A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale

Chapter 588: World Events Turned into Quests.

“I won’t be able to participate tomorrow, so have fun without me!” I remembered Kahalameet telling the family during my private birthday party. Honestly, to me, it was just a harmless statement that he would be busy during the festival.

I didn’t mind it too much since I was racking my brain on what needed to be done to fulfill my end of the bargain of Father’s gift. So much paperwork was needed, and considering the festive nature of the festival, it would be incredibly inconsiderate of me to force Frozen Nest’s town hall or my guild’s management to start working during a holiday. Even if “time is money,” I wasn’t that invested in the business world to make such a heartless decision.

Furthermore, the day Father gave me my gift was also the day just before the portion of the festival dedicated to my birthday. Uncle Guyul and his clan were already admonished by Mom when they “wasted” the budget on preparing a birthday party that couldn’t be held since I was still in a coma when it happened. Now that it would, even treated as a festival by the capital of Loatryx, and by extension the imperial family, they wouldn’t hold anything back to make it perfect for the denizens of Frozen Nest who remained at home.

Essentially, this was a classic case of “I won’t check my emails on an off day.” Perfectly reasonable.

Though I did make sure to inform Sieg and Jadhund about things, since they were already here, whether they would work was another matter. Nevertheless, the concert’s success came first, so I focused on that until today, when my mind was more preoccupied with how people would react to today’s announcement. It was a radical change in how people chose the next Kargryxmor spawn to sit on the throne of Kargryx, after all, and it would be in a manner unbefitting of our draconic culture.

Loatryx was a republic, and it made sense there to choose your leader through a vote made by the representatives of the various dragonewt clans. Kargryxians and Loatryxians, expected the next emperor or empress to be the strongest Kargryxmor, but putting the decision into the hands of the masses like a democracy, instead of the usual meritocracy of Kargryx, would face strong disapproval. This wasn’t even mentioned that the decision would also allow dragonewts to cast a vote.

It was progressive, yes, but I was a bit nervous about the fallout of this decision. As the princess of Frozen Nest, I was forced to worry. These political situations were why a big part of me still wished I were just a little idol doing her own things while going on adventures, but this was my family.

These thoughts filled my head until Father finally made his entrance. I was ready to hear his announcement, but instead of what was planned, he announced the evolution of our eldest brother.

You didn’t have to call it a ‘birth,’ though! I’m the youngest here! Only I am allowed to say the cringy stuff because it actually sounds cool coming from my mouth!

Though that little tantrum was quickly dismissed when the sky darkened. The white clouds disappeared as they turned black, no, as they started to burn. Black flames, distinctive to us Kargryxmor, began to form like clouds above us, darkening the world around the city as it enveloped us in it.

Trapped in a cage of these black flames, sunlight was immediately snuffed out, making it seem like the world was ending. Only the lights created by the individual mages and dragonkin, the street lamps and various manatech light sources, and the single red “sun” glowing behind Father illuminated this world of darkness.

You gotta be kidding me. Hahaha, you stole my idea with the sun, Bro! I giggled as I found the theatrics so very similar to how I used [Ruby Star] and [Sun, Consume All] as decorations for my concerts. While I brightened the night with my suns, Kahalameet turned everything into night with his flames, so his red sun remained the only “ray of hope.”

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” sure made me feel good. What he didn’t need to take inspiration from was how this majestic dragon-leviathan appeared from his dramatic opening.

The red growing sun suddenly collapsed upon itself, but instead of an explosion or doing whatever an actual star would do in this situation, the flames started vacuuming the black flames surrounding the city like a black hole.

In a matter of seconds, the sky returned to its usual blue vibrancy, but instead of the sun being obscured by clouds, a giant serpent-like monster was now blocking it from our sight. It coiled above Father, moving the clouds along its underside that kept the creature “afloat.” As it raised its head for all to see, Coral Beard exploded in applause, congratulations, and cheers as they roared, “Prince Kahalameet!”

“Urraaaaaaaaghhhhhhh!” my eldest brother roared with all his might, causing the air to shake and the floating island to rumble as if an earthquake was shaking it.

Holy sheesh! That’s an entrance, all right, Bro!

[“Kargryx! Loatryx! Miononbolax! The Kargryxmor clan’s next generation has reached rank S!”] Father announced proudly, further energizing the already extoling crowd of dragonkin, both young and elder scale.

