"Please forgive me!" Adrian raised his voice. "Please forgive me for using your name for everything that I did! It was a desperate political play!"

"I do not really care about that." the Dragon said casually.

Adrian stopped, but he kept his head pressed to the ground.

"You are a pretty interesting human." the Dragon continued, taking a slow step toward him. "I certainly did not expect someone cursed with a Demon’s blessing to act like this."

Adrian slowly lifted his head.

"Wait, what?" Adrian asked, totally confused. "What do you mean?"

Because Adrian had met other people with demonic blessings before. And a lot of them were just normal, decent people struggling to survive.

"The mortals who are marked with demonic blessings are born with a heavy burden." the Dragon explained, her rainbow scales shifting in the light. "Their innate negative karma is vastly higher than their positive karma. This means they are constantly prone to bad luck and terrible suffering."

She looked down at him.

"And due to that relentless bad luck," she said softly. "They usually tend to break. Some of them turn bitter and go against the others. They walk toward the slightly evil side of humanity just to survive. So it is incredibly interesting to see someone like you."

"Ah... I see..." Adrian nodded slowly. "Hmm... a lot of things actually make sense now."

"Your future must have been completely different." the Dragon mused, as she ignored his words completely, "The future of your daughter should have been different and the future of your citizens should have been different."

She looked back down at him.

"The various threads of fate that were supposed to be going in completely different, tragic directions..." the Dragon smiled. "Your thread attracted them and as time passed, all those scattered threads gathered together to form a strong rope."

Adrian just stared at her.

’I do not understand a single fucking thing you are saying right now.’ he thought.

But he knew better than to act stupid in front of a god tier monster who was on the same level as angels and demons.

"I... see." Adrian said hesitantly. "So, did I change everyone’s fate?"

"You sort of did, yes." the Dragon nodded.

She took another step closer.

"As the Dragon of Prosperity," she explained. "I oversee the threads of prosperity, which are a direct branch of the greater threads of fate. I can tell that things are drastically different here now. But there is nothing I can do about it."

She took a step closer and stopped right in front of him.

"Because it goes against the fundamental laws of this world for me to interfere directly. I just wanted to meet you." the Dragon said.

And then she slowly reached her hand out.

"And since you run around claiming to be my blessed..."

She placed her hand right on top of Adrian’s silver hair.

"I guess I will get myself one since it has been a long time."

Adrian’s vision went black.

The grassy hill and the bright blue sky completely vanished.

He gasped loudly and jerked forward. His hands slapped the floor of his basement. He was sitting exactly in the middle of the chalk circle while panting like crazy.

His brain felt totally fried. He tried to process what just happened but it just felt like a crazy fever dream.

’She actually made me her blessed.’ Adrian thought wildly. ’But I don’t even know what that means! I have no clue what kind of powers or buffs I get... or if I just caught some stupid curse.’

He shook his head hard and then he looked up. Serena was standing right outside the circle and she was watching him with anxious eyes.

"Did the Dragon give you anything?" Adrian asked quickly.

"No." Serena shook her head. "Not really. All I did was hear her voice in my head and she just told me to get you to talk to her."

"Okay, fine." Adrian muttered. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

He started analyzing the situation. ’Well, since Serena is basically my ally now, maybe the Dragon can still help her out. The chances of a Dragon responding again are pretty higher than the Angels or Demons right now.’

"Try it again." Adrian told her, standing up and stepping out of the circle lines. "Do the exact same prayer."

Serena nodded. She stepped back into the circle, closed her eyes, and pushed her mana out again.

The magic circle immediately glowed with that same blinding blue light.

Adrian crossed his arms and watched.

The light did not fade after a few seconds this time. It continued glowing steadily.

It glowed for one hour and continued on for two hours.

Adrian just leaned against the weapon rack as he waited and finally, after three whole hours, the bright blue runes began to dim and completely faded.

Serena opened her eyes.

She was practically glowing. She had this massive grin on her face and she looked happier than Adrian had ever seen her.

But that did not last.

Because the exact second she looked up and caught Adrian staring at her, that huge smile melted away. She went right back to her usual nervous self.

"So?" Adrian asked. "Did the Dragon help you?"

Serena stammered and her cheeks turned a bit red.

"The... the Dragon..."

She took a deep breath. She let it out slowly and looked down at the floor.

"No." Serena said, her voice sounding super sad and defeated. "The Dragon did not really give me a blessing."

Adrian just sighed.

’I guess the dragon forbid her to tell me anything. There’s no way this girl talked for hours and then got nothing... so annoying...’

"Well, do not worry about it." Adrian comforted her, acting like he couldn’t guess what had happened. "We still have two other options, remember? You know we can still use my methods."

Serena nodded slowly. "Yeah... we can do it."

She looked at him with determined eyes. "I am ready for whatever pain you are willing to give me as long as it helps me rank up my mana veins."