In the year Jiang Mi turned twenty-five, she inherited an antique restoration shop on the verge of closing.
Just as she was seriously considering shutting it down and finding a regular job, a black-and-gold scale fell from an old jewelry box and pierced her hand.
After that, everything changed.
She could see the true origins of antiques.
She could open doors to places that didn't exist on Earth.
She could trade a box of Earth seeds for energy ore capable of driving the interstellar conglomerates wild.
And in the mirror, she could glimpse golden, slit-pupiled eyes flickering deep within her own.
Jiang Mi thought she had simply gotten lucky.
That was until an imperial battleship from a Level Ten civilization forcibly descended upon the Solar System one day.
A haughty, cold young nobleman stared at her for a full ten seconds through the ship's holographic projection.
Then this pure-blooded dragon, heir to one of the Empire's most prestigious families and destined to command a legion, lost every ounce of his composure for the first time.
He dropped to one knee.
Lowered his head.
"Shel Agaro, of the Agaro family of the Eastern Continent."
"I request to become your first Oathsworn."
Jiang Mi: "...Huh?"
As the Four Royal Domains, the Central Imperial Court, the Ancestral Hall, and the old and new military commands all turned their attention to this girl from a low-level civilization, the Empire's power structure, sealed for tens of thousands of years, began to shift.
Everyone thought she would become the most precious bargaining chip of one faction or another.
Until many years later...
She had her own fief, her own fleet, her own legion, and five Oathsworn from different centers of power.
And Jiang Mi sat on a fifth throne that should never have existed, tapping its armrest lightly.
"You don't get to decide which side I stand on."
"You should be deciding..."
"Whether you want to stand with me."