Brother bit into the blackened sun he had created with his crocodile-like mouth, eating it up as he started to “slither” along the sky like a real Chinese Long or Japanese Ryu. In fact, he hadn’t lost any of that resemblance after his rank S evolution.

He was still a giant serpentine dragonkin with two pairs of limbs due to his dragon-leviathan heritage. He still had the same set of horns that resembled Father’s, whiskers and fins similar to those of his mother, and the same flaring, red mane contrasting with his charcoal-black scales. Yet, those very scales were the most significant difference between his rank-A and rank-S forms.

As a leviathan hybrid, his scales looked more like fish scales in how they shone, though they still looked thick like any other dragon’s. Yet that fish-like shine had disappeared as his entire body was now covered in carapace armor.

His fins now looked like rows of sharp, long, backward-bent spikes running down his back and sides, while his scale-plates looked even thicker than Father’s, making Kahalameet resemble a heavily fortified train. Instead of just black and tints of red, this carapace armor radiated a thin, red-blue—corresponding to his innate fire- and water-alignement—mana sheen over his body, as if his [True Draconic Barrier] was the cause of this.

And this massive dragon, long enough to wrap around Father like an anaconda trying to constrict a tall human, not only looked like a freight train from afar, but was expelling some type of steam from the back of his many fins, leaving behind a trail of clouds. These very clouds were then set on fire in the same manner as the flaming clouds from the start were, making them resemble the stream of fire of a flamethrower.

OKAY! Almost makes me as excited as if I evolved! I cheered before noticing the stream running on my bracelet for today’s event.

<Agre_FlowerScales: … That does it. Prince Kahalameet will become the emperor.>

<RupturedVol_Cano: HA! That has been indisputable for ages now, but now even those levianewts can’t say anything! Princess Wendriosa has no chance now! Finally! We won! Prince Kahalameet won!>

<ShardOfMoltenCores: You cannot argue against this any longer! The next emperor shall be Prince Kahalameet! It’s obvious His Majesty is using this moment to present the next heir apparent. It’s finally over! The elder scales can finally take a rest from all of this, and we can stop hearing those abominable leviathans and adamantoises try to wage a war they have no say in!>

The chat was going wild as well, and anonymity was starting to show its ability to mask people by their user names. The amount of support Kahalameet was receiving from the crowd in the city was slightly tamer and more wholesome as they were congratulating him and Father, but the chat was going wild about the implications his evolution would have on the decision for the heir apparent.

Though that was different from how my family was feeling. I turned around to look at my siblings, as we were all watching this from atop my personal floating island, the same one I held my concert on.

“You knew?” I asked Wendriosa as she was smiling.

She nodded. “After Brother and I had our little discussion, yes.”

“Wait… hold on, if I remember this correctly, didn’t he go directly to you after he left Frozen Nest when the leviathans attacked us? Was he already ready to evolve even back then?” I realized, causing Wendriosa to frown in guilt, nodding slightly to my bafflement.

“… Keeping it hidden until now means he understood how much of an impact this would have on this day,” Tasianna said, prompting me to laugh in disbelief. “And it seems only Princess Wendriosa and Prince Phsothophus were made aware of this.”

“Makes sense when you look at those three.” Vifi then pointed at Neill, Ryra, and Nong, all three geeking out at the edge of the island.

“BROTHER! YOU LOOK AMAZING!” Neill jumped up and down while having her arm wrapped around Ryra, using his height to appear taller. “Come on, come on, Ryranakus. Shout louder!”

“YOU LOOK AMAZING!” Ryra cheered, smiling widely as he stared at Kahalameet.

Nong pumped his hand in the air, grinning in excitement. “That’s not loud enough! Come on, you two! We have to make him hear us! LOUDER! BROTHER KAHALAMEET, YOU’RE DAMN AMAZING LOOKING!”

“YOU LOOK AMAZING!”

That’s what I said—thought! Haha! He’s massive! Although I wasn’t as cheery as those three, I was still sending my support Kahalameet, through silent cheers, and I bet my Phso and Taim were the same with the way they smiled. Wendriosa, though, probably had conflicting feelings, but she still stared at Kahalameet in wonder like a kid witnessing their hero on the TV screen.

[“Many of you presume I have made my decision,”] Father suddenly interrupted all our fangirling, prompting Kahalameet to descend to my floating island, transforming back into a dragonewt to escape from everybody’s sight. As we siblings started gathering around Kahalameet to congratulate him, and also to see what had changed with his appearance, Father’s booming voice continued exploding inside our minds. [“Let me announce it thus—I have not. However—”]