Chapter 125: Looking for Him (I)
My mouth opened widely as a foul stench of dragon's breath escaped from yawning. Opening my eyes, I look around me. I was somehow inside a wooden cabin-like building. Looking at myself, I was still in my dragon form. It made me wonder how I was moved here in the first place. So many questions danced in my head, but so far, no answers were brought up.
The last thing I remember was the festival, drinking delicious gold, and then falling asleep after that nothing.
Inside the wide room, I saw a small firelight, slowly turning into embers. Sitting across from me in a chair was a Moca, dozing off into sleep.
I got up and stretched. My tails smacked the side of the building, causing Moca to wake startled.
"Young mistress?" Moca scrambled up, embarrassed that he fell asleep. He straightened himself as best as he could.
"Good morning Moca. Would you mind answering me why I'm in here?"
Moca cleared his throat. "Young mistress, it's not completely morning yet. In a couple of hours, the sun will rise."
"So, I didn't sleep for long?" I tilted my head in confusion.
"No, young mistress. You have slept for over five years."
I faltered, almost banging my knee into the dying ember. Did I just hear him correctly? Five years?
"Can you repeat that?" I said with disbelief.
"You have slept for five years, young mistress."
"Five years?! Wait, are you serious?"
"Yes, young mistress. Since the day of the festival, you didn't wake up once. You were too heavy to carry back up to the castle. So, we had to build a temporary building around you to keep you safe against the weather. Especially during the wintertime. We thought you might freeze to death."
"Why did I fall asleep for so long? How come you guys didn't try to wake me up?" I didn't like this at all. I wasted my life away, sleeping for five years nonstop. I'm no sleeping beauty, but this is just ridiculous.
"We tried, but nothing could wake you up. We thought you were poisoned, but we found out you weren't. We believe the massive amount of magic that you have cast has caused you to go into hibernation to recuperate. That is the best answer we could give you."
"Massive amount of magic?"
"Yes, you blessed the whole city with good luck for five years."
"I did?"
Moca nodded."We have been having bountiful wealth and knowledge in the city for the five years that you have been sleeping. Our city has grown, new weapons and magic discovered."
My mind was a bit foggy on what happened that night. Luckily I didn't have a splitting headache from all that alcohol that I drank. Then I remember a snippet of what happened. I really did just bless the whole city. That would make sense why I still feel a bit tired.
What surprised me though, was that I wasn't even hungry for gold. It was strange, it felt like I could go a couple more days without eating another gold piece at all, and I'll still be fine. Was there some correlation between eating gold and blessing people? I'm not sure at all.
"Okay, so let's say I slept for five years, what happened?"
Moca went silent for a moment. I could tell that something serious was on Moca's mind. It took awhile for Moca to get his train of thought before he started. "In the past four years, we have had more immigration from the Beastkin and the humans. The Death God's children have been ravaging havoc on the Beast-kin city, instead of the Black Gryphon himself. So far, we only heard the news that he had shown up once and destroyed the major city Toruga in a fortnight a year ago. Right now, the population has tripled in numbers to about 300,000 people from different species. Majority of them being Beast-kin. Don and Ginger have been busy these last year in keeping the Black Gryphon's children at bay, but it seems that they have no luck in destroying them. We fear that they will wipe out another city soon.���
"Don knows how to fight?" My eyes became wide in surprise. This was big news."Since when?"
"Both Ginger and Don have been practicing since you have fallen asleep. Don stated that while you slept, he would get stronger to protect you and this city from possible Black Gryphon's attack."
"I see." This was quite a surprise to hear that Don had picked up on martial arts. "Where is Phil?"
"Well…." Moca seems to trail off, unable to answer.
I gazed towards him, wondering what was wrong. He sighed and straightened himself before he continued.
"Young Master Phil has disappeared."
"Disappeared?" The words sounded a bit strange coming out from my mouth. For him to disappear was, in a nutshell, a bit out of place, something he wouldn't usually do unless there was a reason. "Could you explain?"
"He has been missing for three years now, so far Don and Ginger have been searching for clues, but they are too busy in keeping back the Black Gryphon and his children that it has been on hold."
"What about others? Did nobody think to send someone to look for him?"
"Yes, Tart has been coming and going, but nothing has shown itself."
"Where exactly was he last seen?" I felt a strange nagging feeling in the back of my mind. Something was up, and Moca wasn't telling me.
"That is…" Moca seemed distracted over something before he continued. "Young Mistress, it's best that you forget such a person."
"Why are you suddenly saying that?" I couldn't believe Moca would say such words; usually, he's not the type to voice his opinions, and say something like this was very important. "Tell me you're hiding something, aren't you? I can smell it on you."
Strangely enough, I could smell the scent on him when he's lying or hiding something from me. It's not just him; in this dragon form, emotions seem to have different flavors of smell that dance and tickle my nose. Lying was one of them where it smelled strongly of smelly old socks.
"I'm not lying, young mistress." Moca stood up straight, trying not to show anything different.
There it is again—the horrible smell of dirty socks. With a loud sneeze, I blew back Moca, who was standing in front of me. He was covered in my spit and snot. I felt really embarrassed after seeing him covered in slime. "I'm sorry." I coughed. "The smell of lying literally is disgusting. Now, are you going to tell me or not?"
Moca sighed. He wiped himself with a small hankey that he pulled out. His nice butler clothes definitely would need to be washed. I swear there was some snot on his bearded face that I couldn't help but be ashamed. Getting used to the smelly sock smell when people are lying will take time to get used too, but I believe I rather not. It does come in handy, though I need to stop sneezing in their face.
"He went to the Orc kingdom, but after that, he disappeared. We haven't received any news from him for four years from now. At this rate, we believe he's dead."
"Why do you say that?" I was concerned. If he died early, my death was tied to his, meaning I had only a year left to live. "He could be alive, you know."
"Young mistress, if you don't mind. I would like to speak my own thoughts. I don't mean any disrespect, but please hear me out."
"Go ahead. No offense taken." I waved my hand in front of me. Actually, I liked it when I spoke truthfully instead of lying, especially Moca, Tart, Don, and Coco. Their opinion mattered to me more than anyone else's. Plus, I would like to understand Moca more; he's too quiet.
"Young Mistress, Phil is too dangerous to keep close at hand."
I nodded, fully understanding what Moca meant. Phil was a Demon Lord, who would want a demon lord living right next to them.
"Even though Coco finds him tolerable, I believe he would become the death of your life."
"Well, you pretty much hit it over the head," I muttered, quite surprised that he understood how dangerous Phil was.
"There is something dangerous about him, young mistress. I don't know what, but I fear for your life." He gently bowed, clasping his hand in front of him. "I pray that nothing bad happens to you, young mistress. I only want the best for you."
"Thank you, Moca. I really appreciate you telling me your thoughts." I replied. "I agree Phil is someone to be watched out for, but at the same time, I can not just forget about him. He has one of the Legendary Weapons, meaning he is a Hero." The word Hero got stuck in my throat; it tasted so weird saying that one word about a Demon Lord who was supposed to be my downfall.
"I believe you should keep a good distance away from him."
"I would keep your thoughts in mind."
"Thank you, young mistress," said Moca. He then straightened up, clapped his hand in enthusiasm. "I'll get something for you to eat. The others will be thrilled that you are awake."
"Thanks."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone