73

- Isabella POV -

"So what do you think about the wardrobe upgrade?" Nova leans his head back on the bench as he considers my question.

"It seems a bit unpractical for fighting, but I guess in a more laid-back scenario they could work. though I don't know why you rang up all the pants that you said looked bad, like ten pairs of pants that are pretty much the same thing." he looks at me skeptically from the corner of his eye, he knows why I bought them. well, he bought them but still, that's not quite the point.

"Now we are going to go visit Krobelus? she won't care all that much if I ask her to leave so long as there is money and good food, that and she can look for her ' husbands ' murder." Nova sits back up and purses his lips.

"Husband? I thought she didn't marry the guy?" where would he have gotten that idea? she always says it as her husband's murderer as far as I am aware.

"They didn't get married but she was convinced that they would, I don't get it personally. she told me that he promised to come back for her but then disappeared for a long time. then she heard the news that he got killed in a big fight between dragons and the one who did it was a poison dragon named Paglio." Nova smiles and almost looks like he wants to laugh and I can't help but feel a bit wrong. is he laughing about my best friend's lover getting killed? "Why does that seem to bring you so much joy?"

"I think that it didn't go the way she thinks it did, there is something more to that story for sure." he looks around and then leans in. "I heard from my dragon friend that this ' Ranieri ' her ex is actually only interested in great demons and succubus. apparently, he disliked all female dragons because they were too much for his taste, so she was deceived by him or someone pretending to be him." he leans out and I am left stunned, I don't see a reason he would lie about this so he is probably telling the truth, or at least the truth he knows.

"Who told you this information?" what dragon is he friends with that told him this? if they could talk to Krobelus then she might get over the long-standing hatred if she was being deceived.

"The poison dragon who killed the actual Ranieri and he used to know him personally, a fight broke out and he killed him. I was told about it because it involved me assisting him in looking for an item for him. he told me about Ranieri before I even knew Krobelus and I didn't know how to break it to her. the undeniable truth of the matter is she was deceived and given a false name from her ' lover ' and the guy hit the road after snagging her treasure." No way, she always seems so smitten when she talked about him. but I know for a fact that she is obsessed with her treasure, how did the guy manage to trick her?

"And I can tell her this? I mean she has been looking for this guy for a long time." he nods.

"Yea, she would meet him anyway if she did join up with me. I guess I could tell her the information I have on the incident and let her work through what she knows from back then. she likely will catch on pretty quick if she thinks it's true the guy was after her loot, dragons can be pretty protective of their stuff." I stand up and take his hand as I begin a teleport to her house, I wanted to talk to her anyway about leaving. this is not what I expected to bring up though.

----

- Nova POV -

We arrive in a building not too different from Isabella's and after a quick check, we both locate Krobelus. I asked Paglio about this event that happened back when he was telling me about the silver case. he went in depth about Ranieri and Jacob the two enemy dragons in the fight, when I asked about his ally Laura and he told me the truth about her being Zola but was too scared to get into there history. something about her trying to cut him open to try out some new magic she created and he was the perfect subject.

But when I asked about any old lovers that he still held feelings for on a different occasion he just looked at me like I was crazy and told me he had none. I left it at that till I ran into Krobelus, I brought it up again saying he had someone hunting him down that was an Emerald dragon.

He seemed more concerned about her finding him in his sealed state than the past relationship, after that, I took it as he didn't care about her. from his stories which I took with a grain of salt from all his boasting, but he always tells me about all the different girls he has been with. I think if he is put in a similar situation as in the novel where he is forced to take the bullet and get with her he will turn out as he did in the story.

Krobelus seems to have also sensed us and comes quickly in our direction and we soon see her at the end of the hall.

"Hey! have you heard that Obsidian got his stuff looted? I wonder who the lucky person was to get all that money!" she enthusiastically tells the tale about a master thief breaking in and robbing the place blind, as one of the overlords that work for Obsidian she was told to be on alert. "If I find the guy I am going to snatch it all for myself!"

Izzy covers her mouth as she tries not to laugh, she hugs her friend surprising the dragoness. putting on a serious face after pulling away she looks Krobelus in the eyes.

"Krobelus, if I told you I was leaving what would you do?" sensing the seriousness she puts on a sad look.

"You're going somewhere? for how long are you going to be gone? you know those guys always bother me if I don't break a few bones and if you're not here I will let them have it!"

