- 19 hours ago
On the Day of the Broken Engagement, I Married a Half-Blood Dragon EP
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00:00In my first life, my fiancé Derek despised me for not being pure enough for the mixed colors in my
00:04flame.
00:05The day I gave birth, he couldn't even wait for me to get off the birthing bed before he burned
00:09me and my still crying baby to ash with a blast of black fire.
00:13As I died, I cursed him. In every life, may you die a miserable death.
00:18Then I was reborn from the ashes.
00:20In my second life, when I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day before my engagement.
00:24My fiancé Derek Cole was standing in my family's main tent, announcing in front of everyone that he was going
00:30to marry my sister Mia.
00:31He had been reborn too. In our last life, he was a rising star among the pure-blood dragons.
00:35He married me because my family and bloodline were just barely worthy of him.
00:39But later I gave birth to a child with markled scales and a dull, weak flame. A half-breed.
00:42He thought I had ruined him. He thought I had deceived him. So he killed us.
00:46Now he had come back to do it over, convinced that if he chose my pure-blood sister, he would
00:51get the perfect heir he wanted.
00:53What he didn't know was that the child Mia carried was a half-breed too.
00:59No! No, that's not right. Let him find out for himself.
01:02When I woke up, my chest still hurt. The feeling of fire burning straight through my ribs felt carved into
01:07my soul.
01:08It took me a full ten seconds to realize I was still alive. Still whole. Still had a heartbeat.
01:14The animal hide stretched over the tent roof was the one Mother had brought back from the southern tribe last
01:18year.
01:18A totem pole stood in the center of the tent, carved all over with the marks of our ancestors.
01:22The basket of nearly withered healing herbs in the corner was still right where it had been.
01:26Everything was exactly as I remembered.
01:28Then I saw Derek. His gaze swept over the main tent, over my parents, over the shamans and chiefs present.
01:34Then it landed on me.
01:36That look was not the tenderness he had worn before our wedding in my last life.
01:39It was disgust, contempt. He came back too.
01:43Uncle Auntie, I know this is wrong, but I can't form a bond with Olivia.
01:47The main tent fell silent for one second. Then whispers broke out, like a swarm of insects startled into flight.
01:56My father, Marcus, was one of the leaders of the Dragon Council.
02:01Say that again.
02:03Mia and I are together now. She's carrying my cub.
02:09Derek! You and Olivia have been promised to each other since childhood.
02:13Your blood compatibility is 92%.
02:15We tested it three times.
02:17You can't just break it off because you feel like it.
02:20Our parents arranged that engagement.
02:21I didn't choose it.
02:23He turned towards me.
02:25No.
02:26He walked towards me.
02:32In our last life, you humiliated me.
02:35This time, I won't make the same mistake.
02:38Olivia, I don't want to hurt you.
02:40I just can't marry someone who is...
02:42He paused.
02:43The entire main tent waited for him to say the word.
02:47I just can't take that risk.
02:49He didn't say it.
02:51But everyone understood.
02:53Bloodline. Blood. Purity.
02:55Those three words drifted through the family hall like ghosts.
02:57No one dared say them out loud.
02:59But everyone didn't knew exactly what they meant.
03:01Everyone in the family knew my flame was the wrong color and the pattern of my scales was wrong.
03:04Since childhood, the elders had judged my bloodline as tainted.
03:07When I first awakened at seven, my flame was gold but streaked with red threads.
03:10That was not the color of a pure blood dragon.
03:12To my face, the elders called it potential.
03:14A possible mutation. A special gift.
03:16But in private, the word they used was half-breed.
03:18They just didn't dare say it to my face.
03:20I agree.
03:21What did you say?
03:22I said I agree.
03:25Article 17 of the Dragon Code.
03:27The party whose engagement is broken has the right to choose a spouse independently within 30 days.
03:32I want to invoke it.
03:33Do you understand what Article 17 means?
03:36It means you give up all family protection over your marriage.
03:39It means the spouse you choose will not be screened, will not be verified, and there will be no bottom
03:44line.
03:45I understand.
03:47I choose him.
03:48No one had ever paid attention to him.
