✧ Chapter 3 ✧
Life as the daughter of the Lord Dragon felt like a dream.
“Baby. It’s time for your bath, okay?”
Every evening, 녹스 would carefully pick up 리베라 and carry her to the bathtub.
Dragons had the special ability to keep their entire bodies clean on their own, but since 리베라 was human, she could not maintain her cleanliness that way. So bathing her every day had become one of 녹스’s main daily routines.
Step—Step—
When he opened the door in the corner of 리베라’s room, there was a small bathtub inside.
녹스 picked up a pink solid from the colorful solids neatly arranged beside the bathtub and dropped it into the water.
Fsssss—Bubble bubble.
As the solid dissolved in the water, it slowly spread out like paint, forming a beautiful marble-like pattern.
“Eueu~ Uuue. (It’s pink this time, huh?)”
Sniff, sniff.
The scent was slightly sweet, almost like cotton candy.
Swish—Swish.
After adding the soap and stirring the mixture well, everything was ready for the bath.
녹스 shook the pink soapy water from his hands and slowly placed 리베라, wrapped in a thin towel, into the bathtub.
First, her short, chubby legs.
Then her body.
And finally, her shoulders.
“Huaa.”
The moment she sat in the bathtub, the tension disappeared from 리베라’s face.
‘Ahh—This is nice. Baths really are the best.’
In her previous life, she had never been to a bathhouse. She had only ever taken quick showers, so she had never known what it felt like to soak in warm water and relax her body.
But after coming to this world and getting to enjoy baths every day that felt like something only available at a luxury hotel, she had come to understand that feeling very, very well.
It was truly…… wonderful.
It literally felt like her whole body was melting.
She couldn’t believe she had lived her previous life without knowing about something this good.
“Our 리베라. Are you feeling good?”
“Auu~”
But that lasted only a short while.
Exactly fifteen minutes later, 녹스 took 리베라 out of the bathtub.
He knew that a human baby’s body was delicate and weak, and staying in hot water for too long could be harmful.
“Uwaa!”
리베라 babbled in disappointment.
But she couldn’t overcome 녹스, who was constantly worried that something might happen to his daughter.
‘Ugh—Once I get a little bigger, I definitely need to make my baths longer. Every time, it ends just when I’m starting to enjoy it.’
녹스 finished her bath right on time and laid 리베라 back in her crib, smelling strongly of cotton candy.
Then he brought out a clean set of clothes and changed her.
“Now—How about we try this blue one?”
There were so many clothes prepared for 리베라 that her closet was completely filled with them.
Once dragons grew up and became capable of using Polymorph, they could make their scales look like clothes, so they normally had no need for actual clothing.
Because of that, their interest in clothes had naturally decreased, and their designs were generally simple and plain.
At first glance, they almost looked like traditional ancient Greek clothing.
‘For dragons who don’t even need clothes, where did he get all of these?’
She remembered hearing that because dragons lived for a very long time, some of them took up hobbies such as sewing to relieve their boredom.
Could someone like that have made these?
For her?
‘No, probably not.’
Even if someone had made them, 리베라 thought it was more likely that they had been forced to do so because of an order from the Lord Dragon.
Because she had realized that the relationship between dragons and humans in this world was even worse than she had known.
Less than two days after she had opened her eyes in this world, 무지카 had come to visit again.
With a worried voice, he had said this to 녹스.
—Apparently, the elders finally held an emergency meeting. Our race already has a hard time giving birth, and during this birth ceremony that happens only once every thirty years, a human appeared among the only three eggs…….
—Yeah. I imagine they caused quite a commotion.
—…….
—So the elders…… What did they say?
—For now, since she is your child, and you’re the Lord Dragon, they can’t do anything to her immediately, so they decided to watch the situation. But they’re still extremely wary of her, to the point where their eyes nearly pop out.
Because of this situation, 녹스 felt proud whenever he watched 리베라 grow, but at the same time, his worries increased day by day.
He was afraid that someday, when she stepped out into the world, she would face hostile looks and become deeply hurt.
But contrary to his worries—
리베라 already knew from the novel that dragons and humans had a bad relationship, so she wasn’t particularly shocked by the reality she was facing.
She was simply thinking about one thing.
How could she win over those who disliked her for being human and become friends with them?
‘Right. If I’m going to live here, I need to change their minds.’
And if she, a human, could become friends with the dragons—
‘It should also help me prevent the great tragedy that will happen in the future.’
The tragedy that would eventually cause the dragons to go extinct because of their war with humans.
‘The tragedy known as “The End of the Dragons.”’
In the hidden space of the Fantasia world was the dragons’ sanctuary, Somnium.
It was the very place where 리베라 was currently living.
For a long time, the dragons had lived there while hiding themselves from humans.
In truth, it had not always been like that.
Humans and dragons had occasionally interacted with each other.
However, humans began coveting the ‘most important thing’ belonging to the dragons and even secretly tried to enter the sanctuary to steal it.
So the dragons hid their sanctuary and disappeared from the world.
Then what was this ‘most important thing’ that humans desired so badly?
It was a gigantic tree containing enough magical power to overwhelm the entire world of Fantasia in an instant.
It was called the ‘World Tree.’
But why was it so important to the dragons?
Unlike humans, dragons needed to put magical power into the fruit of a fully grown World Tree in order to have children.
Once infused with magic, the fruit would eventually gain life.
