Chapter 1170: The Journey Home

“Oh, isn’t that Miss Marlene and Miss Cassidy? Ah, I made a fool of myself. Sorry, sorry.”

Upon seeing the two young ladies, Nalea smiled broadly. The long staff in her hand was already missing in sight. Even though she was much older than Marlene and Cassidy, she acted the youngest among them. At that moment, her reaction was like a witty, adorable little girl who was caught stealing snacks. However, Marlene and Cassidy apparently wouldn’t treat her as one. Instead, they turned around and bowed.

“Sorry for the intrusion, Your Majesty Judgment Dragon. Cassidy and I have arrived to discuss something…”

“Ah, I know. It’s regarding that troublesome thing, right?”

Before Marlene finished her sentence, Nalea swirled her eyes and said with a smile. She reached for a biscuit on the plate from the table, took a bite, and narrowed her eyes as though she weren’t bothered by that matter at all. This left Marlene feeling helpless. She also didn’t expect Nalea to be the one watching over the dragon essence. Frankly, Marlene couldn’t get along with such people. If Nalea were Siena instead, they would be able to discuss proper matters despite Siena having a tough and ice-cold attitude. On the other hand, Nalea seemed to be idling about all day, so one couldn’t figure out her intentions. Speaking to her also gave Marlene a huge headache. But now, Marlene could only brace herself as she nodded in response. Anyway, she had no intention of speaking too much. Since Nalea was aware of Marlene’s intention, it saved Marlene the trouble of pondering over this troublesome issue. Marlene was concerned about how she should discuss the topic about Rhode’s dragon essence before arriving here. After all, Rhode was the one who handed over his dragon essence to them of his own accord. He still hadn’t returned and yet, Marlene was here to retrieve his dragon essence. If the situation wasn’t handled appropriately, she might possibly offend the twin dragons. But now, since Nalea was seemingly aware of her intention, Marlene didn’t need to conceal her thoughts anymore.

“Yes, Your Majesty Nalea. The situation in the Dragon Soul Continent has been really messy recently. For safety’s sake, we hope to…”

“Oh, no worries.”

Before Marlene completed her sentence, Nalea interrupted. Nalea raised her arms, stretched herself, and spoke with a smile. Upon hearing her reply, Marlene’s expression stiffened slightly. She gaped, but eventually closed her mouth to not speak of anything. Nalea gazed at Marlene’s expression and let out a chuckle. Then, she extended both arms and blew air in front of her.

Blow…

Along with this action, a golden radiance appeared before her. Then, refreshing gusts of wind spiraled and rose from the ground. Several illusory rays of light emerged from her mouth, hovering in midair as though they were tangled by the wind, forming a sphere that was half the size of an apple. The sphere presented deep, translucent colors. On its inside, spots of starlight flickered as though the sphere were a small universe of its own, emanating unparalleled force and energy. Looking at this view, Marlene and Cassidy widened their eyes in shock, before exchanging looks with each other. They didn’t expect the twin dragons to do something so strange as to store Rhode’s dragon essence inside their body.

“Alright, I can finally rest peacefully now. It’s all Siena’s fault for making me look after this thing. His Majesty Rhode’s mighty strength gave me a hard time and I couldn’t get a good sleep these days.”

“Ugh…”

Gazing at Nalea’s curled lips and grumbling expression, Marlene felt incomparably awkward. What Nalea said sounded too ambiguous, where perhaps one would easily misunderstand the situation. Meanwhile, Cassidy also didn’t look comfortable even though she continued to present a gentle and respectful smile toward the Judgment Dragon. If it weren’t for Cassidy’s right hand that tightly held her sword hilt and how she looked as though she couldn’t wait to slash the blade, perhaps Marlene wouldn’t have noticed how discontent Cassidy was.

The deity wardens had unique personalities and Marlene was considered the one who changed the most. Rhode saw the original Marlene in Alice’s history. She was as though someone who genuinely ‘grasped everything in her palm’ and gave him the impression like she was an indifferent and emotionless computer. As long as she set her eyes on the target, she would operate on her own and bombard everyone including enemies and allies. She wouldn’t hesitate even if her allies were sacrificed. As long as she reached her goal, she wouldn’t care about anything else.

But now, Marlene didn’t retain the heir’s personality after her reincarnation. Even though she awakened the power of the deity warden and had a choice to restore to her original self, she eventually decided to give it up because she knew that Rhode obviously detested that ruthless personality.

Alice stayed in the library the longest. She was calm, collected, and wouldn’t intervene with unimportant affairs. On the other hand, even though Christie seemed like the youngest among them, she was born earlier than the other deity wardens. She held authority over the deity wardens, stopping them from stirring troubles. This went to show just how capable she was.