03:51His eyes were a dark gold that belonged to no pure blood dragon.
03:56A color mainstream society saw as the mark of a half-breed.
04:00Are you insane?
04:05You're choosing a...
04:06A what?
04:07A half-breed just like me?
04:08Is that the word you want to say, Derek?
04:11Say it!
04:11He didn't dare.
04:12He didn't dare say that word in front of a room full of elders because the moment he did,
04:17he would be admitting that the real reason he had broken off the engagement was not love.
04:22It was blood discrimination.
04:24In modern dragon society, it was an open secret, but no one dared say it in a formal setting.
04:29Everyone wore masks.
04:30Everyone spoke politely.
04:32Everyone stabbed each other in the back.
04:34No one was stupid enough to draw their blade on the battlefield.
04:39What are you still standing there for?
04:41Come here.
04:49What's your name?
04:52Luke.
04:53Luke and I formed a bond.
04:54The process was simple.
04:55Go to the Elder's Hall, register, and have both parties sign the contract.
04:58No ceremony, no blessing, not even friends needed to be present.
05:01The fire basin at the registration office burned bright.
05:04And the animal hide scroll of the dragon code hung on the wall, yellowed with age, its edges curling.
05:08When I signed, Mia stood in the doorway.
05:10What do you think that half-breed of yours can give birth to?
05:13A lizard?
05:13Or a whole nest of snakes?
05:15My guess, yours will be much more interesting than mine.
05:18She didn't know what I knew, but she sensed it.
05:21After I signed, I set down the pen and walked past her without stopping.
05:25At the far end of the corridor, Derek stood to the side, staring hard at me.
05:31What do you know?
05:32I know you chose the wrong person.
05:34But don't worry, Derek.
05:36Your good days are far from over.
05:38It was only one phrase, but it carried so much.
05:40Last life.
05:41Killing in tanked.
05:42Fear.
05:42And something I didn't recognize.
05:44Maybe despair.
05:46You killed me in our last life.
05:48In this one, I'm still alive.
05:49I saw a flicker of fear in his eyes.
05:51Not fear of me.
05:52Not fear of power.
05:53It was fear of the fact that the woman knew everything.
05:55The fear that comes right before a secret is exposed.
05:57When I walked out of the Elder's Hall, Luke was leaning against a stone pillar in the corridor.
06:01Rolling an old silver coin was badly worn.
06:03The image on its face almost impossible to see.
06:06All sign?
06:07All sign.
06:08What were you saying to them out there?
06:10Nothing.
06:10Just saying hello.
06:17Your claws are shaking.
06:18No, they're not.
06:19Olivia.
06:20I said they're not.
06:21He simply took off his outer robe, carrying it in the warmth of his fire and a scent I
06:25couldn't quite name.
06:26The robe was cold, metallic scent of pure-blood dragons.
06:28But something wilder.
06:29Something deeper.
06:30Like forest after rain.
06:32Or charred wood.
06:32That night, we went back to Luke's tent together.
06:34He was warming beast milk by the fire pit.
06:36He said the midwife told him it needed to be nourished.
06:38His tent was small, walls lied to him I was nearly bored.
06:40But everything was clean.
06:41Wooden bowls and anapal spoons were neatly stacked on the stone shelf, and there wasn't
06:44a speck of rust on his blade.
06:45Why were you willing to marry me?
06:46You want the truth?
06:48Hmm.
06:50Because you chose.
06:51You stood in the middle of the main tent with everyone watching, and you chose me.
06:57Just for that?
06:59Just for that.
07:06Not many dragons would choose one of their own in that moment.
07:10Most would choose themselves.
07:12That was choosing myself, too.
07:14I chose you because I needed to get away from Derek.
07:17I know.
07:19But you could have grabbed any dragon at the door to sign with you, then gone your separate
07:22ways.
07:23You didn't.
07:25How do you know I won't?
07:31Because you're still sitting here, drinking my beast milk.
07:35I said nothing.
07:36He was right.
07:38I hadn't left.
07:39The days passed quietly like that.
07:42I found out I was pregnant two months later.
07:45In my last life.
