Several days had passed since Mers moved in. Although Mayuna never gave him a pleasant look, she tacitly allowed him to sleep in the little wooden cabin. At least there was a bed there, and it offered some shelter from the wind and rain.
"Wrong answer."
By the beautiful lake, Ruben was teaching Mers proper values. A human teaching a dragon how to be a dragon was strange no matter how one looked at it, and Mayuna, holding a fishing rod, kept glancing over at them.
"Huh? I can't eat them?"
Confusion filled the black dragon boy's eyes. Ruben had posed a simple multiple-choice question—when you were hungry and a traveler riding a horse appeared before you, what would you do?
A. Eat both the person and the horse. B. Eat the horse and leave the person. C. Eat the horse after obtaining the horse owner's consent. D. Give up and look for wild game.
"Wasn't it because you ate Mayuna's unicorn that she kept hating you? Haven't you learned anything from that?"
Ruben patiently guided the young black dragon. Mers chose B without hesitation, and that was only because humans did not taste good. Ruben knew the black dragon's personality, so he deliberately gave him two acceptable answers. C and D were both fine, but clearly, the black dragon's values were not so easily corrected.
"Boring!"
The black dragon was annoyed. When children encountered something they disliked, they naturally chose to avoid it. He reached into the food box for the snacks Ruben had brought. Only tasty food could interest him.
"Those are my snacks."
"They're mine now."
Mers held a piece of cake and was about to bite into it when he stopped. Countless sharp ice spikes had appeared around him at some point, the nearest one already pressed against his neck. Naturally, the caster was the ruthless mage girl.
"When you take something from someone else, you should also think about how it feels to be robbed, like this."
Ruben snatched the cake from Mers's hand and took a light bite. Naturally, Mers shot him an intensely resentful glare.
"You can use your overwhelming strength to rob others, but someone stronger than you can rob you as well. You can't tell how strong someone is just by looking at them. What if it's a trap? You'd still step right into it without hesitation."
Ruben was doing this for Mers's own good. In truth, it was very easy for humans to use their clever minds to trick dragons. There had been a successful dragon-slaying case in the history of the Holy Continent. The mastermind spread word everywhere that he was incredibly wealthy, claiming he possessed enough gold coins to pave an entire town. In fact, he had deliberately paved a road through his territory with gold coins.
Before long, a dragon came after hearing the news. Hundreds of ambushing mages rushed it all at once and caught it completely off guard. It had been a premeditated dragon hunt, but humans could not exactly be called despicable for it. The dragon had simply been too arrogant about its own strength. After that, dragons became a little wiser, at least no longer robbing others so openly.
"But us dragons rob people."
Mers brought up his people's ancestral teaching. Every intelligent creature on the Holy Continent had to be mentally prepared to be robbed by dragons from the moment they were born. It was an unwritten rule.
"Even robbery has levels. For example, an ordinary person's mother suddenly falls ill. He takes all his savings and brings her to a healer to save her life, but then you suddenly appear and steal his money. His mother dies because there's no money for treatment. Can you really say her death has nothing to do with you?"
"I..."
The black dragon was speechless. Even with his values, he could not say it had nothing to do with him.
"In fact, dragons have never robbed the weak since ancient times, unless what they possessed was truly appealing to a dragon. Otherwise, they usually robbed wealthy families. As for how to know whether someone is wealthy, you have to investigate yourself. Make full use of your ability to transform and enter human society, find an opportunity, and strike in one blow. Running around wildly like you do definitely won't work."
"Hey, hasn't this lesson gone off track? Why are you teaching this brat how to rob people?"
Mayuna had originally been secretly nodding along with Ruben's lesson, but suddenly felt that something was wrong. With an amused expression, she spoke irritably.
"I'm not arrogant enough to think I can change an entire race's habits. Besides, every world has nobles rich enough to drown in money. Losing a little won't hurt them. I'm sure they'll be very willing to contribute their money to powerful dragons."
Ruben's words were practically selling out the interests of a great many nobles. If anyone caught him saying that, he would probably face severe punishment. Mayuna merely laughed.
"That's enough about robbery. Next is killing. What Mayuna hates most about you is that you don't value human lives and slaughter innocents according to your whims."
"Then if I never kill another human, will my wife accept me?"
"I don't think so. I'm not telling you never to kill people again, but to distinguish between those who should be killed and those who should not."
"You can do that?"
