Late October, Darienne left for the Inner World. Before her departure, she reminded Kristen and Filomina to do their best, gifting them each a Dragontooth Sword to commend their devotion to their faith and their contribution to the Church of Moonlight.

The two accepted the gifts with a guilty conscience. They hadn’t actually sacrificed themselves for their faith; they had been thinking about nothing but romance.

If there was any outstanding contribution, well, Wayne did stand out quite a lot.

Darienne’s departure was a relief to many. Given her incredible power, she would be a great source of threat no matter where she was, not only for the enemies, but also for her own people.

Without the constant card games, Filomina could finally return to her office to work overtime.

An alliance of one older woman and three young women formed a battle front between Wayne’s residence, the High Reverend’s manor, and the Lando Estate, putting up a united defense against Anastasia and her machinations.

They would protect the purity of the Holy Maiden of Darkness!

Soon enough, Wayne heard the news from Vera and doubled over with laughter. To reward the mole, he gave her nine loads. Then, under the mole’s suggestion, the alliance invited Secretary Mona to join.

The iron wall stretching from Wayne’s residence, the High Reverend’s manor, Lando Estate, to the detective agency was impregnable.

They had this in the bag, for sure!

***

Close to November, Londan’s temperature dropped. Seizing the chance before the chill was here to stay, Wayne organized a trip to the beach via train, enjoying the wonderful view.

That was before Darienne’s departure, so she was there. She had no interest in swimming, though. She put a table on the sandy beach and dragged Wayne to play more cards with her.

Some time later, at the family banquet at Lando Estate, Wayne made sure to blush every time Veronica looked his way; though he had lost count of how many times he had attended a family banquet, and the occasion was nothing new, he did it out of the good habit of riling Veronica up.

(⁄⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄⁄)

Veronica could not resist the face. Every time she saw that blushing face, her fists itched. She shot him a vicious look, telling him to come to her to play human cannonball after dinner.

Not today, Wayne thought. There was something important to do.

He glanced at Auston, having the old man start the conversation. Auston leisurely picked up a napkin. When the meal came to an end, he took the family to the study for a meeting.

Megan stood inside the study, putting up a soundproofing barrier.

“The delegation of the Papal State came to negotiate with the Queen regarding the issue of Windsor’s religious landscape. Under my suggestion, the Queen permitted the Church of Heavenly Father to spread their Father’s glory...”

“The Church of Sun’s expansion is scheduled, too. We’ll soon contact the church.”

“Prussia has not expanded again since the declaration of war, but instead maintained a precarious balance with the Rus Federation. They stay out of each other’s way while reaffirming their control over the neighboring smaller countries, forcing them to pick sides.”

“Once the smaller countries fall in line, Prussia will deploy troops to Franc...”

“Recently, Windsor and Franc have seen mysterious underwater harassments along the shipping routes, most likely from Prussian submarines. They are good at that...”

“Next year, the war will officially break out!”

Auston told Wayne and Silvia about the political matters currently concerning the Buckingham Palace. Silvia was a High Reverend at the Church of Nature. Since the war would very likely involve clashes between the churches, Silvia had to learn about the current political landscape.

More important to consider were the open and under-the-table conflicts between the churches. Since both the Darkness Knight and the Death Knight were part of the family, Auston hoped that Silvia would resign as soon as possible for her Death Knight son.

It didn’t convince her. While Auston saw Wayne as the Death Knight, Silvia insisted that he was the Nature Knight. There was no wrong answer to the question.

Wayne nodded as he listened. The arrival of the Papal State’s delegation told him that Archibald and Kael had left Londan. He hadn’t been following up on that, and he wasn’t curious about Kael’s life in the Papal State.

Based on His Horniness’s way of doing things, Kael would surely be under great pressure in the Papal State. Perhaps the clergywomen were lining up to be graced by his sacred lance—he did have one, which bore Heaven’s stamp of quality to prove that it was made by angels.

There was no point in worrying about the Papal State not being able to find Kael his dream girls because of his unusual taste; His Horniness was definitely capable of doing that if he wanted to.

Once his family had digested the latest information, Auston continued, “Now, we’ll talk about our family matters. Silvia, you’ve been preparing to rank up to Legendary recently, haven’t you?”

“Why, any complaint?”

“No, I’m just worried about the curse of dragon blood.”

“Hmph!”

“Hah!”

Their aggressive flirting got on Wayne’s nerves. He interjected, “Master, Master Senna told me about the curse before she left. It’s not impossible to lift. Auston and I have been studying it and have established a solid research base with good clinical data. We can operate on you now.”

The clinical data mainly came from Juno.

Since the royal family’s fall, Juno had cut ties with Wayne, not even making a call out of courtesy. Thus, Wayne had one-sidedly confirmed Juno’s condition through the Pale Nest, making sure that she hadn’t experienced any side effects after the operation.

Cushing and Anastasia had also provided some data. The latter was emotionally stable and wouldn’t get strange ideas as long as they didn’t see each other, while the former continued to see Wayne as a good buddy even when they met.

