Chapter 276: Dragon Egg’s Dangerous Journey

"Hm? Wait a minute. In that case, what kind of dragon are you originally, Long?"

At Qiu Nuoya’s casual question, Long awkwardly averted his gaze. Did that mean he would rather not talk about it?

"Hey, Long?"

Qiu Nuoya leaned over to peer into Long’s face, following his averted gaze, only for Long to look away again.

He was definitely hiding something!

[ W-Whatever I am is none of your business! Anyway, that’s settled. Shangguan Wan’er and I are going back to Elysium! ]

"Hey, wait a second!"

That was a problem. A huge problem!

They had already explained that they needed a dragon’s breath to sweep away the monsters gathering around the mana pool. Long couldn’t just abandon them so easily!

To be blunt, even if they could find another Saint to replace Shangguan Wan’er, there was no replacing a dragon. After all, Long was practically the only dragon they had ever encountered. Losing his help at this point would be a disaster!

"I believe everyone now understands the situation."

The one who finally spoke up was Prince Lucien, though it was hard to tell whether he truly understood the gravity of their predicament. His ever-present smile made him seem all the more suspicious.

"I have a proposal for you, Long."

"Huh?"

Long’s words should have been incomprehensible to the prince, yet somehow, Prince Lucien seemed to understand exactly what the dragon was getting at. He continued without hesitation.

"Am I correct in thinking that hatching this dragon egg requires magical energy, and that the more magical energy it receives, the more magnificent the dragon that emerges will be?"

"Huh? Well, yes, that’s about right."

Long nodded at the prince’s words. When Qiu Nuoya relayed the answer, the corners of Prince Lucien’s mouth curled into a sly grin.

"Then the solution is simple. Why not submerge that egg in the mana pool? Don’t you think it would produce the strongest dragon imaginable?"

Long’s eyes widened instantly.

"I understand how much you cherish your child. And you want to raise that child to become even stronger and more formidable, don’t you?"

[...]

"Then why not use all the immense magical energy stored in the mana pool, the very source of magical power?"

The prince had just suggested something absolutely outrageous! Surely that was going too far! Submerging a dragon egg in a mana pool was...

[ That might actually be a good idea. ]

"You’re kidding, right!?"

Long smiled and nodded in agreement with the proposal.

"Wait, Long! Calm down! Do you even understand what you’re saying? It’s a mana pool! You yourself said before that even you might go berserk if you got too close to one! Submerging your child in a place like that is absolutely insane!"

[ It is true that I might go berserk if I absorb more magical energy than my body can contain. But this child has not even hatched yet. There is no such thing as too much magical energy when it comes to hatching an egg. If the child absorbs a large amount of high-quality magical energy and hatches with it, then a dragon of a higher rank should be born. ]

Good grief...

[ Honestly, this idea never even occurred to me before. But yes, this is an excellent plan! Let us head to that mana pool at once, Master! ]

Long was now completely fired up, snorting excitedly at the prospect.

It was true that they had originally planned to visit the mana pool anyway, but their reason for going there had been entirely different. Things were now taking a completely unexpected turn.

"It seems Long is willing to go along with the idea."

[ Indeed. I appreciate your excellent suggestion. ]

Somehow, a conversation was taking place between two people who shouldn’t even have been able to understand each other.

But was this really a good thing?

Qiu Nuoya could only clutch his head in dismay.

Long and Shangguan Wan’er had been blessed with an egg.

Well, that was certainly something to celebrate.

However, hatching it required high-quality magical energy. Considering there was a dragon inside the egg, that made sense, more or less.

And so, they had decided to take the egg to a mana pool, the very source of magical energy, and submerge it there!

No, that was absolutely insane!

Qiu Nuoya clutched his head, wondering how he could possibly persuade his tamed monster, Long, to reconsider taking their child to the mana pool responsible for triggering the monsters’ rampage.

Well, to be fair, if Long was right and submerging the egg in the mana pool really would produce a higher-ranked dragon, then perhaps the idea wasn’t entirely without merit. But given how dangerous that place was, Qiu Nuoya couldn’t simply agree without hesitation.

"Hey, Long. Are you seriously planning to take the little one to the mana pool? If something goes wrong, there’ll be no way to undo it, you know?"

[ Hmm . But if the egg fails to hatch, we could probably receive another one by praying to the Sacred Tree with our mate. I don’t think there’s any harm in giving it a try. ]

Good grief...

Had Qiu Nuoya been wrong to think Long would be a doting father? If Long’s main goal was simply to become the father of a high-ranked dragon, and he wasn’t particularly concerned about the child itself, then that was an even bigger problem.

"Are you saying you wouldn’t care if something went wrong and this child died!?"

[ The egg hasn’t hatched yet, so it isn’t alive. ]

You’ve got to be kidding!

There was already a life inside that egg. Claiming it wasn’t alive simply because it hadn’t been born yet was an outrageous argument.

"Long, your grandfather protected you when you were still an egg, didn’t he? He cherished you and kept you safe until you finally hatched. He must have understood that even an egg already contained a life. That’s why he carefully infused you with magical energy for years until you were ready to hatch! After being raised with such care, how can you treat your own child so carelessly? I really don’t think that’s right!"