The young dragon was furious.
After being angry for a while, she grew frightened. What if there really were field mice in the cornfield and Vegetable Garden? Would the evil dragon Lance really prepare them after catching them, roast them, and make her eat them? Would he make her eat them one crunchy bite at a time?
No, no, no! She absolutely refused to eat field mice. She wouldn't eat them even if they were roasted.
Tonight, she would plow through the cornfield and Vegetable Garden to see whether there really were field mice.
If there really were field mice, she would roast them for Er Gouzi to eat.
Er Gouzi could eat so much meat that he probably wouldn't mind eating a few skewers of crunchy field mouse meat.
"Do you remember your date of birth?"
"I vaguely remember. I think it was October 16th."
Using Imperial Daughter Lucia's date of birth as the young dragon Lucia's date of birth should be fine, right? They were both her, anyway.
"Why are you asking?"
"It's a secret."
"."
A secret, huh? Normally, when an evil dragon asked a princess for her date of birth, it was definitely because he wanted to choose a suitable day for their wedding.
When an upright and handsome knight asked a princess for her date of birth, it was because he wanted to prepare a birthday present and surprise her.
At the thought of an upright and handsome knight, Lucia's heart ached faintly.
In the Farolyn Empire, an Imperial Daughter who had turned sixteen could select three upright and powerful knights to become her Guardian Knights.
She had been only a few months—just a few months away from having her own Guardian Knights—when the evil dragon Lance, passing through the Farolyn Empire, had captured her as a real young dragon. Fortunately, she had always had a Guardian Knight by her side.
Eva.
In her heart, Eva was her Guardian Knight.
Originally, Lucia had planned to grant Eva the status of Guardian Knight during her coming-of-age ceremony at sixteen.
That way, Eva could walk openly beneath the radiance of God of Light.
The sudden arrival of the evil dragon Lance had disrupted many of her plans. She had thought the evil dragon who accepted the Hellfire bounty mission would go to the human world. She hadn't expected him to outsource the bounty mission through a projection call.
Her chance to leave the island and return to the human world was temporarily gone as well.
She continued practicing writing Dragon Language. Since she couldn't escape, she would honestly enrich herself with knowledge.
Picking up her pen, Lucia suddenly remembered something. Did the evil dragon Lance know his own date of birth?
A dragon that had hatched from its egg without parents to care for it—would an evil dragon know its date of birth?
"Lance, do you know your date of birth?"
"I do. April 25th, Year One of the Black Dragon Calendar."
Write it down, write it down. The evil dragon's birthday was April 25th of the Black Dragon Calendar.
Lucia wrote the Black Dragon's date of birth in her diary.
Her memory wasn't very good, so she wrote it in her diary to keep from forgetting.
To make sure she would remember the evil dragon Lance's birthday, she deliberately wrote it on the first page of her diary.
April 25th had already passed. Today was June 20th.
Then next year. On April 25th next year, she would make the evil dragon Lance a birthday cake.
The evil dragon gave her food and drink and taught her Dragon Language. Within the limits of what she could do, she would work hard to repay him.
Fortunately, Eva had taught her how to make cakes while they were in the imperial capital. Otherwise, she wouldn't even have been able to give the evil dragon a surprise.
Wait, April 25th next year? Wouldn't that mean she still had to live with the evil dragon for a whole year? A year! Once she returned to the imperial capital, would any nobles, ministers, or knights still support her becoming emperor?
No, no. She still had to escape as soon as possible. At worst, once she became emperor, she could personally make the evil dragon Lance a huge cake.
"Lance, when are you planning to outsource the Hellfire bounty mission?"
"Tonight. There will be more people from the Bounty Guild then."
"Oh."
It seemed the evil dragon Lance truly had no intention of going to the human world himself to post the bounty mission.
"Get your paper and pen ready. I'm going to test you."
"Huh? Test me on what?"
"Dragon Language word formation. Last night, you learned how to write the word 'dragon' in Dragon Language. Just now, I explained some Dragon Language related to the word 'dragon' as well.