07:47In my last life, at this very moment, I thought I was carrying Derek's cub.
07:51I had gone to tell him, full of joy.
07:58I hope you don't embarrass me again.
08:00His expression looked like he had already decided to throw it away before he even skinned
08:05it.
08:06Then I gave birth to a daughter with marteled scales, and a flame so weak it was almost invisible.
08:19This isn't mine.
08:23She is yours.
08:25My seed could never turn out like that.
08:30He didn't even wait for me to explain.
08:44Olivia, you've been in the private tent for 20 minutes.
08:48Luke's expression changed.
08:50First confusion, then alertness, then something I didn't recognize.
08:55What's wrong?
08:58I handed him the pregnancy stone.
09:09Ours.
09:09Who else's would it be?
09:16Not Derek's?
09:17Not Derek's.
09:19100% yours.
09:32Are you happy?
09:34I don't know.
09:36But I'm thinking about something.
09:39What?
09:40Your last life.
09:43Why did Derek kill you?
09:45I froze.
09:46I hadn't told him.
09:47I had never told anyone about my last life.
09:50About that cub.
09:51About that fire.
09:52About the instant so sudden I didn't even have time to scream.
09:55The cub.
09:56Mottled scales.
09:57Unstable flame.
09:59He thought it wasn't his.
10:01It wasn't his.
10:03It was.
10:04But that cub really didn't look pure blood.
10:08Olivia, have you ever considered something?
10:10What?
10:10A cub born from two mixed bloods may not be a mixed blood.
10:14What does that mean?
10:15He didn't answer.
10:17He only placed his claws over my lower abdomen.
10:19Within the black tongues of flame was a strand of gold I had never seen before.
10:23That gold was not the cold gold of the pure blood dragons.
10:26It was warmer.
10:28More like sunrise.
10:29Your cub.
10:30It isn't the same as the cub from your last life.
10:33What are you talking about?
10:34I'm saying you were robbed.
10:38Robbed?
10:39By who?
10:42Mia's due date was three weeks before mine.
10:45The news spread through the entire Dragon Council.
10:49Derek Cole was holding a bloodline witnessing ceremony for his first child, and he had invited
10:54every elder and noble.
10:57To put it plainly, he was showing off.
11:00Showing off that he had chosen the right woman.
11:02That his heir would be pure blood.
11:03That abandoning me had been such a brilliant decision.
11:06He wanted everyone to see that Derek Cole had not been dragged down by that half-breed.
11:09That Derek Cole's bloodline would continue.
11:11That Derek Cole was the winner.
11:14On the day of the ceremony, Luke and I stood at the very back of the hall.
11:20No one noticed us.
11:22No one wanted to notice us.
11:25I knew what he was thinking.
11:26He was thinking this was only the first step.
11:29There was a longer road ahead.
11:31One child wasn't enough.
11:32He wanted an entire tribe.
11:35My parents sat in the front row.
11:37Their seats had been assigned.
11:39No one cared whether they wanted to be there.
11:40To miss an occasion like this would be to openly oppose the Cole family.
11:44And my father's place on the council still needed Marcus Cole's vote.
11:48What do you think it'll be?
11:50Do you want the truth or the polite version?
11:52The truth.
11:54A turkey.
11:56Or a lizard.
11:57Or something worse.
12:03The glory of pure-blood dragons.
12:07The future of the Cole family.
12:10The support of the clan.
12:11Every sentence was formulatical.
12:13Every gesture had been precisely calculated.
12:17Then the delivery room door opened.
12:21Marcus's smile froze on his face.
12:24The whole room went silent.
12:26Every eye fixed on the white cloth.
12:29Waiting for the midwife to uncover it.
12:31The baby's scales were grey-green.
12:33Uneven in shade.
12:34Its eyes opened a slit.
12:35And the color of its pupils was wrong.
12:37It was not the gold of pure-blood dragons.
12:39Nor the dark yellow ex-blood dragons.
12:41It was a murky sickly dark yellow.
12:43Like pos left too long.
12:44What is that?
12:45It's my child.
12:46Let me see.
12:47Even more terrifying were its dragon wings.
