Chapter 31: The gluttonous little silver dragon

The duty room was pitch black, so dark you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face.

Prunier raised her hand and waved it in front of her eyes.

She couldn’t see anything.

Her red pupils emitted a faint glow in the darkness, but that light wasn’t enough to make out anything—it only cast a weak red halo on her own face.

“Hui?”

No one answered.

“I was only joking about the electricity bill. They actually cut it off?”

Still no answer.

She stood up, stretching her arms out in front of her like a penguin, groping blindly in the duty room.

Her fingers touched the edge of the metal desk—cold.

To the left, she touched an enamel mug.

To the right, the wall.

Straight ahead—nothing.

She took a step forward.

And then she bumped into something.

Soft.

Warm.

About chest height.

“Huh?”

That something moved.

“Xiao Ami?”

From the darkness came a very faint response, like a kitten’s mew.

“…Captain.”

Prunier’s hand touched the top of the other’s head.

White hair, slightly tangled, feeling like a ball of tangled silk thread.

It was indeed Ami.

“Not sleeping? Why are you here?”

“I’m hungry.”

Prunier’s hand froze on top of Xiao Ami’s head.

Well.

She had indeed brought instant noodles earlier.

But Hui had confiscated them.

So it was as if she hadn’t brought anything.

“Xiao Ami.”

She lowered her voice a little, trying to sound like a reliable adult.

“Can you go back to your room first? It’s not safe for a girl to be out alone at night.”

“I’m hungry.”

Prunier’s scalp began to tingle.

‘Dark Night clan’.

Vampire.

Though Xiao Ami was still a child, looking no older than twelve, and didn’t bite very hard, she was still Dark Night clan.

When a Dark Night clan member gets hungry, they suck blood.

‘There were a few people in this building who could act as blood bags. She herself counted as one. Red Dragon blood—strong enough. Wei counted. Hui counted. Orlando counted. But you couldn’t use your own people as fodder, right?’

“I’ll call Wei. Xiao Ami, wait a moment.”

She turned and felt for the duty desk.

Her hand swept across the surface—account books, reports, enamel mug.

Her bag had been taken by Hui, but it only had instant noodles, not her phone.

Her phone was charging in the dorm.

Phone.

The duty room had a landline.

She found the handset, picked it up, and put it to her ear.

No dial tone.

No sound at all.

As if the other end of the line was connected to a vacuum.

She pressed the flash button twice.

No use.

Twice more.

Still no use.

“Uh.”

She put the handset back.

“Almost forgot.”

“No power.”

Xiao Ami didn’t respond.

But Prunier could feel those red pupils watching her in the darkness.

Quiet.

Patient.

Like a cat crouching in the corner, not crying, not fussing, just waiting.

Prunier scratched the back of her head.

“Xiao Ami, how about this. I’ll take you to the cafeteria.”

Cafeteria.

Olivia was squatting on the floor behind the counter, holding a radish in both hands.

Crunch.

Sweet juice seeped from the break, trickling down her fingers.

She didn’t bother to wipe it.

Her silver pupils glowed like two little lanterns in the darkness, illuminating the radish in her hands—already more than half eaten.

Crunch crunch crunch.

One radish finished.

She tossed the root aside and reached for the basket next to her.

Found another.

Pulled it out.

Crunch.

Five radish carcasses lay scattered on the floor.

Some tipped over, the broken ends covered in fine, dense tooth marks.

One was only half-eaten before being discarded—that half was a bit woody, the core hard, chewing like wood.

Her eating manner was probably an entire Aotelan continent away from her identity as the “Silver Dragon Princess.”

She hadn’t eaten anything all day.

In Orlando’s form, she had been dragged by Wei La to work as a maid, crouched under a table at the café, had her makeup removed by Zijiang, was mocked by Wei, and finally fell asleep exhausted.

Her stomach was completely empty.

After turning into Olivia, a dragon’s metabolic rate was who knew how many times that of a human.

She was so hungry she could eat an entire cow.

Crunch crunch.

Sixth radish.

This one was especially sweet, full of moisture, and crunchy when bitten.

She was halfway through eating it.

The Silver Dragon’s hearing caught two sets of footsteps.

One light, one even lighter.

Coming from the stairwell, moving toward the cafeteria.

Olivia stopped chewing.

She slowly placed the remaining half-radish on the ground without making a sound.

Her silver pupils turned toward the door in the darkness.

The hem of her oversized shirt lay on the floor.

Her bare feet pressed against the floor, a cold sensation rising from the soles.

Knees slightly bent, center of gravity lowered.

Silver pupils fixed on the shadow approaching the door.

Prunier’s footsteps had already reached the entrance.

Fuzzy slippers slapping against the wooden floor—pat, pat, pat.

Xiao Ami’s footsteps followed behind, almost no sound.

No time to run now.

The door would be pushed open.

