“I don’t care if the world thinks I’m important. What matters is that you are the most precious person to me.”

He said coldly and pulled the reins. The horse, which had been running toward the cliff, turned to the mountains.

It wasn’t easy to calm it down as Ios kept making the ground shake. Plus, Edgar didn’t often ride horses after he was cursed.

‘For now, it would be better to get far away and hide.’

Edgar looked back at Ios. Now that he was far away, he looked smaller than a hand.

Even from far away, he couldn’t help but be impressed by Stephen pressing on the dragon who was way more powerful than he was.

Although by now Ios wasn’t as strong as he had been at first, he still was a strong dragon. But sadly, his brain didn’t know how to use his own power correctly.

In addition to that, he had a big temper which was the worst combination possible. Stephen was practically toying with him.

‘The sun is about to rise.’

He wouldn’t be able to stay on the horse with numb legs. Therefore, he decided to hide in the mountain, as it was relatively safe there, while the unstoppable dragon was making a fuss.

“Your Grace!”

Then, he heard Minos’s voice coming from the underground. He spoke quietly so that the horse wouldn’t be surprised.

“I asked Ios where this is before he brought me here. Your butler seemed to know about this place. Your knights will arrive by tomorrow afternoon at the very least, so please hold on till then.”

He sounded extremely tired. It looked like he had given up on stopping Ios after many tries and came to Edgar.

One of the most pitiable beings in the world is a smart subject or a stupid but diligent superior. Anyway, it was good that Minos was at Ios’s side.

“Thank you.”

“It’s nothing. Oh, but be careful!”

Soon came the sound of something coming through the air. Thinking about it now, Stephen’s twin hadn’t been with Stephen or Ios.

‘Really, it’s getting harder and harder.’

Edgar clenched his teeth and held the reins tightly. He was not going to let it go even if the knife struck his back. However, it flew and embedded itself in the horse’s back.

Neeigh!

It let out a painful scream and jumped making it even harder to stay on it. Edgar didn’t worry about himself as he knew well how to jump off a horse, but he was worried about Rubica. The fall could hurt her a lot.

“Edgar, there’s a cliff in front of us!”

Edgar had no choice but to hang on, and now they were right in front of the cliff. The horse was slowing down.

It had run a long way and it was injured, so it was losing strength. They had to hold on just a little longer, and the horse was going to fall on the ground. Edgar just had to make sure it didn’t fall down the cliff.

He raised his head high and looked around to decide which direction to lead the horse.

‘Oh no.’

The sky was turning red over there, and it was bright enough to see well.

The moon had gone down a long time ago. He had been concentrating on the situation that he had forgotten about what he feared the most.

‘This can’t be any worse.’

A brilliant ray of light came through the clouds and air to touch him.

His legs instantly lost all their strength. The curse was working at the worst possible moment. Bad things tended to happen during the worst times.

“Edgar!”

“Your Grace!”

Rubica didn’t miss his sudden change.

“Don’t grab me!”

They were near the cliff. It was dangerous and he didn’t want her to be endangered because of him.

But of course, she didn’t listen to him. She held his hand as he fell from the horse.

“Let me go!”

“Never!”

She knew well that she couldn’t hold him for long. She was weak and he was too big.

Nevertheless, she couldn’t let Edgar fall alone. She knew she would be living the rest of her life in remorse and tears if he died here.

“Your Grace!”

Minos jumped out of the ground and ran to them. He desperately tried to grab the two as they tumbled down the horse, but it was too late. They fell under the cliff.

“Shit!”

Stephen and his twin were equally surprised. Edgar was the one Amanun was really after. They meant to take Rubica hostage to have Edgar finish designing Stella.

They didn’t want him to fall down a cliff. And, judging from its height, he was probably dead by now, and if he was alive, he would have to live on a bed for the rest of his life.

‘I didn’t know we would ultimately fail.’

Stephen decided it would be better to run than to keep fighting this strange but powerful creature.

