Extra entries are celebratory pieces written on random, special occasions; they’re not necessarily a part of the main story. Take them with a grain of salt.

  Happy Thanksgiving!

  Ep 141.1 (Extra). Lunar Celebration

  S across the forest just above the treeline, Serenis carefully eyed the sight below her. Soon enough, an enormous clearing came to view, occupied by wooden structures of all sorts that faintly glowed in the magic that coated them.

  As the dragon nded before the sylvan fortress with a resonating thud, several sylphs rushed out to greet the st guest that had arrived into their stronghold.

  “…Wele, Lord Serenis! Uh, if you could please reduce your form before entering…”

  “…”

  When one of the sylphs approached to greet her – presumably one of the lower breeds – Serenis scoffed at the words being spoken. She instead eyed the stone pace he was gesturing towards, her gaze narrowing from the pierg mana radiating from within.

  “…I suppose your king doesn’t feel the o greet me in person.”

  The sylph winced in fear as the dragonlord’s aura seemed to envelop the area surrounding them. He quickly lowered his head even further, hurrying his answer in a bout of panic.

  “F, five me, dragonlord! The other lords have already arrived, so…Lord Nodhyle may be somewhat occupied for the time being…”

  Serenis returned her attention to the bowing sylph. Her eyes studied him from head to toe, noting the numerous scars running across his bluish skin. Most were hidden under clothing and bandage, but the sheer amount was impossible to hide fully.

  And finally, the dragonlord opened her mouth in a low, drowned-out voice.

  “Did he appoint you to greet my arrival?”

  “Y…yes? I was told to serve as yuide…”

  “I see.”

  The dragonlord’s uanding to a smile onto the sylph. His hopes momentarily surged as he anticipated for Serenis to reduce her form and follow his guide.

  Unfortunately, it only sted until the dragonlord’s forecws trampled him underh.

  Several sylphs fli the bloody crushing noise, as well as the pool of blue blood that formed beh the dragonlord’s talons.

  After letting out another resounding snort, Serenis finally reduced her form, shaking off the bits of liquid that had stained her hand.

  Not a single gnce ared the dead sylph or the trembling onlookers as she made her way towards Nodhyle’s pace.

  Despite having no others to guide her, Serenis had no trouble finding her way through the sylvan structure. This wasn’t her first visit, and to boot, a gathering of five other lords was impossible to overlook.

  When the dragonlord finally threw open the doors leading into the sylvan king’s guest hall, she could see the other demathered about around a circur stoable.

  But Serenis’ eyes instantly locked with a blue-skinned king across the table before her.

  pieces of gold-encrusted armor worn over a rather simply tunic, the sylphlord’s golden eyes emitted an eerie glow amidst his grey, colorless hair. A weak smile betrayed his indifference as he looked up to meet his elder sister’s gaze.

  “Looks like our st guest’s finally arrived.”

  “…Nodhyle.”

  “Hm. It seems I’ve caught you in a rather ill mood, sister. Did my invitation interrupt your slumbers?”

  “I am not your sister.”

  “A we share a father who’d say otherwise.”

  Faking an ued, cursnce behind the dragonlord, Nodhyle’s smile became more pronounced as he tio speak.

  “What of yuide? I personally assigned oo wele your arrival.”

  “…”

  After an exasperated sigh, Serenis stomped her way into the room, seating herself i and final seat across the sylvan king. Her arms crossed in evident annoyance as she spat out her answer.

  “Dead.”

  “Oh? On a day where we are to celebrate our survival? How cruel of you, Serenis.”

  “…”

  Instead of an answer, a menag gre was all the sylphlord received in response.

  Unfortable silensued as the two demonlords began to stare each other down to oblivion. Another id ba their seat and wistfully stared into the ceiling; another annoyingly floated about upside-down in the air, pyfully waving their hand in front of the sylphlord’s unfling eyes.

  Finally, Kedor cleared his throat to break the silence weighing down upon them.

