During the Age of Dragons, there were nine dragons that ruled over the continent. The power and responsibilities they held were immensely too much for anyone to handle.
Because of that, several divine beings allied with demons, and humans tried to go against them. They had no idea that the numbers didn't mean anything in front of the dragon's strength. It was an utter defeat.
But it wasn't only them who suffered losses. The three dragon rulers had disappeared without a trace amidst the chaos that swept throughout the continent.
As they saw how everything had turned out, the remaining six dragons came to an agreement on a decision. That's right. They decided to use their magic to make it so that there wouldn't be another war.
The divine beings that survived the intense war and those who never participated in it, all alike, were forced to have their powers sealed. The dragons placed restrictions of multiple layers on them.
The chaos settled down as the dragons took care of the aftermath, bringing forth peace throughout the continent. After that, the dragons decided to seclude themselves and live away from lower lifeforms who had tried to threaten the peace.
That marked the end of the Age of Dragons. Following that, the Era of Heroes came. The divine beings, who had restrictions placed on them, could no longer assist mortals like before.
The different races of the species had their own agendas, but most were peaceful beings. The only two species whose selfish desires craved a war were humans and demons.
The peace all the dragons had sacrificed so much for was soon gone. That was hundreds of years ago. And yet again, the remaining bits of it were being also shattered.
"It's you again."
His amber-golden eyes frowned at the sight of the woman's glistening violet hair. The smile she had on her lips was the same as the one he remembered seeing last time.
His long black hair looked beautiful to the two elves in the room. On the other hand, Sierra had a pale face just from looking at the man.
It was the Dragon King, Solas Athanasios. The moment Aliana broke Sierra free from the restrictions placed on her, the dragon who had hand in it realised what had happened.
That dragon was aware that someone stronger than him had broken the restrictions. There was no way a weaker existence than his would've managed to pull that off.
That was the reason behind Solas's sudden visit. He was requested by the said dragon to take care of the one who was trying to break the balance.
Jaden and Blaise were getting indigestion when they saw the person they wished never to see again. The fears of the night of the birthday banquet remained constant in their hearts.
But they weren't the ones having it bad. The person who was shaking in her boots from fear was Claire. If Solas were to find out about her involvement in the kidnapping of his children, she would be dying, for sure.
"Why did you break those restrictions now?"
Solas's voice was directed towards Aliana, whose smile was still bright. She didn't say a word but pointed at Adrienne, who was still trying to get a grasp of the situation.
The strength he could discern to be in possession of the man unknown to him was too huge. This was the second time he had met someone stronger than himself.
"Oh my..."
Solas' tone of speaking dropped as the words came out of his mouth unconsciously. His eyes glowed golden as he kept staring at Adrienne.
There was a dragon who was said to have given his blood to the founder of Adrienne's mother's kingdom. It was no one else but Solas Athanasios himself.
So technically, Adrienne was his descendant. But that seemed not to be the case for Solas while he tried to see through Adrienne's soul and mind.
There was nothing but darkness contained within both of those parts of his existence. Adrienne surely had some amount of dragon's blood flowing through his body. At the same time, he didn't.
The strength of the darkness was far greater than the dragon's blood in his body. The life Adrienne had lived so far was partly responsible for that.
Then the next thing Solas noticed was something particularly odd. That wasn't something meant to exist within an existence like Adrienne's body.
The stigma. When someone named a divine being and that being accepted it, its power would get shared with the person who gave it the name. It was naturally and phenomenally impossible for someone possessing the blood of dragons to possess the stigma.
Solas had finally realised how grave the situation was. Adrienne had most likely awakened his bloodline powers after giving the name to the world tree.
"What are you going to do next?"
Aliana asked while maintaining her smile. She was being nonchalant, just like usual. There was a limit to how much absurdity Blaise and Jaden could handle.
Solas didn't have an expression for a while. Then he couldn't help but move the corners of his lips. They curled up to form a smile, and he burst into laughter.
Claire, who was already hiding under the table, was trembling with fear. Jaden and Blaise were feeling stuffy at the sound. Thankfully, it stopped soon.
"I have some other matters to tend to. I'll see you sometime later."
Saying that, he vanished into thin air. What was left behind was a thin black mist with golden sparkles.
With his departure, silence graced the room. Everyone's eyes were fixed on only one person: Aliana Rosenstein.
She was the very person who was being carefree in front of the beings that petrified their bodies. His presence was more than enough to make them feel the air surrounding them get heavy.
"What...?"
She asked with a blank expression after closing the door. There was no reply, as everyone stood dazed at their spots.
