Genasa had no idea how long it would take for that group of demons to bring back anything.
He didn’t know whether they’d secretly stash some away for themselves, and honestly, he didn’t care.
After all, he wasn’t lacking in anything—there was everything here with Geli. It was only out of a “waste not” principle that he freeloaded off this group of demons, sending them to hunt for treasure.
If even two or three brought back a portion, it’d already be a huge win.
“That’s fine. If anyone actually brings something back, just give them a little something as a reward.”
Muttering to himself for a bit, he left the matter aside, turned, and headed back inside.
A calm and uneventful life passed, and a month went by…
Genasa looked over the crops in the fields, thriving and lush, and nodded in satisfaction.
“The growth rate is really fast. At this pace, they’ll probably be ripe by next month.”
He wasn’t sure if it was because of the centaurs’ farming skills, but these plants were growing much faster than usual.
For example, the corn in this plot—it’d normally take over three months to mature, but now, it looked like it’d be ready a whole month early.
Genasa stared solemnly at the soil ahead. Beside him, the lizardman priest, anxious and uneasy, stepped forward cautiously and asked:
“My lord, are you satisfied?”
“Not bad. Keep it up.”
The plain response made the priest sigh in relief, patting his chest and letting out a long breath.
Just as he relaxed, Genasa asked again:
“Have things been peaceful around here lately?”
“Everything’s normal. The centaurs are the same as ever, and we’re all getting along fairly well.”
Genasa glanced over at the nearby pasture, ringed with wooden fences, where lizardmen and centaurs were herding a flock of sheep together.
“That’s good, then.”
He thought that was all, but just then, the priest spoke up again, even more carefully:
“My lord, there’s something I’m not sure I should mention.”
Genasa shot him a sideways glance, startling the priest into immediately continuing:
“It’s like this—the clansmen who’ve been hunting in the woods lately discovered traces that might belong to humans, but none of them have ever seen humans before, so they couldn’t be sure.”
“Hm? Someone would actually come to this backwater?”
There wasn’t anything special about this place—not resource-rich, just as ordinary as could be.
And the nearest human town was hundreds of thousands of kilometers away. Would they really come all this way just for fun?
“Hard to say. Anyway, be careful these days. Try not to get into conflict with them—it won’t do us any good.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Back from the fields to the Crystal Palace, Genasa found Geli standing at the door, looking very serious.
“Hm? Is something wrong?”
Hearing Genasa’s voice, Geli turned back calmly.
“Nothing. Just now, a group from the Radiant Holy See came by.”
“The Radiant Holy See? Oh~ did they come to catch that guy?”
Genasa suddenly realized—he thought of the lich in the Dragon Emperor’s Pearl. The forest tainted by its death aura still hadn’t recovered.
But if the Holy See folks saw it, they’d probably purify it while they were at it.
Then, Geli chopped him on the head with a hand knife.
“It’s your fault anyway! That group of demons you summoned a while back—they already found out they came from here, and it got me questioned at my own doorstep!”
Genasa pouted, feeling aggrieved and muttering inwardly.
That shouldn’t be… When did that bunch ever get so efficient? So, the “human traces” the lizardmen found in the forest were actually the Holy See searching for the demons? In that case… all those demons might already be dead, huh. Tsk… now he felt a little sorry for them…
Genasa felt a bit guilty, but not much. After all, he summoned those demons as disposable pawns—it just hadn’t occurred to him that they’d lead the Holy See right to his door.
“So, nothing else happened then?”
“What do you think? They don’t dare do anything to me. But you—don’t go wandering too far anymore. If they spot you, they might mistake you for a wild dragon and cut you open for your kidney.”
“……”
Genasa didn’t bother with the Holy See any further. What he cared about now was still the demon treasure.
“Those demons are probably all dead now, so the treasure hunt will have to wait. Sigh… such a shame, I really am interested in the Demon Tribe.”
Geli folded her arms and gave him an exasperated glance.
“You’re just interested in the treasure, aren’t you.”
“Ahem! How could you say that! What do you mean by that! I’m not some greedy dragon—I simply have a strong passion for exploring and collecting, that’s all!”
“Uh-huh.”
Geli’s face clearly said she didn’t believe a word, and, well, she wasn’t wrong…
But besides being, uh, not greedy, just with a collector’s obsession, Genasa truly was quite curious about the Demon Tribe—especially his own nemesis, the Demon King.
He was supposed to be the Hero, but…
The Demon King, before he ever transmigrated, had already been single-handedly slain by the prince of his previous world.
Maybe that was why—because it wasn’t a Hero who beat the Demon King and that might cause some weird little bugs in the world—they summoned him as a “Hero” to fill the gap.
Then, realizing he was useless, they killed him off again.
Those people were nuts—summon me just to kill me? Wait and see! Within two hundred years, I’ll grind you all to bean paste, scatter your ashes to the winds!
Thinking of these unhappy things, Genasa puffed up with anger, making Geli frown and tilt her head.
Was this kid really that mad?
“Hey, hey, don’t make that face like you just ate crap. If there’s nothing else, get back to refining potions and forging. You’ve been making progress lately—don’t let it all go to waste.”
“Yes.”
Genasa replied perfunctorily, then went to grab the alchemy equipment for training.
He had to admit, maybe it was because he’d just had a cathartic fight, or maybe it was the satisfaction of tending fields, but…
Lately, the potions Genasa made no longer exploded at random—in fact, some even turned out better than usual.
Geli watched him organize the equipment, still frowning and deep in thought.
This kid’s dragon instincts had already kicked in, getting him to start gathering followers. It’s a bit early, but training him from a young age isn’t a bad thing, hmm…
After pondering a while, she seemed to make a major decision.
“Come, let me teach you a new recipe.”
“Hm? New recipe? How new?”
“One even little Aixi hasn’t learned. Want to learn it? It’ll help you later on. If you can’t manage it, I’ll just teach Aixi instead—doesn’t really matter which of you learns it.”
Genasa squinted, trying hard to guess what kind of potion this was.
Then, with a look of sudden realization:
“Oh~ no need for that. We already know how, and besides, I doubt I’ll ever need that kind of potion. More importantly, there’s just no use for it now.”
“Huh??? Wait, what are you thinking! Who said it’s that kind of potion! Would I bother teaching that sort of thing so formally?”
Realizing his misunderstanding, Genasa was speechless for a while.
“So, what is it, then?”
“A potion to awaken thin bloodlines. Haven’t you started gathering followers already? If you run into someone with a high-level bloodline, this can help them awaken it. It’ll help with your initial development, too.”
“Oh, I see.”
In this world where bloodlines are everything, even low-level creatures that survived till now might have once-glorious ancestors—there’s usually at least a trace of advanced bloodline in them.
If Genasa were already an adult, he could just use his dragon power to evolve his followers into dragonkin, no need to bother with those faint bloodlines.