Chapter 80: The elder’s dilemma
After the bonding process was completed, the Elder Lady of Sungrade came up to the small blue lizard and bowed to her respectfully.
To her and to most of the people of Sungrade, she carried the same status as the previous patriarchs of the family.
She wasn’t just some unique creature to the Sungrades, she was one of the very important reasons that the East was standing right now.
"You may not know this yet, but she used to be the familiar of the Great Eastern Lord, Sir Agnus (Blueflame) Sungrade. He was the hero who protected the east before the empire was formed, and his direct descendents were the ones who helped the founding emperor with his conquest."
The great eastern lord shared the same name as his father. And the two of them shared the same name as one of the earliest known ancestors of the Sungrade.
"It was said that the Blue Starfire belonged to the ’companions’ of the Sungrade founders. But from what I saw back there, can we say they weren’t the first ones?"
She asked the boy who was creating golden sparkles for the little lizard now, happy to just have a friend instead of a catastrophic weapon that was said to have destroyed entire cities with one attack.
"Yeah, she has been around since even before the six kingdoms were separated."
The prehistoric era when the world was one... she was indeed too old even from a historian’s perspective.
"How are you going to explain this to your father?" They were inside the Sungrade castle right now, but they did not go to see the Patriarch right away.
The situation was a little complicated and the elder Lady did not know what to do now.
"I don’t think I’m obligated to reveal her identity. In the first place, she has been more than a part of our history."
He had been talking to her since earlier now that they had formed a bond, and he could now tell just how different she was compared to the beasts he had known.
’Calling her a living fossil wouldn’t be wrong either.’
But then again, she wasn’t involved in the matters of mortals for too long.
The life that had spanned for thousands of years for us humans was more like a fleeting moment for someone like her. Quantifying her age wasn’t something we should even do to begin with.
"Maybe not you, but I must tell them about this, good child." She did not know how to act before this being right now.
Salamanders commanded respect even from the great elders. It wasn’t about manners but reverence.
She had admired the old stories that her parents and grandparents used to tell her. Stories about the great beings that used to live among humans a long time ago.
She had heard about the exploits of the Blue Starfire, how she saved a hundred thousand people from a great true demon, how their ancestors fought, how she stayed behind to help the people even when her master was gone, and stories about how she was a terrifying entity one would instinctively admire.
In her current form, she may not seem anything more than a Rare beast. At most, she was a flame lizard to those who were ignorant.
Her level was so great that people of their level could not even perceive her presence much less gauge her level.
She knew that the patriarch would know she wasn’t a simple creature the moment he saw her. But if the master of the beast doesn’t tell him who she was, it would become her responsibility as an elder of the family.
"Oh, you can do as you please, Elder." He didn’t mind it to begin with.
It wouldn’t stop the rest of the elders from testing the powers of this new partner of his, and knowing them, they would want to see what she could do themselves as well.
There will come a time when he would have to demonstrate what they had anyways, so, for the time being, he wanted to spend some more time with his new partner.
"Mii~."
Art, as he called her, was not really the dangerous monster that he had read about in the first place.
She did say she was much different now compared to how she was in her youth, but even if he knew her ferocious side, what he came to adore was this soft creature.
Her past was a different matter. It may have affected her present, but he would make sure it does not impact their future negatively.
"Haaaa." The elder Lady sighed at the boy who, strangely, had understood the gravity of the situation and still managed to stay calm.
"I’ll leave you for the time being then. You have a meeting with your family, the patriarch mentioned."
"Yes."
They still needed to clarify the stance that the Sungrades will take in the upcoming conflict for the throne.
"Then I’ll leave you here."
They were in the ground floor hallway right now, before the great training hall that he had almost destroyed a while ago.
He was still supposed to teach the other children and the instructors on how to improve the ways of teaching within the family, and there was also his own training with Lady Markeet and the elders.
Now that he had a new friend, he would have to introduce her to the rest of the people around him, and the first one among them was obviously going to be...
"Young master."
Her.
"Oh, hello Lexie. I see you have been waiting." His personal maid, the head maid Lexie, appeared before him the moment the Elder Lady vanished.
She couldn’t come with him to the Sun Sanctuary so she had been worried about him.
But seeing him happily playing with a creature she hadn’t seen before, it seemed like his visit to the sanctuary was worth it.
Furthermore...
"You seem different now, young master." She smiled at him, clearly aware of how there were energy reactions around him now.
The illness that had plagued him all his life seemed to have magically vanished.
It didn’t, she was certain of that, but it wasn’t so obvious that he had the Energy Decay Syndrome anymore.
"Some good things have happened, haha." He was happy.
And when he showed the little lizard sitting on his head to his family member, there was a smile of delight on his face.
"Meet Art, our new friend~."
"Mii~."
Seeing the happy creature also put a smile on her face.
"Hello, Miss Art. I’m Lexie~."
"Mii!"
Their greetings were cheerful.
But the discussion waiting for them wasn’t going to be as cheerful as the way the two important Ladies of his life had just greeted each other for the first time...