Vivian and Leodero straightened up.
"Long time no see, great Sovereign of the Frostlands, my respected mother!"
"We even brought a special gift to see you~"
As she spoke, Vivian detached the corpses hanging from her wings, then slowly walked forward and placed them beneath the "throne" of rock and ice.
Goliya glanced at the two stiff Frostbat corpses dusted with ice, then looked at her daughter, who acted as if she were granting an audience to a king, before speaking expressionlessly:
"You're still as smart as ever, Vivian."
"So smart you hardly seem like my daughter..."
"How could that be? Mother, I will always be your daughter."
"I hope so."
Goliya swept her gaze across Vivian and toward Leodero beside her, her eyes lingering for a long moment on Leodero's swollen belly.
She only spoke slowly after even that dull-witted idiot Leodero started to feel uncomfortable.
"What's going on with your belly?"
"Huh? Oh, it's nothing, Mother. I just ate something bad."
Goliya rolled her eyes upward and added another line.
"What did you eat?"
Two hundred years of life had taught her clearly that when a dragon's belly turned like this, it usually meant they had swallowed something they couldn't digest and refused to throw back up.
Deep-seated obsession bound the dragon, forcing these items to remain in their stomach.
Even if the item couldn't truly help the dragon achieve its goal, continuous possession could still ease its anxiety.
And while things that even a dragon couldn't digest existed in this world, they were few and far between.
"Uh..."
This question made Leodero feel a rare sense of embarrassment.
If Mother found out he had eaten some unknown minerals and could neither poop them out nor throw them up...
She would definitely think he was dumber than a dragon beast.
No, no way!
I can't let her know!
"It's nothing, just some random stuff."
"Like Frostbats, Snail-Rabbits, and things like that. You know that's about all there is on the icefield."
"Maybe I've just been a bit constipated lately..."
Listening to that clumsy excuse, Goliya couldn't help but shake her head.
Anger and impatience gradually crept across her face, and her tone, originally calm and emotionless, began to deepen:
"You should tell the truth... Leodero."
"Don't make me pry open your throat, trace it all the way down, and slit open your stomach to see what you actually ate."
Leodero was startled by the sudden interrogation.
"It really is nothing! Just some ores I didn't recognize!"
"Ores? What kind of ores? Where did you eat them?"
Goliya instantly caught the scent of wealth. Ores that even dragons couldn't digest were, without exception, treasures.
Her greedy nature impelled her to keep pressing, completely failing to notice that Izo's expression beside her had changed.
She slowly stepped off the "throne," strands of white mist billowing from her mouth as her twelve-meter-long body carried an unparalleled pressure behind Leodero.
Her massive body enveloped Leodero, her sharp teeth snapping near his ear with a foul breath:
"Tell Mother quickly, my dear son..."
Vivian quietly backed behind Izo.
"That's enough, Goliya."
"That has nothing to do with you."
Goliya froze in place. Subconsciously incensed, she quickly suppressed her anger and turned to look at Izo.
"Is that how you speak to Mother now, Izo?!"
Lacking the advantage in power, Goliya attempted to overwhelm Izo with sheer presence.
Izo stopped sitting still. He slowly rose and walked toward Goliya, his six-meter body exuding an intimidating presence that effortlessly dominated her twelve-meter frame.
"Goliya, I am stronger than you. That is beyond doubt."
"So if I say it has nothing to do with you, then it has nothing to do with you."
Izo didn't bother responding to Goliya's words, directly presenting the truth recognized by all chromatic dragons: the strong prey on the weak, survival of the fittest, natural selection, and power rules supreme!
A dragon head twice Izo's size was right in front of him.
Sharply glinting eyes stared at him while a low growl weighed down upon every dragon present.
As if in the next second, battle would erupt once more.
Vivian and Leodero held their breath in tension.
"Hmph! Your wings have certainly grown strong, kid!"
"Now I can't even care for my own son without you bossing me around?"
Goliya let out a cold snort and walked back up to the "throne" of rock and ice.
Beside them, Leodero looked exceedingly astonished. He glanced at Goliya on the throne, then back at Izo.
Mother actually backed down?
He couldn't believe his always domineering mother would actually choose to "admit defeat"...
Vivian, on the other hand, wore an expression that said it was only natural. She became even more certain that Goliya had lost, and lost completely.
The corners of her mouth curled up in a subtle grin she couldn't suppress.
Hahaha! That big mother dragon finally got what was coming to her.
I really guessed right! From now on, this Great Rift belongs to us!!
Finally... finally, no more starving days!!!
Before even seeing the final outcome, Vivian was already fantasizing about sitting upon such "bountiful" land and step-by-step becoming the Master of the Northern Territory.
"Caring?"
"Stop eyeing those ores. You don't need to know what they are."
"They are all mine."
Izo's arrogant declaration twisted Goliya's expression. This feeling of watching wealth slip right past her eyes... was literally worse than eating dung!
After all, a dragon's greed and arrogance were etched into its very bones.
Izo had stepped on every single one of her nerve endings, yet she still had to swallow her rage. Who asked the fight earlier to have already decided the outcome?
Suddenly.
Goliya seemed to realize something, and her expression instantly smoothed out quite a bit.
"Of course, I was merely caring for my child."
"After all, a constipated dragon is quite rare."
Hearing this, Leodero flushed red.
"Without a deep-seated obsession, a dragon would never fall into such a dilemma."
"Unable to throw it up, unable to poop it out..."
Leodero's face flushed even redder, but he also immediately realized that his constipation might truly not be simple constipation.
"Alright, if there's nothing else, you two go outside first."
"I still have a few words to speak with your big brother."
Rate on N.U.
