Classless Ascension

The king categorically refused to go to war for such a ridiculous reason! 

In turn, the villagers decided to ask the elegant princess for help. They wanted her to convince her father in their stead. At first, she did not care, but they described its mountain of wealth as well as how valuable the creature's body was. 

Each scale was akin to scintillating ruby, and all of its body parts could be used to craft legendary equipment. Blinded by greed, she agreed to beg her father to send the army to subjugate the monster. But, for the first time in her life, her father denied her request. 

She pouted, screamed, and cried, but he did not change his mind no matter what. She thought he had stopped loving her, but it was quite the contrary. The king knew perfectly how deadly a dragon could be. They even knew magic! 

He didn't want to risk the kingdom and didn't want to risk his daughter. Thus, he resolutely told her that he would only make a move if the dragon became violent. That day the princess smiled understandably but began plotting. 

All that she needed was for the dragon to turn vicious. Her father would then send the army, and she would have its treasure and beautiful scales to make jewelry. But, how was she supposed to anger the dragon without mobilizing the army? 

She initially was at a loss, but then she suddenly had a flash of genius! She didn't need to do anything to the dragon at all! All that she needed to do was play a little trick! That night she asked one of her knights to meet her. 

He was a young man that was head over heels in love with her. He would have done anything for a smile from her. That's all she gave him, a single smile, and it was sufficient to send him on a secret mission. 

This mission couldn't be known to the public, or the villagers would lose faith in the crown. She told the brave that a god had given her a divine commandment. She had to get rid of the dragon, for it would bring disaster to their land! 

She chuckled to herself, driven by the god called greed. She chuckled as her knight left, she chuckled as he came back half-dead, and she chuckled as he told her of the success of the mission. 

The kingdom soon became a royal mess. Five villages had been burnt to the ground, and it was all the doing of the vile dragon! After, all who else but the creature would do such a dreadful thing! There was no need for any more proof! 

Some argued that the whole event was strange, but they kept quiet. Silence soon became the preferred option, especially after a few had been lapidated for heresy. The only voices that were still heard all called for the subjugation of the monster. 

The king found it quite strange but didn't suspect foul play in the least. After all, their borders were properly defended, his population had been happy, and no one from his court would have gained from such a thing. 

His daughter seemed to have matured too as she saw the army assemble. This was the first time she was confronted with war, and she did all she could to help the soldiers. She would oversee their training and cheer them up! 

She had believed all along the dragon to be dangerous, and it seemed that she had been right. The king couldn't help but admire her prescience. But now wasn't a time to rejoice; death and suffering would come. 

In order to have enough troops, they even recruited from the populace. Many young men answered the king's call. They volunteered to slay the foul dragon, but most importantly for their kingdom! They soon departed, thousands of them! 

The march was long and arduous they had to scale a mountain that wasn't suited for humanity. But, they didn't have a choice. They had to fight the dragon by trapping it in its lair, or it would burn more villages. 

Many died during the climb, but they finally reached the top. There, an epic fight happened. For three days and night, the mountain itself shook as it began dripping with so much blood that it turned red. 

The dragon's claws were incredibly sharp, its tail was akin to a titanic whip, its fangs could bite through anything, its scales were almost impossible to pierce, and the worst was its breath attack. Dragons always breathed thrice! 

Out of the thousands of soldiers, 234 survived. Even the ones that survived were so wounded that they weren't sure if they would survive the journey back. But, they were valiant, and they loved their country! 

They somehow managed to come back! Well, 42 of them did. Out of thousands of them, 42 of them came back to the city. They had spent so much energy in this single expedition that the young soldiers now looked like old men. 

The king cried when they came back. They had proud smiles, but they had suffered so much! But the princess cried even more. She cried as they presented her the beast's head, one with the color of dust. 

It had been a vibrant red when the creature had been alive, but the lack of proper care method and the long journey had rendered it worthless. Even then, it was proof that their kingdom was safe! They would hang it on the palace wall and keep it there, even when it would become full of flies! 

