Into the Mountain

The bottom of the pit was similar to Ciel's underground garden where his mother's message had resided in. It was dark, but not dark at the same time because of the abundance of glowing flora. Wanting to see the scenery with his eyes, Ciel took his blindfold off.

Even without his mana senses, his eyes were unaffected by the darkness, so he could see that the eyes in the dark actually belonged to throngs of reptiles; snakes, lizards, winged dragons, feathered dragons—their numbers made Ciel think that the entire tribe, not just the dragon clan, had come to meet Verdalite.

Was Verdalite really the prodigal son returning home?

(Verdalite: No really, it's just your imagination.)

The teenage dragon had transformed back and carried a child in each arm as he respectfully walked to a young woman at the front of the crowd.

He placed the children on the ground before bending down on one knee.

"Matriarch, we brought him back."

As he said this, the boy jumped onto the young woman happily.

"Mother!"

The young woman nodded and gently patted the boy's head, before turning to scrutinize Verdalite and the rest behind him.

"Onyx, the tribe has been on edge lately, so forgive us for our crude welcome. Your… "

She looked at Erin's black feathered wings that haven't been taken back yet and the scales on his face, then she looked at Ciel's slightly glowing blue eyes that looked similar to the color of Azar's eyes in the dark.

"...children and wife will be led to a guest house. I need to have a talk with you with the other elders."

"Pf—" Before Ciel could block his mouth, Erin had already grabbed him and wrapped him tightly in his cloak, with his wings as an additional barrier. Ciel could barely breathe, but if he had an abundance of air, he would have been laughing through his nose.

'Damn, he knows me too well.'

Ciel thought as he shuffled alongside Erin as the other eves threw a few strange glances at the pair stuck together. He was surprised that Azar had no reaction to being called Verdalite's wife. His eyes flashed up to Azar's cold, half-covered face.

Never mind, he wanted to take back his words. The only visible part of Azar's face was his eyes and delicate forehead. Although the temperature wasn't dropping, with only a glance, Ciel could see that his icy blue eyes had dropped below freezing point.

The veins on his pale neck and hands were also bulging too.

If not for their current location, Ciel would have really wanted to try to poke Azar right now to see how he would react.

(Verdalite: Kid, even I don't do that. You have guts. b(^o^ ) )

As a unknown reptilian eve led them along the stone tunnels, Ciel kept glancing at Azar and felt like he would snap at any second.

Finally, they arrived at the guest residences, and after the eve told them that food was already prepared, he left.

After the door closed behind the eve, Ciel was finally released from the cloth. His laughter should have subsided. But taking another look at Azar's dark but still beautiful face, Ciel couldn't hold it in.

"Pwahahahaha! Wife?"

With no outsiders around them, Azar freely let the temperature drop. Ciel shivered as frost formed on the stone furniture in the room, and quickly draped one of Erin's feathery wings over his shoulders as a makeshift blanket.

"Stop, stop, I'll shut up. We still have to stay here, you know? Don't turn this into a cold morgue for dead bodies. The food will also turn cold."

Ciel still had a playful smile in his tone, as if he wasn't the one shivering in Erin's wings.

"Tsk."

Azar turned away, but the frost receded.

Ciel giggled.

'The more I look at him, the more he seems like a tsundere—a very cold one with few words until he gets angry.'

*

Meanwhile, Verdalite was sitting in a larger cave with exquisite furniture. Although it was inside a cave, the interior was no different than a high class noble's room.

Facing the matriarch who still looked like a beautiful young woman in her twenties, Verdalite had completely put away his usual attitude. Instead, he was like a porcupine, respectful but still spiky.

"I came because I heard his condition was very bad. But I never said that I would take his job."

The door opened and a servant brought some food in before quickly leaving, not wanting to stay a minute longer under the pressure in the room.

The matriarch calmly cut her food.

"I'm not asking you to take his job. You just need to teach one child."

"I owe you all nothing. Even if we are of the same tribe, we cut ties a long time ago. If there's nothing else to discuss, I'll leave tomorrow."

'Why did you even come then?'

The matriarch swallowed the question she was about to ask. Seeing that the eve in front of her was about to leave, she quickly started to advertise her son.

