“Terrifying,” Aurina said while leaning back.
Richard asked, “Aurina, don’t you want your cat anymore? It ran away.”
Aurina said, “When the cat gets hungry, it’ll come back naturally.”
“I’ve heard that the Dread Dragon’s descendants are all over the world,” Sophia said. “It’s normal for there to be blood relations between you all.”
“Right, right,” Aurina said, puffing up with pride again.
“Besides the powerful bloodline in me, which other dragon could give birth to such an ancient and impressive family?”
They chatted for a bit and decided to go with the flow, staying in the assigned rooms and eating the delicious meals provided by the ship owner, Frostsilver.
Aurina, unusually, didn’t pester Richard anymore, instead ordering him to make tasty food as tribute to offer her.
The seas were calm.
Not only was the sea surface calm, but the ship was peaceful too.
Frostsilver just didn’t host any banquets for them or dine with them; they ate what they should, drank what they should, the three of them gathering for meals.
Of course, before each meal, they had to use detect poison.
Seeing the detect poison, Aurina then thought of the shapeshifter.
She smacked her lips, ate a plate of fried squid, and said, “It’d be great if I could eat a humanoid monster octopus.”
In a distant place, the shapeshifter, transformed into a bear curled up in a cave, suddenly sneezed.
She stuck her head out, looking left and right, feeling unsafe everywhere, so she crawled out of the cave and scampered away.
Sophia, counting on her fingers, said, “Ten days—we have ten more days until we get back home and get married. Lord, bless us so nothing happens during this time.”
Richard said, “I’ll go see the commander and check if the ice has melted.”
Sophia clasped her hands in prayer. “Merciful Lord, protect us. No reanimations, no lightning storms, no mysterious deaths on the ship. Just let us safely and peacefully return with the remains of our elders who fought bravely.”
Richard’s figure disappeared through the door.
Aurina fiddled with the phone, frantically sending messages to Frostsilver asking how much money she had and such, while asking Sophia, “Sister Sophia, what are all these things you’re talking about?”
“All things we’ve encountered,” Sophia said. “We were just having a nice boat ride with Richard, and a passenger we met yesterday mysteriously dies today. Turns out the ship was heading to a death island, and the captain wanted to drag us there as sacrifices.”
“Quack, like that,” Aurina said, her interest piqued. “Anything else?”
Sophia began pouring out her grievances.
“Another time, a perfectly normal outing, and we happen to run into a count’s family transporting clan corpses, so we travel together. Then there’s lightning, some mysterious astrological timing, and the old count reanimates at night, secretly biting and eating people. We finally discover the culprit, thinking it’s our specialty. But then, he awakens all the corpses in the graveyard.”
“Mm-hmm.” Aurina saw a line pop up on the phone screen saying something about being blocked—what does blocked mean? She wondered while sending a message to Richard. “So, weren’t there a lot of valuable, shiny things?”
Sophia said, “That graveyard had buried nearly a thousand years of corpses. Later investigation—nothing surprising, just ordinary clan infighting over property.”
Aurina said, “That doesn’t sound too bad?”
“I’ve calculated it,” Sophia said. “In one year with him, we’ve run into exactly twenty similar incidents. Every time we go out, we get dragged into all sorts of messes. I can’t even remember how many shady cults we’ve eradicated or how many various conspiracies we’ve thwarted.”
“No wonder,” Aurina realized belatedly. “This king collected so many treasures just by riding him—no surprise from the strongest little bug. Richard’s really great.”
Sophia said, “I just want to get home safely and live a plain life from now on. Lord, forgive me—I know there are still many suffering people in the world, and we can do a lot, but I’m really tired.”
“A dragon’s life without treasures is destined to be an utter failure.”
“Right, Aurina, I heard you supported the empress’s ascension according to Yanting Empire tradition, and got the entire palace’s treasures, including the part belonging to the Dread Dragon—is that right?”
“No,” Aurina said. “It was a gold vault, and we split it evenly. Hmph, Richard’s so bad—you have to pull his ears more. He actually wanted us three to split it, including Frostsilver. But good thing this king scared Frostsilver off, so only the two of us split the money.”
Sophia’s body involuntarily leaned forward, her prominent and ample chest pressing against the table as she asked, “How much?”
“The vault was this big.”
Aurina spat out fire from her mouth, her fingers grabbing the airborne fire and scribbling in the air, quickly drawing a picture—it was of the gold vault.
In the vault sat three people, tiny compared to the entire vault, making the vault seem even larger.
As a dragon, she naturally exaggerated a bit.
“That big?” Sophia stared at the piled-up mountains of treasures in the vault. “What’s this?”
She pointed at the piled-up mountains of treasures.
Aurina looked—wasn’t that her own shit?
It was her shit, quack quack, half as great as this king.
Aurina wanted to say that, but her head buzzed, telling her it was best not to talk about such unpleasant things while eating, or else he’d immediately use that “strongest little bug’s proudest, most terrifying, most domineering, strongest, 100% accurate head-knocking ultimate move” on her.
