Chapter 53: Revenge
Two fine horses whinnied as they galloped wildly through the night city, passing numerous citizens who peeked out with curiosity or astonishment towards the Inner City. Fisher leaned against the side of the carriage, calmly watching the city gates in the distance.
There, the iron-like gate was lowered, blocking their way out of the city.
Raphael sat beside Fisher; several partners behind them had already awakened, but because they had just been knocked out by a group of zombie minotaurs—especially Ral, who was still feeling dizzy and shouting to fight back—they were subdued by Fashir before they could even exit the carriage.
“Raphael, come here, take this.”
Fisher covered his abdomen, pulling out the Fei magical book from his bosom. Now, he had exhausted all the magic from his staff, and the magic power within him was not enough to engrave any more spells. He could only rely on Raphael’s magical circuit and engrave a spell with her to break through the city gate.
“Fisher, I can’t engrave magic.”
Raphael pursed her lips, looking down at the place where Fisher was sitting, stained with blood flowing from his wounds. His face was quite pale, yet he remained silent and serious as he gazed at Raphael.
“I will teach you how to engrave; just pick any book from inside.”
Raphael nodded and went back into the carriage to randomly grab a slightly thinner book from Fisher’s bookshelf. Fisher didn’t have time to prepare extra magic materials and could only let Raphael use her own blood.
He held Raphael’s trembling claw against his wound and then clasped her claw, using it as an engraver, with the book as the medium.
Raphael saw Fisher’s exposed body due to the action; the numerous holes in his suit were seeping blood, which made her claws tremble slightly as she empathized.
“Focus, Raphael.”
Fisher’s voice was still calm, but it was much quieter than before.
“Mm.”
She forced herself not to look at his wounds, not to feel the pang of pain, and instead looked down at the book.
“The difficulty in engraving dragon magic lies in the collapse phenomenon caused by the instability during the release of magic, which requires continuous input of magic power to stabilize the entire emblem.”
Just like when he previously taught Renee, under Fisher’s gentle guidance, he led Raphael’s finger to slowly engrave sharp lines on the book.
“Don’t tense up your body; let the magic flow naturally within you.”
The magical circuit of dragon races was much thicker than that of humans. Engraving this magic used Raphael’s magic power, and the reaction of this emblem was even more intense than when he did it for the first time; the emblem was almost glowing like a light bulb, and it formed quickly, but the book started to heat up as if it couldn’t withstand the power of the emblem.
Seeing that the book was about to catch fire, Fisher urged Raphael to throw it towards the city gate. Without hesitation, she aimed and tossed the book out.
The book collapsed into a tiny space midair, creating invisible ripples. Again, a fierce heat instantly engulfed the closed gate, and when the flames disappeared, the gate was completely gone, and even the surrounding doorway was charred black.
“Wait, someone is leaving the city!”
“It’s a carriage! Captain, should we stop them?!”
“Stop what? Didn’t you see that explosion? Anyone who wants to die can go; something happened at the Lord’s Mansion. Those with guts, follow me to the city lord’s office.”
“Captain, do you mean…?”
“Shut up!”
The noise from the city rose. Fisher tightened his grip on the reins as he rode through the smoke and into the wilderness outside the city. The night wilderness was both cold and quiet. After the carriage had been far away from Feilon City, he glanced back at the burning Feilon City in the night and relaxed.
So many things had happened tonight; at least he was safe now.
“Ugh.”
Just as this thought arose, Fisher felt a surge of pain and fatigue threatening to overwhelm him. His grip on the reins loosened slightly, and with his eyes closed, he nearly fell out of the carriage, but thankfully Raphael quickly reached out and caught him.
She hurriedly hugged Fisher, and at the moment their bodies touched, her scales lay flat and became soft, so that when he fell into her embrace, he would not be poked.
“Fifir!”
Raphael looked down, only to see that he had already closed his eyes, seemingly unconscious, quietly resting in her arms.
His originally fair complexion was now slightly stubbly from their journey on the Southern Continent, his color was somewhat pale, and he appeared as quiet as an unguarded child.
Looking at Fisher’s sleeping face, Raphael felt her own face suddenly flush red. She thought this version of Fisher was quite adorable, a stark contrast to the frowning face he usually wore during the day.
Hmm.
His nose, ears, and mouth were also very cute.
Raphael held Fisher tightly, her tail swaying. If only this guy was as nice during the day as he was when sleeping.
“How is Lord Fisher doing?”
Mill, who was still uneasy in the carriage, opened the carriage door to ask, only to see Raphael hugging Fisher and playing with his black hair.
