Chapter 1249: Morningstar Clan Next Generations 1
Currently, Kuro was within the capital of Vita Divine Empire. As he traversed the streets silently and full of aloofness, he was accompanied by his younger sister Shiro.
Unlike Kuro who looked straight ahead with an impassive face as if only his goal concerned him, Shiro was enamored with everything on the way, often found staring curiously at various peoples, items, and locations.
The lovely young lass was unable to extricate herself from the wonders of the world around her, often 'oohing' and 'ahhing' with sparkling eyes, feeling that the world was so interesting and filled with fun things!
Despite his brisk walking pace, Kuro's senses always stayed on his sister in a protective manner. Anyone who even showed the slightest hostility to her would probably eat a faceful of destruction energy and be ruptured into nothingness immediately.
Whenever Shiro slowed down or stopped to admire things, he too would stop, never once complaining or chastising her, just silently protecting in an indulgent manner. There were few things that brought Kuro great joy, one of which was spending time lying in his mother's warm and loving embrace or training his abilities with his father.
Another was, of course, spending time with his sister and experiencing the joy of the world through her. As a natural Black Dragon from birth, Kuro only viewed the world with violence and malice, something that his father had taught him to control and harness growing up.
He was wary and distrustful at best, always viewing others with a negative lens. Luckily, as a white dragon with major human traits, Shiro was the exact opposite. She possessed their mother's benevolent and gentle nature, but to a slightly stronger degree since her upbringing was filled with love and nurturing from their mother.
Shiro simply did not yet have the capacity to see anyone negatively. She had no idea of the evils of the world like Hikari, a completely pristine and pure pool of water with no a single speck of dirt.
Kuro had made it his life's goal to protect that purity, because his pool was murky black with not a hint of clarity.
Even coming out today, Hikari had fretted endlessly about her dear Shiro and wanted to come along, but this journey required only the two of them to go. Hikari could only relent in the face of tradition and custom, sighing endlessly. Your next journey awaits at m v|l-e'm,p| y- r
She had pleaded with Kuro to protect his sister endlessly, and the young lad had assured her that he would die first before letting even a speck of dust touch Shiro.
Naturally, Hikari was left speechless and told her son that it wasn't that critical. She didn't favor one child over the other, she was just particular about Shiro because she did not have a means to easily defend herself at her age and wanted to make sure that Shiro did not walk down the path of suffering that she did.
If her son died, Hikari would probably go crazy.
Along the way, Shiro stopped at a stall that sold something akin to cotton candy. Her eyes were completely locked on the golden-colored candy wrapped around the stick, her lips trembled as drool formed at the edges.
Seeing this, the stall owner was amused. As an old man, he often sold to children within the city and his great life in Vita had made him - and many others - full of kindness. After all, if your cost of living was at the bottom and your standard of living was high for you and your loved ones, wouldn't you be kind as well?
As such, he took off a stick of candy and handed it to Shiro with a gentle smile tugging at his wrinkled face full of smile lines. Shiro, who had no wariness towards people yet, was surprised to be suddenly given this and received it with a joyful smile.
"Thank you, old mister!" She thanked him sincerely and bit into the candy.
Shiro: (*´∀`*)
The young lass was overjoyed after eating the candy, marveling inwardly at how something could be so nice. Meanwhile, Kuro had appeared by her side at a point, his gaze on the stall owner filled with coldness.
Seeing him, Shiro seemed to remember something and stopped eating, rummaging around her pockets. With a look of happiness, she took out some coins and placed them on the stall counter.
"Here sir, Daddy says that we cannot take things for free and must pay for them." She explained kindly.
Meanwhile, the stall owner was not bothered by Kuro's appearance or hostility, because he understood that old men, candy, and young girls did not have a good reputation when put together. He glanced at Kuro and then nodded at Shiro kindly, not rejecting her payment.
However, when he looked down, his eyes bulged from their sockets because the bronze coins he expected her to have placed on his counter turned out to be platinum coins!
A stick of candy cost only 3 bronze coins, but Shiro had dropped more than 20 platinum on his counter. 1 platinum coin was worth 1,000,000 bronze coins, so Shiro had dropped the equivalent of 20 million on him for a stick of candy!
Little miss, this amount could buy me and my whole family a billion times over!
Extremely troubled, the old man was about to return the money since he was already well -to-do at home and only ran this stall to pass the time as well as enjoy the city's scenery. He sure as hell didn't want to be captured by the Vita Guards for defrauding and scamming a bunch of ignorant youngsters.
However, Kuro's hand slammed on the counter when he saw the lack of acceptance from the fellow, his eyes blazing with dangerous intent.
"You don't want my sister's money? Are you trying to take something else from her?!"
