The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 508: Uncanny

Dominic froze in shock. "Wait, what?"

"Oh, that’s well before your time. I was here for a Merchant Guild negotiation about border tariffs, as I recall. The young King and his newlywed Queen were quite the randy pair, you see.

Did you know that she was part Elf?

The previous Queen, that is. The current King’s mother. Such a sweet girl. But that’s not the point. When they were still young, it was a well-known fact that they couldn’t have found a better match for the Crown Prince, and he ascended the throne the day of his wedding, as his father stepped down.

Now, none of us caught them at it, but that was because we were giving them as much privacy as we could when they were all over each other every waking moment of the day.

How he managed to govern is a mystery. I suspect that the retired King did most of the actual work that first year.

But when the Crown Prince was born, the one who is now King, the timeline added up to the week that we were all here for meetings. And you know how Royal rumours are. Everyone loves to speculate, even those of use who hold less public positions." Trionne explained.

"Well, that certainly is a revelation."

Her face seemed to transform with joy as the old Techno Witch remembered many previous visits to this location, then she stared at Dominic with a look of revelation on her face.

"You know, you look a lot like the Earl. But then, he looked a lot like the King as well, so perhaps it ran in the family? It’s uncanny.

I wonder if that was why the fool from Dagos was so determined that you should die?

He spent the rest of his life hunting down the last known survivor of the Dragon King’s direct lineage, squandered half his treasury on it while his lands dried up and his people fled."

Dominic shrugged. "I don’t know why he was so obsessed with hunting me down. But I had regular run-ins with people who still got fresh bounty posters with my likeness on them, even up to the last few years before I came to Cygnia.

I wonder if he thought that the curse on his land would break of the lineage of the Dragon King was completely extinguished? As far as I know, there are no descendants of the Wavemates Royal Lineage left."

The old woman laughed. "No descendants? If you go back even two generations, there are plenty. The entire second branch of the Mitfield Royal Family descended from a single marriage to a Wavemates Princess. She married the King’s brother, and they had children like they were trying to repopulate humanity.

The man never even took a concubine, but he ended up with nearly two dozen children.

Sure, they don’t bear the Wavemates name, but they still carry the blood.

And why do you think that the Cygnia Royal Family is blonde, when most of the country has black hair?"

Dominic frowned, and Trionne laughed. "If you’re worried about it, the last match was four generations back. You didn’t marry your own cousin."

"Well, that is a relief. I know that the Royal Families like to keep things fairly close, but there are limits."

"As the King of The Baman Empire once said, ’if she’s not good enough for her own family, she’s not good enough for ours.’ Or something like that. But you should come check out this fresco. If I recall right, it should have a painting of the past few Dragon Kings and their advisors."

Dominic followed her into a side room where the ceiling was entirely covered in paintings, and froze in shock as he saw a newer painting near the back wall.

It was him. No doubt about it, they had even captured the odd golden glow of his eyes when he got excited. Only, this man was at least a decade older, and he was standing beside a woman with short pointy horns and holding a small blonde child.

"Okay, that’s almost creepy."

"You’re not wrong. I hadn’t realized how uncanny it was until I saw you standing next to the portrait. That’s a long time ago, I suppose. Still within my lifetime, but at least a few decades ago.

The woman beside him is the Grand Concubine, so that must be her child.

He didn’t have any young children when he was that age. Though, I don’t recall that she did either. But she lived here, so it makes sense that the painting would be of her and him together to represent that generation.

If you look lower, you will see the paintings of each of the Earls that governed this territory.

That one there, you should know him."

Dominic smiled. "Of course, I recognize my Uncle, the Earl. There are many other photos of him in the Manor as well. We preserved them and left them up. It seemed only right, given the circumstances."

His eyes returned to the image of the Dragon King and the Concubine. Staring at it too long was going to be bad for his mental health, as it raised many uncomfortable questions. But he couldn’t look away.

How could he look so much like someone else when they were at best distantly related?

Even a father and son would rarely look so much alike.

The odds of someone else looking that similar should be nearly zero, but it didn’t match anything that Dominic knew about his own family. His memory was better than most as a young child, and he certainly hadn’t seen anyone who looked like himself before.

But the resemblance between himself and the King only highlighted how little he looked like his own parents.

They were dragonkin, and they did have a familial resemblance, enough that he would never have questioned the absolute fact that he was born in their house in the woods of Wistover.

But now... Now he had questions.