Giant Dragon Lord: Starting from Daily Intelligence

Chapter 645: Chapter 464: Coal Ball’s Return and the Fiery Sun Kingdom’s Declaration of War

After Karachi’s departure, Black Stone Territory seemed to return to its usual peace.

For several days, he shut himself in his tent, dealing with a mountain of official business.

Documents from Thunder Dragon City requiring his personal approval as Regent flew in like a blizzard.

Reports on the construction progress of Black Stone City piled high on his desk.

He was like a tirelessly spinning top.

Ed’s figure appeared at the entrance of the study.

He was covered in dust, having just rushed back from the battlefield.

”Come in.”

Raylo looked up, gesturing for him to enter.

Ed placed a battle report on the desk and said in a low voice,

”The main force of the Blood Hand Robbery Gang was annihilated yesterday in Black Wolf Valley. I captured their leader, ’Blood Hand’ Charold, alive.”

”Well done.”

A smile finally appeared on Raylo’s face.

Ed’s return lightened the burden on his shoulders considerably.

”What were our casualties?”

”We lost three Griffin Knights and eighteen Pegasus Knights. Over fifty more were injured.”

Ed’s voice was a little heavy.

”Blood Hand’s mount was a Tier Four Blood Wing Bat Dragon. It inflicted considerable casualties on our Knights.”

Raylo nodded.

”Where is Charold?”

”He has been brought back under escort,”

Ed replied.

”Excellent,”

Raylo said.

”Tomorrow at noon, have him publicly beheaded.”

He paused for a moment before continuing.

”I want everyone to know the price for daring to cause trouble in my territory.”

”Yes, My Lord.”

Ed accepted his orders and left.

Quiet returned to the study once more.

Only the SCRATCH-SCRATCH of the feather pen on parchment and the soft crackle of the fire in the hearth could be heard.

Raylo flipped through the documents, but his thoughts drifted far away.

He was waiting.

According to the intelligence report, today was the day Coal Ball was supposed to return.

The corner of Raylo’s mouth curled up involuntarily at the thought of the little guy.

’I wonder what he’ll be like after ”going home” to complete his origin.’

’Will his power have increased dramatically?’

’Will he be bigger?’

’Or... will he have an even bigger appetite?’

Raylo shook his head, casting the chaotic thoughts from his mind and forcing himself to refocus on the documents.

However, the tedious numbers and articles that he usually dealt with seemed particularly hard to focus on today.

He found himself surprisingly distracted.

For a Domain Level Knight, this uncontrollable sense of anticipation and anxiety felt a little foreign, and even... novel.

Time trickled by during the long wait.

From dawn to dusk.

Outside the window, the sky changed from the pale white of dawn to a golden yellow, then slowly sank into a deep black.

Sporadic campfires lit up in the encampment.

Raylo remained in his study, the dinner on his desk long since gone cold.

He didn’t move.

He just waited. Quietly.

However, even as night completely enveloped the land and a bright moon hung high in the sky, the familiar little figure he was waiting for had not appeared.

A sliver of disappointment crept into his heart like a silent, rising tide.

’Could it be? Did Coal Ball run into some trouble on his way back?’

Raylo’s heart sank slightly.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose, which was starting to ache, forcing himself not to let his imagination run wild.

He picked up the feather pen again, preparing to approve the last document.

Just then.

”Awoo?”

Moonlight’s cry cut through his thoughts.

Moonlight, who had been dozing curled up by the desk, suddenly stood up from the rug.

It arched its back, a wary light flashing in its pale golden eyes as it stared intently out the window.

Then, like an arrow loosed from a bowstring, it leaped from Raylo’s desk and shot out of the tent, a streak of white lightning.

A chill ran through Raylo’s heart!

He instantly realized something was happening, shot to his feet, and rushed out after it.

The clearing outside the tent was silent.

Moonlight stood silently in the middle of the clearing, head tilted up, gazing at the empty night sky and letting out a series of low whimpers.

Raylo walked to its side and followed its gaze upward.

The night sky was clear, the river of stars brilliant.

There was nothing there.

But Raylo could clearly feel a strange, extremely faint ripple slowly forming in the space before him.

It felt like an invisible pebble had been dropped into a calm lake, sending out unseen ripples.

’It’s a spatial fluctuation!’

Raylo’s breath caught in his throat.

His heart began to pound uncontrollably.

Just then, a blue figure darted out of a nearby tent.

It was Lightning.

He had clearly also sensed the abnormal fluctuation. He scurried over to Raylo’s feet on his four short legs and stood beside Moonlight, looking up at the sky.

Waiting.

A long, suffocating wait.

A dozen or so minutes felt as long as a century.

Finally.

RRRIP!

A soft sound, like tearing cloth, suddenly echoed in the silent night sky.

The night sky above Raylo’s head seemed to have been sliced open by an invisible blade.

A thin, black fissure appeared out of thin air.

Immediately after, a massive, ink-black claw covered in menacing scales shot out from the fissure, gripping its edge tightly.

Then, another one.

The two enormous dragon claws, like a pair of world-cleaving Giant Axes, grabbed the spatial fissure and, with great force, brutally tore it open to either side!

”BOOM!”

A silent shockwave erupted!

The small spatial fissure was forcibly torn into a gaping hole dozens of meters wide.

A colossal and fearsome head slowly pushed its way through from the other side.

The massive spatial fissure was like a hideous scar on the canvas of night.

