Arthur appeared at the Graves family manor, having taken some time. It was about 2 in the morning, and he was tired. He entered, and Rudy opened the door, surprised to see him.
"Ah, come on in, brother," Rudy said. Arthur brushed past him, stumbling and collapsing onto the couch.
"I'm tired, and I'm going to bed. G'night."
"Very well."
'Does Rudy even sleep? He opened the door really quickly. Ah, no, I don't wanna think too hard about anything…'
Arthur fell asleep, and was not met by Lucy.
…
Now awake, he went and looked for Mrs Graves, finding her in her room alone, holding a picture of her and her husband, who was also her brother.
She looked up, seeing him before she wiped her wet eyes.
"Can I talk to you for a second?" Arthur asked her. She sniffled and put her picture away, getting up and letting out an "mhm…"
The two went to the dining room and sat down, face to face. Arthur leaned back and crossed his arms.
"Is Chad here?" He asked.
"No. He's either shut in the basement all day watching TV all day, or outside doing who-knows-what. Today, he's outside," she said, seeming obviously very depressed.
Her husband was wiped out almost instantly. And the reason behind that immediate loss of life was her son, spurred on by Arthur. Needless to say, her opinion of both of them was not quite good.
"I see. Well, I have some questions," he said. She looked at him with a bit of resentment, before she said "go on."
"Firstly, who are the notable figures I should look out for? Of course, there's the Assas family, who's against me. But what about other families, and figures there? Any strong people?" He asked her calmly.
She looked down at the table, sighing and looking at him plainly.
"Well… As you know, there's Chad. Simply put, he's the strongest, there's no question. Even if you took every dragon who's ever existed, excluding himself and those Heads, I don't know if they would be quite enough to bring him down."
'Nothing new, apparently. Wait, Heads? Ah, that'll come later.'
"Okay, but I need more. I'll narrow it down for you. Who are the strongest families, people to be wary of?" Arthur asked.
"Obviously, as the dragons of death, we ourselves rank quite highly. However, if I were to give two other families that can match us—though we are obviously superior—it would be the descendents of Oppen, the War Dragon. And perhaps… maybe the descendents of King, the Earth Dragon, though I'm not entirely sure about that."
"The Earth Dragon?"
"As the name suggests, their domain is quite literally the planet we inhabit. And there's a tale which is told to many dragons, that they're capable of going beyond just our own planet. That's just a tale, and it could very well have been spread to create notoriety back in the early days."
'So there's Death, War, and the Earth… I can understand Death, it's the natural end of all living things, if it lives, so too does it die. And the Earth, naturally, it's the planet itself. But War?'
'War is between humans. Animals don't wage war, only humans… and dragons do too, I suppose. War is more of a construct than anything, it's not inherently natural.'
"I see. I'm a bit confused about the War Dragon, though. The Planet is the planet, and Death is death. But War, powerful as is, I don't think it can hold a candle to either. Or do you just include them because they're more powerful than everything else but those two main ones?" Arthur asked her. Rudy brought the two some drinks and a nice meal to eat while they talked.
"Well, when we say war, what it might be better suited as is 'conflict.' War, while not something that is exceedingly natural, as in you don't usually see lions talking to each other and declaring war on other tribes of lions, is amounted to any resentment, conflict, and violence between two parties, both individuals and groups," she said.
That changed things a bit.
If war was extended to such looseness of a label, then war was without a doubt common. Perhaps even more natural than entire existences and bodily functions.
Take dogs that have been bred, like pugs. Their existences are less natural than conflict, hatred, and fighting. Bananas as we know them are not how they naturally occur. Bananas are not as natural as conflict.
It could be your sibling making you mad to the point of wanting to hurt them, it could be flipping someone off for cutting you off on the road, it could be clawing at your own wrists because your partner was cheating on you, any hatred that led one to seek violence as a way to stop whatever was bothering them could be considered "war."
War was in the heart.
And naturally, the horrors and tragedy of war, the bloodshed, both senseless and senseful that came with it, the destruction of civilizations, the instantaneous deaths from atomic bombs, the POW's tortured to suicide, all of it counted as war as well.