Ios was quite tired by now, but it was getting bright and he could no longer use the darkness to fool him.

Therefore, Stephen threw a smoke bomb at the dragon.

“Hey! What the, what is this!”

Thick smoke shrouded him, and it was extremely painful. Unlike his underlings, Ios had never fought humans, so he didn’t know what to do.

While Ios was writhing in pain, Stephen quickly mounted a horse. He and his twin had divided the duke’s documents into two horses to go back with at least half of them if anything ever happened.

He followed his brother’s whistle and disappeared with him.

Moreover, Minos, who witnessed all that, was almost driven mad by the situation.

The gods were not just. He knew how to use his brain and work his way out of situations, but the gods made him a goblin, the weakest species of all. Why did they give Ios, the idiot who couldn’t even use his own powers, the identity of a great dragon?

“Cough, cough!”

Ios coughed hard and a great amount of gold fell from his hair. However, Minos didn’t collect it.

For the first time in his life, he wished he could quit going around with Ios. He took a deep breath to calm down and went to the cliff.

“Your Graces! Are you alright?”

He yelled on top of his voice, but no voice came in return. As there was a thick forest under the cliff, it was impossible to see Edgar and Rubica.

Minos doubted something had ever happened to them as the duke was a nymph, but there were many things that worried him, like Edgar hiding his true identity to his own wife and the conversation he had had with the butler.

“Your Grace!”

He earnestly called again, but no answers came. He feared they might have been injured severely.

“Just hang on! I will come down!”

Minos went to a small stream, that had been made to get water for the cornfield, and found a bucket nearby. Minos filled it with clear stream water, but then he stopped.

‘He deserves some punishment.’

He added lots of dirt in the bucket and went to Ios. The stupid dragon was still rolling on the ground with his eyes closed, not able to open his eyes.

“Master, I’ve brought water.”

Then he didn’t hesitate to throw the dirty water on his face.

“Ugh! Cough, cough.”

Ios got a mouthful of dirt water and spit it out. He stopped feeling the pain and inhaled the smell of dirt while smiling.

“Ah, so refreshing.”

He was a land dragon. The smell of dirt was just extremely fragrant to him. Minos dropped his shoulders, thinking he couldn’t achieve even that small revenge…

“You’re the best, Minos. Oh, how dare they throw such things to this Ios! Minos, we should go get them!”

“But master now isn’t the time for that. We must go to find the duchess. She has fallen under that cliff over there.”

Minos pleaded, but Ios didn’t care. He just hit himself on the head to get the water out of his right ear. Minos couldn’t take it anymore and yelled, stomping his feet.

“Aren’t you worried about her?”

“Why should I be worried? She’s fine.”

“She’s fine?”

“Yes.”

Minos let out a sigh of relief thinking he wouldn’t mind kissing that dragon. He thought it would have been better if he had been just a little smarter, but again, then he would be suffering a lot more. A clever and greedy dragon? It would be the hardest creature to handle.

“Then let’s go and get those rats right now. I treated them nicely because they seemed to be Rubica’s underlings, but they dared to attack me! I must teach them the rules of this world!”

Ios, whose eyes were still red with anger, clenched his fists. Minos thought he was acting like he would snap Stephen’s backbone as soon as he got his hands on him.

But what could he do? Ios’s pride was just too high to admit he had been toyed by a human.

Ios was about to go underground to go after Stephen, but Minos managed to stop him.

“Wait, master. We can’t just go. We must have a plan.”

“A plan? Why should I make a plan against humans?”

“But they’re not just humans. They’re a nymph’s humans. If you beat them with a plan, you would also be winning against the nymph as well.”

“Hmm…”

Ios pretended to not be interested, but Minos saw his ears perching up. Finally, this persistent dragon was ready to listen to him.

‘If you have to bring me around instead of your broken brain, please ask me before you do something!’

Minos really wanted to yell so, but he managed not to. He started to explain a few plans to capture Stephen and his twin, using simple words so that the dragon would be able to understand.