"You're hopeless. Remember to buy a good grave first, in case you don't have a place to bury yourself after you die."
Sometimes, when a doctor told you this, it wasn't that you were hopeless, it was that they were saying …
"If you want to live, don't be stingy with your medical fees."
And if you were truly hopeless, the doctor probably wouldn't say anything in front of you. The doctor would either inform your family or try to shirk responsibility.
During negotiations, they used similar techniques a lot.
First, I would make the problem sound as serious as possible and raise it high. If you were scared, then I would naturally accept all sorts of conditions that were similar to blackmail.
I was used to using such techniques in negotiations in the past, but this time, I didn't lie.
"… This dimension's collapse is unstoppable. Since the Titans have already awakened, and even their incarnations are moving about freely in the outside world, it's almost impossible to make them fall back into slumber."
That's right, if someone had already awakened from slumber and was ready to get up, was there any way to make them fall back asleep?
Although I didn't know who had placed the seal on the Titans, it had to be at least on the level of the Goddess of Order or Chaos to be able to seal away an entire species in a perfectly balanced dimension. And now, there was a flaw in the perfect seal that the Titans had placed. It would be incredibly difficult to fix.
"The seal in the past was like an intricate door lock created by a master craftsman. Now that part of the lock is broken, if you want to fix the lock, you'll need to first understand the lock's structure, and it'll be best if you have a blueprint for the lock. Then, you can take it off and fix it. Of course, the simplest way is to just add a lock to the side. "
According to this line of thought, if I wanted to fix the seal, I would first have to undo the seal, but that would be the end of this world. And the so-called simplest way to deal with the Titans was to simply add a new seal on the surface of the seal. That would be meaningless. Since the Titans were able to shatter the old seal, a new seal would be even easier.
That was why even though the Dragons had racked their brains and searched through all the ancient records, they still couldn't find a solution. Actually, they didn't have much hope in coming to ask a human mage for help.
But in a situation like this, I directly said that I couldn't do it. This was basically saying, "Even though you invited me here, you're still hopeless."
The person I invited couldn't help me, yet he was still smiling proudly and speaking as if it was only natural. Horus was rendered speechless for a long while before he managed to say something.
"You are very sincere."
"Of course, honesty is a virtue, but telling lies that can be seen through is not morality, but pure stupidity."
Indeed, lies could be highly beneficial in certain situations. However, based on my experience with Little Red and I, it would be foolish to lie when dealing with Dragons, especially older ones. Apart from the fact that Dragons loved to cast Lie Detection and Truth Detection spells on themselves, the worst part was that these large lizards who relied on their instincts would often have astonishing intuition. They would be able to use their intuition alone to determine if someone was being kind or lying.
But if there's really no other way, there's no need for me to come.
I swirled the glass. Through the bright red of blood, the scene in front of me was like a dream.
"… Although they will awaken and this space is destined to collapse, it's not like there's no other way. We can completely delay the time it takes for them to awaken, and there's even a way to stop the collapse. Of course, to do that, the price we have to pay is not small …"
…
After I finished my discussion with Horus, or perhaps I should say that I finished tricking him, the welcoming party naturally came to an end. However, it was already late at night outside.
I didn't follow Horus's invitation to stay at the location that Dragon City had arranged for me. Instead, I chose to return to the Borealis, which was parked outside the city, and wait for tomorrow morning for a formal discussion.
After all, sometimes it was better to be more careful, especially when you had all sorts of valuable treasures on you and you just happened to enter a group of professional bandits.
"… Professional bandits? Ein Mezus (Little Red) will probably be quite displeased if she finds out that you're belittling Dragons like this. "
"No, if she really finds out, she'll only proudly praise me. After all, she's the female dragon who wrote a manual on why to rob others. In her mind, robbing is also a skill, and she herself is a master of this skill."
As I strolled through the streets of the Dragon City, I admired the priceless jade buildings as I spoke ill of the Dragon race.
"… You don't say. They were like this back in the day as well. They basically viewed robbing as a normal job. Not only did the Color dragons have no qualms about robbing others, even the Metal Dragons often did similar things. However, they would often use the excuse that they were fighting against evil. But in the end, all the wealth of those 'villains' would vanish without a trace. "
"Ha, that's because they've been the strongest individual in the mortal plane for such a long period of time. Nobody would care if they did bad things, so it's only natural that they would lose control of their violence. It's just like how naughty brats with no one to teach them how to be tyrannical. It's quite normal for them to treat other people's belongings as their own."
As Harloys and I walked down the street, not only did we constantly attract the attention of bystanders, we also attracted many "followers". However, as we walked, these followers would gradually disappear.
The previous incident had already made us into a moving bomb in the eyes of the Dragons. In order to prevent us from causing trouble, there were naturally people secretly following us and chasing away uninvited guests.
