Free Web NovelLeaving the cabin and just stepping out of the forest,
Vieya suddenly remembered that she still hadn’t had the chance to tell Aislin about yesterday’s cardinal. Feeling irritated, she could only turn back.
As a result, the elven guards watching over the palace informed her that Her Majesty the Queen was not present and asked her to come again at a different time.
Back and forth like that, the little slime went numb.
“Where did Aislin run off to so early in the morning?”
“Since you can’t meet her, just write two notes and leave them behind. One for the guards on duty, and one on the Elven Queen’s desk,” the dragon egg suggested.
“Oh, right.”
Vieya immediately took action, borrowed pen and paper from the guard post courtyard, scribbled out two notes in quick strokes, thanked the elf on watch, and then ran off without looking back.
“Hey, at least return the extra paper and pen! I still need them for registration—”
The sentry elf reached out, trying to stop her, but Vieya had always been fast. In the blink of an eye, she was gone.
What a careless child.
Watching the foreign little brat disappear without a trace, the elf felt a wave of speechlessness. She silently shook her head, opened a new set of paper and pen from the drawer, and continued standing guard, blankly keeping watch.
After getting things done,
Vieya headed toward the Elven Forest. Today, besides incubating the dragon egg, she also planned to look for some high-quality dry straw and heating stones, to properly set up the little house where the dragon egg lived inside the Golden City.
She had already been to the Elven Forest many times. She couldn’t claim to know every path like the back of her hand, but at the very least, she wouldn’t get lost.
Flaviel could also serve as insurance against getting lost—after all, she was an evil dragon that had once walked out of the Elven Forest.
“If you want heating stones, you should cross the Elven Forest and search along the western sea’s shoreline beach,” the dragon egg said. “Of course, if you want better heating stones, you’ll have to go to the Starfall Plain on the grasslands. But the grasslands—”
“Then let’s go to Starfall Plain!”
Vieya cut off the dragon egg mid-sentence, her gemlike eyes sparkling. The dragon egg said no more and tacitly agreed.
The next second,
Vieya called out the Azure Tiger lurking in the shadows, flipped herself onto its back, pointed out the direction ahead, and urged it forward.
Even though it was only a sixth-tier Azure Tiger, within this forest it was still a rare powerhouse. It raced ahead like the wind, chasing the moon like a meteor. Countless monsters were so frightened they hid in the dark, trembling.
Starfall Plain was the stretch of grassland closest to the sky. Its snow melted the latest, but it was home to the hardiest Golden Moon Chrysanthemums. Each tiny petal—so long as there were roots—was immortal.
Whenever the snow melted, two long flower stalks would grow from the leaf axils of the Golden Moon Chrysanthemums, blooming into tender yellow, three-petaled flowers. And thus, this place became a sea of blossoms, a vast expanse of golden yellow.
More than five hundred years ago, the alliance’s female emperor, whose deeds shook past and present ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) alike, annihilated the final resisting army here. She planted her battle flag and laid the foundation for the later unification of the four realms. At that time, frost and snow had not yet melted. Cold winds swept close to the ground. Specks of tender yellow flowers poked their heads out, echoing the golden sun high in the heavens.
When the female emperor cut down the head of the rebel leader, Lord Yaoyan, she once said, “At the time of Starfall Plain, the sun rises in the east; once the world is illuminated, all things are born.”
“Hey, Eggy. Why do you think my teacher was able to live for so long?”
Riding the Azure Tiger and stepping onto Starfall Plain, seeing the flowers in full bloom, Vieya suddenly grew curious.
“Logically speaking, humans should be buried once they hit a hundred years old. But my teacher somehow endured even longer than Sima Yi.”
“Who is Sima Yi? And also, you can call me Vivi or Fufu, but please don’t call me Eggy,” the dragon egg protested.
“Don’t worry about who Sima Yi is. You just need to know that he outlasted a lot of competitors and achieved the final victory,” Vieya said, shaking her head as she continued, “Honestly, I’ve always felt that my teacher isn’t as righteous as she appears on the surface.”
As she spoke, her voice dropped into a conspiratorial whisper.
“My teacher taught me the capital to survive in this world: swordsmanship. Logically, I should respect and admire her. And... well, until about seven years ago, I did respect her.”
