Shane felt like he was losing his mind after seeing Ragnar confirm that the egg is indeed a dragon's egg.
This time, the nobles, knights, and merchants all present at the banquet felt so shocked after seeing Ragnar confirming the dragon's egg.
"Where did he get the dragon's egg from? Isn't crossing the ocean almost inviting death?" One merchant voice out, and the noble beside him, with whom he was talking, nodded.
It was well known that the ocean was one of the hardest difficulties, no matter your rank. After the dawn of gates, the ocean has been filled with monsters, as no one is going to go to the ocean to deal with the gates and their monsters breaking out from it.
So, it has led to monsters so powerful living in the ocean, while many land monsters died if they were unable to survive or cross the ocean to reach the land. Only the monsters familiar with the ocean survived.
It was rumoured that there are dozens of paragon rank equal monsters, if not more, in the ocean, and anyone who wants to cross to reach the Dragon's Continent would be lucky if they were ever able to land in the Dragon's Continent without any injuries.
Even if one were to reach the dragon's continent, whether dragons will be welcoming or not is another question, as the relations between dragons and humans have not been so clear in recent years, as they have closed themselves off and rarely talk back to humans.
As they thought all of this, they clearly looked shocked and even felt reverence toward Ragnar for holding himself off the dragon egg despite all this.
There were people who felt threatened by this show of eggs, as if Ragnar wanted to show the might of their Drakethorne house. One of them was Veilcaster, one of the four grand ducal houses, equal to Drakethorne house, a family gifted with illusion-related class. Veilcaster patriarch's younger brother, Malrec Veilcaster, was present here, and he felt not one bit of staying after seeing such a display of grandeur.
"Tch, what good will a dragon egg do to a child who can't even walk?" Malrec Veilcaster muttered. He wore a fine black suit with red embroidered patterns and had flowing black hair, fair skin, a beautiful complexion, and a strong build that radiated a controlled aura. His narrow white eyes glinted as he spoke.
Noble, standing beside Malrec, glanced around the room, then leaned in and quietly said, "You are absolutely right, Lord Malrec. Why display this when all the others are present? They are clearly trying to show themselves as superior."
Malrec Veilcaster looked to the side to see a better look at the noble who was buttering him. The noble on the side was wearing a simple white suit; his complexion was thin, his face average-looking, and his short hair was not tidied properly. His face was brimming practically as he saw Malrec turning to him, and he felt that Lord Malrec would recognize his greatness.
"Haha, I hit the jackpot. I just need to keep making him feel better. Then I am all set," thought the noble beside him. He was the patriarch of a small barony and ruled with tyranny, caring nothing for the people.
Malrec's white eyes looked at the baron's eyes, and the baron felt himself unable to move, and his eyes felt lifeless. He bowed to Malrec and then withdrew to another location.
After reaching the other end of the hall, the baron felt himself returning to reality and was shocked to see that Malrec was not there, and even more shocked when he saw that he himself was not in his previously standing location. He shuddered and kept quiet for the rest of the banquet. Now, only he knew why grand ducal houses were so feared.
While all this was happening in the banquet, at the same time, on the terrace high above the banquet hall, Ragnar walked toward the throne, knelt on one knee, and lowered himself so his level matched his grandson's.
Shane hurriedly approached Ragnar and put his hand on Ragnar's shoulder. "Father, giving this to the baby will anger the dragons. We should return this to the dragons."
Ragnar shook away his son's hand and looked at him, knowing well enough what was going through his son's mind. "I know what you're afraid of, but worry not, this egg is not stolen from the dragon's continent."
Shane felt himself losing his mind at his father's words. If they weren't from the Dragon's continent, did this fall from the sky or not?
Shane said back, "Then where did you get this egg from?"
At this moment, the banquet hall had quietened, guests turning their heads and focusing on the father-and-son duo as they began to speak.
They were all too eager to know where this old man got the egg from, if not from Dragon's Continent.
Ragnar repeated his tale: "While I was patrolling at the border at night, a glowing orange gate appeared nearby. Judging it wasn't too dangerous, and that I could handle it alone, I approached and entered. Inside, I fought and quickly defeated the weak monsters. Advancing to the center, I discovered an enormous dragon's skeleton; only its bones remained, as if it had died long ago."
Ragnar got excited at this point. Despite all his experience, he wasn't able to hold himself at this point, as his eyes lit up, and he said, "There at the center was a dragon egg. "
At this point, Shane finally breathed, as it wasn't unheard of getting monster eggs from gates, as people are used to making contracts with monsters as their familiar.
"Tch, lucky bastard", Malrec was not happy with how lucky this old man was. If this egg was from the dragon's continent, then the dragon would surely come back to take it, but if it was from the gate, then they won't have much say on it.
Merchants at the banquet felt gold fall from their eyes as they listened to this tale. Indeed, this dragon's egg is full of gold if they could get their hands on it. But they stopped themselves from any rash thoughts, knowing well enough of the power of Drakethorne's house.
Sera Azurestorm and Nyra Blackheart, listening to this tale, finally breathed a sigh of relief. They were happy that Alex was getting a dragon's egg, but before, they were worried that dragons could come at any time to take revenge and bring their egg back. But now, they knew it was from the gate, they could finally rest at ease.
This time, no one stopped Ragnar, so Ragnar called Nyra Blackheart, his wife, and asked her to recite the magic spell that would bind this egg as Alex's familiar. A circle appeared around Alex and the egg, making the connection and the egg disappear into Alex's left hand and form a small tattoo of multiple colors and patterns that resemble a dragon's wings.