But Cassidy was an exception. Even though she was powerful in strength, in terms of personality, she resembled a child the most. She pretended to behave like a noble young lady on purpose. The main reason for that was that she felt like the others always treated her like a child. That was why she imitated the loftiness of nobility and it became a habit of hers over time. However, a leopard never changes its spots. No matter how tightly Cassidy tucked her tail, she would reveal her true identity upon being triggered.

But despite that, Marlene wasn’t mindful in correcting Cassidy’s upbringing. Marlene extended her hand and accepted the dragon essence from Nalea respectfully. The instant she touched the dragon essence, she felt an incomparably familiar and powerful strength that enveloped her fully. She couldn’t be more familiar with this aura. That was Rhode’s aura. In an instant, Marlene became out of sorts as though she were snuggling in Rhode’s embrace. Shortly after, she shivered and returned to her senses from the indulgence, at the same time biting her lip and glancing at Nalea in doubt. Fortunately, the Judgment Dragon had already returned to her seat by the marble table and focused her attention on the remaining snacks on the plate as though she didn’t notice what happened. Marlene couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief. She held the dragon essence between her palms. In this action, a dazzling magical radiance emanated and one by one, magical rituals spun around her. In just a few seconds, the dragon essence was absorbed completely by the magical radiance, vanishing into her body.

Up until this moment, Marlene heaved another sigh of relief, lifting her head to gaze at Nalea with a complicated expression. She had learned this trick from Nalea. She was concerned earlier because the dragon essence was like Rhode’s second life. She didn’t feel assured no matter where or how safely she kept it. That was why she was surprised that Nalea actually used her body as the vessel, which reminded Marlene that as a deity warden, their power wasn’t much different from Creator Dragons. Since Nalea was able to do that, she was also capable of doing it.

However, after storing the dragon essence in her body, Marlene felt an entirely new sensation. Rhode’s dragon essence was extremely powerful. The moment she stored the dragon essence inside her, she felt as though Rhode’s dragon soul power was rushing to every part of her body. She missed this feeling. It felt just like last time when both of them hugged nakedly, feeling the sense of security and passionate warmth from each other. At this thought, Marlene’s gaze toward Nalea became weirder. As a deity warden, the difference between her strength and Nalea’s wasn’t too huge. This meant that what Nalea felt should be similar to what she was feeling. Accompanied by the strange remarks made by Nalea earlier and the thought of Nalea experiencing the same sensation, Marlene felt increasingly awkward.

Nalea didn’t seem to notice Marlene’s complicated gaze as she continued taking tiny bites of the biscuit in her hand. She had clearly finished the snacks, but no one knew where the new plate of snacks came from. Upon detecting Marlene’s gaze, Nalea let out a subtle sigh, lifted the plate with both hands, and looked at both of them.

“Miss Marlene and Miss Cassidy, would you like to have some?”

“No… Erm, we have something to attend to. We’ll be heading off now.”

Facing this muddle-headed and unpredictable Judgment Dragon, Marlene was at a loss for words. All she could do now was to bow respectfully to Cassidy and turn around to leave. Gazing at their departure, Nalea cocked her head to one side like she was puzzled. Then, she shifted her gaze to the snacks on the plate and revealed a cheeky smile.

“Heh, heh. This is awesome. I didn’t know what to tell Younger Sister earlier, but since Miss Marlene and Miss Cassidy were here, I can tell her that it was they who ate all the snacks. Yes, I will then be able to have more of them…”

Marlene didn’t expect Nalea to cast eyes on her. If Marlene knew what was going through Nalea’s head, perhaps she would be caught between laughter and tears. But now, she wasn’t in the mood for that. After receiving Rhode’s dragon essence and confirming that the dragon essence wasn’t damaged or harmed in any way, Marlene brought Cassidy back to Grandia as quickly as possible. Because this time, it was regarding an important matter of great significance…

“The Dark Dragon headed to the Country of Law to snatch the dragon essence by himself?”

Even the always-grinning Gillian stared at Marlene in astonishment after hearing this news. If it weren’t Marlene who told her about it, Gillian would never believe that it happened.

“Is that Dark Dragon sick of living already? Surely he wouldn’t think that he could defeat the twin dragons, right?”

“Her Majesty Siena has been busy dealing with the contaminated regions and isn’t in the palace.”

“But with Her Majesty Nalea’s strength, she should be able to resist the Dark Dragon.”

