Chapter 83: The Thief Never Leaves Empty-Handed

Taking advantage of the night’s cover, Leon led Noia into the imperial city through a secret passage in the outer wall.
This place wouldn’t trigger the sensing barrier’s alarm and was far from the main roads inside the imperial city, patrol teams generally wouldn’t come here.
According to Nacho’s information, this secret passage was built five years ago, and only those of his position or above knew about it.
It had to be said that the former minor official had made something of himself, struggling to climb to such heights today – it seems working for the imperial royal family was quite a good job after all.
But Leon didn’t have much time to reflect on his “old colleague,” they needed to hurry and find the Heart Dragon Scale quickly.
Based on the information provided by Nacho and Scott, Leon and Noia crept along the imperial city’s outer perimeter, making their way inside.
Just as Nacho had said, there weren’t many patrol teams near the secret passage, and Leon and Noia easily found where the Heart Dragon Scale was kept.
It was an underground facility, with only one entrance exposed above ground, guarded by four fully armed guards.
Besides this, there was also a sensing barrier as secure as the outer wall.
If they forced their way in, they would inevitably trigger the barrier’s countermeasures, and if they took too long, it would attract more enemies.
Only those four guards could disable the barrier to let visitors enter safely.
Leon and Noia pressed against a wall, observing the four guards.
“Nacho’s information mentioned something about passwords and signals.”
Leon said, “To enter that underground facility, we need to exchange signals with those guards.”
“So, we’re going to walk right up to them and give the password?”
“That’s our only option, because the guards here don’t change shifts, these four stay here all night, we don’t have any time gap to slip in.”
Noia blinked and asked, “What if they recognize you?”
Although twenty years had passed and there had been many personnel changes in the Empire, Leon had been a well-known figure twenty years ago, and moreover, his appearance hadn’t changed at all, so there was still a risk of being recognized.
“Hmm… that is a problem, after all, your dad’s handsome face is quite recognizable.” Leon couldn’t help but seriously consider this issue.
Three black lines slid down Noia’s temple.
Mom loved his sense of responsibility, loved his fearless courage, loved his selflessness and strength, but did she also love this narcissism?
Mom, I think you were really hungry.
“Fortunately, I made some preparations before coming here,” said Leon, while taking out a pair of sunglasses and a silver coin he had found on Nacho from his pocket.
The disguise was secondary – what really mattered was this silver coin that represented royal status and position.
During his previous service in the Dragon Slayer Army, the Imperial royal family had given Leon something similar.
While it looked nice, he had never been particularly interested in such things.
When he got home, he had casually modified it into a bell for livestock and hung it around his donkey’s neck.
Now when the donkey pulled the millstone, the pleasant bell sound rang continuously, adding some entertainment to the donkey’s monotonous “996” working life.
Leon put on the sunglasses and played with the silver coin in his hand. Then, nodding at the four guards, he deliberately affected an official tone:
“Shall we go, Lady Noia?”
Hiss—
What was this contradictory feeling of both disdain and wanting to play along with him?
Was this how mom felt when she first started dating him?
He’s already twenty-three years old, you old fool – can’t you be more mature?
Though she was internally complaining, Noia still played along perfectly.
“Yes, Lord Leon.”
The father-daughter pair walked calmly toward the entrance of the underground facility.
The four guards heard their footsteps and immediately became alert.
“Who goes there? Coming to the royal Western Region tribute storage during the third watch of the night?” the lead guard demanded sternly.
Leon didn’t answer, continuing to play with the coin in his hand.
The silver coin flowed smoothly back and forth between his fingers.
Noia stepped forward and replied softly,
“The Western Region’s culture is unmatched under heaven. There are too many people during the day, so we chose to come appreciate it at night.”
The guards lowered their guard and, after glancing at the silver coin in Leon’s hand, realized he must be an important official. They quickly changed their attitude: “Please forgive us, my lord. The password was arranged by the royal family – everyone must verify it, no matter who they are.”
Cleverly integrating the password into the question-and-answer dialogue, using ‘Western Region tributes’ as cover for what was actually storage for heart-protecting dragon scales – anyone who didn’t know the password would definitely have been caught out.
Leon secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but still had no intention of speaking.
He continued letting ‘Lady Noia’ handle the communication.
“It’s fine, we understand – it’s all part of the job. We need to go in and inspect things now, so please temporarily disable the barrier.”
“Yes.”
The guard respectfully bowed his head and then disabled the underground facility’s barrier.
Noia half-turned back, “My lord, we can enter now.”
“Ladies first.”
Ladiesfirst~
Ugh!
The old man was quite the drama queen.
Oh, mom could be quite dramatic too sometimes.
Well, that explained it.
Two peas in a pod.
The father-daughter pair entered the underground facility one after another, heading down the stairs.
Torches lit up one by one as they descended through multiple flights of stairs until they finally reached the underground chamber storing the heart-protecting dragon scales.
The underground chamber was very large and spacious, with dozens of stone platforms arranged neatly inside. Different colored dragon scales floated above each platform.
The moment she entered the chamber, Noia felt a heavy pressure.
She frowned slightly as she looked around at all the heart-protecting dragon scales.
She knew this pressure came from these dragon scales – though the Dragon Kings’ bodies may have perished, the power residing in their scales still remained.
However, Noia wasn’t very familiar with these things, since heart-protecting dragon scales only gradually formed after a dragon reached 100 years of age.
And she was only twenty-two years old.
“There aren’t that many dragon scales…” Leon mused. “Many platforms are empty.”
“Mm, maybe they’ve been used up, or maybe they’re being saved for newly collected scales,”
Noia said. “But the small number also suggests the empire isn’t interested in just any dragon scales, right?”
Leon nodded. “Yes, hundred-year-old dragons are quite common. If the empire was simply collecting scales, there couldn’t be so few. Unless their target is some special heart-protecting dragon scales, like…”
“Dragon King heart-protecting scales,” Noia finished.
“And Little Light’s reversal magic happens to require Dragon King level heart-protecting scales to activate,” Leon said.
Noia clicked her tongue lightly. “But how do we determine which scale matches Ravi’s magic properties?”
If they took the wrong one and the reversal magic couldn’t be activated, this risky trip to the empire would be a huge waste.
However, General Leon calmly replied,
“That’s simple.”
Noia glanced at him.
She watched as the old man took out a black pouch from his pocket. “We’ll just take them all.”
Oh no.
It had a certain Sun Wukong-getting-hired-at-the-Peach-Garden vibe to it.