Chapter 104: The King of Dragon Kings Will Not Fall for a Female Dragon’s Trap (Part 2)

The onlookers were thoroughly displeased and began shouting all at once:

“Did you see that? She only glanced once—she didn’t even look properly!”

“The famous sorceress, splashing ice water on a little girl?”

“She’s a virtuous dragon, not an evil one!”

Richard grabbed his sheathed longsword, vaulted over the desk, and planted himself between Frostsilver and the still-sleeping Aurina.

The chaotic “insect buzzing” merged into a deafening roar that poured into Frostsilver’s pointed ears.  

One memory after another surged forth.

Scene one:

“Weak! Weak! Weak! How did this king end up with such a pathetic little sister?!”

Obus had one claw pinning Frostsilver’s draconic back, his tail coiled around her neck, lifting her head high while his foreclaws and wings spun like tops, pummeling her skull without mercy.

Scene two:

“Big brother! Stand still if you dare—just watch my spell!”

BIU~~

A shockwave bright enough to light up half the sky crashed against Obus’s scales, finally turning into a tiny green spark that drifted to the ground.

“GYAHAHAHA! So this is the magic you learned from all those books?” 

Obus held a vivid red man-eating flower between his jaws. 

“This king is off to a date with a lady. Bye-bye, little sister!”

“RAAH!”

Scene three:

Obus strolled out of a collapsed valley completely unscathed. 

“Gya, that was fun! The rocks fell and squashed all the bad guys dead! As expected, this king is the strongest—even the rocks helped me crush the baddies!”

Frostsilver was so furious she hurled a formula-filled tome to the ground—every number in it had come from her countless collapse simulations.

She threw her head back and screamed: “HIM!!!”

Scene four, five, six, seven… 

The memories flashed by faster and faster, every humiliation of her entire draconic life converging into a single torrent that rushed straight to her brain.

Frostsilver took a deep breath. Then another.

The final memory—the one she least wanted to recall, the most painful of all—rose unbidden.

When she was little, Obus had pinned her beneath both claws, straddling her back.

He pressed her head down hard with his paws, seized her horn in his jaws, and yanked with all his might.  

Blood poured over her entire head.

“No! Big brother! No—please! Not my horn, my horn!!”

“Please! I don’t want to be an ugly hornless dragon!”

With one brutal pull, Obus ripped the horn clean from her skull.

“HIM!!!!!”

Frostsilver’s anguished scream had shaken the heavens.

Obus had only said, “You’re already scrawny and tiny—ugly enough. Losing one horn won’t make much difference, gya.”

The string of reason in Frostsilver’s mind stretched to its absolute limit.

Reason told her: Don’t lose control, don’t lose control. The famous dragon-slaying hero is right in front of you!

But…

From childhood until now, she had always been bullied by that brainless brother who could only count to ten—trampled underfoot, her horn torn out!  

She had finally won once.

And now, this bastard spawn—conceived by big brother with who-knows-which shameless wench—defeated her meticulously laid plan just by sleeping?!

What kind of beautiful dream are you having?!

SNAP.

The string of reason broke.

With a furious roar, she bellowed: “Reveal your true form!”

Magic surged within her—wild, insane, explosive—pouring into the spell. 

She pushed the metamagic techniques she had developed specifically to penetrate draconic magic resistance to their utmost limit.  

Even Aurina’s resistance was no match for her spell now!

Frostsilver’s magic shattered Aurina’s resistance, bypassed Richard entirely, and struck Aurina directly.  

A burst of yellow light erupted from Aurina’s body, burning like fire.

Within the radiance, the little girl’s figure rapidly grew, revealing the outline of a dragon.

The Emperor of the Yanting Empire beamed with delight—once the true form is revealed, let’s see who still pities the evil dragon’s daughter!

In the blink of an eye, Aurina expanded, her swelling body instantly shattering the desk and chair beneath her.  

Richard reacted lightning-fast—he grabbed Sophia’s hand and leapt aside, narrowly avoiding the enlarging Aurina.  

Those behind them were not so lucky; screams filled the air as people toppled like dominoes.

And right in front of her—naturally—was Frostsilver.  

Her brilliant mind realized, far too late, that forcing Aurina’s true form would affect herself as well.

Her brain understood, but her body did not.

Just as Frostsilver tried to flee with her long legs, Aurina’s massive dragon head bumped squarely into her chest.

Frostsilver shrieked, lost her balance, and fell backward—landing hard on her rear with both long legs thrust high into the air, her stiletto heels pointing straight at the ceiling—until her back slammed against the wooden floor and stopped.

Richard, ever vigilant, caught a full glimpse of Frostsilver in that moment of impact.  

His second instinct was to hurriedly clutch his holy hammer talisman tight, desperately suppressing the grave original sin his illness inflicted upon him.

Frostsilver’s legs dropped back to the floor, her white skirts settling over them like petals.  

Her backside throbbed with pain.  

She tried to use her staff to stand, only to discover it had flown from her grasp—one of her black-armored knights was already retrieving it for her.

Aurina had fully transformed into her dragon form—plump and round all over, even her horns looking adorably chubby.  

She was still fast asleep, dreaming that her pack-beast Richard was offering her food, her jaws chomping at empty air.

Still sleeping! Still sleeping!!

Frostsilver shot to her feet, her delicate face flushed crimson with rage. 

