The others left one after the other until only Min Jun remained in the room. He sat at the table quietly, staring off into space. He really felt torn and he didn’t know what to make of all this. When their king originally showed his dragon form and he saw those marks on his scales, he had felt stunned at first. Then, anger overwhelmed him and he hadn’t calmed down the whole way back, resulting in the outburst outside. Only now that he was alone and had heard all of those things did he slowly let go of those feelings.

He still felt betrayed but the fury that followed in the wake of this betrayal wasn’t burning as brightly. At most, it was simmering somewhere deep down. As a result, his attention focused more on what everyone had said.

He understood. Of course, their king had done a lot for them. Of course, he had to fall more on the side of the dragons or he couldn’t take on his dragon form in the first place, not to mention the relationship with the Son of Heaven. But even though he knew all that, his heart wasn’t at peace.

He didn’t know what to do about it either. He knew that the dragon realm needed a king and also needed strong generals with experience. That was even more true now that the demon realm had a new king. He wasn’t stationed at the border but he regularly inquired about what was happening over there so as to react swiftly if anything changed and an attack became likely. What he had heard recently made him feel on edge.

Things were changing in the demon realm and it was only a question of time until a new attack against their people was launched. And this time, that battle might be tougher than the ones in the past millennia. In fact, he was afraid the intensity might be as high as the ones he remembered from when he had been young because this king clearly knew what he was doing.

Facing such a war … they needed to be as strong as they could be. He didn’t think their chances would look good without their current king. He also didn’t want to step away from his own position when he felt that he could make a difference in the upcoming fights.

But yes, he still felt uncomfortable with the situation. He’d be much happier if he had never known about this. But then, knowing or not knowing wouldn’t change the facts, would it? His king would still be of mixed blood even if he had no knowledge of it. All these years, he had been exactly the same. Now, it was simply out in the open.

Min Jun closed his eyes, feeling tired. It didn’t help to wish for things to be different. He couldn’t change reality. He could only change how he reacted to it. At the end of the day, he ought to do what was best for the dragon realm overall. That was what he had sworn to himself back then: That he would never rest to protect their land and their people until he breathed his last or the threat of the demons was completely neutralized. He intended to keep this oath but what kind of shape it would take, that was a different question altogether.

On the other hand, there were still his own feelings. The idea of simply accepting this new knowledge and continuing as if nothing had happened and everything was still as it had been before made him feel like he was betraying his family and those who had fallen alongside him, as well as all the soldiers under his command who had fought bravely against the demons but never made it out alive of those battles. Could he really do that? Wouldn’t they be disappointed in him? Wouldn’t they be disappointed in the dragon race as a whole if nobody stood up to say that this wasn’t right?

He raised his hands and held his head, only feeling worse now. He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t think that taking his time and thinking this through as the others had said would change anything about that either. He was simply lost and he didn’t know which direction to go in. He had nobody to help him find his destination either.

The others already knew what to do. It seemed that everyone had accepted things as they were and intended to go forward as if nothing had happened. Nobody seemed as torn about this as he was. In that case, how could he talk to them and expect them to really help him through this? Since they didn’t have the same concerns, they probably couldn’t make him let go of his. So even if they talked, he’d still be at the same point afterward at which he was right now. That wasn’t what he was looking forward to.

Min Jun lowered his hands and opened his eyes, simply leaning back. He indeed didn’t need to make a decision right now but he also felt that he couldn’t leave this unsolved for too long. Even today, his absence might cause some issues. After all, as a general of the dragon race, to not appear at the wedding celebration of their king was more than noticeable. He might only be lucky that nobody paid attention because there were too many people anyway and everyone was focused on their king and his new spouse instead of looking at who else was in attendance.

Really, he needed to make a choice and he couldn’t let this go on for too long. At most, he could give himself a few days because if he decided to truly step down from his position, he at least had to make sure that everything was in place for somebody else to take over and keep the realm safe. That much was his duty and he’d never neglect that.