A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale

Empress Gyadiosa’s humanoid form was that of a levianewt, which should have been obvious considering her children took after her. This meant her form showed her gills, fins along her back and tail, and also a set of whiskers underneath her chin. Unlike her children, though, her body was completely reptilian, showing barely any pink elven skin.

Still she had blue hair, though, it looked more like a mane as it covered her entire neck and even went down her back and tail, following her dorsal fin. As a levianewt, she had no set of wings, of course, but I knew from my lectures that she also wasn’t a normal leviathan either. She, like her children, were mutant leviathans who could fly in the sky without wings, as they innately had the ability to control clouds to help them levitate.

From seeing Kahalameet’s real form from up close, I was sure his mother and sister should look like Chinese dragons—a seiryuu or long. Well, considering Gyadiosa was predominantly blue, I might as well call her a “Qing Long,” an azure dragon … hehe. Joke over.

“Ah, absolutely majestic. You can’t get whale jerky and fresh walrus steak as good as in Frozen Nest.” This very “azure dragon” was currently gorging down plates full of food while her fins were flapping around, acting almost like wings.

“It warms the heart, that is for sure.” Sitting next to her, Empress Virrflax was doing the exact same thing, only that she wasn’t hiding her excitement through her small appendages. Her rainbow-colored feathers were fluttering about whenever she sighed in satisfaction, curling her hands to pump the air.

As animated as always, Mother-Empress.

“Well, my chefs had already prepared a similar feast for my child and retainers. They already had great taste-testers before the both of you arrived,” Mom affectionately interjected, prompting the three women to laugh alongside each other, looking like a group of … well, good friends. It might not look like it, but these three just participated in a serious political matter with one of them getting into a fight with our emperor.

Yet they were acting as if none of that had happened.

“I see your wound is completely gone,” Virrflax said as she finished some fish soup. “I am sure Eltharion dealt a pretty serious blow with his black flames on your shoulder, but look at you, you seem finer than a fledgling after their first long hibernation.”

“The benefits of having a holy dragon as a daughter, I presume,” Gyadiosa added, prompting Mom to laugh in an exaggerated manner, covering her mouth like some gleeful noble woman.“I am willing to bet my daughter is far more competent than even the current dragon ruler of light, my dears. As deep as the burn was, Hestia’s [Miraculous Grace] is divine to the point she can rejuvenate even these old bones of mine. I do say though, if you are experiencing any skeletal pains, break some of the bones and come over, I’ll have my daughter only charge you a vault of treasure.”

“Hahaha, finally having the chance to boast about your daughter and you will not shut up. Fair enough, you deserve it after everything I’ve done on my end,” Virrflax cackled without a care for the people around her. She could not control how ear-piercing it was becoming. “Still, my lovely son and I are still at the peak of how a relationship between mother and child should be, Melloxtressa. You and your daughter are too far behind to catch up to our radiance.”

“Praising our children all those years must have built up all that jealousy, correct? I still cannot believe you held this smug behavior even when you finally came back with your daughter. You are still too result-oriented; too afraid,” Gyadiosa interjected to stop Virrflax’s rant and posing. “If it were me, I would have presented everything my children had done while I was gone in the most brilliant light possible! Make it glamorous; fit for those humanoid lyricists to make a tale, understand? The simple report of what she did was too mundane, dear!”

“Maybe, maybe, but I am sure you would have only listened to my charade with pity. Now, though, you know what my daughter can do and you can’t deny it. Muwahahah! Bask in her presence. Bask and accept that our eight imperial child is worthy of the name of Kargryxmor!”

“Hahaha!”

“… Yes, this is how it usually goes when one of them starts drinking,” Wendriosa said as she inconspicuously tilted her head to me.

I looked at the two empty bottles of dwarven fire wine—a drink made to intoxicate even the most stout dwarven drinker. As they were guests, Gyadiosa and Virrflax had brought over some as presents, most likely to ease the mood before we actually began the real reason for why they came here.

