Academic gathering with a lich-Chapter 635 - 588: Ghosts and the Giant Dragon

"Noble Giant Dragons do not need mates!"

"Noble Giant Dragons would never reproduce through primal procreation!"

"If my memory serves me right, Teacher, didn’t you say something similar?"

The enormous skull buried under bony wings, the embarrassment of words not matching actions made the Giant Dragon gentleman a bit shy.

"It was indeed I who said that, but, Lyle! Look at her, look at her perfect body, her noble stance. She is a Giant Dragon, an inheritance from a past era. Do you feel her charm? Her charms have corrected my thoughts."

The fingertips of the Giant Dragon trapped Lyle’s cheek, forcibly fixing his gaze on the body of the Twilight Dragon. His face flesh was squished out of shape, and Lyle could only pout, answering with a tone of resignation.

"I don’t feel her charm, but she eats like Nia. All I can see are scales caked with mud, the torn fringe of dragon wings, plus the scars on the back of her neck where the skin has split open, as well as the uncivilized gaze of a wild beast."

The Giant Dragon didn’t argue with Lyle’s response but released his claw, allowing Lyle’s facial muscles to move freely again.

"Good eye, Lyle. What you see are exactly the areas where she can be nurtured and improved. She needs us to help her become better."

Lyle watched the black-purple Giant Dragon who fought with Nia over food. It seemed that Mr. Giant Dragon had become infatuated with her. This was Mr. Giant Dragon’s twisted sense of aesthetics; though hard to imagine, this mad dragon could very well become his mentor’s wife.

She didn’t seem very bright.

With that thought, Lyle noticed the Twilight Dragon had stopped eating, her deep purple eyes staring in this direction. Despite the Giant Dragon’s huge form next to her, those eyes were still intently fixed on him.

The Twilight Dragon was staring at Lyle.

"It doesn’t look like hunger, Lyle. You seem to possess a special allure to her. Speaking of which, you seem to easily attract the opposite gender’s attention. When you and Alianna made your relationship official, Andrey had a lot of Liches committing suicide, though I also ’handled’ a part of those overzealous suitors."

Lyle watched the Giant Dragon calmly speak these terrifying words as the Twilight Dragon lowered her head and slowly walked over to them.

"Why? I’ve never seen this dragon before. Logically, there shouldn’t be any connection."

"Lyle, since the reason is unclear, why don’t we have an experiment? I’ll entrust you to her and see what happens. I will watch over you, and should there be any danger to life, I will intervene."

"...Teacher, when you talk about danger to life, you mean on my side, right?"

"...Of course!!!"

The Twilight Dragon, having just finished eating, no longer had a fierce look in her eyes. Her eyelids prevented moisture loss, giving her eyes a clear, gemstone-like quality. She lowered her head to glance at Lyle and then looked up to the Giant Dragon, took a step, looked at Lyle again, gazed at the Giant Dragon, and took another step... Moving in a meandering fashion under the Giant Dragon’s observation until she was about ten meters from Lyle, she had locked eyes onto Lyle, her nostrils still flaring, exhaling the warm, meat-scented breath.

The neck was stretched out straight, just to smell Lyle’s scent from a closer distance. This was probably what she thought of as the best approach without provoking a stronger dragon. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

The Giant Dragon bent his neck and lowered his head, pushing Lyle forward a small step towards the Twilight Dragon with the front of his skull.

"Ayh!" The Giant Dragon’s amiable action elicited a cry from the Twilight Dragon. She lifted her head to look at the large bully from before, confusion and anticipation emerging within her.

So, the Giant Dragon pushed Lyle a small step forward again, eliciting an even louder cry from the Twilight Dragon. Her front paws slapped the ground, like a child awaiting a gift.

On the third push, the Giant Dragon hoisted Lyle by the back of his neck, placing him right next to the mouth of the Twilight Dragon.

"AYHHHHHHHH!" The Twilight Dragon howled with joy, wagging her tail at the tall Giant Dragon.

She snapped her jaws around the upper half of Lyle’s body.

"Damn!" The Giant Dragon, thinking he had made a mistake, was about to rescue his student.

But it was Lyle who stopped him, extending his palm through the gaps of the dragon’s teeth, pacifying the Giant Dragon.

"Teacher, I’m fine! I’m just being held!" The Giant Dragon’s teeth were like a guillotine, the deadly sharp fang only gently touching his back. Perhaps the Twilight Dragon had never intended to eat Lyle; she just wanted to catch him, just like this.