"Now, I want you to use the Dragon Language word for 'dragon' to form compound words."
"I can do that. Evil dragon, Black Dragon, young dragon, Amethyst Dragon, Golden Dragon—"
"Enough, enough. You can barely be considered to have learned the compounds with 'dragon' at the end. What about compounds with 'dragon' at the beginning? How many can you read aloud in Dragon Language?"
"Dragon hatchling, dragon baby, dragon blood, Dragon Tendon, Dragon Meat, dragon horn, dragon scales, Dragon Bone, dragon—"
Lance couldn't listen any longer. He had asked the young dragon to form compounds with "dragon" at the beginning, but she had vividly taken apart an entire giant dragon.
She became more and more excited as she spoke, and the pronunciation of her Dragon Language grew rather strange as well. That would take time. Her accent would probably improve only after she could recite an entire passage of Dragon Language smoothly.
"Hehe, Lance, am I a little amazing?"
"Amazing, amazing, very amazing."
He couldn't dampen the young dragon's enthusiasm for learning Dragon Language. Whenever possible, he had to praise her. Some children grew smarter the more they were praised.
The young dragon's pace in learning Dragon Language was all right. She had learned how to form words in two days. That evening, he would teach her some more Dragon Language and have her make sentences with it.
"Write the Dragon Language I taught you several more times. As you write, focus on feeling it. See if you can sense anything from the Dragon Language."
"Oh, oh, oh."
Lance, who was lying on the giant rock sunbathing, closed his vertical pupils and began to doze.
Lucia lay beside him and obediently began writing the Dragon Language she had just learned that morning.
She also had to write the pinyin above each piece of Dragon Language.
Since she had only just started learning Dragon Language, writing the pinyin was rather friendly to her as a fake young dragon.
"Lance, don't go to sleep yet. I have something else to tell you."
"Go ahead."
"Can you give me a brush? I want to scrub Turtle's shell this afternoon."
"Go get one from the workshop. There should be brushes there."
"Oh, oh, that's all. Go to sleep."
The evil dragon fell asleep.
He had fallen asleep not long after closing his eyes.
How nice. He could fall asleep as soon as he wanted. The evil dragon definitely had no troubles.
An evil dragon with troubles wouldn't be this comfortable and carefree.
What should she eat for lunch? Now that the evil dragon was asleep, it seemed she had to make lunch herself.
Grilled fish, then.
She would have Er Gouzi go into the sea to catch fish, and then she would make grilled fish for Er Gouzi and Turtle.
Grilled fish should be simpler than grilled meat.
If she accidentally burned it, they could make do with eating it.
After deciding what to eat for lunch, Lucia peacefully resumed practicing the Dragon Language she had learned that morning.
Then, when lunchtime arrived, they ate boiled corn.
Er Gouzi had gone into the sea but hadn't caught any fish.
She had also gone into the sea to catch fish and had nearly drowned. Turtle hadn't gone into the sea, but Turtle had given the young dragon and Er Gouzi a suggestion.
They could throw Turtle high into the air, and then Turtle would fall into the sea from high above. Maybe the impact would blast the fish in the sea onto the beach. Er Gouzi the Hellhound suspected that Turtle wanted to take the opportunity to crush him to death. Lucia used her dragon claws to indicate the difference in size between Turtle and her dragon body, then asked Turtle whether Turtle could jump into the sea and blast the fish out by himself. Turtle said that after taking the evil dragon Lance's medicine, Turtle might be able to do it. Before taking it, Turtle couldn't. Since they hadn't caught any fish, all they could do was have Er Gouzi spew a mouthful of Hellfire to burn the firewood and boil the corn.
The side dishes were fruit from the orchard.
They would have a lavish feast for dinner.
"How about we suggest that the evil dragon raise a herd of pigs, cows, and sheep tonight? Er Gouzi, you can tend the sheep; Turtle can raise the cows; and I'll raise the pigs. How does that sound?"
"???"
Before you continue