Free Web NovelDawn broke, and the world was still gray and hazy.
Vieya slowly crawled out of bed. Her eyes were still unfocused, a single tuft of hair sticking up on her head. She instinctively wanted to lie back down and catch another round of sleep, but some small thing beside her was making a fuss.
She groggily lowered her head and saw her daughter curled up under the blanket, completely covering her head. After her brain turned for a moment, she more or less understood what was going on.
“At this age, children are perfectly capable of sleeping on their own,” the dragon egg said gloomily. “When I was her age, I was already sleeping alone as a dragon.”
Vieya smoothed down the stray hair on her head and yawned indifferently.
“It’s fine. She’s still little. We can talk about those things after she’s past her tenth birthday.”
“You’re just spoiling her. A perfectly good iron-blooded child of dragons has been spoiled by you into a total momma’s girl.”
“What kind of nonsense is that?” Vieya said. “She can already take care of herself—cook, do laundry, buy and sell things using human currency. How is that being a momma’s girl? And even if our daughter is one, so what? I have money. The place you’re living in right now is made of gold. It’s not like I can’t afford to raise her.”
After saying that, Vieya smugly shook her dazed little cowlick.
“......”
The dragon egg fell silent, seeming quite depressed. After a long while, it only squeezed out a repeated sentence,
“You’re just spoiling her...”
What a resentment-filled line.
Just then, the knocking sounded again.
Knock knock knock!
Isabelle stood outside the door. After pausing for a moment, she knocked again and asked once more,
“Master, it’s getting late. You should get up now.”
“Alright, I’m getting up.”
Vieya replied, then patted her daughter awake from the blanket where she was sleeping like a log.
“Jasmine, if you don’t get up now, the sun’s going to burn your butt.”
“Mm...” Jasmine poked her little face out of the covers, glanced outside the window, and woke up a bit. “Mom, you’re lying to me again. The sun isn’t even out.”
......
Half an hour later.
......
With her stomach full, Vieya planned to go out again, just like yesterday, to continue incubating the dragon egg.
As she stepped out, Vieya suddenly froze. She saw that Phoenix had actually left the sickroom and was squatting on the tall walls lining both sides of the street, quietly watching her.
After a brief moment of surprise came confusion.
Vieya walked along the bluestone-paved street of the early morning. Phoenix, standing on the gray tiles of the high wall, slowly straightened up, her gaze never leaving Vieya.
At this hour, there was only Vieya, a single monster girl, on the street—and only Phoenix, a lone birdfolk, on the wall.
“Is your wife’s illness better?” Vieya finally couldn’t help asking.
Phoenix only looked at her in silence.
Clearly, her wife’s illness had not improved.
Seeing no response, Vieya asked again, “If you’re not staying with your wife, what are you looking for me for?”
Phoenix opened her mouth, but still didn’t speak.
Vieya suddenly thought of something and tested the waters.
“You want to try the method I mentioned?” ƒгeewёbnovel.com
Phoenix nodded lightly.
Evidently, with Dorothy having remained unconscious for so many days, and her life aura visibly continuing to fade, Phoenix could no longer suppress the anxiety in her heart. She had finally come to find Vieya—the monster girl who had said she had a way to save her.
And judging from the experience Phoenix had accumulated over her tens of thousands of years of life, even though Vieya had spoken lightly at the time, using a Demon King’s curse seal to overwrite the dragon-blood curse that was continuously deepening on Dorothy’s body would require the assisting Demon King to expend an enormous amount of magic—power surpassing even that used by the pure-blooded black dragon that had originally laid down the curse.
But the most important point was that throughout the entire process, the Demon King had to act willingly, from the heart. Otherwise, in the end, only a negative curse could be produced—not a blessing seal...
After all, blessing seals were usually tools Demon Kings used to select their retainers. And selecting a retainer had to come from the Demon King’s own will.
In that case, even if Vieya could use brute force to ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) compel another Demon King, it would be extremely difficult to make them willingly give up a retainer slot.
Phoenix hadn’t wanted to trouble Vieya. But these past few days had already worn her down until her heart felt like withered wood. Even though, following Dorothy’s instructions, she had concealed the true condition of the illness so their daughter could govern the Elven Royal Court with peace of mind... how long could that really last?
