Sometimes, Riley really hated being right.

This soon?

They couldn’t even pretend to wait a little longer?

Did they not care how desperate this made them look?

Ugh.

It had only been a few days since Malrik had been dealt with, and they were already here.

"Three hours," Riley said, glancing toward the orb. "They’ve been there for three hours?"

He looked at Kael, who was seated at his desk, eyes fixed on the magical display.

The scene was chaotic.

"Allegedly" dignified dragons were making a ruckus in the lobby, their voices raised, their presence loud enough to be felt even through the orb.

Sure, they didn’t dare use their abilities, knowing Kael would use that as an excuse to get rid of them, but they were clearly trying to intimidate their way in.

"And they’re still insisting on seeing you and the red dragon?" Riley asked.

"Yes," Kael replied without looking away. "It’s exactly as you expected."

Riley huffed softly.

"Not exactly. I thought they’d at least wait a bit longer before showing up like this," he said, rubbing his face. "But coming this soon? That, by itself, looks like a confession of guilt to me, really."

His expression darkened.

"It’s better if we keep turning them away for now. The moment they get access to any of us, they’ll start pointing fingers."

A pause.

"And that won’t look good for you or father-in-law."

"I don’t mind," Kael said flatly. "I never really wanted this position to begin with."

His gaze remained on the orb, watching the annoying dragons he was, unfortunately, obligated to protect.

The perceptive ex-human noticed his mate’s annoyance and melancholy and figured someone needed cheering up.

He stepped closer without hesitation and reached out, pulling Kael into a loose embrace, one hand resting over his head.

"You don’t have to concern yourself with them," Riley murmured. "As the dragon lord, you may have been tasked with watching over the dragon clan, but I don’t think that should include dragons who can readily harm their own kind."

He leaned slightly, his tone turning casual.

"If we end up taking them out and the dragon population drops, then we’ll just replace them."

Kael finally looked at him.

Brows furrowed.

"...What?"

"You heard me. Worst case scenario, we’ll just repopulate the clan," Riley repeated, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Since they’re this annoying, we might as well replace them with ones that are a little bratty and maybe even noisy, but definitely not repulsive."

He shrugged lightly.

"At least like that, we’d actually feel motivated to keep the clan going."

Kael blinked once.

Then again.

Just to make sure he heard that correctly.

He shook his head and clicked his tongue.

"You talk a big game," he muttered, "but I’m not even sure you’d actually want to follow through with that." 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Riley only smiled.

He leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to Kael’s forehead.

"It’s not impossible," he said lightly. "And I think you have enough stamina for it, Honey."

His fingers slid through Kael’s hair, tucking a few strands behind his ear. The small gesture lingered, gentle and familiar, and Riley couldn’t help the quiet satisfaction that came with seeing the tension ease just a little.

"So... that Malrik," he continued, his tone shifting, "that lonely bastard loved himself enough to leave behind plenty of notes."

A faint smirk appeared.

"So let’s give these dragons some time to dig their graves deeper before we show them just how detailed their accomplice really was."

The golden dragon who seemed to be feeling a bit better, glanced at him.

"Have you finished going through everything from the Nest?"

"Not yet," Riley admitted with a sigh. "More than the documents, we’ve been dealing with the dragonlings."

His expression dimmed slightly.

"I couldn’t exactly face their parents as your publicly human aide and mate, so I focused on talking to the children. They started out a little handful, but after realizing they’ve been had, they became more cooperative when giving their statements."

He ran a hand through his hair.

"As for the rest, Lord Karion handled handing them over to their registered guardians."

Kael hummed softly.

"As you could imagine, there’s been a bit of resistance," Riley added. "Some dragons kept insisting they couldn’t possibly take care of a youngling."

He paused, because it really was absurd—but dragons had always been odd like that. Their version of being maternal had been different from the moment they were created, so in a way, it wasn’t entirely surprising.

If only more and more dragons valued their young like the Dravaryns.

"But father-in-law didn’t budge, so in the end, we’ve managed to send them back regardless."

Still—

Riley’s gaze lowered slightly.

"That doesn’t solve the real problem."

