Chapter 105: Twin Dragons Howl Together

Aurina grabbed Richard and bombarded him with questions.

“Gah? She was that close to me?”  

Aurina’s golden eyes widened as she used both hands to gesture a distance.

“No, even closer than that.”

“No wonder my entire vision was filled with golden light!”  

Recalling the blinding golden radiance, Aurina slapped her own calf with a loud CRACK. 

“This king should’ve pounced right then and there! Mount-beast! Why didn’t you wake me up?!”

“First, my name is Richard. Second, I had no idea Frostsilver would pull a move like that.”

Aurina tilted her head and gazed at the sky.

No matter how magnificent a mountain of gold in a dream, it vanishes the moment you wake. 

Only the gold you hold in reality is real.

Aurina stared at the clouds, faintly seeing the shape of a golden mountain. 

When she looked again, it had vanished without a trace. 

Grief suddenly welled up inside her. 

She threw her head back and wailed, tears streaming down in fat drops.  

“GAAAAHHHH!!!!”

Birds scattered in the distance. 

Worshippers praying in the square before the Grand Cathedral of Light all turned toward the sound very loud cry, whispering among themselves.

“What was that sound? Did someone slaughter a duck?”

“No, no duck could ever make a noise that big.”

“So strange…”

“I heard a cry like that when I went to the docks market to buy vegetables. They say it was some sea beast.”

“The world’s getting crazier by the day. I hope the court wins so everyone can withdraw their troops.”

“Let’s hope so.”

Neither dragon knew that on the very same day, they had both, without prior agreement, thrown their heads back and unleashed the roar of a dragon.

In the blink of an eye, the sun sank behind the mountains, the sky grew dark, and the stars rose into the night.

The Holy Knights of Tyr’s Hand, not permitted to enter the city, gathered in the hall, seated around tables and enjoying a feast. 

Today’s victory entitled them to a banquet.

“Brother Richard, your cooking keeps getting better and better.”

“It’s practically on the level of a hero’s banquet now.”

Everyone’s praise was intermittently interrupted by sobbing from the rafters overhead.

“Gah…”

A few teardrops fell into the soup in front of Sophia. 

She looked up and saw Aurina perched on the beam above, crying while wolfing down piles of food. 

The cats were eating with her.

“My dear,” Sophia nudged Richard with her elbow and asked, “is she really all right?”

“As long as she has an appetite, she’s fine,” Richard replied. 

“She’s still just a child, after all.”

My gold coins…! Aurina whimpered from the rafters, stuffing a chicken leg into her mouth and pulling out a clean bone in one smooth motion.

One of the holy knights asked, “Why is the little dragon eating up on the beam?”

Richard explained, “She likes high places.”

The modest banquet passed quickly.

And sure enough, just as Richard had said, once Aurina finished eating, it was as if nothing had happened. 

She became cheerful again and went off to sleep and grow stronger.

This was completely unlike a certain other dragon who was still lying in bed, tossing and turning, muttering curses under her breath while trying to hex a straw doll with words alone.

Aurina slept in Richard’s bedroom. 

Ever since the day she scorched the floor with her flames, Sophia—who found it all too troublesome—had stopped insisting Aurina sleep with her. 

Aurina sprawled atop a thin pile of gold coins, poking it with her claws to test its depth. It felt considerably thicker than before.

She opened her mouth, reached inside, and pulled out the small patched coin pouch Richard had given her. 

It was the money he’d used to buy her clothes—the very first pouch of “gold” she owned after being reborn. 

Aurina opened it and gazed at the silver coins, copper coins, and the rare gold coins inside. 

They were pitifully few compared to the pile beneath her.

This king is great.

A smile spread across Aurina’s face.

In less than half a year of traveling with Richard, she had amassed this much wealth. 

It was proof of her own greatness. 

Without her unique wisdom and unparalleled eye for bugs, wealth would never multiply so quickly.

The moment she thought of her world-shaking intellect, Aurina decided she should levy a wisdom tax on Richard. 

Without her, how could that strongest little bug have acquired so much money? He absolutely ought to pay her tax.