"Oh, okay. I have met someone, his name was… Todd, I believe? Todd Oppen, is there anything you know about him?" Truthfully, he wanted a good answer. Todd had appeared before him, said ominous things and then left quite easily.
"Todd? How did you meet him?" Mrs Graves asked, with her face turning quite serious.
"I was walking in my campus, bumped into him, and he was really weird. I can't remember anything he said, though."
"...I see. If that's the case, then there may be a war between the Graves family and the Oppen family, then."
'A war?'
"If that's the case, then who would win? Us or them?" Arthur asked, taking a bite of his food. Mrs Graves seemed to think a bit hard.
"If Chad wasn't such a lazy good-for-nothing piece of shit son who stopped listening to his parents because he's so cocky, then we'd win. But since he's a nonfactor, and without personal bias, I'd say they would win."
"Why's that?"
"We lost my husband. He was a formidable combatant, and very strong. However, because we just lost him, and our children aren't up to snuff just yet, they have an overwhelming advantage. We have less relatives than they do, and because of our nature as Death, our allies are few."
Arthur crossed his arms once more, nodding his head.
"Is there any way we could win? In this hypothetical, but also potentially inevitable scenario?" He asked. In response, she looked away, racking her head for any ideas possible.
"If we can draw our Bloodline's Ace before they do, we can wipe out a significant amount before they can, hopefully," she answered.
There were now two terms Arthur was unfamiliar with. The Heads and the Bloodline's Ace.
"What? I'm sorry, can you explain what the… 'Bloodline's Ace' is?" He asked her. She sighed and gave her answer.
"Each family has a weapon, one which was said to be wielded by the Head. For us, the Graves family, our Bloodline's Ace is the Spear of the End. Only those with our blood can wield it, and drawing it against an opponent is considered a declaration of war against those who oppose us. Think of it as a direct threat claiming we'll nuke them."
In modern terms, it was pretty easy to understand. Not that it was hard to begin with, but modern terms simplified it to a childish degree.
As well, it was likely why they were very sparingly used—if every bloodline wielded one, then when one family threatened to use it, the powerful weapons would thus get involved, leading to the potential end of dragon-kind.
"And what's the Ace of the War Dragons?"
"That would be the MAD."
Arthur let out a "huh?" He stared at her with confusion for a second, before Mrs Graves followed up with her explanation.
"It's a knife that, when the target is in sight, the user can stab themselves, and that damage will be applied to both of them. Assuming the other person heals that wound, the user's wound is also healed. It was used to assassinate the head of the Cloud Dragon family around 400 years or so ago."
"Ah… so like… Mutually Assured Destruction?"
"Essentially."
"Ahhhh… Oh, and there's another thing. You mentioned 'Heads' like I'm supposed to understand. What does that mean?"
"Head is what we say to refer to the original dragon. I am a descendent of Graves, who is the true Head of the Graves family, though the modern head is Kaiser. In his time, Graves wielded the Spear of the End."
"Ah, okay, I get it. And what does it do?"
"It never misses. Just like death itself, it always follows. Even if it cannot reach you quickly, it will always reach you eventually. Though, a rumor we've spread is that the spear instantly kills whom it touches. That simply isn't true."
Arthur nodded his head.
"Well, anything else I should know?"
"Hm. Well, I suppose it's good to know that if all members of a family die, whoever wields the Bloodline's Ace first has it become their property. If we wiped out the Oppen family, all of them, it would have nowhere to go but to whoever touches it first."
"I see. Well, thank you, then. This has been pretty useful—"
"One more thing."
Arthur, who had gotten up and was about to leave, cocked his head back and looked down on her, saying "oh?"
"In this world, there exist humans whose strength rivals that of dragons. No one knows why, but for 1,000 years, they've been hunting dragons down. They're the family of Dragonslayers."
"Ah… interesting, I guess."
"And in modern times, they've begun using weapons like guns and explosives. Truth be told, like every other existence, we are weak to guns."
"Really? Well, that's to be expected. So they're like us, but they just run around with super speed shooting dragons?"
"Essentially."
"And why don't we shoot them back?"
"It's more disgraceful for a dragon to pick up weapons of entirely manmade proportions than it is to die instantly. The world has blessed us with Arts unique to the individual; to use weapons like guns and explosives, which have been made by man, is shameful."