Even though we clearly knew that there were people secretly following us, we still fearlessly badmouthed the Dragons. In fact, we even intentionally spoke louder.
"Are we going back now?"
"Of course not. It's rare for us to be here, so I want to take a look at Dragon City's night scenery."
"You're going to parade around with a bunch of tails? Do you really like being treated like a monkey show? "
"Of course not. That's why we should change our clothes."
We randomly found a random corner and wandered in. Suddenly, a series of traffic accidents occurred behind us, and when we reappeared, we were no longer the same two people as before.
Red full-body armor and a gigantic heavy sword on one's back, along with a powerful aura of a Dragon Bloodline, were quite common in this city.
Due to certain reasons, warriors who intentionally hid their faces from others were now the norm. After all, the awakening of a Dragon Bloodline would bring them power, and they would be considered lucky if they could still maintain an acceptable physical appearance. Pure-Blooded dragons would also judge others based on their appearance, and it wouldn't feel good to be treated as a bastard.
As for the most commonly seen detection magic? I was immune to it from the very start.
When I brushed past the panicked follower, the heavy sword transformed back into the black cat that leaped onto my shoulder. She lazily rolled around and scratched her cat whiskers, as if this was the most comfortable position for her.
"Where are we going? Are we going to rob the Dragons' treasure trove? Or are we going to steal some more dragon eggs? "
"… I'm not a dragon, and I don't have such hobbies. Besides, if we cause any more trouble, won't everyone know that we did it? Let's go see what the Dragons are hiding."
"What they're hiding?"
"Yep. Haven't you noticed that this city is far too peaceful?"
"You're talking about … the giants?"
I nodded. Halent's impression of the giants and Dragons was that they were fighting each other. I doubted that the Dragons would be able to defeat all those troublesome giants in such a short period of time, and even if the Dragons won, they would definitely suffer tremendous losses. I wanted to learn more about the giants' actual combat strength, and it would be even better if I had a battle report from the Dragons and Dragons.
"Why don't you let the Dragons lead the way? No matter what, we're all allies now."
"… Would you let your 'allies' see how weak you are?"
"… That's true."
But unfortunately, even though we did our best to search for them, we still couldn't find any traces of injured dragons, even though we followed the paths of healing and drinking water to search for them.
"Even the Dragons would need large amounts of food, water, and medicine to recover after being injured. It would seem that the Dragons really aren't here."
"… Then where would they be? The frontlines? Don't tell me there's another Dragon City? Hey, why are you thinking about it so seriously? I'm just saying it casually. "
"No, it might actually be possible. I don't think that the Dragons would so easily reveal their true location."
Our two envoys chatted as we walked. We would also occasionally look at the roadside stalls and try to pick up some rare treasures … What? We weren't doing our jobs anymore? We were doing our jobs! Weren't all diplomats supposed to be spies? Look at us, we were still trying to gather information about the Dragons' citizens. How could we be so professional?
"… It seems like you're thinking about something really rude. Not all diplomats are spies or scouts. They're the ones responsible for maintaining the relationship between two countries. They have such a hard time. "
"… Yep, yep, they have to do their best to test the color of the Dragons' underwear, and then they have to incite the Dragons' citizens to go out on the streets. Finally, they even have to do their best to support the Dragons' opposition. What a tough job."
Although we still didn't gain much, chatting and chatting improved our moods quite a bit.
"To be honest, if the situation allowed for it, I'd really like to make a trade with the Dragons. After all, every dragon is a treasure trove. So many resources accumulated together would be nothing to scoff at."
"… How are we supposed to trade? It's not like the Dragons lack anything. "
"Hmph, they lack plenty of things. Haven't you noticed how simple life in Dragon City is? They don't even have casinos, brothels, or bars like normal cities do. And even if they lack nothing, can't we just create consumption? Eating, drinking, and pooping won't earn us any money. "
"You're saying?"
"Don't be fooled by Little Red's playful appearance. She actually cares a lot about her scales. Every once in a while, she'll go take a volcano bath, and she'll regularly polish her nails. It's said that if she doesn't take care of her nails for a long time, her combat strength will decrease."
I wasn't making this up. A human's nails would be dry and cracked, which would probably make them look ugly. However, if a dragon's nails broke when they clawed, it would probably make their enemies laugh their heads off. Volcano baths were rich in minerals and fire elements, which would make a Red Dragon's scales even more energetic and sturdy. This was also a necessary way to increase a dragon's defensive abilities. Of course, after taking a volcano bath, her scales would glow for a period of time. This was one of the reasons why Red Dragons and Silver Dragons always fought over volcanoes. It was said that Silver Dragons were the dragons who loved beauty the most …
"See, it's so troublesome for those mothers to take care of their babies. They can transform into human form, but their babies are even bigger than they are, and they're difficult to take care of. We can provide them with a pet storage service so that they can happily go out on the streets. Yep, we can even sell them collars so that they can tie up their babies and walk around. "
"… Why does it sound like a human pet shop?"
