They continued running down the dark tunnel, now in silence. Everyone was mulling over the new things they learned.
From in front, Choi Han stopped. "There is a wall here."
"Hit the centre of the wall with your fist with the same strength as before. Then we will continue to run as discussed," Cale said.
"I understand," Choi Han responded. The kittens jumped off of his shoulders and started to run. Choi Han punched the wall with the same strength as before.
The wall instantly collapsed. The moonlight was peeking through, illuminating the inside of the tunnel. She felt the dragon sit more up in her arms.
Venion, the ever-meticulous-son-of-a-bitch, also put a magic recording device outside the entrance of this secret tunnel. They needed the Mana Disturbance Tool to work on the entire mountain to disable that one since they didn't know exactly where the exit would end up.
Cale checked his watch. "Two minutes." Adara started following Cale, using wide strides to walk faster. Choi Han was behind them, erasing their tracks and making new tracks. Living in the Forest of Darkness made creating and following tracks easy.
After running away for another two minutes, Cale and Adara came to a stop. She could hear the alarms that were ringing non-stop, suddenly stop blaring. The Mana Distrubance Tool stopped working.
Adara put the dragon on the grass. She put a hand to her chest, feeling how fast her heart was going. She could feel the Indestructible Shield gathering its strength, waiting, in case something happened. But she had no need for it. There was no one here who would hurt her. That thought made her heart calm.
She looked at the dragon, it was calmer now. It had no rebellious gaze, only one of admiration as he stared at the night sky. It was the first time he had seen anything other than cave walls and torches in its four long years of life. She understood how he felt, but they didn't have the time to prolong this moment any longer.
The Black Dragon, as if feeling her gaze turned to look at her. Its eyes were once again filled with anger and resentment. He positioned his body as if he were ready to attack.
She liked the dragon. It didn't cave in. She used to be like that, ambitious and unyielding. She studied day and night, hoping that if she knew enough her father would find her worthy of his attention. The first time she talked to him when she was eight years old, ended with him screaming at her. She remembered that he had told her he didn't love her. That was when she broke. She isolated herself in her room, studying again. Except, this time so she could show herself that she could still be smart and worthy, without his attention. She gave in to her father, keeping her head low and not being in his presence for too long, but she never gave in to herself. She still studies sometimes, but not a lot since she read all the books, heard all the stories, and learnt all the academics, but just for fun. Wanting to see if she remembered it all. If she was still worthy.¹
[¹]: Again, I get how this could be confusing. As she said, she studied really hard when she was younger (this was also mentioned by her in previous chapters in regard to the Ancient Times and the Ancient powers) because her father was avoiding her. And not because he was cowardly, though why he was being a coward and the real reason for him avoiding her, in the beginning, will be explained in later chapters. She thought that if she studied really hard and knew everything, he'd pay more attention. As she said when she was 8 years she specifically sought out a meeting with her father. What they talked about will also be revealed later, as to why he blew up too. After isolating herself, she came to realise that her father didn't care about whether she knew the Ancient History of everything and everyone. So she continued studying, except this time for her. She changed it from being worthy of her father to being worthy of herself. She wanted to be good enough for herself, before being good enough for her father, even if she knows that nothing is good enough for him. So, yeah, more angst.
"Hey," Cale said, crouching down in front of the dragon. Adara followed him, looking at the bloodied dragon. He took out a pair of electricity-resistant gloves and a scissor-shaped cutting tool from the magic bag. There were a bunch of magic seals on the blades.
They recalled what Billos had said. The cutter was one of the two items that had to be rented in Billos's name. It was not easy to get.
"I don't want to know why you need this, Young Master and Mistress, but I hope to see you both alive in the Capital."
Adara had raised an eyebrow at that. "You think we're going to die?"
Billos shrugged his shoulders. "All I know is that you two are planning to cause a commotion."
They could not deny it, it had turned out to be quite the commotion.
