Chapter 1731: Chapter 1731

As she spoke, the silver dragon girl on the treetop kept her hands behind her back, looking a little restless. Princess Sophia stood shoulder to shoulder with her on the canopy. They were about the same height, their beautiful faces different yet complementary. The princess seemed more composed and steady; ten thousand years had done nothing to alter the bond between them.

"I can see it, you know. That old human man who was with you just now carries an unusually powerful curse."

"What? You can see it?"

Jenkins had expected her to share some insight from beyond the material world, never imagining the secret would be this. A jolt of excitement shot through him. Ever since learning about Old Dad's curse of immortality from Miss Stevel, this was the first real clue he had found.

"Yes. It's no ordinary curse—it's incredibly ancient and rare. The only things that could cause it are likely artifacts that you humans have never even recorded... Do you know what object is its source?"

Jenkins answered without hesitation, and a smile immediately bloomed on the barefoot girl's face:

"Then there's no mistake. This Cursed Item probably doesn't have a designation because it cannot even be recorded. It's called the Evolution Key. But be warned—we can speak its name, but it's best not to repeat it to mortals. The name itself is part of the curse."

"Evolution? Is it related to the entity in the Red Moon?"

Jenkins asked after a moment of thought.

"No. The calamity within the Red Moon is far more powerful than that key, but the Red Moon itself was born even more recently than our first meeting. That key, however, is a creation far older than your travels through history, older even than the earliest point you sought in Black Town."

Chocolate nodded. The key was indeed older than it was.

"According to the legends I've heard, it is an extension of the primordial concept of 'evolution.' On one hand, it represents the potential for change, but on the other, it has absorbed the resentment of every creature, object, and even formless concept that failed to evolve. The key is a terrifying aggregate of sin, said to be hidden in a cave that moves randomly through the material world. I have no idea how that old man with you came to possess it."

Jenkins couldn't explain the strange adventure Old Dad and Old Jack had undertaken years ago. But now that he knew the source of the curse, he asked the silver dragon girl how to remove it.

She mulled it over, looking troubled:

"The curse cannot be broken, only passed on. You would have to find someone more powerful who is willing to take the key from the current holder. The original owner will die within three days of losing it, and the new one will be forced to shoulder the cursed fate. With each transfer, the curse evolves and grows stronger, until a final holder is unable to find anyone more powerful to pass it to. After that person's death, the key's accumulated power will vanish. Then, once a new holder appears, the key's path of evolution will begin all over again."

"So, you're saying the key's true purpose is just to repeat the process of evolution over and over?"

"No, that's just one of its characteristics. As for the key's true purpose, only the holder can know. That is a rule of the key itself."

The silver dragon girl spoke with a note of regret. Jenkins nodded, gaining a fresh appreciation for just how difficult this situation was. According to Anettasia, there was indeed nothing he could do to interfere in his mortal state.

However, since the key's power was less than the calamity within the Red Moon, it was likely that he could help Old Dad in his divine state.

"Then I'll wait until this is all over. Once I've truly saved the world... I will help Old Dad. I swear it..."

Every drop of divinity had to be conserved for the final calamity. Therefore, Jenkins couldn't possibly use the divinity he expected to gain from the Tulip Project here.

Though he couldn't act yet, he at least had more information and knew the curse wasn't entirely beyond his reach. His mood on his birthday brightened considerably: Newest update provıded by Nov3lFɪre.ɴet

"That's incredibly helpful. You've helped me more than you know."

"Please, don't say that. We are the ones who should thank you. If it weren't for your generous help back then, we wouldn't be standing here today."

Princess Sophia spoke gently, then glanced at the silver dragon girl beside her, who was gazing at the scenery with her hands clasped behind her back:

"We can never repay you for your help. Now that we've returned to the material world, we have some personal matters to attend to first, but we will be there when you need us. Yes, when the final day arrives, Anettasia and I will return here and witness with you what is to come at the end of the 18th Epoch."

This was the true "grand gift." While he didn't know just how powerful the silver dragon girl and the seemingly ordinary princess were, based on the world's general rule—the longer one lives, the greater their power—he had every reason to believe they were the strongest allies he had found yet.

