Westminster Bank

Silence. A silence so profound not even a single breath could be heard.

Everyone present stared blankly at the open Dragon Gate and the White Mask standing before it. Their thoughts froze, leaving them utterly incapable of forming a single coherent sentence. It was as if God had hit the mute button on the entire area, with only the distant cawing of a few crows breaking the stillness.

Until one Dragon Guide murmured, "How is this possible?"

The mute button was switched off, and an uproar erupted.

The first to react were the two dazed Silver Dragon Guides. "No... this is wrong. It shouldn’t be like this! The Dragon Scales on the Gate haven’t even been filled with blood. Why did it open...? No!"

Next were the other Dragon Guides. "This... is impossible! How could he just put his hands on the Dragon Gate? And how did he, of all people, manage to push it open? This makes no sense!"

Then came the Trial Takers. "But didn’t they say..."

They glanced toward Isabella, the eldest daughter. Wielding her Red Spear, her gaze remained as cold and aloof as ever. Lucy, beside her, was momentarily stunned. When she snapped out of it, she began making gestures with one hand as if calculating something, and soon her face was knitted in a frown.

The faces of the two brothers, Jose and Tune, turned pale as the Dragon Gate swung open.

By robbing others of their Dragon Scales, Isabella had already matched, and even surpassed, the progress of the two brothers who were working with other Trial Takers. Now that the Dragon Gate was open, she would also gain the boon of the Gate’s Poison Dragon Aura.

It wasn’t that the game was over, but the upcoming Dragon Spear Baptism would likely be far more intense.

By any measure, this was not an outcome the two of them wanted to see.

...

’Damn, did I take the show-off act a little too far?’ Baron wondered. ’But if I tell them I didn’t mean to show off, will they even believe me?’

Baron looked at the expressions on everyone’s faces. After seeing the utter astonishment on his ex-fiancée’s delicate features, he felt he might have gone a bit overboard.

The problem was, he himself had never expected that the Dragon Gate, a legendary obstacle that had stumped countless Dragon Guides, would just open so easily. ’Didn’t anyone think to install an anti-theft lock or something when they built this stone gate?’ His only intention had been to go through the motions, but his attempt to be clever had backfired spectacularly.

This act was undoubtedly more eye-catching than accomplishing nothing at all, and it would inevitably attract trouble. People would feel that opening the Poison Dragon’s Gate so casually was disrespectful to their own efforts, and so they would demand that "Master Jack" explain the specific procedure for opening it.

But Baron knew there was no specific procedure. He understood it was all because of the uncontrollable Red Dragon Aura invisibly radiating from his body.

According to what Carmen had told him, the Red Dragon Aura couldn’t be observed by others. The only way to deduce its presence was to reverse-engineer its location based on the distribution of other Dragon Descendant auras.

Take, for example, Carmen’s acquaintance, Silver Wizard Fei, who was going through hell trying to win back his ex.

According to Carmen, the reason he could pinpoint the Red Dragon Aura was by using a ’process of elimination.’ He would saturate an area with the aura of some Ancient Dragon or a subspecies using a special Alchemy Array. Any spot left without an aura was suspected of being the location of the Red Dragon Aura.

’So crude and simple,’ Baron thought.

That was also why the Dragon Guides present could sense the Dragon Descendant auras, but could not sense the overpowering Red Dragon Aura on Baron.

However, now that this Dragon Gate had been opened, it was highly likely that some of the more perceptive Dragon Guides had noticed something was off.

Baron glanced at Isabella. Seeing her eyes and her spear, both still just as sharp, he felt a small sense of relief.

’I have a deal with the eldest daughter of the Beowulf Family. She’s a bit domineering, but for now, we’re basically in the same boat. She wouldn’t sell me out... right?’

Seeing the Dragon Gate wide open, Jose suppressed his shock. He fought down the frustrating urge to go and demand of the two Silver Masters, "Is Master Jack the fake, or are you two?!" and cleared his throat.

"Since the Dragon Gate is open..."

"It’s a fake!" a voice interrupted him.

Jose frowned and looked toward the source of the voice. The speaker was none other than Freya’s Bronze Dragon Guide.

Baron’s heart sank. ’Bad luck really is everywhere.’

He’d just finished complaining to himself, and now someone had immediately jumped out to expose him.

And... it was his ex-wife’s—no, his ex-fiancée’s—Bronze Dragon Guide.

"What do you mean, a fake? Master Jack pushed open the Dragon Gate in front of everyone! We all saw it with our own eyes. Don’t spout such nonsense!"

Tune, who had been sulking in frustration, felt he had seized an "opportunity." "Master Jack is a Silver Dragon Guide! What right do you, a mere Bronze, have to accuse him?!"

Tune, who had been about to deliver a sharp rebuke, hastily amended his words when he saw that the Bronze Dragon Guide’s employer was Freya.

Unusually, this time neither Jose nor the two Silver Dragon Guides came forward to defend Master Jack. They had probably reached their breaking point.

It made sense, though. Their original plan had been to use Baron, this imposter, to slow down and restrain Isabella.

But as things dragged on, the Thunder Wolf Dragon Beast group was perfectly avoided, Isabella took the lead by robbing everyone, and now, by opening the Dragon Gate, she was about to receive a Poison Dragon Aura strong enough to deter a Third Generation Species or higher...

"He didn’t receive the Poison Dragon Aura! That proves he wasn’t the one who opened the Gate! Any Dragon Guide or Trial Taker who opens the Dragon Gate receives a boon of Poison Dragon Aura proportional to the amount of Dragon Scales they filled!"

The Bronze Dragon Guide pointed at Isabella. Seeing her draw her spear, he flinched and pointed instead at Baron, who was standing before the Dragon Gate silently watching his grandstanding act.

"But he didn’t shed any blood, and he didn’t even take out his Dragon Summoner Badge! I suspect this Dragon Gate was actually opened during a previous Trial, and we just failed to notice it..."