Lord: Starting with Contract Half-Elf Twins

That night.

Inside the stone fortress, on the second floor.

The warm yellow firelight flickered gently inside the fireplace, constantly dispelling the chill emanating from Allen.

As the chill dissipated, the stench of blood gradually began to emanate from the wound.

Viola held Allen on her lap, her small hands carefully touching the wound. A faint green magical light shone, gradually repairing the damage.

Allen leaned against the stone wall, his breathing shallow and light. He couldn't help but groan with each movement of his chest, but he was in very good spirits.

"What are you thinking?!"

Solina's voice rose uncontrollably.

She received no information until Viola's kobolds caught up with her, and only then did she learn that Ellen had gone to fight the enemy alone.

"Aren't you usually the most cautious and careful person? Why did you go up there alone and risk your life?"

Solina paced back and forth in front of Allen, her voice trembling with anger, her words urgent and harsh.

"Didn't Viola send you a message informing you that the other side didn't launch an attack? Then what reason do you have to fight him to the death!"

"Actually, it wasn't that desperate... I chose to fight on the beach, so if things went wrong, I could jump into the sea, and the Fiddler Crabs would cover me..."

"Then let the kobolds, treants, and fiddler crabs go and wear down the enemy!"

Solina interrupted Allen's explanation, questioning him in a more serious tone.

"And me too! When Viola sent the message, I had just left Stone Castle. Couldn't you have communicated with me directly? Why didn't you call me back?"

At this point, Solina suddenly seemed to remember something and abruptly calmed down.

Looking into Allen's somewhat evasive eyes, she spoke slowly and deliberately:

"You still think I'm useless, right?"

"You think that if you can't win, you can at least let Viola and me escape quickly, right?"

"All those promises you made before, all that 'blood of my own blood,' were just lies to me, weren't they!"

Faced with Solina's questioning, Allen had no choice but to turn his head and look at Viola.

Normally, Viola would find a way to save him at this time.

But when he turned his head, he saw only the same calm look in Viola's and Solina's eyes.

"I obeyed your 'orders' and hid in the stone fortress to watch you fight, based on my trust in your judgment, not because I disagreed with Solina's ideas."

Viola lowered her head, her hands still steadily treating his wounds, and spoke softly.

"Allen, Solina and I both want to know, do you see us as family who fight alongside you, or as... 'pets' you keep at home?"

Allen opened his mouth, but didn't know how to explain.

After a long silence, Allen could only say, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have taken that risk."

An apology alone is clearly not enough to change Solina and Viola's attitude.

But Allen knew that if he said anything more at this point, things would only get worse.

After a moment of silence, Solina angrily sat down, grabbed his battered right arm, and pressed her hand, which was also flashing with green light, onto his wound.

"Hiss—!" Allen immediately gasped in pain.

"My elven magic is not very effective, so just bear with it," Solina said calmly.

Hearing her say that, Allen naturally had no choice but to shut his mouth and didn't even dare to cry out in pain.

Viola felt a tingling, itchy sensation at the treatment site, while Solina felt a sharp, pricking pain.

Allen closed his eyes in Viola's arms and began to recall the deadly battle of the day.

Although he said he had many options, he just wanted to test his strength.

But looking back now, Allen knows that he had truly entered a state of life-or-death struggle.

Even after discovering that his full-force attack could only damage the young dragon's scales, he showed no sign of backing down. Instead, he was quite excited, his mind filled with thoughts of how to squeeze out more magic power to try again.

It was definitely not a brutal instinct brought about by the red dragon bloodline; Allen knew this very well.

He fully harnessed the hostility and killing intent towards his nemesis, the silver dragon, that came with his diluted dragon blood.

Allen genuinely wanted to fight with all his might.

He wanted to unleash all the power he had been building up over the past six months out of fear, anxiety, and ambition, in real combat.

It's like longing for a real exam amidst the high-pressure environment of endless practice problems in high school.

So it wasn't because the young silver dragon was deemed a suitable opponent, but because he just happened to become that suitable opponent.

Upon closer reflection, is it really true, as Lyriel said, that the path to strength requires stepping stones?

Allen can't use him as a stepping stone yet, but he's good enough as a whetstone.

Is this what power feels like?

It's truly fascinating.

Allen was deeply moved.

The life-or-death battle with Lyriel completely transformed the power accumulated over the past six months into true combat skills, which is already reflected in the character panel.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Name: Allen

Race: Human

Age: 13

[Character Template: Hero (Leader)]

[Level: Dragon Vein Warlock Lv6 (+1) / Wizard (Elf) Lv1 / Miner Lv2]

[Faction: Absolutely Neutral]

[Status: Frostbite, Severe Injury]

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The level of the core profession [Dragon Vein Warlock] has been directly upgraded to lv6, which means that he has made further progress in exploring his own bloodline.

In addition, there were several system notifications that he had previously ignored.

[Achievement: Ultimate Showdown! (Boss Level)]

[Reward: 3 Crystals]

After Allen finished fighting, he remembered that among the newbie achievements, there was the achievement of fighting a high-level enemy for the first time.

The usual unlocking order should be: first unlock the "Hero" tier, then the "Boss" tier, and finally the "Legend" tier.

As a result, the arrival of the young silver dragon allowed him to complete this achievement directly, skipping his level.

He won't get this achievement in the second battle unless he kills a "boss" level enemy.

But that's still too far off.

Allen recalled the harsh words Lyrel had spoken before he left.

On a personal level, he has already completed a process of accumulating strength for a powerful breakthrough. If the opponent continues to attack in the short term, Allen can try to fight with the armed forces within his territory.

To be honest, the territory has almost no resistance against flying enemies.

Perhaps we should prepare some anti-aircraft weapons as soon as possible...

Allen shook his head, his thoughts drifting further and further away.

He had one more thing to do, which was to distract Solina and Viola.

Allen coughed dramatically, drawing the attention of Viola and Solina, before slowly saying:

"I think it might be because in the last six months, I've been constantly stimulating the power of my bloodline, and I've been somewhat affected by it..."

"Sorina, you shared the blood of the red dragon, so you should be able to feel the brutal instinct surging from your bloodline, right?"

This is a lie.

But Allen felt that sometimes things shouldn't be explained too clearly; it's good for family members to sometimes be a little confused.

Solina nodded slightly, barely accepting the explanation.

"I remember you said that this contract would continuously replenish your power, so as I train, will the influence of your bloodline become stronger and stronger?"

Solina answered without hesitation.

"If that's the case, I'm willing to give up this power."

"No, no, no, that's not what I meant."

Allen pulled a silver scale brimming with magic from his outer pocket.

This scale was knocked off by Allen from Lyrael, so saying it barely injured Lyrael wouldn't be entirely accurate.

The breastplates on a dragon's chest are the most magically potent and hardest scales; if they were brought to a human kingdom, they would undoubtedly become incredibly valuable magical materials.

Therefore, the fact that Allen was able to break through the defenses here is enough to show that he poses a deadly threat to Leriel.

Allen shook the precious silver scale and smiled.

"What I mean is, we can try to replenish our bloodline power to neutralize the effect."