"Quetzal is a genius. He's very much like you when you were younger. Haven't you always wanted to pass your sword arts down to someone worthy of it?"

Verdalite stopped and turned around, "So what if he's a genius? I think it'll be better to teach the children from my own family rather than someone else's child."

"But—"

"I think my children are more talented too. Even if they're not, I'll naturally still pass my skills onto them."

He opened the door and turned around.

"By the way, stop calling me Onyx. I go by Verdalite now."

The door closed loudly.

*

"So we were brought along as a shield?"

Ciel looked at Verdalite, who was currently putting both his hands above his head as he kneeled down on the cold stone floor.

Of course, Ciel wasn't the one who put him in that position. That was Azar. He had exploded the moment Verdalite had gotten back, pelting him with icy blue fireballs and effectively shocking Ciel, who had thought he had a type of ice or snow affinity.

Now the fox eve was indifferently drinking tea he had got from who-knows-where as Verdalite pretended to be pitiful.

"I was wrong, I shouldn't have cheated you guys into becoming my shield. Can I get up? It's cold…" QAQ

Azar didn't even look at him.

Taking this chance, Ciel swallowed his laughter and tried to dig for more information.

"So are we just leaving tomorrow? We traveled so far just to stay for one day?" In a new place, of course he wanted to explore.

Verdalite grinned, sneaking a glance at Azar as he slowly lowered his arms.

"I'm going to—"

"Put them straight up. A master swordsman like you shouldn't get tired this quickly."

Under the threat of a cold blue fireball, the recently lowered arms quickly went straight up into the air.

Verdalite continued sulkily.

"Although I don't really care about my tribe, the patriarch raised me up like his own son after my parents died. I came here because I heard that the land was causing the patriarch to be seriously ill. If possible, I want to see if Azar can help."

"That was your excuse when you brought me here, so what is the meaning of 'wife'?"

The word 'wife' was spoken as if Azar wanted to bite it directly out of the sentence and burn it to ashes, or would it freeze it to ashes? Ciel was confused about how the cold fireball worked.

Hearing the icy killing intent in Azar's words, Verdalite shivered as he quickly explained.

"The patriarch, other than leading the clan, has to personally pass his skills down to the next head. But because he's sick in bed, he can't. So they want me to pass my skills down."

Erin tilted his head, "Can't they just find someone else?"

Verdalite gave a solemn sigh, though in his current position, the seriousness looked comical.

"After a combatant reaches the master level, they develop their own style with their weapons. For someone using the same weapon, to learn even a bit of it will benefit their skills a lot. And besides…"

His words jolted Ciel's memories and he perked up.

"Ah, I've heard this before. It's because you need insight to break through the intermediate level. If that insight can be learned then it'll definitely be beneficial."

As Verdalite nodded, Azar impatiently smacked his head.

"Get to the point."

"I don't want to teach that insufferable brat."

Verdalite was incredibly blunt, so blunt that even Erin gave a small puff of laughter and Azar's anger instantly vanished.

Observing everyone in the room, Ciel found that if they disregarded Erin's bright scarlet eyes as a gene mutation, they really did look like a family of four. He and Erin had Verdalite's black hair, and he also shared Azar's blue eyes, even if the shade was different. Besides, even if Azar covered the lower part of his face with a veil, he still couldn't hide the fact that he was prettier than a woman.

No wonder the others thought he was the wife.

Of course, to prevent the room from becoming a freezer again, Ciel didn't say that thought out loud.

He still wanted to stay for a few days.

The next day, Azar and Verdalite went out together. Before they left, Verdalite gave some instructions for the boys.

"While we're gone, you can explore. Although you're not my children, you technically count as my grandchildren, so you don't need to be polite to anyone. If anyone comes with bad intentions, feel free to beat them up if you can. It's also fine if you offend anyone or destroy some parts of the mountain. The younglings do that all the time. Anyway, this grandpa here has your back. You definitely won't get punished."

For a moment, the pair felt as if they had become the children of an underworld gangster.

Verdalite finished: "Just don't get into any trouble, got it?"

Both Ciel and Erin had a question mark above their heads as they watched the pair walk away.

'So what counts as getting into trouble?'

Verdalite's words were as if he wanted them to cause trouble.