The Evil Dragon's Former Lover?

Why did it smell so bad? Even going three days without bathing shouldn't make someone smell this bad.

"Lance, do I have some strange disease? Am I... am I about to die? Otherwise, why would I smell so bad?"

The young dragon spoke in a trembling, tearful voice. Healthy people didn't start giving off a foul odor for no reason. Only someone who was sick might smell like this.

"Don't scare yourself. You're not sick. You became so foul-smelling because you drank a bowl of medicinal liquid this afternoon that can improve your constitution. It forces all the toxins, impurities, and filth in your body out.

"Go wash yourself in the sea. When you're done, remember to rinse yourself with the island's fresh water too."

The evil dragon Lance spread his wings, pinched his nose, and flew away.

"..."

Lucia breathed a sigh of relief. As long as she didn't have some strange disease, everything was fine. Still, the evil dragon pinching his nose as he flew away had been a little excessive.

She turned her head and sniffed herself again. Gag. It really did stink terribly.

Lucia flapped her wings and flew toward the sea. She couldn't stand the smell on herself either.

Dinner was roasted beast legs.

Perhaps because she'd exercised so much that afternoon, Lucia ate three roasted beast legs. Even she was shocked by how much she'd eaten.

If her appetite remained this astonishing in the future, would she become fat by the time she turned back into a human? She definitely would! No, no, no. She absolutely couldn't eat herself into a fat person. Starting tomorrow, she couldn't eat meat buns in a single bite or finish a roasted beast leg in two or three bites anymore.

She had to stop eating once she was eighty percent full.

If she really became as plump as the evil dragon Lance, Eva might not even recognize her when she returned to human form and went back to the imperial capital.

The evil dragon did the cooking, while the young dragon handled the housework.

Er Gouzi returned to the orchard with two beast leg bones in his mouth. They were the bones left over from the evil dragon's meal.

She gave Er Gouzi the bones from her own meal, but Er Gouzi didn't even look at them. Both dog heads remained fixed on the beast leg bones in the evil dragon's paws.

Were the bones that the evil dragon had eaten really that fragrant?

For a moment, she even felt an urge to taste them and see whether they were truly so delicious.

Fortunately, she quickly crushed that somewhat perverse thought.

Eva had cursed her into becoming a dragon so she could escape the pursuit of the stinky Imperial Sister, not so she could completely let herself go.

"Lance... I ate a little too much at dinner and want to walk around the island for a while. Is that okay?"

"You don't have to be so cautious. Treat this place as your own territory."

"Thank you."

After receiving the evil dragon's permission, Lucia dashed off in a flash.

Night had fallen. It was the perfect time to catch field mice and rats, and she hoped she would have some luck tonight.

When she had been human, she hadn't dared catch rats or field mice. Now that she was a dragon, no matter how frightening rats and field mice were, could they really be more frightening than a young dragon like her? Once she was out of the evil dragon's sight, Lucia pretended to stroll around for a while before heading straight to the cornfield.

Field mice and rats loved to wreak havoc on crops. Lying in wait in the fields was sure to work.

She couldn't wait around aimlessly. She had to look for holes first. Wherever there was a hole, there was bound to be a rat or field mouse.

Some cats in the imperial capital did the same thing when hunting rats.

She had seen it several times.

After searching the cornfield for nearly half an hour, Lucia found two or three holes. She crouched not far from one of them and waited for a field mouse or rat to poke its head out. That wait lasted another half an hour.

She ran out of patience and decided to dig the hole open to see whether there were any rats inside.

She opened the first hole, but there were no rats.

She opened the second hole. There were some dead branches and dried grass inside, but no rats.

She opened the third hole. There was nothing at all. How could there be no rats in such a huge cornfield?

The young dragon refused to believe it and continued searching.

After finding nothing in the cornfield, she went to the Vegetable Garden nearby. She searched it from end to end, but still found nothing. Forget rats—she hadn't even seen a single dropping. She had wasted two whole hours.

She had been misled by Guigui.

The evil dragon could restrain his dragon's might, and his aura was no issue. But Black Dragon Island was his territory, and he often walked around it. Naturally, his scent would be left throughout the island from time to time.

Small animals like rats, birds, and other creatures simply didn't dare linger on the island, let alone reproduce and live there.

She wouldn't look anymore. She would return to the Dragon Lair and listen to the evil dragon's lesson.

The evil dragon Lance was squatting in the study, staring at several human portraits hanging on the wall.

Lucia walked over to the evil dragon and glanced at him before following his gaze toward the human portraits on the wall.

There were two human portraits. One depicted a tall woman wearing a brown leather jacket and leather trousers, with a Felt Hat on her head. She sat atop a staff floating in midair, watching the scene ahead with an ambiguous smile.

The other portrait showed a tall, rugged-looking man holding a greatsword. In the painting, he gazed forward and laughed heartily.

He looked like an adventurer. Perhaps he had even been the evil dragon's friend in the past.

Was the evil dragon looking at the paintings and thinking of someone?

Who was he looking at—the man in the painting, or the woman who looked so charming? Come to think of it, there were so many human portraits in the evil dragon's study. Was he in any of them? There were portraits of individuals as well as groups.

Could the evil dragon, in his human form, be among the group portraits?

She was curious.

With the evil dragon Lance's enormous dragon body, he would probably become a man built like a bear when he took human form, right? As for his appearance... thick eyebrows and large eyes?

Broad shoulders and a sturdy waist?

The young dragon imagined it in her mind and felt that this image suited the evil dragon Lance quite well. Perhaps the man holding the greatsword in the portrait before her was what the evil dragon Lance looked like in human form.

And the striking, captivating woman beside him was the person the evil dragon had liked in human form.

Was the evil dragon thinking about his former lover?

At dusk, the evil dragon had said he had never been in love. Who would believe that? Was he trying to fool a child? An evil dragon who had lived for 3,455 years and often transformed into a human to visit the human world claimed he'd never been in love. Who would believe that?

At any rate, the Imperial Daughter didn't.

"The big sister in this portrait is so handsome. Is she... your friend? Or your enemy?"

She didn't dare ask directly whether the woman was his lover, afraid she would be hit. "Which one?"

"This one."

The young dragon pointed her claw at the rather handsome woman in the portrait.

"Her? I'm her creditor. See the clothes, trousers, shoes, and hat she's wearing? She borrowed money from me to buy all of them, promising to give me an extra gold coin as interest once she made money.

"In the end, forget the interest—I didn't even get the principal back."

"Huh? She borrowed money and didn't pay you back?"

"It's not exactly that she never paid me back. A few times, she borrowed money from me and did repay it. But later, there were a few times when she borrowed money and didn't pay me back."

"Why didn't she pay you back the last few times?"

"How can the dead repay their debts?"

"..."

"How did this big sister... die?"

"I heard the town where she lived was hit by the Beast Tide. Then she released a Forbidden Spell by force despite being a rank below the required level, and kicked the bucket."

She had died in the battle when the Beast Tide attacked the town? No, with the evil dragon around, how could this big sister have died in a battle against the Beast Tide?

"You didn't participate in that battle?"

"I slept through it. By the time I woke from my slumber, she had already been dead for three years."

Poor big sister, your luck was terrible. If the evil dragon hadn't been asleep, you might have had a chance to become the evil dragon's lover. You wouldn't have died in battle either.

"You miss this big sister?"

"Yes. I was wondering why, when I used necromantic magic to summon her, I couldn't summon her from hell."