Phoenix didn’t know—until last night, when she had a nightmare.
In the dream, Dorothy stood at the end of the darkness, slender and still.
Phoenix was just about to go over and, as usual, hug her legs and roll on the ground, when suddenly a dragon’s head emerged from the darkness and swallowed Dorothy in one bite.
Phoenix woke from the nightmare drenched in sweat.
Looking at her partner lying pale on the sickbed, she made her decision.
No matter the cost, no matter the means.
As long as it worked.
For Dorothy, she would do so.
“Lord Vieya, before Dorothy fell ill, she instructed me that once you came out from the World Tree—regardless of success or failure—you would no longer owe us anything. What’s more, you helped us fight off those invaders.”
Phoenix spoke softly.
“So even if this matter is, to you, just a trivial thing, I cannot resent you for refusing to help.”
“But in this matter, I still wish to ask—”
“Wait.”
Understanding everything, Vieya raised a hand to stop Phoenix’s impending words and said seriously,
“I understand how you feel, but don’t do something foolish. I’ve already made plans for this, but right now I don’t have time to go back. However, I can give you a chance to act personally. Anyway, other than bedside duty, you don’t really do anything else.”
“A chance?”
Phoenix, who had been about to bow down in gratitude, froze. She caught the key word in Vieya’s sentence.
“What kind of chance?”
“Let’s do this.”
Vieya thought for a moment and said,
“I’ll write you a letter. You carry it in your beak and head to the southern lands. Find a town called Fengxiang Town. Transform and enter the town, find No. 66 on Nicks Avenue, and hand the letter I wrote to the maid who opens the door for you.”
“Next, you’ll see two Demon Kings. Don’t be afraid—just treat them like maids, the same as Isabelle.”
“Then, tell them your request in detail. One of them will voluntarily agree. When that happens, just bring that maid back with you.”
With her arms crossed, Vieya continued calmly,
“As for the letter, you can come pick it up from me at noon or in the evening. You’re not in such a hurry that you can’t wait a little, right?”
“Ah... I’m not in a hurry.”
Phoenix replied blankly, seemingly unable to process how something so simple could resolve such a grave issue.
She had even been prepared to throw away her dignity and beg desperately.
“Alright then. I still have things to do, so I’ll head out now.”
Vieya waved her hand, signaling Phoenix not to block the way.
“Go do whatever it is you need to do.”
“......”
Phoenix stood there in a daze. Only after Vieya disappeared from sight did she come back to herself—feeling confused, yet delighted, but more than anything filled with an unreal sense of “that’s it?”
For a moment, Phoenix’s steps felt light, as though she were walking on clouds.
Suddenly, she felt annoyed with herself. In her excitement, she had forgotten to thank Vieya!
“Huh? Old man, why are you here?”
At that moment, Aislin passed by and looked up in confusion at Phoenix standing outside the courtyard gate of the slime cottage. Then she suddenly brightened with joy.
“Could it be that Mother’s condition has improved?! I even brought fruit!”
“Ah—your mother woke up briefly this morning, had a few spoonfuls of porridge, and then went back to sleep.”
Phoenix, faced with her daughter’s joyful gaze, told a guilty lie.
“As for the fruit—leave it for me to eat!”
“Huh? You can cook porridge?”
“What are you talking about?”
Phoenix raised her brows and put on her old fatherly authority.
“I borrowed it from your slime friend. Their family eats early in the morning.”
Early in the morning.
Aislin paid no heed to Phoenix’s deliberately displayed authority.
She turned her head toward the direction of the slime cottage. Wisps of greenish smoke were drifting from the chimney.
Strange. These days, little Vieya seems even busier than I am—running off to the forest before dawn.
But soon, she pressed down the doubt in her mind.
After all, that slime was incredibly strong—an army unto herself. Being alone outside posed no danger. She wasn’t afraid of monsters or humans alike. So letting her do as she pleased was fine.
With that thought, Aislin stopped overthinking. She shared some fruit with Jasmine, then followed Phoenix to visit Mother.