When it came to taxes, Aurina felt it was one of the greatest inventions of bug society.

Without question, Richard should hand over twenty-one twenty-firsts of his income as wisdom tax.

Wait—was it twenty-one twenty-firsts, or twenty twenty-firsts?

Aurina sat up on her pile of gold, looked down at her toes and tail, and started counting.

Clearly, twenty twenty-firsts was bigger than twenty-one twenty-firsts. 

Therefore, Richard had to give her twenty-one twenty-firsts of his earnings as wisdom tax.

Satisfied with this conclusion, Aurina happily flopped back onto the gold pile and fell into deep sleep, snoring loudly.

Snow-white dream bubbles rose from her little head. 

Inside one of them, she dreamed she had mastered every weakness of bugs, including the fiancée curse.

“No… it can’t be… it can’t be you!”

“Gahaha! Kneel before this king’s claws!” Aurina shouted. 

“Pay your taxes!”

“AAAAHHH!” 

Richard screamed. “No, no, anything but that!”

With that, Richard knelt and offered up his gold with both hands, glittering brilliantly.

Aurina snatched the wisdom tax and tossed it onto the mountain of gold behind her. 

Then a thought struck her.

If the wisdom tax was twenty twenty-firsts, then as long as she gave Richard twenty gold coins, he would give her twenty-one.

With that in mind, Aurina glanced at the radiant mountain of gold behind her. 

A dragon’s hoard—how could it ever be offered to another dragon? 

Let alone to a mere bug.

Absolutely not. 

Never. 

But then she saw Richard crying.

“Fine, take it! A royal bestowal from this king.”

Aurina grabbed a clawful of gold and scattered it over Richard.

“Be grateful for the bounty of the strongest, most tyrannical red dragon champion who reigned undefeated for ten consecutive terms—the King of Kings!”

“Taxes!” 

Aurina stretched out her claw and roared. “This king’s wisdom tax!”

Richard knelt again, weeping as he handed over even more gold coins.

Aurina seized them and flung them onto the mountain.

“Gahaha! Only this king could devise such a flawless plan!”

As Aurina cackled madly, Richard’s voice rose from below. 

Unlike the earlier servile tone, this one carried the scent of blood and killing intent.

“You’re in a dragon’s lair right now, aren’t you?”

Aurina suddenly realized that sturdy stone walls had risen around her at some point. 

She looked left and right—the entrance to the lair was sealed tight.

She looked down. 

Richard had become a shooting star hurtling straight at her.

The taste of blood spread across her tongue. 

She tried to speak, but blood surged in her mouth. 

Her eyes spun, and she saw Richard standing atop her head, dragon-slaying sword in hand.

Aurina’s eyes snapped open.

Her faintly glowing golden eyes shone in the darkness. 

She looked around—she was still in the bedroom, but Richard was no longer in bed.

Aurina leapt up, not even bothering to tidy the gold-coin bed beneath her. 

She lightly stepped over the ruby decanter and the staff, ran to the window, gently pushed it open, and saw a shooting star streaking across the night sky. Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief.

As long as I can fly into the sky, I am invincible.

The fear in her heart vanished.

Wait—where did that little bug Richard go?

He wouldn’t be secretly hiding his weakness, would he?

The moment the word “weakness” crossed her mind, Aurina pulled out the notebook recording Richard’s weaknesses from her mouth, not forgetting to grab a quill as well. 

She sniffed the air, trying to catch Richard’s scent.

Finding nothing, she tiptoed forward—moving only with her big toe and second toe—silently pushed the door open.

The door, which should have creaked when turned, made not the slightest sound.

Aurina credited this to her unparalleled stealth skills. 

She crept into the corridor without a sound, yet faintly, she heard the crack of a whip. She recalled hearing the same sound before, back in Sophia’s stone nest.

Oh, right—it was that female bug Sophia whipping Richard.

Could this be a crucial component of the fiancée curse? Aurina’s eyes literally lit up. She tossed the notebook and quill into her mouth, lifted her leg, and turned into a red whirlwind, dashing toward the source of the sound.