Raphael’s body stiffened suddenly, a bit shy, instinctively wanting to shove Fisher away. But as she realized they were still in the carriage, she thankfully didn’t toss him out. In Mill’s eyes, she hesitated for a long time before finally shyly hugging Fisher tighter.
“He’s injured. By the way, I remember there were some white bandages for treating wounds in his room. Mill, can you help me find them?”
But Mill didn’t respond; she just stared blankly at Raphael, looking incredulous.
“L-Lord Raphael!”
“W-What…?”
Raphael froze for a second, looking down at her completely flattened scales and the tail swaying back and forth. Mill was a subhuman woman with a suitable tail partner, and as such, she should have known Raphael’s current state. The voices that came from her room that night were very quiet; at that time, Mill and the others thought Fisher was conducting an experiment or that it was the voices of Nana and Feilon.
But Mill had already suspected something was off between Raphael and Fisher. Ral and the others were just children who didn’t understand, but the one adult, Mill, couldn’t hide it.
“Mill, go get him the bandages first, and we… we’ll talk about this later.”
“Ah, okay, I’ll go right now.”
Once Mill dashed back into the carriage, she explained the situation to the several children before hurriedly coming out with the bandages.
Raphael gently laid Fisher’s body on the ground and then reached out to remove his clothes. She turned around to see Mill staring at Fisher’s body and, for some reason, felt a bit displeased.
No, right now she was treating his wounds; she shouldn’t think of such things!
Raphael wrapped Fisher’s body in bandages tightly, confirming there were no extra wounds before letting out a sigh of relief. She then turned around and saw Mill’s face flushed as she stared at Fisher’s body.
“Mill!”
“Ah, he’s very strong… Ah, no, I mean that…”
Mill’s eyes darted like a mosquito coil, her hands quickly waving, not daring to look at the slightly angry Raphael before her.
The wind in the wilderness was cold, and Raphael worried that Fisher would catch a cold. In front of Mill, she fought through her shyness and held Fisher back into her arms, allowing him to feel the warmth of the dragon race.
She clumsily leaned down and sniffed Fisher’s breath, confirming it was stable before sighing in relief, her tail relaxing.
Next to them, Mill looked at the two in an embrace, a hint of worry creeping into her voice,
“Lord Raphael, he is human, different from dragon folk. They do not have suitable tail partners. Right now, there are only us around here in the Southern Continent, but what will happen when we go back? There will definitely be other human females around him—those dressed beautifully, holding little fans.”
Raphael glanced down at the only piece of clothing Fisher had given her, which was simple and dirty because of their earlier battle. Her arms were adorned with beautiful, smooth scales, but humans lacked them.
“Humans look down on us. Even if Fisher is different from other humans, when he returns to his tribe—not, to the group he resides in—other humans will look down on you, and ultimately, he will too.”
Raphael just held Fisher, remaining silent, staring at his face for a long time before calmly saying,
“I won’t let him look down on me. I am Raphael. One day, I will stand before him openly and tell all subhumans and all humans that he is my suitable tail partner.”
Her expression was calm, yet a confidence that arose spontaneously overflowed from her. Seeing Raphael like this, Mill’s previous worries and concerns disappeared completely.
Yes, she is Lord Raphael; I should believe in her.
“I understand. Then I’ll go check on Ral and the others. Ral always says her head hurts a lot and she wants to eat the bread in Fisher’s room.”
Mill pushed open the carriage door and walked back inside, leaving Raphael and Fisher at the front of the carriage door.
She looked down at Fisher in her arms, recalling the times he had bullied her, and so she poked his face in a retaliatory manner, causing his cheek to sink in slightly; then, she was curious about the Adam’s apple in his throat and reached out to touch it but thankfully didn’t press down; then she felt that touching his hair was very pleasant, so she rubbed at his head, showing affection.
In short, she just couldn’t get enough of playing with him.
Wait, what am I doing?!
Isn’t this just like that childish Ral?!
Raphael’s face flushed; she suddenly felt that her current actions were childish. She was already… already an adult, a suitable tailed adult dragon!
She pondered with red cheeks for a long time, turned to glance at the tightly shut carriage door, confirming that there was no one around before she tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and gently leaned down to kiss the corner of Fisher’s mouth.
A stream of steam was shaken off the carriage as the carriage moved, just like the shyness that Raphael had been cast aside.
After all, no one could see right now; it wouldn’t hurt to touch him a bit and hug him.
Just consider it a reprisal for all the times he bullied her before.
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(End of Chapter)
