Chapter 48 : Returning Home Suddenly

Aurina strode back to her usual sleeping spot with an air of nonchalance, opened her mouth, and spat out a heap of gold coins.

With a flick of her tail, she arranged them neatly into a shimmering bed.

Spreading a sky-blue cloak over herself, she curled up on the golden blanket and drifted back to sleep.

Richard, who had been watching her silhouette, snapped out of his daze.

Yet, he still reeled from the shock of Aurina’s unexpected discourse on matters of intimacy—a conversation that had left him staggering, as though he’d just clambered ashore from a flood of scandalous revelations, trembling with the aftershock of survival.

It was jarring, to say the least.

Aurina, so small and adorable, spoke of such things with the confidence of a seasoned romantic, making Richard feel like a naive child in comparison.

The longer he spent with Aurina, the more he realized he’d been treating her like an innocent, clueless girl.

But she was a dragon, after all.

Shock aside.

Richard retrieved the cooking pot from the horse’s saddle, packing away their belongings.

As he tidied, he reflected on his earlier thoughts and cringed at his own sentimentality.

Perhaps it stemmed from his childhood, when this very matter had made him a target of bullying and isolation at the orphanage.

But he knew not everyone could accept the darker secrets he carried.

Aurina, though, was different—different in a way that made such things seem as mundane as eating or drinking.

Spreading his sleeping bag on the ground, Richard glanced at Aurina’s tiny form nestled beneath her sky-blue cloak.

At least now, there was one more soul in the world who didn’t mind his shadowed past.

He closed his eyes and fell into a restful slumber.

The next day.

Richard prepared a massive pot of food.

For once, Aurina didn’t pounce on the meal, allowing Richard to eat his fill alongside her without resorting to fisticuffs to secure his portion.

“Not bad, not bad,” Aurina said, patting her deceptively flat stomach as she lounged on the ground, her tail lazily sprawled.

“Your apology cooking is top-notch. You didn’t skimp on the secret spices this time, did you?”

“Why’d you eat so little today?”

Richard asked.

“Burp. Figured out the ‘eat-till-you’re-broke’ tactic wasn’t working,” she replied.

“Eat-till-you’re-broke tactic?”

“Nothing!”

Aurina’s guard went up.

The cleverest of bugs was indeed clever, cooking a feast to catch her off guard after she’d eaten her fill.

“Burp.”

Richard chuckled.

“With your appetite now, the meat in the dimensional bag should last us ten days on the road. No need for resupply.”

“Come here,” Aurina demanded, stretching out her arms and chanting in her little-girl voice, “I’m still just a little girl, you know!”

To the great satisfaction of the Red Dragon Queen, Richard obliged.

She clambered onto his shoulders, perched there, and promptly dozed off, snoring softly as she rode.

She slept so soundly that Richard gently lifted her feather-light body from his shoulders, marveling at how someone who ate so much could weigh so little.

Where did all that food go?

Placing her on the saddle, he mounted the horse and carried her onward.

Three days later.

In a clearing within a wilderness forest, a towering pyramid of gold gleamed under the sunlight, four stories high.

Silk ropes suspended a dazzling array of golden treasures, clinking together in the breeze with a sound that could make any miser’s heart race.

“Aurina!”

“Aurina, there’s gold here!”

“Louder, put some spirit into it!”

“Yes, Lady Champagne Countess!”

Frostsilver sat on a self-levitating chair, a fan magically cooling her as she gazed at the verdant mountains.

Frowning, she muttered, “Where is that dragon?

Richard wouldn’t dare lie to me—hmpf, he hasn’t got the brains for it.”

Even as she said it, she pinched her fingers, casting a spell to use a tracking marker she’d secretly placed on Richard to contact him remotely.

A green flame flickered and died at her fingertips.

“Clever boy,” she said.

“He found and destroyed my little gift.”

“Aurina!”

“Louder!” Frostsilver barked.

“I refuse to believe we can’t find her.”

Upon learning Aurina had left, Frostsilver had rallied a team overnight to track her down.

Aurina was the true treasure of the dragon’s hoard, more precious than any gold.

They’d worked tirelessly, with arcane eyes scouring the skies, yet Aurina remained elusive.

Unbeknownst to Frostsilver, Aurina was busy elsewhere—playing her game of “ride and skewer.”

Gripping a spear, she twisted her small waist, her slender arms thrusting the weapon with precision.

The spear pierced the face of a two-meter-tall gnoll.

“Gah! Another puny bug squashed by my hand!”

Aurina crowed, perched atop Richard’s head, her tail spinning with glee.

“Daring to challenge my height, you puny bug!”

“Aurina, they’re closing in!”

Richard called.

Carrying Aurina, he drove his sword through a gnoll’s hide armor, felling it.

Two bloodthirsty gnolls, eyes blazing red, stepped over their fallen kin, roaring as they charged.

To the gnolls, Richard was an outrage.

He’d slain over a dozen of their pack and now dared to face their remaining thirty, carrying a little girl on his shoulders.

Single combat?

He charged straight into their midst, fearless, as if they were beneath his notice.

“So many puny bugs!”

Aurina declared.

She took a deep breath, her cheeks puffing out.

With a twist of her waist, she unleashed a torrent of searing flame from her mouth, engulfing four or five gnolls in an instant.

She spun her head in a half-circle and back, the fire finally subsiding.

Screams filled the air.

The six gnolls caught in the brunt of her dragon’s breath writhed for mere seconds before collapsing into smoldering corpses.

Those behind them, shielded by their fallen comrades, survived—barely.

The gravely wounded rolled on the ground, trying to douse the flames clinging to their fur, while the lightly injured or unscathed fled in all directions, their courage shattered.

As they ran, they howled:

“Woof! Fire! It’s fire!”

“The fire-breathing tin can!”

“Woof, woof, woof!”

Richard pursued one gnoll, cutting it down, then surveyed the now-quiet battlefield.

“I killed nearly twenty, and they still came at us.

But burn six or seven with fire, and they scatter like roaches.”

“Gah, no doubt because they’ve witnessed my magnificence!”

Aurina boasted.

A wounded gnoll writhed on the ground, howling.

Richard approached, and Aurina thrust her spear—only to find it had become a charred stick, the upper half reduced to charcoal, the spearhead gone.

“Gah, my ninety-six-copper spear’s ruined!” she wailed.

Richard pinned the gnoll and finished it with a single thrust.

“Aurina, you burned another weapon. That’s the third time. I’m not buying you another.”

“It’s not my fault!” she huffed indignantly.

“The bug who made this weapon clearly didn’t account for dragon’s breath!”

“Just avoid hitting it when you breathe fire.”

“It got in my way!”

Richard shook his head.

At that moment, the sound of hooves echoed through the valley.

Drawing his sword, Richard turned toward the entrance.

A group of armed riders galloped down the path, reining in their horses upon spotting Richard and Aurina.

They shouted, “Who are you? Bandits or heroes?”