  “…e on, Serenis. o give the death stare at the poor fool.”

  The staring tent immediately broke apart as both their gres fell upon the velklord instead of each other.

  “I’m not giving a death stare.”

  “And who are you calling a fool, turtle?”

  Kedor rolled his eyes, tapping his scaled fiip against the magicked stoable. He warily eyed the sylphlord with a sarcastic grin.

  “Look Nod, we get it. You’re worried that an impostor would show up instead of us. But that’s no reason to keep sending your kin to test us every visit.”

  “They’re defects; traitors to the kin. It was kio allow their deaths to serve a noble purpose.”

  “That doesn’t ge the fact that you sent sylphs to py decoy and shove poisoned knives behind our backs.”

  “And were you a fake, I would’ve caught an i fool daring to impede my stronghold with nary a cost.”

  Sensing the argument going nowhere at all, another lord chimed in, this time to ge the topic altogether. After briskly floating over to hover over the table’s tre, her poiail spped across both the velklord’s and sylphlord’s faces as she turned midair.

  “Oh, shut it, you two! Don’t you remember what father said?! No fighting during celebrations!”

  “…”

  “…”

  Despite their respective pride and positions, both kings piped down surprisingly quickly at the mention of their father. Even Serenis rexed her posture, her gre softening in an instant.

  When the room’s atmosphere suffitly loosehe floating demonlord nodded in satisfa – though she remained h before everyone’s eyes. bined with her stily-cd figure, the sight was extremely difficult to ignore.

  “We barely see each other anymore, it’d be a shame to waste recious time we have with fighting. Besides, this year’s been special!”

  “…Special?”

  Serenis curiously raised a brow at the ued annou. She gnced around the table to see the other lords nodding in agreement, though she had no idea what they were actually nodding about.

  Notig the dragonlord’s fusion, Kedor once again chimed in to provide text to the dragonlord.

  “Well, you see…the behemoths had another succession rite. See?”

  When Serenis followed the dire Kedor ointing at, she saw a horned, purple-skinned individual seated on one of the tables. Their pointed ears and flowing bck hair seemed pretty much identical to what the dragonlord had previously seen among the bloodthirsty tribe, but she did he acute differen horn size.

  The st beastlord only had a pair of broken horns. This one’s horns were fully intact.

  “…Yet another beastlord to repce the st. What a pleasant surprise.”

  The dragonlord’s sarcasm was met by a glint of violet eyes staring directly inture.

  However, instead of the violent shing that she expected from the previous behemoths she’d seen taking the throhis one merely returned a faint smile back to her sarcastient.

  “Ivaratus. Pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

  “…?”

  Serenis widened her eyes in surprise. The others seemed likewise surprised, though not quite to her extent.

  Notig the dragonlord’s quizzical, almost doubtful expression, Ivaratus let out a loud ughter at her fusion.

  “Ha! What’s with the disappointed look?”

  “…I expected a more…violent response.”

  “We do have that tendency, don’t we?”

  The beastlord mused for a moment, letting his own behavior – or ck thereof – to sink in. sidering that his predecessors had all been quick te and rampage, his calm, sensible behavior was pletely out of line among his tribe.

  “I may be an oddity, but I’m fairly certain it’s to your advantage, dragonlord. Our tribe’s tendencies ultimately root from ck of trol – something a king ought to exercise iy. To borrow your words, our previous lords were all ‘defects’ that were bound to be repced.”

  “Is that so? And I thought your tribe was behind saving.”

  “Ha. I won’t deny that most of us are sves to our thirst for blood; I’m also well aware that we’ve been nothing but trouble for the rest of you lot. I ot promise a full cessation of our underlings overstepping their boundaries, but I promise a lessening of it.”

  Serenis’ gaze once again narrowed in doubt. But before the dragonlord could say something ical again, the floating demonlord quickly interjected, physically cutting off the versation by blog her vision with her body.

