After Ebirah appeared, Coraline squealed in delight, losing all her calm and elegant demeanor, and flashed beside her daughter, tightly hugging her.
"Ah! You are so cute! So cute, I'm going to die!"
Ebirah was suddenly hugged tightly and made a strange sound. "Gyuouph!?"
Coraline looked down and giggled. "Although, why are you so short, my love? You are about 153 centimeters."
Ebirah looked up at her mother, and her tail wagged pridefully. "Of course, that's because Angel is cute, so I wanted to be of similar height!"
Coraline laughed and leaned down to rain kisses on Ebirah's face. "My daughter is so cute, Kya!"
Yasenia approached and waved her hand to retrieve one of her dresses. She had a few that could adapt to body sizes, and the opening on the back would allow Ebirah's lobster tail to pass through easily.
"Here you go, little Ebirah."
Coraline looked at the dress, and her eyebrow twitched. "Isn't it a bit revealing?"
The light-yellow off-shoulder dress had the front widely opened but with enough cloth to hide most of the breast. The opening only revealed the entire middle section, which would look fantastic on a big-breasted woman like Yasenia.
Ebirah's body was much more slim, even if she had an hourglass figure. Even then, the dress' design was intricate enough that it would allow Ebirah to gain a pure but attractive edge.
Yasenia blinked. "Is it? It's one of my most conservative outfits."
Coraline looked at Yasenia's revealing blue dress, and her lips twitched. 'She is not lying.'
She saw that the materials were suitable and helped Ebirah get dressed.
The light-yellow color mixed perfectly with Ebirah's tail's golden markings and complimented her supple and fair skin.
Ebirah twirled once and smiled with a pure smile. "Do I look good, Mom?"
Coraline nodded. "Of course, my daughter is the most beautiful."
Yasenia called Andrea with her tail, and the tall, heroic woman approached.
When Ebirah saw Andrea, her purple-pinkish eyes lit up as she ran into Andrea's embrace. "Andrea, Andrea, do I look good?"
Andrea laughed and caressed her soft pink hair. "Yes, little Ebirah looks like a small fairy that fell from the heavens."
Ebirah looked up and laughed brightly, lighting up her surroundings with her smile.
Coraline understood how much her daughter liked this human from this interaction, so she took her more seriously.
Her eyes landed on Andrea's black armor with golden edges and squinted. "Andrea."
Andrea looked at Coraline. "Yes, Queen Coraline?"
Coraline smiled. "No need for titles. Just call me Aunty Coraline."
Andrea smiled and said respectfully. "Aunty Coraline."
Coraline nodded. "Good. I wanted to ask. Where did you find that armor you are wearing?"
Andrea blinked and said casually. "Hm? I made it."
Every lobster-kin and lamia present froze and widened their eyes. The lobster Queen had to ask again to make sure. "I'm speaking about the black armor you are wearing."
Andrea looked a bit puzzled. "I know. It is called [Knight's Vow]. I made it while being enlightened. Sadly, I lost a bit of concentration in the middle, or the results could've been much better. I will need many years of practice to create something like this again."
Coraline internally sighed in relief. "So, you can't create armors of this quality constantly."
"Not at all. Aunty Coraline is giving me too much credit, hahaha."
Coraline asked. "What's your constant quality?"
Andrea kept petting the little cutie's pink hair and got thoughtful. "Usually, most of my items end up being peak-level Earth rank or low-level Heaven rank. It's about a sixty to forty percent chance between those two."
Coraline's eyes flashed with appreciation. 'I heard that this woman participated in the tournament, so her age is less than seventy. A true blacksmithing genius."
One of the lamias slithered forward and stated in a serious manner. "Andrea, become my disciple. I'll teach you all the techniques of the Continent."
Andrea shook her head. "Sorry, but I can't accept. I already have a master, and accepting another one would be an insult to her. A master is like a parent, and betraying my master would hurt me deeply."
The lamia was not offended, to have taught a human to the point Andrea reached today, that master must be extremely powerful.
"Sure, I don't mind. However, let me teach you regardless. I'm curious to see what kind of heights you'll reach in the future."
Andrea smiled. "It will be my pleasure to be taught by senior."
Officially accepting someone as a Master and learning techniques from another person were two different things.
The meaning of accepting a master was taking someone into your life, similar to getting a lover.
Therefore, although learning from others was not unusual, entering a master-disciple relationship was a significant step everyone took seriously.
The lamia offered it sincerely, but she didn't mind being rejected.
Yasenia asked. "Well, with this, I hope all of us can enter a cooperative relationship."
Coraline nodded.
The lamias also nodded again, reaffirming their stance.
Ghana also nodded as a representative from the harpies.
Coraline said. "Yasenia, if you don't mind, I'll send a few juniors, princes, and princesses to your clan to learn and soak a bit from your clan's knowledge."
