Chapter 1312 - Angel and Dragon (5) (2/2)

“That…!”

“…!”

Upon hearing Rhode’s remarks, Kolt was flabbergasted. The expression that he struggled to restore earlier turned ashen instantly. On the other hand, Erin couldn’t help but stare at Rhode. It wasn’t that Rhode said something wrong, but he happened to mention one of the strictest and oldest traditions among the dragon race.

Dragon’s nest.

The dragon race was a female supremacist race, which was evident from the fact that most of the inheritors of the dragon soul powers were females, like the twin dragons, Erin, and Lilian, who all fell into this category. Rhode was an exception, but the root of it all was his body and soul that shared his younger sister’s power, which allowed him to inherit the power of the Void Dragon. Erin’s mother didn’t inherit the power of the dragon soul, so Ion, who stole the dragon soul power, was unable to kill her and could only imprison her in the underground prison and manipulate her as the converter of the dragon soul power. This showed just how powerful female dragons were.

However, among the dragons, it wasn’t their strength that made them the most powerful. As stated before, male dragons had a low status in the dragon race (at least relatively), and if they wanted to pursue the opposite sex, they would need to go through the trouble of preparing their nests for marriage. And for that, not only did they need to dig their nest large enough, but the nest must also be beautiful, magnificent, and have amassed enough wealth. That was why females among the dragon race occasionally roamed, while male dragons were mostly unseen. They were busy accumulating wealth.

It was just like those poor men in Rhode’s world who worked their butts off just to buy a high-rise apartment downtown and renovate it in order to be considered qualified to ask for a girl’s hand in marriage. Meanwhile, the otherworldly males weren’t much better in that regard. It was just that male humans were still luckier than male dragons. If their arrangement didn’t please the female, the worst that could happen was a breakup. It wasn’t strange at all to get a marriage certificate today and a divorce certificate tomorrow. In that high-intensity and high-paced society, even though it wasn’t a par for the course for couples to get married soon after meeting and get divorced shortly after marriage, it was still commonly seen.

Yes, the worst that could happen was just a breakup, which wasn’t really a big deal.

But for the dragon race, it was a matter of life and death.

Female dragons were extremely arrogant and picky, especially when it came to their peers. Of course, if it was another race that fell in love with a female dragon, there would be no problem. Because dragons had longevity and were near-immortal, any other race that fell in love with a dragon would die earlier than them. But it was different in the case of love between dragons because they would spend an eternal life with each other. It could also be said that once they married, the two dragons would be bound to the earth until the end of the world. And for that reason, the dragon race couldn’t be more picky when it came to settling down with a partner.

Of course, it was usually the female dragons that were entitled to pickiness.

In this context, before a male dragon built his nest and chased the target of his fancy, it was important to carefully consider whether the nest he built was to the other party’s liking. If the nest itself wasn’t to her liking, she might find the ugly, shabby nest insulting. In such cases, the female would be perfectly justified to kill the male!

That’s right; kill the male right away. Not even a trial was needed. It was an immediate death penalty.

And what left one speechless was that this kind of slaughter was a law that the dragon race recognized among themselves. In other words, even if the female killed the male, she didn’t have to take any responsibility. Because in the dragons’ mindset, if the male dragon was killed, it must be that he didn’t do a good enough job on his nest. It wasn’t the female being unreasonable. That’s right. They definitely wouldn’t recognize the concept of ‘unreasonable behavior’.

With such a ‘custom’, it wasn’t difficult to understand why the fertility rate of the dragon race was so low…

While Kolt’s pestering might seem like perseverance and ingenuity to humans, from the perspective of a dragon, he was just sending himself to his grave. He was also fortunate that Erin never agreed to his request. But what if she agreed to his marriage proposal, went to visit the nest he made, and killed him on the spot?

The night wyverns weren’t reasonable in the slightest because it was a tradition of the dragon race and one that defended females, so much so that the matriarch couldn’t refute no matter how much she loved her son. If she denied Erin’s right to kill her son, then she, the matriarch, could forget about keeping her role forever.

Kolt was bewildered because he didn’t expect this ‘Elizabeth’ to be so ruthless. He did, in fact, risk his life by chasing Erin, but it wasn’t because he was overwhelmed by love. On the contrary, he had done a thorough investigation of Erin and learned that she lived in the Country of Darkness since she was a child and never returned to the territories of the dragon race, which explained why she wasn’t knowledgeable of their customs. Not only that, but Erin was also gentle and kind, which was considered really rare (yes, really rare) among the female dragons. That was why Kolt had the audacity to keep pestering her. However, everything went well until someone threw a wrench in the works and he had to go back to the drawing board.

What surprised Erin was that Rhode was so familiar with the secret customs of the dragon race. This also explained why he showed up in the disguise of a young lady. If he had passed himself off as another man, according to the rules of the dragon race, he wasn’t allowed to speak to Erin in principle. It was the same as a slave in human society instructing a great nobleman, which was an utterly disrespectful behavior. But things were different since Rhode showed up as a female… And a female dragon at that. That was why no matter how close Lydia and Erin were, there was no way Lydia could have inserted herself into the matter as an archangel.

“Pardon me. May I know who you are? I don’t remember seeing such a beautiful young lady like yourself among the night wyverns…”

At that moment, Kolt had no choice but to dwindle his expression and examine ‘Elizabeth’ seriously. He didn’t know who she was and was really suspicious of her real identity. Because in this world, the only remaining dragon dependents were the night wyverns and rule wyverns. Kolt was sure that there was no dragon named ‘Elizabeth’ among the night wyverns. As for the rule wyverns, although he didn’t know much about them, judging from the dragon aura emanating from the young lady in front of him, he could tell that she wasn’t a representative of Order and rule. In that case, he was highly suspicious of this Elizabeth who showed up here.

Upon hearing Kolt’s question, Erin began to feel a little nervous. After all, the circle of dragons was really small. No matter how elaborately Rhode explained, it was true that ‘Elizabeth’ didn’t exist. As long as Kolt carried out an investigation, he would soon find out this truth. So then, what exactly would Rhode say?

“Me?”

After hearing Kolt’s question, Rhode raised a dangerous eyebrow. The corners of his mouth curled up slightly with a somewhat playful smile as he gazed at Kolt.

“How dare a male of the main plane interrogate me.”

“Ssss…!”

As soon as Rhode responded, the air in the surroundings changed drastically all of a sudden. The dark night sky and dazzling stars enfolded the entire parlor as a dragon aura exploded and proliferated from Rhode’s body. In an instant, the bright parlor was enveloped in a dark curtain, while multiple spots of starlight revolved around him like a river of stars. Not only that, but on his back, a pair of dragon wings was outlined and brought together by illusory starlight as it slowly unfurled.

Staring blankly at this scene, Kolt was baffled.

“Star Dragon?!”