As for the treasure…what treasure?! This creature was a huge fire-breathing lizard! It couldn't produce coins! As for pillaging? It had been a lazy dragon, one that loved to sleep and fly, nothing else. 

At that moment, the princess's heart was about to explode from the rage. They had spent so much time and hadn't brought back a single thing of value?! How had they not realized that the dragon head was losing its shine? Were they retarded?! 

But it was even worse! Their tales truly described the scales as the most amazing of treasures! The greed she had once felt was in no way lower. She needed at least one brooch with a dragon scale! She didn't need more than that! 

But, not only didn't they have an army anymore, but they didn't have a dragon either. What was she supposed to do? That's when she had a flash of genius. She could use other people! She ordered bards to attend her. 

She gave them the task to create the most fantastic of odes about the red dragon. How amazing it was and how wonderful it was to slay one! Then, they would travel the world, spreading tales about it. 

Then, they had to find her a new dragon and adventurers that would slay the beast. They all accepted their mission. The king soon learned about it and was utterly confused. Why did she want to kill dragons outside their territory? 

She lied about wanting to avenge their soldiers. Humanity would only be safe when all dragons were eradicated. She showed so much conviction that he agreed with her plan but made the bards swear to keep the events of the dragon raid to themselves. 

Except, the princess couldn't accept this. She met the bards in secret and stressed that they absolutely had to stress how amazing of a creature to generate hype about the whole quest. They had to! They left with her blessings. 

The king used most of his wealth to quickly invest in the people and help all the families who had lost their kin to the dragon raid. They were now poor with an army that was slowly recovering, but in a few years, they would be alright. 

That's when the bards arrived at the other kingdoms. They began recounting the incredible things that had happened, especially with the dragon! When asked if this was fiction, they answered that it was all true and gave details! 

Thanks to the princess's plan, the bards truly made the dragons popular! Oh, and advertised to all the kingdom's enemies that they were at their weakest and easy to invade. Without waiting, the opposing factions made their move! 

This was a golden opportunity! The king saw them approach filled with despair. He could only curse this god-forsaken dragon! If only it had never attacked his land! 

The benevolent king died on his throne, killed by an angry general who had hoped to get some dragon scales and had found the dragon head full of maggots instead. 

All he could do was to save his only daughter as the kingdom fell to the invaders. She disappeared, never to be found— or so most think. In fact, if one listens closely, there are whispers about her. 

Legends say that she can be seen from time to time, still searching for that one dragon scale brooch…

"Wow, that was great!" The little one happily chimed in. 

"So, what do you think the moral of the story is?" Josh calmly asked. 

She thought about it for a few seconds, seemingly finding the best words: 

"Information gathering is critical! The princess didn't bother about understanding the dragon's power. She didn't properly research how to take care of dragon materials, and worse of all, she didn't even know about the affairs of the kingdom!" 

"That's your biggest takeaway?" Josh asked while raising a brow. 

"Yep!" She confidently replied. 

"Smart girl!" He praised. 

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Josh came back to his senses as he finally concluded his story. 

"This was the story of the dragon and the princess." In front of him, the kid seemed utterly speechless as she stared at him. 

"This sure was different than the usual happily ever after ones…." The granny chuckled. 

The young one seemed to be processing it all. What kind of ending was this?! But she eventually came to accept that this was it. Still, she couldn't help but exclaim: 

"T-that princess isn't a good princess at all! She's the bad guy, right?! Also, wasn't the dragon nice?! Why did it have to die?!" She was slightly pouting. 

"Well, that's how it goes. Anyway, did you learn anything with this?" Josh nonchalantly asked. 

"Greed is evil!" The kid confidently declared. 

"Naw, it's mostly about preparing accordingly to the situation, but close." Josh praised. 

The old and the young could only stare at him perplexed. Who was this weirdo?! But suddenly, Lana's UW beeped. 

— Ding— 

"It seems that the others from Gemini are here. Things are about to start," She said. 

As he heard this, Josh knew that this could easily become a monumental shitshow. Dario was still investigating, but what would happen if this turned out to be a complot?!

Would Draconic or even the MTA come to terminate the event? Josh could only wait and move with the flow…