The lights brightened, and I closed my eyes as [Undead] pounded more blood into my body by extracting more life from mortal creatures around me. This time, I almost saw the lava cave of my world when I opened my eyes, but the light disappeared just as fast.

“Finally!” I heard the roar above me, deep, almost a growl, yet majestic enough for a semi-immortal creature of that size. His humongous tail almost hit the dark ceiling above us, but the gleaming red eyes fell on us sooner. Squinted eyes, large polished fangs, and smoke-puffing nose. Everything was humongous about this bastard, and I didn’t quite like the fact that it appeared more ferocious than my smile.

The dragon’s molten red body descended, cracked in right places, enabling the smooth motion of its gigantic limbs. The charred black lower body was decked with scars of battles fought long and far. Side by side with me. And this freaking monster had thrown me out most of the time, reveling in the bloodshed all alone.

“Glaz,” I smiled at it and moved away from the pith as it placed its claws on the ground. Directed at me, no doubt.

“Bastard undead. I can smell you,” it bellowed. “How long has it been?”

“Glad to have never seen you for over a millennium,” I said flatly, losing my smile just as fast. “No one labeled me as princess stealer once you had disappeared.”

“Disappeared? Me?” Glazukaize’s raucous laugh hadn’t changed in all his years in the empty void. “I was just resting, bastard undead. In silence, increasing my strength,” he moved its claw to my neck, “to kill you.”

His nostrils flared with fire as it reveled in its arrogance, “What’s with that attire? Where’s Valerin’s hide? Flouria’s scales? Grumbole’s horns? Roaran’s hose? What with these mortal clothes, bastard undead? Where did you throw away my spoil?”

“Your spoils?” I rolled my eyes. “I killed all those dragons, Glazukaize. You just enjoyed stealing the captured princesses from them. Even abandoning me to face those beasts all alone. I resurrected so many times just to kill Roaran. And don’t tell me he was the weakest dragon.”

“You are a weakling, bastard undead,” he touched his horns to my neck this time instead of his claws. “One pitiful weakling. I would have killed them with a snap of my fingers.”

“And let me see if you can snap those fingers,” I smiled.

“I don’t have to prove anything to you,” he snarled and glanced around the cave. “Where are we? Don’t tell me you summoned me to your thatched house!”

This was a worthless beast inside and out. Drowned in his arrogance but still retaining wits was the only redeeming feature. But even this guy would do to wipe out Yvenaught empire. This guy alone would do; I correct. If it rested for a couple of years, then my lady had an invincible weapon in her hands to purge everything in this realm. But the problem was getting this arrogant bastard to obey my lady. That wouldn’t happen anytime soon.

Yule had already begun nibbling on Glazukaize’s tail by the time we had finished exchanging stares.

“And what’s this puny thing trying to nibble on this majestic dragon’s tail?” He shook his tail, but Yule was a demon hound. If it was easy to get rid of it, then only dog soup awaited the brat.

More shaking followed, and the dragon grew furious with every passing second. “Leave my tail alone, puny thing!”

I settled down at a distance and started eating the second loaf of bread from my pocket. Glazukaize tried to reach around his tail with its fangs and failed miserably. They wrestled for a while, and Yule managed to eat a piece of the dragon’s enormous tail by the time he was slammed to one end of the wall. The heat had grown fiercer, and my whole shirt was drenched with sweat, accentuating my unimpressive body.

Glazukaize tried to breathe fire, his little effort dying out in smoke. I laughed from the sidelines, which earned me little more than a glare.

“What did you do to me, bastard undead?!” He snarled and walked to me. “Tell this instant, and I’ll let you live.”

“Let me heal your tail first, almighty dragon,” I grinned and walked his humongous body.

“That’s what I am, bastard undead. The only surviving dragon of all the worlds. Because I killed my every other kin.”

I killed his kins, but I had better things to do than debate with a deranged arrogant dragon.