“So you don’t respect her now?” the dragon egg asked, its tone strange.
“Not exactly.”
Vieya frowned, thinking, and slowly said,
“I think my teacher probably knew your identity a long time ago, but she kept hiding it from me and never told me. Do you think it’s because I never gave her gifts while learning swordsmanship under her, so she harbored resentment toward me?”
“And you know what? Back then, my teacher didn’t even attend my funeral. She even took in a new student... I think she has something against me.”
“You really like having other people host your funeral?”
“What kind of way of talking is that? Is that what I meant?”
“I know that’s not what you meant. Then do you really dislike the junior sister your teacher found for you?”
“Not dislike exactly. I just think that junior sister of mine is kind of weird. And the two lackeys she keeps around her are total oddballs too...”
Vieya shook her head, steering the topic back on track, and frowned as she pressed the issue.
“Stop changing the subject. You still haven’t answered me—did my teacher actually know your true identity back then or not?!”
“I don’t know,” the dragon egg said calmly. “How would I know? If you want to ask, go confront your teacher yourself.”
“Aren’t you the one who won’t let me go to the Royal Capital?” Vieya asked.
“Finding your teacher doesn’t mean you have to go to the Royal Capital,” the dragon egg said. “Idiot.”
Vieya didn’t want to communicate with the dragon egg anymore. She called a halt to the Azure Tiger on Starfall Plain and looked back into the distance.
The boundless grassland was covered in a layer of the sun’s golden sheen.
Here and there, she could occasionally see glittering objects flashing among the horse grass and small flowers. Those were likely the heating stones.
Stepping on the soft grass, Vieya went over and picked one up. It was palm-sized, fish-belly white, and warm in her hand.
“Starfall Plain is too desolate. Even the nomadic tribes living on the grasslands rarely come here. Occasionally, it’s only some adventurers with nothing better to do, who risk their lives to come here to take commemorative photos,” the dragon egg sighed.
Vieya wiped the sweat from her forehead, tossed a handful of heating stones into the Golden City, and continued picking more on the other side. freёwebnovel.com
“How about taking a break?” the dragon egg’s voice carried a hint of concern. “This should be enough.”
“It’s fine. They have heating cycles. After releasing heat once, they enter a dormant period for several days,” Vieya said, picking one up and feeling it. “For example, this one—it’s cool now. Better pick more... later I’ll also help you find some dry straw to lay on top.”
“......”
Seeing that she couldn’t persuade Vieya, the dragon egg sighed and said no more. She knew her partner’s personality was a bit stubborn, and she also suffered from a kind of insufficient-firepower anxiety—no matter what she did, she always preferred to have more rather than less.
Could this be considered a form of hoarding?
“Vivi, can you sing me a song? It feels like it’s been a long time since I last heard one...”
“Sure. What do you want to hear?”
......
......
The morning passed quickly.
Vieya gathered enough heating stones and also found high-quality dry straw. She removed the miniature Golden City from its pendant and restored it to its original size in a patch of empty land with no one around.
The next second, a magnificent golden palace appeared out of thin air, standing tall on the grassland. Its eaves and upturned corners reflected the sun’s golden radiance.
Vieya walked inside, went to the small hall where the dragon egg was stored, and personally began arranging things.
She first laid down a full layer of heating stones, then padded dry straw on top, controlling the temperature to stay between 30 and 40 degrees.
“All done.”
Vieya put her hands on her hips, let out a breath, and said with satisfaction, “If it gets too hot or too cold in the future, remember to notify me. I’ll help you adjust it.”
“Alright. Thank you, wife,” the dragon egg said.
“What wife? You’re supposed to call me husband,” Vieya said, knocking on the eggshell. Then she added, “From now on, at night you’ll stay put in the incubation room. During the day, I’ll take you out to sunbathe and enjoy the scenery. Same-sex fanfiction site, letting you read forever one chapter ahead.”
“Alright~”
“Good egg.”
“......” The dragon egg was speechless.
Satisfied, Vieya left the incubation room. After going outside, she shrank the Golden City down to the size of a broad bean, hung it back onto the pendant around her neck, and tucked it into her clothes, hiding it away.
