100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 715 - Four Dragons

The next few days became unexpectedly strange for the Thousand Races.

It began with the Nephralis and Varkhaal Sects appearing in public again.

That alone was enough to make people wary.

For generations, both names had carried the weight of conquest, arrogance, and fear. Whenever their experts appeared somewhere in force, people usually assumed that they will cause chaos.

This time, however, they did not bring armies.

They brought apologies.

•••

Lucien was reviewing the preparations for the first arrivals when he received another unexpected report.

Two Eternals had entered Lootwell and requested to meet him personally.

Lucien recognized the names immediately.

One belonged to the Nephralis Sect.

The other belonged to the Varkhaal Sect.

He expected an uncomfortable conversation.

He did not expect both Eternals to kneel the moment they entered the room.

Lucien stared at them.

For a brief moment, he genuinely wondered whether someone had tampered with the formations.

The two Eternals remained kneeling.

Their expressions were rigid enough to suggest that neither of them had practiced this particular posture very often.

Lucien’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Then he noticed something else.

Fear.

Not fear of him. At least, not entirely.

The Nephralis Eternal looked as though he had recently survived an extremely unpleasant conversation with the Red Dragon.

The Varkhaal Eternal looked no better.

Lucien understood.

Apparently, the two ancestors had taken his conditions seriously.

The Nephralis Eternal lowered his head.

"Lord Lootwell. What happened before was our fault."

The Varkhaal Eternal followed.

"We accept responsibility."

Lucien remained silent for several breaths.

These were the same kinds of people who once would have regarded bowing to someone weaker than themselves as humiliation.

Now both were kneeling before him voluntarily.

Or as voluntarily as one could kneel after being thoroughly educated by an angry ancestor.

Lucien decided not to ask what the Red Dragon had said to them.

He suspected the details would not improve anyone’s mood.

"You don’t need to kneel to me," Lucien finally said.

Neither Eternal moved.

Lucien sighed.

"The people you harmed are the ones you need to face."

That made both expressions tighten.

Apparently, kneeling before Lucien had been the easy part.

Lucien almost felt sorry for them.

Almost.

•••

Dark Shade arrived later that same day.

Unlike the Red Dragon, Dark Shade did not look like someone struggling to apologize.

He looked like someone who deeply resented the existence of apologies as a concept.

His presence filled the room with a familiar oppressive chill, and his expression suggested that he had already argued with several people before arriving.

Lucien suspected one of them had been the Red Dragon.

Dark Shade stopped across from him.

For several moments, neither spoke.

Then the ancient being exhaled through his nose.

"I was wrong."

Lucien waited.

Dark Shade’s eyes sharpened.

"Do not make me repeat it."

Lucien almost laughed.

At least that part of him had not changed.

Dark Shade had spent countless years trapped inside the Stillness Prison as well. Like the Red Dragon, he had returned to a world where the sect built around his legacy had grown into something far uglier than whatever he had originally imagined.

But unlike the Red Dragon, Dark Shade did not dress his regret in philosophy.

He simply admitted that the Varkhaal Sect had crossed lines that should never have been crossed.

And he admitted that his own temperament had encouraged the very behavior he now condemned.

The apology was not elegant.

It was barely polite.

But Lucien believed it.

Dark Shade was far too bad tempered to pretend remorse for the sake of appearances.

Before leaving, he gave Lucien a final irritated look.

"If the Red Dragon tells anyone I apologized properly, he is lying."

Lucien smiled.

"I’ll remember that."

Dark Shade vanished before Lucien could enjoy the moment any further.

•••

By evening, the matter was no longer private.

The Red Dragon and Dark Shade appeared before the Thousand Races through the communication network.

Representatives of the Nephralis and Varkhaal Sects stood behind them.

That alone drew an enormous audience.

Then the Red Dragon began speaking.

There were no excuses.

He acknowledged what the Nephralis Sect had become while acting in his name.

Dark Shade did the same for the Varkhaal Sect.

They admitted to enslavement, unlawful imprisonment, seizure of territory and resources, and the treatment of weaker races as things rather than people.

They also acknowledged their own failures after returning to the Big World.

The Red Dragon did not ask the world to forget.

Dark Shade certainly did not beg anyone to like him.

Instead, both ancient beings announced that their sects would begin compensating surviving victims, returning what could still be returned, releasing any remaining people held unjustly, and opening their internal records for investigation.

The Nephralis and Varkhaal Sects would also provide labor, resources, and protection to communities they had previously harmed.

Forgiveness would not be demanded.

It would have to be earned.

When the transmission ended, the five continents became very quiet.

Then everyone started talking at once.

•••

Disbelief came first.

Some people assumed it was a political performance.

Others believed Lootwell had somehow forced the two ancient beings into submission.

A few people insisted the Red Dragon had been replaced by a shapeshifter.

That theory survived for almost three hours before someone pointed out that no shapeshifter would willingly imitate his personality for that long.

The more serious reactions were harder.

There were people across the continents who had lost family members to the Nephralis and Varkhaal Sects.

There were survivors who still carried the marks of imprisonment.

There were entire communities that had once lived beneath the shadow of those sects.

An apology did not erase any of that.

Some refused to listen.

Some cursed the transmission.

Others demanded compensation immediately.

A few simply watched in silence.

Lucien considered all of those reactions fair.

Nobody owed forgiveness simply because the guilty had finally developed a conscience.

The real test would come afterward.

•••

The Nephralis and Varkhaal Sects began acting.

That was when the Thousand Races became even more confused.

