“More. More. Spread your wings farther. No, flap harder. Faster. More. You can’t get tired. You can do better.”

    The Emperor, flying with Kiaros on his back, cursed inwardly.

    This wasn’t just tiring—it was beyond exhausting.

    Kiaros murmured in a seething voice.

    “I hesitated too long... I couldn’t even confess...”

    “Grgh... Grgh-grgh-grgh! (You’re causing all this chaos because you couldn’t confess after all that time?)”

    The fact that he couldn’t speak while in dragon form was the greatest regret of his life.

    No matter how hard he growled, Kiaros couldn’t understand a word of it.

    Of course, it wasn’t helping that Kiaros was monitoring his wingbeats like a drill sergeant.

    “I like you so much... I really like you... but I couldn’t even say that...”

    “Grghhhh! (Why couldn’t you say that back in the palace? Why’d you have to fly all the way to the southern edge of the continent to do it?)”

    The Emperor felt like he was going to explode from wanting to shout, You absolute idiot. Sear?h the novёlF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    But there were things on his mind.

    Kiaros hadn’t explained everything, but what little he had said was shocking enough.

    That Namia was Aran’s daughter—and the Master of the Tower’s granddaughter. That she was tied to the Reformists.

    And how the hell had Namia crossed such a vast distance so quickly?

    “Stop daydreaming and focus on flying. Speed only. Prioritize speed,”

    Kiaros snapped, his words lashing like a whip. The Emperor groaned and flapped harder.

    Dragons were supposed to fly with elegance and grace—not like hummingbirds in a race.

    “Grghhh, grgh... (Raising kids really is the hardest thing in the world.)”

    “Yes, you’re doing great.”

    “Grghhhh... (No one told me dragon-riding was this exhausting.)”

    Still, Kiaros’s constant prodding ?N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t? wasn’t the only thing bothering him.

    What troubled him more were the thoughts crowding his son’s head.

    [It’s not hard to seduce ordinary humans. We’ve got the looks, money, status, and power.]

    That’s what everyone said. That it was easy for a dragonkin to make a human fall in love.

    And at first, Kiaros thought so too.

    That’s why he proposed so casually. He’d told her he was willing to marry her if she wanted.

    But in hindsight, Namia wasn’t someone who cared about those things.

    [Honestly, I’d rather walk in by myself. I like being the center of attention.]

    She was someone who valued her own decisions, her own power.

    That’s probably why she ignored Kiaros’s subtle signs of affection to the end.

    She hadn’t opened her heart to Victor Arwin either, or even to Kiaros Polariwood.

    And instead, she chose someone like Kibone—a foreign intern with unclear status, who lived in a rundown shack, working as a secretary.

    “Running off like that in the end... that’s so Namia.”

    If Namia were the type to care only about her own safety, she would have hidden the fact that she was a test subject and fled.

    But instead, she revealed the truth, even though it meant exposing her power in front of Kiaros.

    All just to fulfill one wish: to see her father one last time.

    “Please... Namia...”

    Kiaros clutched the dragon’s scales tightly.

    “Please, just give me a chance.”

    His breath caught, chest tight—he felt like he might die.

    The fear of not making it in time made his head spin.

    “I want to choose for myself, for once—not just accept what I was born into.”

    Namia had completely misunderstood.

    “More than the future of the Empire...”

    Whether she was a test subject or something worse—

    Kiaros couldn’t stop loving her.

    “I want to be your future.”

    And with that, the dragon carrying Kiaros raced across the continent faster than ever before.

    ***

    Surprisingly, after crying so hard, I felt a little better.

    Come to think of it, I’d never cried this freely in my entire life.

    “Oh dear, my poor baby. Hm? Should we blow your nose? Oh, but if your nose hurts, what do we do? I didn’t bring the top-quality Arphobia tissues...”

    The Master of the Tower flailed anxiously beside me, fussing like a nervous nanny.

    “If you cry this much, you’ll get dizzy... My little girl, can you open your eyes okay? Hm?”

    “Yes. They’re big and pretty, so even if I cry a lot, they still open just fine.”

    I blew my nose with a sulky sniff and wiped my tears.

    Seeing the Master of the Tower watching me so carefully warmed my heart.

    No one had ever comforted me when I cried.

    To be honest, I’d never let myself cry in front of anyone. I never expected comfort from others.

    “Sweetheart, I’m sorry. Okay? Your grumpy old grandpa is sorry...”

    He patted my shoulder.

    “But listen, since it’s that guy who made you cry, I’ll scold him real good later. So why don’t you go back for now? I’ll handle everything for you...”

    Even in his concern, he couldn’t help but misplace the blame.

    I felt like I was experiencing Mom’s messed-up parenting secondhand.

    I sighed and shook my head.

    “Actually, I already told everything to His Highness the Crown Prince.”

    In a way, I’d made the opposite choice from the Master of the Tower—he’d stayed silent, but I hadn’t.

    But I didn’t regret it. It was the right thing to do.

    The Reformists were still abducting animals and people for illegal experiments. I couldn’t stay quiet just to protect my family.

    “His Majesty the Emperor will be here soon. Probably in dragon form. He’ll destroy everything. We need to rescue my dad before that.”

    “What? The dragonkin know?!”

    I had basically exposed the Master’s twenty-year secret to the dragons.

    “Yes. Based on their flight records, they’ll take about three to four days. Since it’s been just over a day since I left the palace, we’ve got around two days left.”

    It was the perfect time to barge in and grab my dad.

    I smashed a maze wall for effect and said,

    “After all this destruction, the Reformists must know we’re here. We don’t have a choice anymore. We need to move.”

    Unfortunately, I couldn’t use movement scrolls freely anymore.

    To use one, I needed a known location. And I had no idea what the inside of the inner temple looked like.

    Just like when I first entered the maze, I could only teleport to spaces directly beyond a wall.

    “But I’m really strong now, so it’s fine.”

    “Namia, if the dragons know, then you should leave fir—”

    I grabbed the Master of the Tower, who kept insisting I run away, and cut him off.

    “Give me every bit of information you have on this inner section. Right now.”

    “Wait, just let me get you out first, and then—”

    Hmph.

    After my crash course in bad parenting, I knew how to handle this man. I cut him off with a whine.

    “No, Grandpa. I’m going to do whatever I want.”

    He immediately changed his tone.

    “Yes-yes-yes, of course! Your grandpa will tell you everything! What are you curious about? Hm? Hm?”

    Exactly. That was the correct answer.

    And from the start, I only had one goal.

    “Where is my dad?”

    The Master of the Tower flailed again and waved his hands in panic.

    “What does my precious girl need to know that for...?”

    “But your precious girl wants to know! And I’m super strong now, so I’ll smash everything to find him! Tell me!”

    “Sigh... Our sweet little girl suddenly gained power and now she’s running wild. But if I try to talk her down, she’ll lose confidence. Can’t let that happen. This world’s too harsh for her to survive without her spirit.”

    Muttering things that were the complete opposite of my dad’s motto—“Don’t forget we all share this world together”—the Master of the Tower finally pulled out a map from inside his robe.