Pandora, the Dragon Girl

As he stood on the back of the giant dragon Gregory and flew all the way here, Richard had wondered what Gregory's daughter would be like.

At first, he thought she would be a relatively small dragon. Compared with Gregory's enormous, fighter-jet-like body stretching more than ten meters long, she might be four or five meters long and weigh several tons. Though she would count as a "mini dragon," she should still have more visual impact than a giant crocodile.

Not long ago, Gregory had transformed into a sallow-faced, burly middle-aged man. Richard then thought that if his daughter had a human form, she should be a muscular, sturdy girl around 1.7 meters tall, like the female athletes in Modern Earth's weightlifting events.

But Richard had not expected his daughter to look completely different.

A petite figure walked up from the foot of the mountain, slowly drawing closer. What finally entered his sight was a human girl of only seven or eight years old, about 1.2 meters tall, purple from head to toe.

Her hair was purple, like lilacs, smooth and natural. Her clothes were purple, like lavender, giving off a faint fragrance. Her eyes were purple, like two violet gemstones, crystalline and clear. The pendant at her fair neck and the bracelet on her slender wrist were purple as well, like purple stars fallen from the sky, shining brilliantly.

She seemed like a girl who had walked out of a purple world.

The purple girl—Pandora!

But more eye-catching than her appearance was her aura, an extremely aloof, stay-away-from-me aura.

In her gaze as she walked and in the aura she exuded, she seemed to be expressing the same meaning at every moment: Don't provoke me. Don't look at me. Don't come near me. And especially don't talk to me! With a tap-tap-tap, the dragon girl named Pandora passed by. She cast Richard an incomparably cold glance, then turned her head away and walked off icily into the Black Castle.

She gave Richard the impression of a high-energy young girl character named Ai Haibara from Detective Conan.

"So the father and daughter live separately?" Richard muttered as he stood where he was. "But this daughter seems a little different from what I imagined." He shook his head afterward. If he had been kidnapped to serve as the playmate of a girl like this, it would probably be far more complicated than he had thought.

But that was not important. What mattered was continuing his research and uncovering the truth of this world. Even giant dragons had appeared—just how many wondrous things were still waiting for him in this world?

At dusk.

In the open space between the Black Castle and the dragon's cave, a bonfire had been lit, crackling and popping. A plump wild rabbit was roasting over the flames. Fat slowly seeped out of the rabbit meat, flowing over its surface like gold. Every now and then, it dripped into the fire below with a sizzle, and its fragrance quickly spread through the air.

Movement sounded within the Black Ancient Castle. Accompanied by tap-tap-tap footsteps, the girl named Pandora walked out and stopped three or four meters from the bonfire, staring at it.

Richard turned to look at her, his eyes flickering. Pointing at the rabbit over the fire, he asked, "Want some?"

The purple-haired girl did not answer. Her cold gaze remained unchanged. She did not seem to crave the food at all; rather, she seemed to be expressing dissatisfaction and a warning, something like... Rabbits are so cute. If you dare eat rabbits again, then I... will eat you.

Without a certain degree of mutual understanding, silent communication was destined to be difficult, especially when one party's expression never changed.

Richard's eyes flickered as he asked again, "Are you hungry?"

"..." There was no answer. It was as if she could not understand him at all.

Richard raised an eyebrow. When he had communicated with Gregory, they had used the continent's current common language without any issues. But perhaps Gregory had only learned it because of his long life. If so, Pandora might not speak the common language and instead spoke another one.

"Puton Language?" Richard asked in a different language.

"..." No answer.

"Kelin Language?" Richard switched to another language.

"..." Still no answer.

"Fiji Language?" Richard tried a third language.

"..." There was still no answer.

"Asga Language? Masike Language? Lakda Language? Monpa..." Richard began testing her continuously with a fourth, fifth, and sixth language.

Having lived in this world for fifteen full years, Richard had mastered many things quite thoroughly, especially languages. While it was impossible for him to master every language in the world, his knowledge was broad and covered every major language family, all in preparation for exploring the world.

After all, this was a real world. Richard did not believe that everyone on an entire continent would speak the same language.

But the problem now was that even after he had tested all the languages from the seven or eight language families he knew, Pandora had shown no reaction whatsoever.

"In that case..." Richard turned the rabbit over the fire and did not give up, considering other methods.

Language was the most important means of communication for intelligent creatures—humans—and the primary way they communicated. Generally speaking, languages arose in specific environments to meet the needs of life, and those environments inevitably left their particular marks upon them.

From a biological perspective, various languages had evolved from certain ancestral languages in special environments. Based on their kinship, they could be divided into language families, then branches, then sub-branches, and finally individual languages.

Simply put, languages possessed a four-level relationship: "language family → branch → sub-branch → language."

At their source, the foundation of language was those specific ancestral tongues. Languages under the same ancestral tongue might differ greatly, but not fundamentally. Some were even quite similar, such as Chinese and Japanese. As long as one determined the other party's language family, communication barriers could be reduced significantly. It might be impossible to communicate fluently in a short time, but simple meanings could still be expressed.

Since the language families of this world could not be used to communicate with Pandora, what about some languages from Modern Earth? Earth's linguistic system was far larger, with thirteen language families, forty-five branches, and countless sub-branches and individual languages.

In that case...

Having made up his mind, Richard did not hesitate. Looking at Pandora, he selected several widely used languages from the thirteen language families and began testing them one by one.

"English? Sanskrit?" This was a test of the Indo-European language family.

"..." Pandora showed no reaction whatsoever, merely looking at him coldly and strangely.

"Finnish?" This was a test of the Uralic language family.

"..." Pandora still showed no reaction.

"Mongolian?" This was a test of the Altaic language family.

"..." Pandora continued to show no reaction.