Chapter 394: Farewell for now... (End of Volume-4.)
Chapter 394: Farewell for now... (End of Volume-4.)
Dragon Valley Central City.
Two weeks after the picnic.
"Thank you, Princess Selain! Because of you, we got to wander around all over the Dragon Valley and enjoyed these last few days greatly..."
Standing near the teleportation altar located in the garden of the Dragon Palace, Link stretched out his hand for a handshake.
Selain glanced at Link's hand before stomping on his foot.
"Ow!! What the hell?! What was that for?!"
Selain ignored Link's loud wailing noises and shook hands with the rest of the group instead.
"I am glad I met you all. In these past few days, we have made a lot of great memories together. I will never forget about you all. Thanks for teaching me what it means to have real friends..."
Selain glanced at Rio, who was leaning his back on a nearby tree and standing with a calm look on his face,
"It was nice to meet you too, Rio; if opportunity comes, do visit the Dragon Valley again someday! Also, I will come to challenge you again soon; don't forget that either!"
Rio nodded his head at those words and spoke in his usual emotionless tone.
"You are welcome to come any day, but keep in mind that I will defeat you in a duel any day and any time; just try to be stronger the next time you come to challenge me..."
Selain smiled at those words and nodded her head.
"Yes, the next time you see me, I will be so strong that you will be shocked! Hehe..."
Then she glanced at Lia and stretched and patted her on the shoulder.
"Don't think you have won just yet, my dear rival; our battle is long... It will be a battle that will be recorded in the history books! It will be a thousand-year-long battle, Lia!"
"Make sure you are always a step ahead of me, or you might lose!"
Lia shook her head and sighed at those words.
"We are still doing this? Sigh, you are really persistent... Why not find someone else for yourself? You are a princess after all; you can find the best of the best talented people for yourself..."
Selain crossed her arms and shook her head with a smile.
"Tell me, can someone else imitate his 'Sword Intent? No, right... That's why I can't make do with some cheap imitation either, but well, I will accept my defeat for now, Lia..."
"Make sure you don't let me win though... hehe..."
Selain is the type of person to never give up.
After all, she has a life span of thousands of years, and she can live as long as SS-rankers without even needing to reach the SS-rank herself.
If she keeps working hard, there's nothing in the world that she can't achieve after centuries of hard work and training!
Time is on her side; that's why she thinks that there's no need to rush anything.
"Sigh, you really are persistent..."
Lia shook her head in defeat; it's pointless to argue with her as she's not going to listen anyway.
Lia grabbed Rio's arm tightly and declared her sovereignty.
"Hmph, no matter what you say, he's mine and mine alone! I am not letting you take him away at all!"
Although she felt very embarrassed saying those words, she had to make it clear to Selain, so she had to do this!
"Tch! You the upper hand for now, Lia! But don't be so happy! I will beat you someday!"
Sparks of lightning seem to have collided between Lia and Selain's eyes as they glared at each other.
The rest of the group shook their heads at this and didn't bother to stop the commotion.
In the past few days, they had all but gotten used to this kind of thing now. Even Link shook his head, saying,
"Man, Rio really is popular with the dragon... the other day that SS ranker was also talking with him with smiles all over his face... I wonder if it's because all dragons respect 'Sword Intent'?"
Hearing those words, Liam shook his head and said,
"No, I think it's more like they consider him the strongest person in our group... The dragon king favored you because he considers your talent to be the strongest..."
"And that other SS-ranker, Fenix, favored Rio because he has seen Rio in combat and thinks highly of him... I guess that's how dragons are inherently; they respect the strong..."
"I highly doubt that the dragon king himself will start respecting Rio if he sees him in combat..."
As a person with great perception abilities and a lot of research in this matter, Liam has figured out a lot of things recently.
'It was a good idea to come to the dragon valley; not only I awakened my very own legendary skill, I even got a ton of information about dragons...'
Just when Liam was contemplating in his mind, Selain finally came over to shake hands with him too after finishing her glaring contest with Lia.
"Oh! I nearly forgot, here! These are the details you asked; I have prepared all that I could
find..."
Selain brought out a small dairy from her space ring and handed it over to Liam.
"There's very little knowledge available in the library on Shadow Dragons; this is all I could find for you... I have written all that I could find in this diary; you can have it..."
Ever since Ellie told Liam about her condition, Liam has been trying his best to research more about shadow dragons. That's why he took a risk and asked Selain to get some important information for him.
Liam took the diary and put it in his own space ring before nodding his head to thank Selain.