The golden dragon lord raised a brow.

"Still?"

"Yeah," Riley said. "In the end, we’ll need something to replace that institution. Or at least someone trustworthy enough to run it."

His tone grew more thoughtful.

"At least until we figure out a better system that wouldn’t take a hundred years just to help them integrate into society."

The ex-mortal and former student didn’t think being stuck in what was essentially a boarding school for a hundred years would result in happy children.

At the same time, he understood that Orien—even as a kind baby—couldn’t be left to his own devices. Not because the dragonling was inconsiderate, but because he was simply too powerful for others to handle.

Being strong was never something Orien should apologize for, and in a perfect world, it shouldn’t even inconvenience him. But increasing everyone else’s strength just wasn’t a feasible solution, so there was that...

Therefore, the best they could do was find a workable compromise.

Unfortunately, he would have to come up with something, because the dragons around him weren’t exactly pro-school.

They either blew up—err, bypassed the Nest entirely, or breezed through it.

Not exactly model students he could use as examples to everyone else, so yep...

"Tch."

Kael, realizing that this was likely going to be more work for his mate was clearly irritated by the idea.

Riley caught the distaste immediately and just shook his head, amused.

Then, to lighten the mood, he straightened slightly, letting the topic drop.

"But enough about that," he said. "I heard you burned out the mana of the red dragon?"

"Yeah. There was no other way since he wasn’t exactly lucid."

"Oh..."

"But after shifting into human form... he still hasn’t woken up?"

The golden dragon thought there was no room to be picky when that one was already fortunate enough to be alive at this point.

Moreover, instead of being locked away in a dungeon for what he’d just done, he was out there sleeping in an actual bed.

Of course, it could be argued that he hadn’t truly injured anyone, but so many others had died for far less.

"He should wake up any time now," Kael said. "His condition hadn’t been great to begin with. And aside from being impossible to reason with, his mana went out of control when he fully transformed so we really had no choice but to exhaust him into forced slumber."

That was also the main reason why Riley hadn’t been able to go visit him right away. It wasn’t because he couldn’t stand being in the same room as him.

If anything, it was the opposite.

He’d asked to see him a while back, but Kael had already warned him. Dragons were just too sensitive in that state.

To be fair, Riley, as a dragon, thought they were sensitive to everything all the time anyway.

But apparently, there was still a particular state where introducing another mana signature into a closed space—especially one as strong as his—would trigger defensive reactions.

Even if Riley could suppress his presence better now, it wasn’t worth the risk, especially when it was pointless. The dragon they had hauled was unconscious anyway.

They wouldn’t be able to talk, so it was better to focus on the other things his workaholic mate could knock off their ever-growing list.

"But here," Kael said, handing him a folder.

A very human-looking one.

Not a parchment or some roll?

"You should look at this. It came from his secretary."

Riley blinked, taking it.

Well, that explains the presentation.

"Miss Lee?" he asked.

Kael nodded.

"She said she couldn’t help with anything regarding his identity as a dragon. But she provided everything she had on him as a human."

The woman went on to explain that she could only do this because she was certain her boss’s company was clean and well-managed, and she hoped it would help prove that everything had likely been just an accident.

Riley glanced down at the folder, still a bit surprised by the amount of courage that would have taken.

Then he opened it.

Flipped through the cover.

And—

"Huh?!"

The exclamation was more than enough to catch the dragon lord’s unbridled interest.

"What?"

But instead of answering immediately, the black dragon simply stared at the documents like they had personally dumbfounded him.

"Kael... this guy..."

He looked up.

"You don’t remember him?"

The golden dragon whose memory was suddenly being challenged frowned slightly.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," Riley said, tapping the page, "I don’t know what he looks like right now with all the damage and dirt, but if it really is the same guy as the one in this photo... then we’ve seen him before."

A pause.

Kael’s confusion didn’t lessen.

"...?"

Riley leaned back slightly, still staring at the file.

"This was the banana milk guy."

A beat.

"The one who got extorted."

"What?" Kael repeated.

This time, he actually sounded lost.

"Banana milk...?"

"...Extortion???"