It was about this time that people other than Jaden understood who Aliana actually was. Sierra had a pale face after witnessing the absurd actions.
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"What are you doing down there?"
Claire's expression stiffened when Jaden put his face under the table. He could see her shoulders trembling clearly. The reason behind it was clear to him.
On the night of the banquet, she had gone through something rather harsh. Solas was the very being who had lifted her ex-lover in the air while strangling him using the black flames.
Jaden let out a sigh and pulled his head backward. He glanced at Blaise, feeling hopeless about the person hiding beneath the table.
Then Blaise joined him too in trying to get her out from under the table. They both began talking with her, trying to reduce her nervousness.
"He is gone. You can come out already."
Hearing Blaise's words, Claire shook her head violently. What if he happened to come back and notice that she was there?
Last time, Aliana barely managed to save her. This time, there was no telling what would happen if Solas were to ask about the coexistence of another soul in her body.
"What are you waiting for? Pull her out."
Jaden said this bluntly to Blaise, who was confused about what to do. He wasn't the type of person who would make a woman cry.
Eleanor was sitting just beside Blaise. She noticed what the two were doing and pulled him back up.
"Don't let that woman get close to my husband."
Jaden could feel her piercing glare fixed on him. He tried to avoid her eyes unknowingly while trying to hold back his laughter.
Just a few hours ago, she was talking about how they were going to get married. That made Jaden think that what she said was a funny joke.
'When did you even get married?'
His thoughts were one thing, and the conversation between Sierra and Aliana was another. Aliana had walked back to her seat.
Blaise, Jaden, Claire, and Eleanor were in their own little world when the rest were paying attention to the conversation. There was no one else aside from Adrienne and Diona who did that, as Melanie was still asleep.
"I'm grateful that you opened the door for him."
Her hands shook slightly as she held the handle of the tea cup. She couldn't get over what she was feeling upon the arrival of the Dragon King himself.
If it wasn't for Aliana opening the door beforehand, Solas would've just broken it apart. That would've led to the dimension created by Sierra crumbling down from the sudden shock.
And the main point was that even Sierra herself would've gotten severely injured. Now she owed Aliana over two times.
First, she freed her from the restrictions, which was almost an impossible task. Then again, she saved her from the havoc that the Dragon King would've caused.
"Don't mind it."
Aliana could tell that Sierra was being honest and sincere, but that wasn't of any concern to her. She had already achieved her goal of having the world tree owe her a thing or two.
Adrienne was already finding everything questionable at that point in time. He had seen someone with identical features to himself for the first time.
'Who was he?'
Not that he was aware of who that man was; Adrienne only knew that he was related to him in some way or another. The feeling of wanting to know more troubled him a bit.
Adrienne was the kind of person who would find out information about stuff by himself rather than by relying on others. Sierra looked at his face, as she had no more words left.
Sierra was aware that Aliana had some hidden reason behind helping her all this time. She had no idea what exactly it was, but it was clear that Aliana would need her help someday.
In the meantime, Jaden and Blaise had managed to calm Claire down. They had to struggle a bit, but Eleanor's assistance helped them take care of it easily.
"May we go outside now...?"
Aliana asked while standing up and placing her palms on the table firmly. She had no interest in wasting any more time. Whatever she wanted to get was already in her hands.
When she mentioned 'we' her index finger slowly lifted. Others looked in the direction it pointed.
And the person she pointed towards was Jaden, whose face became pale the very next moment. Blaise was giving him a side eye.
Aliana was a beauty that would make anyone fall for her. And Jaden? To Blaise, he looked not really special. That wasn't true, though.
Blaise's standards of classifying others as handsome had simply risen thanks to the people he had come across for the past month. No, he didn't swing 'that' way.
"You may."
Sierra was feeling relieved while saying that. The precise reason behind her worries was that they had behaved rudely when Aliana first arrived at the forest.
They had no way of knowing how Aliana felt about that. In truth, Aliana didn't mind how they acted in the beginning. Sadly, Sierra was feeling nervous for no reason.
'What is she plotting now?'
Jaden couldn't help asking himself that question. She wouldn't be pulling him out just for a breather.
He had already taken in too many bits of information. Anymore of it, and he would've passed out.
Blaise kept on glaring at the two who were walking out of the room in the meantime. He would hate to admit it, but he was feeling a bit jealous of Jaden.
"Dear husband~"
He had no time to think about anything else because of Eleanor, who was clinging to his arm. He let out a sigh while gritting his teeth lightly.
'Lucky you, Jaden!'
He had no idea how much worse that guy had it compared to him. That was currently. In the near future, he would understand why Jaden was making that expression before leaving the room.