The heavy, ink-saturated air in the cathedral still vibrated from Silarias’s fierce outburst. Valtharion kept his massive head motionless, his amber-gold eyes piercing directly into the young warrior. The silence that followed was suffocating, until Silarias suddenly shrugged his shoulders, turned around, and completely randomly walked out of sight to disappear behind a pile of ancient parchments somewhere.
The rest of the Nobodies looked at each other with terrified expressions. Nobody knew what to do.
Valtharion blinked his immense eyelids once. With a slow, almost bored movement, the mighty Dragon Lord stepped forward until he stood right next to Assistant Dopo Ironclad, King Solomon, and Faustus, who had already arrived at the archives prior to the group to quietly discuss diplomatic matters with the monarch. Bending his huge elbow, the dragon gave both Solomon and Dopo a solid nudge in their ribs.
"Ehm, do you two know what this is supposed to be?" the Dragon Lord asked dryly, his heavy voice muffled.
Dopo and Solomon looked up in unison. "Nope," they both said at the same time, their faces completely expressionless.
Valtharion twitched his snout and looked back toward the stack of books Silarias had vanished behind. "Oh, so this is actually a thing?"
Solomon and Dopo nodded right after one another, like two bumper cars bouncing rhythmically up and down. "Yep, just roll with it."
Meanwhile, the focus shifted to the back of the pile of documents. Silarias stood there gesturing wildly, beckoning the rest of the group over. Within a few seconds, the Nobodies stood in a tight circle, whispering intensely. It was a chaotic murmur. Occasionally, Silarias, Miki, and Ren took turns poking their heads above the stacks to see if the Dragon Lord, Faustus, or Solomon were trying to overhear anything, before quickly diving back into the folds of the conversation.
Suddenly, the whispering stopped. The group split up and got into a tight formation. Silarias gave Ren a soft pat on his back, but used the momentum to shove him forward at a considerable speed.
Ren stumbled a few steps ahead, regained his balance, and looked up at the giant dragon with wide, nervous eyes. He swallowed hard once and began to speak. "So ehh, like you said it? Oh, okay. SO! I have the idea, Mister All-Knowing Dragon Lord Sir, it seems like big bro Sil wants to help you, but everyone here and we do the stake thingamajigs…"
Ren got completely tangled in his own words and simply couldn’t figure a way out. Behind him, Silarias burst into loud laughter.
"Made it far anyway, Ren!" Silarias chuckled as he stepped forward and gave Ren a pat on the shoulder. "Next time we’ll just try again, but we’ll let Miki do the talking. So, no games or talk for a second…"
Before Silarias could finish his sentence, he was immediately interrupted by Valtharion’s heavy voice. "Do not worry, young traveler. I completely distanced myself from those crazy dictators a very long time ago. A THRONE OF WEAPONS! What kind of fool in heaven’s name thinks of something like that? Utterly overwhelmed lunatics, every single one of them."
Silarias, Nyx, Beat, Aurelius, Jane, and Lila looked at each other. The tension vanished in an instant, and they all began to laugh out loud. With tears almost in their eyes, they looked toward King Solomon at the same time.
Silarias composed himself, though the laughter was still deep in his voice. "Yeah, right! We are pretty aggressive lunatics ourselves, haha. But that throne has been gone for a long time, by the way."
Valtharion’s gigantic jaw literally dropped in sheer surprise.
Silarias stepped closer. As he spoke, he firmly took Nyx’s hand. Aurelius, Jane, and Beat immediately formed a close formation around them, as if building an impenetrable wall. "Lady Ouroboros, Sir Ouroboros, haha, what absolute lunatics they were. Yeah, no, that couldn’t stay like that, of course. So we saved the Ward. Sir and Lady work for us now. We are the new landlords."
The cathedral went dead silent. The Dragon Lord froze completely, his silver beard strands hanging motionless in the air, utterly at a loss for words.
"BUT THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE!" he finally managed to utter with great effort. With wide, stared-open eyes, he looked at King Solomon, searching for a denial.
Solomon, however, stood there with his arms crossed. His back was dead straight and he radiated an unwavering, proud calm, like a born leader whose pure presence instantly dispelled all doubt. He merely gave a satisfied, meaningful nod to the giant dragon.
The realization hit Valtharion. The Dragon Lord suddenly began to laugh so hard that the entire room started to shake. Everywhere in the cathedral, floating violet ink pots and candles exploded into the air, while meters-high streams of fire shot straight up toward the dark ceiling. "HAHAHAHA! MY CURIOSITY IS PEAKING! THIS IS AMAZING!"
But just as quickly as his fit of laughter had come, the dragon snapped shut again. His gaze turned ice-cold. With insane speed, he flashed forward and scooped Silarias straight out of the air with one gigantic claw.
Aurelius and Faustus reacted in a fraction of a second. Their auras flared up and they stood battle-ready instantly, prepared to tear the dragon to pieces.
Solomon, however, calmly extended his hand and held them back. "Watch first. Observation is key, my children."
Valtharion brought Silarias right in front of his immense, amber-gold face. His voice now carried a deep, heavy gravity. "What is your goal, young traveler? What do you gain from what you are doing?"
Silarias hung in the gigantic claw and looked at the dragon thoughtfully. "Mmm…" he muttered, searching for the right answer.
"SPEAK! No excuses!" the Dragon Lord roared, causing the wind to howl through the cavern.
Silarias looked at him very closely, deep into those immense pupils. Right at that moment, a loud, echoing sound echoed through the cathedral. His stomach growled insanely hard.
