A large fox ran upwards in the air. It had seductively charming eyes, smooth fur, four fluffy tails and a long yet lithe and graceful body. Light blue markings trailed along the edges of its eyes and along its limbs to the tips of its tails. Even though there were two small passengers clinging to its back, the fox was unconstrained, smoothly leaping through the air.
Behind the fox was a strange sight.
Two small dragons, one turquoise and one a minty green color, pushed an even larger dragon up. The wings of the larger dragon were flapping slowly, and its hindlegs were completely made of stone. Dark lava was still dripping from its petrified legs. Directly above the dragon was a shiny onyx colored dragon dragging the largest dragon by the neck.
With Verdalite dragging the patriarch up from the top and the two smaller dragons pushing him from the bottom, the patriarch was able to barely keep up with Azar.
When they had finally reached the top, Verdalite cursed.
"F*ck, I can't believe none of you found out about this until it slapped you right in the face! Is that old lady losing her touch?"
Unable to transform back into his human form due to the sudden fall into the lake of lava miasma, the patriarch looked sullenly at Verdalite.
"Don't insult my wife like that. It's not her fault. I knew something had changed in the mana ores, but I never expected that they would be deliberately contaminated. F*ck, I didn't even know we were living right above a volcano!"
Ciel watched him swear, intrigued.
When he was like this, he was incredibly similar to Verdalite, this cheap grandfather of his.
…Although Verdalite didn't really swear much in front of him before.
Suddenly, there was a loud bang as the stone door to the chamber was abruptly knocked down, interrupting the ruckus.
"What's wrong? What happened here?" The matriarch was still smiling elegantly, but somehow, her bearing looked as if she was about to beat someone up.
This was especially so when Quetzal shouted out a "mother!" and threw his small dirt-covered body into his mother's arms. Aspen slowly trotted to the matriarch's side and stood next to them quietly.
Her smile becoming gentler, the matriarch slowly brushed the dirt and dust off her son's scales. However, the sharpness had returned when she looked up.
"So, would anyone mind telling me what occurred during the short time I left?"
Quetzal perked up brightly, "I got two grandnephews!"
The gentleness returned as the matriarch smiled, pressing his head back down.
"That's nice dear. Aspen, take him to his room and clean yourselves up."
Aspen nodded cheerily, and left with her young lord in tow.
When they left, the softness on the matriarch's face had disappeared again. She crossed her arms.
"So, what happened?"
Tugging on his clothes, both Ciel and Erin turned to look at Azar, who had transformed back into a humanoid ice cube. Like a domino effect, Azar looked at Verdalite sternly, who then turned to look at the patriarch.
As a result, all four gazes looked at the patriarch, as if to say: Go on, you tell her. She's your wife, not ours.
The patriarch gulped, before turning to look into his wife's stern eyes, and said in the calmest voice he could muster up.
"Helen, alert the clan. We need to migrate."
The command was sudden, but the preparation wasn't difficult.
The reptilian clan had been expanding for a long time, and although the mountain was large, their population was expanding too fast. Many eves had wanted to move out since a long time ago, especially since most of them, in their youth, had damaged one part of the mountain or another, causing the mountain to become increasingly unstable.
In fact, the other tribe leaders had been discussing the issue of migration with the dragon tribe leaders for a long time now—they've even scouted out a potential area to move to—Medusa forest, the area they had inhabited in the novel.
At this point, if Ciel couldn't figure things out, then the thing in his skull wasn't a brain.
\So in the novel, the patriarch didn't find out about the rigged lava until it became completely contaminated and exploded?\
Erin nodded in agreement with his sister's words as he watched Ciel rub the rabbit doll's furry head.
"He probably used some way to use his life to allow the rest of the tribe to migrate to Medusa forest."
Ciel didn't say anything. His eyes narrowed in contemplation as he stroked the doll.
'In the novel, did Quetzal know the demons were behind his clan's migration?'
.
Ever since they had come back, the trio had been sent to the dragon tribe's medical room to heal up and rest. So naturally, Ciel had brought out Theresa to update her on the situation.
The matriarch had given three days maximum to pack up and leave. She had also sent a small investigation squad with hopes of chasing Mammon and Beelzebub down. But neither Ciel nor Erin thought they would be able to find them.
First of all, Beelzebub was supposed to be in the royal prison at this moment after the plaza incident. But he still somehow came to the middle of the reptilian tribe's grounds. Second of all, Mammon was much smarter than Beelzebub, and with him and his puppets around, there was no chance of the squad actually catching their real bodies.
What else could they do but let the culprits go?
Ciel silently shook his head as he watched the investigation squad fly away with high spirits.
On the morning of departure, before the sun was even up, Ciel was woken up by Azar and plopped on Verdalite's back. Clutching the rabbit doll with Erin, they watched the fully unpetrified patriarch stand silently next to his wife. From his flattering demeanor, it could be seen that she was still angry at him.
