There was a short moment of silence as everybody drank their tea.
“Could you please tell me what is going on?”
The atmosphere in the room changed after Mila asked the question.
“And what did you mean by ‘Lord’?”
Rasheel’s eyes looked a bit warmer as he asked that question, but Mila frowned.
Dragon Lord.
That was an existence that was no longer in this world.
Mila’s eyes clouded over before she turned toward Eruhaben.
“Did you become the Lord?”
“No.”
Click.
Eruhaben elegantly put down the teacup in his hand and looked at the two Dragons.
“This will probably be a very long story. Cale, is it okay if I do it?”
Eruhaben should be able to explain it better than Cale since the story was related to the Dragons.
“Yes, sir. Please do.”
Crunch crunch.
Cale bit down on a cookie and stepped back from the conversation for a moment.
“Then let me start with how I first met this unlucky bastard and the little kid.”
Eruhaben started to share everything that had happened until now.
***
Drip.
Some tea dripped out of Rasheel’s mouth. He was so shocked that he didn’t notice that his mouth was hanging open.
He soon jumped up out of his seat.
“Holy shit! How could all this have happened while I was asleep-?!”
Rasheel could not say anything else as he looked toward Cale. Eruhaben’s calm voice continued to fill Rasheel’s ears.
“As for the current situation… The White Star is planning on summoning the sealed god, and some monsters that will be a disaster to this world.”
Eruhaben gave a short description of the potential ending.
“This world will be destroyed if we cannot stop the White Star.”
This world would be destroyed.
Rasheel used the sleeve of his pajamas to wipe the tea off his mouth before pointing toward Cale.
“I thought the humans were having some territorial dispute because the Elementals called you a damn hero! But WHAT?! THIS-?!”
Eruhaben calmly responded to him.
“It is a kind of territorial dispute in a way. It is just on a much larger scale.”
“How can you phrase it like that-?!”
‘Just a much larger scale?! If things went wrong, a god’s seal would be released and the Demonic race that worships that god might take over this world! That bastard called the White Star or White Radish or whatever might end up becoming a god who rules over this world as well.’
“And you said that the last Lord’s soul is still here? And that Lord’s child is that cute but somewhat clueless kid who was talking about destroying everything earlier?”
Rasheel slapped himself.
“O, ow! That hurt! That must mean that this is not a dream!”
How could there be such an annoying situation like this?!
“Ah, fucking hell!”
The White Star was the last Dragon Slayer. That man had started an endless loop of reincarnation.
The Dragon Lord, her children, a sealed god, and even the Demonic race were involved in his quest to fulfill his wildest desires.
Not only that…
The peace of this land was on the line.
There might be a grand battle on a scale that has not been seen since ancient times.
No.
It might become a war even bigger than during ancient times.
Even the do-as-I-please Rasheel knew his foundational duty as a Dragon.
They were to protect this world from outside influences.
The Divine race, the Demonic race, and even the gods were all included in these ‘outside influences.’
According to the rules of this world, any outside force trying to influence this world was breaking their rules.
He clenched his head and plopped down on the couch.
“Ow! What a headache!”
‘What the hell did he wake up to?! I should have just kept sleeping!’
“Those motherfucking Elementals! Why the hell did they need to yap so loudly?!”
He had been able to hear the voices of Elementals since he was young. This was something unique only to Rasheel.
Rasheel lowered his head.
Pat. Pat.
Rasheel raised his head after feeling a gentle hand patting his shoulder.
“Now, now, please don’t get so riled up and drink a cup of tea. Anger is not good for your health.”
“…You-”
Rasheel had a complicated expression on his face as he looked at the smiling Cale who was filling his teacup again.
Eruhaben had just explained how many terrible battles this human had already been through, and he knew that there were too many more of those battles in his future.
Rasheel was on the selfish side and found altruistic people like Cale quite mysterious.
However, the life of this human named Cale Henituse was beyond mysterious; it was astonishing.
“…You’re a really good bastard, aren’t you?”
Cale was also the only one who was nice to him even though he had tried to cause a ruckus.
“Not at all. I am not a good person; I am extremely materialistic and selfish.”
“…You-”
Rasheel was at a loss for words.
He stopped talking and clenched the teacup before looking away from Cale.
His mind was a complicated mess right now.
‘Good, I’m winning him over.’
Cale observed Rasheel and smiled internally in a way that Raon would call him a scammer if he had seen it.
‘Surprisingly, he is showing the most normal reaction.’
Cale found it odd that Rasheel was having such a normal reaction because of how their first meeting had gone. Although Rasheel grumbled and was a little rough to handle, he seemed as if he would truly give his all to fight against the White Star if Cale handled him well.
‘On the other hand, I can’t tell anything about this Dragon.’
Mila was quietly drinking tea with her scythe placed down by her side.
“What do you think?”
Eruhaben asked Mila that question, and Mila turned toward Cale.
“Once I learned that I became a mother… I thought about what I could do for my child.”
Mila put the teacup down.
“You start to understand the ways of the world when you farm. No matter how much effort and love you put into raising your crops, a single natural disaster could ruin a whole season of crops and destroy everything you put your heart and soul into growing.”
She then picked up her scythe.
“I did not raise Dodori by spoiling him with the utmost care.”
She took a rag out of her pocket and slowly wiped the dirt off her scythe.
“However, if these natural disaster-like bastards try to get in my child’s way… I will get rid of that natural disaster.”
Mila’s face was reflected on the now-clean scythe.
“I will kill anything that puts my child in danger.”
It was at that moment.
Clunk. Clunk.
The teacup and kettle on the table shook.
Wind was blowing around Mila.
Gulp.
Rasheel subconscious gulped.
He could feel her years of experience but had thought that her attribute would be weak because of her peaceful aura.
