Miss Black Dragon Doesn't Want to Be a Mount

Ailolin couldn't understand that long sentence, but she felt a faint sense of anticipation. Likaro might come again.

Likaro decided to be a good "teacher." After returning home, she planned to look through some language textbooks. The books she had used when learning to write could also be useful. As for the rest, she would have to leave it to time.

Ailolin was very smart. Since she still retained the memories of an Earthling, she could view many things from a human perspective, so she understood them quickly.

"Goodbye." (Human language with strange pronunciation)

When Likaro was about to leave, Ailolin used the word she had just learned to express the meaning of goodbye.

"Oh~ Goodbye!"

Even such basic communication was enough to make Likaro incredibly excited. That means I've become friends with the Little Black Dragon, right?

Making friends with a dragon was truly an extraordinary thing. Likaro felt happy from the bottom of her heart.

Watching Likaro's retreating figure, Ailolin wondered whether she should see her off. If anything dangerous happened, she could protect her. No matter what, this was a forest.

So Likaro walked ahead while Ailolin followed behind. Likaro initially thought Ailolin needed something, but later realized that the Little Black Dragon simply wanted to escort her out.

How nice. This really counted as being friends, right? In Likaro's eyes, being friends with the Little Black Dragon was far better than being with those children in the city.

Ailolin followed Likaro all the way to the edge of the forest before stopping. The trees became sparse any farther out, and she would easily expose her existence.

In truth, Ailolin still couldn't be sure whether her decision to interact with Likaro had been correct. What if Likaro caused humans to discover her existence?

Before her next growth stage arrived, Ailolin lacked the ability to fly long distances. For now, she could only remain active within the forest. Only after her body developed further would she be able to fly somewhere farther away in a single trip.

So during this period, she had to keep herself as safe as possible. The young of most creatures were fragile. Without parental protection or a safe shelter, they were far more likely to be placed in danger. Even Dragonkind was no exception. Though individuals were powerful, Ailolin still understood that enough ants could bite an elephant to death.

"Goodbye." (Human language with strange pronunciation)

Ailolin said goodbye to Likaro again, and the latter waved at her. "Mm-hmm, goodbye!"

After leaving the forest, Likaro began sprinting at full speed. The sun was about to set, and she had stayed out too long this time. Her father would become suspicious.

She had to get home before dinner, or the consequences would be serious!

Fortunately, Likaro's stamina carried her home, though she was already drenched in sweat.

Wilfen assumed his daughter had simply lost track of time while playing and hurried home because of it. "Don't rush so much next time. You're only playing in the city, so it's fine if you come home a little later."

"Huh? Really?" Likaro could hardly believe it. Her father had never said anything like that before.

"Hahaha, of course." Wilfen looked at Likaro lovingly. "But from now on, you'll have much less time to go out and play."

"Why?"

"Because I found you a teacher. Starting tomorrow, you'll attend lessons with him."

Upon hearing Wilfen's words, Likaro sprang up from her chair. Her utensils clattered onto the table, knocking over her cup as well.

Wilfen had expected Likaro to resist, but he hadn't expected such a strong reaction.

"No, no, absolutely not! I don't want to!!!" Likaro protested loudly.

She still had to be the Little Black Dragon's teacher and teach her to speak every day. If she had lessons at home, wouldn't that mean she couldn't go to the forest?

PS: Wah wah wah wah wah.

The Winter of That Year: Scenery of Another World

His daughter's reaction was far more intense than expected, which left Wilfen feeling somewhat puzzled. Just what made his daughter yearn so much to go out?

Those commoner children in the city?

No, Wilfen had already had someone look into it. His daughter had not formed any deeper bond with any of those commoner children. They were merely ordinary playmates.

Besides, his daughter hadn't gone to play with those children recently. So where had she been playing during the day? Should he send someone to secretly follow her and find out?

"Father, I absolutely refuse! I don't need to study right now!"

Likaro had grounds to say that. Many eight-year-olds her age were still learning to read and write, but Likaro had basically mastered both. Even reading difficult and obscure books posed little challenge for her.

"The teacher I found for you will mainly teach you noble etiquette, as well as..."

"Let's talk about it when Mother returns!" Likaro brought up her mother. Her father knew that she only listened to her mother, and her mother would return from her hometown after some time.

That way, Likaro could continue stalling for time.

Seeing his daughter insist so strongly, Wilfen had a headache. In the end, he simply couldn't win against her and reached a compromise.

"Thank you, Father. Hehe..."

Likaro's mood immediately improved, and her appetite improved along with it.

