Alberu was sitting at his desk. In front of him were various reports and recorded videos that had been captured by his knights.
The knights sent to the Tolz villa were the first to report back. The paper reports taken reported detail information of the destroyed mountain behind the villa.
Alberu was a little disheartened to learn that the tiny dragon had to save itself. He knew what kind of condition it was in thanks to that video that was sent anonymously. The only thing he knew about the person who had first sent him the files and recordings was that their symbol was a dead tree with yellow lights woven in the branches. His Aunt had no luck in tracing the symbol's origins so far.
Thanks to the dragon freeing itself, his knights had reason to go into the Tolz villa. What they found was shocking to everyone but Alberu. Inside the villa, in a secret room, were crates filled with various types of poisons and half of those were illegal to possess in the Roan kingdom.
The video that his knights had sent him, and he was thankful to have sent several mages with them, revealed a tiny black dragon riddled in scars. Black mana fluctuated from its tiny body, destroying the mountain until only a large crevice and leftover debris was all that remained. The dragon then turned toward the knights and Alberu wasn't hallucinating when he saw a wide, arrogant smirk transforming its features. Light from a teleportation circle appeared underneath it before it and the dragon dissapeared.
The other reports covered the raid on Marquis Stan's home and Venion Stan's secret property. They found several ties that connected Venion to the hitmen that crippled his older brother. Both of the Stans were also found connected to the Tolz and other illegal dealings.
A wide smile spread across Alberu's face. Two of his biggest–more like annoying–obstacles had been removed.
He tapped his finger against his desk. Now, who should replace the head of each family? He had leeway to interfere with that critical decision now.
. . . .
-"What are those?" The tiny, invisible dragon was pointing at a storefront window where different kinds of cookies were situated on plates inside a glass case.
"Cookies. Would you like to try some?" Cale didn't have to worry about answering the dragon out loud since Ron was standing by him, acting as a guard.
-"Yes! I mean. . .I will allow you to buy me some, human."
Cale brought his hand up to his mouth to hide his twitching lips from view. This cute little creature reminded him so much of his little brother.
In the two days that the dragon had been staying with him, the tiny creature had been able to try a variety of food, ranging from steaks, pork, ribs, different soups, multiple different kinds of vegetables, and sweets. The sweets that Beacrox had prepared for the growing child had been mostly cakes, pies, and tarts. This was the first time that the dragon was seeing cookies.
After Cale was certain he could control his expression, he entered the store. The invisible dragon was clutching onto his shoulder and Ron kept a close distance so that no one would accidentally bump into the tiny creature.
Cale walked up to the counter, looking at the types of cookies that the cafe provided. Most cafes offered a variety of sweets and not just one kind so this was new to Cale. "Hm, which one?" His voice was quiet and most would believe he was mumbling to himself, but he wasn't. The question was for the dragon.
-"I don't know which one to choose. They all look yummy." The dragon's once excited voice now sounded slow as he seriously contemplated his options.
Cale released a sigh, hiding his chuckle. He did not mean that the dragon had to literally only choose one. "I'll take one of each," he told the worker behind the counter in a clear voice.
-"That's too many! I only need one! That one! The chocolate one looks good!" The dragon whined in his mind, feeling shocked and overwhelmed.
"Would you like these for here or to go?" The worker asked him.
Cale was glad that he and Ron had dyed their hair with the brown mana gel that Felicity had created. Rumors about his recent drinking binge and random drunken outbursts had spread throughout Rain city since it was gossip about the Henituse family, especially since it was about the secluded first-born. It's not that he didn't mind the rumors, he wanted them, he just didn't want to ruin the dragon's shopping experience.
"To go."
One of each cookie was then individually wrapped and placed into a large box. The dragon's grip tightened on his shoulder by a small fraction. It seems as if he needs to spoil the youngling more for it to learn what it truly means to have pride and arrogance. Cale may not know much about dragons but he knew enough to know that they are prideful and arrogant creatures.
"What happened to that pride you displayed earlier?" Cale asked the invisible dragon once they were outside the cafe.
-"This is different! That is about money, human! You spend too much money!"
"That would be too much if one didn't have money, but I do. I have a lot of it," Cale told him smugly. Ron let out a small, snorted chuckle from behind them, also being privy to the dragon's conversation.
Once they reached a quiet street, Cale looked around. When he saw that no one was around in the immediate vicinity, he had Ron place everything they bought so far on the ground.
"Send everything to my room," he told the dragon. "You can try out everything once we return. For now, we have more shopping to do." A magic circle surrounded the packaged items and they were soon sent to Cale's room at the main estate.
Most of the bags contained sweets that the dragon wanted to try. The other half of the bags contained books on all the topics that the dragon wanted to learn.
"I did as you asked, human," the dragon said out loud, hope lacing his voice.
"Good." He then fished out a silver coin and handed it to the dragon. Cale believed in paying someone when they performed a job, he was also trying to teach the dragon to be hardworking and greedy for money. Probably a bad combination for a dragon if he seriously thought about it.
"Thank you, good human!" The dragon exclaimed as he took the coin and pocketed it in the spatial pouch tied around his neck on a navy blue ribbon that had onyx gemstones sewed into it.
The three of them walked around for a little while. They even stopped by the Secret Garden to check up on Marcus and Felicity.
Around lunch time, they stopped and bought some sandwiches. Cale led them over to a bench where they could eat.
"This is good," the invisible dragon said as he wolfed down two sandwiches. Cale was still eating his first one while Ron refused, saying that he would eat once they got back to the estate.
"Human?"
"Yes?" Cale had already given up in trying to get the young dragon to call him by his name.
"Why does this part of the city look so much different?"
Cale didn't need to look around him to know what the dragon was asking about. The buildings in this area were shabbier and the ground was not as well maintained as in the heart of the city, where they were earlier in the day. "We're close to the slums."
"What are slums?"
"Slums are what we call the poorer part of a city. It is the area where the poor, the homeless, and the vagrants dwell. The Henituse territory has the least homeless and poor because of the lower tax rate and the way that my father rules over the territory. You will see a lot of citizens from other territories fleeing to the Henituse territory to avoid the higher tax rates."
". . .Oh." He didn't need to see the dragon to know that it was looking down at its spatial pouch. "Is there a way to help them?"
"I am helping them. When I opened up the tavern, I scouted my employees from the slums and those who wanted a job went through training with Ron and Felicity." During the war with White Star, he learned how easy it was for someone to become poor and homeless. "It would be difficult to help them all out, especially when they need to want to help themselves in the first place. All I can do is to help them little by little while my family provides them with a better environment to live in."