Kidnapped by a Dragon

Rumble! Rumble!

Amid thunderous noise, a black four-wheeled carriage drew closer and closer to the royal palace. Driving it was a burly man in black, wearing a full suit of chainmail beneath his clothes that made him look bulky. Anyone who got close enough would recognize him as the Third Steward of the "KGB" shop.

Inside the carriage compartment were numerous burly men dressed the same way. Their gazes were steady but faintly excited. They all knew they were about to carry out an extremely critical mission, one that had to succeed.

The burly man in black whipped the horses madly, driving the carriage forward at its fastest speed. At the same time, he shouted to his companions inside the compartment, "You should all know what matters most in this mission: speed! We need to rendezvous with Prince Richard in the shortest possible time, then withdraw quickly. No matter what obstacles we encounter, we must eliminate them at any cost. Now, check your equipment!"

"Yes." The burly men inside the carriage jolted as one and immediately began inspecting the variously sized bundles beside them. Inside were technological weapons far beyond the current era: combat blades forged from special alloys, crossbows capable of accurate shots beyond two hundred meters, and powerful yellow powdered explosives...

Rumble! Rumble!

The carriage continued onward when the burly man in black suddenly spotted something. The next moment, he looked up, his eyes widening slightly and his mouth falling open. "What is..."

At the same time, in the royal palace, William's soldiers suddenly looked up at the sky as well, their faces filled with utter shock. "Th-this..."

Richard frowned slightly and looked up with them. Then his pupils contracted.

A massive shadow swept across the sky without warning. A terrifying monster came howling out of nowhere. Its wings beat slowly, its neck curved slightly, and its jaws opened.

Richard could not help recalling the enormous, blurry black shadows he had seen several times while using Astral Projection, when his consciousness drifted through the night sky.

This—

Roar!

With an earth-shaking roar, a huge mass of scorching flames spewed forth, pouring down over the royal palace like lava. The raindrops in the air instantly boiled into white vapor, while one building after another caught fire.

Beneath the dark sky, the flames flickered, reflecting off the faces of the stunned crowd.

A dragon. A dragon that had appeared without warning, so abrupt and unexpected that it brutally crashed into everyone's sight.

"Dragon! It's a dragon!" Someone shouted, and then everyone began screaming as they scattered like frightened birds and beasts, fleeing in every direction.

At this moment, there was no difference between princes and soldiers. They were all merely insects fleeing in panic beneath the Fire-breathing Dragon's flames.

Richard had no idea where William had been taken by the soldiers. Before long, the entire square had emptied. The palace behind him burned fiercely as Richard narrowed his eyes and examined the dragon circling in the air.

The dragon continued its rampage, repeatedly spewing great masses of flame and setting every part of the palace ablaze, spreading terror in all directions.

Richard's eyes flickered.

The so-called dragon was clearly a Western dragon, one of the Demonized Creatures recorded in the Chapter of Munro. It possessed a lizard-like body and wings on its back, watching everything through huge, cold vertical pupils. From time to time, it opened its jaws and breathed fire.

"Interesting."

Richard muttered, but the next instant, his pupils shrank.

The world before him suddenly darkened. The dragon's body abruptly dove down, and the air around it surged wildly from the force of its descent, making his robe rustle loudly.

The next moment...

Inside the royal palace.

The soldiers, who had only just managed to settle down, began fetching water to put out the fire.

Several soldiers carried the unconscious William on their backs and kept shouting, "Physician! Physician! The king has fainted! Hurry, physician..."

Outside Blue Lion City.

Within the courtyard of an abandoned village, personal guard soldiers climbed out of an underground passage one after another. Bill looked toward the royal palace, watching the flames rise ever higher. His eyes flickered as he muttered, "Prince..."

Inside Blue Lion City.

The four-wheeled carriage had stopped on a bluestone road. The burly man in black stared at the dark shadow flying higher and higher, as well as the black speck on its back, and cursed, "Damn it, that dragon snatched Prince Richard away!"

"Then... what do we do?" The burly men in the carriage compartment all froze.

"What else can we do? Follow the plan Prince Richard laid out beforehand. Execute Plan Number Four."

"Yes..."

Flap—flap—flap—

The dragon beat its wings and continued climbing. Richard sat on its back, inspecting some of the little items inside his suitcase. Though some of them were small, their power was astonishing. Others could be modified for high-altitude gliding and escape.

After finishing his inspection, Richard relaxed slightly. Although the dragon beneath him had not shown any particularly strong hostility, he was still accustomed to having some means of protecting himself.

Looking at the dragon below him, Richard recalled what it had said earlier, his eyes flickering. "Gregory, right? Hmm, you said you kidnapped me, a prince, just to find a playmate for your daughter? Isn't that reason a little too forced?"

Roar! The dragon did not answer and merely continued climbing higher and higher as the temperature around them began to drop.

Richard let out a soft breath, looked at the dragon, and tried asking other questions.

"How are you flying?"

"..." The dragon remained silent.

Richard began to speculate. His gaze swept over the dragon's entire body. He stared at its wings for a moment, then shook his head.

Generally speaking, neither a creature nor an object could simply fly because it wanted to. There had to be some logic to it, some science. To fly, it either needed a special structure like a bird's, or a special power source like an airplane or rocket.

Yet judging by its appearance, the dragon clearly did not possess the special structure of a bird. To achieve flight, every part of a bird's body had made compromises through evolution.

For example, feathers covered the outside of its body. They not only preserved warmth, but also gave it a streamlined shape that reduced air resistance.

Its bones were also hard, thin, and light, hollow and filled with air. Its skull was a complete whole, while the vertebrae throughout its body were connected together. Hook-like projections on its ribs linked them together, reducing weight while enhancing its flying ability.

Then there were its special lungs, which created "double respiration," and its simplified excretory system. All these structures ensured that when a bird flapped its two wings and stirred the airflow, it could generate enough downward resistance to stay aloft.

Compared to that, the dragon had no feathers at all, only scales. To support its enormous body, its bones had to be solid, with great density and strength.

Its two wings only flapped occasionally, serving merely to adjust its altitude and direction. The downward resistance they generated was practically nonexistent. Even if it continuously beat its wings, given the dragon's size and weight, it could not possibly fly unless it flapped hundreds of times per second.

Yet in reality, the dragon flew steadily through the air.

Richard pressed his lips together. Could it have some special power source inside its body? An engine like an airplane's?

Hmm, no propeller, so it clearly isn't a turboprop engine. Then it should be something similar to a jet engine—constantly expelling high-speed fluid from its body and using the recoil to generate thrust for flight.

Then according to basic logic, the place where it expels gas should be at the very rear. That would be...

Richard suddenly stood up, walked several steps along the dragon's back, and tried to look beneath its tail.