Countless eyes were fixed on the dragon as it descended, until it finally landed from overhead and a figure on its back jumped down.
Only then did the others secretly let out breaths of relief.
It seemed this dragon truly was not a wild dragon, but one with a master.
Through the griffin rider who came to greet him, Gauss thanked the guild president for inviting him to the meeting, but also said that he needed to rest first and would go speak with the president later.
In truth, he wanted to spend some time with his own teammates first.
As for the president's side, there was probably nothing urgent.
Most likely, he simply wanted to ask about Gauss's journey, the details of the commission, whether the objective had been achieved, and so on.
Those conversations did not have to happen immediately.
"Gauss!"
Just as Gauss turned around, he saw Alia, her eyes slightly red, leading the others over at a quick pace.
"Alia…"
"You said ten days. Why are you only back now?" Alia interrupted him.
Gauss had just been about to explain the situation when Alia suddenly hugged him.
"But it's fine. As long as you're back."
Feeling the softness at his side, Gauss's body stiffened slightly.
"I'm sorry."
He knew that during the time he had been unconscious, his teammates must have been deeply worried about him.
All he could say was that there were too many things in the world beyond his control.
Under normal circumstances, he really could have returned ten days ago. Unfortunately, right after completing the commission, his Intelligence attribute had undergone a critical breakthrough.
For his strength, that was naturally a good thing.
But it had indeed forced him to stay for several more days in dangerous monster territory.
Perhaps because she felt embarrassed being watched by the other teammates and the unfamiliar adventurers farther away, after the initial surge of emotion passed, Alia gradually calmed down and suddenly grew a little shy.
A faint blush crept from her jaw up to her cheeks.
Pretending to be calm, she let go and said quietly,
"Albena and the others were scared too."
Only Albena gave Alia a suspicious glance, but she was too excited right now to think too much about it.
"Welcome back, Lord Gauss."
She copied Alia and gave Gauss a bird-like, dependent hug as well.
However, because of the difference in their sizes, "bird-like and dependent" was more appropriate for Gauss.
"All right, all right."
Only when Gauss was almost unable to breathe and repeatedly patted Albena's solid arm did she reluctantly let him go.
"Hah…"
Gauss breathed out in relief.
"Are you all coming too?"
Afterward, Gauss lightly hugged Shadow, Serandur, and the others.
Only then did everyone's excitement gradually settle down.
Gauss did not have a hobby of being watched in public.
Very soon, he put Hephis away and led everyone from the open camp area back to the Red Dragon Company's station.
Although he had only just returned and had never been here before, Gauss could still immediately locate where his members were.
After entering the station, the first thing Gauss noticed was that compared to before he left, the Red Dragon Company now had quite a few new faces.
Noticing that Gauss was looking at the newcomers, Alia explained.
"After the war started, the Red Dragon Company also suffered casualties. On top of that, many adventurers who lost their teams wanted to join us. So after discussing it, we decided to absorb more new members."
"That's only natural."
Gauss nodded. In truth, he did not mind much.
As long as they joined the Red Dragon Company, under the effect of his Proof of Leadership, anyone who did not harbor malicious intentions would quickly and sincerely integrate into the larger group.
As for anyone who really joined with ulterior motives, it would be difficult to hide that from his 21 Intelligence.
As for casualties, he also knew they were unavoidable. He could not blame Alia and the others.
Once the fighting began, this land had already turned into a giant meat grinder.
Humans and monsters alike were being sacrificed in vast numbers in this slaughter. It was just that compared to the enormous populations of the two factions, the current local war was still only a drop in the ocean.
After returning to the camp, Gauss began exchanging information with Alia and the others.
He listened to what had happened on the main battlefield after he left, then roughly told them what he had encountered in the Jade Forest and the Red Earth.
Through his understated narration, Alia and the others could still feel how dangerous the situation had been.
Fortunately, he had turned danger into safety. In the end, Gauss returned safely—and became even stronger.
Serandur in particular felt this most clearly.
The powerful bloodline aura radiating from Gauss was so dense that the "serpent royal bloodline" inside Serandur, which had been swelling and awakening over these past few days, instantly shrank back like a mouse seeing a cat.
It stopped violently surging through his blood and stopped exerting more influence over him.