He was about to thank them again, but Princess Sophia stopped him. The human and the dragon were about to depart to attend to their unfinished business. Before she left, however, the silver dragon girl gave Jenkins a gift. She had overheard Old Dad wishing him a happy birthday.

It was an amber pendant, and sealed within it was a creature that looked like a centipede. It seemed familiar to Jenkins, and then he remembered—it was the artifact the silver dragon lord had used to transform from a dragon into a human in the story of "The Dragon Slayer's Legend".

His gaze snapped to the silver-haired girl, then back to the amber pendant resting in his palm.

"This is the Primeval Amber Stone. The humans of my era designated it B-01-5-0092. After all these years, I've naturally learned how to freely take on a human form. It would be rather inconvenient for certain things otherwise, wouldn't it?"

Anettasia chuckled. As Jenkins stared at the pendant in wonder, Princess Sophia blushed and lightly smacked the silver dragon's side. Anettasia dodged playfully, her silver hair fluttering against her back in the breeze, a reflection of her cheerful mood.

"Well then, we'll see you on the final day, Redemptor. We'll be sure to help you then."

With the gift given, she prepared to depart.

"Wait, please. I have another question... though it's not a very polite one."

Seeing the silver dragon girl take the princess's hand, Jenkins quickly spoke, though his tone was hesitant.

"It's alright, go ahead and ask."

The silver dragon looked at him with curiosity, and Princess Sophia also waited quietly for Jenkins to ask.

"Um... excuse me, are the Dragon Knight families of the human world related to you? Are they... your descendants?"

The moment the words left his mouth, he realized they sounded even ruder than they had in his head. He quickly tried to take them back:

"No, no, don't answer. Just assume I've lost my senses."

He even patted his own head as he spoke.

"It's fine, it's not an unanswerable question. Yes, they are connected to us. Not as our children, but as a human child we adopted. I later gave her a power strong enough to be passed down through her bloodline. As you probably know, I discovered some... remarkable things in Black Town, so I'm not like most dragons."

The cat, whose birthplace was Black Town, gave a bored yawn, looking forward to the cake Jenkins had promised for the evening.

"The legend of the Dragon Knights probably began with that girl. Before Sophia and I left this land, the Dragon Knight family was already quite famous... probably more prestigious than when I was a lord back in the day. I assume that's the family you're referring to."

When she finished, she took the princess's hand again, preparing to leave. But then the silver dragon stopped abruptly. She turned and tilted her head, her beautiful silver hair cascading to one side, a mischievous, childlike grin spreading across her face:

"Jenkins, why ask such a question? Even if two beautiful ladies were to get together, it's impossible to have a child. Don't you know that?"

The princess, whose expression had been tranquil until now, suddenly flushed crimson. She hid behind the silver dragon, swatting at her back.

"Sophia, after all these years, you're still so adorable."

Anettasia laughed, then happily pulled the princess from behind her into her arms and kissed her forehead right in front of Jenkins:

"Isn't this lady beautiful—"

She deliberately observed Jenkins's expression:

With that, she took the princess's hand and leaped into the air, transforming atop the giant tree into a ball of silver light as brilliant as the sun. The light swelled until it finally unfurled, revealing a colossal dragon that blotted out the sky.

Stretching her body, the beautiful and elegant silver dragon blotted out the sun, basking in the light of the material world. She tilted her head back, savoring the long-missed breeze on a whim, then let out a soul-shaking roar.

A powerful gust of wind erupted from a beat of her mighty wings. With a final cry to Jenkins as a farewell, she took flight towards the distant horizon, the princess waving from her back.

Soon they became a silver speck of light and disappeared.

Cries of alarm could already be heard from the distance in the Evergreen Forest, and at the same time several figures flew into the air to investigate. After all, Anettasia had made no effort to hide herself when she revealed her dragon form. Jenkins's face stiffened. He pushed the rather unpleasant images from the dragon's teasing to the back of his mind, then grabbed his cat and scrambled like a monkey to the top of an adjacent tree.