It was already dark. Fine snowflakes drifted down from the top of the Sky Pit, melting into droplets before they reached the ground.
At the entrance to a cave at the bottom of the pit, Landen was still sitting on a stone platform with a thick stack of documents in his hands. In the glow of the surrounding magic, he sometimes lowered his head to write something and sometimes looked up at the Thorn Fairies, who were still busy in the air.
"Landen? What are you doing?" Dragon Girl's voice came from behind him.
He turned to look. Gleia Blue Dragon was dressed in a spider-silk gown. The flowing white gauze accentuated her already shapely figure, making her look even more graceful. Besides her usual hair ornaments and bracelets, magic-pattern ornaments adorned her two horns and the tip of her tail.
The sight of Dragon Girl tugged at Landen's heartstrings, leaving his mind blank and his tongue tied.
"I heard Lord Gorkesh came to see you this afternoon?" Dragon Girl hadn't paid much attention to Landen's gaze. She simply sat down beside him on the stone platform, her tail naturally curling around his leg. "Did he say something that upset you?
"He's already several thousand years old, even older than Her Majesty Tyriana. At his age, it doesn't matter to him who takes the throne. What matters most is making Dragon Tooth City surpass the Imperial Capital."
Only after she finished speaking did Gleia realize that Landen's gaze had been fixed on her head the whole time.
"Look here! Look here!" Dragon Girl mischievously slid her tail between them. Seeing Landen reach for the tip of her tail without thinking, she laughed and said, "Have you even grown up yet? You're staring at my tail and horns!"
"I never really