I Have a Turtle Friend

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After slamming into the turtle three hundred times with all her strength, Lucia climbed to her feet, then weakly crouched down on the ground with her back against the turtle.

It felt as if all the bones in her body had been smashed apart by her own attacks.

With the dragon not there to supervise her, she really didn't need to be so honest. If she used only half her strength, the dragon wouldn't know, and she wouldn't be suffering this much.

Whenever such thoughts arose, Eva's words to her would surface in her mind.

Your Highness, if you don't work hard and you cheat, do you think you're fooling me? Your teacher? In truth, Your Highness, you're only fooling yourself. The knowledge you learn will become your foundation, and the strength you gain through cultivation will make you more confident, outstanding, and beautiful.

The dragon had told her to slam into the turtle with all her strength. What benefit was there to cheating? The benefit was that she wouldn't have to hurt all over like she did now.

What benefit was there to not cheating? Lucia thought for a long time, but for the moment, she couldn't find any.

How should she put it? She could tell that the dragon didn't have any ill intentions toward her, this Amethyst Dragonling.

From the dragonling's perspective, the one being deceived by cheating wasn't the dragon, but herself, the dragonling.

From a human's perspective, she wasn't really a dragonling anyway, so what was wrong with cheating? Fine, from a human's perspective, the reason she didn't cheat wasn't because she didn't want to, but because she was afraid the dragon would beat her up. Her fear of the dragon really was engraved in the bones of the human princess.

No more resting. The longer she rested, the more it hurt when she moved even slightly.

She should say hello to the turtle.

Until she found a chance to escape this place, she would probably have to keep ramming into the turtle's shell with all her strength for a long time to come.

She would get acquainted with the turtle first. Once they became familiar with each other, she could quietly discuss having it cooperate and roll over. No, forget it. If she flipped the turtle over, the dragon would make her ram into a mountain.

The turtle's shell was already this hard. The mountain the dragon found for her would definitely be even harder than the turtle's shell. Eva had been right after all. Sometimes, cheating could end up hurting oneself.

Lucia grimaced as she walked toward where the turtle's head was.

The turtle's head wasn't tucked inside its shell.

"Hello, Turtle. My name is Lucia. I hope those attacks just now didn't hurt you."

To make sure the turtle could see her, Lucia deliberately walked farther away. In dragonling form, she wasn't particularly small either. Her dragon body was over ten meters long, and when she crouched on the ground, she could see the turtle's head, eyes, and nose.

The turtle should be able to see her too.

If only the turtle could talk.

The pet raised by the dragon, the Hellhound Er Gouzi, couldn't speak human language. The dragon could understand its dog language, but she couldn't.

The turtle was so huge that it probably couldn't speak either. If it could, then when the dragon had brought her here earlier, the turtle should have taken the initiative to greet the dragon.

The amusement in Lucia's slit pupils vanished. "I forgot you can't speak. I don't even know whether you can understand what I'm saying."

"Turtle, if you can understand me, could you nod?"

The turtle nodded. It could understand what the dragonling before it was saying.

"You understand me?!"

The turtle nodded again.

Surprise appeared in Lucia's slit pupils. It was good that it could understand her. If it could understand her, that meant they could communicate.

"Can we be friends?"

The turtle nodded.

The dragonling was willing to be friends with a turtle like it. It was so happy it could hardly contain itself.

Unlike that Er Gouzi. Whenever it saw the turtle, it only wanted to crush it to death with its shell. Its mouth was foul, and it loved showing off in front of the dragon, Lance.

Did it really need Er Gouzi to feed the turtle?

No! Ever since Er Gouzi had taken over feeding duty, all the vegetables the turtle received had fallen out of the dog's mouth. It was disgusting.

The worst part was that Er Gouzi loved arguing back, saying that Lance had given it a Rabies Vaccine, so there were no viruses in its mouth and the cabbages, radishes, and corn were perfectly clean. It really wanted to accidentally roll over and crush that Er Gouzi to death one day.

"Turtle, I didn't hurt you when I rammed into you just now, did I?"

The turtle nodded. A dragonling this small couldn't hurt it. As long as the dragon, Lance, didn't ram into it, everything was fine.

If the dragon, Lance, rammed into it, it would die right in front of him.

No, it couldn't die.

If it died, the dragon, Lance, would turn its shell into a house.

The turtle twisted its body and looked around. Seeing no sign of the dragon, Lance, nearby, it waved a claw at the dragonling, signaling for her to come closer.

Dragonling Lucia understood. She walked over beside the turtle's head. "What's wrong, Turtle?"

"Shh, keep your voice down. I'll quietly tell you a secret. I can actually talk."

"Ah, you can?"

"Keep your voice down. Keep your voice down. Keep your voice down. Don't let the dragon, Lance, hear us."

Lucia covered her mouth with a dragon claw and looked around like a thief. Only after seeing no sign of the dragon did she lower her claw and ask softly, "Why don't you want the dragon, Lance, to hear us talking?"

"The dragon, Lance, doesn't know I can speak."

"Huh? You never told the dragon that you could speak?"

The turtle shook its head.

"Why not tell him?"

The turtle twisted its body again and glanced around. Seeing that there was still no sign of the dragon, Lance, it cautiously said, "I know too many of the dragon, Lance's secrets. If he finds out I can talk, he'll butcher me."

"It can't be that scary, right? You're his pet. He shouldn't do that... right?"

"He will. A long, long time ago, he was chatting with me when a mosquito flew by. The mosquito died beneath his Dragon Breath. He said, 'It overheard me talking for so long. I can only kill it to silence it.'"

"..."

Lucia trembled. In the future, whenever the dragon talked to himself, would she have to cover her ears?

"Dragonling, let me give you some advice in secret. You absolutely, absolutely mustn't drink the dragon's medicine recklessly."

"Why?"

"Do you think I'm big?"

"Big."

"Actually, I was just an ordinary little turtle at first. Then one day, the dragon, Lance, dug me out of a mud pit and took me away. And so... my tragic yet somewhat legendary turtle life began.

"At first, the dragon, Lance, rescued me because he wanted some company. He said that turtles could live for ten thousand years, and that since I could live that long, perhaps I could look after him in his old age and see him off when he died. After that, my nightmare began. The dragon, Lance, didn't have many friends back then, so he told me everything. Even when I fell asleep, he would pry open my eyelids and make me listen to him talk. Gradually, he was no longer satisfied with me being just a listener. He wanted me to speak and converse with him. Then my nightmare truly began. The dragon, Lance, started researching strange herbs and learning how to prepare them. As soon as he had brewed or boiled a potion, he would feed it to me. Sometimes, after drinking a potion prepared by the dragon, Lance, I could run faster than a rabbit.

"Sometimes, after drinking a potion prepared by the dragon, Lance, my turtle head would become even bigger than my shell.

"The most frightening time was when I drank the dragon's potion and grew two little wings on my head. It almost scared me to death. And there's more—"

"???"

"What else, Turtle?"

"Dragonling, he brought medicine."

The dragon, Lance, approached from afar, carrying a bowl of herbal medicine.