12:50The fleshy wing that should have unfolded at birth.
12:53The symbol of a dragon's identity.
12:55Had only grown halfway.
12:56The other half was a malformed, wrinkled lump of skin.
13:16I don't know why this happened, Derek.
13:19I really don't know.
13:19Do you know what your bloodline is?
13:24Do you know, on your father's side?
13:27There is nothing wrong with my bloodline!
13:30It's you!
13:30You're the problem!
13:32In our last life!
13:33You and...
13:33She suddenly shut her mouth.
13:37But it was too late.
13:39Last life?
13:40What last life?
13:41Derek's expression in that moment was the most spectacular thing I had ever seen.
13:45Fear, rage, shame, and the despair of knowing everything was over.
13:49Every emotion searched up at once.
13:50Crowding onto his handsome face until it twisted out of shape.
13:53It was you!
13:54You cursed me!
13:56He was fast.
13:57But Luke was faster.
14:10Don't touch her.
14:11The whole room went silent.
14:22That fire...
14:24That fire...
14:24Impossible.
14:26What is it?
14:27Marcus, do you know that fire?
14:30Marcus didn't answer.
14:32The way he looked at Luke changed.
14:36It wasn't the hostility from before.
14:39It wasn't irritation at having his speech interrupted.
14:42It was something older.
14:44More instinctive.
14:45Fear.
14:47Fear.
14:47Not fear of an enemy.
14:48Fear of something from the past.
14:51Mia and Derek's pure blood air was half lizard.
14:54The news spread through all of Dragon Society.
14:57Someone revealed the secret.
14:59It was sealed quickly.
15:01However, the message has already been leaked.
15:04The comments were unbearable to read.
15:07Some said Mia's bloodline was the problem.
15:09Some said Derek's bloodline was the problem.
15:11Some said both of them were the problem.
15:13The truth didn't matter.
15:15What mattered was that they were finished.
15:18But to Derek, there was one thing even more terrifying than social death.
15:23Me.
15:24That night we returned to our accommodation.
15:27Luke closed the door.
15:29Leaned against it.
15:30And looked at me.
15:32You want to know the truth?
15:34What I used just now was the fire of the ancient dragons.
15:38When Marcus saw it, he recognized it.
15:41That wasn't the power of modern pure blood dragons.
15:46Luke was silent for a long time.
15:50Do you know where pure blood dragons come from?
15:53Since I was little, I was taught that pure blood is innate.
15:57Natural selection.
15:58The peak of evolution.
16:00Then do you know where half-greeds come from?
16:04These scars, they aren't from fights.
16:10They're from rituals.
16:12What rituals?
16:14The Cole family.
16:15Marcus Cole, Derek's father.
16:18Or rather, every family that calls itself pure blood.
16:20Their pure blood wasn't natural.
16:22It was stolen.
16:24What do you mean?
16:25Every time a new life is born, they perform a ritual.
16:28They extract dragon crystals from dragons with impure bloodlines.
16:32He never talked about himself.
16:34I had known him for two months, and he had never said a word about his past.
16:39I knew what a dragon crystal was.
16:41Every dragon has one in their chest.
16:43It is the source of our power.
16:44The color and quality of a dragon crystal determines the form and strength of the flame.
16:49If the dragon crystal shatters, the dragon dies.
16:51No exceptions.
16:52A mixed blood's dragon crystal is far more active than a pure blood's.
16:56Because a mixed blood's flame is unstable, the crystal has to keep adapting and adjusting.
17:01And that activity...
17:03It can be extracted.
17:05A pure blood dragon's crystal is constant.
17:08Stable.
17:08It doesn't grow stronger or weaker.
17:10But a mixed blood's crystal is different.
17:12It can be smelled, remade, and injected into another dragon's body.
17:16They use mixed blood dragon crystals to strengthen their own bloodlines.
17:20Luke didn't speak.
17:22But his silence was the clearest confirmation.
17:27How do you know?
17:29Because I was one of the dragons they extracted from.
17:33When I was 15, Marcus Cole found me.
17:36He said he would help me awaken.
17:37You know the line.
17:38Every mixed blood has heard it.