"Cough, don't mind such a small matter. Besides, apart from those traditional services, we can also do beauty and nail salons here. Just look at how monotonous their wings are. They're either red or blue. There's only one color. We can also provide tattoo services, such as embroidery of a tiger or a lion. "
"… Let's not talk about how awkward it would be to embroider a tiger's head on a dragon's body. One wing of a dragon is red and the other is white? Would that be considered a Red Dragon or a White Dragon? "
"Yep, yep, yep. Harloys, you're such a genius. You reminded me. This is such a great idea. We can also provide services to transform into other Dragons. For example, if you're bored of being a Black Dragon, you can paint a layer of gold on your body and disguise your dragon head and wings, pretending to be a Gold Dragon. This will be much more convenient for robbing others. Who would want to always be on guard against a 'righteous' Gold Dragon? "
"… Don't tell me. I think that if you really do this, you'll probably be hunted down by all Dragons, especially the Gold Dragons."
"Right, you."
Chatting was probably the best way to relax. To be honest, Dragon City gave me quite a bit of pressure. After all, anyone would tremble at the sight of so many Saint-ranked, Legend-ranked, and above combat strength on the streets. Not to mention, I had to entertain all the dragon elders at the banquet. Even the weakest dragon would be an Immemorial Dragon that would be no weaker than any ordinary Myth-ranked individual. As for the strongest … there were at least five of them that I couldn't even see through. A conservative estimate would be that they were all far stronger than I was at my peak.
"The Dragons are truly blessed by the heavens. These Gold Bloodlines are so easy to obtain. As long as they reach adulthood, they'll be at least at the Gold rank. With just a bit of training, they'll be able to easily crush ordinary Legend-ranked individuals. Meanwhile, humans will only be able to reach the peak of Silver even if they train for an entire lifetime. "
"… Right, since they're so powerful, they must have had quite a good life in the game's' history. '"
However, I directly shook my head.
"They're basically the same as mages. For the first half of the game, they were all useless teammates who were sleepwalking. They thought that they'd be able to stay out of the battle, but by the time they noticed that the situation was off and joined the battle, the battle was already about to collapse."
"Just like the Cloud Tower?"
Only now did I recall that I hadn't told Harloys about the Mage Country's terrible performance in the game's "history."
"Yep, actually, it's the same thing. They're both overly confident in their own power, so they're used to watching the outside world change. They think that everything is just a temporary storm, and when they discover that they've fallen into a deep swamp and are unable to escape, it'll be difficult for them to rise up again. Didn't you notice that whenever I talked about the Holy War, that Horus guy would either feign ignorance and smile foolishly while stroking his beard, or he would change the topic? It's obvious that the Dragons still intend to stay out of the battle. "
"… What happened to the Dragons in the game's history?"
"Nothing much. It's just that the tallest trees always attract the most attention. The Dragons were transformed into bone dragon armies by the undead, slaughtered by Evil Gods, parasitized by insects, cooked and eaten by the giants. In the end, even the human empires' battleships had to avoid the scattered dragons. Of course, the Dragons still joined the allied armies later on, but they suffered tremendous losses. Some of their branches even went completely extinct. "
"Oh, so you're a prophet as well? Are the Dragons so pitiful in the future? Could you tell me in detail? "
What astonished me the most was that the "person" who had interrupted my conversation with Harloys through our mental link was right behind me.
I suddenly turned around and discovered that it was a seemingly young Snow Elf. He was short and not even as tall as my lover, and his apple-like face was incredibly cute.
"How is this possible? How could a conversation through a mental link possibly be eavesdropped on? "
I had an expression of astonishment as I clenched the white rose in my sleeve. My expression was still pale with fright, but I was seriously considering what information I could divulge, as well as the possibility of silencing Harloys in Dragon City.
"… Youngsters these days are truly frightening. They're always thinking about silencing others. Relax, youngster, I've come with good intentions. Please put away that white rose of yours. I'm old and can't take any fright. "
The Snow Elf, who looked like a young boy, spoke in a mature manner. It was obvious that he was an old demon. His seemingly pure silver-white eyes had actually seen through everything.
"My name has long since been forgotten by the world. You can call me Sam, the Supreme Immemorial White Dragon. Now that I think about it, I'm the great-grandfather of the White Dragon you killed earlier. By the way, how much do you charge for coloring a White Dragon into a Gold Dragon? Can I owe you? I'm quite poor. "
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