He had never even been in love.
And then he suddenly awakened to a strange passion for raising children. It was truly... miraculous. He had skipped dating and gone straight to raising a child and becoming a father. He had never dared imagine such a thing before.
Evil Dragon Lance's gaze fell on the young dragon as he wondered: If he raised the young dragon for several hundred years, or even a thousand years, would she suddenly call him "Dad" one day? "C-can you go a little easier when you hit my head? H-humans have said that when hitting a child, you can't use too much force while they're still young, or you might make them stupid."
Seeing the evil dragon look at her, Lucia hurriedly covered her head with her dragon claws. She was afraid he would smack her head with his tail again.
The evil dragon's dragon punches had hurt enough, but she had never expected his tail smacks to hurt even more. She hadn't really wanted to learn from that ancient person the way she had just claimed.
She simply wanted to wait until she returned to the imperial capital and show off to that stinky Imperial Sister. She could say that she had seen the idol her stinky Imperial Sister wanted to surpass at the evil dragon's place and had even spoken with her face-to-face. As for learning from her, that was merely an excuse.
She didn't dare learn that ancient person's ideals.
That ancient person had dared to start the God War, but she didn't. She could only think that in her heart and didn't dare say it aloud. Come to think of it, had the evil dragon just used some strange form of self-address?
Had the evil dragon really said the word "father"? She hadn't heard clearly. Should she ask him? Or should she not? What if the evil dragon hit her again? She felt like crying.
What princess from any kingdom got beaten by an evil dragon at the drop of a hat? Once she returned to human form, the evil dragon would definitely be captivated by her beauty.
By then, forget beating her—perhaps the evil dragon would even carefully coax her during meals.
When she slept, he might even take the initiative to sing her lullabies.
After spending some time together, the evil dragon would kneel on one knee and propose to her. Her beauty was unparalleled, capable of overturning entire kingdoms—that was how Eva had praised her.
Eva was such an honest dark curse witch. She was the least capable of lying.
"I'm not as violent as you imagine. Don't think of me as such a bad person."
"..."
"You've said that several times, and you've beaten me several times."
The young dragon complained about the evil dragon inwardly.
"Smok-smoke. It's smoking."
"What's smoking?"
"...That pitch-black scythe you left in the study is emitting black smoke."
While avoiding the evil dragon's gaze, Lucia happened to notice the black scythe the evil dragon had left in the study emitting black smoke.
It was exactly the same as the scene when the Death God from Hell had contacted the evil dragon before.
Was the Death God from Hell contacting the evil dragon? Hadn't the evil dragon resigned from his position as Trainee Death God?
"Don't worry about him."
The evil dragon raised a dragon claw and crooked a finger at the Death God Scythe in the study. The Death God Scythe, which was emitting black smoke, spun through the air toward his dragon horns and vanished.
"Um... could it be the Death God from Hell contacting you?"
"It's bedtime. Even if the Death God himself came, he couldn't make me move an inch. Go to sleep. If it's really urgent, he'll contact me again tomorrow."
"..."
Arrogant. Far too arrogant. How could a Trainee Death God—no, more precisely, an expired Trainee Death God—be this arrogant? It was bedtime, and he wouldn't even give the Death God from Hell the time of day?
"Could he be sending you your back pay?"
"You're overthinking it. Solomon is the poorest of all the death gods. There's no chance he's sending back pay. He might ask me to return the wages I received while slacking off, though."
Lance closed his slit pupils. It was bedtime, and even if the Death God came, he shouldn't dream of making Lance move.
Arrogant, overbearing, and poor. After complaining about the evil dragon inwardly once more, Lucia turned over, facing the wall with her back to the evil dragon, and began working up some sleepiness.
It was the second day since the evil dragon had captured her, and she still hadn't found a chance to escape.
She had been beaten once more than yesterday, though. Sleep, sleep. When she woke up tomorrow, she still had to crash into the tortoise. She also had to wash the tortoise's shell. She had to remember to ask the evil dragon for a brush tomorrow morning. After letting her thoughts run wild for a while, Lucia curled up her dragon body and fell deeply asleep. Sleeping in the evil dragon's lair meant she didn't even need a blanket.
"Good morning, young dragon."
"Good morning, evil dragon. Ah, no—good morning, Lance."
It was another day of being forcibly awakened by Evil Dragon Lance.
The young dragon yawned, got up, and followed Evil Dragon Lance outside the Dragon Lair in a daze.
The morning sunlight spilled across the young dragon's face. Facing the rising sun, the young dragon yawned and weakly waved a dragon claw at it. "Good morning, Mr. Sun."
The evil dragon walking ahead turned his head and glanced at the still somewhat groggy young dragon.
Calling the sun "Mr. Sun"? Tsk, she was trying to claim kinship.
In this world, the deity symbolizing the sun was the God of Light.
Most myths were like that.
As for whether the God of Light was actually the sun, Lance didn't know.
In a mythological world, anything was possible.
It was hard to say.
"Lance, does nurturing your health really have to start this early? I think sleeping until you wake naturally is also a way to nurture your health. What do you think?"
"I think you have a point."
"Then can we sleep until we wake naturally tomorrow to nurture our health?"
"Sure."
Today's evil dragon was unexpectedly easy to talk to.
Facing the rising sun, they began their health-nurturing routine.
She had practiced along with the evil dragon yesterday, so this morning's Life Nurturing Exercise ended in no time.
Next came listening to Evil Dragon Roar.
The evil dragon had said yesterday that listening to Evil Dragon Roar would help her grow stronger.
She listened, then once again woke up choking on seawater and dog-paddled her way back.
Her back didn't hurt today, so it seemed she hadn't hit anything when she fainted.
Breakfast was scallion flatbread. It tasted all right, but it wasn't as good as roast meat.
Er Gouzi ate two flatbreads and ran off to the orchard. Apparently, Er Gouzi liked meat as much as she did.
Before breakfast, she had gone to feed the tortoise. The tortoise said it didn't want Er Gouzi bringing it breakfast and complained that Er Gouzi's breath stank.
"For this morning's lesson, we'll continue learning Dragon Language through pinyin. You learned the 'dragon' in 'giant dragon' last night. Next, you'll learn the Dragon Language words that can form compounds with 'dragon.'"
"Oh."
Father, Mother, far away in the imperial capital, you might not believe this, but on the third day since the evil dragon captured me, he was teaching me Dragon Language again.
I suspect that when the evil dragon turned into a human and visited the human world, he used to be a teacher.
"Don't get distracted. Listen carefully."
"I'm not distracted, I'm not distracted. Learning Dragon Language makes me happy."
Evil Dragon Lance finished the lesson, and Death God Solomon from Hell contacted him through the Death God Scythe.
He hadn't answered Solomon's projection call last night, and now Solomon was calling again.
The Death God Scythe flew out from Lance's dragon horns and hovered in the air before him.
Lucia, lying nearby, saw Evil Dragon Lance grow smaller.
She hadn't understood it last night, but now she did.
The evil dragon growing smaller meant that his identity was no longer Evil Dragon, but a druid.
A druid who could transform into an evil dragon.
A light flickered on the pitch-black scythe, and the Death God from Hell, his entire body shrouded in a black robe, appeared before the evil dragon through the projection.
It was the same death god from last night.
The evil dragon had resigned from his position as Trainee Death God, so why was this Death God from Hell still looking for him?
Could it be that he wanted the evil dragon to return the Trainee Death God's scythe?
"Why are you wearing this ugly form again?"
"..."
In Hell, one really could do whatever one wanted. Even loudly calling the evil dragon ugly was apparently fine.
Before you continue