17:39Come with us, and we'll help remove the impurities from your bloodline.
17:43You went?
17:44I went.
17:44My mother had just died.
17:46I was living alone in a grass shed in the south.
17:48No herd.
17:48No kin.
17:49My flame would go out of control from time to time and burn every piece of prey I could find.
17:52Arriving a beast car pulled by four Thestrials, he said he'd come to help me.
17:56They locked me in a dungeon and extracted my dragon crystal for three days and three nights.
18:00They thought I was unconscious the whole time.
18:02But I wasn't.
18:03I was awake.
18:05I watched them melt the crystal they took from me into glowing liquid and injected into a cub's body.
18:10Who was that cub?
18:15You guessed right.
18:17It was Derek Cole.
18:19Derek's pure blood had not been maintained by the blood I donated.
18:23Not by that bottle of heart blood taken from my chest every year.
18:26The pain so bad I curled in on myself.
18:30It was maintained by the lives of every mixed blood dragon they had branded a half-street.
18:36In my last life.
18:40Every year I had to send their family a bottle of my heart blood.
18:45They said it was to build affection with Derek.
18:48I was pierced with needles from childhood until I nearly died from the pain and I thought that was just
18:53my fate.
18:54Because I was mixed blood.
18:56Because I was mixed blood I was supposed to endure it.
18:58It was compensation.
18:59It was the price.
19:00It was what I owed them.
19:02That wasn't your fate.
19:04That wasn't your fate.
19:04That was their lie.
19:05They used my blood.
19:07Our blood.
19:08To keep up Derek's disguise.
19:09To make everyone believe he was pure blood.
19:12To let him stand above us.
19:14Look down on us.
19:15Judge us.
19:15Kill us.
19:16Then he killed you.
19:18Killed your child.
19:19Because he couldn't let the truth come out.
19:22Your child.
19:23The one you gave birth to in your last life.
19:26If she had lived.
19:27If she had grown up.
19:28Her scales and flame would have proven one thing.
19:31What?
19:32A child born from two mixed bloods is not mixed blood.
19:36It is the source.
19:38The ancient dragons.
19:40The true dragons.
19:40Were never pure blood.
19:42They were mixed blood.
19:43Because mixed blood means adaptation.
19:47It means change.
19:48It means the power to devour everything.
19:51And bring everything back to life.
19:54But pure blood.
19:56Pure blood is a dead end.
19:58A self-deceiving lie destined for extinction.
20:03That night, Luke took me somewhere.
20:05Deep within the family territory, there was a forgotten ruin.
20:09I had gone there once as a child, but mother dragged me back.
20:14She said it was unlucky and forbade me from going again.
20:18It was not an ordinary key.
20:21It was made of bone.
20:22White.
20:23And slightly yellowed.
20:29But I knew those words were not modern dragon writing.
20:33They weren't any dragon language I knew.
20:35The symbols curved and flowed like the shape of flames.
20:40Generations of dragon ancestors are buried here.
20:43At least, that's what everyone says.
20:45No.
20:46They didn't die.
20:48They were exiled.
20:50The stone chamber was small, only about two meters square.
20:53And every wall was covered in murals.
20:56No names.
20:57No dates.
20:59Only those ancient curving symbols and images.
21:01It was ten times the size of the other dragons.
21:05Its wingspan covering half the sky.
21:13Then the mural changed.
21:16They severed the dragon race's connection to its past.
21:21They killed the last mixed blood king of the ancient dragons.
21:24Stole its dragon crystal, divided into thirteen pieces, and smelted those pieces into their own bodies.
21:30From then on, they called themselves pure blood.
21:34From then on, mixed blood became a disgrace.
21:36From then on, every few decades, they had to find a new group of mixed blood dragons,
21:41extract their dragon crystals, and use them to extend their own lives.
21:45Do you know why they've always had their eyes on you?
21:48Because my flame is the wrong color.
21:50Because the pattern of my scales is wrong.
21:53Because I'm a half-breed.
21:54Because inside you is...
21:55Because you are the reincarnation of that ancient dragon.
22:01I am the...
22:03You are the king they killed three times.
