Curse the Mainframe! 213 Leaving, But Not Gone

Elysia stared her dad down, who looked back at her just as calmly.

"I am. However, I will not be taking you with me. As strong as I am, I will be unable to hide your human presence with how weakened I am. I won't accept any refusal on this matter. You will be going back to Incantix.

You don't want to leave with Alec? Fine. It doesn't matter even if you don't go with Alec, but you must experience the various things the world has to offer. We've spent a long time in isolation together.

Right now, you are too weak for me to be able to bring with me. You have no experience, nor do you know any social cues at all. The place I am heading to is very far from Incantix, but I will be able to find you as long as you remain my daughter."

Elysia deflated a little.

To be honest, she knew that this day was going to come sooner or later, but that didn't mean that she had to like it.

Elysia knew that she was still too weak, especially when compared to her dad. She'd never met someone as strong as her dad, but to think that he said he was weakened and wasn't able to protect her?

Fine. She knew she couldn't stop him, so she had to hurry up and grow stronger in order to help him out in the future. Her dad wasn't that weak, and she knew he was able to take care of himself.

Elysia pouted a little, mainly so that he knew she'd given in.

Well, going on a journey without her dad would be an experience, and Alec did seem like he was fun to be around.

"You better not lose to anyone before I'm able to beat you," Elysia grinned, her mind already running away with her.

Haphira ruffled his daughter's hair, pulling a brighter grin from her. "Naughty. Naturally, I won't," Haphira said, a rare softness that only his daughter was able to pull from him. "I'll give you a bit of living expenses, but you'll have to manage it yourself! If you get into a fight, beat them up without any hesitation."

The words that Haphira spoke came naturally to him, and he didn't see anything wrong with it. Dragons lived by the rule that the strongest was king!

Elysia laughed, and Alec, who was supposedly out of earshot, felt like this father and daughter pair were a lot different from surface appearances.

"Of course. I'm Elysia Grayxia, The Great Haphira Grayxia's daughter, after all," she boasted.

Alec must be losing his mind if he even thought her boasting was cute. He usually felt annoyed whenever someone boasted like that, but when Elysia did it, he couldn't even muster up the slightest bit of annoyance.

Pissed at himself, Alec shut the feelings behind the wall again. How annoying.

Alec held his head inwardly as he battled with conflicting feelings. One part of him screamed at him to just flee – he was in no way being himself ever since they'd met – but the greater part of him just couldn't let go even if he did want to flee.

The moment they left this place, Alec would do his best to avoid her while still providing her help.

To be honest, right now, all Alec wanted to do was flee to escape the overwhelming rush of positive emotions. How could one simple emotion be so powerful?

Bah, no wonder so many rulers fell for the beauty trap then got slaughtered by enemies. It was precisely because the hero couldn't resist the beauty, right?

Therefore, the right course of action here and now was for him to avoid placing himself in harm's way while still helping her.

Alec felt satisfied with his decision.

Yet, when he thought about turning down Haphira regarding bringing Elysia around, he couldn't do it, and when he thought about Elysia rejecting his companionship, Alec felt like he was drowning underwater.

Alec felt stifled, which just annoyed him further.

He could neither move forward nor move back, and Ye Sha was unrepentantly crowing with laughter in his mind.

Suddenly more pissed than he had been for a while, Alec chased Ye Sha around, who yelped as he instantly started running, becoming a sacrifice for his friend's distraction.

Elysia and Haphira both moved towards Alec's direction, the last bit of tenseness from their frames fading into obscurity.

Haphira bowed lightly, his silvery hair slipping down over his shoulder, "Please take care of my daughter."

Ye Sha breathed in sharply. He'd never seen a dragon bow before. Ever. From what he knew, dragons would rather face death than be forced to submit.

It spoke volumes of how much he loved his daughter that he was willing to bow to a mere human to show his sincerity, and Ye Sha told Alec as such.

Alec nodded solemnly. "I will."

Haphira squinted a little.

For some reason, why did he feel like this person would become an enemy in the future?

Yet, it wasn't the kind of enemy that only life or death could solve.

