Brass Dragons in the Dragon World

"You've messed up my script again."

The boy in front of me looked dejected. He curled up into a ball and took another swig of wine.

The enormous dragon head moved slightly. Ander looked at Black Swan Harbor, which was blackened by flames. This place used to be a misnomer, as there were no black swans at all, but now at least it was black.

"But it will be better than before."

The rough, enormous dragon claw reached toward Zero, on which lay a few pieces of bread and some salted meat.

"Don't you have chicken drumsticks?"

Zero complained.

"Boys should be raised frugally, not compared to girls."

Hearing Ender's words, Zero snorted but still took the bread and started tearing into it.

Even though this body is very strong, the torment he has endured these past few days has left him somewhat lacking in energy.

"I'm curious, did you write your own script, or did someone else write it?"

Ander finally asked the question he cared about most: judging from the original work, this guy wasn't omnipotent.

In his past life, some people thought that Lu Mingze orchestrated everything in the Dragon Clan behind the scenes, while others thought he was just a bad kid who wanted his brother to come back.

It's a pity the old thief is depressed, otherwise Ender would have known what would happen next.

Zero's hand trembled slightly. Instead of answering, he asked a question.

"If the play has a happy ending, what's wrong with being an actor?"

Ander suddenly became interested and wanted to discuss life with the little guy in front of him.

For some reason, the dragons in this world are all like a bunch of children who never grow up. Ander really envies these guys, who can always have a childlike heart.

Of course, thinking about the Dragon Kings in the original work, it seems that having a childlike heart is not necessarily a good thing.

"You know what? The dragons in your world don't look like dragons at all. You look a lot like a human."

The surrounding air suddenly became viscous, and Zero's golden eyes burned as he stared intently at the giant dragon in front of him.

But Ender paid no attention; the voice appeared around Zero in another form.

"Only the weak cry out to take control of their destiny and to defy fate, because they are both powerless and fragile."

"Fate includes both what you can and cannot choose. Do you know how a true dragon would face fate?"

"Ander asked, while Zero silently stared at Ander, taking small bites of the bread in his hand, his expression like that of a prince listening to a bard's poem at a banquet.

"We have enough time and energy to enjoy every dish that fate gives us. If I were you, I wouldn't pin my hopes on that vague script, but would write a better one myself."

The dragon straightened up, stretched its stiff tail tip, and looked at the lights in Black Swan Harbor in the distance.

"Like what I'm doing now, now that we know the script, why not write it even better?"

Zero swallowed the last piece of bread mixed with alcohol, put down the bottle, and clapped.

"A brilliant speech!"

Ander bowed, and his wings stirred up a whirlwind, blowing away the surrounding snowflakes.

"This is what an old dragon told me, and it's perfect for padding out the word count in a story."

The boy wobbled to his feet, placed his hands on Ander's paws, and said:

"Let's talk about the contract. I don't have much time right now."

After searching his body, Ander finally found a parchment hidden in the gap between the scales on his chest.

"There aren't many of these contracts left; I only have a few left."

Zero took the parchment from Ander and looked at the words on it. It was a dragon, but not from this world; it was a dragon from Ander's world.

"I can't understand these words."

Ander didn't care, and just threw a "Language Master" spell at the guy to show him the power of magic.

"A remarkable ability; you are indeed a powerful ally."

Zero gave a thumbs-up, looking at the contract in front of him as if trying to find a loophole.

But Ander has written quite a few magic contracts over the years, and he has the experience left by countless mercenary predecessors in his mind. He knows exactly how to avoid loopholes and how to write unfair terms.

In the contract, Ander promised not to reverse Lu Mingfei's bloodline, not to harm him, and not to kill the awakened Dragon King before he grew up.

In layman's terms, it's telling Zero, "Don't worry, let your brother develop; give him all the kills."

In return, Zero cannot attack Ender, nor can he steal Ender's spoils, namely the Dragon King's corpse.

There are also some less important additional clauses, mostly minor matters.

“That’s reasonable. I thought you would make even more unreasonable demands.”

Zero frowned as he looked at the contract in front of him, while Ender smiled and pointed to the last line of the contract.

"Come on, sign it."

Zero laughed, bit his finger, and used his blood to draw a series of strange symbols on the parchment.

"Pleasant to work with."

The parchment spontaneously combusted without wind and disappeared in a flash of light, but the contract had already taken shape in their hearts.

"It's a pleasure doing business with you. Your order will arrive soon."

Looking at the sleeping girl, Ander asked hesitantly:

"Should we tell the child?"

"No need, she'll be happy for me."

