"So why do you think I'd tell you the truth?" Hill smiled casually. "Even allies need to keep a little distance!"
Arveiaturace and Arauthator fell silent. The two dragons seemed to exchange glances... For dragons, thinking to use something to build rapport and gain the upper hand in negotiations was hard enough. They were much better at using their claws.
But with their initial plan completely derailed, both were at a loss.
Hill could only stay silent for the moment. He couldn't exactly tell the two dragons, now stuck for words, to get to the point and be direct. Dragons really shouldn't try their schemes on humans... Hill suspected Laira had been behind some of the schemes attributed to this dragoness. It might well be true.
After all, the battles that had made Arveiaturace famous had been against the Evil Alignment, along with those irritating proponents of Absolute Neutrality in Icewind Dale...
But Hill didn't think her reputation was undeserved. She was the white terror who had killed an Archmage in a head-on fight.
Besides, she had surely come up with the initial plan herself. At most, Laira had helped refine it.
Today's scheme was a little crude, but it might have worked on a young man bursting with vanity.
But Hill... These dragons could live another hundred thousand years and never come close to the praise he had heard before...
His parents... had both held positions of real authority. Their ranks hadn't been especially high, but Hill hadn't clearly realized he was just an ordinary person until he entered a university that had nothing to do with the economics or science and technology education his parents oversaw.
Before that, he had tried to stay levelheaded... but the constant praise had still gone to his head. It wasn't until an