?”
“And that the former king retreated into the shadows, took on the alias ‘Shadow,’ and continued to manipulate the Empire from behind the scenes?”
The words struck Leon like a revelation.
He nodded slowly.
“That… does make some sense. But there’s a critical problem.”
“If Shadow really is the previous king, how did he live that long?”
“He should’ve been in his seventies when he supposedly died. If he’s still alive now, he’d be over a hundred.”
“Can a man over a hundred really still orchestrate something on this scale?”
His master had already considered this. He replied gravely,
“I suspect some kind of magic, or a special method, was used to extend his life.”
“But forcibly prolonging one’s lifespan like that is taboo. If anything goes wrong, it might not extend life at all—he could die even sooner.”
Taboo life-extension magic was very different from preserving someone in a crystal.
Crystals sealed a person before death—immobile, unable to speak, only able to hear the outside world.
Life-extension magic, on the other hand, forcibly stretched a person’s lifespan. As Leon said, the risks were enormous.
“Mm… but it’s a new direction worth considering. Keep an eye on it,” his master said.
“Got it.”
Given the current situation, Leon wouldn’t overlook any lead.
After chatting with his master a bit longer, Leon stood up.
Charlotte stepped forward, concern in her eyes.
“How have you been lately, Leon?”
Leon smiled.
“Pretty good, Mistress.”
“That’s good to hear. If you have time… bring your wife over sometime.”
“The last two times you came, there were urgent matters, and you left in a hurry. I haven’t really had a proper chance to talk with her.”
Got it.
Mother-in-law wants to chat with the daughter-in-law.
Perfectly reasonable.
“Of course, Mistress. When Rosvitha has time, we’ll come together to visit you and Master.”
“Mm, mm.”
“Alright, family time’s over.”
Claudia folded her arms and leaned casually against the bedroom doorframe, smiling at Leon.
“Now you can tell me—what exactly did you come here to ask my help with?”
…