The draconian by the name of Brayden revealed himself to be someone else, but from the lack of reaction from both the guards and the two nobles by his side, I could only suspect that they were all aware of his true identity. Ayuseya, however, wasn’t. She was shocked by this; her fists were clenched tight, and her jaw locked so that she wouldn’t gasp in surprise. The tail covered with gold scales didn’t move an inch as though it was bolted to the ground.

“Oh~! I kind of like that expression of yours, my dear Ayuseya~! It’s shock... and... is that a hint of despair?” the draconian on the throne showed us a playful smirk.

With the generational curse removed from the little one and his mother, I waited patiently for Ayuseya to call me out, which didn’t take too long. With one last glance at barrier surrounding my sister-in-law, I walked up to the window and then jumped out.

I flew up into the sky until I reached good altitude and then stopped to look down at the capital city. Drakaros was gigantic even when compared with Aura, the capital of the Paramanium Empire. The vast city districts have been built over the course of thousands of years and spread out into the surrounding plains. It was easy to get lost among the streets, since they were built in a very organic way depending on how big or at what angle someone built their homes.

Just as I had thought, the official who handled my mother’s audiences was standing not that far away from the throne room itself. He had a desk and everything, and there was already a demio talking with him.

In front of the door stood two guards who were far more powerful than any of those seen walking about on the streets, but they were still considerably weaker than me.

The doors were huge, reaching at least ten meters high, but they were just an overzealous decoration. They were opened only during special ceremonies or when foreign royalties arrived. Everyone else just had to use either the normal door on the left or the one on the right of the big ones.

The doors to the throne room of the Teslov Kingdom were the same ones from thousands of years ago when the notorious Dragon Emperor ruled these lands. The arcade was made from pure gold enchanted with magic to remain sturdy and unchanging over the years. The doors were decorated with an impressive and rather big carved image of the Draconian Emperor who brought the Teslov Empire to ruin. Maybe because it still held historical or artistic value, no previous ruler dared to remove it.

As I made my way towards the Demonarkiar Palace, walking at a slow step on the main road, I tried to replay in my mind the words I wished to share with my parents once I had the chance to speak with them. It was a bit awkward to just go to them and tell them that they were grandparents, it probably was not something that unusual either given the fact that I wasn’t the youngest of their children.

There was nothing left for me on the Sorone Continent, and although I felt the faint desire to head over to my family in the Mondravia Kingdom, I felt as though this was not the time for such an uncertain reunion.

The last time my parents saw me was when I was but a little girl of no more than ten years old. In their minds, I died back then, and in a way, it could be said that it wasn’t far from the truth. The innocent child who loved to play in the gardens and chase after butterflies or listen to her mother as she read her stories in the warm afternoon was nowhere to be seen.

With my summon to the King’s throne room, the gears of fate that would bring about clarity to this nation’s future were finally set in motion. The dark clouds ever looming above the oppressed capital of Teslov crackled with the desire to let the rain pour down and drown all those below them who so much as dared to look up.

The history of this nation was never one of glory or prosperity, at least not in the sense that Illsy made me aware off. From the moment of its inception, the draconians had been cast in the jaws of war. With their powerful bodies and ferocious attitudes, they would sweep away the enemies who dared to stand before them.

Akardia was the name of the capital of the Demonarkiar Empire that spanned across the entire Demon Continent, but also the name of my own mother. It was located within a place called the Mirror Forest. The reason why it carried this name was because it was populated by a lot of sneaky monsters who took the shape and form of those who travelled through it. In a way, they were the best sparring partner for a demon who wished to go up in ranks, but when it came to someone as powerful as myself, these monsters preferred to stay away rather than try to mimic my form.

My trip to the Mondravia Kingdom was rather short. Unlike before, this I did not bother with scaring away or hunting down the wild beasts which prowled in the dead of night or the annoying bandits who sought out to plunder the goods of passing caravans. When I encountered them, I moved past them faster than the wind and released a pressure that numbed their senses and weakened their will to fight.

The first thing I did after I heard the ‘waifu alarm’ was to turn it off. As much as it was useful in letting me know that one of my wives needed my help with something, there was no need to wake up the entire island with this high-pitched noise.

