“What condition?”
Felix Ravenholt asked almost without hesitation, immediately lowering his gaze to the silver dragon curled around his arm.
There was far more curiosity than caution in his eyes, and it was obvious that he had no idea what the dragon’s next words would actually mean.
The silver dragon slowly wound its way around his arm, its silver-white scales gleaming softly beneath the light.
The amusement in its eyes gradually faded, replaced by a rare seriousness.
After a moment, it finally spoke.
“The condition is simple. From now on, I want you to protect Evelyn.”
Felix paused, and even Evelyn Sterling, who was standing nearby, looked up in surprise.
She had assumed the silver dragon would ask Felix to do something for it, but she had not expected the condition to involve her again.
Ignoring Evelyn’s puzzled look, the silver dragon continued, “She isn’t an ordinary person, and the path ahead of her will never be a peaceful one. Once her true power begins to awaken, more and more people will notice her. Some will try to approach her, some will try to use her, and naturally, there will also be those who want her dead.”
Evelyn’s brows slowly drew together as she listened.
This again.
White had already told her that her power had not fully awakened, and now the silver dragon was saying almost the same thing.
Yet no matter how many times she asked, neither of them was willing to explain what they actually meant.
The silver dragon clearly had no intention of answering her now either.
Keeping its attention on Felix, it continued, “If you agree, I can form a contract with you and give you a portion of my power. In exchange, you must do everything you can to protect her. This is part of a promise I made to someone a very long time ago. Now I’m simply passing part of that responsibility on to you.”
It raised its head slightly and looked directly into Felix’s eyes.
“Can you do that?”
“Sure!”
Felix agreed without even thinking about it.
His answer came so quickly that Evelyn could not help giving him another look.
Lucian Ravenholt also raised an eyebrow, clearly wondering whether his younger brother had actually understood what the silver dragon had just said.
This was not some casual promise he could make and forget about later.
It was a real ancient contract.
Yet Felix had agreed as easily as though someone had simply asked if he wanted an extra dessert with dinner.
The silver dragon, however, seemed very pleased with his answer.
“Good. Since you’ve agreed, the contract can be formed. But I should warn you first. Once the contract is established, you cannot break your promise whenever you please. If one day you betray what you’ve promised today, deliberately harm Evelyn, or turn against her when you clearly have the ability to protect her, I will personally make you pay the price.”
The smile on Felix’s face stiffened slightly.
“What price?”
He had barely finished asking when the silver dragon lowered its head and bit him on the arm.
“Ow!”
The sudden pain made Felix jerk his arm back, and his first instinct was to pull the silver dragon away.
“Why did you bite me?”
The silver dragon gave him no chance to react.
The moment blood appeared at the wound, a brilliant silver light burst from its body.
The dragon curled around Felix’s arm, immediately turned into a streak of silver light, and entered his body through the wound.
Felix froze.
Within moments, the bite on his arm began healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
At the same time, a silver-white dragon mark gradually appeared where the silver dragon had disappeared.
The dragon coiled from his wrist to his forearm, with every scale, horn, and even the pattern along its tail clearly visible.
At first glance, it looked as though someone had carefully painted an entire silver dragon onto his skin.
Felix stared at his arm for a long moment before looking at the white dragon bracelet around Evelyn’s wrist.
The shock on his face gradually turned into disappointment.
“Wait. This isn’t what I thought would happen.”
Evelyn gave him a puzzled look.
“What’s different?”
“I thought I’d get a dragon I could wear on my wrist like you do.”
Felix pointed at White, then looked down at the contract mark on his own arm.
“Why did it go straight into my body? Is it just going to stay in there from now on?”
As he spoke, he even poked the silver dragon mark with one finger.
Evelyn had no idea what to say.
This parrot always seemed to care about things no normal person would think of first.
White clearly could not stand him either.
It transformed back into a white dragon bracelet and curled around Evelyn’s wrist before saying irritably, “Idiot. Since you’ve formed a contract with it, of course it has to connect itself to your power. You should be grateful. It gave you part of its strength, and as your contract deepens, you’ll naturally gain more from it.”
“Oh…”
Only then did Felix let his shoulders drop, though he still looked rather disappointed.
So he could not wear a dragon on his wrist like Evelyn.
Somehow, that made the whole thing a lot less fun.
Lucian, who had remained silent until now, finally stepped forward and placed a hand on his younger brother’s shoulder.
“Instead of worrying about why it entered your body, you should remember what you just promised. Now that you’ve formed a contract with it, you need to protect Lady Evelyn properly. Don’t bully her for no reason, and more importantly, don’t abandon her when she’s in danger.”