Gillian swayed her fluffy tail, apparently disapproving of what happened. All these years in the Dragon Soul Continent, inheritances of the twin dragons occurred the least frequently. Before Ion, Lilian, and the others became dragon soul heirs, Siena and Nalea were already rulers of the Country of Law. Even though Nalea seemed muddle-headed and relied on her younger sister a lot, no one was that foolish to think that the meticulous Siena would hand over Rhode’s dragon essence to Nalea if Nalea were truly that muddle-headed.

“When we arrived, His Majesty Dark Dragon had just attacked. He left as soon as he saw us.”

Marlene said before letting out a sigh. She just couldn’t understand why the Dark Dragon acted so unwisely.

Could it be that he thinks this is an opportune timing for him to strike while the continent is in chaos and the dragons and their subordinates are too busy to deal with him?

At this thought, Marlene shook her head with a bitter smile. Come to think of it, wasn’t that the case? Lilian was contaminated by Chaos and Rhode hadn’t returned. The several ambushes from Chaos also flustered everyone. Despite their preparations, not only were they still caught off guard, but they also almost capsized. Meanwhile, Siena had to handle the contamination of Chaos. As for Nalea… it didn’t really matter…

“How is Her Majesty Lilian?”

At this thought, Marlene asked as she couldn’t help but recall Lilian’s condition. Upon hearing her question, Lize knitted her brows and let out a hopeless sigh.

“We eased her pain from the erosion, but it isn’t doing enough. Chaos has eroded past her elbow. I’m afraid… it will worsen.”

“…”

After hearing Lize’s comments, Marlene puckered her brows. They tried to come up with all sorts of solutions and were finally able to alleviate Lilian’s condition. But this wasn’t the ultimate solution. Their top priority and best solution was to chop off Lilian’s eroded arm. But Lilian was still young, after all, so they couldn’t bear to do it. However, they didn’t have much time to waste either. If Chaos eroded her entire arm, no matter how heartbreaking it would be for them, they would have no choice but to ruthlessly cut off her arm. It was better than letting Chaos kill her, after all.

“Come to think of it, why does that Dark Dragon keep finding trouble with us? Has he been eroded by Chaos and turned into a fool?”

At that moment, Anne, who sat at the side, couldn’t help but grumble fumingly. Even though she was casually venting her frustration, upon hearing her remarks, Marlene and the rest were taken aback. Indeed, they had never considered the possibility of Ion being eroded by Chaos because Ion was powerful and also the dragon soul heir of the Country of Darkness. All these years, the Country of Darkness had been suppressing the Light Mainland, which many people subconsciously believed that the Dark Dragon was a tough person to deal with. It was understandable for an inexperienced rookie like Lilian to be ambushed. But logically speaking, a being like the Dark Dragon shouldn’t easily fall into the hands of Chaos.

However, after giving some serious thoughts to the Dark Dragon’s behavior, he did seem eccentric. Not only did he not abide by the rules, but he also acted crazily as though he were truly influenced by Chaos. But this was a hard truth for them to accept. Or perhaps, they didn’t wish for this to be true. The emergence of Chaos beings was a huge headache for them. If something was also wrong with the Country of Darkness, perhaps they would have a really hard time ahead.

“Sigh…”

Marlene let out a long sigh.

Rhode… when exactly will you be back?

At that moment, Rhode wasn’t aware of the situation in ruthlesslyDragon Soul Continent. Instead, he focused his attention on the crystal stele before him. After spending a few days in Fiery Plains, he sensed the aura inside the crystal becoming denser and thicker, leaving him in an increasingly better mood. He was certain that his younger sister was abstracting spiritual power to replenish her strength. A few moments ago, he sensed the scattered spiritual aura around him withdrawing rapidly and that was a pleasant surprise. The withdrawal of spiritual aura meant that his younger sister’s spirit had completely replenished her strength. That was why he rushed into the tent where the crystal stele was located. Indeed, just like he expected, spider web-like cracks had emerged across the clean, sleek stele and were seemingly expanding. At the same time, the younger sister sealed inside the stele emanated a gentle, white glow.

———!

After a few moments, the emanated light from the young lady suddenly turned incomparably glaring. The sturdy crystal stele shattered in loud cracks. Sparkling and translucent powder and fragments circled the young lady in the summons of the light, taking shape into a pure, white dress. The young lady landed on her feet softly, opened her glinting black eyes, and gazed at Rhode with deep, passionate love.

Rhode had no doubt that the person standing before him was the long-awaited one. Looking at the young lady, he revealed a gentle smile, extending his arms to embrace her thin, delicate body.

“Welcome back, Younger Sister.”

“Yes…”

Nestling in his arms, the young lady revealed agitated emotions. She spread her arms apart to wrap around his slim, yet muscular back. She closed her eyes to indulge in the reminiscent and familiar warmth, and muttered under her breath softly.

“I’m back… Big Brother.”

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