"Thank you, princess; although it was a short stay, I greatly appreciate your friendship and your help. Consider it that I owe you a favor..."
"If a day comes when you need the help of 'Mana Field', you can contact me without a moment's hesitation; I will be there to help you out..."
Selain nodded her head and acknowledged the matter.
"Well, if not for the fact that there are SS-rankers keeping eyes on everything, I surely would have liked to see you summon too... But I guess that's impossible for now..."
Liam was a bit surprised that in the end Selain ended up noticing what he was trying to hide, but he nodded his head to accept it.
"Sigh, you figured it out in the end? Okay, when you visit Rio for the second duel, I will bring her with me for sure; you can meet her then..."
Liam asked for such crucial information on Shadow Dragons, and Selain already knows that Liam's title is 'Dragon Master', so it's not difficult to guess which type of dragon Liam
actually has.
Selain was also curious to meet a Shadow Dragon herself, as she has never seen one in her whole life, but right now is not the appropriate time.
Liam can't put Ellie's safety in danger right now, so he has no choice but to keep this matter
hidden for now.
"Well, I am the next Dragon King after all; I can definitely figure out such small matters
easily!"
Selain crossed her arm and then said in a calm voice,
"One piece of advice though, Liam Aldif: Shadow Dragons are said to be masters of deceptionn/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
and betrayal... Are you sure 'she' is not lying to you?"
Liam shook his head at those words.
"I-I don't know b-but..."
Selain patted Liam's shoulder at that moment and said with a smile,
"No need to think too much of it; I just stated what my father has always taught me about, but
you must keep these words in your mind too..."
"After all, dying from betrayal is the worst possible outcome one's life can have..."
Liam had no words to refute those words, and he had more questions in his mind now than he
had before he came to the Dragon Valley.
Maybe he will need to find the answers to these questions on his own after all.
"Ah, the teleportation altar is ready! It's time to say good-bye, I guess..." Selain glanced at the teleportation altar that the maintenance staff had already fine-tuned.
She led the group to the teleportation altar, and at last it was time to bid farewell. "Farewell, everyone! Let's meet again someday!"
Selain waved her hand at the group, and the group also nodded their hands and smiled at her.
The teleportation circle lit up brightly, and the whole group got teleported away instantly!
Looking at the empty teleportation altar, Selain sighed to herself.
'In the end, I am alone all over again?'
Just when Selain was feeling a bit lonely, a hand was placed on her head.
"No need to be so down; comrades, friends, and everything else are but temporary, Selain...
You need to get used to parting ways with others and saying goodbyes..."
Selain sighed at those words.
"You seem more concerned than me though, father..."
Idri shook his head at Selain's words and said in a solemn tone,
"I have a bad feeling... My intuition is telling me that there's something really sinister
brewing in the dark... Work hard, Selain, and get stronger; being sad doesn't suit the face of
the future Dragon King!"
Selain was a bit puzzled at Idri's sudden supportive behavior.
"Hmm, why are you being so supportive all of a sudden though?"
Idri sighed deeply at that question and replied,
"I was hoping that Link would accept my offer, but now that he has rejected it, I can only place
my hopes of succeeding me on you...'
"Although I can't guarantee everything, let me be clear: from now on I will personally train
you and support you, Selain..."
Selain started to walk back to her room while saying,
"So, after you got rejected, now you have woken up and chose to finally care for me..."
Idri followed her back to the palace.
"Well, things change in this ever-changing world..."
Selain sighed at those words, and forgave her clueless father as he was never good at grasping
other's emotions anyway.
"Well, at least you came to your senses in the end, that's all that matters..."
'I hope I will get to meet them all soon... Let's work hard and become strong so I can face
them with confidence!'
After that day, Idri will cherish his only daughter more from then on and will not force her to
marry any random guy without her permission.
Turns out, even a stern-faced guy like him still has some love for his only child after all.
Author's Note!
And finally! Volume 4 has come to an end!
This is it for the Dragon Valley guys; it was one heck of a journey though! I enjoyed writing it a
lot, and I hope you enjoyed reading it too.
I never expected I would be able to write this story for so long and in such detail; it's all
thanks to the support of you all that I can continue writing it.
Originally I was planning on ending the whole story by Vol. 4, but due to your constant
motivation, I have been able to get new inspirations, and we still have a long journey ahead. Thanks for everything, guys.
Now that we are finally done with the Dragon Valley, it's time to move on to the next part of
the story!
Next will be the volume that many have been anticipating for a long time-a volume filled
with battles!
The moment when SS-rankers will enter the arena has come!
Now the 'Ascension Spire Arc' shall start from here on!