“We can’t risk ships with the leviathans rampaging around, so we will deliver our supplies during these times. I still need you to arrange meetings with your merchant guild for what we need immediately, though, Siegragxus.”
Not a second back home, and those two empresses are already taking over the household, hahaha…
Was I too much of a carpet if I let my step-mothers take over the household as if they owned the place? Technically, they’ve been here more often than I was, considering they were ancients, but with Mom away, I technically was the woman of the household now. Yet, it felt weird bringing this point up to Forminaxtrass and Yuilengreill, considering how normal this must feel to them.
In fact, I probably would look like an “usurper” if I were to stop them now. It probably wasn’t worth worrying about.
“Your Grace, we have escorted Kaishta and the other dancers back to their homes. You should also be aware that a few annoyances might approach you if you were to leave the mansion,” Estranor reported to me as I was hanging around at the entrance of my home in Iceskale. “The border officers reported that ‘highly ranked’ members of the mages’ guild have entered Frozen Nest.”
Although we did have the adventurers’ guilds on Frozen Nest, it wasn’t like this international guild was that close to their headquarters in Folschreck. They sent reports to them to keep them updated due to their contract to bear the “hunters’ guild” and “mercenary guild” names, so they could continue issuing hunter’s rank, but that was about it. The guild was more loyal to the Frozen Nest state since the guild master was a dragonewt.
The same applied to the two other international guilds in the merchants’ and mages’ guilds. They did the minimum to continue offering the services the two guilds would allow, like the former’s ability to store money like a bank and the latter’s privilege to contact and use Aleistunum’s resources.
As such, when Estranor mentioned “members of the mages’ guild,” he was talking about foreigners. People from Altrust, and maybe directly related to Aleistunum beyond their guild membership. Exactly why they visited Frozen Nest despite the news of the Caedhulen Event Quest, I wasn’t sure, but it just sounded like massive trouble.
“Rhekkraxus, call your father and have him summon the senators for the Event Quest. We need to control the situation for Hestia. Also, Jadhund, get your people to finalize the documents you need to hand in to the imperial palace. The faster we can get our funding, the sooner we can start completing the final fixes on the information tower and auction the privilege to have us build it,” Formiaxtrass ordered, acting like she was the current guild master of my own guild!
“Already on it!” Though it didn’t seem like his pride was getting the better of him. “But the issue is the number of artificers. We already have our eyes on some apprentices, yes, but we just can’t accommodate them with our current tools and the size of the guild building. This is our invention, Empress. I’m not giving the idea out to other artificers.”
“Fine, fine! You dwarves and your possessiveness over your inventions. Knowledge like this should be shared to advance the entire populace! Pah, we keep it within Frozen Nest and Dusk Nest. Within the digital media guild, okay?” the third empress stated dismissively. “In any case, don’t worry about the tools or workshop you need. These are the growing pains. We will have to endure the delayed production and growth to sustain the foundation building. Image capture and information transfer through mana have proven their value through our emperor’s interest, so don’t worry about any potential opportunities we might be giving up. We have to ensure this will work, or Eltharion will scrap any goodwill towards it if we waste funds.”
“Ahhh, and we have to deal with this while having to interact with those rats from the mages’ and artificers’ guilds on Altrust!” Jadhund complains, finally making sense of why those mages’ guild members were entering Frozen Nest. “King Fugnarus told me Aleistunum and Saelarial got interested in the streaming tech, so we have to make sure we silence some mouths.”
“Worry about your own people, and I will do with mine. The dragonewts on Frozen Nest are too loyal to betray Hestia. Not to mention with her upcoming idol work.”
Huh?
“Wait, what?” I finally reacted after just standing around while my household unpacked our belongings from our one-week trip to Coral Beard.
Drawn by my confusion, Forminaxtrass turned around. “What? Your schedule is packed, dear. While trying to complete your mother’s trial, you will need to speak with Frozen Nest to reinforce your standing and give your speech. Do you understand? You have to play the politics game to legitimize this democratic process. Loatryxians might understand how voting works, but the true dragonkin won’t accept it so easily. Make sure everyone does.”
“Not to mention, don’t forget that holy dragonkin are already on Frozen Nest due to their alliance talks with Alextraxus. This is why we are hurrying things!” Yuilengreill added. “We have to deal with the Senate and get the paperwork done. You have to start packing to get back to your nest. While you are doing your trial, we will deal with the background stuff that you shouldn’t be doing alone, which includes the talk your father is having with your alliance. Happy to have you in the family, my dear Hestia. This is what your siblings have to deal with. Reminder: we might not share blood, but we are your mothers still, so accept the help!”
“Mom!” I heard Neill shout before appearing over the mansion’s wall. “Holy dragonkin have noticed our returns!”
“Go!” Formiaxtrass gestured to her dragoons and true dragonkin retainers, prompting them to leave the mansion. “Tasi—”
“I have already given the orders to her maids and butlers!” Tasianna returned in a hurry from the mansion. “Rations and potions have been planned. Lady Annaheil’s accommodations are also finished, including a room inside the subspace for her healing. Empress Yuilengreill, the room Lady Hestia prepared should also be ready to be furnished.”
“We’ll get your alchemy workshop sorted, so focus on Hestia’s needs. Vif—”
“Security is already ready!” Vifi reported, already having finished her quick visit to the dragoon order. “Shay will have the wyverns readied. Nobody will be entering Empress Melloxtressa’s mountain without our awareness. The ice elementals should be helpful as well once Tasianna talks to them.”
“Perfect! Things are actually moving well!” Forminaxtrass cheered before returning to give out orders.
… They did tell me things would be moving fast, but this is extremely fast. No wonder Uncle and Aunt couldn’t join us in Frozen Nest.
In any case, it quickly became clear that everybody believed that I would struggle with Mom’s trial. To be fair to them, this was her order. She told my stepmother that she didn’t believe I would be able to surpass the blizzard where she roosted in a single day, and that I would need, at least, a week to find a way to break through. Which was why we were planning rations and such to accommodate my security personnel.
First, I did appreciate that everybody knew I wouldn’t like a huge party to “protect” me from the holy dragonkin, which was why it would only be my party members, my retainers, and a few dragoons I had fought with during the elemental emperor battle. Second, I couldn’t refute Mom that Hikari and I might not be able to beat Mom’s test in a day. The last time I tried to enter that ice-aligend hell tunnel that led to Mom’s roost, I used it more to level up [Ice Resistance] instead of thinking of defeating the cold.
With Hikari’s body turning all my resistances to fire into ice, I should have a better chance now, yet we haven’t tested that theory. We only knew we could endure the water and wind elemental emperor’s ice attacks, but unlike Mom’s mastery with true ice, that elemental barely learned how to control it.
We might not be facing the wrath of Mom’s true ice, but the mountain was our ancestral home since my grandfather and grandmother roosted there. Mom has been lingering in that place for a long time, and you could only imagine how much her mana must have been absorbed into the land.
Would I be able to conquer such a place? The same place where Tasianna, Shay, and Beth started learning how to cast true ice spells? Only one way to know.
“The preparations are done! Everybody, on my back now!” Sieg proclaimed after an hour had passed. I had only just arrived in Iceskale, and an hour later, I would depart.
Once everybody boarded Sieg’s back, we were out of the city before anybody could really say anything. With Tasianna helping his flight efficiency with her [Aerokinesis], we didn’t get into any trouble with the weather or meet another dragonkin on our way back to Nordor Valley. With Sieg’s flight speed, we made it back home just after lunch.
… Hold on, now that I think about it, can’t I do it now?
[“Sieg?”] I called out as my retainers and friends started getting off him to unpack what we had stored in my subspace for my stay at home. Once I got his attention, I continued, [“Would you mind if I started a stream now? A vlog?”]
[“Our telepathic connection allows me to understand when you are using Earthern words, but you also have to include its description,”] he said, slightly exasperated, before I did what he wanted. [“… A ‘virtual log?’ As in a report made through a video?”]
[“Yes, the idea behind a vlog is to make a video update about your life and what you are doing for your fans to keep up with your life. You should understand the concept of ‘fanservice’ after all the idol lectures I gave, right? A vlog is a form of that,”] I explained. [“‘Content is king’ is a catchphrase many ‘content creators’ and entertainers use back on Earth. As long as people yearn for a certain type of ‘content’ like media news, drama, or gossip, it is the content creator’s job to create it. People want to devour content or goods, which increases demand.”]
[“Simple supply and demand principle, only that it applies to entertainment through experiencing the life of their favorite entertainer? I understand.”] Sieg nodded, going silent for a moment to think it through. [“I do not believe it would interfere with anything. Just make sure not to expose any confidential information. You can mention you are at your nest. That wouldn’t be a problem. Our information tower, currently, isn’t connected with the rest of Miononbolax, so only a few ‘irritiables’ will be seeing it.”]
[“Nice. Thank you!”] I nodded with a smile after I got off “Manager” Sieg. After I said goodbye to him, I pulled my recorder out and connected it with my party bracelet to start the streaming function.
However, before I did, I noticed the recently established news station’s stream was currently online. Pulling it up, I couldn’t help but smile awkwardly when I saw that I was the main news.
“We were asked by the city hall to delay this information by two bells, so we have to apologize to all our listeners for the wait,” the news anchor reported in a very emotive manner, looking both sorry and not. Since the news station was trying to recruit our former criers and city announcers, many of them understood the value of being expressive to garner attention. “But, I believe everybody should understand this is for the safety of our princess! Listeners, I hope all of you didn’t ignore the news that was streamed yesterday. What we report just now is factual, and it was witnessed by many. The Videos on Demand are still up—both our coverage and His Majesty’s announcement. Frozen Nest’s priority should be the safety of our princess, and we must ensure her will is enforced.”
… And with the news came the expected type of comments.
Really goes to show how well-informed people are.
Considering how far away Frozen Nest was from Coral Beard, it most likely would have taken a day before a wyvern arrived with the news. From there, it would take hours, and maybe multiple days, until everybody was informed, but with how we streamlined information delivery through video recording and streaming, people could watch the announcement live or review it once the VOD went up.
And it would only grow once the guild got its first contract to build an information tower on the mainland. So many people registered a streaming account to watch the festival, but without an information tower or my subspace, those accounts become useless. What a powerful monopoly I have in my hands… gotta stream more, then!
Recording on! Streaming function activated! Aaaaaaand start!
“Test. Test. Test. We really need more functions to have a loading screen or something. The stream starts and—boom—my face. Hehe,” I spoke to myself as the stream still had zero viewers.
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“So—Princess Hestia is on?” I heard one of the news station hosts, Seurenk, say. His co-host, Kreinika, nodded, pulling up the stream on his party bracelet. “Oh! It really seems like—hold on, I can hear our voices! Haha, Princess Hestia, hello! Happy birthday, belated! I don’t know if you saw my message when you had your second concert, but I’ll say it right now! To your health!”
“Well, that just feels weird, ahah.” I turned off the news station stream and focused on mine as the view count rose until over 10000 people were watching me now. I waved, smiling brightly as I turned in a circle, showing Nordor Valley to everybody. “No singing stream today, everybody. Just a normal ‘vlog,’ or video log. I just got back from Coral Beard this morning, and Sieg Airlines wasn’t exactly the most comfortable. If it wasn’t for Tasianna, I’m pretty sure he would have lost some of us in the air, haha. Hmm?”
I looked into the chat, noticing the stream of comments flooding everything. [Split Soul Autonomy]’s [Mental World] was activated, allowing Hikari and me to keep up with the information influx.
… Nulark is everywhere. I can’t even call him a simp with how he acts in my chat. That’s just rude to a fan who attended all my streams up until now!
“Happy to hear all of you are having fun!” I giggled as my eyes remained locked on reading the chat while slowly walking towards the mountain. “And, yes, ‘RaykArc’ I can read most of the stuff happening, no matter how fast the chat goes. My skills help with that. Don’t worry about spamming, but just mind your manners, yes?”
“Also, mind that you don’t enter Nordor valley without permission.” I heard Vifi say from behind me before she jerked the recorder towards her. “That means my permission, you hear? Doesn’t matter if you’re a true dragonkin or her biggest fan, don’t try to be funny, or you’ll get shot out of the sky.”
“Hey!” I snapped, pulling the recorder back. “You don’t have to speak like that to them. It’s my vlog!”
“I’m just setting the rules, like how you have a description here on how to act in your chat. I don’t need random dragonkin flying into the valley and making our job as your security personnel harder. Look, even your chat agrees.” Vifi pointed at my party bracelet.
“… Even you, Nulark? Oi, you guys are supposed to support me here!” I complained, but that only made Vifi cackle at me.
“They are. They just know that I am right, and not our little princess. Come on, get your ass to the mountain already so we can properly unpack. You have to say hello to the elementals, as well. Tasianna went ahead, you know?”
Tsk. Dammit, why am I losing my own fans to my friend?
Is that supposed to be pity, or are you guys laughing at me? Haaa, whatever.
“The idol listens to her fans. Okay, let’s go!” I shouted before taking flight towards the elemental village currently being built below our mountain.
While I did so, I gave my fans a quick overview of what I did during the festival, although I kept most of the confidential stuff to myself, which applied to the serious talk I had with my family and also Grimnir. So, anything involving my idol routine with my dancers, my festival trip with my siblings, and also how I got to make up with Father. I still kept it vague, though, by just saying that we’re starting to understand each other.
“Hah, if Rhekk had heard all those rumors, then you guys did as well, so really no need to hide it. Still, despite those circumstances, we’ve made proper peace,” I said in a slightly exhausted manner. “Father is still grumpy, but at least he has a soft spot for Hikari. Guess why?”
“Silver scale” was immediately typed into the chat as if that was the only answer possible. People were quick on the uptake.
“Yup, right. Though you guys probably already saw what happened on the opening day. Mom did something special, ehehe!” I teased, causing a deluge of praise for Mom to overwhelm the chat.
If I had moderators, they would probably complain about how much work I was giving them, especially since the number of viewers had reached over 29000. Most of the news station viewers had come to me, not to mention any smaller streamers, which were now offline. I had the full attention of the few denizens able to watch my stream right now.
Yet…
… Logical outcome. My fault for bringing it up, I guess?
That one single question was quickly drowned by the sea of praises heaped at me. Considering nobody reacted to it, it probably got swept away while everybody was too overjoyed at how Mom helped bridge the gap between Father and me.
She fought against Father to protect my honor against Maustoovaka, taking the brunt of his flames while maiming Father back with her ice, to the point it could be considered treason. Even if the birthday planning was a collaborative work by all the empresses, I had to give Mom the spotlight simply ‘cause of that one act.
“In any case, I rambled a bit too much. I got to say everything I wanted, and I’m almost at my goal, so I have to say goodbye for now. Like I said, just a vlog. Thank you, guys, for listening to me! Hope the next one won’t be a short vlog, but a singing one!”
“Heard you, Aleina! Kaishta and the others really loved the dancing, so I’ll try to do my best! Bye-bye, Hestia out!” I winked and gave everybody a Korean heart sign before turning the stream off, feeling slightly winded despite only talking a bit. Then again, it did feel good to share my family holiday with everybody and to receive a positive reaction in return.
Was this how streamers felt after finishing a stream? Technically, my previous streams have been mostly idol-related or my diss fest during the elemental hunt. I always had my entertainer persona on, but this one was just normal Hestia gushing about how much my siblings could eat.
It was fun. Definitely had to do more of that if people showed interest. This stream was done just after my trip to Coral Beard and also involved some interesting topics like how we imperial siblings would spend our time, and my meeting with my family from Altrustian Loatryx, so the interest in it was mostly inflated.
Well, whatever… more importantly, where is everyone? I raised an eyebrow to see the ice elemental village empty outside of my retainers and dragoons.
Located just west of the entrance to our nest, the ice elemental village was deeply entrenched in the mountain, using the cliffs and trees like natural additions as they built walls of solid ice, making it look like they had taken chunks of the glacier to mold them into building materials. Tasianna told me the ice elementals lived inside the glacier’s tunnels, creating clean, pristine icicle creations that you could imagine inside an ice witch’s fortress.
Naturally, none of these artisan-level furniture and buildings really survived for long, since the lesser and normal elementals loved playing around, destroying things the greaters created. The latter, though, didn’t mind any of it as playing and being mischievous were part of a faefolk’s life. The greaters acted like grandpas and grandmas while they watched their juniors enjoy their time.
However, this village was well maintained, with many of the buildings looking like they were as solid as steel. They weren’t as well decorated as a normal house, though, probably since the elementals didn’t care too much about furnishing their homes. To them, the entire area below our mountain was their home and playground. In a sense, the houses were the furniture to make everything look like a village.
I haven’t interacted with the elementals since Tasianna took them to the glacier to check on the river flowing through it, so I couldn’t think what the reason might be. Regardless, that wasn’t too important. I was more curious where all the elementals were.
“They’ve followed Tasianna,” Shay reported when I arrived at the village with Vifi. “The ice bodies the normal and greater elementals possess aren’t their real form, after all. They are like lesser fae with how they can abandon their current vessel and travel as cloudy spirits if they want.”
“I see… and where did they go?”
He pointed towards the entrance to my family’s nest. “Tasianna said she will await you at the very bottom where Empress Melloxtressa roosts. It is where she taught the three of us her true ice spells. We will accompany you, my lady. You are safer with us accompanying you like last time.”
“Yeah, I’ll stay behind then and order the fire wyverns around. Also—” Vifi pulled out her subspace runes and activated them, opening a fissure to reveal Grimnir behind it. “Gotta let the old man some fresh air.”
“Pah, I knew your tongue got more crooked somehow, lass. That experience in that damn elemental really opened your eyes, or why in Crustacia’s twinlocks are you speaking like that now?” Grimnir grumbled, glaring at our mischievous demonkin friend.
“Oh, I’m not doing anything.” She shrugged before tapping on her manatech arm. “Didn’t have the chance to ask you yesterday. Arm feels a bit sluggish after what happened. I think I messed up the maintenance when I got captured by that fake Yothmlak. Mind checking it out for me?”
“I got to help outfit the dragoons and wyverns with new equipment, and you want me to check on your damn arm? That’s why I taught you how to fix it! The lad and I don’t have time to check on it without Ellaine around!”
“Let Haruka do it.”
“She needs to work with Jadhund! I thought you went with him to Iceskale. Didn’t you hear how much they had to do with the Third Dragon Empress?”
“You’re the master craftsman here, old man. I would rather trust you or our other craftsmen when it feels so ‘rusted.’” Vifi started rotating her prosthetic, although I couldn’t hear any malfunctions, and it didn’t seem like Grimnir could either. “It doesn’t work. Mana flow is still good, but I feel less limber.”
“… I finally reunite with you lasses, and you immediately commission me to help out those new fire wyverns, and now you want me to ignore that work to check on the manatech arm you are supposed to take care of? Thought you were a military woman. Last time I checked, soldiers oughta take care of their equipment.”
Vifi shrugged. “‘Maintain it enough for combat.’ It is maintained enough. However, I don’t want it at 99%, I want it at 100% because I realized that I was the one who brought its condition down by 1%. You really want me to beg you for a simple maintenance check?”
Grimnir stared at Vifi before letting out a deep sigh, gesturing for her to come in. She snapped her fingers before calling over a dragoon to hold the runes for her, before entering the subspace after saying “good luck” to me. Grimnir looked at me before showing a short smile, shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe his own action.
It’s good to have you back, Grimnir. I missed this type of dynamic. The aged dwarf, having to deal with a bunch of spoiled girls; can’t say how much I miss you.
Once I said goodbye to Regolustrus and my dragoons and fire wyvern knights, I flew up to the nest entrance with the twins before I transformed back into a dragon and gave our body’s control to Hikari. This was a test for our silver dragon form and my ability to keep us warm, although… I suspected I shouldn’t have an issue surpassing my last record.
As we stood in front of the tunnel leading to Mom’s roost, my body’s silver scales started to clatter a bit, not from the cold but ‘cause they were molting. The first tactic to conquer strong winds was to use a scale barrier with [True Draconic Barrier], and it didn’t change now that I was practically immune to the cold at the entrance.
[“We will walk behind you, my lady,”] Beth stated with both wyverns now in their wyvern forms.
