The Dragon Lord's Aide Wants to Quit [BL] Chapter 434: The Courtesy

Who knew what exactly was going through the mind of the dragon lord’s aide?

But as if to add insult to injury, the very first thing the newly revealed magical being chose to say was, "Sorry about that, Lyra. I didn’t think you’d appreciate being left out of the experience, but I figured that was enough, wasn’t it?"

Riley tilted his head apologetically toward the elf.

For a brief moment, the officers trembling beneath the overwhelming pressure thought the dragon fear was finally about to be lifted. Relief began creeping onto several faces, only for them to realize, to their horror, that Riley hadn’t been addressing the room at all.

He’d only been talking to Lyra.

The pressure weighing down on everyone else never lessened.

Lyra, meanwhile, wheezed as though someone had finally rolled an entire mountain off her back. She remained on one knee, breathing heavily as she looked up at Riley before weakly raising a thumbs-up, silently assuring him that she was still alive.

The gesture was almost absurd.

There she was, proudly demonstrating that she’d apparently been given the VIP package that excluded her from Riley’s wrath, while the rest of the meeting attendees remained pinned beneath a pressure so overwhelming that even lifting their heads had become a struggle.

Though honestly...

It would’ve been wrong to mistake this for Riley’s wrath.

This wasn’t even close.

If anything, this was simply a greeting and a demonstration of his hospitality.

"I’d honestly love nothing more than to walk over there and put an end to all of this," Riley said, his voice remaining as calm and conversational as ever.

"I really wish it were that easy. But as you’ve all just seen, we don’t exactly have that luxury, do we? Unless..." His gaze slowly swept across the room. "You’re also suggesting we hand over the Dragon Lord."

Several officers visibly stiffened.

Even with their foreheads nearly touching the table, their eyes widened in sudden understanding as if crucial information were just then sinking in.

Riley wasn’t separate from Kael.

At least not anymore.

Handing Riley Hale over wouldn’t simply mean sacrificing one aide to save everyone else. It meant willingly surrendering the golden dragon’s mate, the person permanently bound to the very individual leading their faction.

Had that been the true goal of the wyverns? If so, then somehow it actually made incredible sense.

More importantly, while it might seem as though Kael had only become the dragon lord because of good old nepotism, everyone present should’ve known better after becoming daily witnesses of exactly why even the unwilling dragons couldn’t bring themselves to object to the relatively young Dravaryn claiming the position.

Kael Dravaryn was just stupidly powerful.

And considering that, it was also becoming more evident that removing Riley from the equation wouldn’t simply cost them one person.

It would cripple the very force standing between Eryndra and the wyverns.

"You’ve probably got a lot running through your heads right now," Riley continued, still sounding almost apologetic. "And I promise I’m not trying to manhandle anyone into submission. That’s actually the point I’m trying to make."

He gave a small, almost helpless shrug.

"I’m barely exerting any effort to do this. Honestly, it takes me far more effort making sure everyone’s comfortable around me than it does keeping all of you like this."

He even sighed as though mildly inconvenienced by the explanation itself.

The officers didn’t know whether that somehow made the situation better or infinitely worse.

"But here’s the thing," Riley continued after noticing several of them flinch beneath the lingering pressure. "Those wyverns out there? I really don’t think they’d extend the same courtesy. Not when they’re perfectly comfortable beheading one another as though it’s just another workday."

His expression gradually turned more serious.

"If we’re already having this much trouble dealing with ourselves while I’m actively holding back, then what exactly do you think happens when you’re standing in front of beings who won’t? Do you honestly believe they’ll suddenly decide to cut everyone some slack after getting what they came for?"

It wasn’t like the rightfully exasperated aide was threatening everyone, but at this point he was only being painfully blunt.

"...Or maybe you’re actually under the impression that the very same beings who kidnapped others, drained them of their blood, and spent years wearing parts of those discarded bodies would somehow be willing to strike an equitable deal?"

The words landed like a slap across every face in the room.

More than that, it felt like someone had dumped a bucket of freezing water over them.

Their thoughts had been read almost effortlessly, and Riley had dismantled them one by one before they could even voice them aloud. More importantly, standing there utterly powerless beneath a pressure he casually admitted wasn’t even directed at hurting them made one uncomfortable truth impossible to ignore.

If this was what restraint looked like, then they truly couldn’t imagine what facing the Wyvern Queen without the dragons would actually feel like.

__

Realizing he’d already made his point, Riley abruptly withdrew the pressure.

Several officers who’d been desperately straining against the dragon fear abruptly lost their balance as the invisible pressure vanished without warning, pitching forward until their foreheads struck the conference table in a series of loud thuds.

Now, that was him being petty.

Wanting to send him off to die, huh?

Well, they could enjoy the complimentary bonuses.

Needless to say, the meeting didn’t end up being nearly as productive as anyone had hoped. Rather than discussing how to respond to the Wyvern Queen’s ultimatum, most of the officials remained distracted by the much bigger revelation that Riley had somehow been a dragon this entire time, while the plan they’d subconsciously begun convincing themselves would solve everything had just been thoroughly dismantled before their eyes.

Then there were questions they really wanted to know the answers to.

Since when had that kid been a dragon?

How?

And why had he hidden it?

But after very nearly offering him to the devil themselves, none of them could quite bring themselves to open their mouths. They figured that only Lyra had earned the right to ask those questions, and when even she quietly chose not to, everyone else remained rooted where they sat, unwilling to provoke either dragon any further.

That was especially true when Kael didn’t even acknowledge the room.

The dragon lord rose from his seat, looked at absolutely no one, and walked out as though everyone behind him had already received their sentence.

And they weren’t that off the mark.

Because the moment they were finally alone, Kael cornered his own twig and, with complete seriousness, informed him that it would probably be best to cut every single one of those people off.

"We don’t need that kind of negativity."

Riley actually stopped walking.

For a brief moment, he simply stared at his mate, wondering where on Eryndra the golden dragon had even learned to say something like that. As annoyed as he’d been throughout the meeting, those words caught him so completely off guard that he nearly laughed.

Eventually, he looked up at Kael with a small, rather wistful smile.

"I actually expected that."

The golden dragon frowned.

Riley’s gaze drifted ahead of them as they continued walking down the corridor.

"I’m not going to pretend I’m alright with what they implied back there," he admitted honestly. "And maybe the way I feel about some of them has reached the point where, if they were on fire and I happened to have a cup of water in my hand, I’d probably drink it instead."

Kael didn’t even look remotely amused.

"But..." Riley continued with a quiet sigh, "...I also know they’re speaking from a place of powerlessness."

The dragon lord’s brows furrowed even further.

He clearly wasn’t interested in entertaining what sounded suspiciously like another excuse for people Riley wasn’t even obligated to forgive.

Sensing exactly what his mate was thinking, the black dragon simply moved closer and hooked himself around Kael’s arm.

"You know," he said lightly, "this isn’t entirely a bad situation."

That finally made the annoyed golden boy look at him.

Reading that question plainly on the golden dragon’s face, Riley chuckled.

"At least now I know who I need to be wary of." He smiled, though there was a thoughtful glint in his emerald eyes that hadn’t been there a moment ago. "More importantly..."

He looked positively pleased with himself.

"I think they just gave me a campaign idea."

Kael blinked.

"A campaign idea?"

"Yeah." Riley’s smile widened. "I mean... who says the wyverns are the only ones allowed to spread propaganda?"