After tearing open the barrier between worlds with its claws, the pitch-black Giant Dragon did not immediately emerge completely.

Its enormous, fearsome head simply hovered in the center of the rift, its draconic eyes slowly sweeping over the land below—a land both familiar and strange.

Its gaze finally settled on the center of the clearing.

On Raylo and Moonlight.

The moment it saw them, the cold, indifferent look in its draconic eyes instantly melted away.

It was replaced by a pure, almost childlike joy and excitement.

”ROAR!”

A clear, high-pitched draconic cry echoed through the heavens!

This cry was nothing like a typical, intimidating roar.

It was clear and joyous, as if announcing its return to the entire world.

The next second, it no longer hesitated.

With a powerful heave, its massive body pulled itself completely through the spatial fissure!

Only now could Raylo truly see its full appearance.

Its body was several times larger than when it had left, its length now approaching fifty meters, almost on par with Moonlight.

It was covered in scales as black as ink, which didn’t seem entirely solid. Instead, they looked to be condensed from the purest Spatial Energy, their surface flowing with countless fine, silver lines, as if an entire river of stars had been branded onto its body.

A pair of enormous Dragon Wings unfurled from its back.

Coal Ball flapped its Dragon Wings, making a graceful circle in the air.

”ROAR!”

Another joyous draconic cry.

After circling once in the air.

It folded its Dragon Wings, its massive body plummeting toward Raylo and Moonlight below like a black meteor!

A howling gale rushed toward him, making Raylo’s robes flap wildly.

A smile was on Raylo’s face.

He opened his arms, ready to welcome his long-lost partner.

However, just a moment before the massive black figure landed...

In mid-air, the colossal Space Giant Dragon’s body suddenly began to shrink rapidly.

The black scales, the brilliant Magic Patterns, the huge Dragon Wings... all of it dissolved and reformed in a blinding flash of light.

In the blink of an eye, the terrifying Giant Dragon whose presence dominated the heavens and earth vanished.

In its place was a completely pitch-black... black cat.

Raylo’s outstretched arms froze slightly.

He watched, stunned, as Coal Ball, now back in the shape of a black cat, traced a graceful arc through the air, its target... not him.

Just as it was about to land in his arms, Coal Ball’s body flickered for an instant.

An almost imperceptible spatial jump.

The next moment, its tiny figure had already appeared beside Moonlight.

”Meow!”

Coal Ball landed next to Moonlight and immediately tried to rub its little head against it.

In its fawning state, there wasn’t the slightest trace of the dimension-tearing, world-dominating Giant Dragon from moments before.

Moonlight was clearly very displeased with its sudden departure and equally sudden return.

It raised a paw and unceremoniously pinned the squirming Coal Ball, who was trying to rub all over it, to the ground.

”Mrow... mrow...”

Pinned to the ground by Moonlight, Coal Ball let out two aggrieved cries, its eyes looking pitifully up at it.

Moonlight seemed to soften.

It released its paw and then extended its tongue, gently licking Coal Ball’s head.

Coal Ball immediately perked up, snuggling up to Moonlight again and rubbing affectionately, a contented purr rumbling in its throat.

Nearby, Lightning also came running over on his short little legs.

He approached curiously, sniffing his newly returned companion, then rubbed his own head against the now-home Coal Ball.

The three little ones crowded together, tumbling into a pile.

The white, black, and blue furballs looked especially harmonious under the moonlight.

Raylo stood to the side, his arms still outstretched, the smile on his face gradually freezing.

Not far away, the Golden Dragon Sun watched this scene silently with its huge, glittering draconic eyes.

Raylo silently lowered his arms.

He walked over to the three still-cuddling little ones and cleared his throat.

”Ahem.”

Coal Ball’s ears twitched. It lifted its head from Moonlight’s embrace and finally noticed Raylo’s presence.

It tilted its little head and blinked.

After two seconds, it leaped up from the ground, landed on Raylo’s shoulder, and stuck out its small, pink tongue to give Raylo’s cheek a token lick.

...

「The next day.」

”Blood Hand” Charold’s head was hung high at the widest and busiest crossroads in Black Stone Territory.

A nearby notice board detailed ”Blood Hand” Charold’s identity and deeds.

All subjects and merchants entering or leaving Black Stone Territory could see the head.

「Three days after Charold was beheaded.」

News, as if it had grown wings, swept across the entire western part of the Continent at the speed of a storm.

King Karachi of the Fiery Sun Kingdom, on the grounds that the Thunder Dragon Duchy was sheltering an evil Giant Dragon in defiance of the Light Oracle, officially... declared war on the Thunder Dragon Duchy!

The moment the news broke, the entire Duchy was in an uproar!

No one had expected the Light Holy See’s ”War Mobilization Order” to cause waves so quickly.

Even more unexpectedly, the first to answer the Holy See’s call and raise the butcher’s knife against a Dragon Realm was the Fiery Sun Kingdom—the very kingdom previously defeated by the Thunder Dragon Duchy.

In an instant, countless eyes focused on this land in the Northern Territory.

Travelers in taverns spoke loudly of the coming war.

Merchants worried, wondering whether to change their trade routes.

Neighboring kings and lords conferred with their advisors through the night in their castles, analyzing what impact this war would have on the entire Continent’s political landscape.

Yet the Thunder Dragon Duchy, the center of the storm, appeared exceptionally calm.

And Raylo remained in his Black Stone Territory, seemingly unconcerned about the impending war.