Miss Black Dragon Refuses to Be a Mount

This would be a long journey. Just getting from here to the Eastern Mountains was equivalent to making several round trips from the Southern Wilderness to Aidefalong.

Considering that she could not fly nonstop and would need to stop along the way to rest and replenish food, Ailolin might have to fly for several days.

And even after crossing the mountain range, she would have completed only one-tenth of the journey.

So just reaching the place Vidian had mentioned would probably take more than a month. After arriving, she would also need to search everywhere for Dragon language steles to determine the location of the habitat. Who knew how long that would take?

Yet Ailolin was thrilled, because unlike in her previous life, she could now truly set off on a journey whenever she wanted.

To her, that was the beauty of life.

The east was where the sun rose. As Ailolin flew eastward, it felt somewhat like she was chasing the sun.

In high spirits, she bestowed upon herself the title of "Sun-Chasing Dragon."

But she quickly felt that her cringe level had exploded and hurriedly forgot that thought.

The war had ended. The Empire had emerged victorious, while many disloyal people within the Empire had also been purged.

But the Empire had paid a heavy price in the war as well. The buildings destroyed and casualties caused by magical beast attacks were too numerous to count. Calling it a devastating blow to its foundations would not be an exaggeration. Part of those losses would be paid by the Five-Nation Alliance, while the rest could only be borne by the Empire itself.

The mystery of the Teleportation Arrays had also been solved. It was not that the Five-Nation Alliance had mastered new technology at all; the arrays had been configured in advance. The mastermind behind everything was Falon, commander of the Imperial Guard Legion. Relying on Emperor Pete's boundless trust in him, he had acted without restraint.

Why Falon had wanted to betray the Empire no longer mattered, because the dead could not speak.

After enduring this catastrophe, Emperor Pete began to reflect on himself. Once he had built a powerful Empire, he had simply guarded those achievements and indulged in pleasure, completely neglecting the Empire's future.

Thus, he began carrying out reforms, actively issuing new policies while optimizing the distribution of power between the nobility and the military. He granted nobles the right to maintain personal guards, partly to prevent the military from becoming too dominant.

As emperor, Pete knew well what kind of crisis the Empire would face if he died without establishing an heir.

Therefore, he began selecting a successor in preparation for the future. Meanwhile, every province began reconstruction efforts under the leadership of its nobles.

And in Aidefalong, Likaro had finally fulfilled her wish and begun learning swordsmanship.

Though Likaro's body had not yet recovered, her mother finally hired her a swordsmanship instructor after seeing her persistence.

Of course, the key was that Wilfen no longer prevented his daughter from learning swordsmanship.

After beginning her swordsmanship lessons, Likaro's life became fulfilling.

She began pouring in hard work and sweat. Yet due to her physical condition, she suffered several times more than before, but she still gritted her teeth and persisted.

As long as her body did not develop problems, she would keep training.

But that was only Likaro's own idea. Concerned for her health, Doris reduced the instructor's lessons to three days a week.

Likaro could do whatever she wanted during the remaining time, but she was absolutely forbidden from doing any more high-intensity exercise.

So Likaro still went out to play like a child. As for where she went...

Xiya sometimes came to the duke's residence. Wilfen already knew her and had not revealed her existence to anyone.

In Wilfen's eyes, Xiya took meticulous care of his daughter. Though he had considered the possibility that Xiya was deliberately approaching her, Xiya's sincerity dispelled his doubts.

He was very comfortable leaving his daughter with Xiya, so Xiya often came to take Likaro out to play.

To Likaro, it was more like gaining another guardian.

When Xiya took Likaro into the forest, they truly were only playing. Guoguo was in the forest too, and she liked Likaro very much.

Xiya had never mentioned researching the Magic Spring, because Likaro was still young. For now, she only needed to grow up healthy under Xiya's protection.

But as a witch, Xiya could not simply watch Likaro waste such excellent talent and constitution. So in the forest, she taught Likaro some simple magical knowledge.

As for how much she could learn, that depended entirely on Likaro's own interest. Xiya would not force her to study.

When Vidian left, she informed Xiya, though she did not say where Ailolin had gone. Still, she was definitely no longer in the Southern Wilderness.

After Xiya told Likaro about this, Likaro silently prayed for Ailolin, hoping that the Little Black Dragon's future would be smooth sailing.

And she needed to work hard to become stronger too, or she would be unable to fulfill her dream.

She would definitely become a knight one day!

Likaro had no desire for wealth or power. Born into a noble family, she had not developed a spoiled temperament; instead, she was even more full of justice.

She wanted to grow up quickly, because then she would truly be able to stand on her own.

She would no longer rely on her parents' help and would live entirely through her own efforts.

That was something Likaro greatly looked forward to.

PS: Summary.

It was finally the end of the volume. There was not really much to summarize; Ailolin and Likaro both had their own things to do.

Likaro was working hard for her dream. So when she grew into a young lady, how would she view her friendship with Ailolin?

Right now, they were good friends, childhood playmates, and nothing more.

Honestly, I'm looking forward to the day their friendship changes into something else. You know what I mean.

Calamity Descends: Eight Years Later

[Ahhh, I set the scheduled chapter for tomorrow! I was wondering why there hadn't been an update!!]

Torrential rain poured from the sky. Thick dark clouds covered the sun, leaving the world dim.

A Black Dragon flew through the rain, the raindrops striking her body without her feeling them at all.

Her destination was a cave, her temporary dwelling. Its spacious interior could accommodate her enormous body.

This was the southernmost place on the entire continent. Further south lay the Endless Sea. The deep-sea region was forever shrouded in dense fog, and no living creature could pass through it.

The Black Dragon returned to her cave and began enjoying the prey she had caught.