And once that life settled inside it, the fruit would turn into an egg.
In other words, the dragons needed those fruits in order to continue their race.
Furthermore, every dragon born this way was magically connected to the World Tree.
If the World Tree did not exist, they would be unable to use the magic stored inside their own bodies.
A dragon with tremendous magical power could suddenly become nothing more than a giant lizard simply because the World Tree was gone.
Humans had always been jealous of dragons, who possessed greater magical power than they did, and they coveted the enormous power of the World Tree.
But even though dragons were stronger than humans, they naturally hated war and conflict.
After a long period of defending themselves and fighting back, the dragons eventually decided to avoid humans altogether.
And so, the game of hide-and-seek between the two races continued for a long time.
Until eventually—
Because of humanity’s endless greed and desire, the sanctuary was discovered, and the World Tree finally fell into human hands.
And after that……
‘Countless dragons who had lost their power were brutally killed by humans and disappeared.’
So before something like that could happen!
She had to prevent the sanctuary from being discovered!
‘Fortunately, I know roughly what started the chain of events that led to this place being discovered.’
She could go there and either naturally spread false information or block anything that could become a source of information.
Then, once she became close enough with the dragons that they would listen to her, she could tell them about the situation and take action.
‘Judging by the year written on the calendar hanging on the wall, it’s currently the year 4560 according to the Fantasia calendar.’
The information about Somnium would be discovered by humans twenty-three years from now.
The war would begin two years after that, twenty-five years from now.
So fortunately, there was no need to panic right away.
There was still time.
“Auu! (Right! Until then, I’ll focus on changing the dragons’ minds! Somehow, no matter what!)”
리베라 raised her tiny, pebble-like fist high into the air and shouted with all her strength.
At that moment, her baby fist, which looked like it didn’t possess even a little bit of strength, entered her field of vision.
‘Ahem…… But to do that, I really need to grow up quickly first.’
Feeling embarrassed, she lowered her arm and began eagerly sucking on the fruit juice 녹스 had brought.
After drinking the fruit juice, her stomach quickly became full, and sleepiness came pouring down on her like rain.
It was normal for a baby to fall asleep right after eating, but she was much sleepier than she had expected.
She was so sleepy that she could barely keep herself conscious.
‘Eat and sleep. Eat and sleep. This routine is really no different from an actual baby’s.’
But sleeping well would surely help her grow faster, too.
Thinking that, she prepared to go to sleep, but then her head slowly turned to the side.
Her face was reflected in a mirror in the distance.
Her eyes focused on her reflection.
‘Oh, right…… My eyes. They’re still this color.’
Her eyes were a bright gray with a faint glow.
리베라 sometimes felt bothered by the fact that her eye color was different from her father’s.
녹스, her parent, had both black hair and black eyes.
Then logically, she should have had the same.
Perhaps because she had been born human, this was another error besides the shape of her eyes.
‘I guess that might be the case.’
While she was thinking about that, 리베라’s body and eyelids began becoming unbearably heavy.
‘Ah—Right. I’ll just sleep a little more for now. I can’t…… stay awake anymore.’
Unable to resist the overwhelming sleepiness, 리베라 closed her eyes and went limp like a wet kitten.
Time passed.
Before she knew it, three months had gone by.
“Aua.”
Her speech was still nothing more than baby babbling, but she had become capable of walking to some extent.
She couldn’t stride around freely like an adult.
She could only take one slow, careful step at a time.
Still, she could now walk upright on two legs quite well.
And as for crawling, she was already an expert!
‘Growing this much in only three months…….’
Could it have been because she had been born from a dragon’s egg?
Whatever the reason, she was definitely growing faster than a human child.
She had even developed quite a bit of strength in her hands.
In fact, she was strong enough to open the large door over there by herself.
‘Now that I’ve grown this much……’
It was probably time.
‘Time for me to go outside by myself.’
녹스 was always overprotective of 리베라.
Whenever she occasionally pointed toward the door to indicate that she wanted to go outside, he would immediately make a worried face.
—Not yet. Later. We’ll go outside later, okay?
He always reacted like that.
Considering that this was a place filled with dragons who were wary of humans, she understood his concern.
But still—
How could she spend three whole months without seeing the outside even once?!
Couldn’t he at least carry her to the entrance?!
‘I finally reincarnated into the world of my favorite novel, and I don’t even know when I’ll be allowed outside. I can’t just sit around in this room waiting forever.’
And so, 리베라 finally made up her mind.
She would go outside by herself while 녹스 was away.
Of course, even after making that decision, she had hardly found an opportunity until now because of 녹스’s overprotectiveness.
He stayed by 리베라’s side twenty-four hours a day.
And whenever he had to leave for some reason, he always entrusted her to 무지카.
—Hey, hey! I don’t know how to take care of a baby. What are you doing, suddenly leaving her with me?!
—Then should I leave the baby alone? Or should I leave her with someone else? They’ll probably show their claws first, won’t they?
—Ugh…….
At first, 무지카 had refused.
But after being nagged repeatedly, he eventually helped take care of her.
Now that she had grown enough to support herself, however, 녹스 was willing to leave her alone for about an hour while she was sleeping.
‘An hour is more than enough time to get some fresh air.’
Besides, today was the day 녹스 was going out for a little while to get some food.
In other words—
Today was finally the day.
The day she would finally see the scenery of this world she had longed for with her own eyes.