And, as I knew from personal experience, dragons weren’t very good drinkers. As in, our biology wasn’t the best suited to metabolize alcohol and due to our usually efficient metabolism to sustain our large physique, some weird things happened within that made it look weird how us majestic dragons were getting destroyed by some strong wines and spirits. Also, turning ourselves into humanoids was actually making the effect worse, so, yeah.

At least, that was what my dragon doctor told me.

As your doctor, Mom, I would suggest you stop drinking so much when you’re still recovering. I wanted to say but I sighed in the end as it looked impossible to stop these three at this point.

Frankly, I probably had nothing to worry about since Mom’s constitution was just abnormal in the first place. When Gyadiosa mentioned a large wound on Mom’s body, she meant the large burn scar Eltharion had inflicted on her that she hastily covered up by freezing that entire section of her body. Not to mention, the scorched parts all around her body, as well.

During our flight back to Frozen Nest, I used the time to heal up Mom as quickly as possible, but goodness, I only realized it when I inspected her body that the wound dug right into her bone. Mom, though, told me she barely felt the pain at all and while she knew it was pretty severe, she told me she had dealt with worse, reminding me how she struggled with the rank SS leviathan back in Elyonda.

A wound that would have caused a human to fall in shock was nothing to Mom. I honestly had no idea how to think about this. Was this how normal people thought of me whenever I did something dragon-like?

“Just enjoy the meal, really. It’ll end when it ends,” Nong added after Wendriosa’s comment.

“I just ate, though,” I complained.

“Well, then you should probably eat more, Sister,” Kahalameet argued as he was diligently going through his dishes, eating with exceptional form. “Your bureaucrats and ours are probably talking through some details before they hand everything over to our empress-mothers.”

“I see …” I frowned, feeling a bit awkward as my three siblings and I sat together on the side of the table. We were all wearing kimonos right now with dishes placed in front of us, but instead of enjoying it, it felt kinda awkward, especially with our mothers acting so nonchalant after everything.

I couldn’t help but sigh as I had psyched myself up for a political meeting. “Well, I—”

“Hestia, I would like to apologize,” Kahalameet suddenly said, shocking me. When I snapped my head to the side, I noticed Wendriosa wasn’t too surprised about it.

“For what?” I raised a brow.

“That Father had to let Maustoovaka go easily due to him and Arkanator supporting me as the claimant. For not suspecting Maustoovaka or any ancient dragon until Fargryneill had to reveal Ryranakus’s and her struggles with our culture. For not being able to reach you in time,” he answered as he stopped moving his fork. “I want you to know that I am willing to take responsibility. Ask me anything. Anything that I can reasonably fulfill shall be yours, Sister.”

My face tensed up a bit, prompting me to laugh nervously. “Yeah … Mom’s retainer did tell me to do just that.”

“Dragon Ruler Alextraxus is no fool, nor are Lord Guyulthanos and Lord Karydrinos; they know exactly what to ask and, unless I am willing to antagonize you and them, I am obligated to repay the damages my supporters have done. If you had been hurt any further, a blood price probably wouldn’t have been unreasonable …” Brother said with a sullen tone, telling me he would have accepted such a demand in that scenario.

Feeling a bit awkward, I sighed. “I just want to let you know that I am not that sort of person.”

“I understood that well when we had the chance to talk, Hestia. I understand the political schemes and the cultural dissonance is harsh on your stay in Kargryx, but I do wish you would enjoy your stay. I had hoped my younger siblings would have all enjoyed it …”

Haaa, this is going in the wrong direction.

As I was about to speak up, Wendriosa interjected. “The moment you became too involved in your duties as the crown prince, that was when you started to drift away from us, Brother.”

“This lecture, again?” Kahalameet snarled, but turned his head away to not show his teeth to us.

“I am just presenting the truth, Brother. Nongramos, Ryranakus, and Fargryneill have all faced some issues similar to bullying as they grew up, and I have told you to be more strict with those elder scales. They will not listen to me, after all,” Wendriosa spat out, venom drenched on every letter. “It only took Maustoovaka to beat up Ryranakus and nearly imprison Hestia for you to actually take the matter seriously. You are lucky Fargryneill only ‘escaped’ Miononbolax with an inferiority complex instead of actual wounds from all the fighting she had to do!”