Under the Giant Dragon’s watchful eye, Lyle was taken into the Twilight Dragon’s nest.

...

One month later.

Naslan Castle.

Midnight.

The Specter Maid, holding a candelabra, floated in the dining room.

With knife and fork in hand, Lyle dined with the three Naslan sisters. Beatrice, resting her head on her left hand, pointed her silver fork skewering a steak across the long table at Lyle, sauce dripping onto her plate. The vampire lady seemed to particularly enjoy the story.

"So, what happened next? The mother dragon took you into her nest and did what?"

"Slept." Seeing Beatrice’s hair start to rise as if she were an agitated cat, the temperature in the Naslan dining room also abruptly fell. "Hill seemed to treat me either like a hatchling or a toy. After eating, she returned to the nest to sleep, and I was pressed under her scales, like being crushed by a dozen suits of armor."

"Oh." Beatrice took a sip from her wineglass, a drunken flush appearing on her face. Suddenly, the usually honest Alianna covered her mouth with her hand, the nearby Specter Maid trembling in the air, the candlelight flickering.

Helena took over the conversation.

"So, you spent a month narrowing the gap between the Giant Dragon Mister and the Twilight Dragon named Hill. You became the Giant Dragon’s matchmaker, right?"

"Rather than a matchmaker, I felt more like a ’token of affection’ being passed between two dragons. I never understood why I had attracted Hill’s attention—just that she liked to squeeze me in her hand and nuzzle me as if I were a pet. Because of this, every night after Hill fell deep asleep, I would slip back to the Giant Dragon Mister, and then the next day, he would give me back to her. Their close relationship now, every step of it, you could say, was made by my running back and forth."

"You’ve been a real trooper, Mister Gift." At Alianna’s signal, the Specter Maid Monica refilled Lyle’s wineglass. "But doesn’t that count as deception? The dragon named Hill didn’t really get anything."

Lyle picked up his wineglass and took a sip. Yikes, it was freezing; his teeth felt like they were about to freeze. Looking back at the expressionless Monica, Lyle gave his answer.

"I don’t think we deceived Hill. She received companionship and comfort from the Giant Dragon. The Shadow’s erosion had left her in a terrible mental state; the Dragon Priest’s analysis indicated that she had completely lost the ability to reason and the maturity of an adult Giant Dragon. Now, with the Giant Dragon’s demise, her beloved Giant Dragon teacher is her best partner. During this past month, the Giant Dragon teacher has been healing her wounds, cleaning her body, and hunting with her, inseparable. I believe that the Giant Dragon teacher’s feelings and efforts played a significant role in their current intimate relationship."

"Almost all the Dragon Priests agree with me—the Giant Dragon teacher is the best and only choice for the Twilight Dragon Hill."

It was as if recalling his tasks these days, Lyle sighed with relief.

"Reconstructing Hill’s Dragon’s Nest with osteoarchitecture and preparing the massive flesh camouflage for the Giant Dragon Mister... I’ve been quite worn out these days, and so have the Naslan maids, with all the food they had to prepare every day—it must have been tough."

Alianna let out a giggle.

"The maids are quite excited about these events. Beatrice and I consume very little food; they actually enjoy the opportunity to showcase their culinary skills."

"Poor things, probably just the cattle and sheep being slaughtered."

"But I suppose those poor creatures were herded and grazed every day by your various distorted creations."

"Being made into food might be a sort of relief for them."

"How wonderful, dear—that no one got hurt in the end."

Lyle finished his meal and put down his knife and fork.

"Actually, I have another reason for coming back. The Dragon Priests want to attempt to repair Hill’s sanity, and Helena is the best Soul Master we could think of. Helena, can you heal the soul of a Giant Dragon?"

"I can try," Helena’s sculpture seemed to shiver slightly. "Um... So, are Hill and the Giant Dragon Mister coming to visit Naslan together?"

"No, it also includes five Dragon Priests who have become babysitters for the Giant Dragon since meeting Hill."

The cutlery fell to the floor; Lyle turned his head to see Beatrice holding her head, a ghastly pallor on her face as she looked at Lyle.

"So... So you mean... that Scholar Teacher... will also... will also be coming to Naslan?"

"Sister... Si... Sister! I just remembered Blood Rose still has work to finish..."

Three sculptures fell from the sky, the smiling Helena sculpture surrounding the terrified Beatrice.

"Dear Benny, Naslan’s daughter, wouldn’t flee the battlefield..."

"No... Noooo!!!"