Watching his strange daughter, Wilfen thought that he really should investigate what she had been doing recently. His reason wasn't possessiveness; it was for his daughter's safety.

Slowly chewing his food, Wilfen felt somewhat exhausted. He truly couldn't bring himself to be harsh with his daughter. It seemed he could only wait for his wife to return.

Sigh, when would his daughter treat him the same way she treated her mother?

After dinner, the sun had already set. Using reading as an excuse, Likaro went to the study and began gathering books that might be useful.

She had to prepare properly, then continue teaching the Little Black Dragon to speak tomorrow!

Thinking about it made Likaro excited, and she even wished tomorrow would arrive sooner.

Ailolin lay at the entrance of her cave and gazed up at the stars. The air quality in this other world was excellent, without the light pollution of big cities. The night sky was incomparably clear, and countless stars were visible.

The moonlight tonight was particularly lovely. Bright and pure, it spilled across the branches and ground, creating the beauty of an illusion. Because of her health in her previous life, Ailolin had never been able to travel far. Before her death, the only places she ever went were the hospital and her home.

Just how poor had her constitution been? Without a wheelchair or cane, she couldn't walk at all. Even jumping down from a height of half a person's height could make her faint on the spot. Every day, she had to rely on IV drips to stay alive.

Ailolin's dream had once been to see the world's beautiful scenery with her own eyes. Yet she could only "travel" through electronic devices. Even the most advanced VR equipment couldn't compare to seeing and experiencing things in person.

The scenery of this other world was more beautiful than anything Ailolin had seen before. The forest at night in particular was tranquil and peaceful. Besides the moonlight, there were fireflies, adding a different sort of beauty.

The forest hadn't been peaceful before, even at night. She could often hear the cries of all kinds of animals. On Ailolin's first night in the forest, many wolves had howled for half the night. She had followed the sound and flown over to give those fellows a fierce scare. Now they were all as obedient as dogs.

Ailolin recalled the Human language Likaro had taught her during the day. Even now, she remembered it firmly. It seemed her memory was quite strong.

But how many years could she remember things for? Dragonkind was long-lived. If nothing unexpected happened, their ages could even be counted in tens of thousands.

If she lived for ten thousand years and remembered every day of those ten thousand years clearly, that would be far too strange. It probably wouldn't be like that.

Therefore, Ailolin believed Dragonkind would also forget some things over time.

A snow-white wolf's head suddenly emerged from the bushes not far away. Ailolin had noticed it nearby long ago.

This was the only wolf that wasn't afraid of Ailolin. She guessed it might be because she never preyed on wolves. After all, wolf meat was too scarce...

Still, this wolf's fur was snow-white, making it somewhat different from the other wolves. In Ailolin's memory, it was the only white-furred wolf she had ever seen.

In a forest full of green plants, snow-white fur was truly conspicuous.

Ailolin stared at the white wolf for a while, then it turned and left. She had no idea what it was thinking, and she couldn't be bothered to care.

Right now, Ailolin needed to accumulate more nutrients. The reason her body had grown so quickly was because she had just been born. Once she passed the initial newborn stage, her growth would slow down.

She estimated that in about another month, she would completely leave the newborn stage behind. If she developed well, she would probably be around five meters long by then.

In most cases, female dragons appeared smaller than male dragons. Therefore, if Ailolin had been a male dragon, she would probably have been six or seven meters long and much larger overall.

Though female dragons could grow sturdier than male dragons, Ailolin didn't want to become such an exception. Wouldn't she look awful if that happened?

It would be like viewing a broad-shouldered, thick-waisted woman covered in muscles through human eyes. Although some people did like that, Ailolin did not.

Many dragons in fantasy works had special attack methods, such as breathing fire. But the inheritance of Dragonkind hadn't mentioned anything like that. Ailolin had previously tried to breathe fire, but aside from spitting out a little saliva with a couple of ptooey sounds, nothing happened.

Her attack methods were currently the same as those of wild beasts: either claws or biting. Though those methods were more than enough to crush the animals in the forest, Ailolin still felt they were somewhat inelegant. Unfortunately, she had no choice.

During her hunts these days, Ailolin had encountered a small number of magical beasts. They were clearly different from ordinary wild animals. Ailolin could sense that even the weakest magical beasts were very clever. They could detect a predator's presence early and hide.

What was strange was that Ailolin had never found any medium or large magical beasts in the forest. Therefore, she had encountered no threats. Could this forest be her beginner village? Was it filled with nothing but helpless experience fodder?

That didn't sound too bad, did it? But why did the human little girl Likaro dare enter the forest? Ailolin fell into confusion again.

