Lord and Dragon

Chapter 17

Synopsis: Though for now, the groom isn’t Fruu

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After thinking that I wouldn’t be able to run away once we entered the gold dragon territory, the escort that King Andel arranged for me harshly ordered the magicians in our entourage to undo the carriage’s barrier before entering and then sitting down next to me.

This escort, who should be a relative named Lady Afeyr, said: "Do you know what the true purpose of this diplomatic mission is?"

I gave her a look and laughed bitterly: "I’ve roughly guessed that it isn’t a good thing."

She said: "We’re here to accompany the bride...That is, to deliver the human bride the kingdom has offered to the dragon race."

I was speechless: "Accompany the bride?"

While I was in Finanse, I had flipped through many old books on dragons in order to understand Fruys’s situation better and came to know the origin of the saying, ’Dragons love the daughters of royal blood’ — on the years when demonic beasts wrought the most havoc, the king of humans would offer his own children to the dragon race in a reverent plea for protection. Dragon clan with highest status would take these children of royal blood to assert their own authority.

As for the fate of these human "brides", which were probably better described as sacrifices, the ancient records only vaguely said that the majority would suffer a miserable death on the day of the wedding or a few days later. How exactly they died was not mentioned.

However, as the years passed, the invasions of the demonic beasts became less severe than they were in the past.

Humanity developed better troops, weapons, magic, and other technical skills to fight the demon race, which made the standing between humans and dragons became increasingly equal in their alliance, and the dragon race also started to forbid its many clans from the traditional practice of accepting sacrificial "brides".

I brought up what continued to confuse me. Why was it that this ceremony that had been banned long ago still happening?

Afeyr swept a glance at me and looked down with remorse. In a voice full of resentment she spoke: "What’s so strange about it? The gold dragon clan has enormous influence, and from the beginning they only nominally followed the rules. In order to flaunt the special standing of their clan, they would at times openly violate the prohibition and even invite the king of dragons to attend the ceremony. The rulers who supposedly made the laws cannot do anything — even if they can, would they aggravate the gold dragons for the sake of mere humans?"

After thinking about it for a little, I decided that it made sense in the end. I then asked her who this bride I had not yet met was.

Afeyr said: "The bride is you."

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What kind of joke was that supposed to be? How could it be me? It made more sense if she was the bride.

Afeyr told me that that the gold dragon clan only cared about the purity of the royal blood in the bride’s veins — her, or his, gender did not matter to them at all.

Actually, the bride to be delivered was supposed to be my mother. When she ran away, the king was forced to send a distant male relative, but the thinness of this lord’s royal blood made the gold dragon race extremely displeased.

Afeyr looked at me, and then suddenly smiled for a moment. She said: "Adam, thank you...If you hadn’t appeared, it would have been me who would be picked. This was why Andel chose me to escort you — I’m the person who is least likely to set you free. If you ran away, I will be the person who dies."

For a split second, her expression became an extremely complex mix of guilt, desperation, and fear. She told me she was sorry... Although she wasn’t afraid of death, the way the human bride would die was simply too miserable.

I asked her how those brides died.

She locked gazes with me: "They die during consummation of the marriage...during sex with the dragon in its original form."

’Stop lying to me’, I wanted to tell her, but I didn’t say anything in the end; my head was filled with contradictory and conflicting thoughts at that moment.

Rationally speaking, I knew what she said was probably true but...it wasn’t as if I had not done those things with Fruys before, and was I not fine right now?

I felt a bizarre kind of pride which probably came from the fact that I had practical experience ordinary people rarely had.

Reflecting back on it, I felt like I was probably beyond hope — all I did was chat with someone yet I couldn’t help but think back to that risque scene when I was together with Fruys.

Author’s Note:

Ladies, your imaginations are like black holes!

Having said that, I decided to take a different route: due to a freak accident, our little shop owner was recognized by another aristocratic family and got his status upgraded into an heir. However, a power-hungry relative wanted a subsidiary business under the management of yet another bigger aristocratic family, so he arranged a political marriage using the little shop owner. Reliable sources said that this family that he was to be wedded to was very bad and treated people horribly, and all their previous political marriages fell apart...

I have to go out for three or four days, so there won’t be any new chapters. Love ya all~ ???3??????

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