Novel Full Chapter 413 Returning Home
Kain couldn’t be faulted for mistaking Galadriel for a boy. Really, it all came down to cultural differences and mistranslations between the dragon tongue and the language of the Celestial Empire.
How was Kain supposed to know that in the dragon language, there was no distinction between the words for “sons” and “daughters”?
Most dragons simply referred to all their offspring as “sons” when speaking to humans for simplicity’s sake.
How was Kain supposed to know that among the Dragon Kings, there was no concept of a “princess,” and that the firstborn heir—regardless of gender—was titled “*Atherranai”*, a term that loosely translated to “prince” in human languages? To make matters even more confusing, any additional children weren’t given princely titles at all unless the firstborn died.
Vauleth, however, was far from understanding, his offence on Galadriel’s behalf evident.
“First of all,” Vauleth said, his tone sharp, “Galadriel is obviously a girl’s name. How could you possibly not know that?”
Kain blinked. “…Fair enough.”
Vauleth practically turned his head 180 degrees to look down his snout at Kain, clearly not finished. “And then there are her features.”
“Features?” Kain asked, genuinely confused.
“Yes, her features,” Vauleth said impatiently as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. “Her strong, elegant muscles, with perfect definition.”
Kain opened his mouth, then closed it again. “Uh… okay.”
“And her scales,” Vauleth continued. Once the floodgates opened he seemed unable to shut his mouth. “Hers are shinier than any males’ scales…than any other dragon’s scales really. And they have this wonderful subtle gradient from red to slightly darker red. You can’t tell me you missed that. It’s so obvious.”
Kain rubbed the back of his neck but decided to refrain from refuting Vauleth’s claims. “Yes… her scales are quite beautiful…”
Vauleth snorted in disbelief. “Humans really are blind. And her roar! It is so melodic. It has the brightness and delicate tone of a Sunlight Lark, but with the addition of a certain… finesse.”
The Sunlight Lark was a spiritual creature known to sing beautifully. They tend to sing all the time, but particularly in the early morning as the sun rises.
Kain gave him a blank look and tried to come up with a response but quickly realized he was out of his depth. Dragon gender distinctions clearly didn’t translate well to human perceptions, and he wasn’t about to argue with Vauleth over where a dragon falls on this shiny-muscle-roar scale.
“Fine, fine,” Kain said, raising his hands in surrender. “She’s a girl. Got it. My bad for not noticing.” Explore stories at empire
“Obviously your bad,” Vauleth muttered. But his irritation seemed to fade slightly as he turned his gaze to the horizon, where Galadriel had disappeared from view quite a long time ago.
‘He is completely whipped…’
Kain thought with some amusement as he watched him for a moment. He had to admit getting to see this side of Vauleth was quite amusing.
“So… you really like her, huh?” Kain asked, his voice softer now.
Vauleth stiffened, his golden eyes snapping back to Kain. “That’s none of your business.”
“Right, of course,” Kain said, not entirely able to keep the teasing grin off his face. “It’s just… I didn’t think you were so brave to target the Dragon King’s daughter right under his own nose. I truly admire you!”
Vauleth bucked, trying to throw Kain off of his back, and Kain scrambled to hold on. He decided that while he was on Vauleth’s back hundreds of feet in the air, it would be best to keep his lips shut…
However, perhaps Kain had a short memory because he couldn’t resist opening his mouth once again.
He leaned closer to Vauleth’s head and whispered, “Of course with me, you’ll definitely become stronger than the Red Dragon King. Then nobody would be able to prevent you and Galadriel from being together.”
Vauleth huffed sharply in response, refusing to dignify Kain’s comment with a reply. However, the rest of the ride back was much smoother.
‘Huh,’ Kain thought, suppressing a smirk. ‘Looks like I hit the right nerve.’
———————————-
When they finally landed back at Elowen Haven’s main teleportation array, Kain stretched out his aching limbs and shot Vauleth a pointed look. “Thanks for not throwing me off at the end.”
“Don’t tempt me,” Vauleth growled, though his tone lacked its usual bite.
With a satisfied grin, Kain stepped off and joined the line of Order members entering the lit-up teleportation array.
The Elorians had already been escorted to safer accommodations, their village relocated to be further from the dragons’ territory.
Once back at the familiar grounds of the Order, Kain quickly realized that something had changed. The atmosphere was different—heavier, more serious.
He passed groups of people huddled together, their hushed conversations filled with tension.
“What’s going on?” Kain asked Serena when he finally found her near the Exchange Hall. They’d received quite a lot of credits for this mission into the dragons’ territory and he wanted to see if the items available for exchange were really better than the college’s Exchange Hall like he’d been told.
However, the strange atmosphere of the entire hall sidetracked him from his original intention.
Serena glanced up from a report in her hand, her expression impassive. “A lot. The Abyss has been made public—to Order member, at least.”
Kain blinked. “What? You mean everyone in the Order knows now?”
Serena nodded. “It was announced while we were gone. And they’re already beginning to inform members of local governments and planning to introduce it to beast-tamers, starting with those enrolled at the top 5 colleges.”
Kain frowned. “And the civilians?”
“They’re next,” Serena said, lowering her voice. “The plan is to start gradually informing the public. Enough to prepare them—warn them to flee at the first signs of corruption and notify authorities—without causing mass panic.”
“That… makes sense,” Kain admitted, though he couldn’t help but feel uneasy. “What changed? Why now?”
“Disappearing villages,” Serena replied, her tone grim. “They’re becoming more frequent, and it’s getting harder to hide it. People are starting to notice, and the higher-ups can’t keep sweeping it under the rug. It’s better to control the narrative than let rumours spread unchecked.”
Kain took over the document from Serena and saw that in just a matter of days a southern tribe, Elorian village, and a town in the empire had all turned into dead zones.
Along with knowledge of the Abyss becoming public, to incentivize the members the credits offered for each mission are now substantially greater—but the difficulty and frequency of assigning missions has also increased.
It was now much more common for the new recruits to be assigned missions far more dangerous than they would have been assigned previously.
Ding
‘Well, speak of the devil…’ Kain thought as he opened the new notification from the Order that appeared on his phone.