But Riley figured this payback wouldn’t be quite satisfactory until he did something about this guy’s intended legacy.

Yes. Legacy.

Not that someone like him deserved to leave anything behind, but at the very least, Riley wanted to make sure that whatever remained... was something he controlled.

Someone so prideful, malicious, and delusional cared so much about perception, that more than his magical abilities, he had actually weaponized influence.

Riley’s jaw tightened at the thoughts that gripped him.

Just how many children did he accuse of running away?

How many dragon clans had he ostracized in the same manner while telling grieving families that their children had run away when that was further from the truth?

If Riley hadn’t managed to encounter Orien when he did, what would’ve happened to that little duckling?

Wouldn’t that write-off on that blasted ledger include a worse note than "Relocated"?

The black dragon didn’t even want to think about it anymore and focused on ending this so he could go and comfort the children.

Moreover, if he continued using blood magic for even longer, Kael might just take care of the issue for him.

Therefore, Riley went to town.

He leaned slightly toward Kael, pitching his voice just high enough to carry through the stunned crowd.

"Honey, I don’t understand..."

His tone was confused. Curious.

"Why does he look like that? I’ve seen dragons before, but I’ve never seen one that looks so... wrong."

He gestured vaguely toward the subdued red dragon pinned nearby. "Even looking at him for a comparison, the eyes alone are oddly different."

"...Is that really what a dragon is supposed to look like?"

Malrik could barely hear the words through the roar of blood in his ears.

He was having an internal meltdown, frantically trying to convince himself that he was fine and that Riley was just talking shit.

Those words, they were just noise.

That one was just saying anything and everything to rile him up.

Wasn’t that a tactic he had also used before? So yes. This was nothing. A simple bump in his definite flower path.

But then as seconds ticked by, something felt wrong.

He tried to access the seal he’d temporarily placed on himself to avoid leaking his draconic tendencies, but panic began to set in.

There was no response.

He tried it again, desperate as he fought the restraints binding him, not realizing that at this point the same restraints had already loosened.

Malrik’s breath hitched when he once again got nothing.

His breathing turned shallow and uneven, his chest tightening. He was on the verge of hyperventilating—no matter how hard he pushed with his mana, the seal wouldn’t budge.

Oddly enough, he finally felt the invisible restraints holding him prisoner vanish. After all, it couldn’t be helped when he lost all his balance.

With his legs mangled and his strength drained by whatever that abomination of a human had done, Malrik practically fell into a pathetic heap within the bubble that encased him.

His hands shot to his throat, clawing at it as he tried to scream.

Nothing.

His eyes bugged out, his fingers scratching frantically at his own chest as if he could physically tear away the seal Riley had placed there.

He couldn’t accept it.

Ironically, for someone who had successfully sealed a red dragon into a human shell, he weirdly couldn’t process the possibility that someone else could do the same to him.

Riley must be a demon.

A warlock.

An undead.

Anything but a dragon.

He simply couldn’t be a dragon, especially as Malrik found himself unable to transform into one. At this point, he didn’t care about the consequences anymore; he just wanted to prove his nature.

Then he heard the human gasp in realization. "All this time... Had the Chancellor been deceiving the dragonkind?"

"!"

That finally caught Malrik’s attention.

He looked down to see the smiling aide, whose expression had shifted into one of deep contemplation. Malrik looked at Kael, wanting to scream at him to listen, but what he saw on the dragon lord’s face wasn’t just anger.

It was disgust.

Malrik was taken aback by the sheer weight of that loathing.

"You," Kael said, his tone measured but vibrating with a pissed off energy. "If you want your chance to explain, then you better transform into a dragon right this moment."

Malrik felt every single eye on him.

All those judgmental, lowly eyes looking down on him!

He was a dragon for heaven’s sake!

He was a fucking dragon!

How dare they—

He went mental internally.

His rage surged.

His mana spiked.

Malrik kept on pushing against the seal again and again in desperation, trying to force the transformation.

Trying to prove that he was truly the majestic dragon that he was.

But unbeknownst to him, he sure was transforming. It was just that he didn’t notice the change in his size, the scales becoming slick, and green or the way his nose was flattening to form the very face he’d been trying to avoid.

He was morphing more into a hydra with every second of his fury.

But in all that, all he could think about were his grievances. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

How dare these low-lives question him?

How dare they trust the words of a demon like Riley?

Even if Malrik beheaded everyone here, so what?

Dragons were meant to rule Eryndra, and Kael shouldn’t be punishing them for the sake of creatures who shouldn’t even exist in the same space.

He slammed his mana against the seal again and again, wanting to show everyone his true form and silence them all.

Well, in a sense, he did.

Because soon enough, Kael, as if bored over the matter entirely, muttered, "A hydra, all along."

What?!

No!

NO!

"I’m a dragon! Kael! A dragon!"

The scream finally ripped from a throat that surprisingly worked. Malrik shocked himself, his own voice ringing out across the square.

But just as he almost rejoiced at this feat, he made a mistake of looking at Riley.

On the human’s face was a shit-eating grin.

"...!"