The Black Dragon Miss Refuses to Be a Mount

After being reborn into this world, Ailolin decided to become an egoist. Other than her own friends, she was not kind enough to pity strangers.

Therefore, no matter how many casualty figures she heard the war had brought, Ailolin felt nothing. Perhaps seeing it firsthand would make her empathize, but merely listening to Vidian's description left her unmoved.

"So, that's all the information for now. Any other questions?"

"Um, could you help me deliver a letter?"

Although Ailolin could not return to Edafalon Province herself, after observing things over the past few days, she had discovered that bird-shaped magical beasts known as messengers should be able to cross the border blockade. If so, she could have Vidian write a letter and send it to Likaro.

"That wouldn't be a problem, but the key question is, do you know where your human friend is?"

"This..."

Ailolin froze. Although she had spent two months with Likaro, she truly did not know Likaro's exact address.

Seeing Ailolin's troubled expression, Vidian finally brought up the Recording Crystal. "The Recording Crystal tied to your dragon horn should have preserved that little girl's appearance, right?"

"Hm?"

"If we know what she looks like, we might be able to find where she lives."

"Huh? You can really find her?"

"Didn't you say your friend might be a noble? If she truly is an Empire noble, perhaps I know her."

Ailolin fell into thought. Should she share the contents of the Recording Crystal with Vidian?

PS: Thank you all for your votes. I'm very touched! And to answer the question about the two protagonists being separated for now—haven't you heard that a brief separation makes a reunion sweeter?~ (fog)

The Troubles of Size

After spending these days together, Ailolin felt that Vidian did not seem like a bad person. The problem was that she could not quite see through this woman.

"Still hesitating? Am I that scary?" Vidian found it rather amusing.

"No, I'm just a little worried..."

"It seems you care deeply about your friend's privacy. Don't worry, I'm not the kind of person you think I am."

"Then... all right."

After thinking it over, Ailolin decided to trust Vidian. She had a fairly good impression of her and believed she would not do anything bad.

So Ailolin had Vidian remove the Recording Crystal tied to her dragon horn.

After taking it off, Vidian directly projected it onto the stone slab normally used for lessons. Ailolin was astonished by the sight. Hadn't they said Recording Crystals used water for projection? This stone slab was far too versatile.

A photograph of Likaro and Ailolin appeared on the stone slab, and the resolution looked remarkably high—at least 4K.

The projected Likaro wore the formal dress from her birthday banquet, her face brimming with a smile. Snowflakes drifted all around her, some landing on her body and glimmering under the nearby magic crystal lamps.

Ailolin, on the other hand, looked completely ordinary. She seemed to have become Likaro's backdrop.

"Oh, it's even a picture of the two of you together."

Vidian stared blankly for a moment at the harmonious image of human Likaro and black dragon Ailolin posing together.

"Well? Do you know her?"

Vidian came back to her senses and carefully examined Likaro before finally saying, "Unfortunately, I don't."

This human little girl was too young. Although Vidian had met some noble children of the Empire, she had truly never seen Likaro.

However, a noble little girl from Edafalon Province... Could she be Duke Wilfen's daughter?

One could tell from Likaro's dress alone. Anyone who could afford such clothing had to belong to a great noble house, so Vidian thought of Duke Wilfen.

She seemed to have heard before that Wilfen had a daughter, but he had never allowed her to appear in public. Vidian had not seen Wilfen in many years either, so even if she truly were his daughter, Vidian would not recognize her.

"How about I attach the little girl's image to the letter and send it to my friend? She should be able to find the little girl's residence."

"This... Let's forget it for now."

Ailolin did not want Likaro's image being passed around, so she decided not to send the letter at all. She would wait until the Southern Wilderness blockade was lifted, then return to Edafalon Province in person.

"Then let's do that. Still, that little girl is quite adorable. You must tell me about her sometime."

Vidian was curious about Ailolin's experiences in the forest.

"Mm... I'll tell you when there's time later."

Those memories were beautiful to Ailolin, and she did not mind sharing some of them with Vidian. Of course, there were still things she would not tell her. She would only share a few amusing little incidents.

Vidian retied the Recording Crystal to Ailolin's dragon horn, then tapped the stone slab. A long passage written in Elven language appeared on it. "Let's continue the lesson. I think your pronunciation is already quite accurate, but you still need more practice."

"Okay."

Ailolin was always very serious during lessons. It was rare to meet someone who could teach her various languages and useful knowledge, so naturally she would not let such a good learning opportunity pass.

Vidian always held her lessons outside her home, using the convenient stone slab to teach Ailolin.

Because of her size, Ailolin could not enter the house. When she slept, she could only find an open patch of ground, and whenever there was wind or rain, she had to fly somewhere distant to find a cave.

