"Whew, You're so annoying sometimes."
Kalila stood firm and navigates the whole battlefield,
Real hasn't begun yet, the real threats are only beginning.
"Did you seriously have to hit me? I was genuinely worried."
Lodan stands up and pats the dusts off his clothes.
As Jiji went over to them, line of men surged forward like a breaking wave, their heavy footfalls drumming a steady rhythm against the pavement.
"We are under your disposal, I Reinhardt Jr. will serve with utmost royalty to my country."
The fierce young paladin intensely said, the young paladin seemed to be a fine warrior, leading a battalion at such a young age, Lodan could see the eyes of a true warrior in the boy.
It was a determination one couldn't see just anywhere.
The three realised how great the king that ruled this kingdom.
"Seems like I got to take this war seriously."
Lodan heads to the meeting camp, inside was
General Jule and his four strongest subordinates.
"Ah strong adventurers, you're all finally here, I've already been filled in with the necessary information i need to know about you three, so just ask me anything you wish to know."
General Jule pauses and threw a dragon carved green jade.
"This is my token, with this you can give orders to my army, and my four special trained masters will also be under your disposal, all of them have opened up their 4th tier mana threshold , they are on the level of platinum adventurers so they will surely be useful."
"Ah, no need, I, the brave Kalila wouldn't lose to a small army like you all did! KUAHAHAHA-KUHAHAHA! "
Kalila proudly claims, puffing out her chest, making Lodan could only applause in despair by Kalila's arrogance.
One by one, the soldiers lowered their weapons, eyes fixed on her, mind stirred by the shame in her words. Even amidst the scent of blood and sweat, silence fell heavier than steel.
"Dumbass."
Lodan could only mutter one word in silent due to embarrassment that is piercing him, while Jiji who was listening admired Kalila's bravery.
But seriously? It was just plain rude to the men who fought in the war.
"U-uhm, sister Kalila that's not something to be proud of."
Jiji whispered to Kalila.
"Eh, why? I'm just sayin'."
Jiji points to the soldiers who were listening at the side.
Upon seeing the expressions they had, made Kalila realise.
"Ah, it's that glare."
The gaze of the discouraged soldiers made Kalila's shoulder heavy,
Their glare were similar, am I going to be hated? Will they be ignoring me? How about Lodan and Jiji? I didn't really care if I have friends, but since having them... They are too precious to lose.
"I'm sorry, I misspoke, I'm not belittling everyone's courage."
Kalila bowed slightly, apologetic and low in tone.
Lodan was suprised and flabbergasted in the sudden change in personality, something was slightly different in Kalila, a very uncanny feeling shook Lodan.
When I got to know Kalila more, she seemed to show more side about her I don't know, Lodan thoughts to himself.
"Nah don't sweat it, it's true that my men were incompetent and reckless, so don't overthink their glare, their anger are temporary result of losing their comrades, so they naturally reacted when you said that."
The general brushes it off and points on the map.
"The enemy camp is definitely on this exact location according to a spy we planted in their camp, would any of you three be willing to sneak in and gain info on their goal?"
"I'll do it, I want to show that my will to help the kingdom is pure and truthful."
Kalila said, regaining the lost courage of the men who stood in silence.
"Good! good!"
The General gives Kalila the map marked with the target location.
"I'll leave it to you then, goodluck."
The general pats on Kalila's shoulder two times before leaving the camp and heading to his sleep.
"Honestly, It would have been better if you acted this polite from the start."
Lodan sarcastically said, Kalila stomped his feet making him groan in pain.
"T-to be honest, sister Kalila is pretty unique and kind despite her aggress- I mean her rebelliou- ah no, that's not the right word!"
Jiji said, troubled by the right word for her sentence she rubs her head aggressively while Kalila hugged her tightly.
"Hmph, Jiji gets me, you are just jealous, bleh."
Kalila said in a mocking tone, making Lodan a bit pissed off.
"What's there to be jealous of!? The only thing you have is your pretty fac- no wait I mean your UGLY FACE!"
Jiji and Kalila was stunned, slowly backing away from Lodan.