That was why he had paid less attention to this Dragon over Eruhaben, but she seemed extremely dangerous right now.
Clunk. Clunk. Clunk!
The teacup looked ready to crack at any moment because of this rumbling.
“To be honest with you, I don’t care what happens to this land. It doesn’t matter to me whether the God of Despair’s seal is removed, whether the Demonic race invades, or whatever the hell this White Star does. All I care about is my child’s happiness.”
Mila looked toward Cale.
“However, what my child wants is to follow you and your dream of peace for this world. In that case, I must step in.”
Her eyes had an odd glow as she looked at Cale with a piercing gaze.
Rasheel slowly lowered himself down on the couch after feeling a mysterious pressure.
It was at that moment.
Smile.
Cale started to smile.
“You’re wrong, madam.”
He then placed his teacup on the table.
Tap!
The rumbling stopped once he gently placed his cup down.
“You said I’m wrong?”
“Yes, ma’am. My dream is not world peace. It is just focused on me. I just want a safe place for my people and I so that we can live peacefully doing whatever we want to do.”
However…
“I just need world peace in order to live like that. That is why I am doing all of this to protect the peace.”
Mila looked into Cale’s firm gaze.
“World peace is not what I am aiming for. Mila-nim, you must be thinking that I am very different from what you expected, am I right?”
Cale believed that he was not a hero and had no desire to sacrifice himself.
He cared most about himself and his people, and his goal was to live peacefully as a slacker.
He truly believed he was not a good person, as he frequently told people.
Cale started to smile.
Mila quietly observed him for a bit before starting to speak.
“That’s… Extremely arrogant. Peace is just a step for your goal.”
“I never phrased it like that, madam.”
“That is how it sounded to me.”
Mila’s aura slowly dwindled before it disappeared.
“But I like it.”
She started to smile.
“I do not like heroes. I especially do not like heroes who sacrifice themselves.”
Sacrifice.
She believed that these heroes were very noble in their causes, however…
“They make the people left behind extremely sad.”
There will be a large number of people who will be happy about the things they earned through a hero’s sacrifice. Some of them might even feel sorry for the hero.
However, the people close to them…
The loved ones of the hero who sacrificed herself, the ones who had been by the hero’s side… They would end up feeling a deep sense of sorrow.
Mila didn’t like that.
That was not a completely happy ending.
She looked at Cale.
He was completely different from what she had learned about him from the book.
“A human who believes he is not a hero even when the entire world believes he is one.”
He still continued to sacrifice himself, but dreamt of living peacefully without sacrificing himself nor the people around him.
His desires were extremely clear and firm.
People like this usually achieved their desires.
“I like it very much.”
Mila liked Cale a lot.
The real Cale was like her, unlike the Cale she had learned about from the books Dodori bought and forced her to read.
“It sounds like Dodori will learn something good from you.”
Cale smiled.
Mila’s words meant that Dodori was definitely joining Cale’s side.
‘Now if Mila joins us too…!’
There would be seven Dragons including Sheritt and the Dragon half-blood.
Cale’s heart was beating quickly as he waited for what she had to say next.
Mila gently asked a question.
“A student’s parent can tag along and participate as well, right?”
‘Hmm? A student’s parent?’
Cale tilted his head to the side in confusion.
“…I’m not a teacher?”
“It’s my condition.”
Cale shut up immediately.
Mila just continued to speak with a relaxed expression.
“Show Dodori your way of life. Then Dodori will naturally learn something from you. If my child is learning something from you, doesn’t that mean that you are a teacher?”
Smile.
There was a beautiful smile on her face.
“Isn’t that right, teacher Cale?”
He heard Eruhaben sigh in his mind.
“I am too delinquent to be a tea-”
“Teacher.”
“…I understand. That condition of being a teacher… I will accept it.”
But Cale added on with a stiff expression.
“However, although I may be a teacher by name, I will not do anything specifically to teach him. I will just let him watch what I do by my side. That is what you said, isn’t it, Mila-nim?”
“That’s right. Please just give him a place to watch, hear, and feel things by your side, Mr. Teacher.”
Mila looked quite scary calling him a teacher while holding her scythe.
Mila noticed Cale’s gaze on the scythe and tapped the scythe with her finger.
“It sounds like I’ll be getting blood on this scythe for the first time in a long while. Hoho.”
Mila’s sparkling eyes looked the same to Cale as Dodori’s eyes when Dodori said that he would write Cale’s biography of a hero.
This was no mistake.
Dodori was just like his mother.
“…Son of a…”
The buzz cut Dragon Rasheel looked away from Mila as his legs shook in fear. Cale wanted to shake his head at this Dragon who seemed oddly full of concerns, unlike other Dragons.
Dodori, Mila, and Rasheel.
These three Dragons… Will everything be okay with these three tagging along?
The die had been cast and Cale suddenly got chills on his back.
It was at that moment.
Baaaaang!
There was a loud noise and the door burst open.
“Why did the door…?!”
“Is it an enemy?”
They could see the anxious servants outside the door.
“It’s okay, so please calm down.”
Choi Han calmed them down while Dodori walked into the room looking confused.
The one who slammed the door open spoke into Cale’s mind.
Raon’s voice was shaking as if to reveal his complicated heart.
Cale stood up with a stiff expression on his face.
The Dragon half-blood had been given half a year to live.
He had lived longer than that after meeting Sheritt.
Cale started to speak.
“Eruhaben-nim.”
“Yes?”
“It looks like I need to go visit the Forest of Darkness.”
He then started to speak to the three Dragons.
“Please come with me to meet the Lord.”
Cale raised his hand.
Although he could not see Raon, he knew Raon was always close enough to be reached.
Raon touched his hand and Cale tightly clenched Raon’s shaking front paw.