The black dragon's values shattered once again. This human had finished teaching him how to rob people and had now begun teaching him how to kill. He started wondering whether this person was a dragon spy planted among humans—assuming dragons had the brains for that.
"Although I'm human too, some people deserve to die. For example, people who threaten your safety. You said it yourself, didn't you? Every part of a dragon is valuable. Those greedy for such treasures will naturally take desperate risks. It doesn't matter if you kill people like that. The moment they set foot on that path, they've already prepared themselves to be killed."
"Really? My wife won't be angry if I kill people like that?"
After receiving some guidance, the black dragon had a rough idea of what he should do in the future. But the most important thing was whether his fiancée would be happy about it.
"..."
Mayuna did not answer. She merely turned her face toward the tranquil lake in silent agreement. She had never had any favorable opinion of desperadoes. Those who called themselves dragon slayers only wanted the treasures on dragons' bodies. Killing such people was no great loss.
"But come to think of it, you're surprisingly upright for a human. Normally, shouldn't you stand with your own race and help your own people?"
"Because humans are incomplete creatures to begin with. The conflicts within humanity surpass those of any other race. It's the same in every world."
Ruben rubbed the black dragon's small head. Mers did not understand those words, but Mayuna could. Just as she was about to say something to Ruben, the shadow beneath the water finally could not resist any longer and leaped from the lake.
Splash.
"Ruben... Pwah!"
The same angle, the same leaping mermaid. Mayuna's magic barrier was just as quick as ever, so Aqua crashed into it once again.
"You again! Why did you use a magic barrier to ambush me?"
Aqua rubbed her flattened nose, furious beyond belief. The plan had been to throw herself into Ruben's arms, but this woman had ruined it again.
"Sorry. I thought some filthy thing had come out."
Mayuna might have apologized with her mouth, but there was not a hint of apology on her face. She looked exactly as if she had seen something disgusting. Especially when she remembered having used a mermaid's bathwater in the past, the disgust on her face deepened even further.
"You little... Oh? There's someone new here, and he's a man."
Aqua had been about to fight Mayuna to the death, though the likely result would have been her becoming grilled fish. But when she saw Mers, she stopped, pressing a finger to her chin in thought.
"Don't tell me you're wondering whether you can mate with him?"
"Mm. A dragon, huh? We mermaids have never mated with dragons before. What a pity he's too young."
Aqua shook her head in disappointment. Mers was only the second male she had seen besides Ruben. After thinking it over, she decided it was better not to make a move.
"You were actually thinking about it! He's just a kid, you fish trash!"
"What the hell is fish trash?! It's one thing for you to control Ruben, but are you going to control every other man too?"
"Don't bother. My heart will always belong to my wife."
Mers more or less understood that this mermaid had improper intentions toward him. But as a faithful young dragon, he had always remained firm in his stance, and he earnestly rejected Aqua.
"Eugh... You scumbag."
This time, Aqua had gained the upper hand. Looking at Mayuna's face, already half-black with anger, her eyes curved into crescents as she spoke in an infuriating tone.
"I need to properly explain this to you—with violence!"
"Before that, Ruben, shield! Come on, then. If you've got what it takes, blast both of us into pieces."
Aqua used Water Splash. She jumped onto Ruben, wrapped both arms around his waist, and shouted arrogantly.
"You despicable mermaid!"
Well, Mayuna had been caught by her weakness. She did not want to hurt Ruben, so she could only abandon the dignity of a mage and grab Aqua's beautiful fish tail for a hand-to-hand fight.
"Why are you pulling me? Go be lovey-dovey with that dragon. Ruben is mine now. Don't tell me you're trying to have it both ways!"
"I told you it's not like that!"
"Oh, it bit."
Ruben did not watch the two rivals bicker. He picked up the fishing rod Mayuna had set aside and gave it a few gentle tugs. Soon, a large fish was pulled ashore.
"Interesting!"
"You're naming fish too?!"
After that, with no suspense at all, Mayuna carried the large fish named Interesting home under Ruben's orders. The sight of her panting with exhaustion as she headed home left Mers completely stunned. No matter how he looked at it, Mayuna did not seem suited to carrying fish! And why was she listening to Ruben? Was this human stronger than Mayuna?
So it was Ruben > Mayuna > Mers? That hierarchy of power left the black dragon unsettled for a long time. Only when Ruben finished preparing an all-fish feast and called him to eat did the delicious fish dishes slightly mend the black dragon's emotional wounds.
P.S. Please bookmark and recommend.
P.S. Taking in underlings is not happening.
Before you continue