Haphira's vague instincts left himself confused. Sometimes, he just didn't understand his own puzzling instincts, but it would eventually make sense in the future.

Why was Alec an enemy yet not an enemy?

Truly mystifying.

He had a bit of a bad feeling.

Haphira hugged his daughter, who squeezed him back, smiling brightly up at him.

"Dad you take care of yourself," Elysia murmured, squeezing him tighter.

Who knows when she would see him again? However, if Haphira wanted to, he could easily find her no matter where she was in the world.

However, something within her told her that it would be some time before she saw him again.

It was probably her intuition, which her father called 'dragon's intuition'. She secretly called it bullshit the first time he told her about it, but it hadn't led her wrong yet.

Haphira stroked his daughter's hair, which was so similar to his.

Sometimes, he missed the golden strands that she had before their ritual, but he also adored the sign that she was truly his by blood now, by her own choosing.

He flicked her on the nose. "You're a thousand years too early to be worrying about my safety, young lady. But I will take care of myself, just as you will take care of yourself."

Elysia rubbed her nose but beamed. "Of course!"

Alec blinked but continued maintaining his smile. He felt as if he was intruding on something that he should not be privy to but didn't do something like move his gaze away.

Haphira nodded at Alec, who nodded back at him respectfully. The boy was a bit strange. He seemed well versed in human conventions, but at times, he did something that wasn't really socially accepted.

The humanoid dragon put his intrigue aside for the time being.

"Take care of your daggers," Haphira said. "They should give you a nice surprise one day."

The memories that he gained back the moment his own touched the daggers in Alec's hands was the only reason why Haphira was willing to entrust his daughter's wellbeing to him.

Well, that and the fact that his daughter could probably win in a fight. Even if she couldn't, she would be able to flee without a problem.

"I will."

Haphira sent his daughter and Alec out to his friend's crack between realms, feeling a sense of loss in his heart.

Though he knew that he would one day have to let go, it seemed that the day had come truly early. By his own hands nonetheless.

Humans had such short lifespans.

Now that Elysia had started her own adventure, it was time for him to search for his kin.

From what he gathered, Incantix no longer held any traces of dragons.

Haphira was the last of his kind on Incantix. The rest of the dragons no longer entered the human realm since a few millennia ago.

All they had to do was merely blink and the scenery in front of them changed.

The moment they reappeared in the crack between realms, Alec was greeted with the familiar underground cavern, with pale, ghostly blue lighting.

He could feel familiar magical signature rapidly approaching them, and he smiled.

Elysia was looking around with wide eyes, curiosity shining in them. She had never before seen a place like this before, and she was looking everywhere unabashedly.

Alec very carefully avoided looking at her.

As expected, she was not good for his heart. Therefore, the best solution was to ignore the bad things.

"Elysia, my subordinate is coming. Don't be alarmed, alright?"

Elysia nodded like a little chick pecking rice. "I know. I can feel them coming."

Her eyes were glittering even in the dim lighting. She wondered whether they would all be nice like Alec was.

It was at this moment that Ye Sha gleefully perked up. "Yes! I did it!"

Alec was confused at his sudden statement, but he had long been used to his friend's sudden outbursts from time to time. The other System always did the same thing whenever he cracked a code that had been plaguing him.

Ye Sha continued before Alec needed to ask him to clarify. "I managed to add Elysia to the [Main Character Page]!"

Alec choked inwardly. He just thought to himself that he was going to avoid her, but now Ye Sha said that he managed to add her to the index. "Why?! Wait," he said, suddenly calming down. "Good job, Ye Sha."

"That's what I thought," Ye Sha said smugly. He just knew the other would be a control freak in this aspect. Like he could handle The One being in danger without being there next to her facing the danger together.

It bothered Alec a little that he couldn't access the system interface anymore, but since he had Ye Sha to look out for him, it was better this way since he wasn't able to continuously keep it open without it draining him to check for changes.

Dominique appeared before anyone else, his eyes wide and slightly wild as his eyes locked onto his boss.

Chapter end

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