In the background, the Nobodies immediately began shouting and sighing. "Oh no, seriously? We really ought to just go eat now!"
Silarias ignored the shouting behind him and kept his gaze locked on the Dragon Lord. "No, ehh, Valtharion, right? Keep holding me like this for just a moment. The thing is, as you just heard, I’m starving. And what I like most then… What’s best is eating together, where we all level up the way we’re supposed to level up. I have a dream. A dream that everyone lives together. Rich, poor, animal, beast human, or spirit, I don’t give a damn. A safe haven for every race where we can all fully be ourselves."
Silarias got a bright gleam in his eyes, thinking of their earlier victory. "We’ve already seen once that it’s possible. With the Menehurions."
Valtharion heard the name and threw Silarias meters into the air out of pure astonishment. "MENEHURIONS!? THEY HAVEN’T BEEN SEEN FOR AGES! HOW? WEREN’T THEY COMPLETELY CURSED!?"
Silarias burst out laughing while hovering in mid-air. "Haha, yeah! We lifted the curse! Or well, actually that lovely lady over there!" He pointed straight at Nyx during his flight.
Nyx spontaneously began blushing so intensely that even King Solomon noticed it right away. The whole situation, the words of Silarias, and the immense loyalty of the group opened the king’s eyes so much that he couldn’t look away anymore. There was a deep respect and full appreciation in his eyes. "Poh, Nyx… you really picked yourself a good one," he muttered softly.
Silarias, meanwhile, landed smoothly back on his feet and looked at Solomon and Valtharion with determination.
Solomon took a step forward, his arms still crossed, and looked at Silarias provocatively. "A beautiful ideal, Silarias. But you don’t build a safe haven with just a dream and a full stomach. How do you concretely plan to tackle that?"
Silarias nodded, as if he had been waiting for that exact question. He looked up at the giant dragon. "We are the landlords, and we wanted to ask if you’re open to transforming this place. We want to divide this domain into three major pillars. First, Diplomacy, for all treaties, negotiations, and ambassadors. Second, Economy, for taxes, the treasury, and trade. And third, Research, for all artifacts, magic, antings, and science."
At the exact moment Silarias uttered the word research, a cold, razor-sharp sting suddenly shot through his head. He stumbled on his feet and an immense tidal wave of memories crashed into his consciousness with brute force.
In his head, the soft, melodious sound of a whistled lullaby suddenly played. He saw flashes of a beautiful woman’s face and a tiny boy being tenderly placed into a cradle. The memory was so intense and overwhelming that Silarias sank away completely and threatened to collapse limp backward onto the hard coins.
Before he could hit the ground, Faustus flashed through the space with an absolute void flash. He appeared directly beneath Silarias and caught him effortlessly in his arms. "Nephew? Something tells me something is damn well wrong," Faustus said with a worried frown.
Silarias stared blankly ahead, his breathing irregular. He looked at Faustus with a hollow gaze. "I… a whistle? Or a song? I heard something…"
In the background, the rest of the group burst out laughing, thinking Silarias was just losing it a bit from hunger and intensity. But Silarias ignored them and began mimicking the soft lullaby with his lips, exactly as he had just heard it in his head.
Faustus went dead silent. His entire body froze and the color drained from his face. His arms began to tremble so violently that he lost the strength to hold Silarias upright. Slowly, as if he couldn’t grasp reality, he took a step back and let Silarias sink gently onto the pile of gold coins, his gaze fixed blankly on the boy.
"Eh… ehmm… I really didn’t see this coming, Sil," Faustus stammered, his voice suddenly hoarse and fragile.
Silarias jumped up immediately, confused by the sudden distance, and walked toward him with a frown. "What was that for?! Why are you suddenly stepping back?!"
He was cut short as soon as he saw Faustus’s face. Faustus stood there with wide eyes, fighting against the tears welling up in the corners of his eyes. Slowly, Faustus pursed his lips and whistled the melody along, exactly the way it was actually supposed to sound, hitting every perfect pitch.
"Sil…" Faustus managed to utter with effort, a tear rolling down his cheek. "That song… mum and I used to whistle that for you back then. It always calmed you down immediately when you were still a tiny baby."
Silarias fell completely silent. The confusion vanished like snow in the sun. He turned his head abruptly away, overwhelmed by a sudden storm of pure emotion.
Mum… really? What on earth am I feeling right now?
he thought to himself, his heart pounding in his throat.
He glanced sideways at Nyx. She was looking at him with an intensely worried gaze, signaling with her eyes to ask if he was okay.
Silarias pulled himself together immediately. He clenched his fists, struck his chest hard twice, and bit his teeth together to suppress the rising tears with pure willpower. "Eh… ehmm… Mum, then… I didn’t know. Sorry."
Faustus stepped forward resolutely, grabbed Silarias firmly by the shoulders, and pulled him into a deep, tight embrace. "SIL, come on… What in heaven’s name are you apologizing for? For finally having beautiful memories of auntie Kelayla?"
King Solomon observed the scene from a distance and decided that it had been enough for now. It was a heavy moment, but they had to stay sharp. He stepped forward to soothe the emotional situation. "Valtharion, ehh, this might all be a bit too much for now as well. They’re still teenagers after all, right. We’ll definitely talk about this further before we depart for good."
Silarias looked over Faustus’s shoulder at King Solomon. There was a deep respect in his eyes, but at the same time, he began to wonder.
Does he know what I really feel, or why is he doing this now?
Solomon gave them no time to dwell on it any longer. With a smooth, quick flick of his wrist, he activated his magic, and with a bright flash of light, he teleported the entire group in one second straight back to the safety of the Bastion.