Reincarnated As A Dragon With A Godly Inheritance
Chapter 21: The lord is back

Chapter 21: The lord is back

"...What are you doing?"

Taria sat up slowly, blinking at him in confusion. Her eyes were still heavy with sleep.

Kaedros turned toward her and gestured to the fire. "Cooking."

She rubbed her eyes, disoriented. "Cooking... why?"

Kaedros raised an eyebrow. "Because we’re hungry? Aren’t you?"

"That’s not what I meant." She glanced around. "Why are we out here? The last thing I remember was... the explosion."

"You passed out," Kaedros said simply as he turned the meat. It had browned nicely, juices bubbling on the surface.

"I... passed out?" she echoed.

"Too much mana output. Killing that Scraper drained you. Then the explosion, it was too much for your body. You hit your limit."

Taria touched her neck with a wince. It ached a little. "Then why didn’t we return to Solmere? Or... am I too heavy for you to carry?"

Kaedros scoffed. "You’re just gaining some meat on your bones. Don’t flatter yourself. That’s not why we stayed."

She frowned. "You sure? You’re just a stage one, rank one mage, after all..."

Kaedros handed her a thick chunk of meat, still steaming. "Not anymore."

She blinked. "What?"

"I’m stage four now."

Kaedros bit into his portion, letting the fat run down his jaw. The flavor was sharp, cooked just enough to unlock the raw taste of mana infused meat.

Taria had gone still, staring at him.

"How? How do you advance so fast?"

Kaedros’ eyes met hers across the fire. Blue flame against steel grey. The firelight danced between them.

He could see it in her gaze, doubt. Suspicion. She was starting to see it.

That he wasn’t normal.

He could kill her now. Snap her neck. Burn her to ash. It would be easy for the winds to blow. ’....should I just kill her and raise another flesh bag...?..’

Taria’s body tensed. Her breathing slowed, she felt a tension around her as, the same she usually feels when her life is threatened in the slums.

She was readying herself as if waiting for something to happen.

But instead, Kaedros looked away.

"I went hunting," he said. "Took down a few monsters. Enough mana to advance."

He tore another bite from his meat.

Taria slowly relaxed, the tension bleeding from her shoulders. She didn’t know why... but she felt like she’d just been on the edge of something sharp, and then it had passed.

"...Congratulations," she said quietly.

Kaedros smiled. "Thank you."

He decided not to kill her..for now. What would happen to all the money he spent? And the time and energy he already used? Kaedros sighed.

☆☆▪︎☆☆

"So that’s why we didn’t return to Solmere last night?" Taria asked, scooping water from the stream with her cupped hands. She splashed her face, rinsing the sleep and smoke from her skin.

"Yes. It was getting late, and the guards might’ve given us trouble for showing up after curfew." Kaedros knelt nearby, dunking his face into the cold current. Water soaked through his shirt, but he didn’t care. "Also a good time for you to start getting used to sleeping outside. We may be rank one, but once we reach higher ranks, we’ll be hunting long-distance more often."

Taria scowled. It wasn’t that she hated sleeping outside... but not being prepared for it? No tent, no extra clothes, and the meat, even though it was delicious, was so unseasoned. "Let’s plan better next time. At least let me know if we’ll be spending the night."

Kaedros shrugged. "Fine."

Taria sighed. "So we really didn’t have a bounty to turn in?"

Her voice dropped with disappointment. She thought of all the coins they could’ve made. It made her want to punch the Celestial Order, or whoever was behind that monstrous Scraper.

They both lingered by the stream. Taria sat at the edge of the bank, while Kaedros stood knee-deep in the flowing water. The morning sun broke through the trees, golden light dancing on the rippling surface.

Kaedros inhaled deeply, savoring the scent of forest and wild mana that filled the air.

"At least you’re alive," he said. "It would have been such a waste for you to die."

Taria’s mood dipped again. She had almost died. She didn’t need much convincing to believe the Celestial Order was involved. If they weren’t... then someone even worse was.

"You also gained some experience," Kaedros added, noting the way her gaze had darkened again. "If you cultivate it well, you should reach the second stage soon."

That snapped her out of it. "Right! A few weeks ago, I couldn’t even imagine hunting monsters, let alone advancing."

Kaedros stepped out of the stream, his trousers soaked but his expression thoughtful. "What were you doing a few weeks ago?"

He frowned, he barely knew anything about her. Just vague thingsher mother was dead, she had grown up scraping by alone. She never mentioned her father. And the way she flinched at the mention of the Celestial Order ... he wasn’t the only one with secrets.

"I was probably working in some inn, slapping away wandering hands and talking myself into finally going for my Choosing of Ascendant," she said.

"Why did you wait so long?" he asked. "I thought I was the oldest one to get a path this late."

Taria’s expression closed off. She stared into the water. "A promise," she said quietly. "One I broke."

Kaedros didn’t press. He just watched the way her face settled into something distant and numb. When she spoke again, her voice was wooden.

"What happens when you make two contradicting promises?"

He frowned, thinking about it. He had never made a promise to anyone before. Not even when he was a human in his past life, apparently he didn’t have much of anyone to make any promises to.

"I don’t know," he said slowly. Then added, "I guess I’d pick the one that kept me alive. The one that let me grow stronger. Because in the end... we’re all selfish creatures."

Taria looked at him, grey eyes shaded like twilight. Then she smiled, the sharp, sun-warmed kind. "I guess you’re right."

☆☆▪︎▪︎☆☆

They left the wilderness in a silence that wasn’t awkward, just a quiet understanding. The sun had risen fully, and Kaedros suggested she hunt to reach stage two. She groaned but obeyed, and by mid-afternoon she had reached stage two of rank one.

She meditated according to the teaching of Seraphic Warden spear technique. When she advanced, energy burst around him and her bones made cracking sounds as If they were thickening.

After that they gathered a few monsters to turn in for coin.

"The line’s unusually long today," Kaedros muttered as the crowd jostled forward outside the Solmere’s gate.

"You don’t know?" a man beside him said, overhearing, spoke loudly. "Lord Lythienne is back! The guards are being extra thorough."

Taria’s head snapped up. "The Lord of Solmere?"

"Not him, his son. Lord Rauk Lythienne, the heir."

"Is that a big deal?" Kaedros asked.

"Of course it is! This is the biggest city around this side. When the heir’s in town, the guards get paranoid. Do yourself a favor, behave."

The man shuffled forward as the line advanced.

Kaedros glanced at Taria. "He made it sound like it’s weird for a noble to return to his own city."

"It is weird," she said with a frown.

"What do you mean?"

She didn’t get a chance to answer. The guards at the gate waved them forward and started asking questions, standard boubty hunter inquiries. Once they proved themselves, the guards let them through, grumbling.

"Doing all that just to impress nobles who don’t care about them," Taria muttered darkly.

Kaedros snorted. "I think they’re just protecting their jobs. Their food."

"Their job should be protecting the people inside those walls." Her voice had a bitter edge. "I’ve seen what goes on in Solmere. The guards look the other way more often than not. Sometimes they’re worse than the nobles."

Kaedros said nothing. It’s none of his business.

He led the way to the bounty hunter’s Association. They turned in the monster ears for coin, and Taria’s mood brightened as she counted her earnings.

She grinned and turned to him. "Time for a drink."

She almost love gold more than Dragons.

Almost.