  “See, Serenis? This one’s different! He’s scary strong just like the old beastlords, but he talks more than he howls. That’s a big ge.”

  “I suppose…”

  Serenis stared up at the floating figure for another moment. But she soon looked away, unwilling to stare at so much skin floating about before her eyes, covered in nothing but a single yer of thin, bck fabric.

  “…Return to your seat, Lucid.”

  “Oh? Am I being an eyesore?”

  Curving their lips into a seductive smile, the floating demonlord lightly stepped onto the stoable. She lowered herself into a sitting posture and leaned forward, pressing an oddly-colored pair of red and blue eyes unfortably close towards the dragonlord.

  Following suit, glittering bck lights shrouded her figure before she’d emerge anew from within.

  The violet hair casg down unto her back had were shorteo the same length as Kedor’s. Her thin, smooth figure emerged far more muscled and rugged than before, and the jewelry decorating what little attire she wore had ged their colors from red to blue.

  Brimming with fidence, Lucid wove their hand in front of Serenis as they spoke once more – this time in a husky, mase voice.

  “I’d transform into a dragon, but I don’t think this chamber would hold if I did that. But this is det too, isn’t it?”

  “Lucid.”

  “What is it, darling?”

  “Return to your seat.”

  “…Aww. Cold as always, Serenis.”

  After a disappointed shrug, Lucid began trudging back to their seat. But when Kedor let out a small snicker on their way back, Lucid leaned into the velklord’s ear, whispering in a barely audible voice.

  “Laugh all you want, Kelly. Unlike you, I’ve seen her naked.”

  “Wait, what?!”

  This time, it was Lucid’s turn to snicker. Kedor darted his gaze between the dreamlord and Serenis in paniable to form any coherent words.

  Nodhyle shook his head until Lucid finally returo his seat. The sylph king then cleared his throat to se the atmosphere of any awkwardness before finally addressing what they’d gathered for.

  “…Anyhow…I do appreciate all of you taking the time to gather today. As you all know, tonight is the night when the year’s moon shi its fullest; tonight is the night our brethren were brought to exist, all by our father’s hands.”

  After a brief pause, the sylphlord raised his head with a solemn gaze. At the flick of his fihe stone ceiling seemed to melt away, revealing the glittering night sky and the full moon sh them in its light.

  “Tonight is the night we, as demonkind, celebrate another successful of all our brethren’s survival. While the passage of time may hold little meaning to the lords, we give thanks for the blessing that is our world, and honor the efforts that have brought us to this day – lest we fet the work of our father and kin.”

  After a brief pause, Nodhyle turned his head to face the other lords. And one by one, each began to cite a heartfelt phrase, gazing upwards in unison as they did so.

  “May we never again shed needless blood.”

  “May his gifts live within us, and ours within all of our brethren.”

  “May our dreams as ever stay true.”

  “May we fe ahead, o stray from our path.”

  “May we tio have peace eversting.”

  Ohe others had spoken, Nodhyle once again parted his lips, speaking unto the glowing moon above them.

  “…May our kind be engraved iy, o be fotten.”

  ? ? ?

  When Raizel had arrived in Partivine, she’d roared into the city to draw Karas towards her. As a result, the youngling had successfully whisked away the professor, as well as Ilias and Light to the northern ti.

  Unfortunately, the same roar threw a handful of individuals into a night of overwork.

  The enfort seadly went about the city to find out where the sudden roar had e from. They cross-referenumerous eyewitness reports of a giant snake-like silhouette within the courtyards of the Magistitute, which had been all but abandoned by the city for weeks.

  By the time Iris and Patrick had arrived on se, the metal dragon was gone; in her pce was just a huge paved se on the grass that needed fixing, as well as faint signs of mana that had bee before the youngling’s disappearance.

  That also needed a copious amount of iigation, followed by a thh check of avaible mana signatures within the sector’s data. Though, quite obviously, no one’s mana seemed to match the signatures that were read within that courtyard.

