My evil dragon father imagined a hatchling standing before his gravestone, murmuring through tearful eyes, "My evil dragon father." Lance felt a strange sense of anticipation.
His enthusiasm for painting grew stronger. He absolutely had to let the hatchling see this painting so she would think of today's scene.
The only imperfection was that the painting didn't include him, the black dragon. It didn't matter. Once the hatchling learned to paint, he would have her paint one for him.
Lance gathered his thoughts, banished the jumble of distracting ideas from his mind, and began painting with total concentration.
The hatchling standing on the turtle's shell spotted the evil dragon squatting on the beach. When she saw the easel in front of him and the dyes placed on either side of his body, a look of terror appeared in her purple-gold slit pupils.
Oh no, the evil dragon was painting!
Everyone the evil dragon had painted had died. She probably wouldn't live much longer either. Wait—the evil dragon might not be painting her. He had promised her last night that he wouldn't paint her for the time being.
He might be painting the turtle and Er Gouzi.
Then there was nothing to worry about. She could calmly wash the turtle's shell.
The turtle's shell was far too large. Its back was easy to clean, but the edges all around it were difficult. Her feet could easily slip, and if they did, she would fall straight into the sea. To clean the shell along the edges, she had to fly.
Er Gouzi couldn't help at all. The turtle had just warned Er Gouzi that if he dared lick its shell even once, it would turn over and drown him in the sea. The turtle was quite fierce when it got angry.
Night fell, and the turtle carried the hatchling and Er Gouzi back to the island.
The evil dragon, who had been squatting on the beach painting, had already left before nightfall.
Lucia guessed that the evil dragon had probably gone to prepare her medicinal liquid.
After working all afternoon, she returned to the island and drank a bowl of dark green medicinal liquid. She felt all the day's fatigue disappear—yeah, right. As soon as her feet touched the sand on the beach, she saw the evil dragon approaching from the distance with the medicinal liquid.
"Drink up. Once you finish, you'll become a smelly hatchling."
"Lance, when I was washing the turtle's shell, I think I saw you squatting here painting. What... what did you paint?"
"I painted a hatchling that fell into the water, and a dog that got knocked into the sea."
"..."
What could she do about her feet slipping? She hadn't deliberately knocked Er Gouzi into the sea.
The hatchling took the stone bowl filled with dark green medicinal liquid from the evil dragon's claws, held her breath, and drank it all in one gulp.
After finishing the medicinal liquid, she handed the stone bowl back to the evil dragon. "C-can you show us what you painted this afternoon?"
A chibi-style painting flew out from the evil dragon's horns and slowly drifted down from the air.
Lucia hurriedly caught it with her dragon claws. The evil dragon's skill, technique, and style were all excellent. This was easy to see from the portraits hanging in the study of the dragon's lair.
So cute (*▽*) She fell for it at first sight.
The evil dragon could actually paint in such an adorable style.
The Imperial Daughter was utterly shocked.
How could such a ferocious and terrifying evil dragon draw something in such a cute style?
He had just made her look a little ugly. Had her expression really been that flustered when she fell?
Had her mouth really been open that wide?
And another thing—when she fell into the sea, had her head really hit the water first?
On the canvas, a cute hatchling had knocked into a dog and plunged headfirst into the sea, leaving only her claws and wings flailing wildly across the surface.
Not far away, the dog that had been knocked into the sea surfaced. The two dog heads barked furiously at the chubby dragon's body, their expressions looking very angry.
There were words! There were actually words! The evil dragon had even added subtitles for the dog. This was a little like those short comics published by Imperial Capital Publishing House.
"Stupid hatchling who raises pigs, you've given my dog head a huge bump!"
Behind the hatchling and the dog was a foolish-looking turtle. The turtle twisted its head around and stared at them in confusion, as if it were watching two idiots. Had the turtle looked at her and Er Gouzi with this exact expression back then?
Impossible. The turtle had such a good temperament. The evil dragon must have added some artistic embellishment.
"The art style is very cute. You should go to the human world and become a cartoonist, debuting as one. Your comics would definitely sell extremely well in the human world."
Lucia praised the evil dragon. She genuinely felt that his style would be very popular in the human world. At the very least, girls wouldn't dislike it.
And children, too. Children would also love this kind of style.
"Become a cartoonist?" The evil dragon Lance's slit pupils gleamed. "Do you think that if I used comics to draw a love story called Princess, Knight, and Evil Dragon, it would become a huge hit?"
"..."
Why was the evil dragon so obsessed with romance?
Could someone who had never been in love draw a good romance story?
Princess, Knight, and Evil Dragon. Anyone could tell from the title alone that it wasn't a proper comic.
What proper comic would use a title like that?
"I was just saying it. Just saying it. Lance, don't take it seriously. Instead of drawing comics, you should sell your paintings. A painting like this could sell for a few Silver Coins, or even a dozen or so. Someone would probably buy it."
Wealthy noble ladies would buy them, but ordinary commoners wouldn't. They were too expensive.
A few Silver Coins, or a dozen or so, was two or three days—or four or five days—of living expenses for an ordinary family.
If a painting sold for several gold coins or more than a dozen gold coins, then unless the cartoonist was good-looking, even noble ladies might not be willing to spend money on a painting by an unknown cartoonist.
"A few Silver Coins? I wouldn't even earn back the cost of the canvas."
"The canvas... is that expensive?"
"My specially made canvases are very expensive."
"Lance... could you give me this painting? I want to keep it."
"Sure. I was planning to give it to you as an inheritance anyway."
"???"
I-in-inheritance?
Could she still have this painting?
It seemed she could!
Speaking of inheritance, if she really left some behind one day, it would be the inheritance she, the Imperial Daughter, left to the evil dragon.
It definitely wouldn't be the evil dragon leaving an inheritance to her.
The evil dragon could outlive her, the Imperial Daughter. She couldn't outlive the evil dragon.
"Lance, do you know how to fish?"
"I do. I even have a fishing rod."
"Then what bait do you usually use to catch big fish?"
"Er Gouzi. If you want to catch a big fish, use Er Gouzi as bait."
"..."
Er Gouzi bared his teeth at the hatchling. Was the hatchling the evil dragon Lance had picked up a dog hater? Why hadn't he said anything about using a fishing rod when they caught fish at noon?
That was because whenever the evil dragon Lance went fishing, he would use Er Gouzi as bait from time to time!
The evil dragon Lance was terrible for dogs. The sea beasts in the deep sea were much larger than those on land. When one opened its huge mouth, Er Gouzi would be sucked straight inside.
"Er Gouzi isn't very effective as bait. If you want to eat a big fish tomorrow, I'll try using different bait."
"Big fish... I want to eat one, I want to eat one, I want to eat one."
The Farolyn Empire was a landlocked country. It had a few coastal cities, and as the Imperial Daughter, Lucia could still eat sea fish if she wanted to. But no matter what, they couldn't compare with fish freshly caught from the sea.
"Tomorrow, you'll be the bait. I'll see if I can catch a Deep Sea Beast. The larger the sea beast, the more delicious its meat. Hatchling, you... where did you run off to?"
"I don't want to be bait!!!"
Before you continue