The Red Dragon Just Wants To Do As It Pleases

"That just leaves one last problem," David said, taking a deep breath.

"What?" Attilicia, showing off his abilities in front of his son for the first time, was quite pleased with himself.

"How are we going to 'take' this part? And, as you said, how do we take three percent from each cart without alerting the High Elf guards along the way?"

"Well..." Attilicia, who had been preoccupied with getting home, was suddenly dumbfounded. He had always been a good-natured fellow; he'd never contemplated such blatantly thieving problems!

In the end, it was David who proposed a theoretically feasible plan. He had thought of it based on a fantasy movie called *The Glory of Thieves*. In the movie, they used a "Teleportation Staff" to place a counterfeit painting, with a Teleportation Gate exit attached to it, into a carriage transporting treasure. What they needed to do was much simpler: use a similar operation to steal a portion of the Century Aroma seeds from each cargo cart.

"Brilliant! It's a perfect plan!" Attilicia, suddenly learning of such a maneuver, slapped the table in admiration, convinced his son was a genius for thinking of it.

"So, where can we get a Teleportation Staff like that?" David asked.

"That's a rare item," Attilicia said, spreading his hands.

"Right." David slapped his tail on the floor. All that talk for nothing, he thought. Without the core Magical Item, even the most flawless plan is useless!

Attilicia didn't dare beat around the bush with his hot-tempered Red Dragon son. "There's no Teleportation Staff," he said quickly, "but there are spells that can create Teleportation Circles."

"You know them?" David was immediately shocked. His Silver Dragon father truly was multi-talented. He hadn't seen him use many conventional spells, but rare and obscure ones like Control Celestials and Teleportation Circles seemed to pour out of him like beans.

This time, Attilicia didn't dare to provoke David's sensitive nerves. "I don't," he said directly, "but I can learn it now! It's just a fifth-tier spell, readily available in the Dragon heritage. I just need to cram a few books. How long could it take? I'll definitely have it down by tomorrow before we start."

"...Are spells that easy to learn?" David was genuinely bewildered this time. If spells were so easy, then his own feat of combining Authority to create 'Blood Wheel Eyes' suddenly didn't seem so remarkable.

Seeing the admiration mixed with disbelief in his son's eyes, Attilicia couldn't help feeling a bit smug and began to boast, "What kind of dragon do you think I am? The most renowned Silver Dragon genius on Dragon Island in the past century, that's who!"

He patted David's large head. "Don't worry, leave the spell to me! Tomorrow morning, you go to that cliff and wait. I'll take Tania to school, and I'll rush over right after her first Alchemy Theory class. I've calculated it; we should have plenty of time."

"Alright," David replied, still half-doubting.

What David didn't see was that as soon as his Silver Dragon father escorted him out of the bedroom, Attilicia began frantically rummaging through his belongings. He pulled out books he had previously purchased from the bookstore, like *Spatial Theory*, *Teleportation Theory and Practice*, and *Advanced Rune Sequence Calculation*. Combining these with the theoretical insights of his Dragon ancestors and his own practical notes, he began to calculate furiously.

This wasn't just any spell; it was a space Teleportation spell, notoriously difficult for Spellcasters to learn. Worse, it required precise, mobile Teleportation coordinate rune sequences with an error margin no larger than the underside of a carriage! It was the kind of spell that could make an ordinary Spellcaster tear their hair out and still not master its perfect, error-free application.

To some extent, Attilicia had lied to David. He had encountered and learned this spell back on Dragon Island, though he wasn't particularly proficient in its use. But he had already made his boast. If he couldn't master this, he couldn't earn money, and without that money, he couldn't pay off his debt.

When he thought of his parents still paying off debts for their unfilial son, and the possibility of them being scorned by other dragons, Attilicia became enraged! And then, one by one, the mathematical and spatial rune sequence formulas that had once stumped him began to unravel.

That night, while David and Tania's thunderous snores echoed from the next room, their father, Attilicia, remained wide awake. Diligence finally paid off for the determined dragon. As light began to touch the windowsill, he finally figured out the spatial rune sequence for the cliff area. However, compared to the complex rune sequence coordinates on paper, the table and floor were equally littered with the hair he had pulled out. It was a good thing his transformed High Elf form was blessed with abundant hair. Had he been a human with more fragile follicles, he'd likely be bald by now.

Disheveled and grimy, Attilicia discarded the twelfth feather pen, now also worn out from writing, and stood up with a sigh of relief. He knocked on the faintly glowing crystal window, as if bidding the world good morning. "Daybreak, and I'm not sleeping! My head is full of rune sequence formulas; how could I possibly sleep!"