Although Shay was now larger than her sister after his evolution, Beth still took the lead for the two due to the unique skill she received from [Hestia’s Imperial Guard]. [Silver Crystal Snow] was the skill she received from our bond, allowing her to shed silver scales just like us Nordors. Defensively, she had her brother beat, but due to the rank difference, it wasn’t as huge a difference.
Yet, I didn’t need Beth to protect my body from harm. Hikari charged into the tunnel, undeterred by the cold, while I held the wind back, casting [Tailwind] to keep us fast and nimble, while using [Wind Blasts] to launch us forward. Once it felt like the wind had gotten stronger, I had Hikari pull out some of the potions Tasianna had made for us, while I finished casting our spell buffs.
Once that was all set, Hikari released the solar ice gas hidden underneath our scales, which was just methane gas after Hikari appraised it. Naturally, it was different from normal methane gas, as you could expect from the name [Solar Ice Gas]. While it remained close to our body, it could freeze things like liquid nitrogen, but the moment it moved too far from our body, it would return to its usual flammable, odorless state. It did make it very good to propel us forward, though, even if it couldn’t compare to our scale-dust boosters.
As we flew through the tunnel without much trouble outside of the strong wind, since it was large enough to accommodate Mom’s full size, our [Detection Sensor] suddenly noticed a single signal below us—Tasianna, most likely. Seeing that the wyvern twins weren’t having much trouble catching up to us, even if they were quite a bit behind, Hikari poured mana through our body to agitate the solar-energized methane gas, making them expel even faster to increase our flying speed.
‘This feels too easy now…’ Hikari complained. ‘When you were still a fire dragon, this cold would sting through our barrier and reach our skin. The scales would freeze after prolonged contact with this cold, and the barrier would break, forcing the twins or Tasianna to save us. Yet, now… my scales are not wavering. They are as strong as our crimson scales against fire.’
We can endure the Territory of a fellow fire monster without an issue. We can swim in lava and come out only stinking of volcanic gases. Put us in a cold tunnel, and we turn into a popsicle.
‘And when I’m in control of the body, we just reverse the logic.’
Another cheat option in my arsenal of tools, but [Fire Ice Solar Core] would completely change how I should approach fighting. And with this “cheat,” the icy wind tunnel felt like it should never have been a challenge to me at all. This place where I trained my [Ice Resistance] for an entire month to enter the glacial north was… trivial now. Like flying through a long and windy tunnel system.
Mom thought I would need over a week for this? How?
And those thoughts occupied Hikari’s and my mind until we finally landed in the place where Mom would roost. The floor and walls captured our focus with how the ice shimmered like refined diamonds, sparkling in this dusk where no light could be.
Yet, for a dragon’s lair, it felt so… empty. I could not see any gold or treasure piles filling the ground to the point where they would resemble hills. It was an empty, mostly flat sheet of ice.
“Congratulations, Lady Hikari. You have successfully passed the prelude.” We heard Tasianna’s voice echo in this cavern, causing Hikari to tilt her head as she didn’t understand what she meant by this. “Your mother understood that your new silver dragon body would have no issue passing the wind tunnel. After all, the original test was made for the ‘fire dragon’ Lady Hestia to pass, not the ‘silver dragon’ Lady Hikari. As such, she worded it differently when she reminded both of you. Only if you pass her trial would you be deemed eligible for her reward. She was proven correct. As such, she needed a proper guardian for this trial…”
The cavern suddenly lit up as if somebody had hit the power button. Hikari snapped up to the ceiling as that was where Tasianna’s signal was located.
“… Her Majesty has decreed as such. Her will be done.” Her voice snapped at us like an iron whip. “Thus speaks the Ice Elemental King, Tasianna Marina Silverpond, the heir of the ancient will of Frozen Nest. Bask before my ascendance, my lady, and be humbled with frozen tears.”
Her catalyst floated before Tasianna before the mere touch of her finger created a casket around it, turning it into the rapier she used against me when we were trapped inside the WWEE. Dripping water drops along its blade, the ice blade glimmered as it was pointed at me like an enemy.
“Break me. Burn me. Eviscrate me. Do what you must to survive your stay in her lair, Princess Hikari.”
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