[Ouroboros' End]
The morning after the celebrations greeted Darganth in the form of an artificial sun flaring up at the center of the town. To his dismay, it was exactly that direction the window of their room was facing, with rays of light waking him, which was promptly accompanied by a pounding headache.
It took him a moment, but soon he gathered his thoughts enough to remember that he had slowed his metabolism, and with it his healing factor, shortly after their group had retreated to continue celebrating among themselves. Without it, the weak, for mortals designed alcohol the town had available wouldn't even have registered to him. Though on the flip side, it also meant that unlike with mana-enriched drinks, he could combat their consequences by simply undoing the suppression instead of having to rely on healing magic.
When the headache settled, Darganth let out a sigh of relief before finally sitting up. Taking care not to wake Allaire and Venrie, the former of whom was leaning her head again on his arm while the latter was squeezed in between him and Yldra, he let his gaze sweep through the room. At the first glance, he already noticed that Neandra and Serania were both already up and about.
Curious as to what they were doing, Darganth teleported out of bed. Turning around to make sure he didn't wake any of the other three, he dressed himself by conjuring clothes once he confirmed that to be the case before leaving their room in search of Neandra or Serania.
However, as he walked down the corridor, it wasn't either of the two he found first, but Enilla and Vorthos. Standing before the window overlooking the city, they were immersed in conversation when they noticed Darganth approach and turned toward him.
"Lord Darganth." Vorthos said, greeting him formally with a slight bow.
In contrast, Enilla was far more informal: "Morning."
Joining them at the window, he responded in kind, "Good morning."
As Darganth looked out over the town below along with these words, he found it still being covered in the remnants of the celebration, mainly those of the second day, meaning yesterday. On the day of the victory itself, all of it had been spontaneous. A few captured mythic ranks were spotted by the people as they were transported toward the only barracks that had methods to hold them. This had then resulted in tales of their victory spreading within hours, leading to a sizable crowd already having gathered by the time Darganth had arrived with the others of his group.
The reminder of the moment the mayor had approached them, insisting to be allowed to honor them, made Darganth's lips curl up in amusement. A not insignificant part of the entertainment he found in the memory came from Vorthos and Enilla behind the man, their expressions alone being enough for him to guess that the mayor had already convinced them and that they were already regretting it.
Considering all the ideas Darganth rejected, he could understand why. As much satisfaction as the knowledge that his name would be enshrined in the town's history through both a statue and its carving into one of the walls of the town hall brought him, there were limits. At the latest, these had been reached when the mayor proposed having the streets in any future expansions of the town not merely named after their group but shaped to resemble them. Not only did Darganth feel that it would be a useless honor, but he suspected that the effort to shape streets after his form would create a misshapen construct that had neither form nor function.
Thus, it had remained at a few statues, an engraving of their names, and grand promises of never forgetting their help. Well, that and an honor position in the parade that was quickly arranged for the day after the victory. And truthfully, Darganth found that to be the best honor the town had bestowed on them, even if his sister and Scalladras both disagreed.
For almost five full hours, whichever soldiers could be spared from the reestablished patrol lines across the wall and around the town marched along the main streets of the town, with the mythic ranks that weren't needed in the chase of the fleeing smugglers leading a formation of a few units each. On the sides of this marching column, citizens of the town had gathered to celebrate their victorious return, with flowers being rained down on them as they marched past the musicians playing songs written for victors of past wars all across the realm fragment with the text rewritten to fit the town's victory.
Though the town's history books would certainly remember this part of the parade, it nonetheless paled in comparison to the arrival of Darganth and their group. With him in the lead, the dragons among them, along with Neandra, had announced it with a flyover of the town. Having obscured their approach with an illusory shimmer in the air, their massive forms broke through the spell and faded into view just a few hundred meters away from the central tower and its artificial sun.
With them being this close to the town's main light source, the shadow each of them cast as they circled the structure fell across almost a quarter of the town at any moment. And when one of them had surged upward after finishing their lap around the tower, the next one already broke through the shimmer, circling the sun once before joining the others in hovering a good bit above it.
Darganth's moment of reminiscence was interrupted when Enilla's voice ripped him out of his thoughts.
"Now that you're about, has our daughter also finally woken up from the undoubtedly long night you all had?" Enilla asked.
"Not when I left our room. They probably wouldn't like it if you barged in, so I could wake her for you if you want." Darganth said.
Enilla looked surprised by the fact that Jennia was still asleep, with her eyebrows rising before she followed up on her question, "Then I'm surprised you're already up. What's the cause?"
Darganth briefly wanted to refute the implication of his laziness, though just as he was about to voice it, he paused. On second thought, he then had to admit he did relax quite a bit compared to the strict regimen he kept up before the war on Ikrus, where he had only ever slept as much as needed.
