"Give them dry bread!" ordered Magnius.
"My lord?" said the soldier on the right with a frown.
But he could do nothing as Magnius raised one hand, except, relay his master's orders to a soldier on the far right.
"Do as Lord Magnius commands!"
The rightmost soldier nodded, then threw a packet of dried bread in front of Vir.
"Take it!" the soldier shouted. "It is my lord's mercy to you and your sister!"
Vir growled, his jaw twitching to a crunching sound as he looked up at the soldier who threw the bread at him.
"My lord?" the soldier to Magnius' right said again. "What else should we wait for?"
And again, Magnius raised one hand, stopping the soldier from his chatty attitude.
"I sense something unique about these two," Magnius said.
The soldiers looked at Vir and Aira in the blanket on the cart more carefully.
Although Magnius said that to his soldiers in a low voice, Vir and Aira also heard his voice clearly.
Vir glanced at Aira as he grabbed the dry bread near his feet. Although annoyed, at least, the bread would be able to fill their stomachs later.
Aira shook her head under the blanket at Vir, but Vir didn't seem to mind the bread the emperor's cousin had given him.
At the same time, Vir showed the little girl that he was able to control his emotions and anger towards the people of the central empire. More importantly, the emperor's family.
"Tell me," Magnius said. "What beasts have you hunted and captured?"
Vir took a deep breath. But he could sense that Magnius was actually probing him. Because Vir also understood that there were limits that a hunter should not cross, even if it was a poacher.
Also, both Vir and Aira felt that the question was not just a question. It was more about finding out the mastermind behind the killings of riders and their dragon mounts over the past decade.
"Not much," Vir replied. "It's hard for me to hunt in these conditions. Just partridges, deer, and that sort of thing."
"Beasts!" repeated Magnius with a grin. "I asked about beasts. Don't pretend, I know very well that you guys are very active in the black market."
"I see, huh?" Vir nodded his head. "Alright," he continued. "Besides the Grass Tiger and the Ghost Wolf, I got my hands on a Kinghorn—well, a baby Kinghorn once."
"Hey," interrupted one of the soldiers on the left. "The wyvern breed is not to be hunted!"
"I know," said Vir. "I told you just now, all I got was a baby Kinghorn. And I think something or some beast brought that baby wyvern from a farm beforehand. I don't know... who can tell?" Vir shrugged.
"I see, huh?" Magnius chuckled softly as he nodded. "Other than that?"
Vir pretended to think and shrugged his shoulders again. "Hey, I almost got a Byzanterum that day!"
"What did you say?" said a soldier on the right. "Byzanterum?"
"Byzanterum!" Vir smiled and nodded proudly. "Oh, you won't believe it," he said. "I would have been filthy rich if that damn dragon hadn't slipped through my noose."
In the next second, the soldiers laughed as if mocking Vir with what he had just said.
"Oh, you poachers," Magnius said and chuckled. "Your dreams are indeed quite wild."
"I'm only saying what I've experienced, my lord," Vir said. "Nothing more."
"Never mind!" said Magnius then who felt it was a waste to interrogate the man and his little sister. "Let's move on!"
The soldiers were still laughing, some immediately kicked off their dragons, following Magnius who had already taken to the air with his dragon.
A soldier still glanced at Vir with a mocking gaze. "Bizante, huh?" he said. "Yeah, dream all you want, man!"
Vir just grinned as he covered his nose and mouth from the flying dust and sand as the dragons took to the air again with their wings flapping.
He was still watching the people from the Central Empire move away. And after that, he approached the little girl on the cart.
"Are you okay?"
Aira nodded but Vir found that her face was still pale.
"Those men," Aira said, "they're headed for the Eastern Lands. They're looking for information about you, I think."
Vir frowned. "Yeah, that's for sure. It's unusual for an al-Banix to leave their paradise. Of course, there's only one reason, they're getting worried because riders are disappearing one by one."
"You're not afraid?"
The man laughed silently. "Not in the least. After all, by the time we reach the Eastern Lands, they might not be there anymore. And hey," he looked at the little girl closely. "Next time, control yourself. You know, you almost got us killed with that ability of yours."
"What ability?"
"Don't pretend, you damn little punk! Those dragons were getting restless. If it wasn't because of your uncontrollable ability, then what else could it be, hmm?!"
Vir snorted, placed the dry bread beside Aira unceremoniously, then grabbed the cart's wide strap, and stepped back in while pulling the cart.
"Not me!" said Aira.
Vir stopped again and looked at the little girl, pointing at her without saying a word.
"It wasn't me who caused the dragons to become agitated."
"Yeah, right!" Vir snorted, not believing Aira's words at all.
Aira frowned and adjusted the thick blanket on her body. Did Vir not realize that the dragons had actually become agitated because of his unique dagger? The dagger was made of Black Dracael's solid bone.
Did he really not know this, or was he just pretending?
The little girl let out a deep breath. It seemed to be true, the man didn't realize that his dagger was actually very, very special.
But this is good, she thought. At least, the dagger had protected him well, other than being used to kill riders.
Feeling sorry for Vir, Aira got off the cart and stepped up beside him on his left.
Vir snorted softly as he glanced at Aira who had not removed the thick blanket from her body.
"Byzante, huh?" Aira grinned faintly.
Vir chuckled. "You are just like them," he said. "No one will believe that."
Aira gave Vir a longer glance, and he chuckled again.
"So," the little girl said, "you actually met that legendary Sea Serpent? Almost caught it?"
Vir just poked his lips forward and shrugged his shoulders. He knew for sure that people wouldn't believe him at all.
But that was what had happened to him. Vir had indeed come close to capturing a legendary and mythical sea serpent, Byzanterum or Byzante.
"In the sea that separates the Northeast and the North," Vir said. "Well, even if it was by accident. But, just forget it. After all, it's just a once-in-a-lifetime chance that I can get, then slip off, and there's no way it can happen again."
Aira believed that Vir was not lying. But that was good as well, she thought.
Even though Vir might have experienced this, meeting one of those legendary dragons, to other people's ears, it sounded like a bunch of nonsense.
Well, even those soldiers, and the Mighty Magnius. But even that was probably in line with what Vir himself thought and wanted: To make people think he was insane, a hunter who liked to fantasize to hide his identity or to avoid trouble.
"Hey," Vir said later. "Do you often see dracaels like that one?"
"You mean," Aira said, "the dragon that the emperor's cousin rode?"
Vir nodded.
"I think it's a Deathbeak."
"I see, huh?" Vir took a deeper breath. "But I don't think it is."
"You don't?" Aira frowned.
"I don't know!" Vir replied. "This is the first time I've ever seen a Deathbeak, myself. Is it really a Deathbeak, or is it something else?" Vir shrugged his shoulders again.
"Oh..." Aira just nodded.
However, Aira's assumption was true. The Sky Dragon ridden by Magnius the Mighty was a Deathbeak Dracael. But the little girl didn't want to debate this with Vir.
After all, Vir was limited in his knowledge, she thought.
"What about the other six wyverns?" asked Aira.
"Silverwing," Vir said. "I've seen that one a few times. Unfortunately, I've never tasted what its heart tastes like."