As Kahalameet sighed, Wendriosa dugged the dagger even deeper. “I’ve done whatever I could to help our younger siblings. Do as much as I could as the second child of the First Empress; the shadow of the ‘young tyrant’ of the family. You think our empire has nothing it needs to revitalize? That elemental scar on Inferno Nest says otherwise.”

… One awkward situation on one side and now this? What the heck did I get myself into here?

Kahalameet and Wendriosa didn’t look like they would stop their argument any time soon, so I turned my eyes to Nong who was eating his meal, ignoring everything around him. The unity my half-siblings showed during my first meeting with Eltharion felt a bit like an illusion, or maybe this was just family being family. Sure, we might have drama, but at the end of the day, we were still family.

At least, I hoped so.

“Hey, Nong …” I began, sheepishly, unable to eat anything with this mood.

“They argue often, yeah,” he replied, probably misunderstanding what I wanted to talk about. Moving his head closer to me, he whispered. “Just leave them. There was some invisible friction between them and their mother due to the latter’s entire job of policing our defense and peace, and so on. Considering Kahalameet is supposed to live up to her duties, his entire apology wasn’t just due to him feeling responsible for you.”

“So they are letting off steam?” I replied to which he nodded.

“It is a bit awkward for an over 3000-years-old mother to lecture her 489-years-old son over an obvious subject. It doesn’t need to be talked about; both knew what they had to do, but they still needed an outlet. Wendriosa, well, found a weak spot and is trying to persuade him to accept her ideology. Nothing special.”

I guess that does make sense why they are being so rambunctious.

“Good to know, thanks … but that isn’t what I wanted to talk about,” I responded, catching his attention. “I’ve visited Kramps, as in, his divine realm at his altar room near Coral Beard. We talked about you guys … and also about you, Nong.”

“Oh? Hope the old man isn’t complaining too much about us when—Oooooooh.” Nong turned away, eyes widened in realization of what I truly meant.

My last visit to Kramps included learning why he disapproved of my half-siblings. For Nong, he stated while he liked his attitude, he disliked the fact Nong was a liar. That he lied about his Adulthood Pilgrimage, but he didn’t specify about what.

Since Kramps could see through the eyes of people who believed in him, Nong probably leaked his secret to somebody.

Nong needed a moment to recompose himself before he turned back to me, face redder than tomatoes. “I-I see … Yo-You know—”

“I told Mom and my party members since it was just after I met Kramps. Are we the only ones who know about it?”

“No, otherwise, Kargryxmor wouldn’t have learned, right?” Nong confirmed my suspicion. “No, my mother knows … And I guess the wyverns I met back then. Also … another person … Hestia, I—”

Guess Mom doesn’t need to act so surprised when she speaks with Virrflax, I thought, remembering Mom wanted to talk to the other empresses about Kramps’s feelings for my half-siblings. One less awkward talk, I guess.

“I won’t judge you, Nong,” I interrupted before he could finish his sentence, causing him to freeze up. “We all have our past and I, of all people, understand it well that sometimes you don’t want to reveal a part of yourself because you’re ashamed or embarrassed about it. I don’t care if you are a hypocrite, Nong; I am one as well, if you ask me.”

‘The both of us changed a lot as we grew up. Circumstances happen and trying to keep something concealed isn’t the issue; people are allowed to have secrets,’ Hikari said, to which I agreed.

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“I know you might feel awkward after how you preached about ‘Family doesn’t lie to each other,’ but I’m okay with that, Nong. I wouldn’t say you broke my trust just yet; you actually have to do something actually bad to do so, so cheer up. I just wanted you to know,” I stated. “You don’t need to tell me about it.”

“… I am having a hard time believing you’re only 18 mentally, Hestia. Haaa, what do the humans say? You act like a saintess, or something,” Nong smiled bitterly, chuckling a bit. “Thank you. You certainly are more mature than I was when I did my pilgrimage.”