This was the suppressive power that the gold-grade racial talent Dragon King's Bloodline had over most living creatures.
With just a slight influence from Gauss, it immediately produced an obvious effect on his half-serpent companion.
"Do you feel better?"
"Mm. Thank you, Gauss."
Serandur's whole body felt a little weak now, but at the same time, there was an indescribable comfort.
The feeling of fully regaining control over his body and mind was wonderful.
To him, Gauss was like a powerful medicine. Especially now that Gauss was still continuously growing stronger, as long as Serandur stayed beside him, the negative influence of the restless Serpent King inside him would continue being suppressed.
Serandur felt complicated about this.
On one hand, he felt that relying on Gauss was not necessarily bad. On the other hand, he worried about bringing trouble to his captain. And further still, he feared that if he grew used to Gauss's help and later encountered another situation where Gauss left, those violent powers would return, and his ability to resist them would become even weaker.
But now was clearly not the time to think too deeply about it.
After speaking with his teammates for a while, Gauss went to bathe and change clothes in the camp.
Only after finishing everything did he calmly find a staff member from the Adventurers' Guild and ask them to lead him to Guild President Matthias Monroe.
Before he even got close to the building, Gauss could already hear voices speaking inside.
He tilted his head toward the staff member, silently asking whether it was convenient to enter now.
"President Monroe instructed that when you arrive, you may go straight in."
"All right."
Gauss was only worried about disturbing others, but since President Monroe himself did not mind, he naturally would not be overly cautious.
With the staff member opening the door and guiding him in, Gauss soon entered the room.
Although it was the temporary frontline office of the Adventurers' Guild president, the decoration inside was still plain. There were no decorations or ornaments on the walls or floor.
Only a few sofas, a desk, and a classic silver tea set.
When Gauss entered, the bearded president was speaking with a burly man in armor sitting across from him.
Hearing footsteps and glancing up to see Gauss enter, Matthias Monroe stood and waved.
"Gauss, you're back."
"Find a seat anywhere."
Gauss did not stand on ceremony and chose a single-person sofa.
Strength emboldened a person.
Dragonseed had advanced into Dragon King's Bloodline, his Intelligence had broken through to 21, and he had awakened the time-related ability Future Sight.
In other words, although he was only level 9, his real strength had long since far surpassed what his paper level suggested.
At the very least, he was stronger than most transcendent professionals.
In this room, both President Monroe and the military man sitting not far away gave him a faint sense of pressure. But compared to before, President Monroe's pressure was already much weaker.
It was not that the president had become weaker.
It was that Gauss had grown too much stronger in a short time.
Ever since Gauss sat down, the military man had not continued speaking. He simply watched Gauss with a curious gaze.
It was as if he wanted to see through that beautiful exterior and sense the real power hidden inside.
Gauss turned his head and calmly nodded to him in greeting.
That calm and easy gesture actually made Winston Zevier raise his eyebrows.
Before Gauss entered, Matthias had been introducing him to Winston.
Of course, even without the old man's introduction, Winston had already heard Gauss's name before. But this was indeed the first time the two had met face to face.
Gauss's first impression was far better than Winston had imagined.
Before meeting him, his subconscious impression of Gauss was that of an exceptionally talented and beautiful male mage, and one lucky enough to have earned the favor of a red dragon.
Winston had seen quite a few magical geniuses of that type when he traveled in the royal capital. All of them had excellent family backgrounds, wore luxurious mage robes, and radiated an aura of indescribable nobility from head to toe.
But…
Gauss seemed completely different from those people he had seen before.
He was too calm.
Though his class level was only 9, sitting between two top-tier transcendents, both level 15 professionals, he showed not the slightest inferiority in presence.
Do not underestimate that.
This was not something one could achieve by pretending. It could only mean that his strength was greater than Winston had expected.
And when Winston closed his eyes, he seemed to sense a scorching aura blazing from the body of the man not far away, as if the one sitting there was not a human, but a powerful dragon.
It was just that this dragon was still young and had not yet developed to its peak state.
Even so, that dangerous aura had already begun to show its edge.
Especially considering that Gauss was only in his early twenties, an age terrifyingly young for this level of power, the whole thing became somewhat shocking.
