“Mm~”
The candy was sweet with a fruity flavor.
It was delicious!
She loved it!
“All right, my dear daughter, don’t cry. Mother still has work to do, so I’ll be leaving for now.”
Zhu Xiaxia coaxed Zhu Qiu for a moment before standing up to leave the room.
“Wait a second!” Zhu Qiu called out.
“What’s wrong?”
“Um, I… I… can I have all the candy in that box…?”
Zhu Qiu put on a pitiful little expression.
Her two small hands were restless, her fingers nervously poking at each other.
“Of course you can~”
Zhu Xiaxia turned back with a smile, answered, and then left, closing the door behind her.
Children were just like that; they cried easily and were easily coaxed.
Zhu Qiu’s gaze scanned the entire room before locking onto the wooden box containing the candy.
However, looking at the box, an inexplicable sense of unease welled up in her heart.
She kind of didn’t want to stay here anymore.
‘Zhu Xiaxia, wait for me! I want to go out too!’
Zhu Qiu scrambled off the bed and rushed toward the door.
Because she couldn’t stop in time, she ran headfirst into the door, lost her balance, and flopped onto the floor.
“Ow!”
She rubbed the spot where her head had bumped and looked up at the door.
From her perspective, the door seemed to grow larger and larger, as if something were about to burst through from the outside.
Terrified, Zhu Qiu ducked into a defensive crouch with her hands over her head.
Tears began to flow uncontrollably.
“Waaa~ Don’t kill me! I’m not a dragon! Waaa~”
In reality, there was nothing wrong with the door.
After waiting several seconds and seeing that nothing had happened, Zhu Qiu wiped her tears and stood up.
‘Whew… I was just scaring myself.’
But then another thought occurred to her.
If things really played out like in her dream — if her father, Sodlan, came to the Dragon Race Imperial Palace to fetch her only to find his son, Soran, was gone and a dragon cub was calling him “Papa” — he would definitely kill that cub.
That was right; she was that dragon cub now.
This caused Zhu Qiu to recall the real reason she had come to the Imperial Palace.
It was to change back — to return to her human form and go back to her own Human Kingdom.
However, thinking about what had happened at noon, Zhu Qiu felt both angry and embarrassed.
She had actually completely forgotten her goal of changing back all because of Zhu Xiaxia’s candy.
She had even cried because Zhu Xiaxia threw the candy away and had been plotting to steal it when she heard there was more in the room.
‘Wah, wah, wah! I am not a scheming little kid who only cares about eating candy!’
‘I am the resilient Human Sword Saint who will one day defeat this Evil Dragon, Zhu Xiaxia!’
‘It’s all Zhu Xiaxia’s fault. She must have used the candy to lure me on purpose, leading me right into her trap.’
‘Hmph! Now that I’ve seen through your scheme, don’t even think about tricking me again.’
‘When I change back, I’ll definitely give you what’s coming to you!’
‘By the way, how was I supposed to change back again?’
Zhu Qiu thought for a moment and remembered her previous plan.
‘Right, magic. Xiaguang said that adult dragons teach cubs some magic.’
However, Zhu Qiu definitely couldn’t bring it up to Zhu Xiaxia directly.
If she did, it would be an implicit admission of her identity as a dragon.
Therefore, she needed to use a roundabout method to trick Zhu Xiaxia into teaching her.
Then, she could subtly suggest that she wanted to learn magic related to changing forms.
Zhu Qiu glanced out the window and saw that it was getting quite late.
‘Maybe I should save the plan for tomorrow. Today is basically over anyway, right?’
‘Yeah, let’s go with that.’
The next second, Zhu Qiu scurried over to the wooden candy box, sat down, and opened the lid.
‘Whoa~’
—
In her workspace, Zhu Xiaxia closed the book titled [Basic Classroom for Novice Dragon Mothers], placed it back on the shelf, and picked up a handwritten schedule from her desk.
Today was a workday as defined by Dragon Law.
Generally speaking, unless there was a special event, the Dragon King wouldn’t easily grant a national holiday.
However, Zhu Xiaxia intended to hold a nationwide event in seven days.
Along with it, she planned to give the entire country a fifteen-day holiday to celebrate.
She erased the handwritten notes for the activities scheduled for seven days from now and began filling in the morning slot.
After writing it out, she thought it wasn’t quite right, so she erased it again and changed it to the afternoon.
That way, she wouldn’t have to worry about Zhu Qiu sleeping in and being unable to wake up.
Zhu Xiaxia activated a Magic Communication to call Xiaguang.
“Xiaguang, I’m giving the whole country a fifteen-day holiday. I have an important event to hold in seven days. You’ll be in charge of the notifications. Try to ensure that every region of the Dragon Race sends a few representatives.”
The area surrounding the Dragon Race Imperial Palace was immense.
Although the total population of the Dragon Race was less than 1% of the Human Race’s, the grounds still could not hold everyone.
Under these circumstances, it was better to have local representatives with influence and ability witness the event first and then relay the news to the rest of the dragons.
Furthermore, some dragons lived in remote areas.
Traveling to the Imperial Palace was a physically demanding task.
It would be even more inconvenient for the elderly, the weak, the sick, and the pregnant.
Zhu Xiaxia felt her arrangements were very thorough.
However, she seemed to have forgotten about Xiaguang herself.
Xiaguang, who was resting in bed, heard the news and asked again in disbelief.
“Her Majesty the Queen, do you really want to notify… the Dragon Race in every region? And in only seven days?”
In the past, Xiaguang would never question Zhu Xiaxia’s orders.
But given the sheer volume of work and the fact that they only had seven days, she had to ask.
“Truly. It must be in seven days. I want the whole country to know about the birth of my adorable daughter, Zhu Qiu Gracia. But don’t mention the specifics of the event yet; just have them come.”
‘Good grief, so that’s the kind of event this is.’
In the past, for national events, Zhu Xiaxia would have given Xiaguang a month’s notice.
But this time, she was only giving her seven days!
‘Is Her Majesty really in that much of a hurry to show everyone her daughter?’
“Xiaguang, I’ll have to trouble you.”
“No, it’s… it’s no trouble.”
Even a dragon like Xiaguang, who was usually expressionless, had a face that was twitching violently after hearing such a task.
Seven days.
To circle the entire Dragon Kingdom and return within seven days — if she accounted for the time it would take for dragons in remote areas to reach the Imperial Palace — she only had about three days of travel time left.
‘This is going to be the death of me.’
Well, it looked like slacking off was out of the question.
Time was tight; she had to move now.
Xiaguang immediately rushed out of the Imperial Palace, transformed into her dragon form, and soared into the sky, flying rapidly toward the horizon.
Xiaguang wouldn’t be appearing at the Imperial Palace for the next few days.
Zhu Xiaxia would not only need to prepare the daily food but also take care of her daughter, Zhu Qiu.
However, she was also just a novice dragon mother with no experience.
She didn’t know how to do anything.
But as the saying goes in the Dragon Race: “An excellent Dragon King is often excellent from infancy.”
Zhu Xiaxia had been the same.
When she was young, she had been far ahead of her peers in every aspect, including magic talent, learning ability, etiquette, emotional intelligence, and intelligence.
Therefore, after careful consideration, Zhu Xiaxia decided to teach her daughter a few things.
As for what specifically to teach, she hadn’t decided yet.
She looked at the sky gradually darkening on the horizon and realized she had been sitting there for a long time.
‘I’ll wash up and head to bed. I’ll pass on making dinner; there’s no need to worry about Zhu Qiu going hungry. She’ll definitely finish all those candies.’