I walked up to the control Power Crystal hidden well behind a fake wall and cut off the Magic Thread that connected it to the signal receiver, the trigger of the entire thing. The moment when I did this, everything went back to normal and only my bracelet was blinking on and off, highlighting in green light Ayuseya’s name.

It was the 4th of Zor of year 3 of the Illsyorea Age, and I was sitting at my desk looking over the various expenses that were needed on the 1st of Zor, when the Magic Academy Festival took place.

The name of the Age was suggested and enforced by the Emperor Varakium Paramanium, stating that almost every powerful kingdom would reset the calendar to its birthday. The same went with the Paramanium Empire, it was already the year 6438 of the Paramanium Age and year 76450 of the Great Age. The latter was a mysterious date which was rumored to mark the beginning of civilizations on the Thorya, Allasn, and Sorone Continents. It was also a year no one apart from the well-taught historians knew about.

The Plains of Fire were said to have been created thousands of years ago when my mother, Akardia Demonarkiar, fought for the throne of the Demon Continent. She and the previous ruler fought for several months without stopping, and in this time, the lush plains and the rich mountains home of the most beautiful hot springs were completely reshaped by their powerful attacks. The fiercer they fought, the more the ground underneath their feet bled lava.

On the Demon Continent it wasn’t that unusual for Demio parents to see their children as tools for acquiring more power and wealth. The same went for the other species as well, but the big difference between us and them was the iron law that made it impossible for us to kill them to achieve that purpose: Blood is sacred.

For a Duke in the Paramanium Empire it did not matter if he sacrificed his second or third son in order to win against another noble or to gain more land. On this continent, however, he would be subjected to trial for murder and risk lose everything he owned.

What I saw in that room located deep down underneath the Pleyades Palace was downright sickening. Those draconian women were chained up like animals and used for the sole purpose of producing more babies. They could not even tell when someone entered the room and there was no spark of intelligence in their eyes. I feared that they had all been placed in a vegetable state where only the most basic functions of their brains remained functional.

The Risteza City State was said to have a history spanning back centuries to the times when mankind first settled on the Sorone Continent. This claim, however, was often contradicted by the historians in the Rukarta Empire who claimed that the white skin variant of humans came after the black skin variant. Thus, declaring their nation as being the oldest form of human civilization on this continent.

When one thought of the ruler of Illsyorea, they saw this imposing Dungeon Lord with unmatched strength, capable of toppling mountains and challenging even the most powerful nations in the world. They saw a monster on the battlefield and man among men with five beautiful wives who always stood by his side with equal power.

What they did not see was a father running after his toddler around the room, trying to put his pajamas on.

“Bachus! Get back here!” I shouted as I ran after him.

The Lostsky Forest brought back some bitter memories from the time I was young and weak. Back then, instead of facing head on the monsters that roamed this forest, I cowered and hid from their sight anywhere I could. To disguise my scent, I would cover myself with mud, rub various plants on my armor, and when I had no other choice, I would dive into their feces. For the weak me, every day was a struggle for my own survival, a fight for a chance to see tomorrow’s sunrise.

She followed the adventurer inside and closed the door behind her. As I walked past the house, I met the boy’s gaze.

He was begging me to save his mother from this fate. He was imploring me to do something to help him, just like all the gazes of the other children in these slums.

A trial... a test... a punishment for myself? I wondered as I steeled my heart and walked past him.

In every self-respecting monarchy there were certain procedures and rituals that took place when a Royal left or returned to the Royal Palace. In Teslov Kingdom, however, they were a bit vague even to me. The reason for this was because there were not that many situations in the past where the women of my family parted with the safety of the capital, while those who were welcomed within it would then be unable to leave for various reasons.

The carriage came to a halt to the joyful relief of the horses.

Knock! Knock!

The driver knocked two times on the roof and then called out to us, his passengers.

“We’ve arrived in Damerka.”

I remained seated and waited for the mother with her two young children to get out first. This wasn’t my personal carriage, I just paid the driver to bring me all the way out here from the border just like the other passengers did.