Chapter 627: Galazur
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Dragon's Court entrance within Pyroxene Peak was closed as Galazur had ordered the closure of all the palace gates and forbade any dragon from disturbing her. However, not many dragons found this peculiar because they knew the odd dragon queen often shut herself inside the palace, sometimes for a week and even half a month. The dragons were already accustomed to it. Anyway, these little quirks did not affect Galazur as a great ruler.
Galazur was now sitting in the palace hall enjoying her food. For her guests' benefit, she turned into a humanoid, who was neither ugly nor pretty, but unusually tall. There was nothing special about her except for the crown on her head. The dragons on that planet did not care about their appearance. They shapeshifted into humanoids only for the purpose of socializing with other races. Even Galazur herself did not care about her own demeanor: she was having mouthfuls of "Earth's specialties", which Hao Ren had brought for her. "I'm telling you, my dietitians are really annoying. Their heads are full of weeds, and sometimes mixed with stones—do you believe that nutritional imbalance shortens a dragon's lifespan? Even the goddess has given me her blessing... but those idiots just simply don't get it. They won't let me eat as I like. By the way, this 'Spicy Stick' tastes really good, although it's not meat..."
Cold sweat trickled down Hao Ren's forehead. He felt lucky for the dragon was now in humanoid form, otherwise, the dozen-pound snacks he brought for her would not have been enough.
Lily was squatting beside Hao Ren, staring at the tall woman in front of her. "Ga-Galazur, right? I've never seen a dragon before in my life! You looked great!"
"When you're on the throne, 'image' is important. How else are you going to rule over the kingdom?" said Galazur, waving her hand. "But, it's actually boring here. The Kingdom of Dragons is a boring place; there's nothing much to do except sit on the throne every day. I like my job now as an inspector; I can go places. The world outside is a lot more interesting than this tiny place."
Hao Ren cast his eyes on Galazur, sizing her up. "I hope you don't mind me asking: how did you become an inspector?"
Galazur began to recall. "It happened thousands of years ago. While I was patrolling my territory, lightning suddenly struck out of nowhere and nearly killed me. I heard a faint voice saying, 'Damn, I missed.' When I woke up, I saw a goddess standing in front of me. She told me that would grant me a wish…"
Hao Ren immediately knew. It sounded all too familiar—Raven 12345. Cold sweat trickled down his forehead. He asked, "Then, what did you wish for? To go places, or attain power?"
"None of them. Back then, I was more boring than I am now. I felt she that had offended the dignity of dragons, and that she was a liar—so I bit her." Galazur sighed. "Before I knew it, a second lightning struck me; I was half-dead... After that, I learned it was called 'God's punishment'."
Lily rubbed her mouth and muttered, "The lesson is to not simply bite people. Case in point, my broken teeth from biting Mr. Landlord."
"Then, I became aware that there was a god in this universe—previously, the dragon race saw the 'gods' that humans worshipped as mere natural phenomena." Galazur smiled. "When I told her that I wished to go places, she told me she needed a helper to monitor this area, hence I became her inspector. What about you? I heard that you're new, but your ass-kicking stories have been making their rounds among many seniors, especially the story of you helping an entire civilization to migrate from one world to another by circumventing the loophole. It was a hot topic on the Local Universe Channel for more than two weeks."
Hao Ren scratched his chin, feeling a bit embarrassed. "In the beginning, I was just as confused as you were. In fact, I was just looking for a job..."
He recalled how he took up the job and chatted with his counterpart. Although Galazur's stature as a queen was hard to ignore, the atmosphere was closer to employees gossiping in the office. Hao Ren began to get a deeper understanding of the existence of this unique community known as the "inspectors" in the universe, or even in the multiverse.
It was a "borderless" group in a true sense. Whoever that was selected and deemed suitable by the Xi Ling Celestials could become an inspector, irrespective of race, origin, occupation, or identity. Religious beliefs and all secular distinctions were meaningless as far as inspectors were concerned. The moment you signed the labor contract, "inspector" was your only identity.
"You'll meet more interesting guys in the future," said Galazur as she licked her fingers. "The inspectors in Weimaer Civilization Sphere are elemental creatures who look like soft masses of air. When I was on missions in other universes, I saw even more weird people. The Xi Ling Celestials are a lot bigger than you think. There's endless knowledge, and space waiting for you to explore, and the speed at which space is expanding is faster than you could ever travel."
Hao Ren nodded in approval. He looked up at the magnificent palace around him. "Looks like your place is much more glamorous—I only stay in an old, for-rent house."
"Aren't you also the governor and Sun King of New Aerym?" reminded Galazur as she looked up with a wry smile.
Blinking, Hao Ren said, "Oh yes, that's true. I always forget about that identity as it feels surreal."
"That's normal. After becoming an inspector, secular status, position and reputation always feel unreal, because they're... not worth mentioning," said the dragon queen, looking around at her palace. "But, I still have to take good care of my kingdom and that's another feeling."
Listening to the conversation between the two inspectors, Nangong Wuyue did not have a chance to chime in. She finally could not help but remind them, "When are we going to see the vengeful spirit?"
"Oh, no rush. It's being suppressed in the core area of Thunder Peak; it won't be able to escape," said Galazur. She motioned with her hand and a blue light swept across the hall—it was an MDT. "Let me check the monitoring cameras in Thunder Peak... Well, everything looks to be very good."
Hao Ren's MDT became excited. It slipped out of his pocket and gave a greeting, "Hi, how are you?"
The MDT in Galazur's hand was startled for a moment before it responded slowly. It was a soft, neutral voice, and completely composed. "Hello, my friend."
"I have never seen my compatriots since they left the production line," said Hao Ren's MDT, flying around excitedly. "Which production line are you from? What model are you? The pattern on your case is so nice... I wish I had the same one."
"EV-355V-15BC, General X-16, pattern status is unknown," Galazur's MDT replied slowly, and aptly.
"Would you like to chat when they get busy? I'm telling you, my master is so boring—"
"Request rejected. Unworthy behavior."
"Oh, so you're more like an introvert? That's okay, I'm talkative. You can just listen..."
"Request denied. Unworthy behavior. It is recommended that you check your logic database. Your personality does not meet standard MDT behavior."
Hao Ren's MDT flew around the other MDT several times, but all it got in return was "Request denied. Unworthy behavior", and repeated questions about its logic database. Hao Ren looked on before burying his face in his hand. Galazur's eyebrows twisted a little in curiosity. "Why is your MDT so talkative?"
"It's been like that since day one. Something seems to be wrong with its brain," Hao Ren said. "I suspect that the goddess has broken it. Despite that, it's pretty steady when it comes to work... most of the time."
Galazur's brows were knitted together. "An MDT with brain damage? I've never seen it before... and I haven't heard of any kind of failure that would lead to changes in personality."
At this time, Rollie who was wandering about on all fours had seemingly discovered something. She raised her head and meowed several times at Galazur's throne. Hao Ren looked at her curiously before he saw something behind the throne. A yellow cat that looked like a tiger was meowing back at Rollie.
"This is my cat," Galazur said with a smile, beckoning the big yellow cat. "I picked it up while I was on a mission in... Oh yes, near the Kerbal Civilization Sphere."
The yellow cat trod over and darted around Galazur's arms. It then lowered its head to grab the snacks on the ground.
Lily quickly came up to Hao Ren.
"What's its name?" Nangong Wuyue looked at the yellow cat with bright eyes.
"It's called 'Cat'," Galazur said.
Everyone was at a lost for words.
Nangong Sanba looked at Hao Ren wryly. "Are all inspectors the same?"
Hao Ren was left speechless.