The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 1369 Garden Races

The garden quickly devolved into chaos as the dragons spread out between the three challenges, and the sitting areas of the garden, where they could relax and sip on juice as they watched their friends compete.

The fact that the challenges were actually hard was a real change from their usual competitions. It wasnʼt just brute strength that determined the victor, and they werenʼt fighting each other, but competing to see who was the best without interfering with each other.

Mostly.

The obstacle course participants had quickly realized that they could use midair collisions to slow each otherʼs times, and the mages had learned to target each otherʼs skills, if they thought that the phoenix wouldnʼt be able to intercept the spells.

By the time that lunch came around, and the very confused Palace Maids brought in the meals, everyone was dirty, exhausted, and either laughing or extremely bitter about a recent loss.

The kids had gained a new respect for Rueʼs skills, as she had done well in the ranged targeting skills, and had managed to land a hit on one of the maids. Not even all of the warriors had managed that, so for a mage to have landed a strike without the maids beating her up was a great achievement.

It had really helped her reputation among her peers, and even those who werenʼt here today would soon learn that she wasnʼt quite the pushover that she had always been.

Rue thought that it was a bit unfortunate that none of her bully brothers were here to see her doing well, but she knew that they would have caused problems for everyone else, as they were older and liked to bully anyone who wasnʼt as strong as them.

None of the kids in Rueʼs age group liked them. But that was also true of nearly everyone else in the Palace.

They were generally a menace. Too high ranking as Princes for most to do anything to stop them, and too unlikely to have any future influence for those above them actually care about them unless they caused trouble for someone who actually mattered.

And that was bad news for the boys.

Because after todayʼs showing, and the favour that she was getting from Karl, Princess Rue was beginning to matter.

No longer was she the useless dragonkin Princess without a class. She had skills, she had shown growth potential, and her bloodline would lead to strong dragons with better affinity to nature magic.

Many of the Shadow Dragons valued the Royal connection, but the nature magic affiliated felt even more strongly about it because they could get that connection and not lose out on the nature affinity, thanks to her Elven mother. With more than half dragon in their ancestry, most of the children would be born as full dragons, inheriting the dragon genes from both sides of the family. But the ones who became dragonkin would still be powerful.

Rue hadnʼt considered any of that. What she was more concerned about was the fact that she might actually have friends. Real friends.

Everyone had a great time hanging out today, and they had talked and laughed for hours.

It was better than anything she had dared to hope for.

Now, they would all split off after lunch, going about the rest of their day, but it looked like Karl would let her keep playing here in the illusion for the afternoon, as Librarian Barry had been hiding in the corner taking notes all morning.

After over four hours, he would have quite the list of things to ask Karl, and that meant that the Illusionary Domain would remain the same for some time.

”What are you going to do this afternoon with your day off?” One of the girls asked Rue as she waited for everyone to finish eating.

”I think that I will work on my sparring skills. The maids in here are excellent opponents, and I want to practice combining my spells and sword work.” Rue decided.

The girl frowned. ”I wonder if my mom will let me... no, we have to see Grandma this week, mom was busy last week.”

Rue nodded in understanding. ”I donʼt know how much practice I will actually get. Dad is always busy with the older kids or the Queen. But we usually do a family dinner on the day off.”

The other kids nodded in agreement. The Royal Family dinner was locally legendary, both for the number of guests at a ʼfamilyʼ dinner, and for the drama that inevitably came out of it.

Karl smiled as he watched the excited kids chatter about their afternoon plans. He was doing well with Rue, and she was integrating well into the crowd.

An excellent sign.

So, as they planned for their afternoon, Karl planned ways to get the dragonkin Princess to advance again and pondered whether to get Librarian Barry to help him scheme on how to build her political influence.

Then, he realized that there was a better option.

If he just told the Crown Prince that he was grooming her to be married off and become queen in one of the neighbouring nations, he should jump at the chance.

He was one of the few siblings that she liked, and he was set to become King. So, a strong bond with her would seem like the perfect opportunity for him to extend his influence. Hopefully, Karl wouldnʼt have to guide the process all the way to her coronation to be considered successful.

Probably not.

As soon as he got things on the right track, Misty would likely call him back.

After a few minutes, servants came to start collecting the kids, who had all found various reasons to delay their departure, including a few who ”wanted to work off the extra sugar” from lunch with one more sparring round or a lap around the obstacle course.

”Why are there tiny dragons everywhere?” Dakkarian, the Avatar of the Black Dragon, asked as he stepped into the room.

”I knocked, but nobody answered.” He added.

”Oh, sorry. We canʼt hear outside with this particular domain in place. There should have been a staff member at the door to let you in.” Karl replied. Dakkarian nodded, and waited for an actual answer.

”They are having too much fun, and looking for reasons not to leave. I set up a flight agility training course, and itʼs become incredibly popular.” Karl added.

The Black Dragon ducked as a wayward Shadow Dragon whelp nearly clipped his head, then laughed as the boy managed to clip the hoop with his feet, which sent him careening to the ground.

”Alright, I admit it. They need the training.”