She snatched the staff from the knight and swung it straight at Aurina’s head.

Richard stepped forward to stop her.

Startled, Frostsilver’s swing went wide, scraping across Aurina’s draconic neck with a loud CLANG of metal on metal.

The black-armored knights instantly formed a living wall between her and Richard.

Through the gaps between armored bodies, Frostsilver glared at Aurina.  

She was still sleeping! 

She merely lifted her head and a hind leg, scratched lazily at the itchy scales on her neck—exactly where Frostsilver had struck—then resumed smacking her lips and snoring HUUU… HUUU….

Out of nowhere, a swarm of glossy-furred cats appeared.

They clambered all over Aurina’s draconic body.  

An astonishingly fat orange cat perched proudly atop Aurina’s head and hissed menacingly at Frostsilver.

The crowd stared—Aurina’s dragon form was nothing like the evil dragons of legend.

Even the most timid child would not cry at the sight; they would only approach curiously, wanting to pet her.

Murmurs spread:

“Good heavens, she looks like a giant cat.”

“Even her true form is this cute.”

“Tsk tsk, even the dragon expert is furious—she met such a wonderful dragon.”

“So many kitties—so adorable.”

Richard released his grip on the sword and pointed accusingly at Frostsilver’s nose: “That was too far, Frostsilver! You said robbery would prove guilt—what do you have to say now?!”

Frostsilver’s gaze was not on him.  

She stared fixedly at Aurina’s dragon form.

Aurina’s snores cut through the noise and rang in her pointed ears.

She took several deep breaths, unable to hold it in any longer.

She opened her mouth to roar—then realized where she was and clapped both hands over her lips.

But Richard still heard the faint: “HIM…!”

Frostsilver clamped her mouth shut, and with lightning speed cast a teleport spell. 

She vanished in a twist of blue light.

That same day, aboard her luxurious ship worth twenty-eight thousand gold coins, inside her bedroom, yellow light shimmered around Frostsilver’s body. 

A draconic silhouette flickered beneath her skin.  

With great effort she kept her true form suppressed, yet white scales had already spread across her neck, and her human head was halfway to becoming a dragon’s.

She threw her head back and roared at the ceiling: “HIM!!!!!”

That draconic roar was utterly earth-shaking.

The glass windows rattled, and birds perched on the ship’s sails took flight in panic.

Far away at the harbor, amid the bustle, two women buying fish chatted:

“Did you hear something just now? It sounded like…”

“Yes, I heard it too.”

“Like a woman screaming?”

“How could a woman possibly scream that loud? Must be some huge fish in the sea.”

“Definitely.”

Aurina lazily opened her eyes.

Did I just hear that stinky little sister of mine roar?  

Must be my imagination.

With that thought, Aurina happily returned to her beautiful dream of gold mountains and pack-beast delicacies.

Something was nudging her.

“Aurina? Aurina?”

Having fully enjoyed her dream to the fullest, Aurina the dragon slowly opened her golden eyes.

She saw her property—pack-beast Richard—pushing gently at her head.  

Aurina’s eyes swiveled.  

She found herself lying on a cargo cart piled high with flowers and fruits.  

The orange cat who could finish four fish in one go was squatting on her head, munching away. 

More than a dozen cats surrounded her, heads lowered as they ate.

Richard said, “You’re finally awake.”

A flash of red light—  

The enormous Aurina dragon shrank back into the little girl.  

She sat on the cart, looking at the familiar courtyard where a cauldron steamed merrily. 

Many little insects bustled about; she could tell that among insects, these ones were quite strong.

She asked, “Is the annoying insect ritual over?”

“Yes,” Richard replied. “You slept wonderfully. Thanks to you, I nearly lost the case.”

“There was no verdict pronounced today, but the Emperor of the Yanting Empire’s defeat is obvious to the entire city.He no longer has any reason or excuse to reopen the trial.”

“Gya.”

The orange cat lay sprawled across Aurina’s head, chewing fish. 

Aurina lifted it down and hugged it to her chest.  

On the flowers beside her, two cats were sharing a single boiled egg.

“What’s for dinner? Flower-and-egg salad?”

“Those are the flowers people threw to you on the way here,” Richard explained with a smile. 

“From now on, you won’t have to worry about anyone putting a bounty on you as if you were a monster.”

Aurina tilted her head forty-five degrees, looking utterly baffled at Richard. 

“This king has never worried about that.”

With that, she held out her palm, facing upward.

“Want dinner?” 

Richard asked. “It’ll be ready soon—we’re holding a banquet later.”

“Where’s the loot?” 

Aurina asked. 

“This king’s twenty portions of loot?”

Richard instantly understood—loot division was 20:1 because Aurina could only count to twenty-one.  

He laughed. 

“And one portion is for me?”

“What else?”

“There isn’t any—we already discussed this.”

“There isn’t any?”  

Aurina shot to her feet so fast the orange cat on her head bounced into the air and landed back on her head with a plop.  

“Ha! This king clearly saw a weak but filthy-rich thing right in front of us—she must have tons and tons of gold!”

“You mean Frostsilver,” Richard said.

“It’s amazing—she understands us so well she nearly helped the Emperor win, yet you defeated her just by sleeping.”

“What did you say?”

Richard recounted everything that had happened.

SMACK!  

Aurina slapped her thigh in deep regret: “Why didn’t this king rob her back then?!”