Prunier would walk in.

And then—

Olivia took a deep breath, bit down on the half-radish, and shot out like an arrow from a bow.

She lowered her head, her silver hair trailing in a straight line behind her.

Her bare feet made almost no sound on the floor.

With the speed of a Silver Dragon, in this completely dark environment, her body found the optimal route faster than her mind—from the counter to the door, through the gap between two rows of long tables, a sidestep to avoid the doorframe.

And then she collided with a soft, small something.

Xiao Ami.

The two tumbled to the floor in a heap.

The half-radish flew out of Olivia’s mouth, arcing through the air, rolling into some corner unknown.

She landed on top of Xiao Ami, her silver hair spreading out, covering Xiao Ami’s face.

The hem of the oversized shirt flipped up, exposing her thighs completely to the air—chilly.

Xiao Ami let out a muffled groan under the weight.

“What happened? What happened?”

Prunier’s voice came from the door.

Footsteps quickened.

Fuzzy slippers—pat, pat, pat.

Olivia sprang off Xiao Ami.

The movement was so fast it was almost teleportation.

Her silver pupils swept through the darkness—Prunier was crouching down to help Xiao Ami up, red twintails hanging to the floor.

Xiao Ami lay on the ground, using her hands to brush the silver hair off her face.

“Looks like someone’s here.”

Prunier looked up.

Olivia darted past them.

Like a mouse discovered by a cat, her whole body low to the ground, silver hair trailing behind her like a white streak of light.

Bare feet stepped across the floor, across the threshold, across the wooden planks of the corridor.

No sound.

A Silver Dragon’s movement in the darkness is quieter than a cat.

As the tips of her hair brushed past Prunier’s face, a single silver-white strand was carried by the draft, drifting lightly down to land on Prunier’s nose.

“…Ah-choo!”

Prunier sneezed.

The red twintails shook with it.

She rubbed her nose, and her fingers touched that silver-white hair.

She pinched it and lifted it to her eyes.

In the darkness, she couldn’t see anything.

But her Red Dragon bloodline told her the color of that hair.

Silver-white.

Very long.

The same as the one she had picked up in Orlando’s room.

‘Whose hair is this?’

She muttered to herself.

Xiao Ami got up from the floor, white hair in a mess, red pupils faintly glowing in the darkness.

She didn’t answer Prunier’s question.

Instead, she extended a hand, pointing toward the depths of the cafeteria.

“Hey, hey, hey.”

Prunier followed the direction of her finger.

“That one’s not for eating—”

She stopped mid-sentence.

Deep in the cafeteria, on the floor behind the counter, lay several radishes scattered in disarray.

Some were half-eaten, some were just roots.

The tooth marks at the broken ends were fine and neat, as if some small rodent had visited.

But a rodent wouldn’t have neatly lined up the radishes.

And it wouldn’t have specifically picked the sweet ones and discarded the woody ones.

Prunier stared at the pile of radish remains for a moment.

Silver hair.

A white figure that flashed through the corridor.

The silver hair found in Orlando’s room.

And an appetite as exaggerated as a dragon’s.

She crouched down and picked up a half-eaten radish.

The tooth marks at the break were neat—not like a beast’s tearing, but nibbled off bit by bit with incisors.

Like a rabbit.

Like a hamster.

Like—a starving Silver Dragon princess squatting on the floor, devouring radishes like crazy.

Prunier stared at that radish for a moment.

Then the corners of her mouth slowly curled up.

“Interesting.”

She put the radish down, stood up, and dusted off the ash from her hands.

“Xiao Ami, let’s go. There’s nothing to eat in the cafeteria. The radishes have all been gnawed clean by a rat.”

Xiao Ami looked up at her, red pupils blinking.

“…A rat?”

“Yeah. A silver rat. A very hungry one.”

Prunier turned around, and her fuzzy slippers went pat, pat, pat toward the door.

The red twintails swayed in the darkness.

Xiao Ami followed behind her.

When she reached the door, she turned back and glanced once more into the depths of the cafeteria.

A flash of red pupils in the darkness.

Then she turned her head, the hem of her cloak dragging across the threshold, and disappeared into the darkness of the corridor.

Olivia rushed into the room, slammed the door shut behind her, and pressed her back tightly against the door panel.

Her silver pupils were wide open in the darkness.

Her chest heaved violently, the collar of the oversized shirt sliding off her shoulder, revealing half a pale shoulder.

Her bare feet pressed against the floor, toes curled, as if trying to nail herself into the wood.

The corner of her mouth was still stained with radish juice, sweet, forming a stark contrast with her current mood.

Only one thought remained in her mind, scrolling from left to right like a barrage of comments—

‘Prunier probably didn’t see anything. Didn’t see didn’t see didn’t see didn’t see didn’t see didn’t see didn’t see didn’t see didn’t see didn’t see.’