After I Laid Five Golden Dragon Eggs, the Dragon King Regretted Chapter 08

After I Laid Five Golden Dragon Eggs, the Dragon King Regretted Chapter 08

The lightning from above struck the moment I unfurled my wings. 

The first bolt hit my back. 

It hurt. 

I had always been afraid of pain–even a peck from a bird in Briar Hollow would make me ache for half a day. 

This bolt felt like it had pierced through my back. I nearly buckled. 

The second bolt struck, and my feathers began to char. 

By the third bolt, I could no longer feel the pain. 

Valerius was screaming my name from below. He cursed me and told me to leave. 

But I didn’t move an inch. 

Fourth, fifth, sixth… I lost count. 

My consciousness felt as if it were submerged in water, hazy and vague. I only remembered to press my wings lower, to shield him more tightly. 

After what felt like an eternity, the noise stopped. 

The world went silent. 

I couldn’t hold on any longer and collapsed to the ground. 

My vision was blurred, but I could see Valerius crawling toward me. He held me, his tears falling hot against my face. 

“Ember! Ember!” He was actually crying. “I was wrong. I 

never wanted to annul our marriage. I love you… I never 

intended to marry anyone else…” 

My throat was thick with the taste of blood, but I managed to 

whisper: 

“I love you, too.” 

Valerius’s sobbing hitched for a second, then became even 

more intense. 

My eyelids felt impossibly heavy. 

So tired. 

I wanted to sleep. 

Just as I closed my eyes, I heard him let out a heart–wrenching 

roar. 

The Elders were pulling at him: “King! The Trial hasn’t fully 

cleared! Calm down!” 

“Let go of me!” 

He broke free and lunged for me. 

But at that moment, my body was suddenly enveloped in 

flames. 

A golden–red fire erupted from within me. 

Everyone froze. 

Valerius was held back by the Elders, watching helplessly as 

the fire swallowed me. 

He looked like a man whose soul had been ripped out. He stopped struggling and fell to his knees. 

“Ember,” he whispered my name, his voice breaking. 

Then, a clear, resonant cry pierced through the sky from the center of the flames. 

Golden wings unfurled from the fire, every feather 

shimmering with the light of a sacred flame. Wherever the tail feathers brushed, flowers bloomed on the scorched earth. 

I looked up from the flames and saw the clouds of the Trial dissipating. Light poured through the cracks, illuminating my new feathers. 

The Phoenix rises from the ashes. 

The script exploded: 

[A Phoenix! She wasn’t an ‘Ungifted‘; she was a Phoenix all along!!] 

[Oh my god, the ‘black feather‘ her mother left her wasn’t a crow’s feather–it was the unawakened down of a Phoenix!] 

[I’m crying!!!] 

[Lead, stop kneeling! Your wife is a Phoenix!] 

I took flight, circling the sky a few times before landing in front of Valerius. 

Valerius stared at me, face wet with tears, then lunged 

forward. 

“Ember! Ember!” 

He said my name so many times today that it almost sounded 

foreign. 

After the Trial passed, Valerius and I brought the five babies back to Aethelgard. 

Seeing those little ones, the Elders never again suggested that 

Valerius take a concubine. 

Valerius became increasingly clingy toward me, and I realized then that his “cold and distant” persona had all been an act. 

Later, when our eldest turned a hundred, Valerius passed the title of King to him and took me to travel across the lands, 

continuing the search for my mother.