✧ Chapter 5 ✧
‘W-Where am I?’
Maybe it was because she had become too absorbed after finally seeing the world she had always admired with her own eyes.
She had walked much farther than she expected.
She had been captivated by the atmosphere and the wind.
She had simply walked around without any particular destination, as if she were taking a stroll.
Before she knew it, Knox’s house had become farther and farther away until she could no longer see it.
And when she finally came to her senses, she was standing in the middle of a forest.
‘When did I even come this far?’
She wasn’t exactly sure, but she thought she should hurry back.
Otherwise, she might not make it home before Knox returned.
If that happened, he would probably turn the entire sanctuary upside down trying to find his missing daughter.
He was definitely the kind of person—or rather, dragon—who would do that.
‘Let’s hurry back. Before Dad’s heart falls out of his chest.’
Just as she was about to turn around, she heard a rustling sound coming from somewhere.
‘?!’
Then she faintly heard someone’s voice, as if it were being carried by the wind.
There was no doubt about it.
There was someone else in this forest besides her!
‘Oh no! Meeting a dragon right now would be a problem!’
With this body, she couldn’t even run away properly!
Startled, Rivera looked around carefully.
Then she spotted an old, empty fallen log.
‘There! I’ll hide in there first!’
Rivera crawled toward the log as quickly as she could, moving as if her hands and knees were on fire.
Then she slipped right inside.
‘Who is it? Who?’
She stayed quietly hidden inside the log.
“Grrr.”
“?!”
A low growling breath suddenly came from right beside her!
‘What…… was that sound?’
The sound was like the quiet rumbling of a young wildcat’s throat.
Rivera slowly turned her head to the side.
Inside the dark log, she saw two sparkling jewels.
Judging by their color, they were sky blue……
Sapphires, perhaps?
‘Huh? Sapphires?’
But why would they be here?
When she narrowed her eyes slightly, the floating jewels began to shine even more brightly, as if they wanted to make their presence known.
And then they started moving little by little!
‘Huh? Huh? The jewels are moving!’
The jewels slowly came closer and became larger.
At that moment, sunlight entered through a small hole between the logs and illuminated the jewels.
And finally, Rivera realized what the moving jewels really were.
“Kyawng.”
It was another guest who had arrived at this empty log before her.
‘Th-This is……’
No, this little guy was……
‘A dragon?’
A small and adorable baby dragon.
It didn’t seem to have been born very long ago.
The little dragon tilted its head from side to side a couple of times.
‘Why is a baby dragon here?’
Its scales were the same sky-blue color as its eyes.
The baby dragon seemed curious about Rivera’s unfamiliar presence.
It stared at her quietly.
Then it stepped forward with its front foot and came closer.
‘W-Wait. Why are you suddenly coming this close?’
A baby dragon.
She had wanted to meet one almost as much as she had wanted to meet an adult dragon.
And just as she had imagined, it was incredibly cute.
No, it was even cuter than she had imagined.
But……
‘I’m not mentally prepared yet!!’
The baby dragon had no idea how she felt and continued walking toward her.
‘W-Wait! Stop right there!’
Three seconds—no, two seconds, one second!
Rivera waved her tiny hand in front of her, desperately telling it to stop.
But the baby dragon casually pushed her outstretched hand aside with its face.
Then it came so close that its nose almost touched Rivera’s face.
It slowly sniffed all over her face with the tip of its nose.
“Grrr~”
A pleasant rumbling sound came from inside the baby dragon.
Her surprise lasted only a moment.
Rivera sat there blankly, staring at the baby dragon that had come so close.
‘Ah, seriously…… even after seeing it again……’
She thought it was incredibly cute.
Although it was larger than her, every part of it was so adorable.
The way it tilted its head.
The way it twitched the tip of its nose while sniffing.
Those sparkling eyes.
Everything about it looked like a doll.
Swoosh.
In the end, Rivera couldn’t resist its cuteness anymore and reached out her hand toward the dragon.
“Grrr?”
The baby dragon rolled its eyes for a moment and watched her.
Then, apparently realizing that she meant no harm, it gently placed its head against her hand first.
‘Ah…… Does that mean I can touch you?’
She slowly stroked and patted its scales.
The baby dragon continued to make soft growling sounds.
Stroke—Stroke—
Since it was still a baby and not yet fully grown, its scales were incredibly soft and smooth.
They felt completely different from Knox’s body, which had felt hard and rough when he released Polymorph.
And the feeling was more addictive than she had expected.
She couldn’t easily take her hand away.
Stroke—Stroke—
She continued stroking its scales without saying anything.
Just as she was about to wear the scales thin from all the petting—
“…Hey~”
The voice she had heard earlier slowly reached her ears from farther away.
It seemed the owner of the voice that had been carried by the wind earlier had come closer.
“…Hey~ Where are you?”
It was the gentle voice of a beautiful woman, as if she were looking for someone.
Judging by the situation, she seemed to be looking for the baby dragon beside Rivera.
Could she be this dragon’s mother?
‘Wait. Then shouldn’t I get this little guy out of here first?’
That way, Rivera could safely return home too.
