Chương 11: Reborn as the Dragon: — Chapter 11 - The Ambition of the King of Anlius

Looking at the fox-eared girl's soft, adorable expression, Su Nian's dragon heart gave a little tremor. He couldn't help it, his claws started scratching at the ground.

"Damn it. This cute, and you're not even scared of getting eaten!" He snorted a puff of air from his nostrils and shook his head. It wasn't like he'd never had White Rabbit Creamy Candy before. No reason to fight over it with a girl this soft. Without a second thought, he nudged Anna's outstretched hands away with his snout, signaling he wasn't interested. Though he did, while nudging them back, sneak in a little nuzzle. Hehehe. These little hands are really soft...

He'd been busy all night and was running on empty. Juvenile dragons are in a critical growth period, he should have been eating and sleeping plenty. Instead, he'd spent the night caring for an elf girl. He was exhausted. Seeing that Anna's condition had stabilized, he stopped hesitating. Following pure instinct, he curled up beside her and sank into a deep, heavy sleep.

"Mr. Dragon?" Anna stared blankly at Su Nian for a moment, asleep just like that, no warning whatsoever. Then her expression slowly softened. She looked down at the plump little piece of White Rabbit candy in her hand. In the end, she couldn't stop herself from taking one more small bite. The remaining three-quarters she tucked carefully into Su Nian's mouth. It really is so sweet... She narrowed her eyes again, perfectly content. Su Nian was doing everything he could to treat her. She knew that.

But she also knew her own situation better than anyone. What she had wasn't a disease. It was a curse from the Abyss. Who could pull her free from a demon's grasp? She was going to die. That was simply true. But getting to eat candy this delicious before the end, Anna thought that made her a lucky person. Outside the cave, cold wind picked up again. She pulled her frozen feet to her chest and huddled tight against the Black Dragon's side. Warmth seeped from the massive creature beside her, slow and steady.

He was enormous compared to her, a genuine behemoth. And yet, inexplicably, she felt calmer than she had all night. Anna spread the bearskin out and laid two-thirds of it across Su Nian's belly. It barely covered a patch of him, but she did it anyway. The remaining third she wrapped around her own frost-reddened feet. Only then did she let out a quiet, satisfied breath. She murmured softly:"Goodnight, Mr. Dragon..."

Note: When Anna and Su Nian spend extended time together, Dragonification frequently occurs, localized dragon-like features appearing on her, as shown.... Anlius Empire. The royal palace.

"You still haven't found the Black Dragon?"

"Useless! What do I even keep you people around for?!" The King of Anlius, thick beard, red face, jabbed a finger at the knight standing before him. His finger stopped just short of the man's nose. The saliva flying from his mouth was enough to give the knight a thorough wash. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. The news of the dragon's escape had him crawling out of his skin. You don't let a prize that size slip through your fingers without consequences.

He paced the length of the hall, back and forth, staring at the downpour hammering the windows and getting angrier with every lap. Anlius was a speck of a country. Third-tier professionals across the entire kingdom could be counted on both hands. Magic was dying out, that was just the age they lived in. A proper mage, rare and expensive, was nowhere to be found in his borders.

To kill one Black Dragon, he had spent 3, 000 Gold Lions to hire a third-tier fire mage from the border region of the neighboring Eirilan Empire. Word was this mage was a half-step away from breaking through to the fourth tier. With the army in position, the city's siege equipment providing cover, and a coordinated ambush to soften the dragon up before the mage moved in for the kill, there had been a very real chance of ending that juvenile dragon permanently. And that wasn't even the whole expense.

To lure the stupid creature in the first place, he'd endured the gut-punch of spending another 1, 000 Gold Lions on a half-elf with a terminal illness. Half-elves weren't what they'd been fifteen hundred years ago. Their status was noble now. They were extraordinarily rare. A healthy one could fetch tens of thousands of Gold Lions on the open market. If a portion of the half-elf population hadn't chosen to return to the Elven Court all those centuries ago, there might not be a single half-elf left on the continent.

Most of them had long since ascended to the Divine Kingdom in the wake of the Conquering King, Emperor Shivi. As for why he absolutely had to kill that dragon, the King of Anlius had reasons he couldn't exactly announce in public. His son, the Crown Prince, had developed a problem in the area of producing heirs. The king had consulted every alchemist he could find. The consensus was unanimous: a congenital deficiency, curable only by consuming a dragon's heart and a dragon's penis.

But dragons were nearly impossible to find. The good-aligned metallic dragons stayed on Dragon Island, watched over by their Dragon Mothers from birth. The evil chromatic dragons were kicked out of the nest early — which technically made them more accessible, but every single one of those creatures was paranoid beyond reason. They wouldn't show themselves before reaching adulthood. Not once. The result was that dragon materials were outrageously expensive. Not just expensive, unobtainable.

A single dragon's penis could clear ten thousand Gold Lions at auction without breaking a sweat, and that was nothing next to the heart. Selling the entire kingdom of Anlius wouldn't come close to covering it. Then, out of nowhere, an opportunity walked right into his lap. A Black Dragon, apparently not the sharpest creature in the world, had decided to come to his territory and demand a princess. The King of Anlius had nearly choked laughing.

He'd schooled his face into the picture of terrified compliance, agreed to everything, and promised to deliver a beautiful princess in three days' time. The stupid dragon hadn't suspected a thing. What princess? Anlius had no princess. Just a prince. So the king had swallowed the financial pain, purchased the dying half-elf as bait, turned the dragon's own scheme against it, and set the trap. And somehow, against all odds, the dragon had still gotten away.

"What does Master Meisente say?" The king reined in his fury and turned to the knight, the same knight currently wearing a faceful of royal saliva.

"Master Meisente, he — he says the Black Dragon has already crossed the Morrigan Plain and entered the Silvermoon Forest. The Black Dragon is only in its juvenile stage, so its power is limited. There's no way it can push deeper into the Silvermoon Mountains."

"But using a tracking array burns through a lot of energy and magical materials, so..."

"So what?"

"So... so Master Meisente's position is that he'll need more money..." The knight stole a careful glance at the king's face, saw the color darkening by the second, and quietly took two steps back.

"Greedy leech! Damn him! Does he think I'm made of coin? My country isn't even as large as a single Marquis's domain in Eirilan. I already handed him three thousand Gold Lions. Three thousand!" The King of Anlius's face had gone the color of a ripe tomato, saliva flying freely. Then he thought of his son. Drinking himself into a stupor every night, body failing a little more each day. The king's shoulders dropped. He let out a long sigh.

"Give him another five hundred Gold Lions. That's the limit. If he won't take it, we drop it."

"Uh... Your Majesty?"

"What now?!"

"If Master Meisente requests military cooperation as well?"

"Then give it to him."... A moment later, the knight stepped out of the palace with a face like a storm cloud. He had no idea what the king had eaten that evening, but the man's breath could strip paint. The knight's expression curdled at the memory.

"Absolutely revolting. Emperor Shivi above — please, in your mercy, ensure that damned king never manages to produce a second son." The knight muttered it quietly, through his teeth. He had his own private theory about why the Crown Prince couldn't perform his royal duties. Faulty bloodline from the father's side. Or, and this thought crossed his mind more than once, the Crown Prince might not be the king's son at all. He'd caught the queen slipping away to meet with one of the king's knights more than once.

In private. He would know. He was one of them. [Current Map]. Please vote! QAQ ➤ Next: The Queen's Many Connections