CHAPTER 468: CHAPTER 276: SAY SOMETHING!_2

"Stop! Do you realize what you’re doing!?"

David, a dragon of few words, didn’t waste time on talk; he immediately swung his claw.

"AH! My eyes!" The Gold Dragon, its face struck, took a deep breath, instinctively about to release the "Weakening Dragon Breath" from its throat.

"Hah... PTUI!" Instead, it was met with a blast of "Frost Breath" that Attilicia had well-prepared, shot right into its throat.

The Gold Dragon instantly froze, its heart, liver, and lungs trembling in unison. Its front legs desperately propped it up in the passage, forepaws clutching its throat as it rolled its eyes in agony. It seemed it had never imagined that Attilicia and his son David, despite their origins in the noble Swietlanden family, would stoop to using such dirty tricks—tactics even less scrupulous than those of the Chromatic Dragons.

"Go!" With that, David and Attilicia immediately charged into the Teleportation Gate, one after the other.

The mature Gold Dragon strained to heal its eyes with "Light Wound Healing." Barely managing to squeeze into the Dragon Nest, it looked at the Teleportation Circle, which flickered erratically under the Dragon Nest guards’ suppression, appearing extremely unstable. Even as a Legendary Dragon of renown, it couldn’t muster the courage to venture in; thanks to the ’publicity’ from various bardic chronicles, the Teleportation Circle had already become infamous as the ’Alien Space Guillotine,’ as not even a Legendary Dragon could ensure complete immunity.

Yet, that Teleportation Circle was still being maintained, not canceled. The blatant taunt felt like Monkey Sun brandishing the purloined jade bottle at the Great Golden Horn and hollering, ’I dare you to respond if I call your name!’

The Gold Dragon didn’t dare to ’respond.’ Instinctively, it wanted to redirect its rage toward Attilicia’s family, hoping to use them as leverage to ensnare David and Attilicia.

But looking up, it saw Mrs. Serisilis and the other Metal Dragon relatives already bound tightly. Only their innocent eyes gazed pitifully at him, and darkness momentarily swept before its vision.

If this were a Chromatic Dragon, it might have already slain other dragons to vent its fury. But Metal Dragons couldn’t.

Whether due to their inherent moral code or the dictates of procedural justice, they could not harm Mrs. Serisilis and her family, who had already lost the ability to resist. On the contrary, they had to protect them until the Dragon Court’s routine interrogation.

Just as this mature Gold Dragon was caught between a rock and a hard place, agonizing over how to explain its dereliction of duty, it noticed signs that the Teleportation Circle was being activated once again.

Could it be... they plan to return? This ludicrous thought inevitably surfaced in the mature Gold Dragon’s mind.

But in the next instant, it felt a surge of ’high-energy radiation’ from the other side of the circle, sending shivers down its scales. Inside the gate, a scene of ’flames bursting forth and lightning flashing’ unfolded.

「At the same time, the Supreme Dragon Court was silent as the grave.」

The Internal Affairs Officer, the Priest of the Dragon God, and even the Dragon Court elders, including Ronatas, all looked toward Silver Dragon Princess Alicia. She was crouching silently on the Dragon King’s throne, waiting.

They awaited a pronouncement from Her Highness Alicia, awaited the account left by the deceased Silver Dragon King. All the dragons knew this was a potential coup.

With the Platinum Dragon God Bahamut already gone, Dragon Island urgently needed a transformation to ensure its survival. Perhaps converting to another Dragon God, thereby securing Dragon Island’s protection and continuity, was a viable option.

The Metal Dragons with this idea distinctly split into three factions:

The ’Sanctity of Private Treasure’ Faction, supporting conversion to ’Lady of the Treasury’ Estella.

The ’Balance of Justice’ Faction, supporting conversion to ’Scales of Justice’ Landis.

And the ’Kindness for Survival’ Faction, supporting conversion to ’Lady of Mercy’ Tamara.

And this was just on the island. It was foreseeable that the Bronze Dragons and Brass Dragons off-island would either convert, or had already converted, to the ’Jester Custodian,’ Hel.

While this was an inevitable consequence of the looming crisis, it was undeniably saddening for the dragons. It was almost a foregone conclusion: if Her Highness Alicia couldn’t provide a credible response to the dragonkin, or if the Silver Dragon King indeed failed to return, the political upheaval on the outer islands would transform into a coup within the Dragon Court itself.

But at that moment, Alicia, the one upon whom Ronatas and others from the Conservative Faction had pinned their hopes, seemed to be gazing into the snowstorm beyond the mountain, distracted. "Have they gone?" she murmured.

This development was somewhat unexpected for her, yet it was typical draconic behavior. After all, strictly speaking, David Uthos was still a Chromatic Dragon. The affairs of Dragon Island were of no concern to him.

Yet, even so, Alicia felt a ripple in her heart, which had grown somewhat desolate since her father’s departure. She couldn’t help but feel a touch of disappointment.

She sensed her father’s hopes had been one-sided after all. Even if David Uthos was the first mixed-blood dragon in millennia to visit Dragon Island of his own volition, a potential catalyst to mend the animosity between Chromatic and Metal Dragons, the right moment had never arrived. It was like a seed buried in fertile soil that never saw the spring of its sprouting. Ultimately, he was a Red Dragon, bound by his duties as a Chromatic Dragon. They were destined to fight—for each other, and for the fates of their respective kin.

Yet just as Alicia was about to produce the Dragon King’s Decree her father had entrusted to her, intending to read his final commands aloud before the crowd and prepare to address the impending struggle for survival and faith—

BOOM.

"AH!!!"

All the dragons, including Alicia, couldn’t help but turn their gaze towards Swietlanden Peak.