Suddenly, Adara blinked and realised just how quiet their surrounding had become. Choi Han was staring at the cutter with shaking eyes, and the kitten had moved away from them and opted to hide behind Choi Han. The dragon was only staring at them.
Cale clicked his tongue. And she wondered what they were thinking. They did not think we would hurt the dragon, did they? She decided not to think about it. She thought about far too much anyway. The Mana Restriction Chain wasn't really much of a chain. It was made with something closer to rubber than metal. If it was metal, they would have needed to replace it constantly since he was a growing dragon.
Cale then grabbed the dragon's neck. The kittens gasped. But Cale and Adara ignored them. the cutter headed for the dragon's neck, the sharp blade shining bright in the moonlight. The dragon paid no mind to it and instead stared at the two people in front of him's eyes, he couldn't exactly see their faces, but he could see their eyes. One of them had reddish eyes, and the other had dark black eyes, he could barely see her pupils. They were both quiet, yet emotionless, causal and apathetic, indifferent. They seemed calm, but he could not say that. There was nothing calming about those eyes. Of course, they lied, he thought, closing his eyes, he didn't want to look at them anymore.
They all heard the sizzling noise of something getting cut, it was the Mana Restriction Chain, it was causing sparks.
The dragon opened its eyes. They did not hurt me, he thought. He noted that their eyes were still the same. But this could all be a trap. They could be lying. But he wanted to believe them.
Choi Han put the special gloves on as Cale handed him the chain. Adara took out a potion and handed it to Cale. It was a highest-grade potion. Even though this was ridiculously overpriced, it was not like they could complain about it, they were rich anyway. Though it did make them feel slightly bad for asking so much money from Count Deruth.
Cale's eyes sharpened at the thought of all the money spent for this small dragon. "Do you know how much money we spent on you?"
It was a common phrase for the dragon. He heard it quite often, almost every day. 'Why do you not listen to me when I spent so much money on you? Guess you need to be beaten some more', then he was beaten. They would repeat it often, saying that he needed to stop thinking for himself.
"Quite a lot of money was spent on you," Adara agreed.
The Black Dragon knew he should have expected it—. His thoughts were cut short when the red-haired one spoke again.
"Since we spent so much money on you, you better heal properly, you stupid fool," he said, opening the potion and pouring half of it onto the dragon's back and the rest he brought to the dragon's mouth. Thankfully, the dragon swallowed it without much difficulty.
The mana, finally, started to work. All of the injuries on the dragon disappeared in an instant, and a blue aura surrounded its body like the wind. It was as blue as his eyes. The fact he had recovered his mana that quickly really proved just how powerful dragons were. The dragon remained quiet, silently observing them.
"Hey," Adara spoke. "What do you want to do now?"
He did not make any motion to speak.
"I know you can speak in the human language, I heard you and Adara." So that's her name, the dragon thought, staring at Adara. He could still not see her face fully. It fits her. "You are a dragon. The smartest and strongest existence in the world. What did you want to do once you got free?"
His eyes lit up at the word 'free'. "I—," he started, trailing off. "I..." This was the first time he could feel his strength, he could feel it in his heart. He knew with his current strength he could easily kill the weak human man in front of him, and the weak half-not-human woman, Adara, next to the weak one. He was scared of the man in the back, but he knew he could defeat at least the two that seemed to be in charge. He finally gained the strength he had waited for so long to obtain. He felt like he could do anything.
So, the words he had said multiple times over the course of the last four years, were finally spoken out loud. "I will live." No matter what. "I will go away." Away from here forever. "I will not be tamed."
Cale and Adara nodded. "Yes, you are right.
"You are a dragon, a dragon," Cale repeated.
"You have the right to live freely," Adara said.
Even though this dragon was only four years old, it was stronger than most of the animals in the world. Normally, dragons were incredibly independent and prideful. They created their own lair once they turned, roughly, two years old. They were leagues away from a human two-year-old, they were so far apart, it was laughable.