He just fell to the ground, full of embarrassment from the incident.
"Fuck, now im branded as a simp."
Lodan laid down on the wine barrel and just slept.
Kalila went to her hut with Jiji and jumped at the
pallet in excitement, the two naturally became close in a span of 3 days.
"Ah right! In 2 days I'll have my 320th birthday, Let's celebrate it together!"
Kalila excitedly held Jiji's hands.
"Wow! Birthday, that's grea- no wait! 320th birthday!?"
Jiji said with shocked expression.
Did she not hear the conversation back with the king and queen?
Kalila thoughts to herself
"Yeah, I'm a dragon that's why."
Kalila grins, confirming her race.
"Woah, cool! So you're a dragon too? You're as strong as me despite being so young!"
Jiji said exciting by the new discovered fact delivered by Kalila.
"Fufufu, that's right- WAIT TOO? Are you also a dragon?"
Kalila was flabbergasted with her eye wide open.
"Hehe, yeah! I'm 2507 years old, so you're actually my Lil' sister, I'm glad!"
Jiji hugs Kalila with sibling like atmosphere, squeezing her tightly.
"Would've been a better situation if I'm the big sister instead."
Kalila muttered for herself quietly.
"R-right."
"I'll do my best to be a big sister!"
Jiji uses her magic and pops out clothes out of nowhere.
"W-what, how did you do that."
"Huh? You don't know how to create?"
Jiji was shocked and shook Kalila's shoulders.
"Is it a big deal that I don't know?"
"Y-yeah, you have 16 thresholds in your body yet you're clueless about creation, then do you atleast know any 9th cycle magic spell?"
"Well yeah, Ice apocalypse is my one and only 9th cycle spell."
Kalila looks at Jiji, curious of what she's frustrated about.
"U-uhm, how do I explain this abnormality, somehow you are able to use 9th cycle magic spell without knowing how to control your mana spirit inside your thresholds."
Kalila looked at Jiji confused.
"Thresholds again? I'm fed up with that."
"Meaning! You can cast 9th magic spells without any huge amount of mana or mana spirits! That's an amazing feat!"
Kalila looks at Jiji and proudly took in her praise.
"Hm, of course, I'm a genius dragon... But what is mana spirit anyway?"
"Ah right, if you don't know what's a threshold is then you naturally don't know what's mana spirit is either."
Jiji sat infront of Kalila as they continue their conversation.
"Well I'm not great at explaining but, mana spirits are the mana in the air that you compress to the soul, mana spirits are 10 times denser than normal mana so it's harder to store inside our threshold, but of course, it's also 10x stronger so it's worth the trouble getting."
"That's pretty interesting, so if I add mana spirits onto my soul then I gain more thresholds and my max mana spirits will increase too? Same thing the queen said but you have more knowledge about it."
Kalila said, her eyes glimmering with interest on the topic.
"Haha, I've lived thousands of years in human world, I've learned alot, both dragon and human knowledge."
"So, how many threshold do you have?"
Kalila curiously asked.
"O-oh, it's not much... I have 125 thresholds."
Jiji humbly answered.
Kalila froze, the air in the small hut suddenly feeling heavy as Jiji's words hung between them. Sitting cross-legged on the thin pallet, she felt the rough fabric beneath her fingers.
" W-what now? A HUNDRED AND TWENTY FREAKIN FIVE!? ahem, 7 times more than my threshold huh, not bad."
Kalila was frustrated and dumbfounded.
"Well dragons are different from humans, we develop a new threshold every 20 years, alot slower than humans who can gain a threshold in pretty much 6 years max, but of course we are pretty much in advantage, cuz we are practically immortals, when given enough time, no humans could possibly beat us."
"Right I forgot a dragon's age is absolute, but what if I invent a way for dragons to do the same as humans, just imagine a dragon getting a new threshold every 6 years!"
Kalila said full of excitement.
"T-that would break the balance, I suggest you do not lil' sis."
Jiji's brow furrowed, her gaze dropping to the worn edges of the pallet as the weight of Kalila's suggestion settled over her, she shifted restlessly.