“Well, unlike a big oaf in the sky, I would rather befriend my family members than antagonize each one. Our lifespans are a bit long, you know, and that means we will have each for a long time, so let us make sure we don’t hate each other.”

“Yeah …” Nong raised his glass, prompting me to do the same as we clinked them together in a cheer. “Honestly, I would rather that part of my past just die out. Then again, with everybody so loud, I don’t think anybody would hear what I have to say.”

Looking at Kahalameet and Wendriosa laser-focused on each other, I had to agree. Letting out a deep sigh, I then turned to our empress-mothers.

Huh?

“Look at her!” Mom cackled as she pointed at the screen of … the recorder? “Isn’t she just adorable as she slumbers like this?”

“Tiny, indeed!” Gyadiosa blurted out with a wide grin. “Just the perfect size to be gobbled up; Sleeping so peacefully as if nothing around her can harm her—Oh, look at her wagging her tail and moving her legs! She’s dreaming of something.”

Virrflax nodded fervently as she finished a glass of wine. “Ahhh, hatchlings and whelplings are the most precious, but I can’t believe you got to see yours hibernate like this. My Nong slept like a log when he hibernated for the first time; he was so big back then so it wasn’t as cute, but this? Precious … Can you give me this?”

Huh? What are they talking about? I stood up and walked over to see what was on the recording.

“Ahaha, are you trying to steal away my daughter, Virrflax? Get your own daughter, dear,” Mom exerted, but suddenly lowered her head to whisper to her. “However, my daughter is currently trying to make more of this. These visual and audio recordings are stored in a small manatech and it can be transferred over to another one with the help of one of her artificer friends. I can have a recording and you can have a copy of it, in other words.”

“… Doesn’t that mean I can record my own children if this ‘recorder’ is being produced?” Gyadiosa’s eyes widened, looking like the alcohol was flushed out of her system. “Eltharion is probably not in the mood, but if I have Kahalameet and Wendriosa find their mates soon, I can have grandchildren! I can record those sweet hatchlings!”

… Oh shit!

I dashed over to Mom’s side, now able to see that Mom had filmed me when I was asleep during my one-year coma!

“Mom!” I shouted before I snatched the recorder from her inebriated hands, causing everybody to stop speaking to turn to me.

“Huh, Hestia? What are you do—”

“I’m deleting this! Why are you recording somebody sleeping!” I declared, shocking Mom to the point she shot up from her seat. Her flush was completely gone.

“No! My memories of you, stop it!”

Mom and I struggled for a moment as we fought for the recorder. Sadly, Mom unleashed her true powers to stop me from pressing the delete button as she reclaimed her treasure without much fanfare. I could only fall onto my knees as Mom placed the recorder into her storage, effectively making it impossible for me to erase Mom’s ability to show other mothers any weird videos she had made of me.

I guess as long as you are happy …

Somehow, this little hectic moment was the catalyst to stop our meal. Kahalameet and Wendriosa both pushed us to stop playing around and finally have the meeting, to which Gyadiosa had to agree, now sober.

After we had a chance to go to the toilet, we then rendezvoused outside the meeting room, prompting the dragonkin inside to let us in. There, our group all went to our respective seats, with Mom and Gyadiosa sitting on the ends of the table, with Frozen Nest members on one side and mainland Miononbolax on the other.

Unlike the mood from before, it did become a bit more tense as none of us were smiling or joking around. The empresses were staring at the documents, reading them without a hint of noise outside of the scratching of parchment. My siblings were doing the same, but I skipped out on it.

Mostly ‘cause the moment I had to even look at what was written on it, everybody was already done.

“Melloxtressa, your actions today have destabilized the peace within Miononbolax. Not only have you openly defied your own emperor, but you also caused a massive strife that the dragoon order and various dragons under my control had to intervene into to stop an escalation. I had to even personally call for the aid of the holy dragon flight after we were notified of your actions,” Gyadiosa began. “I would like you to defend yourself after the damages you have caused.”