Adara looked into the dragon's eyes. She could see that he still did not trust them. "We will not take care of you," Adara and Cale said. They did not have any reason to. The dragon wasn't going to follow them, and it was already far stronger than they were. And he would be different from the children of the Cat Tribe, he was a dragon. He was strong and independent.
But the dragon did not believe them. He didn't want to believe them. It was too good to be true. "Liar. Humans are good at lying. Also half-humans," he added. There was anger in his eyes, though that anger wasn't directed at them. It was a prideful creature by nature, the anger came from his pride being trampled upon by the humans now passed out inside the cave.
Cale shrugged. "I guess that is true. We do lie quite a bit. But we are not lying to you, that thing Adara said before? That we were going to let you live freely? She was not lying. Live however you want to live. What is it you want to do?" he asked for the last time.
The Black Dragon looked up at the night sky. It was a drastic difference from the darkness inside the cave. There, it was dark and he could barely see the other end of the room, but here it was darker, yet he could see everything clearly. "I hate humans. And half-humans. I want to be free."
"Good," they said, standing up. Cale took out some mid-grade potions and a smaller pouch. It was in case something were to happen again. He put the potions in the bag and then handed it over to the dragon. "Live freely," they said.
The dragon's eyes suddenly widened and his pupils started to shake as he stared at the pouch before him. His eyes were still full of doubt and resentment. They did not care. It did not matter if he did not believe them, they knew they were going to follow through with their words.
It should be enough, she thought. They freed the dragon, royally fucked Venion over, saved the village, indirectly but it still counts, and helped Choi Han understand the meaning of freedom. This is the first time he's saved something, she thought, staring at Choi Han. He protected us from the bandits, but that was only protecting. He directly saved someone in need. But, she saw in his eyes that he was thinking hard. She didn't quite care what he was talking about, as long as she was not tied up in it.
"Let's go," they spoke, turning their backs on the dragon with no hesitation. Choi Han silently followed behind them, altering their tracks. The kittens were still by the dragon, they saw him turn his gaze away from Adara and Cale, the kittens turned around and followed them.
Once no one was staring at him, the dragon lowered his eyes from the sky to the backs of the humans— and half-human— who saved him. "I hate humans," he muttered to himself, reminding himself of all the times he was left bloody. His gaze shifted to the pouch with potions. "And half-humans. They are evil." He looked back up, his eyes not leaving the backs of the half-not-human and the human. He did not understand why he was watching them more intently than the night sky that he was seeing for the first time.
Hong appeared next to On as they followed Adara and Cale. "Noona, I think he's going to follow us."
On looked at her younger brother. "Uh-huh, I think so too."
Hong looked excited at his older sister. "Am I going to get a younger brother?"
On smiled at Hong. "It looks like it."
Adara and Cale looked down at the kittens. "That's never going to happen," Adara said.
"Dragons are extremely prideful and will never accept being under a human. Furthermore, this dragon hates humans," Cale added.
On rolled her eyes, a mocking expression on her face. She was shaking her head. "I don't think so," she mumbled.
Hong turned around. The Black Dragon was still staring at them, Hong made up his mind. The dragon would enjoy its freedom for a bit, before sharing the yummy dinners with them in the future. "Uh huh," Hong whispered to his sister. Obviously, Adara picked that up, but she paid no more mind to it.
Instead, she crouched down to the kids. "Go get the orb, it was expensive, we don't want to lose it just yet."
Cale patted Choi Han's shoulder as the kids went to go get the orb. "Good work," he said.
Choi Han didn't seem to have heard them. "Cale-nim, Adara-nim."
Adara stood up, turning to look at Choi Han. "Yeah?"
"What?" Cale asked.
He paused. "What if... What if the dragon decided that living as it wants was to follow you, Cale-nim, Adara-nim?"
Adara shook her head. "That will never happen."
