Chapter 69

“Mommy!”

Illya clung to Naya’s waist, tearfully nuzzling against her stomach.

“Wuwuwu… I’m sorry, Mommy. It’s all my fault for not listening. I almost… almost got killed… I thought I’d never see you again…”

Although Naya was still furious about Illya sneaking out alone, her heart ached more hearing her daughter sob.

She crouched down in front of Illya, holding her in her arms.

“Alright, the Heroes have been caught now. No one will attack you anymore.”

“I’m sorry, Mommy…”

“It’s good that you understand your mistake. But there can’t be a next time, okay? From now on, whatever you want to do, you have to tell Mommy first. You don’t even know how many people want to harm you. Just because you’re strong in magic doesn’t mean you can be careless.”

“Mmm…”

Illya looked up at the sky from Naya’s embrace.

Her once-trusted companions were nowhere to be seen.

No matter how hard she tried, Illya couldn’t understand why they did this. After all, they had been playing together so well before.

Following Illya’s gaze, Naya remembered seeing a few dragons in the sky when she descended on Bella.

Were they just watching Illya make a fool of herself? Or were they waiting for her to falter before stepping in to save her?

Or perhaps they were simply watching to see if the Heroes would capture or even kill her?

“Was it Parnis who convinced you to sneak out without your maid?”

“No… it was me. I wanted to go out and play. I had a dream where everyone was laughing at me, calling me a Mama’s girl, saying I had to ask you for permission for everything. They said I wasn’t fit to be the Dragon King, that I didn’t have the strength of a Dragon King. They even said I wasn’t really born from you and Mother, that I wasn’t the real royal princess. I got really mad, and then I met the former Dragon King in my dream. He told me I was strong and could do whatever I wanted.”

“Then I heard someone calling my name in the dream. When I woke up, I saw Parnis at the window. He invited me out to play and told me not to bring my maid. So… I went with him…”

Illya confessed everything to Naya, holding nothing back and recounting everything she had experienced, without embellishment or hiding the facts.

“After that, we came outside. They said they wanted to race to see who could reach the beach first, so I flew as hard as I could. When I got here, those humans were already lying in ambush…”

Illya turned her tearful eyes toward Naya, her voice trembling.

The battle had truly scared her. She had never faced such a situation before, and although she was strong, she couldn’t withstand the overwhelming pressure from the humans.

Even the Nian beasts fear firecrackers, despite their harmlessness.

Having been pampered by Naya all her life, Illya had never experienced real danger. A mere scratch would make her feel as if she were dying.

“Mommy, do you think it was just a coincidence, or did Parnis and the others deliberately bring me here?”

Naya, holding Illya, turned around to face the two kneeling human Heroes, her voice cold as she spoke.

“You two, explain. Did someone tell you my daughter would be here?”

“We…”

The two humans exchanged nervous glances, clearly unsettled.

“Don’t lie. If your story doesn’t match up with the one I get from the unconscious one over there, you can consider yourselves dead. Now, if you explain the situation clearly, I might spare your lives.”

“We were already at the beach, waiting for orders from Lord Leo to rescue Zelan. However, later a few dragon cubs came here to play. We observed them for a while but didn’t see… didn’t see your daughter. We were about to ignore them and head off to rescue Zelan when we heard them mention bringing the royal princess here to play. We thought this would be a good opportunity to capture her, so we waited and set up the magic array after they left. That’s… that’s how it happened.”

“You swear you’re not lying?”

“Absolutely not! That’s the truth!”

“Hmph. Nitiya, Flanna, you may deal with them as you see fit.”

Naya lifted her head and looked coldly at Nitiya and Flanna, the two dragon maids standing behind the humans, her meaning unmistakable.

She would spare the lives of these two humans.

But she had no intention of making the maids spare them.

“Yes, Miss Naya.”

“Bella, take us back.”

Naya and Illya climbed onto Bella’s back and flew straight into the sky.

After the mother and daughter left, Nitiya and Flanna transformed into their dragon forms, grabbed the two weak humans, and flew out over the vast sea.

The two humans were terrified, their hands and feet bound by magical chains. If they were thrown into the sea, they would surely drown.

They struggled desperately in the dragons’ claws, gasping for air, drinking in the salty, fishy sea breeze, their bodies trembling as they shouted.

“Hey! What are you doing? Didn’t you say you’d let us go? How can you go back on your word?”

“Alright, we’ll let you go.”

True to their word, Nitiya and Flanna released their claws, dropping the two humans into the sea.

They also dispelled the binding magic, allowing them to swim freely.

As expected, the moment they were freed, the two humans immediately dove into the water.

They couldn’t win the fight, but they could still escape, right?

As long as they didn’t run into a sea monster, they’d be fine. As Heroes, they could hold their breath for more than ten minutes and swim for kilometers without a problem.

However, they hadn’t swum far before they felt a strong current pushing them upward.

Looking down, they saw a dozen tentacles with suction cups, blooming like eerie flowers, wrapping toward them.

This is…

A sea monster?

How could this be?

If it were sharks, they could still put up a fight, but a sea monster had magic resistance!

In front of a sea monster, their magic was almost useless, and how could mere human flesh stand a chance against such a creature?

Nitiya and Flanna watched as the whirlpool on the surface of the sea churned and rolled before finally settling back into calm.

“They should be dead, right?” Flanna asked.

“If they could fight off the sea monster, they wouldn’t have been so easy for us to subdue. Let’s go.”

Nitiya flapped her wings and flew back toward the beach with Flanna.

Iris was standing on the sand, her foot on Leo’s back. She raised her head to look at the two approaching dragons.

“Watch him carefully.”

She temporarily handed Leo over to the dragon maids for safekeeping.

Then, she picked up the nearby staff and examined it closely. The staff was entirely golden, with a sharp tip that could be used as a weapon, and the head curved like a question mark, inside which a green gem floated, never falling no matter how it was shaken.

Analyzing the energy within, it was another relic of the Earth’s ley lines, though not as powerful as Zelan’s Holy Sword or Naya’s Holy Spear. It couldn’t bind to a soul.

Iris raised the staff and casually cast a spell toward the sea.

Boom!

A golden beam shot out, blasting the sea and creating a towering wave more than ten meters high.

Seeing the wave approaching, Iris put the staff away.

“Nitiya, Flanna, grab that Hero. Let’s head back.”