Chương 134: Reborn as the Dragon — Chapter 134 - Return to the Dragon's Nest

Su Nian and Anna didn't linger in Saint Orist. They said their goodbyes to the Saintess and the Kaguya Priestess, opened a teleport, and went home to the Dragon's Nest. Su Nian's body was in a state of Weakness. Staying in Saint Orist would only have made things more dangerous. There were still plenty of Starter Villages nearby.

Silvermoon Forest was the safer option, Su Nian had already pulled out the two Starter Villages closest to it, and the Sakura Players would have to travel a very long way before they could threaten it again.... Several days away, and the Kobolds had finished their work. The Dragon's Nest was complete, and they'd even built a new Bedrock Platform, wider and thicker than the last one. At this particular moment, Su Nian was sprawled across it without a trace of dignity.

Even his massive dragon head was laid flat against the stone. He ached all over, a dull, pervasive soreness that seeped through every scale. It felt exactly like being knocked flat by a bad flu, no strength, no will, not a single desire to move. Like a little girl buried under her blankets in the dead of winter, wishing the world would simply leave her alone. He knew this feeling intimately. In his previous life, during university, his constitution had been weak.

Every winter, the flu found him without fail, and after that came the fog, that groggy, hollowed-out state where hours melted together without meaning. Back then, no one had cared. His roommates had laughed at him or ignored him entirely, too absorbed in their games to bother picking up medicine. Things were different now. Now Su Nian had a little treasure who fussed over him every single day.

"Brother~" He was thinking about her when she arrived. Before he even saw her, Anna's soft, sweet voice floated in from outside the Dragon's Nest. Su Nian lifted his eyes. She came waddling through the entrance with her purplish-red wings beating steadily, arms wrapped around a large bundle of herbs and several cloth bags bulging with unknown contents. She touched down in front of him and nearly lost her balance on the landing. This was Anna's Half-Dragon Form.

In this state, her strength attribute nearly doubled, her magic hit harder, and she could even exhale dragon breath, though that breath wasn't a true breath weapon. It ran on magic essence rather than innate draconic power, which made it considerably weaker than Su Nian's. Still, the form suited her.

"Brother, you're awake?" She blinked her soft peach-blossom eyes and pressed her fair cheek gently against his dragon face.

"It doesn't feel as hot anymore~""Wait just a little longer. Anna will feed you your medicine soon~" Still talking, she bent down to set the herbs on the ground, kissed the Black Dragon on the face, and folded her wings away. In her Half-Dragon Form, two small horns grew from either side of Anna's forehead, sweeping back along her skull. They were nothing like the Black Dragon's, none of that harsh, jagged ferocity.

Hers were compact and soft-looking, warm and smooth to the touch, with none of the cold hardness of his. As she released the form, the wings and horns faded. What remained was almost entirely Anna, save for the reddish-gold vertical pupils and a faint scatter of scales along her neck. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Anna, what's the situation in the Dragon's Nest?" Su Nian watched her move back and forth, asking without much urgency.

"Pretty good. The monsters who died in the fighting have been buried. The human soldiers who rebelled have been dealt with." She glanced back at him over her shoulder, then turned and upended the herbs and the contents of the cloth bags into a large iron pot in one go. That pot had come from Serestina. Apparently it was the largest one in the entire capital's kitchen.

"Oh — and that female mage is still alive, brother."

"I heard from Grey Wolf that she tried to kill herself over ten times. Banana Wolf kept stopping her before she could manage it. Eventually she gave up. Her mind's not quite right anymore, from what I understand." Anna shook her head, her tone somewhere between sighing and impressed. She wasn't sorry for the mage. She was marveling at Banana Wolf's methods.

"I see." Su Nian nodded. His eyes, however, had drifted to Anna's swaying waist and stayed there. The princess dress had been too impractical, and the Dragon's Nest ran warm, so when it was just the two of them, Anna wore a small apron she'd brought back from Orist and nothing else over her midriff. Her slender waist was bare, shifting with every step she took. A bitter medicinal smell slowly filled the Dragon's Nest.

