The tendrils of miasma crept up behind the two dragons like they were alive, but when they reached a certain range, they flinched back, as if they had been burned.

Hearing urgent footsteps behind him, Ciel quickly threw the obsidian he had picked up back on the ground and slowed down his pace, letting the two dragons catch up. Next to him, Erin did the same thing.

"Benefactors! Be careful, we're surrounded by–eh?"

Quetzal looked around, although the miasma was still there, the area around the four was clean, as if there was a barrier around them.

Aspen spoke understandingly.

"So the benefactors had already put up a barrier."

Ciel had just noticed the miasma tendrils. But he was confused. Ciel himself knew that he hadn't put up any barrier at all. Erin was a mage, but Ciel could tell that he only cultivated magic in his body because he had been copying Ciel. He couldn't even properly manipulate his mana to conduct his attributes even if he did have a vast amount of mana. He was going to cultivate properly when he got back.

Neither of them had any idea what Aspen was talking about, but the barred miasma wasn't an illusion.

'In the novel, only those possessing naturally pure mana could repel miasma brought by the demons. Pure and natural…'

Ciel suddenly remembered who his mother in this life was.

"Ah."

He had forgotten that half his bloodline was of fairies, who were said to be the epitome of natural mana.

'But in the novel, Theodore Acyuta wasn't a mage, nor did he have the ability to repel miasma? Was he a bastard child?'

But his mother had clearly indicated that Theodore was her blood-related son?

Oh well, that guy was irrelevant to him now, so Ciel didn't bother pondering it any further. Taking steady steps forward, Ciel observed how the miasma in front of him recoiled in disgust, as if it had a mind of its own, before he turned around to face the two dragons.

"Call him Erin, and call me Ciel, saying benefactor this and benefactor that, are you two dragons or monks?"

"What?"

Erin tapped his brother's shoulders.

"Monks don't exist here."

"They exist in my memory." Ciel shrugged, before pushing the two children in front of them.

"Lead the way, after all, this is technically your territory."

Both Quetzal and Aspen looked confused, one second before, Ciel was speaking nonsense, and in the next, Ciel's words would be logical.

Ciel didn't give a damn about their feelings and followed them in the back. Confirming that they weren't going to bother continuing the conversation, he picked up another piece of leftover obsidian, motioning Erin to do the same.

Floating around the doll Ciel was carrying, Theresa anxiously instructed them here and there.

\No, not that piece! Pick the one on the left! No, a bit forward left! Get one more different then the one Erin is holding! I want a variety of samples when I revive!\

Ciel took the piece from Erin and stuffed it in his space ring.

Watching his careless behavior, Theresa's fur puffed up even though she couldn't affect the rabbit doll in any way.

\Treat my samples with more care!\

To avoid acting crazy by talking to nothing, both her brothers ignored her. Erin at the very least rubbed the top of the rabbit doll comfortingly as he wrapped up another piece with a broken piece of cloth, but Ciel pretended that he couldn't hear her.

\Don't think I don't know you're laughing on the inside right now!\

Theresa hated that Delmira couldn't speed up the reconstruction of her body. Ciel had completely recovered from learning that she was back from the dead, and had gone back to his old ways. He was abusing the fact that she couldn't physically do anything right now to provoke her however he wanted.

Damn it, if she was in her old body, he wouldn't have dared to do this.

Quetzal moved forward, with Aspen closely beside him. Their footsteps echoed throughout the empty tunnel.

Soon, he couldn't stand it anymore.

"You two, can both of you walk before us?"

Ciel tilted his head, tossing another sample into his space ring.

"Eh? As natives of this area, you're asking us, the outsiders, to lead the way?" His sister wasn't done picking out rocks yet.

Quetzal huffed irritatedly.

"When the two of you walk, neither of you make any sounds! When I'm walking, I feel like there's only Aspen and I in the tunnels. I won't notice even if you guys disappeared suddenly! For your safety, go lead the way."

He would never admit that the feeling was like having two ghosts behind. He would also never admit that he was afraid of ghosts.

No sounds? Ciel looked at Erin, who looked back at him innocently before nudging a rock with his foot.

Ciel understood his brother's meaning.

Taking minerals, especially rare ones such as obsidian right behind the rightful owners, was naturally not morally right. Of course they would try to minimize any sounds they were making.

And Ciel had thought his conscience was long dead.

…

Standing at the entrance of a large cavern dotted with bright red lava pits, Ciel felt his eyes sting. But he made no move to cover his eyes. No way was he going to block out colors from such a rare sight.

The walls of the cavern were dotted with tunnel entrances, like a beehive, and the ground was decorated with the magma pits that bubbles like large pits of jewels. In the center was the largest pit resembling a lake, with three white figures standing next to it.

One of them was pouring a black liquid into the lake. The black color lingered around for a bit, before dissipating in the bright red bubbles. But after it disappeared, the pool of magma darkened noticeably.

Behind him, the two dragons were dumbfounded, Erin was looking around curiously with the lava's light reflecting off his ruby red eyes, and Ciel could hear Theresa screaming with excitement.

One of the few common points between the three were that they all loved exotic scenes, though sadly, they weren't able to travel much in their past life.

Unaffected by the noise she couldn't hear, Aspen broke the excited atmosphere(only among the three siblings). "Weren't we following the airflow to go out? Why are we here?"

At the same time, Quetzal leaped forward.

"Look! There are people there! They must be the culprits of this!"

"Ah young lord, wait a moment!"

Ciel looked at the backs of the two children weaving through the pits nimbly, straight towards the faint white figures at the center of the cavern. He rubbed the doll's fur before shoving it into his space ring. He didn't want it to be burned.

"They're more idiotic than you back then."

Theresa snorted.

\What do you mean? That's a given. I was never dumb enough to throw away our advantages before a fight.\

Feeling her energy draining from lingering outside the doll, she drifted slowly towards the ring.

\I'm going to rest in the doll. Don't die.\

Ciel smirked.

"Don't worry. We'll tell you what happens later."

.

Behind a boulder near the center of the cave, Ciel wasn't surprised to see the reckless boy who had charged forward already tied up to the side along with his helpless but also brainless aide who had followed him. Beside him, Erin couldn't help but compare this dragon heir with the crown prince.

"Is this the skill difference between an heir raised without love and an heir raised with love?"

Ciel was even more ruthless with his evaluation.

"Isn't it because he's a natural musclehead?"

"Are you two trying to get caught?"

A third voice interjected into the conversation.

Raising his head up, Ciel gave a sweet smile at the masked white robe squatting on top of the boulder they were hidden behind.

"Ah…Maybe?"

Erin followed up.

"Are we going with the usual plan?"

Ciel merely laughed, reopening his wounds. Mana-imbued blood naturally flowed out in the form of thin strands, like blood red spiderwebs. Those thin strands shot like bullets at the masked man, who hastily blocked them.

Even if Erin hadn't regained his memories, he would've still been able to read the words 'of course', on Ciel's face.

Sighing again, his figure flickered and reappeared behind the two dragon eves. His current body's base, although untrained, was still pretty capable. Bending down, he easily picked the two smaller eves up like two bags of rice.

Just as he was about to head back into the tunnels, the two other white robed men flashed in front of him.

Underneath the mask, copper gold eyes flashed with malice.

"I haven't seen such good puppet material for a long time. Why don't you stay for a bit longer?"