This Black Dragon was Ailolin. Over the years, she had flown across the entire continent and visited countless Dragonkind communities, yet she had found no news related to her parents.

It seemed that no dragon had ever heard of the surname Fornoscoft.

Could it be that Ailolin Fornoscoft truly had no parents? Had her life been created by a god?

Ailolin had left the Southern Wilderness eight years ago. During that time, she had only gotten to know a few dragon friends. Without learning Transformation Magic, it had been impossible for her to blend into cities.

By now, Ailolin had fully grown into her wings. Her size was nearly that of an adult dragon, and she was likely more than twenty meters long.

The title of giant dragon could finally, barely, be applied to Ailolin.

Just as Vidian had said back then, as she grew up, the amount of magic power stored in her body had increased significantly, though it remained far below normal.

Even so, she was now able to cast Transformation Magic. For all this time, that was what Ailolin had longed for most.

After eating her fill, Ailolin kept herself in peak mental condition, recalled the words Vidian had taught her, and activated Transformation Magic.

"Transform, human body, conceal." (Dragon language)

Magic power of any attribute could be poured into the Dragon language characters of Transformation Magic, so Ailolin could use all the magic power in her body.

Once Transformation Magic was successfully activated, it required only a tiny amount of magic power to maintain. Ailolin's recovery speed could completely sustain it.

White light enveloped Ailolin's body, giving her a strange sensation. Then she realized that she was gradually losing control of her body.

In only a dozen seconds or so, Ailolin's enormous Black Dragon body vanished. In its place stood a black-haired girl with a somewhat dazed expression.

After being a dragon for so many years, suddenly returning to a human body made Ailolin feel very uncomfortable.

So when she tried to walk, she fell to the ground exactly as expected.

But strangely, although the ground was covered in sharp rocks, she was neither injured nor in pain.

It seemed that even after transforming into human form, her physical abilities were still different from those of ordinary humans.

As Ailolin tried to gain control over her body, she suddenly realized that she seemed to have a lot of extra things on her...

She raised a hand to her head. Sure enough, there was a pair of tiny dragon horns on it.

Ailolin hurriedly checked her body and found black dragon wings on her back, as well as a black tail growing from her tailbone. They all looked very small, though, seemingly proportional to Ailolin's current size.

Her skin was fair, but small amounts of black dragon scales covered certain parts of her body.

Her chest seemed a little small. Maybe it was because she had not fully matured yet.

But she was almost there already. It should not be this small, right?

Still, honestly speaking, even after living as a female Black Dragon for so many years, Ailolin did not care about her chest now that she was a girl.

If she had two huge lumps of flesh on her chest, she would find them troublesome instead.

As for her height, Ailolin did not want to mention it. Her appearance clearly counted as that of a girl, but she would probably still be seen as a loli because of her height.

Ailolin the short loli. That name was a trap.

She began thinking about Transformation Magic.

What exactly was going on? Why did she have so many Dragonkind features?

Ailolin recalled the casting process from earlier and suddenly realized that the Transformation Magic she had cast had only succeeded two-thirds of the way.

[Transform] and [human body] had received enough magic power and thus taken effect. As for the final [conceal], Ailolin had already run out of magic power by then.

The three-character Dragon Language Magic had activated only the first two characters. It had still transformed Ailolin into human form, but it had failed to conceal her Dragonkind traits.

In Ailolin's view, having so many Dragonkind features would indeed bring her plenty of trouble, but it was not an unsolvable problem.

Like a mysterious person, she could use clothes such as cloaks to cover herself. Her dragon horns, wings, and tail were all small, so they would be easy to hide.

What made her happiest now was that after shrinking in size, she could finally do many things more conveniently.

Ailolin was currently naked, so she had to find herself some clothes.

Thus, she decided to head to the nearest Dragonkind habitat.

The adult dragons living there basically all liked living in transformed form, because being small was truly convenient.

Ailolin decided to borrow some clothes from them.

She returned to her original form, then flew through the heavy rain toward her destination.

When they learned that Ailolin could finally transform into human form, all the older dragon sisters in the community became excited.

Only then did Ailolin discover that the various clothes in their homes could practically open a shopping mall.

"Does it fit?"

"Try mine!"

"I don't think that dress looks good. Try this outfit instead."

"..."

Ailolin was left at a loss by their enthusiasm. In the end, she randomly chose an outfit according to her own taste: a black dress, along with black boots and thigh-high stockings.

Ailolin considered black her signature color, and she had to admit that clothing design in this world was quite advanced.

When asked whether she wanted to tie up her hair, she chose not to.

Because Ailolin liked the feeling of long hair flowing in the wind.

After that, the enthusiastic older sisters added many small accessories to decorate Ailolin. By then, she had stopped resisting. They could do whatever they liked.

She had not expected them to be so excited over her merely transforming into human form. It rather felt like she was getting married.

Once everything was sorted out, Ailolin stood before a mirror, scarcely able to believe that the girl in the reflection was herself.

Beautiful, elegant, noble.

If she held a little parasol in her hand, she would have even more style.

It was not that Ailolin was narcissistic. She was simply truly satisfied with her appearance.

That was where the wonder of magic lay. When Ailolin canceled Transformation Magic, the clothes on her body would not tear apart on the spot. Instead, they would vanish along with her human body, and when she transformed back into human form, the clothes would return as well.

It could be understood as Transformation Magic creating a tiny space where items were stored, effectively saving the equipment she was currently wearing.

Even if Ailolin carried a backpack, the backpack and everything inside it would be stored as well.

Why did this feel like playing an online game...

But this ability would not be too overpowered. Ailolin could not carry a mountain on her back and store it away.