The Dragon Lord's Aide Wants to Quit [BL]-Chapter 273: Proof of Life

Chapter 273: Proof of Life
Maybe his personal luck was just atrocious, but for some reason, Riley Hale would like it officially noted that his existence appeared to be cursed on a fundamental, structural level.
Because seriously?
How unlucky did one have to be to only just discover immortality and dragonhood, only to immediately overhear that, by the way, everyone was probably going to die soon due to an incoming apocalypse.
Splendid, right?
Well, not exactly.
Especially not when they had to console children who had just heard the same things he did.
Considering how rattled he was, what more those two who should not be hearing talk about the end of the world at such a young age?
By the time the estate finally settled, the night had already dragged on far longer than anyone would have preferred. And yet only now did they have the chance to gather like this.
Well, it was because it had taken everything they had to convince the younger ones that the world was not going to end before morning.
Orien had been the most difficult.
The golden dragonling had flatly refused to sleep, eyes bright and glassy as he hovered near the bed and insisted that he would stand guard. He didn’t want to close his eyes. He didn’t want to lie down, and he especially didn’t want to risk missing anything important.
Clearly, he was terrified. And Riley couldn’t blame him as someone who also didn’t like the sound of mass extinction.
But somehow, the baby dragon seemed even more afraid that something terrible would happen while he was asleep.
At times like this, the newly minted black dragon thought that it did help to have once been human in a land full of magical beings. Because as pathetic as it sounded, he had lived most of his life with the quiet acceptance, or probably just learned helplessness, that if someone chose to attack him while he slept and overwhelmed him with magic, then that was simply how it ended.
Not exactly reassuring, and probably something he ought not to tell his golden dragon for the sake of the guy’s sanity, but he thought it was one reason why he could sleep just about everywhere.
But much to everyone’s surprise, Kael knew something that actually worked for someone as anxious as Orien.
He eased himself into a chair beside Kael, exhaustion weighing heavily on his limbs.
"What did you tell him to get him to sleep?" Riley asked as he settled in.
The dragon lord answered without much fanfare. "I let him set his own mana traps around the room and tied them all to him."
"?"
Riley slowly turned his head.
"Then later," Kael continued, arms crossing over his chest, "I would spring them and wait for him to wake up."
"???"
Riley blinked up at him. "I can understand the setting part," he said carefully, "but why would you spring the traps to wake him up?"
Kael finally looked at him.
"He needs control," the golden dragon said simply. "That restless feeling won’t go away unless he proves to himself that he can respond. The traps mean nothing unless he knows that when they activate, he’ll be alert enough to react to them."
Riley stared.
His mouth opened slightly as he looked at his mate with an entirely different expression.
Kael noticed the looks around the table then raised an eyebrow. "What?"
No one answered immediately.
Riley shut his mouth, thoughts racing.
Right.
Of course.
Because here he was spiraling over luck and curses and cosmic timing, while the dragon beside him was calmly demonstrating that he had dealt with anxiety, fear, and vigilance long before tonight.
Definitely personally.
Likely repeatedly.
And suddenly, Riley was forced to confront the uncomfortable reality that maybe he had been lucky in ways he had never fully considered. Lucky enough not to remember. Lucky enough not to carry those memories the way Kael clearly did.
Clearly, Kael knew how to handle it because he had learned it somewhere.
And that thought alone made Riley’s chest tighten.
More importantly, he really shouldn’t be complaining so much when the problem actually included everyone.
But Riley didn’t say any of that out loud.
Instead, he quietly slid his hand beneath the table and found Kael’s fingers without looking.
Their hands intertwined easily, naturally.
Riley was not sure who was comforting who anymore, but he knew one thing for certain.
Talking about the end of the world felt just a little more manageable like this.
__
Scratch that.
Apparently not.
Because as he carefully realized throughout their conversations, Riley came to the slow and undeniable conclusion that he was far more invested in surviving and thriving together than he was in the alternative of dying together.