You see, mortals were not much different from dragons. Both thought they were the most successful race. Little did they know that humble undead had more years on them. And more potency. More intellect. More influence. More respect for bread. Less Arrogance. And less lust. Princess for dragons, and mortals for mortals. As weird as that sounded.

[Heal] did the job, and Glazukaize bragged something about his most vital regeneration skills, which made little sense. Dragons were immortals, yes, but it was not impossible to kill them. They were distinctly different from the undead and much weaker in comparison. The dragon was too indulged in its fallacy to address the bitter truth. Perhaps, that might have made it feel all the more powerful even though it wasn’t.

“You have emptied your mana reserve, Glaz,” I said.

That earned me a sneer and some smoke. “How dare you fool this majestic dragon, bastard undead? I can still feel it. The swirling mana in my toned, beautiful body meant to rule over everything on this land. This mighty dragon still has every ounce of mana it once had.”

I shook my head in disapproval. “I told you the necessary stuff, Glaz. If you want to get yourself killed, please be my bread. Just don’t drop your carcass at my lady’s manor.”

“Your lady?” Glazukaize raised its thick black brows. “When did you find yourself a slave? Or perhaps a whore to do your bidding? Build an army of mortals?”

I rolled my eyes. “I serve my lady, Glaz. You–“

He burst out laughing. “How did you stoop so low, bastard undead? Serving a puny mortal? I kidnap princesses, but never the other way. If you want, I can always gobble up your lady if she had bound you. Weakling you are, but I remember your favors.”

“Glaz,” I smiled at him. “She’s my villainess and not a princess. If you want to kidnap her, then don’t blame me for ending the last dragon alive.”

Glazukaize snorted and laughed again. “Has your lady seduced your little friend down there, bastard undead? You are just pathetic. I had a teeny bit of respect for you despite your pitiable strength, but you just crushed that. Serving a mortal? I can’t imagine that, even in my wildest dreams. I thought we shared the sentiment. Alas, guess you still need to get those juices out of your body after all.”

I didn’t want to argue who was the more lustful bastard here.

“Either way,” I said, waving my hand at the enormous dragon. “Rest here until you become strong. There are many princesses in the Yvenaught empire, and all are beautiful, I’ve heard. Some say they don’t come out until half of the kingdom is destroyed.”

Even though Glazukaize disregarded me and ignored my world completely, I didn’t miss the glint in his eyes. That meant Yvenaught was going down once he recovered enough strength. Then again, I knew better than to feel hopeful in the world that was trying to drown me in murky waters every damn day.

We left the dragon in the cave and moved out through the same crevice. The two-story walls felt closer than ever, and I grazed my cheeks multiple times by the time I was done. I sealed the enclosure completely to prevent any outlaws from breaking in. Sleep was critical for dragons to recover their mana, and any interruption would only delay the rightful destruction of Yvenaught empire.

There is no point in convincing a dragon to take a nap for a couple of years. The more you say it, the less likely the chance that the dragon will obey you. If you are foolish enough to try, then take some princesses with you. Like how you bring bread when dealing with the undead.

The rest of our way back to the capital had been smooth, metaphorically, because the roads were jagged and ragged and filled with stony paths. A couple of thugs tried to mug us and got bitten by Yule instead. Nothing new there, but sure, the thugs were fresh targets. The guard at the gate deftly avoided me this time and motioned for us to continue through the portcullis. There was a commotion close to the gate on who stole whose bun, and I wasn’t interested to know more about it. Of course, the gross simplification of the skirmishes might not appeal to you, and I couldn’t care less about it. Anything that mortals fought for was bread, and anything mortals considered more worthy than life was bread. The true intricacies involved were beyond the understanding of common undead.

What was more important than bread, anyway? Life? Don’t jest with this undead. It might cost you a few fingers.

The sun, hidden beneath the clouds most of the day, had disappeared, and darkness pervaded the streets by the time I ambled back to the manor after turning in the quest. I earned one hundred and twenty-five shins for the mission, and I decided to hand over my earnings to my lady. It was an almost instinctual feeling, so I knew my undead brain was trying to remove whatever attachment I had to money. I was a benign entity of the world, and I would remain as such. Only my lady held prominence, and everything else didn’t hold any priorities.