As he spoke, Lucian deliberately glanced at the silver dragon mark on Felix’s arm, a faint smile appearing on his lips.
“Unless you really want to find out for yourself what happens when someone breaks an ancient contract like this.”
Felix stiffened immediately.
He looked down at his arm before turning toward Evelyn.
She was standing nearby with her arms folded, looking at him with a completely innocent expression.
After a moment of silence, Felix could only sigh in resignation.
“Fine. I already agreed, so there’s nothing I can do about it now.”
He straightened and deliberately put on a solemn expression before looking at Evelyn.
“In that case, I suppose I’ll reluctantly be your knight for the rest of my life.”
Evelyn raised an eyebrow.
“Reluctantly?”
“The important part is ‘knight,’ not ‘reluctantly.'”
Felix hurried to correct himself.
It suddenly shifted slightly across his skin.
Felix immediately looked down.
“All right, all right. I never said I was going back on my word.”
He rubbed the dragon mark and promised helplessly, “I, Felix Ravenholt, always keep my word. Since I promised to protect her, I’ll do it. You can stop worrying.”
Only then did the silver dragon mark become still again.
Watching from the side, Evelyn found the corner of her mouth lifting before she even realized it.
Felix really was as noisy as a parrot, and sometimes the things going through his head made absolutely no sense to her.
But when the silver dragon had asked him to protect her, he had agreed without the slightest hesitation.
Being chosen so readily by someone was still unfamiliar to Evelyn, but surprisingly, she did not dislike the feeling.
Lucian noticed the subtle change in her expression, and the curiosity in his eyes deepened.
“Lady Evelyn, I have to admit I’m becoming more and more curious.”
Evelyn turned toward him.
“About what?”
“Who exactly are you?”
Lucian’s gaze moved from White around her wrist to the silver dragon mark on Felix’s arm.
“Why are ancient dragons that have lived for more than five thousand years appearing around you? And when you first met them, weren’t you afraid at all?”
“No.”
Evelyn answered without hesitation.
She lowered her gaze and gently touched White around her wrist, her expression softening slightly.
“Didn’t I already tell you? Sometimes people are far scarier than they are.”
Compared with people who spoke kindly to her face while hiding all kinds of intentions behind their smiles, Evelyn would much rather trust the ancient beings that had stayed beside her for eight years.
Besides, it seemed that she had now met two more people who were not afraid of her simply because White and the silver dragon existed.
Lucian had been shocked, but he had not rejected her.
As for Felix, that parrot had not only been completely unafraid—he had actually wanted a dragon of his own.
The thought brought a faint smile to Evelyn’s eyes.
Just then, White lifted its small head from her wrist and looked at Lucian.
“Since he’s already agreed to protect Evelyn, would you like to join him?”
Lucian raised an eyebrow.
White continued, “If you’re willing, I can consider forming a contract with you.”
Felix immediately became interested.
“Big Brother, say yes.”
Lucian glanced at him before turning back to White.
Instead of answering immediately, he gave a small smile.
“There’s no rush. Something like this deserves some thought.”
White narrowed its eyes but did not press him.
After a brief pause, Lucian looked back at Evelyn and said in the same gentle tone, “Besides, even without a contract with you, if Lady Evelyn were truly in danger, I wouldn’t simply stand by and do nothing.”
Evelyn paused, slightly caught off guard by his words.
Before she could respond, however, another thought suddenly occurred to her—one that immediately made the entire situation feel terribly unfair.
She looked down at White around her wrist, then at the silver dragon mark on Felix’s arm.
The more she thought about it, the more something seemed wrong.
“Wait.”
Evelyn reached down and pinched White’s body between her fingers.
“Why can the silver dragon form a contract with Felix, and you just offered to form one with Lucian, but neither of you has ever asked me if I wanted one?”
White’s body stiffened slightly under her fingers, clearly displeased at being squeezed.
Evelyn did not let go.
“I’ve known both of you the longest. Why can they have contracts, but I can’t?”
“Because you can’t.”
White answered without hesitation.
“Why not?”
“You just can’t.”
Evelyn’s cheeks puffed out in irritation.
“What kind of answer is that? If you’re always talking about protecting me, wouldn’t it be easier to just give me the power and let me protect myself?”
White was silent for a moment before finally replying, “Because your power hasn’t fully awakened yet. Even if I told you now, there’s nothing you could do.”
Evelyn immediately caught the important part.
“So what kind of power do I have?”
White went silent.
Evelyn narrowed her eyes.
“You know.”
“I don’t.”
