Chapter 198 I Treat You as My Pet, but You Want to Ride Me? (Two in One)

In the southern region of the Western Continent, the Silent Forest.

This is a forest sea with few people.

It is said that in the ancient era that cannot be traced back, there were humans living here.

Even in the barbaric era when the extraordinary race disappeared and the sparks of human civilization began to shine, the earliest human kingdoms were established around the Silent Forest.

However, with the passage of several eras, the traces of humans faded from this ancient forest sea and returned to eternal tranquility.

Deep in the Silent Forest, there is a dark garden next to a lake.

A girl with black hair and black skirt stood quietly by the lake.

Her eyes were covered with a layer of light night, which seemed illusory and hazy, making it difficult to see clearly.

Suddenly, at a certain moment, the light shadow was penetrated by the red-gold light.

It penetrated the night and also the shadow.

Then it landed straight in front of her, on the quiet lake, and on the ruins beside the lake that had been weathered to the point of being hollowed out, with only the outlines of the original buildings vaguely recognizable.

The next moment.

In the red-gold light, shadows surged.

Between the alternation of illusion and reality, the faint night gradually intertwined on the weathered and decayed ruins-

Finally, it turned into a series of hazy and abnormal, fleeting light and shadows on the ruins.

Augustina just looked at the hazy and illusory light and shadows quietly, with light flowing in her red-gold eyes, like flowing lava.

The Shadow Council has bases in most areas of the entire Western Continent, even in the Lost Kingdom controlled by the cult.

But few people know that the headquarters of the Shadow Council and the residence of the leader of the council, the Queen of the Night, are all located in the sparsely populated Silent Forest in the southern region of this continent.

Even the few Shadow Council leaders who knew the name of the Silent Forest found it difficult to understand the purpose of Augustina setting up the Council headquarters here.

With the status of the Shadow Council, it is enough to set up a headquarters in any capital of a country in the Western Continent, and those large cities with dense traffic and many powerful people are more suitable for the Shadow Council to carry out various intelligence operations.

There is no need to set up a headquarters here. To put it nicely, it is undisturbed, and to put it bluntly, it is a remote and cornered place.

However, only Augustina herself knows that the Silent Forest is her hometown.

The ruins of the ancient dragon king's court and the last fragments of the once prosperous civilization are buried in the Silent Forest.

And not only that - the Silent Forest.

It is also the place where Augustina and the human boy met for the first time.

And the Forest Country near the Silent Forest -

It is also the source of the first footprints left by the human boy in the First Age.

…

The faint night surged over the desolate ruins.

Very faint, but with a hint of ancient and decayed mystery, it flowed silently over the lake.

After a long time, the night and shadows faded from the ruins.

The light and shadows that flashed on the ruins also disappeared.

The remaining buildings were no longer shrouded in the night, and they dimmed a lot in an instant, no longer having their previous luster.

As if the last bit of mystery had been lost, the remnants of the buildings all decayed and turned into scattered chalk dust.

And the red-gold majesty in the eyes of the black-dressed girl, like an ancient king, also disappeared, and was once again covered by the hazy night, making it difficult to see the whole picture.

"The prince of the Forest Country."

"He was pushed out by the rebels and sacrificed to the sleeping dragon in the Silent Forest..."

"I didn't expect you to have such an identity in the First Epoch."

"Well... After the Forest Country sacrificed the last prince to the dragon, it collapsed due to internal strife for power."

"And the lines of the rebel general during the rebellion - "A real man lives between heaven and earth, how can he be depressed and live under others for a long time"... This is very much your style at first glance."

"This kind of thing is also in line with your bad taste, it should be related to you."

"But with your current status, you would actually care so much about a few minions who are not even legends..."

"As the husband of the empress of the empire and half the owner of the White Tower, this should be regarded as a pure black history. "

A slight smile appeared on the corner of Augustina's mouth.

"It seems that there will be more black materials in a certain Prometheus-level file."

There was a bit of joy in her words.

The Shadow Council is the largest intelligence organization in the entire Western Continent. This is a fact known and recognized by every extraordinary person in the Western Continent.

But no one knows that the founder and leader of the Shadow Council had the original intention of establishing the Shadow Council -

In fact, he just wanted to recruit some people to help her collect intelligence and black materials on someone.

Someone appeared in the first era like the wind, and appeared in Augustina's life.

Then, the human boy disappeared like the wind.

He was the first intelligent life Augustina saw when she was born.

For the dragon race, the first life they saw after breaking out of the shell has a significance that even exceeds their biological parents, and is an existence with irreplaceable special significance.

However, after that, the human boy disappeared so completely.

No matter how Augustina searched in the Western Continent, she could not find any trace of him.

Because of this, Augustina's feelings for the human boy were extremely complicated.

On the one hand, there was the uncontrollable yearning in her heart.

On the other hand, although she knew that the other party was probably unaware and did not do it intentionally, she still felt full of regret for his disappearance for two eras.

So when she finally found the boy's whereabouts through the parliamentary base in the imperial capital in the Fourth Epoch, she knew that Char didn't know her at all, and she shouldn't show up now... But she couldn't control herself in the end, and took the initiative to come to the imperial capital, and teased the boy who was still ignorant at the time.

Looking at Char, who was unaware of the situation, carefully facing her in the Dark Night Garden, cautiously testing and guessing...

In Augustina's heart, the resentment for the two epochs was dissipated a lot.

Including her insistence on collecting information about the other party, and even recording many embarrassing things about Char's childhood in the Prometheus-level file, it is actually the same principle.

It's like an extreme fan who collects the other party's black material everywhere because of love and hate.

Buzz buzz buzz -

The slight vibration from a distance interrupted the black-dressed girl's somewhat self-satisfied reverie.

Her face froze, and she turned back into the mysterious and hard-to-see-through Queen of the Night.

