Shut Up, Malevolent Dragon! I Don’t Want to Have Any More Children With You

Vol 9. Chapter 4: Offer Me Fine Food and Drink as an Offering

The reunion that crossed life, death, and long years was a feeling they could not begin to put into words.

Orion hurried toward Cloti, plunged into her arms, and her tears burst forth like a breached floodgate.

Those bright beads of tears belonged to the once taciturn librarian who had become the Blazing Sun Clan’s guard captain. Facing the clan’s censure and the City Lord’s betrayal, she had held fast, choosing the right path even though it was a painful one.

But when she saw the teacher from her memories again, Orion turned back into that soft-hearted girl.

Cloti, just as she had many years ago, gently stroked the top of Orion’s head.

“Long time no see, Orion.”

Orion said nothing, only continued to lean against her teacher’s chest and sob softly.

Her shoulders trembled; her fingers clutched at her teacher’s clothes as if loosening even a little would make the magic  vanish.

Cloti smiled, then lifted her gaze to Wu.

Wu looked back at her; there were complicated emotions in both their eyes.

The words they never had time to say back then finally had a chance to be spoken now.

“Long time no see, Wu...”

Wu, a little dazed, took a step forward, then closed the distance at a quick pace.

He didn’t embrace Cloti directly; he only took her hand with care and murmured something in a low voice.

No one went to disturb a scene that beautiful.

Leon walked quietly to Safina’s side, looked toward the others and said softly:

“When the power of time patches every flaw and regret, all stories turn into lovely fairy tales, don’t they.”

It sounded like praise for the wonder of Safina’s time-power, but there was a heaviness in Leon’s words.

Constantine had been saved by Safina’s ability to write reality.

The dragon warriors who had fallen in battle had all been brought back, one by one.

Now even Cloti, who had hated him two hundred years ago, stood once more before everyone’s eyes.

Beautiful as it was, Leon still felt this was... an overuse of authority.

Chief Steward Safina had just said that even if she broke the rules, no one would come to censure her.

But if they repaired what had already happened so freely and so often, could there truly be no terrible consequences or aftereffects?

“I know what you’re worried about, Leon.”

Safina answered in an unhurried voice.

“In truth, the power of time isn’t as omnipotent as it looks. After I sat the throne of time, I saw your battle against the Shadow King within the Time-Web. Do you still remember the future Noa? The one who is Mevis.”

Leon paused, not sure why Safina had brought this up so suddenly.

He only tilted his head slightly.

“I remember. Why?”

“Back then, the future Noa was transmitted back in soul form and lodged in the dying Mevis. From then on, using Mevis’s body, she began to rewrite history.”

Safina explained, step by step.

“The reason we sent a soul was that the future Aurora discovered: if you transmit the body, the one transmitted will be torn apart by the overwhelming force of time and space. No matter how strong they are, they cannot endure it. So they chose the most cost-effective option at the time—Noa. And the time reversion I’m using now to resurrect those who have died runs on roughly the same principle.”

Leon’s eyes flickered and he caught her meaning:

“You’re saying that those revived by time reversion... may also be torn apart?”

Safina nodded:

“Exactly.”

“Under normal conditions, mortals can endure at most one or two reversions. Any more than that, and there’s a very high chance the power of time will tear them apart. For minor injuries and little ailments—tetanus-type infections, Orion’s surface wounds, the small stuff like insect bites, bone fractures, external trauma, exposure—reverting those generally doesn’t cause problems. And I can also see whether someone has already experienced a revival by reversion, so I won’t mistake my own role.”

Leon’s thoughts turned and he supplied the rest.

“So when you said you revived the Silver Dragons’ soldiers, it wasn’t all of them. Because some of them had already been brought back by reversion during the battle at the Atos Gate.”

“That’s right.”

Safina planted her hands on her hips, let out a long breath, and went on:

“So, one more word, Leon—don’t abandon fighting with everything you have just because I’m here to catch you. Sometimes the weight of life is something even a god cannot bear. Great power comes with corresponding responsibility, but it also clamps us with all kinds of fetters.”

Leon had noticed as much.

Within the framework of this world—Samael—even gods, for all Their power to defy fate, are still constrained on every side—

Safina’s power of time has many limits and usage conditions.

