When the girl abruptly let go and Nolan’s head hit the ground with a dull thud, Hank finally snapped out of his daze and rushed over in a single stride. “Nolan! How do you feel?” he asked, helping him up and quickly checking his condition. The wounds all over Nolan’s body still looked horrific, but the bleeding had stopped, and his breathing was much steadier.
Nolan had recovered a little. He shook his still-dizzy head, ran a hand through his messy black hair, and forced himself to sit up. The sharp pain at the back of his head mixed with the lingering softness on his lips, leaving him unsure which to complain about first. Instead of answering Hank, he turned his gaze toward the silver-haired girl standing a short distance away with her back to them, her shoulders rising and falling faintly.
Just as he was about to speak, she beat him to it. Though her voice still carried a trace of weakness, the pride ingrained in her bones remained undiminished. “Your body was in ruins. I shared a portion of my dragon essence with you and saved your life. Now, you may take your time to compose your gratitude and praise, human.”
“…I saved you too, you know,” Nolan replied with a roll of his eyes, finally experiencing firsthand the arrogance he had expected from dragons.
“Fine. I’ll reluctantly count it. Dragons do not owe debts. We’re even.” Seeing Nolan open his mouth again, she cut him off at once, “Let me warn you, insignificant human—don’t even think about taking advantage of this to extort anything from a dragon. I’ll say this upfront: you won’t get a single coin.”
Nolan froze for a moment, then let out a short laugh. No matter what kind of dragon it was, their love of wealth seemed universal. What he had wanted to ask—whether she had bitten him just now—was swallowed before it could leave his lips. Bracing himself on the ground, he stood, brushed the dust from his clothes, and looked at her slender figure. “I only wanted to ask what I should call you.”
The simple question shattered the carefully maintained composure on the silver-haired girl’s face. A blush spread rapidly from her pale neck to her cheeks, even tinting the tips of her delicate pointed ears. She took a deep breath, her chest rising slightly, and after a brief silence, regained her poise.
“My name is Evelynnachiolos.” She lifted her chin, as though she were standing not in a dark cavern but before a royal throne. “You may also address me as Lady Evelyn, human.”
“A pleasure, Evelyn.” Nolan remained calm and unassuming as he spoke, removing the ruined chainmail from his body. Broken metal plates and snapped leather straps clattered to the ground. His lean upper body was covered in wounds, though they had already stopped bleeding. He rolled his shoulder, now mostly recovered, and added, “I’m not ‘human.’ I’m Nolan, and this is Hank.”
Evelyn’s gaze flickered briefly over his well-built frame before she quickly looked away with a soft snort. “Whether you’re called Nolan or anything else makes no difference to me.”
Hank, standing nearby, felt a bead of sweat form at his temple. This dragon lady truly was arrogance incarnate. Still, practical matters concerned him more. As a loyal soldier of the kingdom, he stepped forward with a composed, military bearing and asked, “Lady Evelyn, may I ask what brings you to the Kingdom of Elfin?”
Evelyn showed far less interest in Hank than in Nolan. She cast him a brief, indifferent glance and replied bluntly, “Your kingdoms and empires mean nothing to me. I have no interest in them. Why would I need to tell you anything?”
Hank was left speechless, while Nolan, already familiar with the nature of dragons, remained unfazed. He steered the conversation back to what concerned him most. “If I may ask, Miss Evelyn… the dragon race hasn’t appeared for a hundred years, so why were you fighting people from the Nihility Cult?”
This was the question he cared about most. It had never come up in the original storyline, and he could not tell whether it was related to the changes he himself had caused. If dragons held a grudge against the cult, it could become a valuable opening, perhaps even a chance to secure their support.