Yasenia smiled. "Sure, I don't mind. However, let us interview each of them. I'm very strict with who I accept in my clan. I want to keep it as clean as possible."
Coraline didn't mind. If her juniors failed, it was their problem. The only thing Coraline wanted was to give them a precious opportunity.
After this, Yasenia, Coraline, Drasha, and Ghana walked to her office and met with Tatyana.
Then, the dragon woman, queen lobster, powerful lamia, intelligent harpy, and demi-goddess began a conversation to get benefits that would help all their groups.
During the talk, Yasenia recommended Coraline and Drasha to participate in the Auction event, speaking a bit about the treasures they presented.
Naturally, speaking specifics was not possible because of the contract, something Yasenia took seriously, but giving them hints was not a problem.
These were intelligent leaders, so taking hints was not a problem.
They also decided not to interact during the auction not to attract too much attention.
Yasenia still wanted to gain fame while silently spreading her influence.
Getting famous because of her item quality would not make others as wary as she was getting acquainted with three powerful clans from the Thirty-Three Clans.
One, it was just economic strength, a not-so-important aspect in a cultivation society.
The other was gaining political and military support, a critical and threatening aspect that other powers would watch closely.
Yasenia was confident of the people here, so she asked. "Ghana, Tatyana, how is Fu Yu doing?"
Coraline blinked. "Who is this?"
Drasha was also clueless.
Ghana took out a report and explained. "He is the son of the City Lord. He had bad intentions, so Lady Yasenia used a few tricks that no one noticed to poison him. There are zero worries of tracking the source back to us unless they use extraordinarily powerful divination treasures."
The other two blinked and nodded. They didn't care about a small city like Koran City.
Tatyana smiled calmly and spoke. "We've spoken with the doctor treating Fu Yu, and he has told us that he is in immeasurable agony, and healing and antidotes don't do anything but worsen his condition. Since Fu Yu had ingested many powerful healing pills to try to relieve the pain, the expected symptoms appeared sooner than we thought."
Tatyana smirked. "The blood sample the doctor took shows that there is an unknown "creature" inside of him that's multiplying fast and eating his vitality away. Moreover, this "creature" has infected various vital organs like the heart and lungs."
Coraline frowned. "A creature? What do you mean?"
Ghana looked at Yasenia, asking for permission.
Yasenia nodded.
Ghana explained curtly. "Your majesty, we are speaking about parasites. Lady Yasenia's poison masters are proficient in Parasite breeding."
They both frowned deeply.
Yasenia saw their expressions and asked. "What's wrong?"
Drasha asked, confused. "Aren't parasites quite weak and easy to purify?"
Yasenia and Tatyana blinked twice and had the same idea. 'Is it because of their Body Cultivation Method that they feel that way?'
Yasenia asked Tatyana. 'Did the growth of parasites stagnate in this continent because the bodies are too strong to infect, to begin with?'
'Most probably. The parasites were accustomed to the softer bodies of humans that lived before Distancia spread around the Body Cultivation Methods. Moreover, since it is a relatively new body, cultivators at that time probably couldn't reach Dantian Spiritualization Realm. Remember that the density and purity of a World grow the older the World is. Hence, although now the strongest person might be a high-level Dantian Spiritualization person, a hundred thousand years ago, the strongest might have been a low-level Unification realm cultivator.'
Ghana agreed with Drasha's and Coraline's feelings. "I also thought so until I met Lady Kali… Either way, he is now writhing in agonizing pain and screaming to the point his throat is getting hoarse. These are the words he said that our spies reported."
[Ah! My bones, I feel my bones being eaten away. Why is it so painful? Ugh, I want to die. I don't want to be eaten alive. I feel them beneath my skin and in my throat.]
Ghana read with a monotonous voice, but it didn't take the creepy nature of it away.
She continued. "Here, Fu Yu tried to vomit, but he could only heave because he had already emptied his stomach. Then, it continues like this."
Drasha coughed. "I think it is enough."
Ghana blinked and looked at Yasenia, who nodded at her.
Coraline asked with a complicated expression. "What did this person do to you, Lady Yasenia?"
Yasenia smiled. "He threatened my humans."
Drasha and Coraline didn't know why but felt a chill going up their spine because of Yasenia's calm smile.
'I must tell my sisters not to mess with Yasenia's humans.'
'I should warn all of those who want to come here to be respectful to Yasenia's humans.'
Tatyana spoke. "Ladies, I want to ask about one thing if it isn't too much of a problem."
Coraline and Drasha nodded.
"Why are dragons so weak around the Continent?"
Coraline and Drasha got silent and thoughtful.
Yasenia smiled. "As you know, I'm a pure dragon, not a dragonkin. Hence, we've tried investigating this but had no results."
Coraline crossed her legs and tapped her armrest with her finger. "I think that the strongest races were hunted to extinction, so the ones left behind have very weak bloodlines."
