Mr. Dragon Knight, the dragon girls are chasing you!

More than ten years have passed, and she has never seen her fiancé in person. She heard that he ran away from home when he was eight years old and has been missing ever since.

Some say he died at the hands of some monster, some say he lives in hiding in some remote town, and others say he joined a mercenary group and adventures in the border region.

The rumors and gossip circulating among the noble circles of the royal city had been ingrained in her heart for years.

When she learned the reason for the engagement at the age of ten, she flew into a rage and smashed the heirloom crystal vase in her palace.

When she was twelve, she overheard a group of noble ladies mocking the princess's fiancé as a good-for-nothing wasteland, and she immediately overturned the table in anger.

At the age of thirteen, her father publicly announced that the marriage agreement was irrevocable. She secluded herself in her palace for a day and a night, refusing to eat or drink anything in defiance of her fate.

After the age of fourteen, she completely stopped her fits of rage and learned to numb herself.

She chose to completely ignore Luo Ye, never mentioning the engagement, avoiding all related discussions, and deliberately avoiding related topics in social situations.

Over time, the entire aristocratic circle in the capital tacitly avoided this topic, and if someone occasionally brought it up, they would be immediately interrupted by those around them.

The imperial princess's fiancé is a non-existent ghost, and everyone knows it's best to avoid this bad luck.

Elena had prayed countless times that he would never come back.

She didn't want to marry a complete stranger, nor did she want her life to be bound by a marriage contract. She wanted to live the life she desired, not become a victim of a political marriage.

And now, her prayers seem to have been answered.

The ghostly fiancé who had imprisoned her freedom for half her life has completely vanished from the world.

Elena put down her teacup, stood up from the soft chair, and began pacing back and forth on the carpet.

Her steps were light, her golden hair swayed in the sunlight, and the smile on her lips was impossible to suppress.

The engagement is off.

She no longer needs to pretend that this person doesn't exist, because he really doesn't exist anymore.

She no longer had to dodge pity or gloating glances at aristocratic banquets, nor did she have to worry that one day he would suddenly return and appear before her, forcing her to marry him—a wild child, a good-for-nothing, a disgrace to his family who couldn't even cultivate martial arts or magic.

She became happier and happier as she thought about it, walked to her desk, opened a drawer, and pulled out a stack of documents.

Those were copies of the engagement and related agreements; she laid them all out and flipped through them from beginning to end.

He stopped abruptly when he reached a certain clause, frowned, and bent down to carefully check the terms—annulment of the engagement required confirmation of the person's disappearance or death, a formal document issued by a royal official, and then the process had to be completed in person with the Duke's residence.

This process is usually tedious, but today, every tedious clause seems especially endearing to her, because every step leads to her freedom.

The corners of her mouth curved even more.

"Someone come here." She summoned a maid, her tone regaining its usual composure, but with a hint of lightness in her voice. "Prepare a condolence gift and send it to the Duke of Violet's residence. Tell them that I am deeply saddened and hope that the Duke and Duchess will take care of themselves during this difficult time."

"Yes, Your Highness." The maid bowed and then left the side hall.

The side hall fell silent again.

Elena picked up her teacup again, looked at the clear blue sky outside the window, and felt more relaxed than ever before.

She even felt that the black tea tasted sweeter than usual today.

Unbeknownst to her, her fiancé, whom she believed to be dead, was currently living with a black dragon queen in a dragon's lair thousands of miles away.

What she didn't know was that in the near future, this man would reappear in front of her in a way she could never have imagined.

At that time, her expression will definitely be very interesting.

At the same time, inside a guest room at Dragon's Nest.

The evening breeze was calm in the guest room, and dark purple magical energy veins floated slowly within the hall. The atmosphere inside was slightly heavy, and the air was filled with a faint bitterness of herbs mixed with the cool fragrance of dragon breath.

Luo Ye sat upright against the headboard of the fur-lined bed, looking slightly embarrassed.

In her miniature form, Eluvia crouched on the polished stone bench opposite her. Her small dragon body stood upright and tall, her gilded vertical pupils fixed on Luo Ye without blinking. Her gaze scrutinized him layer by layer, and her tone carried a questioning and probing tone that was neither too light nor too heavy, exuding a strong sense of pressure.

"So, you mean that when you saw Serafina last night, your heart raced and you felt flustered, simply because you were in awe of the ancient dragon king and too nervous about meeting a high-ranking dragon for the first time?"

"That's right." Luo Ye looked up to meet his gaze, his eyes open and sincere, his facial expressions perfectly controlled, without the slightest flaw.

"That's the reason for the sheer awe and tension."

Eluvia's dragon tail tip unconsciously tapped the stone surface, producing a rhythmic, soft tapping sound.

She spoke slowly, exposing the logical flaws, her tone earnest and stubborn: "You said you would be nervous if you saw another Dragon King—I can barely accept that statement."

"During the Great Battle of the Eternal Night Rift, when the overwhelming torrent of destructive magical energy pressed down upon us, and the allied forces were surrounded by legendary mages, with life hanging by a thread, you stepped forward to shield me, insisting on signing a pact of shared life and death, risking your life to protect me, facing certain death head-on. At that moment, why weren't you nervous?"

Luo Ye opened his mouth, but was speechless for a moment.

Eluvia didn't look away, her golden pupils clearly saying: I'm watching you make up this story, I don't believe it.

Luo Ye was silent for a moment, then took a deep breath and softened his tone: "Nervous. How could I not be nervous when facing a threat of death?"

He shrugged, trying to appear relaxed and casual: "Your Majesty, think about it. I was facing an entire Hunter Alliance, several thousand men, and several legendary mages. If I wasn't nervous, I wouldn't be human."

"But my heart was racing because I saw a legendary dragon king—and a living, talking dragon king at that. It felt like... well, like an ordinary person suddenly seeing a legendary mythical creature."

"Tense, excited, and shocked—it's a normal physiological reaction to have a racing heart, right?"

This explanation is logical and reasonable, and there are no major flaws to be found.

Eluvia tapped her dragon tail lightly, slowing her pace. Her gaze softened slightly, and after a long pause, she spoke: "What you said... isn't entirely unreasonable. I'll give you a passable score."

Luo Ye secretly breathed a sigh of relief, her heart finally settling down a little.

But Eluvia then added, "But I always feel that you're not telling the truth."

Luo Ye's heart jumped again.

Eluvia shook her head, a complex expression in her gilded vertical pupils: "Although I have no evidence, my intuition tells me that there must be something between you and Seraphina that I don't know about."

Luo Ye opened his mouth, wanting to explain, but Eluvia had already stood up.

"Never mind." She waved her dragon claw, her tone tinged with weariness.

"If you don't want to talk, I won't force you."

"But I must warn you—Seraphina is not so easily fooled. She has lived for five thousand years and has seen more conspiracies and schemes than humans have eaten salt. If you are hiding something from her, she will find out sooner or later."

After she finished speaking, she turned around, jumped off the stone bench, and walked towards the door without looking back.

"I'm going to sleep now, you should get some rest too. But you'd better not be lying to me."

After saying this, she flapped her wings and flew out of the room. Her slender black dragon tail disappeared at the edge of the door frame, and her footsteps faded into the distance.