"——"
A long, long silence appeared.
"I see."
Arthur, following the rule of "if you don't have anything kind to say, don't say anything at all," kept his mouth shut. He left the manor, checking his phone.
It was Saturday morning, and so he flew all the way back home.
…
While in the sky, he reflected.
'I didn't give it any thought, since I don't have any experience with guns. However, if she's not lying, then guns truly are an interesting idea.'
'I can use them with minimal training, and if I'm not an idiot, I won't kill myself using them. I'm already a dragon-reject, a good-for-nothing traitor, so things like shame don't apply to me.'
'Though, aren't guns a bit expensive? Even if dragons are weak to guns, they're supernatural, kinda. So they should be like bears, where they can sometimes take a few shots.'
'And I saw my mom turn into a dragon a while ago, like a fully fledged dragon. The scales, even if they were somehow easy to pierce, would make it hard to fully kill her just due to her size.'
'Well, another rule of nature is that if you shoot it enough times, it'll die eventually, so that might not be much of a problem.'
…
Once Arthur reached his dorm, he went ahead and finished a book he'd been reading for quite some time. In his free time, he had been reading that book, so once he finished, he wanted something new to read.
Arthur decided to do some grocery shopping as well. He drove to the library and entered, walking around as he looked for books to read.
While not as much of an enthusiast as David, Arthur did like some fantasy. Though, he was also a bit sick of it, as his life was pretty much turned into a fantasy story, with dragons and such.
He snooped around, and eventually found one that sounded interesting. It was a story of someone in a similar predicament, a normal boy who was sent to another world.
And as he was reading the general beginning to see if he might like it, he heard an "AH!" followed by his knees being struck from behind. It immediately sent a shiver down his spine as he backed towards the bookshelf, turning around and looking for a potential threat.
No such thing was seen, and when he looked down, he saw a woman face first into the ground. She used her hands to get her upper body up, as she dragged her feet forward and sat on her butt, looking at her feet.
"Son of a bitch," she said, before looking up at Arthur. "Was that your leg I hit or a bookshelf? Cause that really, really hurt…"
"Ah…"
Arthur's mind went blank. He decided to smile, nod his head, and leave immediately.
His plan would have been successful, if she hadn't outmaneuvered him. He went towards the nearest exit, but due to being in a bad position, he had to get past some bookshelves to slip past, which also had some people inside, who he had no intention of bothering.
However, she was in a more fortunate spot, so she was able to cut him off, arriving at the exit before he could.
"Where're you running? You forgot your book, y'know," she said, holding her hand out.
It was indeed a girl he had run into. While it may have been her fault that she fell, the situation was simply one in which Arthur had no interest in sticking around for. Arthur took the book back, smiling still.
"Thanks!" He yelled, before getting shushed. His face went red, and he decided to escape. As he turned around, she grabbed his sleeve, to which he slowly tilted his chin towards her, eyes wide and a creepy smile on his face. In his gaze, he stared at her like he'd just been stabbed.
"Yes?" He calmly, quietly questioned, with his heart racing and an earnest desire to shove her away so hard she slammed into the bookshelves.
"You're reading The Failed Knight, right?" She said, pointing to his book. He looked down, then back up at her. "Mhm."
"Don't read that one, it sucks. Forgotten Knight is way better. It's the same premise, but the main character is way more likeable. He's way smarter, makes the right decisions, and stuff like that."
Arthur looked down at her. Out of fear, he truly did want to just smack her away and jump out the window. But such a strike would most likely kill her by snapping her neck, so he wanted to avoid that.
She was a woman of average height with round glasses, acne and greasy hair which didn't smell too great, and a long dress.
"Ah. Okay," Arthur said, before she looked at him and smiled.
"That was your leg, wasn't it? Let me feel—" She whispered, grabbing Arthur's arm. It was very, very dense, like steel beams.
"Oh shit, you're—"
Immediate shoving, and Arthur backed away. He didn't know if she was a dragon or not, so this wasn't something he was willing to gamble on.
She landed on her butt with an "oof!" She got back up, holding her hand to a chin with a smile and nodded her head.
"Hey, I got some dude who's stalking me. You seem pretty tough, mind pretending to be my boyfriend?"
That was her line.