She finally managed to resist the temptation and slowly removed her hand.
Then she pushed the baby dragon’s back, as if telling it to hurry outside.
‘I’m sorry, but you need to go outside first.’
But even though it was a baby dragon, a dragon was still a dragon.
There was no way a human baby’s strength could move it.
It felt like trying to push a huge rock buried deep in the ground.
‘Ugh!!’
“Where could you have gone? Come out quickly~”
As the voice grew closer, Rivera became more desperate.
She even raised her bottom and pushed the baby dragon with all her strength.
‘Hey, get up already. Your mother is calling you! You have to go!’
“Laktea~”
Yes, Laktea.
Hurry!
‘Huh? Wait. Lak……tea?’
C-Could it be?
That…… Laktea?
The hero’s companion and the only surviving dragon.
The protagonist of the Fantasia side story.
The character known as the most handsome man in the entire world and one of the most popular characters of all.
‘This little baby dragon is Laktea?!’
After realizing that she had entered the world of the novel, there was one person she had wanted to meet the most once she was able to go outside.
Of course, it was the character she had loved the most in her previous life.
Laktea.
It was him.
But with this tiny body that could barely travel beyond the area around her house, meeting him was impossible.
She had planned to meet him once she grew bigger.
Yet she never imagined she would encounter him like this.
Inside a fallen log!
‘Ah…… Ah!’
She was so shocked by this dramatic meeting that she couldn’t even speak properly.
“Laktea!”
The woman’s approaching voice became clearer and closer.
Wait.
Then the owner of that voice was……
‘The elder Aura? If Laktea’s mother is Aura, then…… it really is Aura!’
If the Lord Dragon was the strongest being in Somnium, then the Elders were known as the dragons with the greatest wisdom and experience.
And one of them was now approaching the place where Rivera was.
‘Meeting an adult dragon is already a problem, but an Elder?!’
Rivera remembered that the Elders had discussed her situation negatively.
Using the strength she had left, she desperately pushed the baby dragon again.
‘It was nice meeting you. And I’m sorry, but could you please get out of here right now?!’
“Grrr?”
The baby dragon quietly watched her.
Then, as if it had realized something, its eyes curved into a gentle smile.
And then—
‘Huh?’
Contrary to Rivera’s intentions, it suddenly grabbed the back of her clothes with its teeth and began calmly dragging her outside the log!
‘W-Wait! What are you doing?! Huh? No! Stop!’
Why are you dragging me with you?!
I told you to go out by yourself!
Stop dragging me!
No! No!
‘Stop!!’
Whoosh!
Just as Rivera tightly shut her eyes and screamed inside her head with all her strength, a black, mist-like magical power burst out from her body.
The black magic began swirling around the entire log.
It grew larger and larger, swallowing the log and everything around it.
Fwoosh!
Before long, the log and the grass around it completely disappeared.
As if they had never existed there in the first place.
And then—
Rustle.
A cool breeze touched her skin.
Rivera slowly opened her tightly closed eyes.
‘Huh…… Huh?! What is this? Where did the log go?!’
At the same time, the woman who had sensed the sudden surge of magical power came running over in a hurry.
“What was that magic just now? It definitely came from here!”
The dragon standing there looked strikingly similar to Laktea.
It was easy to see where Laktea had inherited his beautiful appearance.
It was Aura.
She found her child.
“Ah, Laktea? So you were here!”
Then her gaze shifted toward Rivera, who was sitting there together with her child where the log had disappeared.
“Hm? But what are you holding in your mouth……?”
Her eyes focused on Rivera’s black hair.
“Black hair. If it’s a girl with black hair……”
Could she be Knox’s child?
Aura blinked rapidly, staring at Rivera with a confused expression.
“Why are you here……?”
Rivera stared blankly at her.
Then she gave her a lifeless smile.
‘H-Hello, Mother…….’
‘Nice to meet you. Haha, my name is Rivera.’
And besides……
As expected of Laktea’s mother, she was incredibly beautiful.
No, even the word beautiful wasn’t enough to describe her……
While Rivera was rambling to herself internally, Aura looked around.
“That child doesn’t seem to be here.”
She then looked carefully at Rivera again.
After thinking for a moment, she slowly reached out her hand toward her.
‘Gasp! That hand! Damn it! Is she really going to hurt me?’
No.
Surely she wouldn’t kill her, right?
Rivera was the daughter of the Lord Dragon, after all!
But the long fingers and sharp fingertips that continued approaching looked like blades to her.
‘No! She really is going to hurt me! No! I still have so many places I want to see and so many things I want to do in this world!’
Just as the fingertips came right in front of her face, Rivera instinctively squeezed her eyes shut again.
Tap!
She suddenly felt something grab the back of her clothes.
Then her body was lifted into the air.
‘Uwah! What is this?!’
Startled by suddenly floating in the air, Rivera quickly opened her eyes and looked upward.
And what she saw was—
‘Ah!’
Large, powerful teeth biting the back of her clothes.
Black scales that sparkled more beautifully than the stars in the night sky.
And finally……
The murderous eyes of Knox, as if he were about to devour Aura standing before him.
“Aura……”