  After all, the portal that had appeared there owered by a mae, not a person.

  “…”

  “…”

  After exhausting themselves in a three-day search for the culprit, Patrick finally returned home to immediately colpse on the couch.

  And Iris likewise followed through the door, colpsing beside her coworker as her legs finally gave away.

  “…Hey, Patrick?”

  “…Yeah?”

  “…You think your sibling had something to do with this i?”

  “…Yeah?”

  “…You ever feel like we try too hard for our own good?”

  “…Yeah?”

  “…If I ask nicely, will you get up ach me some water?”

  “…Y…no.”

  Patrick remained glued to the couch beside Iris, his eyes emptily staring into the ceiling. He emptily flicked his hand in the air, making a sphere of water above his coworker’s face.

  “Here you go. Water.”

  “…This is a spell.”

  “So?”

  “What the hell do you mean ‘so’? Even if I did drink this, it’ll disappear inside my mouth.”

  Soon after the enforcer’s ent, the sphere of water dissipated above her eyes, repced with an exhausted ent from her coworker.

  “Fine. Go get some actual water. There’s sht over there o table.”

  “…But I don’t want to get up.”

  “And you think I do?”

  “Oh e on, I’m a guest. A dy at that.”

  “Uh, no, you’re an intruder who followed me into my house without permission. I could arrest you for that.”

  “…Fine, how about this. Your deity is asking for an of water.”

  “You pull the deity card to talk your way out of everything. I’m not falling for it.”

  “…Ugh.”

  After groggily getting back up to her feet, Iris dragged herself across the living room to pour two cups of water. As she brought one back to Patrick, she turowards the window as her ears picked up on a faint explosion hough Patrick soon brushed away her worries with his words.

  “Iris, we’re off until Wednesday. Stop looking out the window.”

  “Didn’t you hear that too? Something just exploded outside.”

  “Yeah, I heard it. I also know the explosion’s ’s called fireworks.”

  “…Fireworks? What for?”

  “Tonight’s Lunar Celebration, remember?”

  “…Is it already that time of the year? Huh.”

  After passing the cup of water to her coworker, Iris once again sank into the couch beside him. The two enforcers zily sipped on the cool drink, letting out a sigh of relief afterwards.

  “Hey, Patrick. Wanna know something cool?”

  “Is it gonna be aory about how stupid we were a thousand years ago?”

  “No, this is different. Do you know where Lunar Celebratiinated from?”

  “…I don’t know, a couple as looked at the sky one day, saw a really big moon and thought ‘oh oh oh, let’s make this day…moon-day.’ Is that it?”

  “Hahahaha, no, not at all. Lunar Celebration isn’t actually a day people came up with.”

  “…? What, so the Twelve came up with it?”

  “Not really. To be ho, we stole it. Lunar Celebration is actually a day demons used to celebrate.”

  “…Wha?”

  “Hard to believe, right? But it’s actually their celebration. They held a yearly celebration on the night with the brightest moon, usually right before winter’s ing.”

  “Huh. Well, they sure don’t teach you that in history css. All we get about demons is ‘they were big and bad and mean and the Twelve killed them all.”

  “…Yeah. None of that’s really true.”

  “What did they even celebrate it though? Same thing as we do? Year’s passing, family time, that stuff?”

  “…I think so? Your sibling would probably know better in that regard. By the time I was around, all their traditions were beginning to fall apart, so I only saw glimpses of it. But it retty much just wishing for everyone’s well-being.”

  “Iing. I’ll have to ask them when they e home.”

  “You could. There were also phrases that they’d recite when the moon . Each tribe had a different one. I still remember the one dragons used to say.”

  “It’s not ‘Happy Lunar Celebration,’ is it?”

  “…No. It was...”

  After an amused snort, Iris cleared her throat, staring out the window towards the flying sparks of the fireworks outside – and the moon shining behind all the festivities.

  “…Actually, I fot. You should just ask her when she’s back.”

  Praybird