When would she finally be able to take human form? Her size truly gave Ailolin a headache.

She could not help asking about it.

"Ah, taking human form. That might take some more time."

"How much more time?"

"That depends on how quickly you grow. A few years if you're fast, more than ten years if you're slow."

"..."

When she heard that even the fastest possibility would take several years, Ailolin's heart turned cold.

She had only been born for a few months, yet she would have to wait many more years.

"Also, Shapeshifting Art needs to be learned, and it depends on talent. If your talent is poor, you might not learn to shapeshift for a very long time." Vidian mercilessly delivered another ice-cold blow to Ailolin's heart.

"This... Forget it. I won't think about that for now."

Ailolin realized that shapeshifting was still a distant matter for her. For now, it was better to improve her knowledge and strength first.

"It's wonderful that you can see it that way. But don't worry, unless you're some once-in-ten-million-years Dragonkind idiot, you'll learn to shapeshift sooner or later."

"Mm."

Having something to look forward to was always a good thing.

After the first two months of her infancy, Ailolin's body had begun growing very slowly. She was still growing, but certainly not as quickly as when she had just been born.

This period instead allowed Ailolin to become more familiar with her body. In the Southern Wilderness, she fought different magical beasts every day, continuously accumulating valuable combat experience. She had even learned Dragon Breath in a previous life-or-death moment.

Ailolin had learned Flame Dragon Breath. The flames she breathed were very different from ordinary fire. Not only were they extremely difficult to extinguish once ignited, but more importantly, her breath was explosive and carried tremendous impact.

It could be imagined as a bomb that caused intense burning.

Therefore, unless she was in an open area with little vegetation, Ailolin would never casually use Dragon Breath. Last time, she had nearly burned down the forest. Fortunately, a sudden downpour had prevented a disaster.

The magical beasts of the Southern Wilderness came in all kinds. There were creatures that flew through the sky, ran across the ground, and swam in the water, so the skies were definitely not Ailolin's domain—at least not yet.

Among flying magical beasts, there were still some that could easily defeat Ailolin. However, she had not encountered any so far. Vidian said they all lived in the deepest part of the Southern Wilderness.

Ailolin's current location was still relatively close to the outskirts, though there were already no other humans around.

Sometimes, Ailolin wondered what race Vidian truly belonged to, and why she knew so much about Dragonkind.

Ailolin had learned about the races of this world from Vidian.

There were countless races in this world, and many looked identical to humans while also being long-lived species.

For example, vampires, undead, werewolves, and other races that were either already dead or resembled humans before transforming.

Ailolin had directly asked Vidian, but Vidian had merely given her a mysterious smile.

Xiya had been the same before. When Ailolin asked what exactly her relationship with Likaro was, she would not answer either.

Ailolin hated people who liked acting mysterious most of all.

PS: Do you all think the story starts slowly? I think it's only because the plot progresses a little slowly in the first few chapters, but the upcoming plot won't be so ordinary, so don't worry. (I'm definitely not padding the word count on purpose!)

A War Without Suspense

Winter had arrived. The Northern Frontier region of the Silver Eagle Empire had long been covered in ice and snow, but unlike previous years, the pristine white snowfields were now tainted with the scent of blood.

War situation—

Defense: Silver Eagle Empire.

Offense: Klima Empire, Pivent Empire, Mantoia Kingdom, Pattison Kingdom, Brunzi Duchy.

The Silver Eagle Empire truly deserved to be called the strongest human nation. Even facing the attack of the Five-Nation Alliance, it was still able to hold its battle lines.

So far, not a single Silver Eagle Empire fortress had been breached. This left the Empire generals responsible for defending the border deeply puzzled. Did these weak nations think that joining forces would let them defeat the mighty Empire?

This war had begun for no apparent reason. Although border clashes had occurred at first, such clashes happened almost every year, and each time the matter could be resolved through peaceful negotiations.

Yet this time, the Five-Nation Alliance had not even sent diplomats before launching an attack.

The Empire army's current orders were to hold the fortresses and not attack proactively. The generals on the front lines loyally carried out those orders, remaining within the fortresses no matter how the enemy provoked them.

The Empire's Northern Frontier Legion had a total of 150,000 soldiers distributed across six fortresses. Unless these fortresses were removed, the allied armies of the five nations could not penetrate deep into Empire territory at all.

Yet the combined forces of the alliance merely matched the Northern Frontier Legion in numbers. With equal troop numbers, how could they possibly win a siege battle? Not to mention that the quality of the Empire army was far superior to theirs.

Even if they concentrated all their forces to besiege a single Empire fortress, the defenders of the other fortresses would swiftly reinforce it, attacking the allied army from both inside and outside.

