Misunderstanding (Part 1)

"Diphiya, come here quickly! There's a smell of Sordil here; he must have been here."

"What?"

Hearing Kaldiz's call, Diphiya rushed over. However, she didn't see Sordil. Kaldiz had only found a large, uneven crater. Judging from the freshness of the exposed soil, the crater had formed no more than a day ago. Combined with the lingering smell, Diphiya could conclude that this was where Sordil had crashed after she had knocked him away. She just didn't know who had taken Sordil after the crash. Diphiya carefully surveyed her surroundings, and the more she looked, the more familiar it seemed. When her gaze shifted to the distant mountain peaks, she roughly guessed where she was.

"Well, you philanderer, Sordil! I was wondering why you didn't just go straight to Dragunov, but instead took the long way around to this remote mountain forest. You said you were going to an important place to see an important person, but I bet you just wanted to see a beautiful woman!"

Thinking about where Sordil had led her to, Diphiya felt her inner universe about to explode Diphiya Kaldiz Kaldiz and flew towards a distant mountain without looking back, while a chilling voice reached his ears.

"Uncle Kaldiz, let's go! Let's find that big pervert!"

Watching Diphiya walk away, Kaldiz silently mourned for Sordil for thirty seconds before following closely behind Diphiya.

"Grandiere, come out quickly! Someone needs your help!"

Igneel placed Sordil on the mountaintop platform, then, panting, called out to the cave beside him.

"Igneel, what are you up to now?"

"Yeah, can't you just let us rest for a bit?"

Before Igneel could receive a reply from Grandiere, protests erupted from two nearby caves.

"Vyseria, Skiadrum, why are you two making such a racket instead of sleeping properly?!"

Igneel was just about to teach those two talkative fellows a lesson when a muffled thunderous sound came from the middle of the cave, interrupting Igneel's prepared speech.

"Metalicana, it's not that we didn't want to sleep, it's that Igneel who woke us up, and we're still angry about it!"

"It's that Igneel guy again! He doesn't even get his beauty sleep, and now he's making sure we don't get any sleep either. It's outrageous! I challenge him to a duel!"

To the surprise of Metalicana and the other two, Igneel, who usually refuted them, didn't react at all to their provocations today. Instead, they heard hushed conversation coming from the direction of the platform outside. Curious, the three looked towards the platform and saw Igneel and Grandiere surrounding a heavily injured and unconscious rainbow dragon.

"How could it be him? Igneel, where did you meet him?"

Grandiere Igneel completely bewildered. Who was this guy? Why did he know Grandiere? A series of questions flashed through his mind, so much so that he forgot to answer Grandiere's questions.

"Igneel!"

"Igneel!"

"Huh? What's wrong?"

Grandiere shook his head, looked at Igneel had finally come to his senses, and continued to ask, "Where did you find him?"

"Oh! Him? He fell from the sky and landed right on my head, so I brought him back."

"So that's how it is! It seems we can only find out what happened by waking him up!"

After understanding the whole story, Grandiere wasted no more time and immediately cast Healing Magic on Sordil. Seeing that he couldn't be of much help, Igneel sat down on one side of the platform, at which point the other three dragons also arrived.

"Igneel, where did you find such a beautiful dragon?!"

Hearing Metalicana's question and seeing his drooling, lecherous expression, Igneel could easily guess what the other was thinking. Remembering the three guys' earlier provocation, Igneel decided to tease them a bit. Igneel first carefully looked around, then said mysteriously to the three, "You want to know?"

"Igneel, stop keeping us in suspense and get to the point!"

"I was resting at the foot of the mountain when this guy suddenly flew down from the sky and asked me to save her. She also said she ran away from an arranged marriage and asked me to help her get rid of her pursuers!"

Listening to Igneel's enthusiastic explanation, Metalicana and the other two had no doubts. After all, it was perfectly normal for such a beautiful dragon to be forced into marriage. The three stared intently at Igneel with envious and jealous eyes, making Igneel feel incredibly pleased. Grandiere, who was healing Ignir's wounds nearby, heard Igneel's boast and a slight smile appeared on Grandiere lips. She secretly thought, "Hopefully, when this guy wakes up later, he won't scare you all!"

"Um?"

Just as Igneel was feeling smug, two giant dragons suddenly flew straight towards the top of the mountain from the foot of the mountain. Igneel's heart skipped a beat, and a bad premonition welled up from the bottom of his heart.

"Could my jinx really have come true? Could this guy really have run away from his wedding, and these two are his pursuers?"

Seeing the two menacing dragons approaching, Igneel was once again bewildered. He never imagined that his casual boast would actually come true. Meanwhile, Metalicana and the others immediately moved away from him. Metalicana looked up at the sky, while Vyseria and Skiadrum stood together playing rock-paper-scissors. The three seemed oblivious to the two dragons closing in on the mountaintop. Their earlier envious and resentful glances vanished instantly, replaced by a hint of schadenfreude as they occasionally stole at Igneel.

"He really is here! I'm so angry that we've been looking for him for so long!"

After reaching the mountaintop, the two dragons ignored Igneel and the others, instead fixing their gaze on the unconscious Sordil. Hearing the words of the younger, blue dragon, Igneel became even more certain of his judgment. Igneel was devastated; he had only wanted to avoid seeing the seven-colored dragon die, how had he gotten himself into this mess?

"Diphiya, have you been here before?"

"I've been here before! This guy was always so fond of this place back then. I thought he just liked the scenery, but I never imagined he was actually..."

Upon hearing Diphiya's words and glancing at Grandiere beside Sordil, Kaldiz instantly understood what had happened. However, Igneel, on the other side, felt as if the entire Asland was collapsing upon hearing this. He desperately wanted to explain to the blue dragon, "Girl, I really don't know her, and I didn't seduce her! You have to believe me!"

Standing on the other side of the platform Metalicana and his two companions stared at Igneel with eyes that seemed to say, "Igneel, I never expected you to be this kind of dragon." Seeing their expressions, Igneel felt an urge to burst into tears and then loudly proclaim, "That's not how it is!" Meanwhile, Grandiere was completely bewildered by the shifting gaze between Kaldiz and Sordil.