“What is there to say? Maustoovaka should have never even attempted to glance in my daughter’s direction. Dragon ruler or not, none have the right to demean and even attack my child. The damages Inferno Nest received is the minimum recompense for damaging my reputation as the Sixth Empress of Kargryx!” Mom declared. “If a dragon ruler does not respect our authority, then we have a duty to show them why we are Eltharion’s mates, no?”

“We are not chiding you for attacking Arkanator and Maustoovaka in your attempt to rescue Hestia, Melloxtressa. That is fine; they admitted to their faults,” Virrflax said. “The issue is your rampage. You acted like a wild. The moment you became an empress, you lost your title as Frozen Nest’s dragon ruler, and that isn’t just a random gesture. Every dragon flight and drake wake became part of your responsibility! You have a duty to judge fire dragons fairly as any other ice dragonkin, yet you injured multiple of them when you had the power to control yourself!”

“As the documents noted, your attack included collateral damages to dragonkin uninvolved in attacking your daughter. They were caught in your rage,” Gyadiosa added. “The fact your ice dragonkin retinue did not hold back either could be cause for a civil war. Do you understand this threat, Melloxtressa?”

“… Enough of this prattling. State my punishment.”

Hearing Mom say this, Gyadiosa grit her teeth. “That is not the point. With the succession crisis currently unresolved, showing lack of unity between us empresses is a perfect catalyst for dragonkin to go wild in their efforts to promote their claimant! We empresses are the arbitrators and hands for Emperor Eltharion! We are not allowed to directly intervene in the crisis due to our emperor’s ruling, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t at least maintain the peace to hopefully stop a war between our children!”

By “not directly intervening” she meant the empresses couldn’t fight each other. They could support their children without any repercussions but they had to do all they could to prevent meaningless bloodshed if possible.

“You came back and are causing an issue now that your daughter is awake,” Virrflax stated. “Maustoovaka’s punishment was woefully extreme, but you are making it hard for us to sit back and take it, Melloxtressa. What are you teaching your daughter here? She is to be the eight imperial child, and you are not showing her the dignity of one! Are you a brute, or are you Melloxtressa, former Dragon Ruler of Ice?”

Mom remained silent, eyes glaring at Gyadiosa, telling her to spit out what she had to say. Seeing this, the latter shook her head.

“You are to stay on the mainland to perform your duties under our supervision.”

My uncles snapped their heads around as they heard this, barely able to keep themselves from blurting out their indignation. Mom, though, clicked her tongue.

“My authority is over Frozen Nest. How am I supposed to do so efficiently from Coral Beard?”

“Hestia’s subspace,” Wendriosa interjected. “Empress-Mother Yuilengreill has reported on the usage of it and it has been publicly revealed to us through Fargryneill’s appearance.”

“The punishment on Frozen Nest’s side will involve you, Empress-Mother, to stay inside Coral Beard until your punishment period is over. You are to perform your duties from there, but you may enter Hestia’s subspace whenever you need,” Nong added. “As such, your advisors and retainers are to enter Hestia’s subspace and report to you there. To assure the empress-mothers can monitor you, you are to issue each one a pair to allow them entry into it.”

“What!” I nearly jumped up from my seat, prompting my uncles to snarl in response. Seeing me unhappy about it made them displeased. “What is this? Why are you demanding something from me without my consent here?”

“This is a punishment to Frozen Nest, dear,” Gyadiosa argued. “Your mother and the ice dragon flight attacked Inferno Nest and unlawfully went on a rampage to scar their territory while also causing collateral; this cannot be denied. Both the fire and ice flight are looking for compensation for what was done today, and unless we leave one side furious, punishment must be issued to both sides.”

“And you belong to Frozen Nest, Princess Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor,” Kahalameet stated, using the full name tactic. “Don’t worry, as I said, Inferno Nest and I will have to pay you back. Think of it as a transaction done under the pretense of a diplomatic gesture, if that will calm your mind. Either way, this will be an order using our Father’s authority here. You cannot disobey.”

