The Red Dragon Just Wants To Do As It Pleases

Just as David and his father, Attilicia, had anticipated, with Attilicia's two-year-old visa, the High Elf in charge of the review process at the city hall simply looked at Attilicia's Silver Dragon son, who kept looking around restlessly. The elf skipped the entry interview process, merely giving a perfunctory reminder, "Mrs. Antonella, please keep your overly lively son in check so he doesn't frighten other clients with appointments. It's also best to avoid any involvement in serious criminal incidents. Otherwise, we reserve the right to revoke your family's temporary residence qualification. Here is your approval document. Please keep it safe."

And so, David's family of Silver Dragons obtained their temporary residence permit in Dewensen.

From today, they were legal immigrants, protected by the laws of both Dragon Island and Dewensen.

With this overtly legal identity, the issues of Attilicia enrolling Tania in school and applying to become an Alchemy teacher also became exceedingly simple.

After all, High Elves were arrogant towards other races—no, it was more accurate to say they harbored an innate arrogance towards all non-High Elf creatures. However, they couldn't resist the temptation of a Silver Dragon from Dragon Island willing to be a 'foreign guest teacher' at the Magic Academy. This was an opportunity to attract more student families to spend extra money, an offer even the historic Dewensen Magic Academy couldn't decline.

Attilicia also tried to get David involved in the academy to facilitate his son's education and prevent David, a solitary Red Dragon, from causing trouble in Dewensen while idle.

But this unprecedented proposal was, of course, tactfully rejected by the academy's higher-ups.

Even though most Silver Dragons were benign by nature, one in the prime of its draconic life, a veritable 'Dragon Island Silver Chinchilla' brimming with an energy so overwhelming it could drive Silver Dragon parents to distraction, was not someone even the Dewensen Magic Academy dared to admit easily.

Attilicia, who came home grumbling about this, was then teased by David.

As a person who had crossed over to this world, he had no leisure to go through schooling again, content at best with a bit of sightseeing.

It was precisely because Attilicia failed that, once the novelty wore off, David estimated he would soon have to start performing the Dewensen magic version of 'Playing Truant.'

Seeing that everything was falling into place according to plan, Attilicia, who had been feeling inexplicably downcast, visibly regained some of his former poise as an Alchemy Grandmaster.

All that remained was to wait for David's subordinates to gather the materials and equipment, and then they could officially 'get to work.'

However, as the date for the Century Aroma seeds to ripen approached, there was still no sign of Hiatt and the three elven subordinates under her command—not even the shadow of their ship had been seen! They were supposed to be escorting the High Elf prisoners of war back to the New Continent.

Otherwise, such an event, destined to cause a great stir in Dewensen and even the entire Elven Kingdom, could not possibly be so silent that not even a whisper of discussion could be heard in the streets and alleys.

Attilicia remembered the oppressive storm cloud they had steered clear of during their journey. With his deeper understanding of Northland's weather patterns and ocean currents, he suddenly had an ominous hunch. He turned to David, who was equally perplexed, and said, "Do you think there's a possibility that they also encountered that storm and were blown south by the storm and the far-northern currents?"

"...It's very possible," David replied, somewhat speechlessly.

Not to mention veering off course, if they were unlucky, it's entirely possible for their entire ship to have capsized.

David wasn't worried about the safety of Hiatt and her company: this Drow, ever since he had destroyed her ship, never went to sea without her Aquatic Lung Herb Potion...

The only thing David couldn't understand was how far off course they must have been blown to lose contact even with the Soul Prism...

At this moment, it would have been fortunate if Hiatt or Yevgeny had even one Elf at their side. Their souls, akin to quantum entanglement, now possessed a telepathic bond far more reliable than a Soul Prism's messaging, able to communicate across continents without hindrance.

"What should we do now?"

Ever since that profound night when Attilicia realized just how 'poor' he was, he became solely focused on making money! The child can endure hardship, but poverty should never extend to the parents! He really couldn't bear the thought of his own parents, still so young despite being adults for only a few years, burdened with heavy debts for his, their unfilial son's, sake. Besides, his son was now far wealthier than he, the father, was!

David spread his claws. "What else can we do? Do it ourselves. What's the big deal with getting some seeds?"

