The Dragon Lord's Aide Wants to Quit [BL] - Chapter 244

Chapter 244: The Weight of Becoming
“Wait. You’ve become a familiar?!” Riley screeched, claws digging into the floor so hard they left tiny scratches.

“Yes,” Thyrran replied without the slightest trace of drama. “My existence now depends on yours. It is not the most ideal situation, because with you starting as a human instead of beginning life as a dragon, your dragon form would actually need to play catch-up. But with enough training, you should be able to reach the next level in the next hundred years if I am being optimistic.”

Riley stopped.

Completely stopped.

His brain lagged so hard that his ears almost buzzed.

“A… a hundred years?” he whispered.

Then it hit him.

“A HUNDRED YEARS?!”

Only then did Thyrran tilt his tiny serpent head, as if confused why the child was reacting. “What did you expect? You are the one who insisted on starting behind like this. You might be more ancient than ancient, yes, but in terms of development, you are behind even that one.” He hissed pointedly at Orien, who was still plastered against the wall in frozen horror.

Riley slowly turned to the mirror.

And wanted to cry again.

Because there was no denying it. He was smaller than even Orien. Actually, he was much smaller. An adorable little pebble of a dragon. Karma really did slap him across dimensions for teasing the little guy.

Thyrran continued, “Well, that is, of course, if you do everything naturally. Your advantage, unlike this youngling, is that you have already passed the official draconic trials. With that, you will not be required to stay in the nest as per tradition. But you must make sure no one discovers that you cannot hold your mature form. Otherwise, they will question you and probably all of us. Because who would even believe how you passed all the trials?!”

“But Thyrran, that mature form… are you seriously telling me it will take one hundred years?”

“That’s already me being optimistic. You’re going to have to learn everything. You might even have to figure out what kind of instincts you’ve developed, considering everything.”

The news was like a blow to the black dragonling. Or at least it was until the familiar decided to come out with it.

“If you’re hoping to speed it up, then there might be a way. It likely won’t last that long if you can obtain your inheritance,” Thyrran replied, coiling neatly.

Riley froze. “Inheritance? You are telling me I actually have an inheritance?”

Thyrran had a disbelieving look which was really just a lot of annoyed wiggling. But how could he not be aghast when the inheritance was being questioned?

While dragons were inherently individualistic, even the most selfish ones would have to leave an inheritance behind unless they wanted to experience a backlash.

However, it would be important to remember that Riley hadn’t been a dragon for more than a few hours and likely didn’t know. So he let it go.

But if the ex-guardian were honest, there was no other choice because he feared they would have a problem soon.

“Yes. But if you want to find it, we should probably sleep first.”

“Wait, what? Sleep? What does sleep have to do with this when there are so many other things to discuss!” Riley sputtered. But before he could argue further, the familiar had already curled tightly into a ball.

Riley opened his mouth to demand answers, then stopped because his own body suddenly pulsed. A sharp thump shot through his chest.

“Hey! What’s happen—?” he yelped, grabbing at his heart with both claws. Trauma from earlier struck him full force.

But the little snake simply responded, “You don’t have enough mana to hold the spell. How much mana do you think it takes to keep this many beings frozen in place? With four of them being dragons, and one of them actively trying to tear the spell apart.”

“Huh?” Riley gasped.

Thyrran let out a tired hiss. “Young Master. Your mate might just be insane.”

Riley’s vision flickered.

Then everything went black just as everything around them sprang back to life with a gasp.

It happened all at once.

Orien gasped like someone had just punched all the air out of him. His body lurched forward, and he clutched his own chest with wide, bewildered eyes.

Right beside him, Liam coughed so hard his knees buckled. Tears streamed down his cheeks before he even realized he was crying. His small hands shook as he covered his mouth, eyes darting everywhere as if the world had suddenly crashed back into his senses.

Farther down the hall, Lady Cirila staggered. She would have collapsed if Lord Karion had not caught her by the shoulders, his own face pale with shock.

Renee, who had rushed in earlier with the others, sagged into Lawrence Hale’s arms. The woman clung to him, trying to muffle her sobs even as they shook through her entire body.

Everyone was standing right by the doorway of Kael and Riley’s room. In the end, all of them had frozen the moment they stepped in, locked in place by the spell that caught them off guard. But in truth, what probably kept all of them stuck like that and unable to fight it off were the revelations they were hearing.

Lord Karion couldn’t even muster the will to break the spell when his brain was being overwhelmed with what he was seeing and hearing.

And now they were unfreezing.

Suddenly and shockingly.

But out of all of them, the one who was probably shaken the hardest was the golden dragon lord, who was shedding tears in blood.

It was not as if Kael had never thought about it.

Riley had asked him what would happen if such an impossible thing were to take place.

So the dragon had considered it.

He really had.

He thought about it more than he ever admitted, even to himself. But in truth, even thinking about it had been difficult when his entire being felt incapable of reconciling with the idea.

And yet it hadn’t been futile, because it had made him even more certain that he truly belonged to Riley.

The realization made everything more obvious. What was already impossible became even more unlikely and infinitely more terrifying.

Because Kael became wary of his instincts and things he couldn’t control. Things that could force him away from his human, even without his consent.

He was wary of it all.

He worried about it while standing quietly next to Riley.

He worried about it whenever he looked over at him.

And he was even more frantic about it as he waited alone inside the archives.

He felt like he was spiraling. Like he was going mad. And for someone who had once believed that time meant nothing, he suddenly felt the loss of time like a blade against his skin. Every second Riley was not beside him felt stolen. Robbed.

Then he saw him.

His Riley.

Disheveled. Pale. Hurt. Looking like he had suffered in ways Kael should have shielded him from.

And Kael’s mind cracked.

He couldn’t help but blame himself for encouraging Riley.

He blamed himself so fiercely that when something resembling a dragonling appeared before him, Kael’s entire existence faltered.

He actually passed out.

What dragged him back into consciousness was heat. A rising fever that coiled under his skin, pulsing through his veins like molten metal.

It was the unmistakable pull of transformation.

Every fiber of his being itched to jump out of his skin as his bones trembled with the urge to tear themselves apart and rebuild, his instincts screaming at him to take his true form.

So imagine his surprise when he regained consciousness only to realize what had been stopping him all this time.

He was frozen.

Locked under a powerful spell that held every muscle, every instinct in place. He could not twitch a finger. He could not even tilt his head.

He was petrified.

Petrified beyond belief and yet alive.

And just when he was about to break himself free, consequences be damned, a familiar voice flooded him.

Not into his ears.

But into his mind.

His heart.

His entire being.

The golden dragon felt like someone had plucked the strings of his soul.

A sharp, electric snap went through him.

“!!!”

Then he heard it.

A conversation.

Words that made his consciousness wobble and nearly drop him back into unconsciousness.

Because Riley. His Riley.

His soft, stubborn, and ridiculous twig…

Was not merely a construct of his crazy mind.

He was a black dragon.

An honest-to-goodness black dragon.

Kael’s vision swam. His pulse thundered, and everything in him hitched so hard he could’ve pulled something internally.

And then his desperation hit a peak.

He needed to touch him.

He needed it so badly that it felt like his blood was boiling. His heart beat so loudly that it echoed inside the spell. If he could not hold that tiny black dragon in his arms, if he could not press his face to those small scales, if he could not reassure himself that Riley was still Riley…

He would die.

He was certain of it.

But who would have thought…

That he, Kael Dravaryn, the current strongest golden dragon of the land, the terror of the continent, the inheritor of the rite of succession…

Would not even survive touching that little stubby foot?