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“Grimmy!” an explosive voice shouted from outside the palace. “What did you do!?’
Grimmy’s mother blinked and turned towards her son. “What is your dad shouting about? Did you do something to the orchard?”
Grimmy exhaled out a breath of steam. “I guess you could say that,” he said and stroked his chin. “You and Dad were injured pretty badly, so while you were recovering, I helped you guys by setting up some protection around you.”
“He destroyed the whole continent,” Ramon said and gestured with his front paws, spreading them wide above his head. “You should go outside and see it. It’s so cool!”
Grimmy’s mother’s face froze. Then, it contorted. “You did what?”
Grimmy scratched his chin and glanced to the side, causing Vur’s eyes to widen. Vur leaned over and whispered to Tafel, “Do you think Grimmy’s mom is stronger than Grimmy?”
“Isn’t that generally the case?” Tafel asked back. “According to you, dragons get stronger when they sleep, so if a dragon’s been alive for longer, then it’s slept more, right?”
Vur nodded, the motion slower than usual. He tilted his head. “But isn’t Grimmy invincible? He can do anything.”
Tafel stared at Grimmy. The cursed dragon seemed to be … ashamed? Guilty? She wasn’t sure if she was reading his expression right or not. She turned back towards Vur. “Even if he’s invincible, it looks like he’s still respectful of his parents.” Her brow furrowed. “He did hit them earlier though.”
Stomping sounds echoed through the palace, and Grimmy’s dad reappeared. He glared at his son. “Did you cause the apocalypse? Is the rest of the world like this too?”
“What is it like out there?” Grimmy’s mom asked.
“Horrible,” Grimmy’s dad said. “Everything’s been corrupted by our mana. I flew way up, and everywhere I looked was the same. There’s an endless darkness lingering around.”
“It’ll disappear soon,” Grimmy said. “I already disabled the spell to wake you guys up.”
Grimmy’s dad exhaled. “Son, do you remember what I told you before I went to sleep?”
“Yep.”
“What did I say?”
Grimmy scratched his chin. “Do I have to repeat the whole thing? It was a really long monologue.”
Grimmy’s dad’s expression darkened. “As cursed dragons, we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard. In the public eye, cursed dragons don’t have a very good reputation. If we want to change people’s perceptions of us, we can’t go around wantonly committing evil.”
“I know, I know,” Grimmy said. “And I already handled it.” He gestured towards Tafel. “Look at this. Two phoenixes are accompanying me. If they thought poorly of cursed dragons, do you think they’d be here? Public perception of cursed dragons has never been better.”
Grimmy’s dad’s brow furrowed. “Is this true?” he asked. He crouched down and made eye contact with Emile and Susan. “What do you think of cursed dragons?”
Emile blinked. Behind Grimmy’s dad, there was Grimmy, and the latter was staring at the two phoenixes with narrowed eyes. One wrong word, and Emile knew where he’d end up: inside Grimmy’s stomach. “I, uh, I think you taste very good. Err, I mean, your drool, yes.” Emile bobbed his head up and down. “Cursed dragon drool tastes delicious.”
Susan lowered her head and covered her face with her wing. There was no doubt about it; she was going to be eaten along with this moronic brother of hers.
“Actually, Grimmy’s right,” Tafel said, her words like a beacon illuminating the dark for the two flaming birds. “Thanks to the dragon’s and phoenix’s war with each other, there aren’t many dragons or phoenixes left in the land. Humans mostly treat all dragons the same; they’re usually terrified and very respectful of them.”
“Is that so?” Grimmy’s dad asked with a frown. His gaze shifted onto Vur. Then, he turned his head around to look at Grimmy. “Who is this?”
“He’s Vur, Sera’s son,” Grimmy said. “You called him a human earlier, but he’s actually a dragon. He treats me like I’m his uncle.”
“Hi, Granduncle,” Vur said and waved.
Grimmy’s dad blinked and awkwardly waved back. He nuzzled his mate and sighed. “The world always changes every time we wake up, doesn’t it?”
“Maybe on the surface,” Grimmy’s mom said. She was about to say something else, but her gaze landed on the holy dragon sitting next to Grimmy. After a moment, she looked back at her mate. “But this time, even the people have changed. I still can’t believe we’re grandparents.”
***
“Excuse me, guild master?”
“What is it?” Alice asked and turned her head. She was still guarding the prisoner that Tafel had thrown over. In fact, she had even moved her desk to the prison. With that, she could work while keeping watch at the same time.
“There’s a big problem,” the messenger said. “Guild Master Richie was killed in action.”
Alice put her pen down and furrowed her brow. “Richie the Golem Breaker? What happened to him?”
“He was killed by the berserkers wreaking havoc in the dwarven kingdom,” the messenger said. “Before he died, he managed to send a message back to us. The berserkers don’t feel pain, don’t fear death, and if someone is bitten or scratched by them, the victim turns into a berserker as well.”
“What the hell?” Alice asked. “Since when was berserking a contagious behavior?” She didn’t wait for an answer before letting out a groan. “Let me guess. Those old coots want me to figure something out to deal with this problem?”
“It would be disrespectful of me to refer to the other guild masters as such, but yes,” the messenger said. “They hope you can come up with a plan of action to contain the spread of the berserkers. They were hoping you could call upon the undead to aid the dwarves. Although it’s just a theory, they think the undead won’t be affected by this berserking illness.”
Alice looked to the side. “What do you think?” she asked the skeleton, who was standing next to her chair.
Mr. Skelly grinned. “It’s been a while since I got to do anything fun. I’ll see what I can do.”