After all, this should be easier than dealing with Century Aroma pollen, right? It's well-known that this pollen can be synthesized into a Clarity Potion or an Anger Potion, but no one knows that the mature seeds can now also serve as a substitute! If this were made public, it would certainly cause a sensation throughout the New Continent.

This highlighted the value of Attilicia as the developer of the Clarity Potion and as an Alchemy Grandmaster.

Knowledge not only changes destiny; it is also worth its weight in gold!

"Ah? We do it ourselves?" But as soon as Attilicia heard 'do it ourselves,' he immediately felt like backing out.

Seeing his old father's timidity, David couldn't help but get annoyed and pointed at himself with the tip of his tail. "It's not us, it's me! Have you forgotten our agreement? You're responsible for production, and I'll take care of everything else."

"And how exactly are you planning to do that?" Attilicia couldn't help but ask instinctively.

"How else? Are we supposed to wait for seeds to fall from the sky? Of course, we'll find them and then take them," David said as if it were a given, as easy as just picking them up from a field.

Attilicia, however, was shocked. "Are you planning to steal them openly?"

"What else?" David looked at his Silver Dragon father as if he were an idiot. Taking what doesn't belong to you—if it's not stealing, what else could it be?

"No, no, no, absolutely not!" Attilicia had thought his son could come up with some perfect plan.

Jesus Christ! He almost couldn't catch his breath. This isn't the Gloomy Region where one can act with impunity—it's Dewensen! He could vividly imagine that if he let his son go ahead, by tomorrow morning, he'd see a wanted notice for him on the front page of Dewensen's newspapers! Even though it would most likely feature Red Dragon David Uthos, starting off with something this wild was a bit too thrilling! Besides snagging a few benefits from 'various commissions' that fell into his lap, Attilicia had never done anything so obviously akin to crazily skinny-dipping on the edge of the law in his life!

"This won't work, that won't work, then you come up with a plan!" David suddenly ran out of patience.

Facing his son, whose temper was gradually becoming more like a Red Dragon's, Attilicia was somewhat frantic. "Let me think, wait! Just wait!"

Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he slapped his forehead and dashed out the door.

Just as David's patience was running out and he was getting ready to head out for serious business, THUMP. His Silver Dragon father came back after gathering information, swept everything off the desk with a swipe of his hand, spread out the map of Dewensen, and said to David while panting, "I've got the scoop. Tomorrow morning, the last batch of mature Century Aroma seeds of the year will be transported back to the main storehouse in Dewensen from the Delta Manor outside the city."

As he spoke, he used a quill to mark two conspicuous circles on the map—one on a manor outside the city and the other on Dewensen's west gate—and drew a line along their necessary route. He looked at a somewhat puzzled David and continued, "All we need to do is figure out a way to 'take' no more than 3% of the load from each cart during this process, and we'll definitely go unnoticed."

"How do you know so precisely?" David suddenly saw his Silver Dragon father in a new light.

Attilicia thought David was asking how he had unearthed such precise information and seemed a bit evasive as he looked away and replied, "Isn't this the kind of information you can find out just by chatting with the guards?"

David finally caught on. Fuck! This shameless old guy actually used his 'Mrs. Antonella' identity to seduce—oh, spit!—to charm and coax information out of them!

"But that wasn't the point," David said. "What I mean is, how do you know that if we take part of it, the High Elves won't notice?"

Given the character of the High Elves, they may be proud, but they shouldn't be that careless, right? Especially, why such a precise figure as no more than 3%? Wait a minute, something dawned on him.

And then, he heard Attilicia sigh in relief and explain, somewhat sheepishly, "The mature seeds of the Century Aroma, just like the pollen, have a chance of undergoing a magical reaction during harvesting or transport, turning them into waste seeds. Therefore, during the entire transport process, people from top to bottom will try to skim a little, either to supplement their income or for research purposes. So, as long as it doesn't exceed that share, they will at most grumble about someone taking a little extra, but they wouldn't make a public fuss about it."

...Damn, what else could David, the son, say?

He finally realized where this father of his, with his thick brows and charming eyes, had obtained the Century Aroma seeds originally used for the Clarity Potion experiments! Goddamn! To be so blooming greedy. And yet, he always pretended to be as pure as a white lotus in front of him!

David inwardly looked down on him for a while.