And to keep expanding the power of light requires the Golden Bandit’s recognition; those who fail are doomed without end.

Even Leon’s Evil Shadow Holy Infant has serious drawbacks by comparison: not only is it time-limited, it isn’t even the full power of Zeus—because Leon has not yet gone to the Cold Saint Sanctuary.

Perhaps this isn’t merely the world’s rule; so long as one is born of this world, there will inevitably be limits.

Otherwise... before the Void returned in force, the Gate of Samael would already have fallen into chaos.

Those who should leave still had to leave; within what the limits allowed, Safina had only added some margin for error to what the future once held.

Understanding this, Leon nodded and answered in a low voice,

“Mm. I understand.”

“Good. Oh—by the way, this isn’t actually a true happily-ever-after.”

Leon blinked:

“Why do you say that?”

Safina lifted the launch armor from the Red Flame Dragon Sanctuary’s flight platform below the Red Dragon Sanctuary—Kaiser’s gear.

“Come with me. There’s one last thing I have to do before I go. Kaiser!”

“Coming, sis.”

The siblings set off toward the Red Flame Dragon Sanctuary.

Rosvisser came up to stand beside Leon.

“Let’s go see.”

“Alright.”

Husband and wife followed.

When they reached the open ground by the Sanctuary, quite a few Red Flame dragon sentries were already there clearing the field and treating the wounded.

Of course, thanks to the time-power’s revival by reversion, the Red Flame dragon soldiers had not taken heavy losses.

So, for the moment, most of the wounded being treated were...

Warriors of the Void Homeland faction.

Members of the Red Flame Dragon medical team hustled past in front of them with a stretcher. The one on it had no tail—clearly one of the Void people.

Safina raised a hand to signal everyone to stop, then she stepped forward, and the wounded man on the stretcher recognized her at once.

“Safina?... It really is you. I thought—cough, cough... I thought I’d never see you again.”

The man’s knee tendons had been torn; his whole body was covered in wounds of every kind.

Fortunately, none of them were fatal.

Safina set her hand lightly on his shoulder and smiled.

“You’ve done well. Now focus on healing.”

“Alright... Is Kaiser here? Did he make it?”

“He’s over there helping treat the wounded.”

“Oh, oh... Good. Good. Seeing you two—brother and sister—safe... that’s enough.”

When he finished, he closed his eyes in relief. The wounds might not be lethal, but after a whole night like this, holding out long enough to say a word to Safina had already been no small feat.

Leon also noticed that when Safina touched the man just now, she had clearly invoked the power of time.

Yet the man’s body showed no recovery at all.

“The power of time... has no effect on the Void people.”

Leon said:

“Does it.”

Safina nodded, her expression grave.

“There’s nothing to be done. I can’t blame anyone; if not for you and Constantine, my people might not even have a place to live. Going back to Atos would only mean Atos’s fate.”

“If there’s blame... it’s only that I lack the talent to develop the power of time to deeper tiers.”

“As Gumai once said, sometimes the weight of life is something even a god cannot bear.”

Rosvisser stepped to Safina’s side and slipped an arm gently around her shoulders.

“You’ve done more than enough, Safina. Both your people and we ourselves are grateful to you.”

Safina lowered her eyes, adjusted her mood quickly, then put on her most familiar small smile.

“Ah, ah, of course you’re grateful to me~ Best if you build a shrine that offers me fine food and drink~”

Seeing that this incorrigible big girl refused to wallow in sorrow, Leon naturally picked up her bit and teased:

“The ancestral temples only enshrine people who’ve croaked. You’re very much alive.”

“Tch~ I’m definitely keeping an eye on all you high-and-mighty while you’re still alive, because—wait, enshrining people who’ve croaked... mm~~ that reminds me of something. Give me a moment!”

With that, Safina spun on her heel and ran to the rear.

The couple had no idea what she was up to.

They saw Safina stride up to the Noa sisters who had just arrived, then speak to them, genuinely and excitedly.

Rosvisser blinked in confusion.

“Is she... entrusting something important to our daughters before she leaves?”

Leon shook his head.

“Doesn’t seem like it. But I suddenly have a...”

Rosvisser looked at him.

“Have a what?”

Leon’s Adam’s apple bobbed—he swallowed—then he shivered.

“I suddenly have a very bad feeling...”