That realization alone was jarring, but was easily acceptable considering how many people sacrificed to keep him alive.
So thankfully, there was at least one silver lining.
Both Lord Karion and Kael had personally gone to check the proof of life themselves.
Earlier, the female elder’s words had been enough to make everyone react. Because really, who would not react to a premonition like that?
To Riley’s parents’ credit, they had immediately asked whether the vision could be fake or perhaps flawed. Maybe there had been an error in interpretation. Maybe something had gone wrong in translation.
Lady Cirila, however, sighed at that and admitted that she wished it were so.
"We unfortunately witnessed it occur," she explained. "And while I wish there could be a mistake in translation, the oracle was not exactly vague. The ancient word roughly translates to
Azh’Kareth,
or
all paths end here.
"
Riley had not seen any of it himself. They had been hiding under the table at the time. But with none of the other dragons disputing it, then it likely had happened exactly as described.
However, that was not the only thing he had missed.
After the Elder continued insisting on what she saw and pressed the urgency of it, Kael had allowed her to check for herself.
At the same time, the golden dragon had wordlessly instructed his mother to remove Riley, Liam, and Orien from the room while the four of them went below to look for visual confirmation.
And Riley wanted to know what they found.
"He’s alive," Lord Karion said.
"Well, at least according to the ancient artifact," he added, which Riley immediately found strange.
"According to the artifact?" Riley echoed. "My Lord, the proof of life came from an artifact?"
"Young Master," Thyrran interjected, stepping in when Lord Karion glanced his way, as he could discuss no further because of an oath.
"It is an artifact bound to the cores of selected dragons. As you know, life and death for magical beings are typically determined by the condition of the core."
"And because a dragon’s core is their heart," Thyrran continued, "it serves as a reliable indicator that the Elder is alive."
"Oh," Riley said slowly. "So they saw that for themselves."
He nodded, understanding settling in.
"Then what does that mean for the premonition?" he asked. "Didn’t Elder Ysvara say she was certain the first one had already happened because the second would not exist without it?"
As he spoke, his fingers tightened around Kael’s hand, a subtle but unmistakable search for reassurance.
Kael answered.
"We’re not certain about the first premonition," he said. "Because unlike the second one, we didn’t get to witness that."
"But even after seeing the artifact herself, she didn’t seem convinced," he added with a slight shrug.
To everyone’s surprise, Riley turned toward Kael with a very pointed look.
It was the exact expression of someone who expected the entire story with details that would satisfy even a certified busybody.
Kael narrowed his eyes, clearly displeased at having to elaborate, but he did it anyway because the twig didn’t look like he was willing to let it go.
"She arrived and asked me to test the artifact for tampering," he said. "She was adamant that something was wrong. She kept shaking. Her voice was shrill and cracking the entire time. And if it helps, you should know that she looked like a ghost the entire time."
Riley went quiet, thinking.
He seemed so deep in thought that he didn’t even notice the odd looks the others were giving him for getting one golden dragon to speak in
great
detail.
"Then what about Chancellor Malrik?" he asked at last.
"The Chancellor?" Kael replied. "What about him?"
"Yes. Him," Riley said. "How did he react when he saw the artifact? And did he say anything?"
Kael frowned but answered.
"He said it was reassuring to know the Elder was alive. Then he asked Elder Ysvara to think carefully about whether she might have missed something. He also asked if she was certain the first vision was connected to the second."
"Ugh."
Riley startled everyone by groaning and pressing a hand to his forehead.
"Kael."
"Mn?"
"I think we need to physically check the condition of Elder Zephyros."
The golden dragon looked at him, questioning.
Riley understood why.
"I know, I know," he said quickly. "It doesn’t make sense. And it probably won’t. But for some reason I’m willing to bet my yearly salary bonus that the Elder is probably dead."
"What?!" Lady Cirila and Lord Karion both reacted at once.
Good question, really.
And yet, how could Riley possibly explain that Chancellor Malrik was faker than his old principal’s ridiculous fake moustache?