If Gauss had not been a seedling that the Adventurers' Guild was strongly focused on cultivating, Winston might not have been able to resist the urge to tie him up, bring him back to the family, and marry him to one of the family's women so that the rice could become cooked and children could be born first.
However, even if he now wanted to recruit him as a son-in-law, it was probably already too late…
The genius before him seemed to have already come into his own.
While the two of them probed each other, Monroe spoke first and formally introduced them.
"Winston Zevier, this is the supreme genius I told you about, Gauss."
"Brother Gauss, this is Winston Zevier, the younger brother of the current Count Zevier and captain of the Iron Guard Knights."
"Captain Winston, hello. I've long heard of you."
"Not at all. Unfortunately, I'm usually busy with military work, otherwise I would have wanted to meet Brother Gauss long ago."
"I wonder, Brother Gauss, are you currently engaged or married? Our Zevier family has many beautiful young ladies."
Winston's words were indeed sincere. For certain reasons, he truly regretted not meeting Gauss before Gauss's strength had fully grown.
But it was too late to regret that now.
He could only squeeze out a smile. Perhaps because he did not smile often, the smile on his face was extremely stiff.
So stiff that even Matthias Monroe, his friend, almost could not bear to look at it.
He could roughly guess what his old friend was thinking.
Although Winston was the second son of the Zevier family's main branch, his desire to strengthen the family was no weaker than that of Count Augustine Zevier himself.
Facing Winston's question, Gauss merely smiled awkwardly. He had not expected the other party to bring up such a private topic in this kind of setting, right after they had just met.
"All right. A young talent like Brother Gauss, a pillar of the nation, hardly needs a rough man like you worrying about his marriage."
Monroe pushed Winston back into his seat.
In truth, he had spoken because he had caught Gauss's subtle expression of polite refusal toward the olive branch Winston had thrown out.
Seeing Gauss's lukewarm reaction, Winston sighed inwardly.
For some reason, the more top-tier a genius was, the colder their attitude tended to be toward marriage alliances with nobles like them. It was as if they saw poison and avoided it at all costs.
He did not know whether they feared being gossiped about afterward, or whether they looked down on local powers like them and wanted to join an even stronger family faction.
Supposedly, the Third Princess was indeed of marriageable age…
"In that case, Brother Gauss, Monroe, I'll leave you to talk. I won't disturb you further. There is still military work waiting for me."
After seeing Winston off, Gauss finally began discussing this commission with President Monroe.
First, he returned the Silent Cage the guild had lent him.
"As for this large storage bracelet, I may need some time before returning it."
"No rush, no rush."
President Monroe waved a hand.
Naturally, he understood what Gauss meant. He also guessed that Gauss had probably stored several priceless true dragon corpses inside the bracelet, and envy stirred in his heart.
True dragon corpses were extremely precious even to a Level 15 professional like him.
With his strength, if he faced those juvenile dragons head-on, he could probably kill them one by one with little effort.
But such an opportunity would almost never happen.
No true dragon would appear so recklessly in human territory. And because of their race, it was difficult for humans to use causality, prophecy, and similar methods to calculate the locations of these young dragons. They could only rely on the most primitive and clumsy methods.
Even after obtaining hard-won intelligence, killing true dragons was still filled with danger.
He felt only envy toward Gauss's success, not jealousy. Very soon, he restrained the emotion in his eyes.
He knew that perhaps only Gauss could have completed this mission. If Monroe himself had gone, he would only have alerted the enemy and then fallen there.
"How did the mission go?"
"Fortunately, I did not fail your trust. There were four in total. All were killed. None escaped."
Hearing Gauss's formal reply, Monroe nodded in satisfaction.
He had originally estimated that if Gauss could kill one or two within the limited time, that would already be good. He had not expected Gauss to kill every single juvenile dragon, leaving none alive.
This was naturally the best outcome. Every surviving true dragon could have become an extremely powerful lord over the next several hundred years, one that hated humans to the bone.
"However, you need to be careful from now on. Although the Green Dragon Queen has already vanished from the main battlefield, if she learns that you killed those juvenile dragons, she will likely turn her attention toward you."
~~~
Patreon.com/NotEvenMyFinalForm
— You can read more Chapters in my Patreon Page! please vote, comment, share this, or visit my Patreon Page and join the Free Membership!