CHAPTER 82: FOUR BITES

"FWOOOP!"

"SWOOOOSHH!!!"

One after another, unlike normal, those elegant wing flapping sounds filled with gentleness instead of majesty echoed in the sky, and the Ancient Dragon Shenhal had reached his master, Luke Ibn Alphonsine Hiera, in just three minutes, standing in his shrunken form.

Luke smiled and said, "Sorry."

It was clear that the Ancient Dragon Shenhal was as angry as he was sad.

Luke did not know it, but Andromeda Ariadne Hiera was also someone who put herself in danger while commanding people with immense power.

In other words, the Ancient Dragon Shenhal, formerly known as Usur, had experienced this kind of sadness and anger thousands of times before.

The Ancient Dragon Shenhal, ignoring the dark elves, had settled next to Luke and then, like a small puppy, had tried to rub against him by bringing his head close to Luke’s.

"Calm down, calm down..." Luke had said, a huge smile spreading across his face.

With that, Luke turned to Elsa and the other dark elves.

"This was your second mission. I apologise for the incompetence I showed you, and I am proud of you for carrying out the order I gave you—the order that did not allow anyone to die. You may disperse." Luke said, pausing for a moment before adding, "Elsa, meet me in the palace baths in two hours... And tell Zoey, because if we don’t, she’ll probably stab me...like literally," he ordered, with a slightly playful tone.

"As you command, Your Majesty," Elsa replied.

Once all the dark elves had disappeared, Luke stepped directly onto the wing of the Ancient Dragon Shenhal, sat on its neck, and said, "Take me to the palace, you big baby."

Shenhal let out a small growl and then took off, carrying Luke towards the palace from a low altitude very close to the city.

Luke hadn’t ordered this; the Ancient Dragon Shenhal seemed to be shouting with his appearance alone, "LOOK AT MY MASTER! LOOK AT WHAT HE HAS DONE FOR YOU!"

Luke had, of course, noticed this.

While flying through the air on the Ancient Dragon’s back, drops of blood continued to fall from its body, which was still covered in various types of magical monster blood.

Luke had reached the palace in a short time and encountered servants looking at him with both astonishment and fear in their eyes.

Their anxiety was evident in their eyes.

Luke walked with simple steps towards the palace bathroom, which he had never used before and was truly enormous, and entered for the first time by opening the door.

It was so huge that there were even statues supporting the ceiling to prevent it from collapsing. Instead of ordinary columns, it was a place so large that it could be used to create works of art.

Luke had removed his blood-stained clothes and thrown them aside. His armour was in pieces. As a politician and a legal prince, he had never been able to obtain one of the armours made from ancient dragon teeth.

Even his armour made of pure mithril had been torn to shreds.

Who knows how many magical monsters he had fought?

Taking off his clothes and standing naked, he saw that his right shoulder was covered with three bite marks, and his leg had one bite mark in the steam of the hot water in the bathroom.

He didn’t know how many magical beasts he had fought or how long he had been fighting, but he had managed to hear Kevin say, ’three days.’

This meant that despite fighting for so long, with his eyes closed, ’tapped out,’ he had only been injured four times.

Even the golden, light-representing healing fire hadn’t healed him.

Perhaps there would be permanent scars, but it wasn’t something Luke cared much about... Unlike other creatures, he had even wanted to carry these as a "trophy" deep down.

These four large bite marks showed that even when he was tapped out, almost unconscious, he had not avoided the fight.

Just like his big sisters.

He felt like a true Hiera.

After washing himself with warm water and partially sterilising his wounds, Luke calmly submerged himself in the warm water of the massive bathroom, rested his head against the white marble, and fell asleep shortly thereafter.

When he opened his eyes again, he realised he wasn’t alone.

Zoey was also in the bathroom, naked like Luke, just right next to him.

"I’m very angry with you," Zoey said, noticing Luke had woken up but not letting go of his hand since she had entered the bathroom and sat down next to him in the warm water.

"I know..." Luke replied.

"You should have taken me with you," Zoey said.

"I’m not sorry about that... Even if you’re a much better fighter than me, I’m not stupid enough to put you in a dungeon, especially a new one," Luke replied.

Zoey kissed Luke on the lips repeatedly as she spoke, then, in a normal tone of voice, said, "That’s my man," and began to stroke his wounds.

"We need to bandage the wounds when we get out of the bath, my love," Zoey said.

"As you wish," Luke replied.

The couple, madly in love with each other, simply stood there in the warm bathwater. Minutes passed, and after a little over two hours, the bathroom door opened.

The person who entered was Elsa. Looking quite happy to see both Luke and Zoey in the bath, the couple she liked were lovey-dovey at the moment.

She was wearing the hunter’s attire that dark elves typically wore. Still, Elsa seemed to have cleaned herself properly to avoid dirtying the bathroom.

"I have come as you commanded, Your Majesty Hiera," Elsa said politely.

Without even turning around, Luke said in a calm tone, "I want you to bring me every piece of information you can find about the Eastern Continent within a week. You should also find any information you can about the Northern Continent’s trade history, Elsa."

When Luke said these words, Elsa tilted her head and asked, "Is that all, Your Majesty?"