"I am not coming back till some things are done, I wanted to ask if you wanted to come." Krobelus sadness washed away.

"I still need to look for that despicable dragon and I need power to do that so count me in! I wouldn't leave you on your own anyway." Isabella smiles and hugs her friend once more before letting go completely.

"Alright grab your stuff we will leave once you do." Krobelus turns to head off but spins back around.

"The capital is on lockdown how are we going to leave?"

"You will see, just grab your stuff in case they find us missing and think we were involved in the robbery and they try to confiscate it." she quickly starts throwing everything into storage devices, even the silverware was grabbed.

-------

We teleport into my workshop and sit down to explain the situation to Krobelus.

"So we were the ones who robbed Obsidian and took everything, I plan on helping Nova in return for him helping me." I check to make sure Paglio is nowhere nearby just in case she manages to sniff him out or something. I sent him a warning that we were bringing Isabella's friend from the capital that is a dragon and he was excited. when I told him it was Krobelus who is looking for him to settle the matters of killing her ' lover ' he replied he was suddenly busy.

"What did Nova help you with? you avoided the conversation when I brought it up last time but I want to know what was bothering you so much recently." Isabella sighs.

"It's more that I am not bothered anymore, I never told you because I didn't want to worry you. I had a curse of Light that was consuming my lifespan and Nova helped cure me and return my lifespan. that and he helped me avenge my family by killing Broc." it seems she at least was aware of Broc since she shows recognition at the mention of his death and a bit of relief. that's surprising since she would have had to tell her a bit about her real purpose in fallen angel to tell her about Broc, or maybe she just said she wanted to kill someone called Broc for killing her family.

"So you want to help him in return for saving your life and you knew you would be gone a long time, therefore you invited me to come with you." she nods confirming her guess.

"That and after discussing it with Nova he has a way to help you get stronger, that was a different reason I wanted you to come for. but then he told me about something I think you should know." Isabella takes a deep breath. "It's about Ranieri and there might be something more to his situation." Krobelus frowns and crosses her arms.

"What about it." her voice has taken on a more drawn-back tone and she seems uncomfortable.

"How well did you know him?" seeming upset at the turn of the conversation Krobelus shifts in place.

"I loved him and was waiting for him to return after he promised to bring me the best treasure in the world."

"But that doesn't explain anything about him, how sure are you that he was the person who was killed?" Krobelus seems confused and tilts her head.

"Well, I heard that Ranieri was killed and I was enraged and soon heard it was done by the Poison dragon at the peak of overlord and began training and traveling to gain power. soon I joined up with the fallen angel empire and was compensated for battling and fighting which I was doing anyway to get stronger. so I saw no reason not to stick around and get more money." she thinks for a moment and then continues. "I never actually confirmed his death by seeing a body but I assumed it was erased from an attack from the Poison dragon, what is it that you are trying to say?"

Isabella seems to believe the information I gave her or at least has realized her friend doesn't know the whole truth at this point. she looks over at me and gestures for me to tell her.

"Well, I happen to have talked with the poison dragon who killed Ranieri and it was about a different situation." Krobelus eyes widen and she stiffens, not sure how to react she sits there stunned. haven looked for him for a long time and have no clues she is probably surprised that a lead has finally appeared. I have no clue how she hasn't heard the rumor of the blue lake when she lives in the fallen angel empire but I can blame it on the old ruined state of the estate. "I got in contact with him again when I heard from you about your situation and tried to get some information about the situation. when I asked about Ranieri and if he had killed him he confirmed and even went on to tell me about how they used to know each other. what he told me about him surprised me since according to him Ranieri was only interested in great demons and succubus and had a distaste toward female dragons." Krobelus stands up.

"That's not true, he was interested in me! that bastard is lying!" she takes a deep breath and calms down as she sits once more.

"What did Ranieri look like?" Krobelus looks at me oddly and begins to describe an identical appearance to Paglio and I shake my head. how do I go about clearing this up?

Originally Chen Rui just threw Paglio to her and sacrificed him for the ' team ' since at the time Krobelus was at the dark moon because of war. Paglio took the heat and made up with her for the good of his friend Chen Rui's goal of winning the war. but here that's not the case and as I ask him about the situation Paglio is being evasive and doesn't want to come to clear up the misunderstanding he caused.

He doesn't want to lose any of the treasure he just recovered after being jailed for so long, telling me to handle it so she doesn't find out he robbed her.