Chapter 2002: Min Was Betrayed

From the door of the warehouse, Min watched the chaos with her third cup of coffee for the morning in her hand. There was nothing that she could do to stop this situation, all she could do was wait for the influx of New Home members trading items.

Or, if she was lucky, she might be able to get a group to go into the dungeon, and then she would be able to take the morning off of work and leave it all to her assistants.

That sounded better.

Then, a small girl with white hair and the most adorable antlers came running her way, holding Leo’s hand, as if they were on the buddy system, ensuring that the other did not get lost in the crowd.

Given the crowd of strangers, it would normally be odd for the kids to be out on their own, not with a guardian. But Min knew that Leo only looked like a defenceless child, which meant that this was likely one of his friends from school that Min had never met before.

She wondered where the girl came from. There weren’t any others like her in the Clan.

"Min! This is Skadi, our new little sister. You’ve been so busy that we didn’t have a chance to properly introduce you yet. Skadi, this is Min, one of the green dragons, who takes care of the warehouse."

Skadi smiled and waved, careful about being attacked with hugs by the dragon.

And she was right to be.

Before she could react, Min was over the counter, and Skadi’s feet were leaving the floor while Leo laughed.

"She’s sensitive about being cuddled. We came to make sure that you had enough people to cover the warehouse counter. We called a bunch more people from the Clan over, both Elders and lower ranked members for the dungeon.

There are more from the other Clans coming too, so they can take advantage of the free day at the dungeon. But only the ones from the New Home are going to make more work for you, I think," the turtle explained.

In his tricorn hat and boots, Leo was doing a convincing imitation of a Tortollan Pirate, but Min was used to that appearance.

It was much harder to get used to the Forest Lord in her simple white dress.

Too much cute in one spot.

"Fine, I will put the Skadi down. But what sort of luck do you have? You get so many cute sisters, and here I am, an only child, stuck in a warehouse all day, trying to organize the rewards that people bring in."

Skadi looked up at the complaint.

"Do people put them away out of order? I hate when that happens. Then you go to look for things and they’re not where they’re supposed to be, or they’re under the wrong entry, and you think that you have things you don’t."

Leo giggled at the thought of the interior of Skadi’s space. It was perfectly arranged, and even the different plants had clearly defined growing spaces.

He had once thought about telling her that was not how a forest functioned, but knew that she accepted real forests being wild. Just not her own space, which she viewed more like a bedroom than an outdoor space.

Outdoor spaces were natural spaces, they did what they wanted. But this was her space, her room, and she was perfectly within her rights to make it exactly the way that she wanted it.

Well, within some limits.

She had been informed that she couldn’t bring in a Haint sapling, or any other sentient living thing, as it would try to bond to Karl as a new brother or sister. So, she refrained from that. But other than one small rule, she got to do what she wanted.

That was good enough for her.

Lost in her thoughts, Skadi still noticed that while Min had put her down, the dragon had not released her, and was still holding her hand.

But Leo was on the other side, doing the same, so this was definitely an appropriate level of contact, even for a Green Dragon. With that in mind, she didn’t object as they led her back out into the crowd, with Min looking for Karl.

She needed to have words with that man.

Of all the things that he could have done, he kept a Forest Lord from her? It had taken a moment to figure out what Skadi was, but an adorable furry fawn of a Forest Lord, and Karl hadn’t seen fit to even send her a message so she could take a day off work to come see the new addition to the family?

He had definitely let Lotus meet her.

This was bias, unfairness, completely unacceptable.

Then, Min caught sight of Oak and her father in the crowd next to Karl. Not only had Karl kept her from Skadi, he had let other green dragons cuddle the new sister first?

Her heart couldn’t take this injustice.

Oak laughed at the heartbroken look on Min’s face, and poked Karl to inform him that the other green dragon was coming.

"Oh, Min! Good to see that you finally got a chance to meet Skadi. You’ve been so busy with work that you haven’t been back to the Tiny World for days."

Min frowned. That was true, she had been staying in the apartment over the warehouse desk with the bunnies who worked in the back. So, she hadn’t gone back to the Tiny World for over a week, and even then, she was only there for her day off, swimming with Button and some of the hatchlings.

No, she would not accept that this was her fault. Karl should have told her that there was a new sister.

That was common courtesy.

Oak came over and hugged the betrayed looking dragon. "Good to meet you, I’m Oak, a newly transferred member of the Darklight Host. We’re going to have so much fun together, but I do apologize for keeping everyone busy the past few days,

I know that you got the messages, but we never had a down day to simply sit and catch up, so you likely didn’t even know that there were more green dragons here. Now come and sit, we will send someone to cover your shift at the warehouse for the day."

Oak really was good at managing people, Karl realized.