When Lance was young, the Empire where he lived was torn by war, and he lost his family while fleeing as a refugee.
At that time, Lance was just over five years old, having to dig up grass roots to eat, and also having to guard against humans and wild beasts eating him. At that time, humans were no different from wild beasts; everyone was so hungry that they could eat each other.
Arriving at a large city, Lance mingled with the beggars, hoping to beg for a bite to eat, and was beaten half to death by the older beggars many times.
At the age of ten, Lance heard that Count Cornic’s family needed to hire a young boy to serve the young master. He used all his savings to rent an expensive tailored suit, bathed cleanly and groomed himself neatly, then bought a fake identity document, making up a clean background for himself to apply for the job.
Seeing that he was pretty and seemed smart, the Cornic family’s butler agreed to hire him after checking the document, leading him before Count Cornic’s family. That was the first time Lance got to eat white bread and drink hot milk.
Young Master Cornic was four years younger than him, but the boy’s body was twice as big as Lance’s. He was a little devil, who lacked no methods to physically torment Lance on normal days. However, he still patiently worked at the Cornic household for four years.
He was fourteen years old, well-fed, and grew increasingly beautiful; Count Cornic’s gaze looking at him also became increasingly murky. Finally, in the year he turned exactly fifteen, the Count extended his claws towards him.
That day, the Madam and the young master both went to visit relatives. Count Cornic called him privately into the study, and had people guard outside. He endlessly coaxed and threatened Lance, and even reached out to grope all over Lance’s body. Lance pretended to comply, then, catching the Count off guard, grabbed a solid gold candlestick base and repeatedly smashed it into his head.
The Count didn’t even have time to utter a sound before twitching a few times and stopping breathing. Lance immediately opened the mansion’s window, jumped down from the second floor, then climbed over the wall, and ran away into the night.
That very night, the Security Department lit up torches brightly, searching every nook and cranny in the city, not even sparing the beggars’ dens. Lance hid in the stinky underground sewer for a whole night. The next day, he stealthily stole a set of women’s clothes drying in front of a family’s door, changing out of the neat servant clothes of the Cornic household, wanting to find a way out of the city.
Unfortunately, his wanted posters were pasted everywhere, and leaving the city required a pass. Lance was truly out of options, so he had to hide in a corner to find another way.
In a deserted alley, while he was hiding in the corner of a wall, a drunkard staggered in. His eyes were glazed over, and seeing a woman hiding in the corner, he smiled despicably. As soon as he opened his mouth, the stench of alcohol rushed out:
"Oh my, which brothel did this woman escape from? Let’s see, come serve me, and I’ll give you a life of luxury."
Saying so, his entire smelly body lunged forward, wanting to pounce on Lance. From the moment the man walked in, Lance had already prepared a rock in his hand. He did not hesitate to smash it onto the drunkard’s head. Not knowing whether it was because he was too drunk or because he was knocked out by Lance, the drunkard immediately lay stiff on the ground.
Lance immediately dragged the man into a hidden corner, then stripped off the drunkard’s clothes and put them on himself, retrieving the pass from the man’s inner pocket.
He shook his hair until it was messy, and smeared quite a bit of dirt on his head to make it really dirty. Holding the crumpled pass, he staggered out of the dark alley. He intentionally walked crookedly, crumpled a few more edges of his shirt, and mumbled a few obscene curses exactly like that drunkard.
At the city gate, the guards were holding torches and wanted posters, scrutinizing everyone. Seeing a smelly person reeking of alcohol and sewer water dragging himself over, the guard disgustedly used the shaft of his spear to push him away:
"Walk properly! Where is your pass?"
Lance intentionally hiccupped, blowing the disgusting smell of alcohol straight into the guard’s face, his hand trembling as he held out the paper. The guard was almost made to vomit by the stench. He hastily glanced at the torn paper, then looked at Lance’s blackened face and muddy, matted hair, irritably waving his hand and cursing:
"Damn it, get lost quickly, what bad luck!"
Lance bowed his head, obsequiously saying yes, and dragged his feet past the city gate. As soon as he was out of sight of the guards and the torchlight, his staggering footsteps immediately became steady. He threw away the empty wine bottle and ran for his life into the forest not far away.
Escaping from the Lowell territory, Lance wanted to go through the Dark Forest to reach another city. However, he didn’t expect that the neighboring cities also had his wanted posters, and there were even mages from the Holy Temple standing guard and scanning. All disguise tricks had nowhere to hide in front of them.
Lance had no other choice but to hide deep in the forest to evade capture. However, for a fifteen-year-old boy to live in the dense forest was extremely difficult. Lance also gradually learned how to fight magical beasts to get food.
In his second month of wandering in the forest, Lance was unlucky enough to run into a pack of starving Blood Wolves.
Driven to the edge of the Meteor Abyss, below was a pitch-black, bottomless chasm, and in front was a pack of wolves baring their fangs and drooling. Lance tightly gripped the blunt sword he had picked up on the road, his eyes as fierce as a small beast driven to a dead end.
Falling into the abyss might mean death, but not jumping down would definitely mean death. Lance did not hesitate to choose the former. His small body plunged straight down into the abyss, wanting to rely on the blunt sword to find an anchor point on the cliff face.
Clang!
The sword managed to stab into a crevice on the cliff, but the body’s momentum caused Lance’s entire body to swing forward, violently crashing into the hard rock face, coughing up a mouthful of blood. It seemed his ribs were already broken.
Lance’s blood dripped down, acting as if touching the surface of water, creating ripples of waves in the air. The space around Lance suddenly twisted. A pitch-black rift tore through the air right where he was, sucking him inside.