After several probing siege attempts failed, the war fell into a temporary stalemate. The Empire army remained within its fortresses, while the allied army likewise did not launch another assault.

At the same time, the Silver Eagle Empire dispatched diplomats to each of the allied nations, hoping to learn the cause of this war through diplomatic means.

Emperor Pete Silver Eagle sat upon his throne. He had convened a noble council in the palace, gathering every noble of marquis rank or above in the Empire, along with all senior military commanders who had no combat assignments.

Pete swept his gaze over the nobles and generals present. Most were around his age, white-haired old men, but they were also the people Pete knew and trusted best, because they were the ones who had followed him in founding the Empire.

Duke was the highest rank among the Empire's non-royal nobles. The youngest among them was surprisingly the fifty-five-year-old Duke Wilfen of Edafalon Province, while the remaining dukes were all at least sixty.

Wilfen was one of the Empire's founding heroes. As a general, he had earned countless merits in the wars of his early years. After the wars ended, Wilfen voluntarily requested to leave the army, so Pete granted him the prosperous Edafalon Province, making him an Empire duke.

Now, both sons of this "young" duke served as senior generals in the military. They were simply occupied at the Northern Frontier front and in the Southern Wilderness respectively. Otherwise, they would have attended this noble council as well.

At present, Pete wanted to hear this duke's thoughts.

"Your Majesty, I believe the Empire army should not launch a counterattack until the ambassadors return."

There were many mysteries surrounding this war. Wilfen believed they should first make contact with the leaders of the Five-Nation Alliance before deciding what to do. Rashly launching a large-scale war would cause the Empire immense losses.

Most of the nobles present agreed with Wilfen's opinion. On one hand, this was because of Wilfen's personal prestige. On the other, the nobles present had all been pillars of the Empire during its founding, and their strategic judgment had been tested. They would not easily make impulsive decisions.

"Very good. Many years of peaceful living have not made you dull."

Emperor Pete was very satisfied with the nobles' response. The Empire's Northern Frontier Legion was fully capable of repelling the enemy's attacks, and winter had already arrived. The Empire army had abundant supplies and the protection of fortress walls, while the invading allied forces possessed neither favorable weather nor terrain. Naturally, there was nothing to fear from them.

Although the Silver Eagle Empire maintained a policy of strategic deterrence toward its neighboring nations, Emperor Pete had personal ties with their rulers. He did not quite believe they could make such an impulsive decision. Even if they intended to attack, they should have chosen a season when the weather was warming, rather than this time when harsh winter was approaching.

It was common knowledge that the Northern Frontier region of the Empire had the coldest climate. Ice and snow storms frequently swept through during winter as well. These were snowy natural disasters similar to sandstorms, and once someone was caught within one, it was difficult to survive.

It was precisely because of this brutally cold climate that the Empire's Northern Frontier Legion had become an elite legion highly skilled in snowfield warfare. Together with the Wilderness Legion in the far south and the Imperial Guard Legion defending the Imperial City, they were known as the Empire's three great elite legions.

The Empire possessed a developed economy and a large population, allowing it to equip every soldier with armor and fine weapons. Its logistical capacity alone was beyond comparison with neighboring nations.

Moreover, the Empire's military academies continuously supplied the army with highly capable commanders, making the Empire legions even more formidable.

Apart from the three great elite legions, every province of the Empire possessed its own corresponding legion, ready to reinforce the front lines at any time.

Under such conditions, even if the Five-Nation Alliance threw everything it had into the fight, dreaming of defeating the Empire would be sheer wishful thinking.

Emperor Pete raised his wine cup and said to the nobles present, "Everyone, our loyal warriors will defend the glory of the Empire. Until the ambassadors bring back word, let us wait patiently."

The nobles likewise raised their cups in response to the emperor. The atmosphere in the palace was extremely relaxed, and this noble council seemed about to turn into a noble banquet.

Sitting in his seat, Wilfen felt somewhat worried. His eldest son was currently on the Northern Frontier front. He hoped nothing would happen.

In the past, Wilfen had feared no death on the battlefield and had always charged at the forefront. But after the Empire entered an era of peace, he had built a family and gained a wife and children. He had changed far too much from before.

After living in peace for so long, Wilfen no longer wished to return to the battlefield. Of course, if the Empire called upon him again, he would still abandon his ducal title without hesitation and return to the army.

His eldest son was now at the front. Though the elite Empire army had won every battle it fought, if something truly unexpected happened...

Wilfen drained the wine from his cup in one gulp, then let out a long breath.

His son had been the one to ask to join the army. Since he wanted to devote his youth to the military, Wilfen, as his father, naturally supported him.