“You should call me Lady Evelyn,” she corrected irritably. But what she said next poured cold water over his hopes. Wrinkling her delicate nose in distaste, she glanced at the two halves of the Apostle’s corpse on the ground, her voice filled with disdain. “Fighting? Those two vermin weren’t even worthy of that word. I’ve never even heard of your so-called Nihility Cult.” She paused mid-sentence, as if catching herself before revealing too much. A flicker of annoyance crossed her golden eyes, which Nolan noticed at once. “…If I hadn’t run into a little accident while handling my own affairs and been in a weakened state, creatures like that wouldn’t have had the chance to act so brazenly in front of me.”
Unfortunately, Nolan did not hear the answer he had been hoping for.
Although Evelyn’s words sounded arrogant and dismissive, the amount of information hidden within them was astonishing. Dragons were born at the Gold rank, and after undergoing their coming-of-age rite, they could awaken their true essence and step directly into the “Saint tier,” a realm countless mortals could never reach in a lifetime.
Evelyn, who stood at the peak of Gold rank, was clearly still a young dragon who had yet to undergo that rite, yet it was obvious from the earlier battle that she excelled at draconic magic, widely regarded as the most destructive form of spellcasting, and her actual combat strength was extraordinarily high.
What kind of being could injure a dragon of her caliber?
Nolan’s mind raced as he weighed the possibilities, then decided to probe a little further. Stroking his chin as if deep in thought, he said, “Could it be that the legendary ‘Primordials’ have returned to the world…?”
“You, a mere human, know of the Primordials?” Evelyn blurted out, her expression changing sharply. She immediately realized her slip and forced a cold laugh to cover it. “Don’t try to show off with scraps of hearsay. The Primordials were completely wiped out thousands of years ago. As for what in this world could injure me, it is naturally—” She stopped again mid-sentence, her beautiful golden slit pupils flashing with irritation as she glared at him. “You’re trying to trick me into talking?”
Nolan instantly raised both hands in a gesture of innocence. “Not at all. That’s all you.”
Evelyn stared at him, taking in his harmless, almost clueless expression, and felt her temper rise again. In the end, she simply snorted, her pride as a dragon unwilling to dwell on something so trivial. “Cunning mortal. Your guess isn’t wrong. It won’t hurt to tell you. My opponent… was another dragon.”
That answer struck Nolan and Hank at the same time.
Nolan suppressed the surge of shock within him and patiently corrected her again. “I have a name. It’s Nolan. I’m not trying to pry into your kind’s secrets. I was just wondering whether I might be able to offer some… assistance, within my means.”
“Drop that little scheme of yours, ‘Nolan.’” Evelyn deliberately emphasized his name as she mimicked his tone. “Since the War of Heaven, dragonkind has sworn not to interfere in the affairs of the mortal world. That is an iron law among us.”
Then she stepped forward, closing the distance between them. Though her elven form was half a head shorter than Nolan, she carried an overwhelming, instinctive pressure that felt entirely out of proportion to her stature. Her pure golden eyes locked onto his, her voice tinged with curiosity and scrutiny.
“You, on the other hand, are far more interesting. You’re clearly weak, so why is your vitality so tenacious? With the injuries you suffered, any ordinary human would have died several times over. Yet you stood back up and even killed that Gold-rank monstrosity.” She narrowed her eyes slightly. “There’s something unusual about you. Care to explain?”
Here it comes.
Nolan’s heart tightened. He knew this question was inevitable. Putting on a solemn expression, he spoke with complete seriousness while improvising on the spot. “I suppose it’s because someone with ideals, someone who carries the will to protect others, doesn’t fall so easily.”
As a “player” with a system interface, this was his greatest secret. While he was still frantically thinking of more passionate, heroic nonsense to cover himself, Evelyn’s gaze shifted away from his face and landed on the greatsword at his side, the Mountain’s Resonance, which had just returned to its original form. She studied it for a moment, then nodded thoughtfully.
“I see…” she murmured. “No wonder Hoden acknowledged you.”
Nolan and Hank both froze.
Who? Acknowledged me?
“Sorry… who is Hoden?”
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