Choi Han didn't give up. "What if, just hypothetically speaking."
Cale waved his hand. "I don't think about 'what ifs' or the past."
Adara made a similar motion. "Me either," she lied. "I don't see a use in it." Of course, she did. She constantly thought about what would have happened if she hadn't escaped that one life-turning day in the Capital, what would have happened if she died. She rethought every move she made in the past, seeing if one small breath could have changed how she came out like.
But they both got chills at that moment. Adara turned around sharply. The Black Dragon wasn't there anymore, they both let out a sigh of relief. For a second, Adara had thought it was following them.
They continued walking, Choi Han putting Cale on his back this time as he scaled the wall to their room. Adara climbed with him, the kittens on her shoulders. They proceeded to dress into clothes fit for someone about to sleep, and told Ron, who as promised, was waiting outside their door, that they were back. That night, they went to sleep in their separate beds, both falling asleep fairly quickly. Adara, quite oddly enough, actually had a sleep deep enough for dreams, but unfortunately woke up in cold sweat later that night. However, she did not see the Black Dragon.
The Black Dragon who for the first time in his life used magic to make himself invisible. He was sitting on their window sill, watching them sleep before leaving once the sun started rising. The whole time, he was tightly holding onto the pouch of potions they had given him.
It was the next morning, she was more tired than normal. She couldn't go back to sleep after her nightmare. She couldn't close her eyes without seeing the image of everything in the nightmare. Everything was out of proportion, of course, their faces contorted and the things that had actually happened made to the extreme. And now she had to deal with Choi Han's questions? She was almost passed out from exhaustion.
"Adara-nim," Choi Han said, concerned. She was starting to get used to his concern, she thought it was only because she was weak.
"Hmm?" She was slumped over the table, resting her head on her arms.
"Are you okay?"
She looked up, staring into his dark eyes, they weren't as dark as hers but it was close. "Yeah," she straightened up. Stretching with her hands high above her head as she yawned. "Yeah," she repeated. "I'm just tired."
Choi Han nodded, feeling as if she was lying, though he could clearly see she was tired because of the dark circles under her eyes. "Cale-nim, Adara-nim. There is a city coming up in a few days. Is that the middle point?"
Puzzle City, she thought, leaning her head on Cale's shoulder. She didn't want to talk so she just let Cale deal with it, she was still tired. If they were close to Puzzle City, then it meant that they were closer to the second Ancient Power that Cale wanted. They discussed the chances of her being able to get this one too and calculated it was a high one. The Vitality of the Heart, the name upon her murky mind. Taylor Stan, the older brother of Venion Stan who was pushed out of the Successor Position because of his legs, would find this Ancient Power in about a month. It was his last hope, but it ended up being a power that he could not use. She felt bad taking away Taylor's last hope, and she felt even worse knowing that he would be assassinated later.
Cale only nodded. It seemed he also didn't really want to talk. He took the glass that Ron prepared for them and handed it to Adara. She took it without really looking. She gulped it down in one go and frowned. "It's water," she mumbled to Cale.
He nodded. "Yeah, I thought it would be lemonade too. But he actually gave us cold water."
She suddenly remembered what he had said this morning while pouring the cold water. "Young Master and Mistress, it is not good to take such long night walks. This Ron was very worried about you two." She wondered if he was truly worried. Must be, in some way. He gave us water. Suddenly, her mind cleared up. She wondered if he put something in the water. Who cares, she thought, her mind cleared up though she still wanted to sleep. I had a horrible life anyway. She looked at the kittens, they were on the table, eating jerky. Hong noticed her gaze and meowed while wagging his tail, she gave him a smile. She set the glass back on the table, the bleary look in her eyes gone. "All of our traces are erased?"
"Yes, Adara-nim," Choi Han said. "Everything has been taken care of properly."
"Did you make a set of fake tracks?"
He nodded. "Yes, I erased our tracks and created new ones leading towards the west."
