"What good is being older?" Zhongyue clicked her tongue. "I'm the one who can actually survive in the human world, got it? Old dragon."
Apep: "..."
Seeing the tension between the two dragons, Lora was just about to settle in and enjoy the show when Sophia grabbed both of her arms, called for Nahida to follow, and dragged them away.
Lora looked at her in confusion. "What are you doing?"
"Oh, you'll see in a moment." Sophia smiled. Once they had put enough distance between themselves and the two dragons, she shouted, "Apep, teach her a lesson!"
Apep: "?"
Zhongyue: "?"
Lora: "?"
Had she given Sophia the wrong energy when she revived her?
"At a time like this, of course we have to side with Sumeru's own dragon." Seeing the way everyone was looking at her, Sophia said it with a smile.
Was this really about taking sides?
Looking at that smile, Lora felt like she understood something.
After dying once and coming back to life, everything felt fleeting. The past was already the past, and there was no need to carry so much pressure anymore. Once that weight was gone, life became much lighter, whether for Sophia or Makoto.
Oh, Lora counted now too.
Without the pressure of Fontaine's crisis, she had also started drifting more and more toward chasing fun.
Though to be fair, she had always been like that.
At first, sparks had been flying between Apep and Zhongyue, but after Sophia stirred things up, the feeling that they might actually fight disappeared.
Got it.
This was just breaking up a fight in a roundabout way.
"Forget those two. Let's go to Liyue." Seeing that they were not really going to fight, Lora said this to Sophia.
The two close friends linked arms and left with Nahida.
Lumine and Paimon said nothing, but quietly followed after them.
Soon, only Apep and Zhongyue were left at the Akademiya entrance, staring at each other.
Zhongyue took a tanghulu out of her bag, bit into it, and said, "What are you looking at? Come on, follow them. Are you planning to stay here as an exhibit? You may be the Dendro Dragon, but that doesn't mean you need moss for brains."
"You want a beating, don't you?" Apep clenched her fist and walked toward her.
Zhongyue reacted fast and immediately ran.
"Stop right there!" Apep roared.
"You think I'm stupid?" Zhongyue shot back, then kept running.
The two dragons, one big and one small, began chasing each other through the streets of Sumeru City. The people passing by were all startled, but both of them had good control and did not bump into anyone.
Before long, their chase carried them past Lora, Sophia, and the others.
Watching the two of them run ahead, Lora sighed helplessly.
"How embarrassing for dragons."
Sophia nodded in agreement. "It really is."
"Will they be all right?" Nahida asked worriedly, looking in the direction where they had already vanished.
Lora shook her head. "Don't worry. Two dragons aren't going to fall into a ditch and drown."
"Uh... why is that the kind of death you thought of, Lora?" Paimon scratched her head, looking at her in complete confusion.
No matter what happened, they were still two Dragon Sovereigns. However they died, drowning in a ditch should have nothing to do with it.
"Because I'm very smart," Lora answered with an extremely serious expression.
"Speaking of being smart, I do have some authority on that."
Sophia, standing nearby, suddenly seemed to remember something. She smiled at Lumine and Paimon. "Back then, Lora was very confident in her own intelligence. About two thousand years ago, she came to Sumeru and said she wanted to compete with me to see who was smarter."
Lora's expression instantly fell.
Why did that sound so much like Sophia was about to start with, "When Lora was little..." ?
"So what happened? Who won?" Paimon asked curiously.
Sophia looked proud. "Do you even need to ask? Of course I did. I'm the Goddess of Wisdom."
After hearing this, Paimon looked at Lora and commented, "Competing with the Goddess of Wisdom in wisdom goes way beyond just not being smart, doesn't it?"
"And back then..."
Sophia was getting excited and looked ready to spill every stupid thing Egeria had ever done in the past, but before she could succeed, Lora immediately stopped her.
"Stop! Not another word!"
Paimon said, "But Paimon wants to hear it!"
Sophia smiled. "Then we'll talk about it later, just the two of us. We won't let Lora know."
"Is it really okay to say that right in front of me, Sophia?" Lora looked at her smiling face with deep helplessness.
Had she really given the wrong energy?
The group made their way outside Sumeru City, where Apep and Zhongyue had already started fighting.
However, both were mindful of the ordinary people inside the city, so they only fought in their human forms and did not reveal their true bodies. Even so, their battle still tore through the sky and earth, splitting mountains and severing rivers.
It was basically no different from a fight between Super Saiyans.
"All right! Stop fighting! Keep this up and you'll have to pay Sumeru's land repair fees!" Lora quickly ran over and called out to them.
Paimon and Nahida also ran over together.
Lumine slowed her steps and fell behind. She looked at Sophia and asked, "Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, may I ask you something?"
"Go ahead." Sophia nodded.
After a moment of silence, Lumine asked, "I want to know where my brother is right now."
Hearing this, Sophia said softly, "You asked Nahida the same question before, didn't you?"
Lumine nodded.
Sophia smiled. After thinking for a moment, she still answered, "Your brother is in Sumeru right now. Or, to be more precise, beneath Sumeru, in Khaenri'ah."
"That's..." Lumine's pupils shrank.
"Yes. That is the Abyss Order's stronghold." Sophia nodded, then continued, "You should already know that your brother is His Highness, the Prince of the Abyss Order, right?"
"Yes, I know."
"Don't worry too much about him. Nothing will happen to him for the time being." Sophia comforted her. "When your journey ends, the two of you will meet again. Lora is here for this world's future, so he will be fine."
Hearing this, Lumine followed her gaze and looked toward Lora up ahead.
Lora had her hands on her hips and was scolding Zhongyue.
The smaller dragon waved her little hands in protest, pointing at Apep while complaining about something.
Lumine sighed. "Yeap, I trust Lora."
When it came to major matters of right and wrong, Lora was still very reliable.
As for everything else...
Lora knocked Zhongyue on the head and shouted, "Who told you to provoke her? You can't beat her, but you still picked a fight. Are you stupid?"