Chapter 3356 Oxymoron (Part 1)

"What do you-" Solus almost choked on her food as the realization hit her. "Are you serious?"

"Of course, Miss Verhen." The butler replied, his vertical slitted eyes brimming with mana. "Mine is only a suggestion. To a Dragon like me, that's just meat. It's up to you whether to consider it cannibalism or not.

As humans ate animals, Divine Beasts could eat humans. Especially those who wronged them or tried to rob them of their treasures. There was no point in wasting good meat that had been kind enough to deliver itself to their doorstep.

The Brood had invented quite a few recipes and they were all served at those three tables, split based on the meat's country of origin.

Those with deep ties with the humans found such dishes distasteful and avoided them but the rest of the Brood had no such problem.

"Don't be silly, Lith. Take something to drink." Maybe it was the Divine Beast's blood, but when she was pregnant Kamila always craved meat.

"But... you know" Lith replied. "I don't think I should drink. Not today."

"No, you have to. Especially today. Excuse me, sir, do you have something similar to Maekosh's brews?" She asked a butler.

"Miss has excellent taste." He nodded. "Humans are truly capable and inventive. Once we Dragons tasted Mackosh beers, we reverse-engineered them and made our own. What you see on this table tastes the same and can make a Dragon tipsy.

"I advise you neither drink nor smell them. They are quite potent for someone your size!" "One red ale for him and water for me." She said while putting an air barrier around her nose. "Alcohol makes me sad and I had enough for today."

"You and me both, Miss. The butler sighed.

Kamila filled her plate with drumsticks belonging to different birds and spicy skewers of meat alternated with vegetables before looking for an open table to sit at.

"Thanks, Kami." Lith sealed the upper part of his mug with an air current to keep the alcohol vapors away from the others and allow them to appreciate the delicious smell coming from their plates.

"Don't mention it." She checked the plates of the kids, discovering they had avoided soups and vegetables in favor of grill-cooked steak with roasted potatoes.

"Dragons are the best." Aran alternated one bite of meat with one of crispy potato. "This is nothing like the fancy bland food we had at the Royal Court. This is actually tasty." Kamila would have liked to lecture him about the importance of a balanced diet and not being ungrateful toward the Royals, but the roasted potatoes smelled so good that her

mouth was watering.

"Where did you get those?" She asked instead.

"There." Leria pointed with her fork, "From the nice auntie with the blue livery."

"You stay here. I'll take enough for both of us." Lith winked at Kamila, standing up before she could say anything.

"One Dragon serving of roasted potatoes, please. My wife is not hungry." He said to the butler.

"I see. I'll give one and a half servings, then. Your dimensional amulet, please." She replied. "Do you need salt?"

To save space, the butler would release the potatoes from her amulet and Lith would store them inside his own. The same happened for the rest of the dishes. A Dragon-sized plate would have taken too much space and forced the guests to break the form code of the event.

"Can you believe that guy?" An amethyst-scaled Dragon said in the distance. "He dared show his face here."

"At least the Fire Dragons invited him and he didn't crash the funeral." A female Dragon whose grey wings were enveloped in a thick mist replied. "I mean, how many Dragons must Verhen kill before someone does something about him?"

"First, he killed Xedros." A silver-winged Wyrm said. "He was a jerk, but still one of Grandfather's Firstborns. On top of that, Xedros had just cracked the secret of Dragonhood, becoming one of us.

"He indeed deserved death for his use of Forbidden Magic and siding with Thrud, but at least. Verhen could have brought Xedros alive for examination instead of executing him. Not to mention he destroyed the machine that made the evolution possible!" Actually, Scarlett the Scorpicore had killed Xedros right after evolving into a Guardian. Lith had indeed destroyed the machine, but only as a side effect of conjuring his Demons of the Darkness from the bodies of the Lesser Dragons sacrificed for Thrud's

experiments.

Alas, no one cared about a flimsy detail like the truth when it regarded someone they disliked.

"And do we want to talk about Syrook?" A green-winged female Dragon said. "I'm surprised Ananta didn't teach Verhen a lesson for killing her son when they met at the Fringe."

"And then it was Jormun's turn to return to Mogar." A Storm Dragon sighed. "He was the only Emerald Dragon on Mogar. We'll never know what his species could do or achieve. Last but not least, Valtak too died because of Verhen."

"Every Dragon he touches dies." The female Mist Dragon grunted. "I'm surprised Grandfather even tolerates his existence. Especially after Verhen fraternized with that

murderous scum of Zoreth and joined hands with her multiple times." "Tolerates?" The amethyst-scaled Dragon said. "Grandfather lives in Lutia, coddles Verhen's half-blood spawn, and doesn't hesitate to do stuff like that." He nodded at Aran and Leria. "I swear, if I didn't know it's impossible, I'd think they are all Grandfather's children."

Lith was glad his mouth was empty or he would have spat out everything upon hearing the last phrase. He turned to glare at the small crowd of Wyrms who waved at him while glaring back.

I wish I could say something but aside from the Xedros part, everything they said is true.' Lith inwardly sighed. "To make matters worse, they are not saying those things to anger me, they are just respecting etiquette.'

The Dragons whispered as low as they could but Lith's keen hearing still overheard them. Only a mind link or a Hush Zone could avoid it but that would offend everyone

else.

Just the suspicion that someone was badmouthing Valtak at his own funeral was reason enough for several patriarchs and the Fire Dragons to gift the culprits with a funeral of

their own.

The worst part was that not even the patriarchs of the clans of those who violated etiquette would defend them so as not to establish a very dangerous precedent that could be turned against them.

"The gall of that Hatchling!" The female Green Dragon said. "He dares glare at us when we are the ones with every right to be angry. I'll never understand why Jormun left his child to Verhen and why Grandfather cares so much about those little scrap bloods." Scrap blood was the derogatory term for those like Zoreth who had given up on their Divine Beast's nature in favor of their other half and their descendants. The Royals were the most famous scrap bloods in the Kingdom.

Until now.

'I don't know what a scrap blood is but I bet it's no kinder than calling someone a

bastard.' Lith was happy when finally the butler was done handing him the roasted potatoes and salt, allowing him to return to his table.

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