Hope.

' Is master already out of my divine sense reach? Did he really have to be so quick on heading to the empire on this day? Did this true dragon calculate everything, or was it just a coincidence?' The grey dragon thought, his mind collapsing every time he saw the hatchling true dragon down on the grass making a move.

He bitterly laughed as he thought of his future, which was on the brink of crumbling, it became so dim by each passing second that he doubted he would be able to leave this crisis in one piece.

A day came when an ancient dragon of his standing that was a pet and a mount for a king was now on the verge of dying in such a humiliating manner.

What made it worse was that all of it depended on a hatchling's true dragon's next actions.

' This can't be planned, he has no information about anything, and he just hatched; even a true dragon can't be that cunning on his first days. which only means that his luck is really beyond extraordinary.' He thought.

' Good, very good, he is leaving the garden; it seems like my life won't end today.' He sighed in relief after he saw the hatchling true dragon checking on the crack, which is where the door was placed, clearly planning on going out.

Yet, right before he took his leave and exited the garden, the hatchling true dragon suddenly raised his head and looked at the grey dragon painted on the wall above him.

Seeing this scene unfolding in front of him, the grey dragon's heart nearly stopped beating, his breath quicking from the intensity of the situation.

His life depended on this infant dragon's next move.

What if he chose to utter his true name again?

If that happens, he will simply die.

At this moment, he was no more than a cripple, unable to use anything except his healing spell.

Not because he couldn't use any attack methods or anything of that sort. No, that's not the reason behind his passive reactions and inability to defend himself.

All of this was unintentionally caused by his master, Einar, the king.

He ordered him to guide this hatchling true dragon throughout his first years and never to harm him in any way.

This order might seem simple and can be breached whenever he is in danger from this true dragon.

Unfortunately, that was only true in the case of humans, but for dragons, it was like the difference between heaven and earth, only because they signed a pet contract in their younger days.

A pet contract made it impossible to disobey a master order, no matter the circumstances. Thus, if the king orders him to die, the grey dragon will immediately kill himself.

Even if he is unwilling, burning with fury, anger, and hate, he will still execute the order without hesitation.

Again, his life wasn't in his hands but with his master's.

Obviously, Einar would have never made such an order if he had known that such a thing would happen in the first place.

No one sane will casually sacrifice a pet that is an ancient dragon. In fact, if Einar saw this scene right now, he wouldn't hesitate to kill off Sam and get rid of him for good.

A true dragon's resources and future prowess are indeed extraordinary, but that's only if the king manages to keep him by his side and not lose him to the emperor or other influential people who could threaten him with various things.

Moreover, he was having a hard time keeping his council and children away from this true dragon, much less the emperor and his council members.

Had it not been for the close friendship between the emperor and Einar since their youth, the situation may have been different, and he would have never dared to keep the true dragon inside of his garden as he had already acquired it, even reaching the point where he is allocating the future resources to all of his underlings.

Sadly, his master Einar had no way of helping him or knowing about the situation inside of his garden, considering the fact that he was already far away from the kingdom, nearing the empire's borders.

At the next moment, the grey dragon saw Sam flying towards him, stopping in his tracks and hovering in front of his head.

Seeing this, the grey dragon knew that he was doomed, his heart tightening from the pressure he was currently experiencing.

He had lived for thousands of years and was close to breaking through to the twilight realm.

Yet, who could have guessed that such a dragon who was about to step into the fifth realm and stand among the apex dragons of this world is now meeting his death in such an embarrassing and unexpected way?

' Well, everything ends here, but maybe it is for the best; I already know that living as a mount and a pet is a disgrace for our ancestors and our pride plus arrogance. But I long ago suppressed all these feelings, same as the other dragons, but maybe... maybe this royal true dragon will be able to change that truth and rewrite the dragon's future.'

Even though he knew he was on his last breath, his last thoughts weren't selfish or pitiful; it was instead full of pride and thoughts about his race's future.

Everything he once suppressed after he hatched and met with humans is now coming back at him.

He wasn't ashamed back in the day since he had no way of resisting.

And he couldn't just die since that action would basically mean the extinction of his race.

If he chose to die, then everyone else would have chosen the same. If that happened, the dragon race would have been gone long ago.

The grey dragon opened his lizard-like mouth, revealing the terrifying raws of teeth behind it.

He was gonna try and give this hatchling true dragon some instructions before he went to the other world. Even though his pet contract would kill him cause he breached it, he didn't care since, in his heart, he felt that his death would be more meaningful if he assisted the future of his race.

Unfortunately, sometimes life doesn't go according to our wishes, and the moment he was about to tell Sam a few important things, Sam had already let out his true name and slowly ended the grey dragon's life.

Sam thought the grey dragon was in pain, agony, and fury before his death after he noticed his wide open mouth.

But he could have never imagined that he was instead trying to aid him in his journey, giving him a few instructions that would surely boost his strength and guarantee his safety in the future.

The grey dragon couldn't even discern all the different sounds that reverberated throughout his body after Sam uttered his true name.

He heard and felt several cracking noises, quickly followed by the sounds of rupturing flesh.

The dragon couldn't breathe!

"Urgh- Hurgh!"

The dragon puked and coughed violently as blood dripped out of his mouth like a lake.

'I can't breathe!'

The grey dragon coughed violently as more and more blood came out of every fiber of his body.

It felt like there was water in his lungs, and he desperately wanted to get some air, but only a disgusting gurgling sound came out of his mouth.

CRK! CRK!

After a few moments of pain, the dragon took his last breath, meeting his end and joining his ancestors in the afterlife.

Yet, despite everything he felt, he didn't roar or anything of that sort; he was a prideful, arrogant ancient dragon that lived in humiliation for all of his life.

He couldn't possibly die in such a disgraceful manner.

His last moments were full of resolve.

His last moments were full of hope for his the dragon's future.

He trusted that something might change with this hatchling true dragon.

Or better say.

That something will surely change with the true dragon harboring the royal bloodline.

He was confident that the name Arin, the Eternal, would shake the whole world in the future.

Thus, he died in peace, leaving a unique gift for Arin that differs from the information he was about to provide, but this gift will also be quite useful to him.