She nodded appreciatively. "Good job."
A small smile was on his face. Neither Adara nor Cale noticed it, or particularly cared about it. "The name of the next city is Puzzle City. That is the middle point in our journey," Cale continued on. Once you got out of the Henituse Territory and Thornwin Territory which is completely surrounded by mountains, the roads are well-paved from this small village in Viscount Tolz Territory all the way to the Capital. "It took a while to get this far because our territory has a lot of mountains, but it will not take very long from here."
"In terms of distance," Adara started. "We're not really there, but in terms of time, then Puzzle City will be the middle point."
Choi Han nodded at their words, before frowning. He was hesitating. "But, Cale-nim, Adara-nim."
"What?" they asked at the same time.
"I went to check the Viscount's villa on my way back."
"And?"
"They all seemed to be in a state of chaos. There were also soldiers and knights leaving the village."
Cale shrugged. "I'm sure they wanted to report."
Adara could see he wanted to say something more.
"However," he started, before stopping.
"Just say it," Cale said, stoic.
"Spit it out," she responded, bluntly.
He had a bitter expression as he reported. "A part of the exit route we took from the cave was blown up. Even the trees, grass, ground, and everything around it was a mess."
The jerky dropped from the kittens' mouths. However, the two nobles were still relaxed. Cale shrugged. "I'm sure the dragon did it."
Adara made a similar motion. "It seems pretty obvious."
Choi Han didn't make a move to speak. They saw that and smiled as they stood up from their seats. "It is good enough that it didn't kill all of the fainted people," Cale mentioned.
"Yeah," Adara agreed. "It's probably still too fearful to kill all of those who caused him pain." She paused, seeing the agonizing look in Choi Han's eyes. "Or, maybe he's holding back because he is young?" The look seemed to lessen when she said that.
"I see," he said after a moment of silence. "I did feel a strong amount of mana there."
He can sense mana, she thought. Of course, he can, he's a Swordmaster.
"Don't look down on the dragon just because it is small. You'll regret it," Cale said. He looked at Choi Han with a measuring gaze. "You can get out now. Are you going to be sleeping until we leave?" They did come back pretty late last night.
Choi Han, now also standing up, shook his head. "No. I need to go help Beacrox out."
Beacrox? Oh, that's interesting, maybe it will work out, she thought, hopeful.
Cale had similar thoughts. "Who? Beacrox? Oh, I guess you are close now?"
Choi Han's expression darkened. To Cale, it was downright scary. "No," he said, flatly. "We are not close at all."
"I— I see," Cale said, his stoic face as normal. "Okay then." Adara held in a snort.
Choi Han gave a silent bow before heading out of the room. But before heading out of the room, Cale called after him. "Tell Hans to prepare some drinks on your way out."
Choi Han's eyes were wide in shock as he looked at the two smiling Trash. "Excuse me?"
Adara smiled wider. "Haven't you ever heard of a hangover drink?"
~~~
[F̶u̶n̶ Fact]: Adara was a very lonely child. She didn't go outside a lot (she wasn't allowed to, for reasons that will be revealed later), the most of her social interactions were with the servants and the scholars who taught her, though her servants were replaced with people her brother specifically chose. She complained about the fact her brother had gotten rid of her servants without even asking her, but her father didn't see anything wrong with it. Her brother had sent him a file of how inadequate her servants were and he saw it fit that they were to be gotten rid of. She skimmed over the file and found that every negative thing spoken was complete bullshit. She even told her father so, but he didn't care, saying that they were already gone. She hunted them down, each and every one of them, talked to them, apologized for her brother and father, and gave them enough money from her own money to be financially stable while they were unemployed, she also fabricated personalised letters that spoke about how good the servants were if they wanted to serve another noble house. To say the least, the ex-servants were very grateful. And she didn't get what they were grateful for, since she thought it was the basic thing to do when you have such shitty people in charge.