Zero boarded the sled, waking the sleeping sled dogs, and sped off southward.

Ander spread his wings and flew in the sky, quickly finding his target, the Lenin icebreaker, which was docked nearby.

Ender transformed into a human in the sky and gently landed on the deck.

A dragonborn approached him and reported:

"Old Lu, we have taken control of the icebreaker."

"What about people?"

"Everyone is here."

Ender watched the mushroom cloud rise into the sky in the distance; Black Swan Harbor was ultimately destroyed by bombs.

"Let's go home."

Chapter Seventy-Six: Return Gift

On the morning after the Kremlin flag was lowered, Anders stood on the deck of the Lenin, gazing at the ruins of Black Swan Harbor.

Just like in the original story, this place was destroyed in an explosion. After all, a place where evil forces conduct human experiments is naturally best served by Tsar Blake; using ordinary bombs would be too lenient on him.

Bondarev died, in Ander's dragonfire. Who he was is not important. As Ander said, as a dragon, he would not fear any challenge from fate.

No matter who stands behind Bondarev, Ender will use his dragon breath to show him what it means to be a sleeping dragon and not to be disturbed.

However, this cowardly man still gave Ander a great gift: on the deck of the Lenin, the pale keel lay quietly.

This dragon, which had been frozen beneath Black Swan Harbor for thousands of years, has finally emerged from the ground and was transported to the Lenin by Bondarev.

Ander stood in front of the dragon skeleton in human form, carefully examining the strangely shaped skeleton, whose bones, as hard as steel, displayed natural curves.

"Elder Lu, shall we prepare the sacrificial array?"

Ander shook his head. It wasn't safe on the ship right now; it would be better to wait until they were on land.

"Cover it with a tarpaulin, we'll see when the time comes."

Just as several dragonborn pulled over a tarpaulin to cover the dragon skeleton, the massive dragon skeleton suddenly trembled.

Over the long course of time, the dragon's bones had turned to stone, and its eyes had become cloudy, resembling a white marble sphere.

The dragon's left eye twitched and then suddenly fell out.

Ander caught it with his mage's hand. The eyeball felt like a cold stone ball, but Ander could feel a powerful life force within it.

This is the dragon's cocoon, the most essential part of the dragons in this world, and the key to their rebirth.

After doing all this, the dragon, which was already a desiccated corpse, finally completed its mission. Its huge body coiled up, and its bones and withered muscles began to liquefy at an abnormal speed.

Unlike the black bodily fluids of ordinary dragons, a white liquid seeped from between the dragon's bones and muscles, turning into a milky white steam under the rising sun, spreading across the deck of the Lenin.

The satellite phone on board suddenly rang, and Ander stopped everyone else from doing anything and went over to answer the call himself.

“Mr. Ender, thank you for telling my girl a story. This is my return gift, the authority you desire.”

Ander hung up the phone and walked from the bridge to the deck. The white liquid quickly melted in the sunlight, leaving a white crystal.

Ander picked up the crystal and smiled slightly. Although he didn't celebrate Christmas, he really liked the gift.

"Bring over the stored liquid nitrogen; we can use these cocoons to exchange for foreign exchange later."

Ander directed the Dragonborn to bring the metal can prepared by Bondarev. Now that they had the power, they could use the callus on their hands to attract attention.

According to the original work, Zero can change bloodlines and grant others the power of words; what just happened may have been a manifestation of his ability.

The dragonborn laughed as they brought over metal canisters and liquid nitrogen. The Chinese didn't have much need for the cocoons because they had better options, but for the hybrids from Europe and America, the dragon cocoons were a treasure.

By handing this trouble over to the Secret Party, the relevant departments will receive an extra sum of money next year. Most importantly, this operation will have a legitimate reason to proceed.

We went to kill a second-generation species that was about to awaken and rescued countless persecuted children; we absolutely did not invade another country's territory.

“Now Angers won’t keep nagging me about not doing anything.”

The events at Black Swan Harbor have finally come to a perfect end. The Lenin will continue its voyage and hand over the ship to the Chinese icebreaker nearby.

Ander planned to leave the grown-up children in China, while he would take Herzog's three best works, the future Genji brothers and Uesugi Erii, to Kassel College.

As the saying goes, when the sky falls, the tall ones have to hold it up. These three children with the blood of the White King are all trouble. Since they are trouble, let Angers have a headache.

I'm just a lazy bum who's wasting his life. You should go find the great Principal of Kassel, Hilbert, and send Angers instead.

After putting the white gem into his spatial bag, Ander got up and went to the cabin to check on the children.