Formerly arrogant experts appeared in damaged settlements carrying construction materials.

Nephralis who once refused to acknowledge weaker races as equals began repairing roads, homes, water systems, and defensive structures.

Varkhaal experts helped recover territory they had previously seized.

Archives were opened. Names were checked. Old prisoners were traced. Families were contacted. Compensation began moving.

The sight was surreal.

Many of the volunteers looked as though they had been sentenced to chew soil for breakfast.

Their expressions rarely matched the generosity of their actions.

But they worked.

And whenever someone complained too loudly about the indignity of helping people they once considered beneath them, the Red Dragon somehow appeared to hear about it.

After that, the complaints usually stopped.

Nobody was entirely certain what happened during those private conversations.

Nobody asked.

The revived Ignathar and Varun changed noticeably as well.

Their former arrogance had not disappeared entirely, but the sharp edge had dulled.

They worked beside people they once would not have looked at twice.

At first, many communities refused their help.

The sect members accepted that.

They returned another day.

Sometimes they were turned away again.

They returned anyway.

That persistence slowly changed the conversation.

Not forgiveness.

Not yet.

But people began watching more carefully.

For the first time, the Nephralis and Varkhaal Sects were being judged not by the power they could force upon the world, but by what they were willing to repair.

•••

The next development surprised even the Red Dragon.

Three enormous presences entered the preserved region several days later.

The first carried the deep vitality of ancient forests.

The second carried the pressure of endless seas.

The third felt as steady as mountains buried beneath the earth.

Green.

Blue.

Brown.

Three ancient dragons descended together.

The entire region noticed.

Lootwell guards paused.

Visitors looked upward.

Even several Celestials stopped what they were doing.

The three dragons had rarely appeared openly in the modern age.

Their kind did not involve themselves in ordinary faction struggles.

They emerged when the world itself was threatened.

For many, the last reliable records of all four ancient dragons appearing in the same age came from the Millennia War.

Now three of them had come to see the fourth.

•••

The meeting did not begin warmly.

The Green Dragon stared at the Red Dragon for a long time.

The Blue Dragon’s expression was unreadable.

The Brown Dragon seemed more interested in observing than speaking.

The Red Dragon stood before them with his usual pride.

Nobody bowed.

Nobody embraced.

For several moments, the reunion looked more like the beginning of a territorial dispute.

Lucien happened to witness part of it from a distance and wisely chose not to interfere.

Then the Green Dragon spoke.

"You finally remembered that you have kin."

The Red Dragon’s eyes narrowed.

"I never forgot."

"You behaved as though you had."

That landed cleanly.

The Blue Dragon looked away, perhaps to hide amusement.

The Red Dragon noticed but said nothing.

Long ago, the four had come from the same ancestral homeland.

They had fought together.

Survived together.

Then ambition had pulled the Red Dragon away.

He wanted dominion.

The others wanted guardianship.

As the Nephralis Sect beneath the Red Dragon became increasingly brutal, the divide widened further.

The other Nephralis races eventually stopped viewing the Red branch as representative of what they were supposed to be.

Their ancient kinship remained in blood and history, but little else.

Until now.

The Brown Dragon finally stepped forward.

"You are trying to repair it."

It was not a question.

The Red Dragon’s expression remained stiff.

"I am correcting what should have been corrected long ago."

The Green Dragon snorted.

"That almost sounded humble."

The Red Dragon looked offended.

Lucien decided the reunion was progressing remarkably well.

The three dragons remained.

That said more than any declaration could have.

Later, Nephralis from the Green, Blue, and Brown branches entered the region as well.

The atmosphere between them and the Red Nephralis was awkward at first.

There were long looks. Careful greetings. Old resentment. Older familiarity.

Yet something slowly softened.

Some still remembered the same legends.

The same ancestral mountains and rivers now buried beneath Black Mass territory.

For the first time in a very long while, the four branches stood beneath the same sky without considering one another enemies.

The Red Dragon never admitted that this pleased him.

Unfortunately for him, his expression became noticeably less unpleasant for several hours.

Lucien noticed.

He was kind enough not to mention it.

•••

The rest of the world was less calm.

The appearance of the Green, Blue, and Brown Dragons created another wave of speculation.

Ancient records were searched.

Historians became extremely popular.

One question appeared repeatedly.

Why were the ancient dragons gathering now?

The official answer was simple.

They had come because of the Red Dragon.

Very few people believed that was the entire reason.

Ancient dragons did not usually emerge together because one relative had finally learned how to apologize.

The Grand Intercontinental Competition suddenly looked slightly more suspicious.

So did Lootwell’s recent obsession with suppression resistance, battlefield coordination, retreat, rescue, and Law stability.

People began connecting pieces that Lucien would have preferred remained separate for a little longer.

Fortunately, there were enough competing theories that no single conclusion dominated.

Some believed Lootwell had discovered an ancient inheritance in the preserved region.

Others believed the dragons wanted the competition rewards.

One particularly popular theory claimed the four dragons intended to participate as a team.

The Red Dragon personally denied that one.

The denial somehow made more people want it to happen.

Lucien decided not to become involved.

The Thousand Races were already processing enough.

In a matter of days, two infamous sects had apologized, ancient enemies had begun performing volunteer work, and four legendary dragons had gathered in public.

The world needed time to adjust.

More importantly, it needed time to judge.

Lucien had no intention of declaring the Nephralis and Varkhaal Sects redeemed because they had behaved properly for several days.

Neither did the people they had harmed.

The next months and years would decide whether the change was real.

That was how it should be.