The dragon believed it could hit her even as she kept shaking her head.
The strongest little bug would surely go all out with a move unmatched in the entire world.
Aurina said, “That’s the treasures.”
Sophia was stunned. “That much? Really?”
Aurina couldn’t help recalling everything her nose and eyes had sensed when she saw it.
All the sensations surged back.
“Really a lot,” Aurina said, her appetite waning. “That emperor was so lazy, didn’t even clean properly, just let it pile up in the vault. Heard he went to look at it every day.”
As soon as she spoke, the fire-drawn picture dissipated in the air.
Sophia gazed at the fading fire and said, “I’ve heard a lot, but I didn’t expect that much.”
“Stop talking about it.” Aurina scooped up a lump of chocolate with her spoon. “Such disgusting food.”
“But that’s said to be food from the new continent.”
“Black like dust.”
“If you won’t eat it, I will,” Sophia said, then asked, “Aurina, I heard the empress originally wanted to invite Richard to be regent king, right?”
“Shoot-zheng king?” Aurina tilted her head and asked her. “What weird thing is that?”
Sophia breathed a sigh of relief. “Then there wasn’t.”
“She just wanted to invite Richard to fuck her.”
Sophia sucked in a breath. “What?!”
“I don’t know why,” Aurina said. “Anyway, our group climbed over the wall, and after Richard pushed that princess’s butt over the wall, she said something about little bug society weird rituals. Anyway, said Richard should best fuck her.”
“Did… did he agree?”
“He didn’t,” Aurina said. “Really, saying he has a fiancée and all. So weird—why would humans pass up the chance to spread their offspring? Even if not spreading offspring, it’s you happy, me happy.”
Sophia half-breathed a sigh of relief. “Good he didn’t agree, or he’d be in trouble.”
“Why would he be in trouble?”
“Because I’d twist his ears off.”
Aurina lifted her head; under her butt was a stack of books, used to prop up the dragon’s dignity and height.
It was a compromise after Richard used violent means several times to keep her from eating on the table.
Her large golden eyes stared roundly at Sophia as she said, “What nonsense are you saying? With one holy fist from him, you’d probably fly backward.”
“I’m his fiancée.”
“Quack, that makes some sense.” Aurina opened her mouth, reached in with her hand, and pulled out her notebook, quickly flipping through it. It was filled with what she considered Richard’s weaknesses.
Seeing the fiancée spell, Aurina suddenly realized, “So that’s how it is.”
She’d forgotten—one of her goals was to analyze the secret of the fiancée spell.
“What’s this? I think I saw the words ‘dragon weakness.'”
Aurina opened her mouth and quickly tossed the book inside.
“Wow, your eyes see so clearly.”
“My innate perception is beyond ordinary,” Sophia said. “I think you and Frostsilver really are similar.”
“Similar?”
“How to put it?” Sophia said. “Let me try and see if I can have a vision.”
“What’s a vision?”
Aurina tried hard to recall—in her dragon lair, the dancing green-skinned shaman would stuff all sorts of messed-up mushrooms into his mouth, then go crazy, saying he saw this, saw that, even saw great-grandma.
Do green-skins have great-grandmas?
“You’re not going to eat mushrooms, are you?”
“Under coincidental circumstances, I can have visions, seeing things ordinary people can’t, seeing the essence of things,” Sophia said. “Last time, on you, I saw the Dread Dragon flapping its wings.”
Aurina’s tail dropped at once, her ten toes gripping tight, but she trusted her astounding wisdom and asked, “And then?”
“It means you’re the Dread Dragon’s descendant.”
“Quack, of course,” Aurina said. “So this king will definitely be the greatest dragon ever.”
Sophia nodded. “Next time we meet Frostsilver, you two get together, and I’ll see if I can have a vision.”
“Sure,” Aurina said happily.
The pack beast is such a good bug, not only bringing endless treasures, but the females around him all have unique skills.
Thinking this, she dumped the food on the plate into her mouth.
The table was empty, so she shouted, “Servant! Bug servant! Hurry and bring up the tribute!”
Several days later.
Frostsilver’s luxurious ship sailed steadily and slowly along the coastline toward Haisha Port.
Aside from encountering an assault by about a hundred kuo-toa fishmen, nothing happened.
Frostsilver invited the guests on the ship to join a small banquet together.
The gnome hell knight held a plump, fat cat and said, “Dragon, this is your cat, right?”
“That’s not its name,” Aurina said loudly.
“It’s called the unbeatable under heaven cat cat orange dragon who bites four to death in one go! It has dragon blood flowing in it—it’s a dragon descendant.”
Everyone heard, and some people’s gazes shifted to Frostsilver, then to the cat in the gnome hell knight’s hands.
This time, the gnome hell knight said with a straight face, “Dragon, if you want to insult my lady, then I think this cat’s life can serve as an insignificant price.”