Chapter 29: Fill your stomach first

The dream was a white expanse.

Olivia stood in the boundless white space and looked down at herself.

Silver hair cascaded over her chest.

She wore an oversized shirt—or rather, it was the very shirt inherited directly from her Orlando form.

The collar was so wide it slipped past her shoulders, the sleeves long enough to cover her fingertips, and the hem barely reached mid-thigh.

She was barefoot.

Her toes pressed against the white ground.

“Hey, why am I in this again?”

She muttered to herself.

The sound of gears turning came from afar.

Click, click, click.

Victoria emerged from the white mist.

A clockwork head, a body of gears, and pale golden wings slowly fluttering behind her.

She was about the same height as Olivia.

The hands on her clockwork head pointed to a time Olivia could never read.

“Little princess.”

“How have you been?”

Olivia folded her arms—the sleeves drooped down like two dangling strips of cloth.

“Aw, aren’t you always watching me?”

“That is true.”

Victoria tilted her clockwork head, and the hands let out a ding.

“But I still want to hear what you think about your experiences.”

“You actually want to hear me make a fool of myself.”

“Was I found out?”

Olivia rolled her eyes.

“Then what have you been thinking about?”

Victoria’s light wings fluttered gently, and pale golden motes fell from the wingtips, sinking into the white ground.

“Hoping I’d tell you what to do next?”

Olivia’s heart skipped a beat.

She had indeed been waiting.

Waiting for this clockwork-head riddle master to appear again, waiting for the next clue, waiting for the next instruction.

Seven-day deadline, north of the sky, following step by step.

Like a puppet on strings.

Victoria tilted her head, and the hands on her clockwork head dinged again.

As if to say, ‘I saw through you.’

“Then I’ll tell you directly.”

Victoria’s light wings folded in a little.

The golden motes stopped falling.

“As a junior, I can’t have you relying on my guidance every day. You need to seek your own path.”

Olivia was stunned.

‘Junior.’

That word was like a stone thrown into water, ripples spreading outward.

“Wait.”

Her voice changed for a moment.

“What did you just say? Junior.”

Victoria said nothing.

The hands on her clockwork head silently moved one notch.

Her pale golden wings fluttered slowly.

The white mist gradually closed behind her.

“Then what are my parents?”

Olivia took a step forward.

The hem of the oversized shirt swayed.

Her bare feet pressed against the white ground, a cold sensation rising from her soles.

“Could it be…”

She stopped.

“That they’re not human?”

Victoria’s figure began to fade.

The clicking of gears grew distant.

The pale golden wings retracted and melted into the white mist.

The hand on her clockwork head wobbled one last time, ding.

Then she vanished.

The white space began to collapse.

Olivia opened her eyes.

‘Victoria said “junior.” That wasn’t a casual word. “Junior” implies the same kind. It means there is some sort of inheritance relationship between them.’

‘Her mother. Silver hair, silver eyes. She walked into the forest when Olivia was five and vanished. Her father never mentioned where her mother went, but every year on one day, he would sit by the window, staring at the forest, sitting there the whole afternoon.’

‘The God of Love said she had “more than just dragon” blood in her.’

‘Could she be a half-breed?’

‘More than just dragon.’

‘What was the other half?’

‘Victoria wouldn’t say. She told her to find the answer herself.’

“…Fine.”

‘Her mother was most likely a dragon, and a silver dragon at that.’

Olivia sat up in bed.

Her silver hair slipped from her shoulders and spread across the pillow.

The collar of the oversized shirt slid to one side, revealing half her shoulder.

She looked down at her stomach.

“There you go again.”

Her stomach growled again.

She suddenly remembered—she’d forgotten to eat again today.

From being dragged by Wei La to serve as a maid in the morning, to crouching under the table at the café in the afternoon, to having her makeup removed by Zijiang in the evening, and then collapsing into bed just now.

The entire day, not a single grain of rice had entered her stomach.

In her Orlando form, she’d lasted the whole day without feeling hungry, probably because she was too nervous to notice.

But Olivia’s form was different.

The Silver Dragon Princess’s stomach had a capacity unknown times greater than a human’s.

She had to go to the cafeteria.

Now.

Immediately.

She threw off the covers and jumped out of bed.

Her bare feet hit the floor, and a chill shot up from her soles.

The hem of the oversized shirt swayed with her movements, leaving her thighs feeling chilly.

She glanced down—the length was indeed not very safe.

But there were no clothes in the wardrobe that fit Olivia’s size, and she couldn’t possibly go out wearing Orlando’s pants.

The waistband could fit two of her waists.

‘Forget it. There should be no one in the cafeteria at this hour.’

She needed to fill her stomach while no one was around at night.

Prunier.

Olivia’s friend.

Her captain.

If Prunier found out that Orlando was Olivia—

Never mind how to explain;

Just thinking about what Prunier would do after learning the truth sent a chill down her spine.

Given Prunier’s personality, she probably wouldn’t get angry.

But she would smile and say, “So it was you,” and then show up at her room that very night with a pillow in her arms.

“Since we’re besties, it’s normal to sleep together, right?”

Then she’d treat her like a life-sized silver dragon plush and never let go all night.