By the time Su Nian came back to himself from his prolonged meditation on form is emptiness, Anna was stirring the large iron pot with a long wooden spoon, the dark liquid inside bubbling steadily.

"Almost ready, brother. Wait just a little more~" She seemed to notice where his gaze had been. She wiped a thin sheen of sweat from her face, turned her head, and smiled sweetly at him. Su Nian looked at the large iron pot. Dark green liquid. He cast an Insight on it.

[Anna's Heartfelt Herbal Soup — infused with boundless affection] [Main Ingredients: Sweet Dew Root, Sparkfire Leaf, Luotian Grass, Fire-Hollow Snake Gallbladder, Silvermoon Wolf King's Heart, Silvermoon Centipede, Silvermoon Poison Scorpion, Dire Wolf Spider, Venomous Bee Honey, Licorice Leaf, Anna's Half-Dragon Blood] [Analysis: Lethal poison to all known creatures. Profoundly nourishing to the host.] Su Nian: "...... (′⊙ω⊙`)" This nourishing soup was almost certainly from dragon inheritance.

Anna had taken the dragon heart, and over time the dragon bloodline running through her had begun to surface in ways she hadn't consciously learned, instincts, knowledge, impressions arriving from somewhere deep. This simplified tonic was one of them. Su Nian actually recognized it. The original recipe called for a Deep Sea Hydra's gallbladder and a Howling Moon Sky Wolf's heart; the centipede and scorpion were premium variants too.

For a Black Dragon, the logic was sound: the more potent the poison, the more nourishing it became. Still, watching Anna stir that cauldron so diligently, he felt something deeply, unavoidably off about the scene. She looked exactly like a fairy tale witch brewing over her pot. Just, an unbearably cute one.

"Brother, it's ready~" While he'd been thinking, Anna had already poured a bowl. She carried it to him now, dark green, venting faint wisps of black vapor.

"Hehe. Be good, brother. Time for your medicine~""It's a little bitter, so Anna added lots and lots of honey." She tilted her head.

"The Venomous Bees nearby don't have any honeycomb left." Good lord. Su Nian poured a silent second of mourning out for the Venomous Bees. Then he looked at the bowl. Centipede. Spider. Scorpion tail. But this was Anna's love. So he was drinking it. Though, there was an obvious problem.

"Anna. You know how big I am. Just bring the whole pot over."

"Anna knows~" Anna laughed, dimples flickering, her face going a little pink.

"But the very first sip has to be fed to brother by Anna herself~""Alright, lie down, brother — no, wait. On your back. Your back." In his Weakened state, Su Nian submitted entirely to her arrangements. He ended up curled on his back across the Bedrock Platform, enormous belly exposed to the air. Anna took a mouthful of the bitter soup, holding it carefully, and climbed up onto the Black Dragon's chest. She didn't find the scorpions or spiders or the rest of it unpleasant for even a moment.

These were things that would help her brother feel better. That was all she needed to know. The Black Dragon's body was immense. Anna was small. Even standing on his chest, her petite frame couldn't come close to reaching his mouth. She had no choice. She spread her wings, shifted into her Half-Dragon Form, and lifted off. That worked. In the dim Dragon's Nest, sunlight slanted through the entrance and fell across two entwined figures.

The sub-elf with her dragon wings hovered in the air, her slender hands cradling the great dragon's chin with careful tenderness. Her eyes were half-closed. Her long lashes trembled softly. She passed the medicine from her mouth into his, slow and gentle, bit by bit. All around them was still. Outside, a quiet breeze moved through the trees with a soft, steady rustle. It was like that overcast night, long ago. When the world had gone silent.

And in the sound of falling rain, a young Black Dragon had held an unconscious elf girl clumsily in his arms, and with something that felt like hope, had fed the medicine from his own mouth into hers, careful and slow, one small breath at a time. ➤ Next: No Matter How You Think About It, It's Not Right