The flabbergasted duckling of an immortal found himself wondering who on earth had taught this baby dragon such moves.

And more importantly, just how desperate the kids had been for the great Orien to agree to do something like this.

But Riley knew he was only buying time by asking himself those questions.

Because even now, the children and the adults alike were staring at him with such expectant, hopeful eyes that he could already tell where this was going. It felt like a bad idea. A very bad idea.

Unfortunately, Riley was weak.

Painfully weak.

He cleared his throat and tried anyway.

"Actually," Riley said carefully, "we’re still not sure if I got the place right..."

He immediately regretted it.

Liam’s face fell so fast it felt like a physical blow to Riley’s chest. The boy’s shoulders drooped, his mouth pressing into a thin line as his gaze dropped to the floor.

Riley swallowed.

"So for now, it’s just what I have," he continued quickly. "But I’m not sure you’d want to come this time around when it could possibly be dangerous..."

The kids didn’t say anything.

They didn’t argue.

They didn’t even outright plead.

Instead, their lips trembled.

Their eyes grew wider. Shinier. Bigger in a way that felt scientifically engineered to bypass all rational thought.

They just looked at him.

Riley felt his soul leaving his body.

He coughed and looked away for half a second before surrendering.

"Uhm... I’ll ask Kael," he said, shaking both hands in front of him. "I can’t decide this on my own because he’d likely be the one in-charge of security."

The shift was immediate.

The children brightened like someone had flipped a switch.

Liam bounced on his heels, barely containing himself. Orien straightened, clearly restraining the urge to celebrate outright, though his tail betrayed him by giving a small, excited flick.

Riley pinched the bridge of his nose.

"However," he said firmly, forcing himself to continue, "if I’m going to convince Kael, then we’ll all need to train more. Actually, we can’t just train, we’ll really have to hit milestones or it’ll be dangerous."

That caught their attention.

"And unfortunately, the schedule depends entirely on when I can control my mana better," Riley added. "Without that, we can’t really go, I’m sorry. The place is extremely packed. Mostly humans, yes, but magical beings seem to have started going there too. So not only do we have to do something about our mana but we also have to do something about our appearance. If we show up like this, we’ll definitely attract attention."

He rubbed his face and glanced at everyone present.

Honestly, they would stand out no matter what. Well, ideally he should have been fine. But after his face was plastered all over the continent, how could he expect to show up without anyone taking a second look?

"We’re going to need very good disguises," Riley said slowly. "And if you plan on using the water park amenities, we can’t just throw on wigs. We’ll really have to employ other measures. And that might be uncomfortable. Would you really be okay with that?"

To his surprise, the children nodded.

Immediately.

Enthusiastically.

A little too enthusiastically.

Riley stared at them for a long moment before letting out a tired sigh.

"All right," he said, a small smile slipping out despite himself. "Then I’ll try my best when I talk to Kael."

The room erupted.

Liam cheered outright, hopping in place with unrestrained joy.

Orien lifted his chin, carefully withdrawing from his initial celebration and assuming what he clearly believed was a majestic stance.

After all, he was a great dragon.

Great dragons did not wiggle.

Even if his tail twitched just a little.

__

The children ran off in a burst of celebration, their voices echoing faintly down the hall as they disappeared.

Riley watched them go, then slowly straightened and turned back to the adults.

He hesitated before speaking.

"Is that... really all right?" he asked, glancing between the Dravaryn couple and his parents. "I mean, letting them go."

Lady Cirila was the first to answer.

She smiled, her expression softening in a way Riley had rarely seen before.

"After seeing all those children at the nest," she said quietly, "so gloomy and so entitled, I can’t help but think how lucky Orien is."

She let out a small breath.

"To see him this excited," she continued, "that is something I am genuinely happy about."

Then she lifted her brows meaningfully.

"And honestly," Lady Cirila added, "it’s a long overdue vacation."