Tatyana didn't want to mess around with this specific thing as it involved her little treasure. Hence, her aura changed as she looked into Coraline's eyes with her red eyes that seemed to pierce into the soul.
"You are lying."
Coraline's expression became colder, and she squinted. "Human, control your speech. I can respect your opinions and wisdom, but you are speaking to the Queen of a race."
Tatyana was not intimidated in the slightest.
"[Empress Intent Level Nine]."
As if the World had suddenly dulled, only Tatyana's red eyes appeared to have color.
The pressure in the room became so high that it felt as if they were breathing a viscous liquid instead of air.
The uncomfortable sensation, coupled with Tatyana's royal aura, was like Yasenia's enhanced presence but ten times more potent.
Each level of Intent comprehension made it incomparable to the previous level.
If two swordsmen with the same strength fought, and one had a level three [Sword Intent] while the other had a level two [Sword Intent], the fight would be over in a minute.
The people with the highest Intents had it around level four or five, so Tatyana's level nine intent was extremely outrageous.
"Coraline, tell me why dragons are weak in this continent."
The voice was cold and threatening.
Coraline looked at Tatyana and felt all the hairs in her body standing up with warning signals.
Drasha and Ghana were much worse because they were weaker, but the pressure was not enough to cause damage since Tatyana was focusing her aura on Coraline.
Yasenia didn't feel much from it, so she kept looking with a calm expression.
Coraline felt like she had fallen in the middle of a terrifying aura storm, but she still kept a dignified face and demeanor.
After taking a deep breath, Coraline asked. "What are you? You are not human."
*****************************
Author: Mommy? Sorry.
Angel: KYA! MOMMY TATYANA, I LOVE YOU!
Evelyn: I'm going to change…
Andrea: Cough, let's move on with it.
Author: Oh... Right.
Yasenia: Hehe, too mesmerized with Mom?
Author: I mean, when the MILF gets serious, some people's underwear also goes through a severe condition.
Kali: I can see where Evelyn's perverseness comes from.
Author: Cough, either way. I summon you!
Dante: I'm here once again!
Yasenia: Hello, Dante. What's today's inquiry?
Dante: Giving some love and attention to our residential tsundere Mirrory!
Mirrory: Whom are you calling a tsundere, child?
Dante: Huh? Do you know what that is?
Mirrory: No, but I don't appreciate getting strange nicknames.
Dante: Cough, sorry.
Mirrory: Hum, go ahead. What's your question?
Dante: Well, your comment about Yassy being such a great lover that you even consider becoming her lover, too, has really piqued my interest!
Dante: Were you in a romantic relationship with any of your past partners? If so, how many and who was the best?
Mirrory: Romantic relationship? Are you asking if I've had intercourse with any of my previous Masters?
Dante: Yes. Also, if you ever felt love for them.
Mirrory: Why would I feel romantic affection for my masters? I can't procreate, so there is no point. Romance is born from the deep feelings of wanting to reproduce and create descendants with the other person.
Dante: Um, what about male-to-male or female with female relationships?
Mirrory: Deep inside, it's the same. Two people attract each other because they find the other person as a qualified mate with whom they want to pass their genes with. It's a primitive and unavoidable sensation. This doesn't mean that if it doesn't happen, the couple will be unhappy.
Mirrory: However, having progeny, adopted or biological, helps close the distance between partners and allows them to grow as a person since their responsibility grows while teaching and educating a new life.
Mirrory: Naturally, this only occurs if the parents are responsible and stable. Although all children have a right to be born, sadly, not all parents are qualified.
Dante: Hmm… You have a point.
Mirrory: Hence, I have never wanted nor felt an interest in relationships. Moreover, as I said many times, all of my previous holders were focused on cultivation. Of the tens of masters, only two had any relationship, which ended wrongly since, with my presence, detecting lies was easy, and the trust was broken quickly.
Mirrory: commented. One of them only lasted three millennia, and the other only lasted five thousand years. I usually recommend my users not to have relationships, but…
Angel: Hm? Is something wrong, Mirrory?
Mirrory: No. Don't worry, Angel.
Dante: Hmm~.
Mirrory: Anyway, my comment back then had no deeper meaning than slight curiosity.
Dante: Oh? Do you find Yasenia worthy enough to feel curiosity?
Mirrory: Yes. Although the time is short, I can feel the commitment and depth of her feelings. Even with my presence as the Truth Mirror, it is possible to have a stable relationship with her.
Mirrory: However, I may be wrong. Only time will tell.
Author: Cough, thanks for that, Mirrory. It's an exciting view on relationships, although I personally think that it's a bit more complex. However, the core is not that far off.
Mirrory: Hum.
Author: With this, we say goodbye for today~.
Mirrory: Bye.
The girls: Bye-bye~.
Dante: See you another time!