Garlan’s face sprung up in my head, and I shook that bastard away. He lingered for a while, too long for my taste, and I had come to hate that sheepish grin by the time I reached back to the manor. Mana lamps weren’t lighted up at the entrance like usual, so I did the job as discreetly as possible. There were almost no strong mages in residence anymore, as all the guards were just soldiers meant to serve as scapegoats of war. The highest among them were Amateur low-tier mages, who were more worthless than scapegoats because they held pride in the fact. And they couldn’t channelize mana and transfer it to inanimate objects. Even if some could, they expressed open defiance toward my lady.

I tramped through the familiar roads and entered the mansion. Everyone almost bowed to me as I walked past them, and I, for the benevolent undead I was, didn’t chop off their heads. I had worn my overcoat before entering the city gates, so my unimpressive muscles hadn’t been exposed. But, unlike Letitia, my sweat didn’t smell great. She said it did, but she liked this undead too much. Thus, a bath was my first task, and that held prominence over greeting my lady. Yule settled down beneath my cot for its own nap.

After I was neat and tidy, I knocked on my lady’s door, and she opened it, wobbly on her feet, with tired eyes and miserable countenance. Her eyes lit up when she saw my face, and she embraced me soon after. She nuzzled her head in my bosom, her nose inhaling the fresh scent of bread soap. Again, I had requested the old woman at the apothecary to do my bidding, and she had acquiesced. Kind she was, but blind. It didn’t affect her skills, nonetheless.

“You are late,” she said, running her hands over my back. “I was about to burn all those shitty books and blame you for running late.”’

I rubbed her head and placed my chin over her head. “A few more days, my lady. You can do it.”

I fished out all my earnings for the day and handed them to her. “I earned it, Letitia. Fair and square. We’ll get more since I killed Tusmat today. Lady Beth’s fanatics will sell the bones and hand us thirty percent of the profits.”

“Oh,” she accepted a single paper note and two coins. “My man is growing up. Bringing money home is the duty of a good husband.”

“I just don’t want to grow attached to money,” I rolled my eyes, but she tiptoed and bit my neck. An action she had strangely come to enjoy.

“Doesn’t matter,” she squinted her eyes and wiped her lips on my shirt. “When I say something, you either accept it or accept it. There’s no talking around my words. I just noticed that you have become unruly these days. Need to keep you in check before you start looking enticing to other women.”

I sighed and decided to change the topic. “I summoned a dragon today.”

“Okay,” she said and pulled me along to her bed. “And I will summon you tonight.”

“My lady,” I stood rooted and stared at her in surprise. “It’s a dragon! The same one exists in tales of distant lands. An authentic dragon that many mortals have died searching for.”

“So?” she raised her brows. “Is this beast stronger than my mongrel? More handsome, perhaps? Or Is it a female dragon?! Don’t tell–“

“He’s an old male dragon, my lady,” I sighed. “How did the conversation take that turn anyway?”

“Because,” she hugged again and pulled me to the bed, “everyone wants to eat you so badly. I’ve noticed those damned maids sparing you additional glances of reverence. And I hate it. I hate that I hate it, but I hate it. Studying is keeping my hands tied. Otherwise, I would have whipped everyone to shape.”

“They are scared of you, my lady; that’s the reason they are bothering to acknowledge my presence,” I said nonchalantly. “You are too young to differentiate feelings of fear and forced reverence.”

“You are too oblivious to notice the hidden intentions of vixens,” she placed her finger against my mouth. “Don’t. Refute. Me. You will not do that anymore.”

And with that, I slept a good night’s sleep beside my lady. As long as I was concerned, her scent helped me get decent sleep after [Refluengence] had assaulted me, so I would use it to my advantage.

Even though oblivious, I am undead. So, machinations come as easy as bread.

In the midst of this, I had forgotten to eat dinner. Sometimes, I was forgetful undead.