“I can in this case because that same Father of ours forbade me from entering the subspace due to it not belonging to Miononbolax! If it doesn’t count as our empire’s territory, then with what right do you have to force me to give you not one, but five pairs of runes for something I invented outside of Kargryx?” I countered. “If you want them, allow me to enter my subspace.”

“You know we cannot do that, Hestia,” Virrflax said. “That restriction personally came from your Father, while this is done through us. Regardless, you are correct; we might have overstepped our authority on this matter. What do you wish in return for the five pairs?”

“Before today? Probably nothing since we are family. As long as you don’t hand the runes over to some random person, I’ll be okay with it, although I’ll restrict the entry permission, just saying. The subspace is my domain; my word is law inside,” I stated. “… Unless I say otherwise, I want a restraining order on Maustoovaka and most of his close retainers. I don’t care what their reasons are, I want them to stay away from me. If they break such an order, then let it be known Maustoovaka broke ‘Father’s authority.’”

“What about Arkanator?” Gyadiosa asked.

“I technically asked him for help from Maustoovaka, so I’ll have to thank him eventually.”

“Then, I will accept these terms. Melloxtressa?”

“Acceptable,” Mom stated, causing Uncle Alextraxus to speak out in disagreement, only for Mom to shake her head. “I am happy to pay this price for protecting my daughter and reminding Inferno Nest to not spite a Nordor, Alextraxus. Don’t you think this chipped scale is more than a scar of shame?”

“… It immortalizes your actions.” The latter sighed, before nodding his head in acceptance. “My Empress, you are truly the one I chose to follow. We will take care of your daughter while you are away.”

“By my blood!” Uncle Kary saluted.

“By my scale!” Uncle Guyul did the same.

… So fast. I guess this is the bond between comrades.

Alextraxus turned to Gyadiosa after the four shared a moment. “I presume this is the extent of the punishment? Our Empress will still be able to meet her daughter, right?”

“Naturally. To separate a mother from their child will only cause more trouble instead of calming things down,” she answered. “Deliver the needed subspace rune to Melloxtressa once she is in Coral Beard and we will see Frozen Nest’s punishment fulfilled.”

“Good.” Alextraxus then drew his head to me to whisper. “Hestia, spite Inferno Nest as much as you can. Ask for whatever you want!”

… I think I’m starting to understand what is going on here.

‘It looks like Frozen Nest is getting a lighter punishment to appease some dragons, but we can still embarrass Maustoovaka,’ Hikari stated exactly what I thought.

“How many wishes can I ask for?” I immediately turned to Kahalameet.

“As much as needed. As long as what you ask is legal and doable, you may ask as many individual demands as you wish until I presume it is enough to repay for you experienced,” he replied, looking like he was taking this extremely seriously with how he pulled up a pen and parchment to write everything down.

Okay, Maustoovaka, you fool, I’m gonna bleed you dry!

I smiled. “First, I wish for fire stones strong enough to endure the ice stones we use for buildings. I want to create a set of armor that can endure extreme cold.”

“That is not a demand, Hestia,”—Kahalmeet frowned as he wrote that down. “Those stones are worth nothing to us and our clan has plenty of them in our storage. I’ll get you them. Ask for something substantial now.”

Yeah, he is being fair about it. Okay, let’s think.

“… I want a strong fire organ or material to upgrade my catalyst,”—I pulled my [Heart of the Volcano Catalyst] from storage, presenting it in front of Kahalameet so he could appraise it—“It is made from a rank B volchark heart that I got ages ago, but I know that my alchemist can upgrade it with something new.”

“… I can’t offer you a rank S, but I can give you a rank A dragon heart. Do you wish to improve on some aspects of your fighting?”

“Music. I’m willing to lose some of the volcano heart’s effect as long as I can use it to improve my bard skills; any amplification or method to make it easier to spread my music would be best!” I said.

With Hikari and I essentially able to play four songs in unison in our humanoid form, or two songs as a dragon, I wanted to further improve my—

Hold on! Didn’t the Prince of Pride use a lute when we fought? Didn’t that thing seem like a … weapon?