That was understandable, of course, as the patriarch of the entire tribe, he allowed outsiders to pollute their sacred mana mines and also managed to poison himself trying to stop the pollution without even knowing the cause—and didn't find out until a few brats(including her own son) found out first.
Helen glared coldly at her useless husband again.
It was a good thing she loved him, otherwise, with her personality, she would have skinned this kind of incompetent dragon alive and thrown him to the mines a long time ago.
(Patriarch: Wife, aren't you being too mean to me? QAQ)
As the reptilian tribe were migrating, Ciel and Erin were naturally going back to Fatalite with Azar and their cheap grandfather.
Just as Ciel was sad that he hadn't gotten any souvenirs, the matriarch stopped Verdalite from taking flight.
"Wait!"
The black dragon paused suddenly, almost pushing its smaller passengers off in the process.
Helen took a deep breath.
"We've thought about it. Even if you like men, you can still come back."
Ciel choked on his spit.
'You guys had time to think about Verdalite's love life when your home is close to becoming an erupting volcano???'
Verdalite, feeling an urge to survive, quickly shook his head before his back could be frozen into an ice cube.
"How many times do I have to tell you that we're just friends? Mother, don't overthink things."
(Ciel: So you're respectfully calling mother now? I want to see where your guts from before went.)
Helen gave a sigh, touching her cheek elegantly as she crossed her arms.
That year, they'd had a big fight about Onyx—no, Verdalite's fiance—then he had immediately ran away with a beautiful fox eve. How could they not overthink?
"You really won't come back?"
Verdalite firmly shook his head.
"I'm happy with my life outside. But I'll visit sometimes."
She sighed, he had always been like this. But since she was softhearted enough to take him in years ago when he had been left out in the cold, what else could she do but indulge him?
It could be seen that although they weren't blood-related, this family's tendency to take in stray children had been passed down perfectly down to Verdalite, before going to Jadiel.
Helen turned her attention to the two brothers and their ghostly sister floating behind them.
"Anyway, you two are his grandchildren, correct? I've met Jadiel before, he's a good kid."
Resisting the urge to look up at the youthful Verdalite, Ciel nodded with Erin.
"Thank you for helping my son, even though he's like that. Logically speaking, I should be counted as your great-grandmother."
Helen reached into her long dress, pulling out two shining scales. They were petal shaped, and the size of a baby's fist. Looking closely, it was carved into the shape of a dragon's eye.
"Take these. These two are tokens from the dragon clan. Seeing something like this is the same as seeing the patriarch himself. If you encounter any reptile eves outside, even if they won't obey you, they won't cause you any harm. If you're ever in trouble, breaking it will summon a phantom of him that possesses his full power in his heyday. The phantom will disappear after an hour."
She pointed to her husband, adding on with disdain.
"Even if he became like this, he was pretty powerful in his heyday."
Being disdained by his wife before getting praised, the patriarch didn't know whether he should be happy or sad. However, he didn't have enough time to decide before his idiot son interrupted.
"Wait!"
He pointed to the two brothers.
"Call me granduncle!"
"..."
Covering his face, the patriarch silently left, he wasn't needed here anymore. Too bad he couldn't drag this tactless son away when they were in front of his mother.
Ignoring the young battle junkie, Erin took the two scales and handed them to Ciel for safekeeping. Then, he gently pushed Verdalite's head.
"Grandfather, let's go."
His natural and soft call of "Grandfather" almost sent Verdalite up into the sky in happiness.
Giving a foolish smile, he flapped his wings.
"Of course my grandson! Mother, I'll be going now. I'll keep in touch later!"
With that, they left the completely ignored Quetzal in the dust.
Quetzal: "..."
He stiffly turned around to tug on his mother's dress.
"Mother. That guy called my brother grandfather, so he acknowledged me as his granduncle right?"
Aspen nodded in agreement, anything her young lord said was right.
Helen looked at the children in pity, and bent down to pat their small heads.
"Children, it's nice to have dreams, but you can't be delusional. Alright?"
She gently tapped Quetzal's forehead.
"Especially you. If not for them, you might have died. I heard the people who poisoned our mountain killed many humans in the human kingdom. Don't be so brainless in the future, alright? You won't become a great patriarch like this."
Although her words were harsh, her smile was as beautiful as ever. Quetzal looked at her face, before firmly declaring.
"I won't do it anymore!"
He got another head pat in return. He continued.
"But I don't want to be like dad, I want to be a great matriarch like you, mother!"
The hand on his hand froze, but Helen's smile was as tolerant as ever.
"Son, then you should go to sleep now."
Quetzal tilted his head in confusion as she continued.
"Anything is possible in your dreams."
Quetzal didn't get what she was implying, but his view of his mother was the same as Aspen's view on him—anything she said was correct.
"Ok!"
The patriarch, who had been directing the flightless reptilian tribes down the mountain, suddenly sneezed.
Huh, what was this feeling of being shot while lying down?