22:05Stole from countless times.
22:07And yet every time...
22:10You were reborn from the ashes.
22:13In this life, I will stand in front of you.
22:16Not because you need protection.
22:17But because since I was fifteen, I had been waiting for one of my own.
22:21Someone willing to choose me.
22:22And you chose.
22:23His voice was trembling.
22:25It was the first time I had ever heard his voice tremble.
22:27I thought the story ended there.
22:29But I was wrong.
22:31On the third day after the ceremony, Mia disappeared.
22:34She hadn't run away from the nest.
22:36She hadn't gone to see a witch doctor about her body.
22:40She vanished from the Cole family territory out of thin air.
22:44The midwife said she got up in the middle of the night to feed the cub.
22:48And then she was gone.
22:53Derek was the first to messenger to me.
22:57Not because he cared about Mia.
23:00But because he knew I would.
23:03Strangely, it wasn't angry.
23:05It wasn't urgent.
23:07It was soft in a way I had never heard before.
23:09Almost pleading.
23:11Olivia, Mia is missing.
23:14What does that have to do with me?
23:16I heard him take a deep breath on the other end of the soundstone.
23:20If you're willing to help me find her, I'll show you something.
23:25The truth about that cub from your last life.
23:33Then I found Luke.
23:34Derek says he knows about what happened in the last life.
23:37He was cooking a pot of meat soup.
23:39In the stone pot were wild greens, roots and bones from some beast I didn't know where he had hunted.
23:48What does he know?
23:49He says he knows the truth about the cub.
23:56He's lying.
23:57But he may know something.
23:59Like what?
24:01Like who stole your cub.
24:04Luke and I went to the Cole family territory.
24:07Their land was on the mountain to the north, sprang wide.
24:11It was a long walk from the fortress gate to the main hall.
24:20Come with me.
24:28Inside was a ritual refining room.
24:30No, not a ritual refining room.
24:32A slaughterhouse.
24:33It was not alive.
24:35What is this?
24:37Derek didn't answer.
24:40The bone scroll was very old.
24:42Its edges worn down.
24:45My name was carved on it.
24:47Inside were branded animal hides.
24:49Many sheets.
24:51The same cub.
24:52Rubbed from different angles.
24:54Behind them were notched tables.
24:56Rune data.
24:57And blood pattern analysis scrolls.
24:59Derek has never fathered a pure blood cub.
25:01Not once.
25:02The Cole family's bloodline was already polluted in the first generation.
25:05Their method of extracting mixed blood dragon crystals has a fatal side effect.
25:08Each generation is weaker than the last.
25:10Derek is the final generation.
25:12He cannot produce any healthy cub.
25:14Then what about Mia's cub?
25:16My father did that.
25:18What do you mean?
25:18My father.
25:19He started cultivating Ambrose five years ago.
25:21With my essence blood.
25:22With mixed blood dragon essence blood.
25:23Cultivated in the ritual refining room.
25:25The one Mia carried was never my cub.
25:26It was a ritual thing they implanted in her body.
25:29Your wording changed.
25:31You called her Mia.
25:32Not my sister.
25:34Now you see her as a living being.
25:35Not your rival.
25:37He said nothing for a long time.
25:40Mia disappeared.
25:41She got up in the middle of the night and saw that stone trough.
25:45Saw the corpse of her cub.
25:46The one she thought had died.
25:47The one we told her died at birth.
25:51And she disappeared.
25:53What did you do to her?
25:56We didn't do anything.
25:58But she took that bone scroll.
25:59That scroll contains all the evidence.
26:01The Cole families.
26:01Bloodline fraud.
26:02Ritual cultivation.
26:03Mixed blood dragon crystal extraction.
26:05Everything is in there.
26:06So you came to me not because she's missing.
26:08But because she took your secrets.
26:12My father doesn't want Mia.
26:14What does he want?
26:16He wants that cub.
26:18I did not go to rescue Mia.
26:20Not because I didn't care.
26:21But because I knew where she was.
26:23Our mother.
26:24Elena.
26:24She had never accepted my father's seat on the council.
26:27Never accepted being forced to attend every Cole family event.