It wasn't to the extent it had been before his death, when training had become more of a recreational activity, but Irsyr's protection and recently also the discovery that he didn't necessarily have to simply age back into his full power had made him relax more, despite the fact that the latter should've provoked the opposite reaction. That wasn't to say he was slacking in his training, but as he thought about it, he felt like it was perhaps the most balanced approach he ever had to the topic, always having bounced around between both extremes in the years before he had outgrown even the primordials.
It was certainly something Darganth would revisit later, though for the moment he halted it there as he turned his attention back to Enilla. "I noticed that Neandra and Serania were already up while the others were still sleeping, so I went to look for the two instead of waking any of them."
"No idea where Serania is, but I last saw Neandra talking with Scalladras, so that might give you a lead for her."
"Ah, that explains why she's up already." Darganth said, remembering the plans they made after the meeting with the goddess, "Also means I'd probably only distract her if I follow."
"We were going to get breakfast in a moment. If you want, you can join us. Might even find Serania there." Enilla proposed in response.
Briefly considering it, Darganth ultimately shook his head. "I'll go and see if I can find anyone from the town's leadership. And I'll swing by the town square. Maybe Serania is mingling with the citizens, then I'll probably find her there."
"I wish you luck." Enilla said as he turned to leave, with Vorthos nodding and muttering 'same' a moment later.
"Thanks." Replying as he walked, Darganth vanished a step or two after speaking as he teleported toward the town square.
Arriving there in an instant, he kept walking as he let his gaze wander over the open space. Despite the early hour, hundreds of townsfolk were already moving across the town square. Some were crowded around the wooden stage that had been erected for the celebrations, already working on dismantling it again under the supervision of an officer of the guard. Though not a mythic rank, the man's uniform still drew the attention of the people crossing the plaza, resulting in a sizable crowd having gathered around him in a mixture of reverence and curiosity.
Ignoring the spectacle, Darganth turned to his destination as he closed in on the town hall. As he walked toward its entrance, he noticed one of the people already standing directly in front of it recognize him. With the man's eyes widened in response, the two people he was speaking with also turned toward Darganth out of curiosity.
"Lord Darganth." The man who had initially noticed him, and whom he now recognized as one of the mayor's advisors, greeted Darganth. "Your colleague didn't mention you'd also come to meet with the mayor today."
"My colleague?"
"The beastkin. She's meeting with the mayor right-" Darganth didn't hear the rest of the sentence as his interest in listening to the man ran out along with his usefulness for telling him whether the mayor was there, prompting him to simply teleport into the town hall.
First arriving in the office where he had met the mayor during their first conversation, he let his mana sense sweep through the building when he found the room to be empty. Locating Serania and the mayor two rooms over, he burst into their meeting by teleporting toward them.
As he suddenly appeared in the room, the mayor practically yelped in surprise and jumped back. Catching the foot of his stool with his leg, he almost fell backward in the process, only spared such due to Serania raising a hand and conjuring a burst of wind that pushed him back upright. She did this as little more than an afterthought, undoubtedly having sensed Darganth's sweep of the building and already turning toward the spot he teleported to the moment he arrived.
"Morning, my love." She said in greeting.
"Morning, dear. I see you found work to busy yourself with." Darganth responded.
"I was offering my help in case there was any cleanup still needed from the battle. Mayor Simon was just in the middle of giving me a list of things the town currently didn't have enough mythic ranks to take care of when you arrived."
"How come?"
"Allaire mentioned the idea yesterday and I was bored. So I thought, why not. Plus, it might help our reputation if the town looks unscathed from the war by the time we leave."
Her answer made Darganth chuckle. "You could, so why not is all the reasoning you needed."
Before the two could converse further, the mayor interrupted in shock, "You're going to leave?"
Throwing Serania a look that told her that they'd continue their conversation in a moment, Darganth turned to the slightly pale mayor. The information that they and their group were leaving had apparently shocked him even more than his voice had already let on, making Darganth want to roll his eyes at the nativity. The officer that had been with him when he first met the goddess' emissary had undoubtedly informed him of their plans, so it shouldn't have been totally unsurprising.
"We are. It's actually why I came here to meet with you. The goddess will undoubtedly already have some of her followers prepare to move here and establish a presence in the town, but that might only happen a few days after we leave."
Seeing the mayor's expression drop at the news, Darganth rolled his eyes. "I wasn't finished. Because we won't all be leaving at once, a few of my fellow dragons will finish up some matters in the wilderness. I'll leave a method to contact them in our mansion, so if something happens in those days, you can call them for help."
What Darganth left out was that Vagha and his group won't be staying in the wilderness for just a few days. With the smuggler group dissolved and the ogres being intent to be of continued use to Scalladras, there was no large group left that had any interest in it, so they were going to look at which of its resources could be exploited.
The mayor's relief was visible, with color returning to his face as he let out the breath he had been holding in. "The town thanks you for your continued generosity, Lord Darganth."