“How much does a red mana crystal sell for, these days?” “Um… the last one was auctioned off went for 540,000,000 lir.” Mindy reported with a gulp. “That was three days ago. Now…” “We might have to set aside 600 million lir to get Tim back.” Remian shut his eyes tight. The Dragon Empire auctioned off ten crystals a week, all of them red. Each red was worth 100,000 mana, which meant that at the last exchange rate, each point of mana was currently worth 5,400 lir. That was insane! At this exchange rate, an average Quarin salaryman with a single month’s pay would be a multi-millionaire here! Exchanging his mana crystals for lir, any Quarin noble would easily match the entire world’s wealth all by himself! What did Zor’khan-dras need so much money for? Was hoarding wealth really so important to the Great Dragon of Lightning? Not to mention that he was selling mana for lir. In other words, if there was indeed something he wanted to buy, it

While Remian, Mindy and Darian were sneaking through the Dragon Empire, Taj, who had somehow ended up supervisoing Mindy’s shipyards, called Mindy urgently. “It’s Xiao Yan. She wants something.” Taj told her. Xiao Yan? What could the little girl want? Color pencils and some drawing paper? “Give her whatever she wants.” “But…!” “I’m busy! Just handle it!” Mindy barked and hung up. At that, Taj gulped, looking at the drawings in Xiao Yan’s hands. It turned out Xiao Yan had already done her drawing, and she wasn’t asking for materials to draw more. In fact, what she wanted was… “This is my latest designs for the Frigate-class Scorpion Gunboat.” Xiao Yan said proudly. “Build it.” “B-but… we don’t even know if it’ll work! Maybe we should wait until Mindy gets back!” “Mindy?” Xiao Yan snorted. “I’ve seen her designs. She doesn’t seem to understand how propellers work. She keeps putting the engines at the back. That’s

Zor’khan-dras tapped his lips as he sat on his chair. “Greetings, Remian. I have to confess, when I said I wanted to meet you THIS was not how I envisioned it happening.” Across from him, Remian stood still in his Silhouette, with a collar around its neck led by a chain held in the hands of a very proud-looking Nai’khan-dras. “Grandpa! See what I caught!” “About that… it wasn’t what I planned either, but…” With a grimace, Remian let his Silhouette fade away. Nai’khan-dras stared as the ‘ghost wolf’ disappeared into nothing. “D-doggie? Doggie…?!” Tears welled up in her eyes, and then began to flow down uncontrollably. “Doggie…!!!” She began to sob, and her sobbing rapidly increased in intensity. Abruptly Death re-appeared, looming over Remian, practically on top of him. Under the shadow of Death, Remian hurriedly recalled his Silhouette and had it nose Nai’khan-dras playfully, tail wagging as if its disappearance was just some sort of g

His name was Ling Yun. As a child, he showed high potential, good consistency, and a lot of enthusiasm in martial training. The district magistrate ran a selection and he was among the twenty who were offered a deal; the magistrate would support their martial training and their families as long as they served him. Wanting to support his ailing family, Ling Yun accepted the deal and trained under the magistrate until one day, the magistrate was ousted from office by an offended clan and the state overseer came by to decide the fate of the late magistrate’s servants. The result of that was that Ling Yun ended up serving the state overseer along with four others from his group. This meant an increase of resources, better trainers, and better treatment for his family. The overseer provided enough that Ling Yun’s father was able to outright retire, and all four of his younger siblings were afforded schooling at the overseer’s expense. Then one day there was a tour

Remian remained a guest of the Emperor, discussing terms and negotiating the fate of the world, all while playing Doggie to little Nai’khan-dras. By the third hour, he was quite sure that the Little Princess of the Empire already understood that he wasn’t a dog and was, in fact, a very important guest, but every time he let the Doggie disappear she burst into tears. Remian only managed to take a break when she went to sleep. Later that evening, the subject of the missing Underground King popped up. Finally, Remian was allowed to see Tim. Instead of finding the guy in chains like he expected, he was dumbfounded to see Tim dressed in livery and painstakingly trying to serve a blushing Rou’khan-dras dinner. “What happened to you?” Tim asked, bewildered. “I got Doggied.” Remian grimaced. “You?” “Pretty much the same.” Nevertheless, Doggie-business aside, Remian was somewhat satisfied with the way the negotiations were going. Zor’khan’s demands were difficult, but fair. Practically al