26:30Never accepted her two daughters being treated as political bargaining cheaps.
26:33She had been waiting all along.
26:35Waiting for a chance.
26:36Waiting for a blade sharp enough.
26:37Mia gave that bone scroll to her.
26:39Then Elena did something no one expected.
26:41She issued a bloodline proclamation.
26:43In the front courtyard of the family estate.
26:45Before all the elders.
26:46Before all the council members.
26:47Before the watching dragons.
26:48She released everything in the bone scroll piece by piece.
26:51Every item was perfectly clear.
26:53The Cole family's bloodline fraud.
26:56The Embro smelting authorization personally signed by Marcus Cole in dragon script.
27:00The list of mixed blood dragons illegally imprisoned and stripped of their dragon crystals.
27:04He didn't know someone had tampered with the voice Prince Stone.
27:07Derek is not pure blood.
27:08He never was.
27:10But we had no other choice.
27:11The council needed an heir.
27:13The Cole family needed a future.
27:15We only did what had to be done.
27:18The hall was deathly silent.
27:28It was a blood pattern origin tracing scroll.
27:31At first glance the entire blood pattern was dark gold.
27:33With the purity index marked along the edge of the scroll at over 97%.
27:38This was the mark of a pure blood dragon.
27:41There was nothing wrong with it.
27:42But at the imprint corresponding to the 12th heart scale.
27:45A tiny section of the pattern was the wrong color.
27:49The source of that pattern was written on the final line of the scroll.
27:53It was the first time I had ever seen that blood pattern scroll.
27:57You knew.
27:58I knew.
28:00You knew from the beginning.
28:01I've always known.
28:03You knew the dragon crystal inside him was part of you.
28:05Yes.
28:08That's why I'm taking it back.
28:10The conflict broke out the next day.
28:13Derek struck first.
28:14He had lost everything.
28:15His fiancée, his child, his family's reputation, his council seat.
28:19He had nothing left.
28:21A person with nothing left is the most dangerous.
28:24Because he has nothing left to lose either.
28:27When he came to find me with that knife, I was packing in the apartment.
28:31Mia was coming to stay for a few days.
28:33She didn't dare go back to her own home, and she didn't dare return to the coal estate.
28:37She was staying with mother for the moment.
28:39But mother said she needed time alone, so Mia had no choice but to come to me.
28:45When the doorbell rang, I thought it was her.
28:51He knew I wouldn't die.
28:53But he no longer cared.
28:59Put down the knife.
29:04Derek did not put it down.
29:06The thing you took.
29:07That piece of dragon crystal inside your body.
29:09It isn't yours.
29:11It never was.
29:12Your life is fake.
29:14Your bloodline is fake.
29:16Your pure blood was stolen.
29:19You are nothing.
29:29This should hurt.
29:30But I don't want to hurt you.
29:33I don't want to become like you.
29:38Take it.
29:40And never appear in front of us again.
29:52I'll get the first aid kit.
29:54No need.
29:56I want a different ending.
30:00What do you mean?
30:02In your last life, when you died, I was on the other side of the city.
30:07I felt it, but I couldn't get there in time.
30:09By the time I arrived, you were already...
30:12Nothing but ash.
30:14Not this time.
30:17Not this time.
30:20After Mia arrived, she saw the blood on the floor of the nest and almost turned around and flew away
30:25again.
30:36I'm sorry, Olivia.
30:37I'm sorry.
30:38I know I shouldn't have.
30:40I know back then I shouldn't have treated you that way.
30:45You don't need to apologize.
30:48Why are you never angry?
30:50Because I don't have time to be angry.
30:53That was the truth.
30:54I didn't have time to be angry.
30:57There was still too much I had to do.
31:00I had to give birth to my child.
31:02I had to watch Luke take back his dragon crystal.
31:05I had to watch Marcus Cole stand trial.
31:08I had to see every young dragon in that glass threat properly buried.
31:16That night, Luke burned a calming leaf on the stargazing platform outside the nest.
31:24He rarely touched things like that.
31:26The night dew is heavy.
31:28Go inside.
31:29Are you cold?