“You literally just said my power hasn’t awakened yet!”
“So?”
“White!”
Evelyn was so annoyed that she nearly pulled the dragon straight off her wrist.
White, however, had clearly decided that the conversation was over.
It simply tucked its little head into her sleeve, leaving only half of its white body visible outside.
“Stop bothering me. You’ll know when the time comes.”
Its muffled voice came from inside her sleeve.
“I’m going to sleep. You should be heading to the banquet anyway.”
Evelyn glared down at her sleeve, completely helpless against a dragon that had decided to pretend it was asleep.
She was just about to reach in and drag White back out when hurried footsteps sounded outside the room.
“Oh, Lady Evelyn! Why are all of you still here?”
The moment he entered, he began urging them to hurry.
“The banquet is about to begin. If you don’t leave now, you’re really going to be late.”
Evelyn had no choice but to let White off for the moment.
She straightened her sleeve with an irritated tug.
“All right, all right. We’re going.”
The old butler finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that she was willing to move.
He quickly stepped aside and gestured respectfully toward the doorway.
“Please, everyone.”
Evelyn and Felix stepped forward at almost exactly the same time.
They had barely taken one step before both stopped.
Evelyn moved to the left just as Felix moved to the right, putting them directly in each other’s way.
Evelyn frowned and immediately moved to the right.
Felix moved to the left at the exact same moment.
They blocked each other again.
Both looked up.
Neither seemed willing to believe it, so they changed direction once more.
The result was exactly the same.
Lucian and the old butler stood nearby watching them move back and forth several times, neither quite knowing what to say.
Evelyn was the first to lose patience.
“Parrot, are you done?”
Felix immediately became annoyed too.
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that? Can’t you just let me go first?”
“Why should I let you go first?”
Evelyn pointed at herself as though the answer were obvious.
“I’m a lady. You’re a gentleman. Shouldn’t you let me go ahead?”
Felix immediately shot back, “But I’m the guest and you’re the host. Shouldn’t the host let the guest go first?”
“You move.”
“You move.”
“Felix!”
“Evelyn!”
The two stood in the doorway, neither willing to give way, arguing endlessly over who should walk out first.
Lucian finally could not watch any longer.
With a helpless sigh, he stepped forward, caught Evelyn by the wrist with one hand, and grabbed Felix by the ear with the other, pulling the two of them apart.
“Hey! Big Brother!”
Felix immediately grabbed his ear.
“Easy! You’re going to pull it off!”
Lucian gave him an exasperated look.
“The doorway is wide enough. Why does either of you have to give way? Can’t you just walk out side by side?”
Then he looked at Evelyn.
“The banquet is about to start. If you’re late because of something like this, the two of you can explain it to Lord Sterling yourselves.”
Felix quickly rescued his ear from his brother’s hand and rubbed it with an aggrieved expression.
Evelyn shot him another glare.
Seeing that the two of them looked ready to start arguing again, Lucian could only remind her, “Lady Evelyn, we should get going. If we waste any more time, someone else will probably come looking for us.”
“You think I don’t want to go?”
Evelyn immediately pushed the blame onto Felix.
“It’s a certain parrot who keeps getting in my way.”
“I’m getting in your way?”
Felix nearly lost his temper again, but before he could finish, he felt Lucian’s calm gaze settle on him.
He swallowed the rest of his words.
“Fine. I’m not arguing with you.”
Felix turned around in a huff and strode out of the room.
Evelyn watched him leave, her eyes shifting slightly before she suddenly followed and deliberately walked beside him.
The moment Felix noticed, he quickened his pace.
Evelyn immediately matched him.
Felix walked faster, and Evelyn kept up, neither willing to fall behind as the two silently began competing with each other down the corridor.
Eventually, Felix realized that Evelyn was deliberately teasing him.
He stopped abruptly, turned around, and glared at her.
Evelyn stopped as well and looked at him innocently.
“Why did you stop?”
Felix was so irritated that he did not even want to answer.
The next second, he pushed off the ground and shot down the corridor, leaving Evelyn far behind.
“You can take your time!”
His voice came drifting back from the distance.
Evelyn froze for a moment before bursting into laughter.
“He’s pretty fast.”
Walking behind them, Lucian could only shake his head helplessly as he watched the two.
Felix had always been talkative and restless, but very few people could make him lose his temper with only a few words the way Evelyn did.
Yet no matter how annoyed she made him, he never seemed able to stay away for long.
Before much time passed, he would always wander back over and start talking to her again.
The thought made the amusement in Lucian’s eyes deepen.
It seemed Felix had finally met his match.