Vol. 6 Ch. 108

"It was stolen by a traitor?"

The twist came so suddenly that Leon and Rosvisser were momentarily stunned into silence.

"What happened exactly?"

"Before I answer that," said the High Priest, "let me first explain why we of the Golden Thunder Clan call ourselves the descendants of Zeus."

As Dimo spoke, he slowly stood up and walked to the window, standing with his hands behind his back, gazing out at the streets and his clanspeople.

"I trust, as dragons, you've heard the legend of the Primordial Dragon King, 'Noa'?"

At those words, everyone-including Leon-instinctively glanced toward the curl queen sitting nearby.

Even the old ancestor in the awareness space pricked up interest.

"Wow! Never thought even a diehard fan of Zeus would know this king's name!"

"Well, what can I say-this king's charm is unstoppable."

"Mm, that actually makes sense."

"Yeah, we've heard the name," Leon said.

"Humble as always, Brother Leon. You didn't just hear the name-you two even blew up a fake god together.

The Primordial Dragon King was directly conceived by the Dragon God, Tiamat, meant to lead the dragons in place of the Dragon God."

Dimo continued:

"And both I and the traitor who stole the Thunder Spirit Core were created in a similar fashion.

The only difference is-we are not manifestations of Zeus's good and evil sides. We are simply bloodlines forged from his power and life essence.

Later, more and more people began to worship Zeus, gathering together, and it was I and that traitor who led them. Thus began the Golden Thunder Clan."

After hearing Dimo's explanation, Leon seemed to catch something interesting-

The terrifying Noa in the legends;

Xiaoxue, formed from the Sacred Spear · Gungnir;

And now, this Golden Thunder Clan.

"It seems like, whether pursued or not, every god loved to create a few little followers.

These 'followers' are born in limited numbers, their kind rare. Is it because gods aren't naturally followed or worshiped that they create these beings to spread their faith?

Thinking about it that way, it kind of makes sense.

But that wasn't the focus of my pursuit at the time."

"So this traitor, about thirty years ago, suddenly stopped believing in Zeus, and left with the Thunder Spirit Core?" Leon asked. Dimo hesitated for a while before speaking:

"Yes. For ten thousand years, she-despite being a direct descendant of Zeus's divine power-remains the only one who has ever turned against him. And to commit the crime of stealing the Core on top of that... it's truly unforgivable."

"Have you made no attempt to track her down over the years?"

"We've been trying," Dimo said with a helpless shake of the head, sighing.

"We dispatched many people in the past to hunt her down, but all of them came back empty-handed."

Timing.

In their father-in-law's "Little Treasure Hunting Guide," the entire process of securing a Spirit Core was broken into four phases: Disguise your identity, investigate in secret, wait for the right moment, and finally grab the goods and run. And now, this traitor Dimo mentioned that was precisely the moment Leon's group had been waiting for.

Given their connection to Zeus, they're likely deeply invested in the issue of suppressing the Void Gate.

So as long as Leon can find the traitor who stole the Core, there's no need to worry too much about the Golden Thunder objecting to him taking it back.

"High Priest, about this traitor... could you share some basic information? When we land elsewhere, we might be able to provide you with some clues."

Dimo nodded.

"Her name is Hera.

And according to intelligence brought back by our scouts, the last place she was spotted was...

The Human Empire."

---

Night fell at the Golden Thunder's guest manor. Leon leaned on the balcony railing, gazing into the tranquil, profound distance. That was the direction of the Empire.

The direction of his homeland.

"Every time I think about how we're circling right back to the Empire again..."

Rosvisser walked out from the room, a coat in her hands. She gently draped it over Leon's shoulders.

"The temperature drops a lot more at night here than it does back home. Don't catch a cold." Leon nodded.

"Thanks."

He reached out and gently clasped the hand Rosvisser had draped on his shoulder, wrapping her slender fingers in his own. On

a night where the air chilled sharply, her warmth made everything feel less cold.

The two stood shoulder to shoulder on the balcony, chatting at a leisurely pace.

"Feels like we really haven't been back in a long time."

"Your master and mistress are Sea Tribe folk, your wife and daughters are all Silver Dragons, and communications with the Empire are handled by message-dragons. So yeah, it makes sense you haven't had any real need to return."

"Yeah, it's been many years. Speaking of which-Leon, remember when we talked about disguising the girls and taking them to the Empire for a trip?"

Leon nodded.

"Of course I remember. But considering that, aside from Noa, the other three might cause... unforeseen incidents, we ended up shelving that plan altogether.

By 'unforeseen incidents'-

Like Moon getting overexcited and showing her tail in public,

Aurora finding something more fun in the Empire than at home with the Silver Dragons,

and Little Muse being too young-exposing her too early to outside culture might make her detach from her roots...

All of those were why we never carried out that plan.

But now that they're grown up, I think maybe, we should take this opportunity to let them a few days?"

Leon's eyes lit up at that. He nodded thoughtfully.

"It really is the perfect time. I've been meaning to head out once this Void Realm mess was dealt with. But to have the chance to bring the girls with us to the Empire? That's rare."

"Besides... this quest for the Spirit Cores hasn't been nearly as tense or complicated as◆ Novelight ◆ (Only on Novelight) I expected."

Rosvisser smiled, then added,

"Also-Noa told me the other day that she's kind of missing her sisters."

"Noa..."

Leon's gaze softened. Thinking carefully-it probably was the first time she'd been away from her sisters this long.

"Yeah... So like you said, this really is a good opportunity."

For all sorts of reasons, Leon and Rosvisser had never managed to take the girls to their father's homeland for a visit.

But now, all the pieces seemed to be falling into place. How could they possibly pass up the chance?

Besides, hunting down a Spirit Core was important-but so was spending time with family.

Neither Leon nor Rosvisser wanted to become the kind of parents who used their so-called 'great mission' as an excuse to ignore their children's needs.

"Mm... then let's send word to the Silver Dragon Sanctuary by message-dragon,"

"And pick a date. We'll head back to the Empire together."

They'd been away from home for over a month, and all communication with their daughters had been through message- dragons.

After all, there weren't many teleportation crystals, and each one was extremely precious-far too valuable to waste on casual chatting or visits. They were reserved for emergencies only.

"Alright."

Their shoulders lightly brushing, the couple gazed off into the distance together.

They kept chatting-about their daughters, the future, and from there, drifted back to memories of the past.

Even after ten years of marriage, they still seemed to have endless things to talk about.

Rosvisser had once asked Leon about it-people always said love was a consumable, that over time, passion fades. So how was it that she still felt this same spark with him?

Leon had answered: true love isn't doing old things with new people, it's doing new things with the same old person. Otherwise, you just end up trapped in a boring cycle.

It was hard to believe those words came from a man who married his first love.

But Rosvisser thought it made perfect sense.

She wanted to do all the things she'd never done-with Leon.

Like saving the world, maybe~

Or falling in love all over again~

And taking their precious daughters, to see the bigger, wider world-together.