“Pardon, but do some bards use instruments with catalysts embedded in them?” I asked as I had a lightbulb light up in my brain.

“Yes,” Nong answered in Kahalameet’s stead. “Blacksmiths can imbue monster materials into the individual pieces of a bard’s instruments, while some manatechnicians can attach mana batteries and even catalysts into it to allow things like lutes, drums, or even flutes to amplify their powers.”

Nong further explained that the bard sub-system actually affected instruments needed for certain songs. This forced catalysts made specifically for instruments to gain an additional requirement that they could only be activated when the instrument was played. Therefore, they weren’t the most popular amongst bards since they weren’t just expensive but also dangerous to use, which was why you rarely saw them. You already had to be strong to assure your investments didn’t just break for some reason.

Which made me think of the Prince of Pride once again. I remembered how he boasted about using the Griffon King, Assurfel’s, materials to create his lute. It not only amplified his strange wind magic, but it also felt like my voice was being drowned out when we had our clash back in Aureolis.

I need to prepare for him … How though?

“I want to change my wish!” I pulled out my party bracelet and showed Kahalameet the address for the luthier I had recently visited. “The man in this address is currently finishing an order for a geigler for me. Would it be possible to add a catalyst to it?”

Kahalameet’s eyes widened a bit as he stroked his beard, looking down at the blue screen projected from my party bracelet. He then nodded for a moment before he began scribbling it down.

“I’ll get you two rank A materials for your two new catalysts.”

Brother!

“Y-your Highness!” the dragonewt sitting on Gyadiosa’s side looked like they were about to protest, but they were immediately interrupted by Wendriosa laughing out loud.

“That sounds fine! Our little sister deserves a good reward for having endured that ancient dragon’s rambling.”

“Yeah, I can handle that part.” Nong nodded. “Two rank A doesn’t seem enough, if you ask me. She did have to survive against a few rank S dragons, so ask for something else, Hestia.”

“Then … another instrument. This time, for this.” I changed the current note to show the blueprints for a very special piece of instrument to Hikari and me. A violin alone wasn’t enough, we wanted to play the piano again! “ I know it doesn’t look finished, but I’m not too sure how to recreate it from my memories back on Earth. Would it be possible?”

“Our dragonewts aren’t fools, Hestia!” Virrflax boasted. “I’ll have my clan take care of this. We’ll also have some elven minstrels and carpenters aid us as well, so don’t worry. Review the plans whenever you can and give us some feedback, and I will assure you will get your instruments ready.”

… Man, I feel spoiled!

Funnily enough, for the creation of my magical instruments, wealth from Inferno Nest would be used to create them, meaning materials would be siphoned from Maustoovaka to repay me for the emotional damage. Unfortunately, these three instruments were also the limits for my demands.

After we settled this, Mom had to deal with a few more matters, one of them concerned a few refugees from Inferno Nest. Specifically, Fehrkatruk had issued a wish for asylum in Frozen Nest for his family after his Father was killed by Maustoovaka.

“Accepted. Hedthalak sacrificed his life to protect Hestia; I will not let his family be harmed by Inferno Nest.” Mom’s decision was final.

After a few more topics that didn’t concern me were brought up, our meeting for today had ended. The two empresses and my three siblings also decided to travel back to the mainland on the same day, so we said our goodbyes to them when it was almost dark.

It was also decided that Mom would go to Coral Beard for her punishment once the refugees arrived tomorrow, so I took this chance to spend some time with Mom and give her a massage for everything that happened today. We would meet up whenever I opened the subspace, but it seemed like she wouldn’t be able to see me off when my party and I went on our arctic expedition.

Hearing this only made me want to invent something else—the phone. I wanted to call Mom and people from around the world. Video streaming wasn’t enough; we needed long-range communications!

… However, that was for another day. For now, I took my beauty sleep and readied myself to welcome a few fire dragons to Frozen Nest … In addition to holy dragon guests.