31:30No.
31:31Liar.
31:40When I was 15, in that dungeon, I thought I was going to die there.
31:45I know.
31:47But not because of the pain.
31:49Because I thought no dragon would come looking for me.
31:52No dragon knew I was there.
31:54Even if I died there, I would only be treated as a missing half-breed.
31:58No dragon would ask.
32:00No dragon would search.
32:02No dragon would care.
32:11But they were wrong.
32:14Who was wrong?
32:16All dragons.
32:20Let's go back.
32:21You need to sleep.
32:22News of Marcus Cole's arrest came three days later.
32:26He was not arrested by the Dragon Council.
32:28He was arrested at the Dragon Enforcement Unit, the Black Dragon Guard.
32:32They had received an anonymous bone scroll sealed with dragon blood.
32:36Delivered with the bone scroll was a memory crystal.
32:38The images from that memory crystal were projected onto the announcement stone tablets at the center of every dragon territory.
32:44The next day, the Black Dragon Guard raided the Cole family's nest.
32:47On the third day, when Marcus Cole was dragged out from the depths of the nest, Marcus Cole did not
32:52struggle.
32:53He showed no anger, no fear.
32:56In his vertical pupils was a kind of relief, as if he finally no longer had to keep acting.
33:01Two days later, the Dragon Council held an emergency session.
33:05Bloodline fraud, illegal imprisonment, abuse of minors, murder.
33:09Every charge came with witness testimony and physical evidence.
33:13He spent 40 minutes telling his story word by word.
33:18From being taken at 15, to three days and nights of crystal extraction, to being abandoned at the entrance of
33:26the East District Hospital.
33:27The Council's decision passed unanimously.
33:29All noble titles held by families calling themselves pure blood were revoked.
33:33Every clause in the Dragon Code concerning bloodline hierarchy was abolished.
33:37A compensation fund was established specifically for mixed-blood dragons, whose dragon crystals had been extracted.
33:44Marcus Cole was sentenced to permanent imprisonment.
33:47Although Derek Cole had not directly participated in his father's crimes, he had known the truth and benefited from it.
33:52He was stripped of his dragon status.
33:54His dragon crystal was forcibly removed, and he reverted to what he had originally been.
33:58Your child from the last life, he didn't kill her.
34:02What did you say?
34:03The child from your last life, he didn't kill her.
34:06He sent her away.
34:07Sent her to another world.
34:08She's alive.
34:10Somewhere she's alive.
34:12What's going on?
34:14I don't know.
34:15I really don't.
34:16I only know she was sent away, sent somewhere no one could find her.
34:19That was the last thing my father said.
34:22He said he couldn't kill a child.
34:23That was the one thing he couldn't do.
34:26Derek left.
34:27I stood in the tent passage and did not move.
34:30There was a cub inside.
34:33And there was another cub, somewhere in the world, alive.
34:37She was still alive.
34:39I did not cry.
34:40The crying came later.
34:43That night, in Luke's tent, while he was changing the herbs on the wound on his claw.
34:54We'll find her.
34:57How do you know?
34:58Because you're the kind of dragon who finds her own.
35:01You won't stop until you do.
35:04I laughed.
35:05But the laugh was part of the crying, so it was ugly.
35:08He didn't mind.
35:08The cub was born one week later.
35:11A daughter.
35:13What's her name?
35:17Iris.
35:20Why?
35:21Because Iris means rainbow.
35:23Because her flame is the color of a rainbow.
35:26Because when she came, all the colors came with her.
35:32Iris.
35:36His smile was ugly.
35:38Because his eyes were too bright, so bright his smile couldn't hide it.
35:42His dragon crystal had returned.
35:47You're back.
35:49I didn't know who he was talking to.
35:51Maybe Iris.
35:52Maybe another dragon.
35:55Maybe the king in the mural.
35:56The one killed three times and reborn from the ashes every time.
36:00But it didn't matter.
36:01Because this time, no dragon would die.
36:04This was my second life.
36:06But there would not be a third.
36:07Outside the tent flap was night.
36:10Inside the tent flap was light.
36:13And a cub.
36:15And him.
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