Under the Red Dragon

"Since you neither join the Empire nor are willing to be my mate, I have the right to expel you from the territories surrounding the Empire," the young red dragon said, his tone turning ruthless after his persistent pursuit proved futile.

With a red dragon's disposition, he had humbled himself with pursuit, but receiving no kind response was too much for the young male dragon's pride to bear.

"Tch, Chris said that the Empire's code allows wild dragons like us to nest around the periphery, as long as we don't disrupt the Empire's order and regulations. Cadilos, don't think you can fool me; I'm not one of those idiots," the female dragon Delos said smugly, flicking her long tail, thumping the lush thickets and weeds on the ground.

"This is also a protective policy established by the Dragon Emperor for the sake of his own race. Do you dare defy the Emperor's will? If you really had the guts and strength, even if your reputation were ten or a hundred times worse, I might consider becoming your mate."

Cadilos craned his neck, wanting to retort but finding no opening. He could bluff those uncommunicative and reckless wild dragons, but Delos, this female red dragon, was not that type.

Before Cadilos's brain, filled with muscles and magma, could come up with a rebuttal, the high-pitched roars of the hatchlings echoed through the area.

One by one, the brightly scaled hatchlings stopped fighting, raising their huge heads, spreading their wings, and baring their milky-white fangs at the sky, roaring in their childish voices.

The two young red dragons quickly looked up, and in the sky, two enormous dragons were descending, each as large as, or even larger than, the young male red dragon Cadilos.

These two dragons had dense, spike-like horns on their heads, and their oversized mouths were a sea of sharp teeth, with tooth-shaped horns on their lower jaws, like beards made of fangs.

Their bodies were covered in bone plates over blackish-gray skin, and the bone plates at the joints of their limbs extended into prominent spikes. The tips of their tails had two scythe-like bone blades, and their wide, long wings suggested they were exceptionally swift dragons.

Although these two dragons did not exude dragon might, the dense aura around them unmistakably indicated that they were a dragon species that the young red dragon Cadilos had never seen before, characterized by greed, cruelty, and a mercenary nature.

However, these two powerful dragons did not frighten the group of hatchlings in the area.

In the territory ruled by the Golden Empire, these hatchlings were at the top of the hierarchy, their bloodline's innate pride and the support of the Golden Empire's powerful military strength emboldening them to roar at the two adult dragons.

Although their childish dragon speech sounded as ridiculous to the adult dragons as a puppy's barking.

The young red dragons Cadilos and Delos calmly stood up from the hilltop, their wings still folded, but their expressions becoming much colder.

In the nearby hilltop forest, the figures of the lizardman Reilly and the lizardman warrior corps faintly emerged, scattered throughout the hills and forests.

Several powerful armor-piercing magical devices were already subtly aimed and locked onto the two dragons descending from the sky.

Although these lizardmen had not interfered with the young red dragon's love plans, they never dared to neglect the future of the Dragon Empire.

"Are you dragons of the Golden Empire?"

The two adult dragons ignored the childish hatchlings and landed directly on the hilltop, showing their thick fangs as they asked the two young red dragons.

The young red dragon then noticed that one of the adult dragons had a bruised and battered person hanging from its tail, with broken arms and legs—or rather, a dragon.

This dragon had its limbs broken by the two adult dragons, then was tied up and tethered to their tail.

The young red dragon Cadilos nodded steadily, baring his fangs and saying nonchalantly, "I am the patrol captain of the Golden Empire, Cadilos. Don't cause trouble around the Empire, unless you want to get beaten up."

One of the gray-scaled dragons frowned and couldn't help but say, "Why are you so rude, like a wild dragon? I heard that the dragons of the Golden Empire are friendly to all races of dragons, as long as other dragons are not hostile to them."

"Oh, don't misunderstand. He's the most reckless dragon in the Empire, and he's a red scale, you know. Not every red scale is as outstanding as the Empire's emperor. Besides, not all wild dragons are this rude!" the female red dragon Delos said sarcastically, glancing at the young red dragon beside her.

"Understood," the other gray-scaled dragon nodded seriously, then said, "In that case, can you take us to the dragons in the Empire who are really in charge? You seem pretty unreliable."

The young red dragon's face froze, and he muttered, "I am also one of the dragon rulers of the Empire. You can tell me anything you need to. Matters beyond my ability will be handed over to other dragon lords. That's the Empire's rule."

"Besides, neither of you has given your names or your intentions. I think you are also very impolite!"

"I'm Nalo, and he's Naka. We are twin brothers," the older gray-scaled dragon said. "These are our aliases when we travel. You know, we gray dragons are the best hunters among the chromatic dragons, and we always need a code name for taking on missions."

"Nalo and I haven't been in Aikania for long, but we know some of the dirty dealings between the Golden Empire and the Southern Good Dragon Alliance,"

"So Nalo and I used our own channels and information to intercept this swaggering silver dragon envoy sent by the Southern Good Dragon Alliance on the way, beat him up badly, and tied him up to hand over to you."

The gray dragon named Nalo declared, "We heard that the emperor of the Golden Empire is generous and a trustworthy ruler, so my brother Naka and I want to use this as a stepping stone to see if we can settle down here as our base."

"? Wait, you call this reliable?"

Even the young red dragon Cadilos, with his limited brainpower, was stunned by this gray dragon's words. None of the envoys sent by the Good Dragon Alliance, except for the copper dragon Hollister, had a good ending.

That adult gold dragon is still chained in the mountains by the multi-armed giant Moghes, and this silver dragon has been tied up by two gray dragons. The problem is, the Golden Empire hasn't even made a move yet.

So the young red dragon could only mutter, "Forget it, I'll take you to Alina!"

The gray dragon named Naka smiled and said softly, "See, I told you he was unreliable."

The young red dragon Cadilos snorted two streams of sparks from his nostrils, suppressing his somewhat heated brain, and roared at the group of hatchlings in the area.

"Get over here, it's time to go back, you little brats!"

A group of hatchlings fluttered their wings and flew over in a scattered manner. The red dragon hatchling who had been beaten black and blue also landed, looking expectantly at his mother, the young female dragon Delos, with anticipation in his vertical pupils.

"Mother?"

The young female dragon showed an impatient expression on her face, using her wing to sweep her cub aside and muttering, "Go away, go away. If you stay here, I'll have to take care of you. Hurry up and leave."

So the young red dragon Cadilos led the two adult gray dragons towards the Empire, followed by a sparse string of hatchlings behind the three dragons.