Ever-curious Zhu Qiu crouched down and picked up a cylindrical object tied with a string.
She placed it on the floor, untied the cord, and spread it out into a large map.
‘Huh? What’s this?’
Zhu Qiu lay on her stomach, looking at the map with great interest.
The map was vibrant and colorful, with various places circled and marked.
It was annotated with flamboyant script, and at the very top were four large characters.
However… she couldn’t understand any of it.
But Zhu Qiu could still recognize the mountains, rivers, lakes, and cities.
It was clearly a map.
Everything else appeared normal, except for the Northwest Corner, which was shrouded in white fog.
‘Huh? Why is a part of this map missing?’
If it was missing, then the information for that area was gone.
‘It’s fine, it’s fine. The rest of it is still useful.’
As if she had found a treasure, Zhu Qiu rolled the map back up, tied it, and prepared to take it back to her room for further study.
‘Wait?’
There were two smaller rolls at the bottom of the box.
They were likely similar to the one in her hand.
She decided to pack them all up and take them away.
However, taking them like this without saying a word felt a bit impolite.
But Xiaguang was asleep, and she felt bad about waking her up.
‘Well…’
‘I’ll just leave a note. She probably won’t mind.’
Zhu Qiu rummaged through the box and found a pen.
Since she couldn’t find any paper, she had to write directly on the wall.
She used the exclusive script of the Human Race to write a single sentence.
“Xiaguang, I’m borrowing your maps. I’ll return them later.”
“That should do it.”
Clutching the three rolls of maps, Zhu Qiu crept out of Xiaguang’s room and scurried up to the second floor.
The moment she returned to her room, she spread all three maps out.
She had already looked at the large one; the two smaller rolls were basically the same in content, featuring various landmarks and that incomprehensible script.
‘Ugh, why is it all gibberish!’
‘Should I go ask Zhu Xiaxia?’
As soon as the thought appeared, Zhu Qiu dismissed it.
‘No, no. If Zhu Xiaxia knows I’m looking at maps, she’ll definitely guess what I’m thinking. She would stop me, and my plan to secretly run away would become much harder.’
‘Is there another way?’
The maps were colorful, and she could understand the landmarks.
The only problem was the text.
Once she figured out the script, wouldn’t everything be much simpler?
The clever Zhu Qiu stood up, walked to her desk, and rummaged through the drawers.
‘Even though Zhu Xiaxia decorated this room, there should be a pen and paper in the desk, right? Ah! Found them.’
Zhu Qiu took the pen and paper back to the maps and copied the largest character from one of the smaller maps.
She held the paper up to the sunlight, looking at her masterpiece with satisfaction.
“Heh~ If I ask Zhu Xiaxia like this, she definitely won’t find out!”
Zhu Qiu ran out of her room excitedly and pounded on Zhu Xiaxia’s door.
“Zhu Xiaxia! Zhu Xiaxia! Zhu Xiaxia! Zhu Xiaxia!”
The Little Princess called out four times, each shout louder than the last.
“Coming, I’m coming! What’s wrong, my precious daughter?”
Zhu Xiaxia opened the door and looked at the anxious little girl before her.
She had already taken off her extravagant dress and changed into a pair of Little Dragon Pajamas.
“Zhu Xiaxia, I… I have a question I want to ask you.”
“Oh? Mother doesn’t know how to summon the Holy Sword~”
“Ugh! Who’s asking about that?”
“Then, my precious daughter, are you planning to give up on the Holy Sword and willingly be my daughter, the Dragon Princess~?”
Zhu Xiaxia looked at Zhu Qiu with a mischievous smirk.
“Who’s giving up on the Holy Sword! I will always be the Human Sword Saint. My heart has never changed!”
“Then, my precious daughter…”
“Stop right there!”
Zhu Qiu really couldn’t handle Zhu Xiaxia’s ability to derail a conversation, so she cut her off decisively.
“I really have something to ask you. Can’t you be a little more serious!”
To prevent Zhu Xiaxia from leading her by the nose, she quickly held up the piece of paper.
“Here, look at this.”
“Hmm? My precious daughter, why did you write the word ‘Dragon’ on this paper? Have you finally decided to be a proper member of the Dragon Race?”
“I have not! So, what you just said… is this a word?”
“Of course. This is the Dragon Script. Only those of the Dragon Race who have studied it can understand it.”
“So it really is Dragon Script?”
Seeing Zhu Qiu’s realization, Zhu Xiaxia seemed to know what she was going to say next.
The corners of her mouth curled up slightly, her trap already prepared.
“My precious daughter, do you want to learn this script? Mother can teach you~”
“Of course… not.”
Halfway through the sentence, Zhu Qiu sensed something was wrong with Zhu Xiaxia.
Whenever she volunteered to teach something, there was usually a trick involved.
If she agreed, it might be like some sort of binding contract.
If she didn’t learn it well, she would probably end up exhausted, just like when she agreed to learn Etiquette last time.
‘Hmph, I’ve learned my lesson.’
“My meaning is very clear. I don’t want to learn the Dragon Script. I just need… a Dragon Script Dictionary.”
“Just a dictionary?”
Zhu Xiaxia lowered her head slightly, looking a bit disappointed.
She thought she could trick her silly daughter again to make her more accomplished.
As a Dragon Princess, learning these things was necessary, and the earlier the better.
But for the mentally immature Zhu Qiu, it was too difficult and hard to stick with.
If Zhu Xiaxia taught her, she would surely be lazy and want to play. Children were all the same.
Only when Zhu Qiu requested to learn something would Zhu Xiaxia have a reason to force her to master it.
Zhu Qiu looked at Zhu Xiaxia’s dejected expression with a look of disdain.
‘What are you so disappointed about?’
“Yes, just a dictionary.”
“Alright then. Mother will go get it for you. Whenever you want to learn the Dragon Script, come find Mother anytime. Mother will definitely teach you.”
Zhu Xiaxia pulled a dictionary from the very bottom of a stack of books on her desk and handed it to Zhu Qiu.
“If you run into any problems you don’t understand, you can always come to Mother~”
“Thank you, Mother!”
“By the way, daughter, aren’t you going to change out of that dress? There’s no one else in the house, so there’s no need to dress so formally.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I’ll change when I shower tonight.”
Zhu Qiu got what she wanted and skipped back to her room clutching the dictionary.
After making sure the door was locked, she returned to the maps.
“Oh yeah! This is great.”
Zhu Qiu excitedly opened the dictionary, searching for and translating the strange characters on the map one by one.
“Okay, this word is ‘Race’.”
“This one is ‘World’.”
As Zhu Qiu found each word, she wrote the translation next to it.
Because the Dragon Script characters were extremely complex, she sometimes spent over 15 minutes just to find a single one.
Fortunately, hard work paid off.
By the time the sun began to set, she had finally completed the annotations for the entire map.
Just as she was admiring her handiwork, the door was suddenly pushed open, and Zhu Xiaxia walked in.