The excited dragon father immediately started humming a cheerful MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW tune and knocked on the David siblings' bedroom door. "Time to get up! School-goers to school, and wanderers to wander!" He was actually hinting for David to head out early and scout the area to preempt any potential surprises. He had already handled the most troublesome and difficult part of the plan; it was only fair to let his lazy Red Dragon son do some manageable physical labor. Not too much to ask, right? The Silver Dragon father, having just solved the biggest mathematical problem of his dragon life, was feeling quite pleased with himself.

BANG!

He had just turned to go to the kitchen to make breakfast for himself and the children when he looked back and saw the bedroom door fly off its hinges and clatter down to the lower floor. David's dragon face, full of morning grumpiness, poked out. "What time is it? Can't even let a dragon sleep in peace, huh? Just you wait, Dad! Tonight, my sister and I are coming to your lair for some parkour!"

"Park...our~" Tania, half-asleep on David's head, chimed in. Although she didn't quite understand what parkour meant, resisting their dad's authoritarian refusal to let them sleep in was, in her mind, politically correct.

"No, please! I was wrong!" Attilicia, finally realizing his mistake, started to wail.

Oh my goodness! After a whole night of spatial mathematics, I still have to make breakfast, take my daughter to school, teach an alchemy class, accompany my son on a heist—no, a theft—no, to 'acquire' some seeds for alchemical academic verification. And after what's bound to be a stimulating day, I was planning to finally catch up on sleep tonight! Spare me! I, Attilicia, am an old Dragon, with only thirty years until I come of age! I can't handle my two children wearing me out like this!

「Four and a half hours later」

After enduring the aforementioned turmoil, Attilicia finally survived the morning rush hour drive to Dewensen to drop his daughter off at school. He then taught a 'demonstration alchemy class' under the observation of senior school officials. Just as he was about to visit the restroom before meeting his son outside the city, a somewhat uncertain greeting from behind nearly scared the pee out of him.

"Attilicia... Uncle?"

Attilicia froze. Forcing himself to appear calm, he turned to see Elizabeth, looking somewhat haggard. He hadn't seen her in over a year.

What are you doing in Dewensen? he thought, quickly swallowing the question. Being well-versed in High Elf politics, he immediately understood why. That old coot, Elf King Ailiando, in response to the local Nobles' backlash against his centralization of power, had ordered the Silver Wheel Duchess Mirillian to send her only daughter, Elizabeth, to Dewensen Academy. As a 'hostage'.

Having lived with her for nearly ten years, even though she wasn't his biological daughter, Attilicia had come to regard Elizabeth as half his own. Thinking about her current difficult situation pained him deeply. At that moment, he truly wished he could drop everything to comfort Elizabeth, who clearly needed support and solace more than ever. Yet, thinking of his son waiting for him outside the city, and of his parents on Dragon Island still paying off his debts, he forced himself to suppress his compassion.

Pretending they were meeting for the first time, he said uncertainly, "Excuse me, miss, are you... calling me?"

"Sorry... I must have mistaken you for someone else." A dejected Elizabeth was about to leave when the compassionate voice of 'Teacher Antonella' came from behind her.

"Is something troubling you, my dear? If you're facing any difficulties, you can talk to me about it."

Attilicia glanced at the magic clock, which still showed some time remaining, and finally couldn't resist stepping forward to strike up a conversation.

He had no idea that hundreds of miles away in Saeolus City, another dragon—kept sleepless for two nights by his 'outstanding performance'—had just packed. Amidst the shocked gasps of the Elves, this young Silver Dragon transformed and soared into the sky, flying towards Dewensen, the direction Attilicia had taken the night before.

This dragon was Shalaina, the current envoy of Dragon Island to the Granyel Continent. She needed to meet with Elf King Ailiando in Dewensen; the invitation had already been delayed for several months.

「Meanwhile, between the two city-states」

David, who had reverted to his Red Dragon form, had been perched on a cliff for two or three hours, observing. He watched as the Earth Nature Druids responsible for transporting the Century Aroma seeds appeared on the horizon—an hour earlier than expected. He was utterly baffled.

"Did Dad stand me up, or is he just incredibly punctual?!"

Damn it! I knew that indecisive guy was unreliable!

But David, having received no message from the Magic Owl, assumed his father had been delayed by some urgent matter. He had no choice but to stealthily descend into the forest below the foothills, moving like a cheetah.

Soon, hundreds of Goblins with terrified faces, mixed with a stampede of agitated animals, charged towards the seed transport convoy on the main road.

"Enemy attack! Prepare for battle!"

However, seeing that the attackers were only Goblins and animals, the Druids' hostility quickly faded. "Quick, kill all the Goblins, then calm these poor, frightened creatures who've lost their way."