349 Don't Look!

Remian remained a guest of the Emperor, discussing terms and negotiating the fate of the world, all while playing Doggie to little Nai'khan-dras. By the third hour, he was quite sure that the Little Princess of the Empire already understood that he wasn't a dog and was, in fact, a very important guest, but every time he let the Doggie disappear she burst into tears. Remian only managed to take a break when she went to sleep.

Later that evening, the subject of the missing Underground King popped up. Finally, Remian was allowed to see Tim.

Instead of finding the guy in chains like he expected, he was dumbfounded to see Tim dressed in livery and painstakingly trying to serve a blushing Rou'khan-dras dinner.

"What happened to you?" Tim asked, bewildered.

"I got Doggied." Remian grimaced. "You?"

"Pretty much the same."

Nevertheless, Doggie-business aside, Remian was somewhat satisfied with the way the negotiations were going. Zor'khan's demands were difficult, but fair. Practically all the resources of the Dragon Empire (except mana) were available for Remian to use, on condition that when the time came, no Draconian would be left behind.

The iffy part about it was that the Draconian priority was to be so set in stone that it was to be upheld even if it meant excluding Remian himself! For him (or his successors) to bring anyone other than the Draconians, he would simply need to prepare sufficient capacity.

In return, in order to prevent wanton abuse of the agreement, Remian insisted that the Dras clan no longer bond any new Draconians, or else set a reasonable limit to Draconians. Otherwise, if they suddenly decided to make everyone in the Dragon Empire a Draconian on the last day, Remian would most certainly lose everything.

Also, the Dras Clan had a shorter timetable. They were going to leave in a hundred years.

"We only need ships that are space-worthy, not warp-capable starships. My Dras Clan can afford them some protection and bring them along in a Warp Bubble when the time comes. But they will still need to endure some level of stress and strain. While in theory a ship of Tier 8 endurance might be able to survive intact, for safety's sake, I must insist on spacecraft of at least Tier 9 endurance."

In other words, each ship needed to be a whole Tier tougher than Zor'khan-dras himself. That was a level that metals like Misty Steel or Graphene simply wouldn't be able to match. Not even Carbyne, a popular Class-5 Civilization's alloy of graphene and other materials, would be able to out-tough Zor'khan-dras.

No, to reach Tier 9 endurance and toughness, they would need Kuriel, at the very least. That meant top tier synthmetals and subatomic forging.

Unless… they relied on other means of strengthening the structural integrity and defenses of the spaceships going through heavy stress. Like gravitic shields, or inertial stabilizers.

Oh wait. Who said they had to stop at mothership-sized vessels?

"Behemoth class?" Remian had to confirm with Zor'khan-dras that larger-than-mothership sizes were acceptable.

"Yes. Leviathan class too, if you can manage them. In fact, I would prefer larger ships. If we could go as far as Lunar class, I'd be ecstatic."

"What are you trying to do, take away the moon?"

"If that's what it takes, yes."

Beyond their main project, they also chatted about other issues. Mana, especially.

"We cannot allocate mana for your use." Zor'khan stated his bottom line firmly. "But we can permit your people to keep whatever mana you find on the other side of the Portal."

"That's the same Portal that gets decontaminated with fire every time you receive a squad back? The one that fries everyone without near-total fire resistance?"

"That's the one."

Remian grimaced. "I don't even know if any of our people could survive it."

Incidentally, Darian and Mindy were finding out about the decontamination systems the hard way. Having learned that Tim was not, in fact, in the Undead World, and then been followed by a kind guy who insisted on calling Mindy 'your highness', the pair of them decided to just pick up the loot left behind by the Undead they had taken down and head back.

Thanks to Ling Yun introducing her as Se'lea-dras and Darian as her Draconian escort, they actually managed to get past a muddled squad of Draconian guards and returned safely through the Portal!

That was when the entire room was flooded with fire and a lot of their stuff went up in smoke, including their clothes.

A Draconian Guard came up. "My liege, reports from below. Your sister, Se'lea-dras, has returned through the Portal."

"Se'lea?!" Zor'khan blinked. "That's impossible. Se'lea is still in the southern seas! I can sense her. She hasn't left the ocean."

"But… the reports…?" the guard hesitated.

Zor'khan frowned. "We have to get to the bottom of this. Let's go."

Remian hastily stood up. "I'd like to come along too."

That was why about ten minutes later, Zor'khan and Remian burst in on Darian and Mindy in various states of undress…

"Don't look! DON'T LOOK!" Mindy shrieked, hugging herself and crouching in a corner, with Darian's drake-scale jacket covering her. Apparently of all their clothes, it was one of the rare survivors.

Darian himself had lost pretty much all his other clothes. Having used his surviving jacket to cover Mindy, he stood there awkwardly scratching his head covered in nothing but lumps of melting metal in front of the Emperor and his elder brother. "Uh… hi…?"

Zor'khan glanced at Remian. "I take it these are your people?"

"Yep." Remian grimaced. "That's my brother."

"He's Draconian." Zor'khan observed. "And the girl seems to be unharmed by the flames. Fascinating."

"DON'T LOOK!" Mindy only shrieked louder. Appearing naked in front of the Emperor was something that didn't even occur to her in dreams.

"So, how shall we handle this?" Zor'khan asked Remian.

"You just agreed to let me keep all the mana my people bring back from the Portal. It's a bit early, but… actually, come to think of it, why were you guys even on the other side…?" Remian turned to his brother.

"We were looking for Tim." Darian winced.

"Tim's having dinner with the Fourth Princess." Remian told him, flat out.

"Is he, now?" Darian had a flat look on his face. He started rubbing his knuckles.

"My apologies, your Imperial Majesty, but it seems we have quite embarassed ourselves in front of you." Remian sighed.

"Indeed. It's not every day one bursts into a room to find his brother naked with a girl." Zor'khan nodded candidly.

"NOOOO!!" Mindy shrieked, then burst into flames and then pounced on Ling Yun. "Give me your armor!!"

"Y-yes, your Highness!" still clueless about Mindy's identity in general, Ling Yun hastily obliged.

Zor'khan cleared his throat. "Gentlemen, I propose we afford the lady a little privacy."

Leaving Mindy and Ling Yun's armor behind, the Emperor, Remian, and two naked or near-naked teenage boys exited the Portal Room. The Emperor called for some clothes as Remian inspected the formations and systems of the decontamination chamber.

"Interesting." Remian noted. "I like how this room uses all the ambient mana leaking from the Portal to power the decontamination fires. There's almost no leakage."

"We were trying to keep it secret, after all." Zor'khan admitted. "Leaking ambient mana would draw all the magi of Ecclesia over like flies to syrup. Plus, I hear the designer didn't want to accidentally turn our local livestock into Wilds. The guy thought that Wilds were simply normal animals mutated by mana."