"The match is decided."
Arygos, who had returned to Wyrmrest Temple at some unknown point, looked expressionlessly at Kalecgos, whose face was filled with indignation and frustration.
"Kalec, what kind of nonsense are you up to now?"
The relationship between Arygos and Kalecgos was somewhat delicate.
As a new generation Blue Dragon hatched after the War of the Ancients, Kalecgos had been pampered by the entire flight since the moment he showed talent. Many regarded him as the hope and representative for the Blue Dragons' revival.
For the Blue Dragons, who had faced the crisis of near-extinction, obtaining talented new blood was naturally a blessing.
However, the clan's excessive doting had turned the little fellow into a lawless troublemaker from a young age—he even dared to be insolent to Arygos' face, despite the latter being a Blue Dragon Prince.
To maintain his royal dignity, Arygos—unlike the other doting clansmen—maintained a majestic and stern attitude toward Kalecgos most of the time.
But well...
"Arygos, don't be so harsh. Kalecgos is still a child."
These words came from Saragosa. Before Arygos could harden his face to scold Kalecgos for his antics, the Blue Dragon Consort silenced him with a sentence that made Andreas' brow twitch.
Andreas, currently in a sour mood, stepped heavily on Kalecgos' head before using the momentum to leap off his body.
"Consort Saragosa, as an outsider, I shouldn't meddle."
Seeing the overly indulgent smile on Saragosa's face as she looked at Kalecgos, Andreas frowned after reverting to his original form and said, "But I must offer a word of reminder to you and the entire Blue Dragonflight."
"A doting mother breeds a failure. I've said my piece."
Andreas' remark caused a shift in Arygos' gaze—it was the relaxed look of someone who had finally found a sense of validation.
Unfortunately, Saragosa didn't take Andreas' words to heart at all. In her mortal form, she casually waved her hand and intended to walk over to Kalecgos to offer comfort.
BOOM!
An adult Bronze Dragon descending from the sky froze the smile on Saragosa's face. Kalecgos, who was significantly smaller, was helplessly pinned by his head into the snowfields by the Bronze Dragon's claws.
"Chronormu! What do you think you're doing!"
Saragosa's shriek echoed across the wilderness. A flickering, playful smile vanished from Arygos' face before he immediately straightened his expression to hold back the agitated consort.
Chromie pinned Kalecgos under her foot with ease. Ignoring Saragosa's warning, she cast a disdainful glance at the struggling Blue Dragon whelp in the snow.
"You disgrace to the dragonkind. With such pathetic strength, you actually dared to be arrogant and underestimate your enemy? You'd better get ready; I'm definitely going to spend some time teaching you what real dragon dignity is."
Chromie's act of defying authority to forcibly "educate" the youngster earned Andreas' silent respect. He even began to suspect that if Kalecgos didn't grow up to be completely crooked in the future, it might be entirely due to the supervision of this "Great Demon King" Chromie.
...
After the chaotic scene, the dragons who had finished watching the show returned to their respective duties, feeling the excitement had dwindled.
While Saragosa had previously looked like a mother hen protecting her chick, she quickly snapped into a professional state once the topic shifted to official business.
"Andreas, are you certain that bringing Sindragosa's remains back to Dragonblight for burial will improve Malygos' condition?"
"I'm not certain."
Andreas didn't make any rash, chest-thumping guarantees. "I'd say there's a 50% chance. I've already told you the potential consequences of failure. The choice depends entirely on the decision of the Blue Dragonflight."
Since this concerned the future of Malygos and even the entire flight, Saragosa couldn't make up her mind for a moment.
Kalecgos, who had just been dealt with by Chromie, still couldn't control his sharp tongue. The adolescent whelp made a snide remark from the side.
"Let's just take the gamble. The Dragon King is already in that pathetic state anyway; how much worse could it—"
"SHUT UP!"
Arygos rose in a fit of rage. Usually elegant and refined, he now looked extremely infuriated as he pointed a finger at Kalecgos and scolded him harshly: "We are discussing the future of the King of the Blue Dragons, the future of our entire flight! You unedu—"
"Arygos!"
Saragosa was also displeased by Kalecgos' disrespectful comment, but she still cut off the curse that was about to escape Arygos' mouth.
"Mind your status and your bearing. You are a Prince of the Blue Dragonflight, not a commoner shouting in the streets."
A flash of displeasure crossed Arygos' eyes, but he suppressed his anger and bowed his head, murmuring an apology: "I'm sorry. I lost my composure."
Kalecgos raised his head triumphantly. "Hmph~ It's not like I'm wrong. A madman is a mad—Ugh!"
Chromie turned her head away as if nothing had happened, whistling while looking into the distance, as if the Blue Dragon who had just been slapped into the tower wall by a tail swipe had nothing to do with her.
This time, even Saragosa didn't speak up for Kalecgos. She gave a bitter smile and shook her head. "Perhaps we truly have been too indulgent with him."
Alexstrasza said in a deep, displeased tone, "Saragosa, I do not wish to hear Kalecgos speak so insolently again. If your flight cannot discipline him properly... then let Chromie handle his correction."
"Hmph~ Cough cough!"
Arygos gave a faint, subtle hum before masking it with a cough. "Getting back to the subject. From a personal perspective, I agree with bringing my mother back to the Azure Wing Rest for burial."
"My father is already in this state. No one knows when he will regain his sanity, to what extent he can recover, or the worst possibility... that he may never recover at all."
"Rather than continuing to let him spiral into madness, it's better to take the gamble as Kalecgos said. Perhaps using one 'poison' to combat another will truly lead to a breakthrough."
Nowadays, the major affairs of the Blue Dragonflight were decided through consultation between Consort Saragosa and Prince Arygos. After Kalecgos spoke up, Saragosa only hesitated for a moment before nodding in agreement.
"Then let it be so. The situation can't get any worse anyway. Let's gamble!"
...
When they set out to excavate Sindragosa's remains, Andreas, as the proposer, went along with them.
The temperature in Icecrown Glacier was even lower than in Dragonblight. Beneath this permafrost glacier flowed frigid seawater; the freezing winds blowing from the ocean were almost unbearable even for Andreas, who was accustomed to the temperatures of Winterspring and Dragonblight.
"It's a good thing I didn't bring Celeste along."
Sitting on Arygos' back and sniffing his nose, Andreas spoke with relief to Leticia, who was huddled into a ball beside him. "Otherwise, that cold-sensitive girl might have been frozen into a popsicle on the spot."
"Hiss~"
Leticia rubbed her hands together repeatedly. Arygos' high-speed flight stirred up a biting wind, so the two sitting on his back were naturally not having a very pleasant experience.
Fortunately, Arygos noticed their situation in time and cast a constant-temperature magic on both of them to ward off the cold.
"Sorry, I was distracted and didn't notice your condition."
Andreas smiled and patted the scales on Arygos' back. "Don't worry about it. I can understand the complicated state of mind you're in right now."
"We're here."
Alexstrasza, who was leading the flight, spoke in a somber tone. An unremarkable stretch of snowfield lay directly beneath her. A chilling aura made Andreas and Leticia shudder simultaneously.
Whoosh~
As the dozen or so dragons landed, the downdraft blew away much of the accumulated snow on the ice plain, revealing the frozen, blue-tinted lake surface beneath. The cold, grey-white dragon bones finally showed a glimmer of their presence.
Sensing the lingering resentment in the vicinity, Arygos spoke in a low, dejected voice to the bones beneath the ice: "Mother, we've come to take you home."