CHAPTER 373: CHAPTER 197: I TOOK YOU AS A PET BEAST, BUT YOU WANT TO RIDE ME? (DOUBLE-LENGTH)

Southern Region of the Western Continent, Silent Forest.

This is a rarely visited forest sea.

It’s said that in an untraceable ancient era, humans once lived here.

Even, during the Barbaric Era when the Supernatural Races faded away and human civilization began to spark, the surroundings of Silent Forest saw the establishment of some of the earliest Human Kingdoms.

Yet, as the eras passed, human traces faded from this ancient forest sea, returning once again to eternal tranquility.

Deep in the Silent Forest, within a dark garden by a lake.

A girl with black hair and a black dress stood quietly by the lake.

A thin layer of night covered her eyes, making them appear illusory and blurred, hard to see clearly.

Suddenly, in a fleeting moment, that thin shadow over her illusory eyes was penetrated by a crimson gold light.

The crimson gold light pierced through the night, and through the shadow as well.

Then, it fell straight in front of her, on the silent lake, and on the nearby ruins, weathered to near hollowness, where only the original outlines of buildings could barely be discerned.

The next moment.

In that crimson gold light, shadows surged.

In the alternation between illusion and reality, thin layers of night gradually intertwined over the weathered and decayed ruins—

In the end, that night gradually faded away.

Transforming into faint, fleeting light and shadow over the ruins.

Augutina quietly watched that hazy screen of light, with her crimson gold eyes shimmering like flowing lava.

The Dark Shadow Council has bases throughout most of the Western Continent, even in the Lost Kingdom controlled by the evil cult.

However, very few know that the main base of the Dark Shadow Council, and the residence of its leader, the Queen of the Night, are located in the Silent Forest, which is in the Southern Territory scarcely visited by anyone.

And even those few members of the Dark Shadow Council’s upper echelons who know the name Silent Forest find it quite hard to understand why Augutina set the council’s headquarters there.

With the position of the Dark Shadow Council, they could establish headquarters in any capital city of the Western Continent, where the bustling flow of people and gathering of the strong would better suit the Council’s intelligence operations.

There is simply no need to set it in this place, politely described as undisturbed, bluntly as remote and desolate.

But only Augutina knows—

The Silent Forest is her homeland.

The site of the Ancient Dragon Royal Court, and the last remnants of a once prosperous civilization, are buried in the Silent Forest.

And not only that—

Silent Forest.

It is also the place where Augutina first met that human boy.

And the Forest Country near the Silent Forest—

It’s also where the human boy left his first footprints during the First Era.

...

Faint night flows over the desolate ruins.

Very weak, yet carrying a hint of ancient and decayed mystery, silently flowing over the lake.

After a long while, the night and shadows faded from the ruins.

The fleeting light and shadows on the ruins vanished entirely.

The remaining structures no longer shrouded by night dimmed significantly, losing their former luster.

As if losing the last bit of mystery, the remnants of the buildings entirely decayed, turning to scattered white chalk dust.

The black-dressed girl’s eyes no longer held that crimson gold, old Sovereign-like majesty, but were once again obscured by the hazy night, hard to discern.

"The Prince of Forest Country."

"Sacrificed by the rebels as a tribute to the sleeping evil dragon within the Silent Forest..."

"I didn’t expect you to have had such an identity during the First Era."

"Hmm... after offering their last prince as a sacrifice to the evil dragon, the Forest Country crumbled due to an internal power struggle and civil unrest."

"And those lines said by the Rebel General during the rebellion—’How can a real man dwell beneath others for long between heaven and earth?’... It sure has your style."

"Such things do fit your wicked sense of humor, likely inseparable from you."

"But with your current rank, you’re still bothered by a few little lackeys that aren’t even Legendary...?"

"Given your current status as Prince Consort to the Queen of the Empire, and co-ruler of the White Tower, this should count as a pure black mark in your history."

A slight smile involuntarily curled on Augutina’s lips.

"Looks like yet another black mark can be added to a certain Prometheus Class file."

Her words carried a hint of joy.

The Dark Shadow Council is the largest intelligence organization across the Western Continent, a fact known and acknowledged by every Transcendent in the Western Continent.

Yet, no one knows that the founder and leader of the Dark Shadow Council, at its inception—

Actually, only wanted to recruit some hands to help her gather someone’s intelligence and black marks.

Someone, who appeared like the wind in the First Era, entering her life.

Then, vanished again like the wind, that human boy.

He was the first being Augutina saw upon her birth.

For the Dragon Race, the first soul seen upon hatching holds a significance that even surpasses biological parents, an irreplaceable presence of special importance.

But thereafter, that human boy vanished completely.