Juno and Cushing proved that as long as they didn’t know who their actual object of faith was, their thoughts wouldn’t spiral out of control. They also proved that Senna’s and Anastasia’s voluntary falls were more or less connected to Wayne’s will.

Since he rejected Juno and Cushing, they felt nothing other than basic respect for him. Their faiths remained unchanged without disturbances.

Cushing was still a devout follower of the Goddess of Sun, and Juno, as a free mage, only believed in herself despite the skin of a fake angel.

As for Senna and Anastasia...

Wayne coveted their beauty. There was no denying it. It was because he wanted them to get closer to him subconsciously that they couldn’t control themselves.

Anastasia’s condition was a little better because while Wayne desired her, he also wholeheartedly respected her incredible integrity. Thus, her condition was still under control. Even after evolving through corruption for so long, she hadn’t yet lost control of herself and voiced her desire like Senna had done.

Finally, Wayne’s concern was alleviated. He and Auston agreed on an operation time and had Auston operate on Silvia as a medium so that the credit would go to him. It was an insurance in case the surgery failed.

As for Veronica’s surgery, Wayne had to operate on her personally, of course.

The two Dragonbloods were confused, but out of trust, they didn’t say much, only huffing in complaint. Silvia berated Auston for looking into the curse without consulting her and suspected that Wayne had approached Senna to learn how she had resolved her curse.

Tsunderes would never admit it when they were moved.

Expose them, and a beating would follow.

***

Underground base, Lando Estate.

At Wayne’s request, Megan had prepared two individual operating rooms with a strange mechanical device in between. The style resembled a heavy tank with multiple turrets[1].

The Pale Nest hid within it—a fact that only Auston knew about.

Veronica and Silvia were dressed in battle outfits made of drake scales. Under Nurse Megan’s instruction, they lay down on the operating tables.

Wayne, the main surgeon, put on medical gloves and gave Auston a look. Everything was ready. They could now begin.

Frowning slightly, Auston put a magic stone holding the energy of life in Silvia’s hand, while Wayne did the same with Veronica.

A great dragon needed to choose their evolution.

Dragons were powerful lifeforms with infinite possibilities. Their evolutions differed based on their faiths, such as Senna’s green dragon and Megan’s black dragon.

Auston had excluded the faith of Darkness for Silvia first. Though he was the Darkness Knight, his faith in the Goddess of Darkness wasn’t pure. Wayne agreed with the decision. Not only would Silvia be opposed to letting Darkness, which she resented, corrupt her faith, but Wayne would still say no even if she and Auston could accept Darkness.

The Goddess of Darkness had set Her eyes on Wayne. He could not afford to give the goddess another leverage against him.

Of course, the energy of life inside the magic stone was only a distraction. Wayne claimed that the energy came from the Nature Knight and was a divine power granted by the Goddess of Nature, making sure that Silvia and Veronica would evolve into green dragons with the same faith, but in truth, their evolutions would have nothing to do with Nature. Their green dragon forms would only be skin deep, while their evolutions actually stemmed from the Astral Plane.

Wayne had gained the knowledge from the Astral Plane and would transfer the knowledge to Silvia and Veronica through the Pale Nest.

“Master, according to Master Senna, dragon blood curses vary in manifestations, but the core problem is the blood’s traceability. All the branches created from generations of procreation originate from one single great dragon...”

“To prevent the great dragon from controlling its bloodline descendants, we must find a higher lifeform that is beyond the great dragon’s tampering or outright surpassing it.”

“Master Senna chose the Goddess of Nature. Since the two of you are Her disciples, too, you’re fine with the arrangement, aren’t you?”

Silvia was fine with it. She didn’t care as long as it wasn’t Auston’s fifty shades of black. Veronica was fine with it, too. No matter what she chose, Wayne would be the chosen knight of the faith, so it didn’t matter.

The operation began!

Wayne pretended to activate the machine. After he pushed a few buttons, several metal ropes clamped around Veronica’s limbs. There was even what resembled a respirator.

It looked mysterious and impressive.

Wayne knew corruption all too well and could easily lead Veronica down the evolution path of Astral life through the Pale Nest. The operation through Auston would be a little more complicated since his thoughts had to be the ones to lead Silvia’s evolution.

It was a measure to ensure Silvia’s motherly love for Wayne wouldn’t mutate from a failed operation. Although the chance was negligible, the safeguard should be in place.

With Wayne’s help, Auston succeeded in wrapping up Wayne’s power to guide Silvia to her evolution with his own thoughts.

The mother and daughter held the magic stones in their hands as tremendous energy of life flooded into their bodies. Veronica wasn’t yet near Gold rank, so she wouldn’t undergo too much change. Silvia was different. As soon as her evolution began, her body showed traits of a great dragon. Fine white scales emerged first before gradually turning green.

Wayne glanced at Megan, reading more into the green. It looked like a sign.

So when are you going to make a move? It won’t do to drag things on for too long!

Since both Silvia and Veronica were important to Wayne, the evolution progressed slowly to make sure that nothing would go wrong.

1. The raw references Multi Turret Academy, an indie game by a Chinese developer. Since it’s not a well-known reference, and this is only a generic description rather than a specific thing the author is referring to, I’ve chosen to rephrase it. ☜