"Speak."

"Yes, Lord Chief."

The voice transmission array transmitted the respectful words of the person in charge of the Dark Night Garden at the base of the Shadow Council in the imperial capital.

"His Majesty Xia has been to the Dark Night Garden."

"According to your previous instructions, I told him that you are now in seclusion and no one knows where you are."

"And as you instructed, I opened up the highest level of authority to all the inventory and intelligence archives of the Shadow Council to him."

As he spoke, the person in charge secretly swallowed his saliva.

Most of the powerful people in the Western Continent only know that the Shadow Council is rich.

But they have no specific idea of ​​how rich they are.

As a manager of the Shadow Council, he was promoted by the leader because of his position as the head of the Imperial Capital Base. He entered the upper echelons of the Council, and only then did he know clearly...

The Shadow Council, which has been passed down for thousands of years and has been hoarding wealth as an intelligence dealer and arms dealer, has a deep foundation.

It is no exaggeration to say that if the strong and the inherited relics and strategic foundation are not counted, the total amount of wealth alone is enough to compete with any of the Empire, the Holy Church, and the Princes Alliance.

If it were not for Augustina herself who was only keen on collecting intelligence and hoarding gold coins, but had no interest in expanding her power, the Shadow Council could have established its own country and become the fourth pole of the Western Continent's Order Camp.

That is a great force that is enough to shake the situation of the entire Western Continent.

"However, His Majesty Char didn't seem to have mobilized much wealth."

"He just looked up a few pieces of information about the first era's angel-level death reports, and then took two holy relics from the warehouse."

"And... His Majesty Char also clearly stated that the two holy relics were only borrowed temporarily and would be returned later, and he also left extraordinary resources that were enough to match the value of the two holy relics as rental fees."

...

"You are not willing to take the resources of the Shadow Council for free, but only willing to obtain them in the form of transactions?"

"Don't you want to owe me a favor?"

"Obviously, even the Shadow Council itself was created to find you..."

No one heard the black-dressed girl's muttering.

On the surface, she quickly answered calmly.

"Yeah."

Augustina nodded gently.

"Well done, that's enough."

She tapped her white fingers lightly, as if she wanted to actively cut off the magic communication.

But suddenly, Augustina's action of cutting off the call paused for a moment.

"During this period, there shouldn't be any new women around him."

"Given His Majesty Char's current status, as well as his multiple identities as the husband of the new queen and the leader of the Swordbearers... plus your previous instructions, we naturally dare not conduct too in-depth investigations."

"We can only speculate based on His Majesty Char's performance when he appeared in public in the imperial capital."

"From the current point of view... except for the Blue Silver Witch who is the Lord of the White Tower and Queen Isadella, His Majesty Xia should not have attended public occasions with other female companions."

"Well, there is also the orphan of the Winter Flower Family, Aurora Ingulite. His Majesty Xia visited the Dark Night Garden with her this time. You should have seen her before, Lord Chief."

Ogutina's movements froze for a moment, and then returned to normal.

"I know."

"After that, you will continue to do what I said before."

On the other end of the magic communication, the person in charge hesitated for a moment before slowly speaking.

"Lord Chief... When Xia Ya came down, he seemed to want to meet you."

"Since you are so concerned about his news and have not really been in seclusion, why do you want me to refuse His Majesty Xia with the reason that you are in seclusion..."

Before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by Augustina's chuckle.

"Because, if I meet him now."

"Then I might lose to Silvia and Isadella for the rest of my life..."

The magic communication was cut off.

The Silent Forest returned to tranquility.

Ogutina put away the sound transmission crystal and stared at the calm lake in front of her.

The eyes were covered by the night and difficult to see clearly.

"In fact, why don't I want to see him?"

"But——"

"A trustworthy and intimate pet..."

"It is different from a partner who walks hand in hand and supports each other."

A slight red-gold color flowed in Ogutina's eyes.

She knew very well what Xia was thinking now. He must be very entangled now. What attitude should he take to face himself?

Is it a close partner who signed a contract like before?

Or a simple friend and ally.

Perhaps in Char's heart at this moment, he is not as easy to get along with as the well-behaved young dragon back then.

However, no matter which one Char finally chooses, it is not what Augustina wants.

No matter how close the relationship between pets and beastmasters is, they can lie on Char's head all day and night to listen to stories and doze off, but they are just companions after all.

When Char took the two holy relics from the Shadow Council, the rental fees he left behind were ironclad evidence.

When he took things from the White Tower, how could he use the words "temporary borrowing" and "will definitely return them later"?

And Augustina does not want to be just a friend or a companion.

Instead, go one step further.

Her mind moved slightly.

The next moment, a small and simple hourglass appeared silently in Augustina's palm.

There were fine gravels flowing in it, lingering with the ripples of time.

Holy Relic "Hourglass of Time"

Earlier, Augustina used this holy relic to return her consciousness to the end of the Third Age, where she met Char in the city that never sleeps.

And now.

With the passage of nearly a year.

This holy relic carrying the Sand of Time has finally completed its charge and regained its powerful mystery.

"Even in your heart, I may never be as good as the eldest lady of the Winter Flower Family, or your golden elf teacher."

"After all, compared to Aurora and Hathaway, I am indeed too late."

"But, I still don't want to lose to Sylvia and Isadella."

Augustina pursed her lips lightly.

She knew very well that there were already too many people in Char's heart, leaving not many vacancies.

After realizing his passiveness of being affectionate, Char is now consciously avoiding attracting bees and butterflies, and is unwilling to irresponsibly provoke others.

Therefore, if you want to carve out a place for yourself in Xia's heart, which has already been filled with others, the only way is to take the initiative. Create more new memories with him. "So, the first era-" "And the lost island..." "Right?"