The Dragon Lord's Aide Wants to Quit [BL] Chapter 448: Something Reasonable

Meanwhile, just as the wyvern forces were being divided according to their Queen’s wishes, a rather unusual group composed of two golden dragons, one red dragon, one black dragon, and a dwarven halfling could be seen traveling in what Riley personally considered great style.

Well, at least that was what he thought.

For a certain dragon lord, being stuck inside that metallic tin of a helicopter was less traveling in style and more willingly allowing himself to be transported inside a wonky flying matchbox.

In quite literally any other situation, as someone who possessed perfectly functional wings and practically ruled the skies, Kael probably wouldn’t have been caught dead riding such a thing. Unfortunately, what choice did they have when his twig’s newest contraption could only be transported this way?

Uh-huh.

Just like that.

Pure mortal labor.

See, for as long as they remained close enough to that particularly dubious-looking box sitting inside the helicopter with them, the four and a half intimidating beings currently making their way toward Wyrmfall were basically nothing more than unusually tall and physically threatening people with hardly any magical power to speak of.

And Riley meant that quite literally.

Because after all that panic about whether Mr. Winston could actually create something capable of hiding him and the primordial dragon’s relics, the master artisan’s groundbreaking invention turned out to be a literal box.

Granted, it was a very special box.

Unlike an ordinary container, the thing had been painstakingly constructed using primarily non-magical materials, the master jeweler’s own blood, and, most crucially of all, Riley’s black dragon blood.

Apparently, the ex-mortal had recently discovered, much to his husband’s immense displeasure, that his blood had a rather unusual tendency to amplify practically anything it became involved with, so he decided to take a chance and test it further with the dwarven artisan.

Riley wasn’t entirely certain whether that had something to do with being a black dragon, whether it was another benefit of being a Gift, or whether having two and a half primordial dragon relics practically fused with his existence had somehow altered him even further.

Whatever the actual explanation was, the results remained the same.

His blood was ridiculously useful.

And yes, Kael hated that discovery with every fiber of his being, mostly because it meant his mate had somehow become even more enticing to every possible enemy out there.

But it also meant that while Mr. Winston had been absolutely correct when he claimed his own nullification abilities weren’t nearly powerful enough to suppress something literally from the most ancient of ancients, matters became completely different once Riley used blood magic to amplify them.

As one could probably imagine, and much to Kael’s continuing internal displeasure, the ridiculous idea actually worked.

The only problem was that it worked a little too well.

They’d originally only wanted something capable of temporarily suppressing the presence of the primordial dragon’s gifts so Riley could finally move without the Wyvern Queen immediately detecting where he’d gone. Instead, they’d somehow ended up creating a box capable of nullifying not only the relics, but also any dragons standing within its effective range.

Hence their current predicament.

As long as Riley remained inside the box and the others stayed close enough to carry it, the Wyvern Queen wouldn’t be able to detect the missing relic half making its way toward Wyrmfall.

Unfortunately, that also meant none of the dragons could simply transform and fly there themselves unless they planned on making the journey without Riley and his glorified box.

__

Of course, upon realizing the rather glaring problem with Mr. Winston’s creation, Lady Cirila had rightfully asked how they were supposed to travel anywhere while using the thing.

After all, if they couldn’t use magic to fly, couldn’t open gates to teleport, and couldn’t rely on practically any other mode of transportation powered by mana, then how exactly were they supposed to reach Wyrmfall without taking forever?

Surprisingly, it was Riley and Orryn who quickly came to the same conclusion.

If anything magical was out, then why not use something that had absolutely nothing to do with magic?

Lady Cirila had still been wondering exactly what they meant when Riley started thinking aloud about which companies they could possibly hire on such short notice and for something particularly dangerous. But before he could even begin making arrangements in his head, Orryn, who’d been standing quietly off to the side, suddenly spoke with a rather hesitant and almost shy expression.

"I have a chopper. That should work, right?"

Lady Cirila blinked at him in confusion, apparently unfamiliar with the word.

"A chopper?"

"Yes, My Lady."

Before she could say anything else, someone else’s voice practically exploded beside them.

"What?! You do?!"

Riley looked genuinely amazed.

Apparently, despite being a dragon who quite literally sat on gold and had access to riches that most mortals couldn’t even begin to comprehend, the ex-mortal part of him still found certain displays of modern wealth ridiculously impressive.

And owning a helicopter?

Well, sure enough, Orryn had apparently done really well for himself during his life as a mortal.

The red dragon looked a little embarrassed by Riley’s reaction, but considering he’d already decided that practically anything he owned was theirs for the taking if it helped them survive this mess, he didn’t hesitate to offer even more.

"There’s also a private jet if you think that would work better," Orryn added. "But we’d need somewhere to land it, and considering the terrain around Wyrmfall, I don’t think finding a suitable landing strip would be easy."

"No! Goodness, the helicopter is already great." Riley looked increasingly impressed the more he thought about it. "Actually, that’s perfect."

Meanwhile, standing beside his strangely excited mate, Kael’s expression slowly began to darken.

What exactly was this helicopter thing, and why did his twig sound more excited about it than half the things Kael had ever offered him?

What could possibly be so impressive about some mortal contraption?

The dragon lord was already preparing to question the two of them about it when Riley suddenly seemed to remember something.

"But don’t we need a licensed pilot for that?"

Kael’s expression immediately eased.

Right.

A license.

He slowly nodded to himself, suddenly remembering his own rather miserable experience with those blasted mortal requirements. If this was another human-made contraption, then surely operating it would require one of those flimsy cards again, and considering they were trying to leave as soon as possible, that would clearly be a problem.

Finally.

Something reasonable.

Unfortunately, before Kael could even point out that very obvious obstacle, Orryn casually destroyed whatever satisfaction he’d managed to gain.

"I have one," the red dragon replied. "I can fly us there."

Kael froze.

Riley’s eyes practically lit up.

"WHAT?!"

Orryn seemed even more embarrassed by the reaction, rubbing the back of his neck before explaining, "Yeah. Maybe even when I was human, I just missed flying. I was never that interested in cars compared to anything that could actually get me in the air, so I eventually learned."

Riley stared at him as though that somehow made the entire thing even more impressive.

Kael, meanwhile, said absolutely nothing.

What was there to say?

He’d just lost a competition he hadn’t even realized he’d been participating in, involving some ridiculous mortal contraption he’d never heard of and a license he didn’t even possess.

Fine.

Whatever.

If his mate liked helicopters so much, then Kael would simply get one too.

A bigger one.

Actually, why stop there?

Whatever flying contraptions mortals had invented, he’d just buy all of them and figure out the licensing nonsense later. Surely that couldn’t be any worse than what he’d already gone through.

At least, that had been Kael’s prevailing thought before they actually boarded the damned helicopter and started flying toward Wyrmfall.

The dragon lord spent a good portion of the trip staring suspiciously at practically every part of the aircraft, wondering how anyone could possibly trust their life to something that looked as though a sufficiently strong gust of wind could blow it right out of the sky.

This was what his twig had been so excited about?

Kael looked toward the window before glancing around the metallic interior once again, his expression growing darker with every unfamiliar sound coming from the aircraft.

Forget buying a bigger one.

With something that looked this flimsy, they’d be lucky if the damned thing actually carried them all the way to Wyrmfall in one piece.