Page 17

Early Afternoon - Mid Spring : Home

"Brother are you okay?!" As soon as she landed, Krystallo rushed over to me.

"Im fine, Im fine.” I lightly rubbed her head a bit to comfort her a bit before realizing I was forgetting someone.

-Oh wait, where is Ilios?!- I quickly looked around but didn't see him anywhere, making me panic a bit.

“Where is Ilios?" I was worried something might have happened to him while I was asleep.

"He’s in the forest.” Mother walked over and glanced towards the tree line. “After he evolved he started going into the forest but we don't know why."

-Wait what?- "Evolved?"

"I'll explain all of that to you later, just be patient for now.. we have a more important subject to talk about." She glared at Father with an annoyed look.

Catching her glare, he quickly averted his eyes. Instead of looking like a mighty dragon, he looked like a mouse in front of a lion.

There was a short silence before mother started her.. interrogation. "So after not coming to visit for 10 years.. you came and attacked Vasilias on sight. I know you're not the type of dragon to make a rash decision like attacking before figuring out who the enemy is.. so why?"

Father finally lifted his head a little except he wore a serious look this time. "Right.. About that. There has been a rebellion among the dragons.."

Mother froze. "What? What group dared-"

"The half breeds.." They were a race of dragons that weren’t pure.

Put simply, they were a dragon race where one parent was a dragon, and the other was some other mixed race.

More often than not, they were a male dragon and a female from some other race, with the birth of the child resulting in the death of the non-dragon mother. They were known as the Halfies, or the Half Breeds.

They were not nearly as strong as pure dragons but their mating cycles were far shorter which allowed them to lay more than one batch of eggs in their life.

Over time, this caused a huge population difference to develop which most pure dragons were not fond of.

The Halfies were viewed in a distasteful light by pure dragons and were incredibly discriminated against, but they accepted coexisting anyways so they wouldn't be pushed out of Bahamut and get wiped out by adventurers or other dragons.

The discrimination against halfies was so deep that even I felt a bit of disgust just from my knowledge inheritance.

Mother wasn't much different. "So they’re just accepting their fate aren't they.. Have they made any moves yet?"

"Haah.. yeah. They seemed pretty confident about it too.

They took the initiative to attack a few of the housing islands before spreading word of the rebellion.

One of the elders even had to step in to make sure there were no casualties but a couple still died.

" Father showed a slightly annoyed expression.

"Haah.. I guess that makes some sense of why you attacked Vasilias now... He looks vastly different from those dumb*ss halfies though. Just look at him a little closer, he is a truly.. beautiful dragon.." Mother glanced over at me with a trance-like look before changing back to her motherly smile.

The way she sounded made me incredibly uncomfortable but her pure motherly smile soothed everything.

Seeing Father look at me closely, I sat up straight and held my head high to pose a little.

As he looked at me, it seemed like he got stuck in a trance before he finally snapped back out of it. "I guess you're right.. I.. I should've looked a little closer.." He looked away with a guilty expression.

He was clearly sorry but Mother wasn't going to let him go freely. "I'll forgive you if you get me a nice dinner on the main island." She gave him a sly smile.

"Of course!" Father looked up at her with a gleam in his eyes.

It was a bit odd to see a massive dragon act like a young boy, but it was somehow cute.

After enjoying the moment for a second, Mother got back to the more serious matter. "So what was the order from the elders?"

“Ahem..” As if the previous scene never happened, Father snapped back to a serious expression. "They gave a kill on sight order for the Halfies involved in the rebellion, the ones with the elves and the ones in the western continent aren’t involved.. At least not currently."

"Haah.. so this is a big deal isn't it… Are humanoid nations involved at all?"

"There isn't any hard proof yet, but it is suspected a few smaller human nations are backing them."

Mother’s complexion darkened as she started getting more annoyed.

"Those ants must think we (pure dragons) are the same as the halfies.

.." Mother quickly took a deep breath and calmed down before continuing.

"Haah.. So when do you have to go back again?

This news makes it seem like you just came to tell me about it. ."

"I’ll only be able to stay here for a year before I need to go back and help address the various issues with the Halfies as well as work some of the numbers out for the festival."

"Haah.. that should be fine.." Mother seemed really disappointed but she didn't have a choice but to accept it.

During the short silence, a smile quickly overtook Fathers face.

-What did he think of..-

"So where is Fengari?" He asked with a cheerful look.

Both Mother and I tensed up immediately.

“Hm?” Father seemed confused for a moment before realizing what the look on mothers face meant.

Her face was darkened and covered with a thick layer of sadness. Before Father could say anything, Mother got up and started walking into the cave. "Follow me.."

Father’s face was washed with worry as he slowly got up and nervously followed her inside.

Krystallo also got up to follow but I stopped her from going in. "Let them have a moment to themselves.."

"Why?" Krystallo wasn't reading the mood at all.

"You'll understand once you get older.." I gave a slightly forced smile.

Krystallo went on to say something but I noticed something on the tree line.

There was a huge white wolf, around 5 meters long, staring at us.

Somehow though, I recognized his face. "Ilios?!"

Hearing his name, he darted across the field and jumped on me, licking my face.

"It's good to see you too buddy." Trying to calm him down I just let him jump up and lick me for a moment.

But he never stopped licking so I had to lightly push him away.

"My goodness, you must've really missed me huh?"

“Woof!” Ilios gave an instant confirmation.

Krystallo sat next to me with a disappointed look. "How come Ilios never gave me kisses like that.."

-Well he was unusually attached to me since the moment we met, so..- "I'm sure you'll get there eventually." I tried to give a few words of encouragement before looking back towards Ilios.

-So what actually happened to you..- Ilios had changed a huge amount in an extremely short time. [1]

-Maybe it was that evolution thing Mother mentioned.- I sat there and looked at him from different angles for a bit before deciding to not think about it too much.

“Well, how about we play some?”

Krystallos eyes instantly lit up as a childish excitement came to her face. “Let's play tag!”

“Haha, alright. So who should start as-”

Before I could finish talking, Krystallo ran up and smacked my leg. “You’re it!”

“Oh you little-” I quickly chased after her, being sure to hold back a bit so as to keep it fun for her.

We continued to play for a while longer before Krystallo got tired, but just before we stopped, the doors to the cave opened and Mother walked out with a saddened face. She looked as if she had been crying inside.

She looked over towards me, while I was petting Ilios. "Osto.. I mean.. your father needs a moment to himself."

-So fathers name is Osto..-

"Haah.. what am I doing all sad..” She lowered her head and rubbed her eyes before looking up at me with a gentle, loving smile. “How about we start our first lesson, Vasilias."

I immediately was filled with a youthful excitement. -Its time!!-