She waggled her eyebrows in a way that was entirely too pointed.

Riley froze.

Oh.

That vacation.

His face heated instantly as he nodded in understanding, suddenly very aware of exactly which plans had been postponed when Kael reacted the way he did.

He cleared his throat and turned quickly toward his parents.

His mother smiled at him.

"It is good for children to go out and play once in a while," Renee said easily. "And if we go, we can use the opportunity to scout as well."

She tilted her head slightly.

"Also, if things go this way," she added, "I believe they will improve faster with an interesting goal in mind."

__

Ha!

It was almost like his mother could see straight into the children’s brains.

Because what did she mean, faster?

Orien practically turned into a completely different creature.

The moment the idea settled in, the golden dragonling became terrifyingly focused, making sure everyone trained hard enough and learned quickly enough.

The children even came back with a hand-drawn calendar with several suspicious foot prints.

Riley stared at it in confusion.

According to them, the calendar was very important because it helped keep track of extremely important events. Apparently their console game used the same mechanics and Orien believed it was essential for their success.

"...But we haven’t even decided on a date yet," Riley said carefully.

Liam beamed.

"I mentioned that summer is about to end," he said brightly, "and that the summer events would probably finish after this date. So Lord Orien said we should go during this period."

Riley’s eye twitched.

A full month.

How exactly was he supposed to be ready in a full month?

And then there was the matter of everyone else.

What about their tasks? What about their progress?

Riley worried about that far more than he probably should have.

Because as it turned out, he was the only one struggling with progress.

Everyone else had already moved.

Even Kael.

The golden dragon lord who had absolutely no desire to keep reporting to the office had apparently decided that if he had to deal with the MBE mess anyway, then he would finish it as fast as possible.

__

Just as planned, the centaur chief was asked to submit a revised report. Not the original one, but a carefully prepared version drafted by the top brass of the MBE.

The entire handover was recorded.

Every step. Every exchange.

The idea was simple. Track the flow of the document and see where it broke.

However, things took an unexpected turn when the undercover agent stationed at the reception counter reported something odd.

The agent handling the centaur delegation had submitted the correct document.

The undercover agent was not the one to accept it, as instructed, but she was tasked with observing the behavior and disposition of everyone involved in the submission process.

And she was certain.

The document delivered was exactly the one they had planted.

That immediately raised questions.

If the right document was submitted, then how had the contents changed by the time it reached the archives.

The possibility of a tip-off crept in.

People at the MBE began to grow wary of one another, conversations lowering, glances lingering longer than necessary.

Then Kael called for a meeting because the files that ended up in the archives were not the same.

They had been altered.

"!!!"

That was when it became clear.

Someone had switched the contents after submission.

The question was how to identify them.

But unbeknownst to everyone else, Kael didn’t call for those documents because he simply wanted to review the contents.

In reality, he had remembered a suggestion Riley had made before. It had been offhand, almost casual, but it stuck with him.

There were magical methods to trace interference, yes.

But magic always left traces.

And traces could be detected.

Clearly, that was not ideal for what they were trying to achieve.

So Kael chose a different approach.

One that most magical beings would never think to guard against.

The golden dragon lord descended personally into the records area.

Without warning, he shut off the magical lighting apparatus.

The room fell dim.

Then, to everyone’s confusion, Kael produced a small wand and activated it.

A strange light swept across the room as he slowly passed it over shelves, desks, and people.

No mana flared.

No spell circles formed.

At first, no one understood what they were looking at.

Then two figures began to glow.

Faintly at first. Then unmistakably.

The light clung to their hands. Their sleeves. Their cuffs.

Panic flickered across their faces just as realization dawned among the others.

Before anyone could react, Kael moved.

Ice formed instantly, snapping around the two glowing figures and freezing them in place.

Solid. Silent. Absolute. Unable to escape to death like all those other beings.

The room went dead still.

Because now they wouldn’t be able to run.