Chapter 28 (1/2)

“Why can’t I play with Tafel anymore?” Vur asked Sera. The five dragons were sun bathing in the valley and Lindyss was knitting while using Grimmy’s wing for shade.

“The demons don’t like us,” Sera said as she scratched Snuffles belly, “they’re scared of what we can do. It makes them jumpy and on edge when we visit them.”

“But they should be, right?” Vur asked, “we’re dragons. Does it matter what they want?”

Sera sighed. “Dragon’s aren’t invincible, Vur. If they really had to, they would be able to kill some of us, but they’d lose too much. We’d win the war and wipe them all out, but none of us,” Sera lifted her head and looked towards the dragons, “want to see each other die. The demons don’t bother us, and we don’t bother them.”

Vur frowned. “Are they really that strong?”

Grimmy nodded. “I remember when they first invaded. They were pretty strong. They could kill bears and force the elves back. They even managed to take over the fairy queen’s cave. Honestly, no one really cared about that though since fairies are annoying. The demons might seem weak now, but that’s only because the strongest ones seem to disappear after a few adventures in the wilderness.”

“Grimmy’s right. I’ve seen many adventurers come for my fountain of youth,” Lindyss said, “sometimes, the same adventurers come back after many years stronger than before. They tell me stories in exchange for liquid from the fountain. There’s a man called Charon who has visited me eight times already. The world’s a lot bigger than you think.”

“I want to see Tafel,” Vur said and lowered his head.

“Tafel’s a princess,” Lindyss said, “princesses rarely associate with nobles, much less commoners. She’s the future of the country even if she doesn’t become the demon lord. Political marriages to unite factions are pretty common amongst the demons and humans. If I’m not mistaken, the current demon lord is in a political marriage with his wife.”

“Wouldn’t marrying Tafel to Vur be good for them then?” Prika asked, “peace with the dragons wou-, actually, nevermind. We don’t bother them too much anyway.”

Lindyss nodded. “The humans wouldn’t like that very much either and they’d probably declare war. The dragons probably wouldn’t fly out to help fight against them, no offense,” Lindyss said, “so it’s actually a loss to marry Tafel to Vur instead of using her to keep the nobles in check. And can you imagine the outrage of the people if they marry her to a human?”

“But Tafel’s going to marry me,” Vur said with a frown, “we promised.”

“Oh?” Prika said, “you sure work fast. Feeling jealous over there?” Prika turned towards Lindyss.

“Shut up,” Lindyss said and threw a lightning bolt at Prika. Prika swatted it away with her paw and laughed.

“When did you get so brave?” she asked and sighed, “I miss the days when you would tremble in your boots when you saw me.”

Lindyss shrugged.

“Well, I guess it’s okay. You’re more like Vur’s older sister than his wife,” Prika said, “it’s a shame. A real shame. You two would’ve made some cute babies.”

Lindyss threw another lightning bolt at Prika.

“If you want to marry Tafel,” Lindyss said as she turned towards Vur, “you’ll have to become a noble.”

“How do I do that?” Vur asked.

“It’s simple. Get the human king’s attention and have him bestow you a title,” she said and paused, “good attention, not the ‘I burned down your city’ kind of attention. Becoming an SSS ranked adventurer will probably do it.”

“That sounds easy,” Vur said.

“That’s because that’s the easy part,” Lindyss said, “the hard part is learning the etiquette of the nobles. And you’ll have to unite the humans and the demons, but the former is definitely harder for you.”

Vur frowned and tilted his head.

“Don’t worry; it’ll be easy to find you a teacher.”

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