When he opened his eyes, Lance found himself lying in a cold stone ruin, floating amidst the endless void. This was the inheritance coordinates of an Almighty Grand Mage from ancient times. There was no way out; all around were only countless magic books, magic crystals, and a spring of magic power that sustained life.
Since he couldn’t get out, Lance had to grit his teeth and stay. The dirty human boy began days of frantically studying and cultivating spatial magic in extreme solitude.
Three hundred long years passed.
The sky on the outskirts of the Empire one day suddenly cracked open a black hole. A young man around twenty-one or twenty-two years old, with a cold, ethereal, and devastatingly beautiful appearance, wearing a black cloak, leisurely stepped out.
The stars had changed and destinies had shifted; several hundred years had passed. His former stopping place had turned into desolate ruins, and no one remembered the lowly servant who dared to kill the Count in the past anymore. Lance suddenly felt a bit lost, not knowing what to do next.
He began a journey traveling all over the Illusory Dream Continent to collect magical materials, as well as to enjoy the life that he had never been able to enjoy before. Year after year, day after day, the people he used to know returned to the arms of the Gods one by one. Lance felt that this life was truly meaningless. He started considering finding a place to live in seclusion.
And then, he met Arthur.
At that time, Lance sensed an intense spatial fluctuation emitting from a giant cave, so he directly used teleportation magic to go inside.
As a result, right after stepping out of the array, what struck his eyes was a mountain of gold, silver, and jewels that blinded the eyes. On top of that mountain of gold, a giant dragon with golden scales was curled up, snoring loudly.
Lance’s magical fluctuation immediately woke the giant dragon. Arthur irritably opened his eyes, which were as large as bronze gongs, and discovered that a tiny human had dared to trespass into his lair. The giant dragon let out a heaven-shaking and earth-shattering roar. Opening his enormous mouth, a bright golden flame carrying destructive power had condensed in his throat, ready to burn the audacious intruder to ashes.
Lance did not change his expression at all. He raised his hand, and a transparent spatial barrier was immediately erected in front of him. At the same time, his other hand had condensed countless Void Blades, ready to butcher this dragon for its scales.
However, before the flame in the giant dragon’s mouth could be spewed out, it suddenly extinguished, replaced by the sound of coughing and choking on smoke.
Arthur stared wide-eyed at the young man standing behind the spatial barrier. Long, smooth black hair, fair and flawless skin, bright and cold eyes... Damn it, how could there be someone this beautiful in the world! So beautiful that even his dragon scales wanted to stand on end!
The golden giant dragon’s ferocious aura completely vanished. With a swish, the massive dragon immediately shuddered and transformed into a tall man, wearing a resplendent cloak. Arthur hurriedly smoothed his hair, adjusted his collar, and struck a pose he thought was the most elegant and cool, walking over with an extremely punchable smile:
"This beauty, you wandered into my lair; could it be fate arranged by the Dragon God? I am Arthur, the greatest and richest giant dragon..."
"Scram."
Lance frowned in disgust, indifferently spitting out one word. Immediately, a spatial sphere smashed right into Arthur’s face.
"Bam!"
Arthur was knocked flying dozens of meters away, smashing into a section of the granite cave wall, with gold, silver, and jewels falling down and burying him.
If it were any other dragon taking a hit like that, they would definitely go crazy and fight to the death. But Arthur scrambled up from the pile of gold, rubbing his red nose, his eyes shining even brighter. Not only was the person beautiful, his voice was also pleasant to the ear, and on top of that, he was so strong. He was truly born to be Arthur’s mate!
And so, from that day on, the cold spatial mage gained a thick-skinned tail. Wherever Lance went, Arthur tagged along. Lance used magic to kick Arthur thousands of miles away; the next day, the dragon would flap his wings and fly back, smiling shamelessly while offering up the most precious magic crystals he had just robbed.
Scolded for being noisy and in the way, he immediately transformed into his dragon form and lay prone in one spot, stretching out his wings to act as a cushion for Lance to read on. The brazenness and shameless persistence of this silly dragon ultimately became the only thing in the world that Lance tolerated, allowing him to hover around him.
---
After breaking the contract with Eric, Arthur hurriedly transformed into a dragon, tossed Lance onto his back, and flapped his wings to fly straight back to Dragon Island, leaving behind a pile of ruins in the square of the Hadu tribe.
As soon as he landed in his cave glittering with gold and silver, Arthur immediately transformed back into a human. Squinting his eyes with a flattering smile, he ran in circles around Lance:
"Lance, Lance, what do you think of my lair? All this gold is yours; if you think it’s not enough, I’ll go rob some more for you!"
Lance looked at the dazzling mountain of gold, frowned, and said faintly: "Clean up a corner. It’s too sparkling and blinding, I can’t read."
"Yes sir!" Arthur was ecstatic, immediately rolling up his sleeves to busily clean up. He dragged out all sorts of the softest magical beast fur rugs to lay out a cozy corner for Lance to sit.
In the days that followed, the flock of dragons on the island frequently saw the leader’s arrogant golden dragon nephew diligently baking cakes, making tea, and serving that human mage in every detail. Although on the surface Lance always criticized this flying lizard for being noisy and annoying, whenever Arthur brought sweet cakes, the corners of his lips would unconsciously curve into a radiant smile.
The life of the genius mage, who had experienced countless darkness and filth, had finally found a silly but warm pillar of support that belonged exclusively to him.
___The End___
Author’s Note:
Hooray, so Eric and Max’s journey ends here. Thank you for accompanying the author throughout this time. On April 10th, the author will release a new work in the same series about cuisine, culture, and tribe building. See everyone on the appointed day. Mwah mwah~