Looking at the enraged young man, the old man hastily denied. "No, no, it's just that…"
"Hmph, it's just nothing. We have paid for the goods and will not give anything else! Come, Shiro!" Kuro spoke coldly and turned to leave.
"Hm? Okay!" Shiro waved at the old man and rushed to walk beside her older brother, who now held her hand protectively.
The old man could only look at where they went with a strange expression, wondering which lord's descendants these kids were and why they had no sense of money. Even worse, who on earth gave hundreds of platinum coins to kids as pocket money in this day and age?!
Kuro and Shiro reached the portal center and walked towards one of the more frequently used ones, which led to a very popular location within the main plane of today, the Ancestral City of Dragons!
Taking the portal, the young duo appeared in the center of the noble city with a long history spanning multiple eras, which was a far cry from the desolation that had previously been here. At least, the non-draconic areas in the outer city were full of people of various races, just like in the old era.
After all, the dragons had to have someone do the things they couldn't, not to mention that this was to facilitate trade and contact with the external world. Just as in the old era, Aether Crystals dragons produced were infinitely valuable for a multitude of reasons, so all sorts of buyers lodged near them to purchase any that trickled out using various means.
Stepping out of the portal center, Kuro and Shiro walked on the main street towards the gates of the inner city. Many eyes fell on them with curiosity, but none went forward to inquire as the inner city gates had an automatic racial recognition mechanic to allow only dragons to enter.
Many dragons took human form, so who was to say that these kids were not dragonlings? After all, with Draco and Hikari's work and various revitalization methods, the dragon race was no longer an extinct species but a thriving and growing group.
Many of them were youths like themselves, the next generation of the dragon race who were slowly growing up. In another ten to twenty years, the surge of young adult dragons ready for mating would be enough to completely reestablish the race going forward.
After all, there were the eggs of the hidden reserve of dragons that Essence Stalker and Fitter Cleric had been tasked to find back when they were still at Rank 1, which was the hidden recovery method of the dragon race after they saw that they were going to lose that war.
The eggs were not too many, scrounged up from all available dragon perches in a hurry while Sigurd effected his slaughter, with a True God Dragon with the Law of Time putting them in stasis to preserve their vitality until the chosen descendant could come and recover them.
There was also the bunch of old male dragons that Draco freed from the Dovahkiin in the Tower of Babylon's 58th floor. After killing the dragonborn, hundreds of dragon souls were released that Draco tamed and captured, before having Hikari restore their bodies and lives.
Right now, those fellows formed the main power base of the dragon race and were managing the various aspects of the race's growth in Draco's absence. Aside from them, Hikari also restored as many dragons as she could who had not been absorbed by Sigurd.
Back to the young duo, they reached the gates of the inner city when a profound intent stemming from the core of the city scanned over them. A huge statue of a dragon on either side of the gates flashed with a strange light in their eyes before dimming slightly, allowing the gates to open wide the next moment.
Those looking on were partly surprised, because they only thought that these fellows could be dragons, but were not sure of their specific identities. Most of the current dragons in the city preferred to use their true forms to come in and out, so they were more used to that.
The inner city was drastically different from the outer one. There were very few - if any - human-related buildings, only pure dragon perches of different colors and aesthetics as well as various dragon race specific buildings.
Walking around, even Kuro felt like he was where he should be, much less Shiro whose entire body was as if she was floating in heaven. Both of them had grown up in their mother's dragon perch in the Morningstar World, so they were very familiar with the special building.
Naturally, as they moved closer to the Dragon Palace in the center of the city, they met with more and more dragons. Many of the youths who were idly lazing about in their dragonperches or playing about in the skies stopped to glance at them, wondering who these newcomers were.
However, the moment they felt the aura of Kuro and Shiro, their entire bodies trembled as they slowly drifted to the ground and wore numb expressions of shock. This kind of bloodline pressure… could they be?!
The power of the two kids even drew the various ministers over, with the main two Paarthurnax and Alduin also rushing over. These two Semi-Origin Dragons had naturalized their power into this realm and attained a level of combat power that matched their rank, no longer easy to bully by anyone.
Even Sigurd the Dragonslayer would not be able to match them anymore even with his special skillset. When they two came over, their power also caused the various dragons arranged around the duo to feel stifled.
However, both old man dragons hurriedly retracted their auras and quickly came to stand respectfully before the two lads. Forget Kuro, who was a carbon copy of Draco with red eyes, just looking at Shiro who resembled the Dragon Queen so strongly, they could naturally tell who these two were.
"Welcome to the City of Dragons, Dragon Prince Kuro and Dragon Princess Shiro!" The two called out with respect.