Page 237 of The White King's Favorite

“She is a strong woman, like all my children; most men don’t think well of a woman who can beat them.”

“My pride isn’t so small nor fragile that it could be damaged by a defeat, Your Highness,” Sabael replied, his eyes stuck on the ground, “no matter who it is against. I will keep training until I can stand on equal ground to Lady Tessa.”

Cessilia and Tessandra exchanged a surprised look. It was the first time Sabael spoke so much, and to speak about his relationship with Tessandra too. Not only that, but he was impressive in how he proudly stood his ground against one of the most powerful women in this world... After a long while, another mysterious smile appeared on Lady Kareen’s lips.

“Oh, well. Perhaps you’ve found your match after all, Tessandra.”

“Right?” Tessandra smiled, undeniably the proudest.

“Now,” said Lady Kareen, turning to them, “your grandmother is thirsty, tired, and bored after flying on a dragon to come all the way here and visit her runaway grandchildren. Are none of you going to properly welcome me yet?”

“Technically, no one invited you, Grandma...” muttered Tessandra.

She was smart enough to cover her scalp before her grandma decided to hit her again. Cessilia chuckled, and turned to Nana instead.

“The castle is mostly destroyed at the moment... and not good to welcome Grandmother. Do you think there is a better place?”

“W-well, if it’s alright,” said Nana, “we could go to my family home, but... it’s much, much smaller than a palace... probably.”

Kareen rolled her eyes.

“Only my children have grown used to unnecessarily large palaces and castles!” she exclaimed. “I may have mothered a bunch of dragon brats, but I wasn’t born on a bed of gold! Dear, your house will be just fine, as long as there’s a place for me to sit other than a bunch of scales! No offense to you, my darling, thank you for the trip.”

She put a quick kiss on Roun’s snout, and turned to Nana.

“Lead the way, darling.”

Naptunie enthusiastically nodded, while Darsan jumped to his grandmother’s side to offer his arm to escort her. In fact, as she calmly walked away, it was quite impressive that she barely seemed to need any help to walk through the absolute wreck that was the plaza in high heels. Tessandra watched the trio walk away, still rubbing her scalp.

“...Is that old hag never going to get... old?” she groaned. “How the heck does she not age?”

Cessilia chuckled.

“It’s Grandma. ...Do you think she’s really here just because she missed us?”

Before Kassian could answer, her cousin rolled her eyes.

“You know Grandma,” scoffed Tessandra. “She makes people come to her, not the other way around. I bet she left without telling anyone just to piss off our aunt again. You know the only thing that makes the Empress really crazy is when her own mother decides to cause a mess elsewhere...”

“A mess?” Ashen frowned. “What kind of mess?”

“Nothing,” chuckled Cessilia. “Grandma’s bored and came to see us to be amused.”

“...And piss off Auntie.”

“Anyway, should we go too?” Kassian sighed. “To be honest, I’m getting hungry as well. We can probably leave the Clan Leaders and the Cheshi to settle things here.”

“And we could all use a shower,” added Tessandra with a frown. “I’m smelling worse than Roun and it is definitely not a great sensation.”

They all agreed to slowly follow Lady Kareen and Nana’s lead.

It felt a bit strange, after the whole ordeal, to simply walk away from the battlefield, but they were indeed not needed so much anymore. The Cheshi were already guarding the captured Yekara, and it would take a little while longer before they were all properly made prisoners and sorted in one place. The dragons had also helped hasten the capture of those who remained outside the Capital’s Outer Wall, so the only enemies still free had chosen to flee for their lives, most likely the mercenaries. In fact, Cessilia was pretty sure it had turned into a giant hunting party for their dragons, as Tessandra confirmed when Roun took off.

“Just go get them!” she patted her father’s dragon before it flew off.

They watched the Green Dragon slowly climb up in the sky and meet with Cece and Kian, the three of them playing for a bit before disappearing behind the buildings of the Capital, toward the south behind the Outer Wall. Although they couldn’t see the dragons anymore, they could hear them all, including Krai, and tell they were probably having some fun. Cece was so big that they could sometimes see the silver body shining in the sky before the dragon dove down again.

“Is it alright to leave the dragons outside to hunt?” frowned Ashen.

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