Did she not know the forest was dangerous? Was she brave? Or did she have enough ability to protect herself?

Ailolin felt it might be the second possibility, or perhaps the third. The first would lead to trouble sooner or later, since an ordinary little girl had no ability to resist a large wild beast.

As for the third possibility, it wasn't impossible either. Unfortunately, Ailolin didn't know, nor could she learn, any more about Likaro.

PS: I, I... I want votes! (At the top of my lungs)

The Winter of That Year: It's Fruit Wolf

"Hello." (Awkward Human language pronunciation)

"Hello, Little Black Dragon~" Likaro happily waved.

Simple greetings were no longer a problem for Ailolin. But what puzzled her was the word Likaro said after hello. What did it mean?

Ailolin hadn't learned how to ask questions yet, and her vocabulary was pitifully small. She still needed to build it up.

Likaro had carried another backpack full of drawing paper. She wrote Human words on it, then taught Ailolin to speak by finding real objects or drawing pictures.

In truth, Ailolin understood so quickly because she retained the memories of her previous life. Her ability to think from a human perspective gave her considerable help.

"This is one, two, three, four, five~ This is six, seven, eight, nine, ten~"

Likaro used different numbers of branches to convey the meaning of numbers. Ailolin instantly understood what she meant. After listening to Likaro read them aloud, Ailolin imitated the pronunciation and gradually mastered how to say the numbers.

When Likaro introduced her age, she drew eight little people. They all looked the same, but their bodies gradually grew larger, conveying to Ailolin that these were the stages of one person's growth. Combined with the numbers she had taught earlier, it represented age.

As a result, Ailolin learned that the blonde little girl before her was eight years old. Still, Ailolin could have guessed that more or less just from her appearance, unless the relationship between age and appearance was drastically different for humans in this other world.

Being taught by a child felt quite strange. Moreover, Ailolin couldn't understand why Likaro patiently taught her to speak and read. Wasn't she really afraid Ailolin might do something dangerous to her?

And there were so many wild beasts in the forest. What if something happened?

Could it be that Likaro truly had some special method that stopped animals from attacking her?

For now, that was the only reasonable guess.

Time passed quickly, and before long it was time to say goodbye again. This time, Ailolin thanked Likaro in not-quite-standard Human language.

That thank-you gave Likaro an enormous sense of accomplishment. Her mood immediately soared, and she happily reached out to touch Ailolin's black scales.

Looking at Likaro's sweet smile, Ailolin also felt refreshed and at ease. Such a smile could only appear on the face of an innocent child.

"The Little Black Dragon is amazing, hehe." (Human language)

"Rawr~"

Although she couldn't understand such a long sentence, Ailolin guessed that Likaro was praising her.

Ailolin felt that it would be nice if she could write down everything she had experienced these past few days. First, she had been reincarnated in another world. Then, as a dragon, she had become friends with a human.

She hoped things could continue like this forever.

Though Likaro's teaching wasn't professional, she at least used relevant books to help. Ailolin believed that in a few more days, she would be able to hold simple conversations with her.

"Then goodbye, Little Black Dragon~" Likaro waved farewell to Ailolin.

Ailolin noticed that word after goodbye again. If she could ask in the future, she definitely had to find out what it meant.

She was still very curious.

After seeing Likaro off, Ailolin felt hungry. Before going hunting, she first needed to drink some water by the stream.

Another snow-white wolf's head emerged from the grass. This time, it didn't observe from afar in secret. Instead, it walked out of the grass and came straight to Ailolin's side, where it sat down.

Ailolin didn't know what to do. The white wolf couldn't speak, and even if it could, Ailolin wouldn't understand wolf language. So she could only watch the snow-white wolf while drinking.

"Awoo~" The white wolf called out to Ailolin, seemingly trying to show goodwill.

Then the white wolf wagged its tail, rolled over, and exposed its belly to Ailolin.

"..."

When Ailolin went out to search for prey, she discovered that the white wolf had been following behind her. It even seemed afraid of disturbing her hunt, deliberately keeping some distance between them, but it never went beyond her line of sight.

Ailolin didn't mind sharing a little prey with the white wolf, but it still felt strange. Why was this wolf so certain that she wouldn't eat it?

The hunt went very smoothly. Ailolin carried her prey back to the cave where she lived, and the white wolf followed as well. However, it quietly sat several meters away without approaching Ailolin or her prey.

Ailolin tore off one of the prey's hind legs and placed it before the wolf. To her surprise, the wolf shook its head in a very human-like manner, then ran outside.

"???"

As the white wolf disappeared from her sight, Ailolin fell into deep confusion.